Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I certainly hope that our webmasters, Roadrunner and Coyote don't mind... but I'm going to pose the topic of the week posting this week. I appreciate if you will indulge me this one time.

Okay school levy voters, you have seen the information and quotes in the local papers during the last week or so. And it seems all too apparent that our school board members (namely Mrs Reade and Mr Brinke) are still not listening. Perhaps I can get the NO voters to supply them with a run down the reasons why they cast a NO vote. Personally I have NEVER voted NO to a school levy, so I will just be tossing out this question...

If you have voted NO to one the last three levy attempts, please tell us why you did so. Mrs Reade seems to be ready (I'm not sure why it took so long) to get a gauge as to what will be needed on the next ballot to get it passed, so tell us why you voted NO and what needs to happen to get you vote YES.

By Central Mom

My take

Central Mom,

Speaking for myself, I have no issue with you posting a topic of the week. As to my votes, the last time I voted yes was for the one large school. I thought that was the best choice then and I still do now. That is why I vote no for multiple-school levies. I feel the operations costs for multiple schools are much higher than for one. At work we look for economies of scale as our company grows and costs grow even faster. I feel that one large school with the ability to add on to it or reconfigure it for different grade configurations is the best option.

I also feel that it is high time the board quit looking to architects, construction managers and the like for advice. To me, it?’s like asking a used car salesman if I need a car and worse, which one I need and can afford. What are they supposed to and expected to say?

Another reason for my no vote on multiple school options is that the more and more I read in the press about the dissatisfaction of parents whose kids keep getting redistricted seemingly on a whim of the board, the more I realize that ?‘less is more?’ when is comes to school buildings. If you want to keep kids on a track or path or whatever the board calls it, why not offer less destinations along the path?

When I look at the past, present and future of the schools, I am firmly convinced that we shouldn?’t have two high schools. Doing so has precipitated most of the bad feelings that people have when they vote and certainly accounts for the immense debt issue we are in. Why not learn from the lesson and change tact to put forth a levy that will build one Pickerington High School? There is plenty enough vacant land available for such an endeavor. The area that was intended to be a Wal-Mart for example or some of the big farm tracts down Diley Road spring to mind. People fighting the Wal-Mart thing had rabid concerns over the infrastructure. Diley Road will have 5 lanes and getting a signal for a school shouldn?’t be much of a problem. The area of the alleged Wal-Mart could perhaps be annexed into the city and then the infrastructure improvements made from a governing body capable of doing so, unlike the township.

Then we can divert our energy from things like North versus Central, elementary overcrowding, endless meaningless surveys and the unending politics of the district, school board member?’s endless rhetoric and focus instead on redeploying the existing schools to support K-9. The North sports entertainment complex can, and should be leased out to adjacent districts with poor facilities when not in use by Pickerington athletics.

Future levy issues should deal with building a 1,000 ?– 1,500 student elementary schools in the future and looking to close Pickerington, Fairfield and Violet elementary schools. After that, 10 years or so down the road, look to build a large middle school and close Harmon and Diley, and so on. Then the paths or tracks the kids of the future take will be easier to predict and follow.


By Anonymous Taxpayer

Dang !!

You're still going to run into those pesky state laws and regulations about school size, lot size, etc. Dang!!! Just when we had a good idea, the governer comes along and throws us all in jail.

By Any Mouse

Unrealistic

In theory I suppose your idea of building larger schools makes sense. HOWEVER, we can't even get taxpayers to build 2 new elementary schools. You honestly think that the voters would pay to build new schools and SHUT DOWN existing schools that sit on land that the distict already owns? Sounds like a big waste of money to me.