Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Count again

You might want to go back over to North and count the track lanes again. Clearly you have not done your homework. North does not just have one more lane than Central, they have NINE more lanes than Central.

North has two eight lane, all weather tracks. They can and have conducted two meets at the same time at those facilities. In fact they could host two football games and two soccer matches at the same time as well due to the fields that the tracks surround being capable of doing so. Central JV, freshmen and Ridgeview junior high football and soccer is forced to play games on practice fields since the only place they have to play is Tiger stadium.

By Tiger runner

Summing Up

I thought I might sum up this blog chain before it passes over the horizon and into history:

According to you folks, PHS North's advantages over PHS Central all have to do with the former's outdoor athletic facilities. North has more tracks, larger football stands, a better football concession stand (including lavatories), and a separate soccer stadium. Some feel that the PHS North football field weathers better than PHS Centrals but, when I drove by them both late last fall, they both looked pretty chopped up to me).

Both high schools have tennis courts, but PHS Central's, unlike PHS North's, are not easily accessible to junior highschoolers. PHS North also may have bigger and better weight and training rooms.

On the other hand, PHS Central's field house arguably is superior to PHS North's (the Central field house is larger and has an indoor track, unlike North's). PHS Central also has a better softball complex that, unlike PHS North's, has a concession stand. PHS Central, in the judgment of some, also has a superior gymnasium, and is a better venue for basketball games.

Some people (myself included) prefer Central's performing arts center to North's (North's looks like a high school auditorium, though it has more leg room; Central's looks like a theatre, probably has better accoustics and, because it is more vertical, brings the back row closer to the stage and gives everyone a better view). PHS Central has easier access to the local public library, arguably has a superior and more usable commons and, at least in some respects, has superior educational technology.

Beyond this, PHS North has a fancier, and brickier, exterior, seems to have more parking space, and certainly has better parking space for football games (no one has to park on the grass). It probably has more ''curb appeal.''

So where does this leave us? Does this suggest that the PLSD did not really get much for all the extra money it spent on PHS North? Does it suggest that, after PHS North, the PLSD really did need to look for new architects and a new construction manager? Does it suggest that all the acrimony that has been expressed, on this web site and elsewhere, about PHS North's clear superiority to PHS Central, is just a bit overblown?

I'll let you be the judge.

By Yosemite Pam

So why Vote no?

After reading the diffierences between North and Central I still don't see a reason to not support our community and schools. If you take a step back and look at the community as a whole, is it really a good enough reason to vote no because of the differences in the athletic areas? I moved to the community because of the good schools. One of them happens to be 15 plus years old (central), it is not going to be perfect. My daughter currently goes to Voilet and if the bond passes she will probably not attend one of the new elementary schools. I am sure the new schools will be nicer but is this really a reason not to support a school bond or levy? Get over it and support our community.