Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Another mom's point of view...

Central Mom - it's great you want this to pass & I respect your opinion about how to run a campaign. I haven't been involved before now. I too want Issue #3 to pass but chose to volunteer for the the campaign to help instead of flying solo. I do know they talked about how much other district's had spent - I think Westerville was close to $100K & Hilliard was close to $45K both had professional companies paid to come in and run them.

Maybe the Levy Committee could have spent more money but my understanding is they would have had to raise more - the School Board does not fund levy campaigns & I know of at least three different Board Members that I saw at the campaign meetings so I know some of them are involved.

I might be leaving some things out but this is what's been done. I know a LOT more parents are involved - maybe it's just at the elementary schools but there seems to be a much higher profile from my school's perspective.

* Billboard
* Preschool Campaign ?– Why Issue 3 is important to Preschooler?’s
* Info stations at Kindergarten Registration at all elementary buildings
* Info stations at all school events & Wal-Mart meetings
* Absentee Ballots available
* Info sent to Absentee Voters
* Created an informative Levy Website ?– www.pickerington.k12.oh.us
* Mine & 9 Campaign ?– passed out 10,000 strips of 10 stickers ?– stickers say,?” May 2nd YES for schools?” ?– idea is that persons vote & 9 of their friends
* Window Clings ?– with the Build our Future logo for cars - available at all schools
* Sent voter registration forms home with ALL K-4 Students
*Sent Commitment forms home with All K-4 students so parents knew how to help ?– this was a criticism from the last campaign ?– parents wanted to help but didn?’t know how
* Automated Phone Bank last weekend to all parents
* Literature is bi-fold to every home in district ?– on mailboxes by volunteers
* Postcard mailed to entire district
* Second postcard sent to select voters
* Banner at the PYAA (Pickerington Youth Athletic Association) Complex ?– with their permission & support
* 3 very large signs positioned at high traffic schools ?– Tussing, North & Pickerington Elementary
* Door to Door with well coordinated packets for volunteers ?– over 120 walkers are going to over 5,000 homes - I'm guessing at the # homes - I know there were 120 volunteers because they told us that at the meeting we picked up our packets - my packet had 43 homes - if that's an average we hit over 5,000
* Volunteers at PYAA & PASA fields on Saturday before the election
* Ads in local papers
* Guest Columns by School Board Members & District personnel to raise awareness on certain issues
* GRASSROOTS EFFORTS ?– this should probably be the first bullet because it?’s what?’s put the energy into the campaign ?– parents are very involved in getting the word out that this MUST pass ?– I've heard that the door to door campaign.

I think your point about lining the streets with kids has two sides - if they do that they've exploited kids or played the kid card. If they don't - darn it they should have. It probably should have been done with elementary school age kids if it was being done & I think it would be a little early for most of them. I'm glad that tactic wasn't used.


By Central Mom too in a few years

Big Bucks?

How much money does the school board make a month?

Not much

School Board members make $80 per meeting per month. Payments do not to exceed 2 meetings per month. From what I understand many times more than two meeting per month are required.

I think that's much lower than what our City Council gets paid. The Township Trustee's get paid the most but not sure what the amount is - jump in if anyone knows.

Maybe that's why no one would run for the office last November - the big salary and the cushy office.

Bond Issue Campaign

First of all, it wasn't the school board that ran the bond issue campaign, nor was it the school board or the district that funded the campaign. Volunteers helped create & distribute information. Some school board members were part of this volunteer crew, as were many administrators. Believe me, they worked many hours to get this to pass. I don't think they deserve any criticism for their participation. The best thing I've seen this campaign is the grassroots effort - by parents other than district staff & board members. Sometimes, the community sees this type of effort as more credible. Obviously, there's a great need for more elementary schools and I believe (my opinion, of course) that this whole community suffers, in one way or another (kids in crowded schools or split sessions, decreasing home values, etc.) if the bond issue doesn't pass. The previous poster gave a great list of the efforts made during this campaign, BY VOLUNTEERS! Could we hit every home? No. But homes were targeted so we hit frequent voters, face-to-face. I'm sorry you threw out the literature you received in the mail; it had a lot of good information in it. As for the volunteers standing on the roadside, as much as I helped out in the campaign, I couldn't sign up for that duty. And, I wouldn't want my kids on a busy street. You ought to be thanking the volunteers that did show up, rather than blaming the school board for the poor turn-out. More people are expected to be there during rush hour on May 2. Be part of the process rather than a critic.


By Hope it passes, too.