Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

So many topics to choose from

Posted in: PATA
Dear Central Mom,

So many topics to choose from this week. I?’ll start with this little snippet from today?’s Dispatch. I personally was not one of the fortunate chosen ones to receive the almighty survey from PLSD. So Lisa Reade admits that surveys aren?’t the way to go. Let?’s offer her some alternatives in this forum that may be the way to go.

What I find curious and hope to get disproved from a poster that did receive a survey is I don?’t know if the survey told how much a $62 million levy would cost per $100K and what all is intended to be purchased with the $62M. For example, the $39M included repairs to Central. The roof repair/replacement is necessary as I have been in there during hard rains and witnessed the water coming through the roof in the commons.




Both options garner support in Pickerington levy survey


A survey designed to gauge voter support for a Pickerington bond issue didn?’t provide the direction the school board had hoped, board President Lisa Reade said.

About 60 percent of respondents said they would vote for a $62 million bond issue that would pay for two elementary schools and a middle school. A $39 million bond request for just the elementary schools received about the same support in the survey.

After four straight losses at the polls, the board plans to ask voters again in November to pay for buildings that would ease student overcrowding.

Board members will meet on Aug. 10 to decide which resolution ?–?— two schools or three ?–?— will end up on the ballot. They?’ll meet again on Aug. 14 to decide the size of the request.

?— Ryan Loew



By Central Dad
Another topic?

Central Dad, Coyote, Roadrunner, et al,

Another topic you may want to consider talking about this week is the ridiculous article written by Katelyn Sattler in the weekend edition of the SE Messenger. Since the article is about 2,000 words I won?’t paste it in here unless you want it.

Frankly I am disappointed in the editors of the Messenger that they would even waste ink on drivel such as this. I realize Ms. Sattler is a cub reporter and they all have a learning curve but the editors aren?’t cubs. I thought newspaper articles and ?“insightful and/or in-depth analyses?” such as this were supposed to be balanced and presenting both sides of the issue. This dissertation didn?’t even come close.

What I read is a one-sided pursuit of a rumor. Other than this website I have neither seen nor heard any discussions about creating a city school district. Given that Ms. Sattler was once a frequent poster to this site I hope that she didn?’t take what she read here as fact and go on a quest to determine if there was a Groveport-like movement under way. Her article never once quoted a person who said they were in favor of a city school district and was looking into it.

She opens with a long dissertation with the wise words of the renowned Mr. Dunlap. Come on Kate, you establish the basis of your article based on the self-proclaimed intellectual scholar and historian of Violetville? Too many words wasted on a guy who I wouldn?’t believe if he told me it was raining and we were sharing an umbrella. You needed at least two sources to corroborate this stuff. At least you gave his yet another opportunity to take a shot at neighboring civil servants which is actually one of the only things he IS good at.

We?’re never going to be able to send Columbus kids to Columbus schools. One thing that the district could do is to work with this city and township to assure Columbus quits building section 8 housing (high density) in the district.

Then we have to hear from councilman Fix. He does nothing more that once again regale us with his ?“born with a silver spoon in his mouth?” stories that sold so well during his campaign. Well good for you Mr. Fix, I wish we were all as rich as your parents and could send our kids to private schools. Perhaps then all the overcrowding here would be resolved. Quit telling us how fortunate you are and deal with regular people like us who can?’t afford private schools. Someone told me that you moved recently to make sure your kids went to North. Doesn?’t even North pale in comparison to the private schools you went to? Or are you really getting in touch with the common folk by sending your kids to the ritzier ?“North Campus?”.

Then we start to get into what should be the meat of the article. Can Pickerington create a city school district? Yes they can. Cutting the fluff out of this section and it looks like one of the ways to meet the criteria is to be in state economic watch. So, city residents, if you want a city school district for some reason, just vote no on all levies. Then when the state steps in you can petition for a city school district. That sound like a good plan, right?

As one of my kids is fond of saying ?“Oh Puhleeez?”. Destroy an existing school district to start all over again? Great idea. We all benefit from that. Ms. Sattler, thanks so much for doing publicly what we are all so good at privately and that is making ourselves look like idiots. Now all people who read the Messenger can see that we are brainless and indecisive. Unfortunately they also saw that the Messenger will chase unsubstantiated rumors.


Elected officials' statements?

How about those statements from the elected officials??

These were too good to be true. Lisa Rhetoric, you came first. Does this have more to do with your exalted title and position or the fact that you and Katelyn are close personal friends? Katelyn, was your article more about news or a favor to your friend? Lisa, I am glad you recognize a ridiculous idea when you see it. Now if you will look in a mirror before you make statements and bounce your ideas off others before you tell them, you can perhaps recognize more ridiculous ideas.

Gail Oakes, I am impressed that you actually doubled your usual response to two whole sentences. As one of the more seasoned veterans on the board, your simple one-liners are becoming tiresome and disappointing.

Wes, you?’re turning into a straight shooter. You also have a knack for overstating the obvious.

Dr. Brink, again you globalize an answer. KISS for us please. Talk to Gail about keeping to one sentence responses.

Dr. Thiede, great pom-pom work again. How about giving up the cheerleading gig and run this district for a while? You?’re about as effective as Joyce Gilleland when it comes to being the CEO of a large business.

Lew baby, what an impact you made on me with your profound wisdom!!! How about applying you economies of scale to school buildings instead of school districts?? For crying out loud, use the resources available to you to do what Thiede isn?’t and run this business.

Terry Dunlap ?– ?“Go to meetings?…?” Yeah, right, that would have almost as much impact as coming to one of yours and saying anything.

Gary Weltlich ?– You are wrong. You wouldn?’t be duplicating costs and administration, it would be separating them and perhaps finally seeing more accountability fro each district. After all, Lew, Vince and Lisa can?’t be in both districts at the same time, can they?

In order to save space, I?’ll lump all the councilmen in one. Once says there should be another commission to jointly address issues. This on the heels of the continued failures of other talks about cooperation. Another says people come here for the schools when he has neither ever had a kid in the schools here nor has he probably ever set foot in one of our schools. Another recognizes this is a school issue and not a city issue. That?’s right, play in your own sandbox. You?’ve got enough of Joycie/Judie?’s stuff to clean up in your sand. Another says he thinks people are frustrated we can?’t pass levies. Sorry that you don?’t get it. We are frustrated with our district?’s leadership and are voting against them.

And to those who wouldn?’t respond, are you afraid? Are you afraid of being the only ones in this area to have the guts to say that you think forming a city school district would be a great idea or didn?’t you understand the question?


Still reeling

Sorry, but my head is still spinning from the mere sugesstions that school board will add more $$$ to the levy in November rather than subtract $$$ from the levy.

Here's a little refresher course for you esteemed members of the school board. Look at your calculator.... the ADD function key looks like this (+) and the SUBTRACT key looks like this (-). If you really want to pass this levy, me thinks that you'll want to be hitting the (-) key more often than the (+) key.

In my opinion, if you people keep hitting the (+) the only thing that you find when you press (=) is a whole mess of people calling for your resignation.

Class dismissed.

By Central Mom
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