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Many voted against the school bond issue because of the state of the economy.
Energy prices at record highs......
Consumer confidence at record lows.......
Trust in the future of employment and / or retirement in the dumper.....
Health care costs soaring........
For some of us, it really is the economy.
By Realist
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Penny Wise ??
I can believe that the economy has pinched some people. I just paid $50 to fill my car up yesterday. I guess my question is did we save money by voting NO?
Forcing the district to purchase more portables spends operating dollars they could be using to push off an operating levy further. Split Session from what I've read online will increase a districts transportaton costs as well as other services. Split sessions can be one of the MOST costly things for a school district to implement. Why do we think that's better than building schools?
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Many reasons few answers
Since we have had a couple of weeks to talk to neighbors and look at the bond levy election results it seems appropriate to take some time to report what we have heard and seen in those two weeks.
Today there was a letter to the Editor published in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. It appears the Lancaster City School levy failed as well. They were also charged with mishandling their money. Those supporters need to be very careful in trying to justify mishandling of school funds. Here is a quote that got me started with this message, ?“Someone please prove to me that funds have been misused. Even if they have, it's hard to believe that it's to the tune of $5 or $6 million which they are asking for?“.
These are the kinds of comments that drive me nuts when levy supporters come out to justify their campaigns.
I think there were five major issues why voters rejected the bond issue.
1. ?“Taxes are too high.?”
2. ?“The school board is not handling its money very well.?”
3. ?“Closely related to 1 & 2 is they wasted money on the North High School and now do nothing for the Central District students.?”
4. ?“The economy is flat and my wages have not gone up in three years. I simply can?‘t afford more taxes.?”
5. ?“ Growth is still occurring especially in the City and I won?’t vote for anything until they do what they promised and control growth.?”
Before every one jumps on the band wagon here please don?’t assume that these comments are coming from only the empty nesters and the seniors because they are not. There is a young family at the end of our street that put a for sale sign on their house because they couldn?’t afford the new taxes. Apparently unaware that the levy failed. She is moving to the Bloom Carroll district. I know others that voted against the levy because it didn?’t affect their family because their kids are in Junior high and Senior High. I talked with an older retired lady just prior to the election and she claimed the school district needed to do a better job handling the money they already had and she was voting against the bond issue. Talking with only a couple dozen people doesn?’t give anyone a full picture of the entire district and why they voted the way they did. I do agree with Central Dad the school board needs to hire a professional to analyze these comments and develop a better presentation to the voters.
To the credit of the Pickerington School board they did make some progress in narrowing the gap between the no voters and the yes voters. In past elections they saw around 8,000 voters go to the polls this time it was nearly 11,000 voters.
Here are some of the questions I have about the need for more capital money.
1. Why do we need to replace the roof on Central High after only 15 years?
2. Why does the School board want to buy 61 acres on Tollgate for an elementary school that only needs 15 to 20 acres?
3. Why not build the second elementary school on the North High Campus where we already own the land?
4. Why build an Elementary in the Northwest part of the district when the need is in the Southwest area?
5. What improvements were planned for Tiger Stadium?
By Power walker
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Good Questions
Those are good questions, PW. I hope we receive answers soon.
They don't change the fact, however, that we have simply run out of classroom space at K-6. What are we going to do about that? Those who voted against the levy also need to answer that question.
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