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represent all
This community has been torn for years and we have not tried to fix some of the mis-conceptions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the differences between North and Central. Yet we have board members and others trying to make the argument that the two schools are the same. Believe me folks that is a hard sale. I believe there would be more acceptance if the City of Pickerington had a representative on the school board. The same holds true for the Columbus area.
I believe the Pickerington school board would have much more credibility if they had more representation from other areas of the district. At least we would have someone to go to that had similar issues with the board and the district. It appears to most that there is more money spent on the township schools than on the city schools. I know there are those that will argue that point but starting with the athletics field that argument is not a good one if you are paying taxes to support facilities that your children and your grandchildren can not use then that makes it very hard to vote in favor of school levies and bond issues.
I understand what the good citizens of Boston felt in 1773.
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Put democracy to work
While I am a township resident (and please don't condemn me for that) ... I completely agree that there is merit in having residents from both the City and the township sit on the Board of Education. As previous posters have stated (in this and other discussion strings), I think this would provide a different flavor to the conversations and (possibly)decisions at the Board level.
However, in order for that to happen, folks from the city must RUN for the Board.
Unlike the citizens of Boston in 1773, we residents of the PLSD in 2007 have ample opportunities to vote in our own representatives.
I believe that most posters on this website use the gift of democracy that the Founding Fathers imparted to us. Whether or not we agree with one another, we are ?– by and large ?– informed constituents who go out and vote on Election Day.
That being said, let?’s challenge one another to make sure our friends and neighbors do the same.
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Things to think about
One of the single largest factor in the frequency of the school levies and school bond issues has been the rate of residential growth. I think we all need to address the reasons for this residential growth and how do we get it under control.
Before we get that growth under control we need to understand what caused the problem here in Pickerington. Some of the root causes were caused by factors beyond our local control and that being the relaxed underwriting polices allowed for lenders of new home mortgages and the lower than normal interest rates.
Whether we want to face it or not some people were allowed to move into the school district and own a home who were totally unprepared for that experience. Many people that have bought homes here in Pickerington the last couple of years were in way over their collective heads. They were qualified on home loans that the lender knew would bite the home owners once the full value of the home was reflected in their tax escrow account and added to that was the adjustable interest rate mortgages that found a way to creep up within the first few years of the owners loan. Many received ZERO down payments which had that down payment rolled over into the original loan thus artificially inflating the new home price. The mortgage interest buy downs were also rolled over into the loans and we saw builders selling homes at 20% over the actual value of the home. That 20% being the goodies added in to help these first time and poor credit buyers into these new homes. Many buyers looked at the monthly interest and principal payments and found them very attractive and much lower than they were current paying in rent or even to buy an existing home. Then the loan market recovered and the interest rates went up along with that monthly payment many were forced to walk away which is affecting us all. In that brief time period we saw a huge influx of new families moving into to Pickerington. Along with this huge inventory of new homes we find the market value of existing homes nose dived and they became distressed.
What we are now seeing is a slow down. Yesterday I drove around town looking for new homes under construction. The only significant building going on is in Fox Glen and Sycamore Creek. Nothing like it was a few years ago and the only production type sales still going on is M/I homes. Many of the other big builders are moving on.
Clearly the housing market is seeing a significant slow down and that is reflected in new underwriting rules both by the state and now the federal government. I believe many builders will now be required to play by the same rules as the existing home sellers in the city and our school district. The new home builders will not have the big advantages that they did over the existing homes as they did the last few years.
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more things cont.
Locally at least in the city they have adopted new polices that will further attenuate the rate of residential growth. The two lots per acre citizen ordinance of 2002 has allowed the city to focus more on commercial platting and no residential platting. Furthering the effort we have seen the residential guidelines and the impact fee ordinances adopted. All of which will become more apparent once the market rebounds after the large inventory of new homes is sold off. I think if you drive through some of the current sub-divisions you will see vacant NEW homes. Some of these builder owned and built homes have been sitting there for a while.
I believe the citizens of the city need to find a candidate to run for the School Board and represent the concerns and the interest of its residents. I think the school board must begin to consider a plan ?“B?” or maybe a plan ?“C?” in the building of new buildings. I think they also need to address the propaganda they post on the web site.
I just went to the PLSD web site looking for budget NUMBERS and all I got was sections to refer to in the ORC. To the school board: technology has improved over the last few years. PDF files can be easily posted and downloaded by folks like myself that have poor computer skills. I would advise posting where you can get revenues in real numbers and what you spend that money on in real numbers. Instead of constantly patting your collective selves on the back lets see some real FACTS. If the district has short comings then allow us to see the same thing you folks in charge are seeing. You education type are so paranoid.
I wanted to look for on your web site where you get your money from. I know from the county auditor the Schools receive some revenue in inside millage of 4.5 mills. As the local real estate increases in value then the school sees increase in revenues as well. Currently the assessed value of the School District is a little over $1 Billion. I believe the increase for last year was around 7%. The school also collects a 1% income tax from all citizens LIVING in the district. As salaries increase and more people move into the district that revenue source also increases. Clearly we recently read where the state provides a little over 50% of the school $70 Million budget. With a school district of 10,000 plus an increase of 250 new students increase the requirements by the school of 2.5% plus inflationary increase in salaries and expenses.
So the point is that a rather large portion of the school?’s budget does increase each year despite not passing every operating levies. Saying that the levy has not increases since 1991 is very deceitful.
Then we are in the process of building three new schools. Two elementary schools and one middle school. (I believe). Posting the plans and other information about these buildings would also be helpful to inform the citizens many of you bitterly resent when we fail to support your claims for a new levy. Trying to claim the information is in the minutes is bogus at best. It appears you all want to let the newspapers explain the issue to keep your administration at arms length. I would also suggest an anonymous discussion page that answers real voter questions instead of you folks making up and controlling the questions. You can clearly control the language and the inappropriate comments by editing the questioning coming in.
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