|
|
Hey Realist
You say there is nothing going on the ballot except for school levies is misleading. There are school board members to be elected. I won't be voting for incumbents. I won't sit back and watch township residents build a township school district. I live in the township and if the city were to try start there own school district, we'll get left holding the bag for big school building debt. The fact is we need the city and I'll be voting for a city resident for school board so we can start working togrther. Period.
By Tired of it
|
|
|
|
|
|
my response
I agree that operating levies are more critical than a new stadium. We have Tiger Stadium; if levies don't pass, we'll lose teachers and academic programs.
Just because North is bigger doesn't mean that utilities bills are the same percentage higher than Central. It probably is a more energy efficient building, given it's newer than Central.
Schools should be built in areas of the district where the growth is. No one wants their kid bussed across town just so it can be called a city school. We have neighborhood schools in Pickerington. And, we do have Sycamore Creek & Heritage in Pick City limits; not sure about Pick Elem. Where is there land in the city anyways? Diley sits on a larger plot of land than Harmon; Harmon is below the recommended number of acres, I believe.
Pick Central might have a lot of acres, but a stadium and parking would take up a lot of space that's probably used for some other purpose. Much of the open space is used for soccer practices/scrimmages, lacrosse, band practice, etc. Unless more land is acquired, and I don't know if any is for sale adjacent to the school, where exactly on school property do you propose a stadium be built?
|
|
|
Still slipping it to us.
This latest posting is just plain unadulterated B.S.
If the North High School is 150% larger than Central then I would expect that we have a custodian run a dust mop over the floors at least once a day during school days. Unless they are hired up there for their speed then that is 150% more in daily maintenance. As for the heat the technology has not changed that much and there are very few windows at Central with the exception of the lunch room. If that North school is insulated so well why did the pipes freeze the first year it was opened? Let?’s see the bills.
The board has a operating levy with a voted millage of 5 mills about to expire at the end of the calendar year (12/31/07). The effective millage is around 2.8 mills. That renewal is on the November ballot. That will be a tax increase of 2.2 mills in operating funds if the levy fails then there will be nearly 5 mill swing or we lose the 2.8 million to the school.
Here is where they always screw up. That is when they build the new schools. When they build the new schools they can get levy/bond financial help from the builders and they put on a big push. Look at North/Lakeview and now more recently the three new schools under construction now. They could have slipped in an operating levy which Thiede said was coming into that bond issue.
So now to pass the operating levies they will need funds donated by PTO?’s Booster clubs and maybe the teachers unions or rank and file. They can?’t raise the money. So the issues will fail.
They claim also that they will need operating funds for the new schools. The purchase of the modular classrooms from the operating funds of the schools. They already have teachers and support staff. If they sell the modular?’s where does that money go? Clearly we won?’t need to spend that operating money for modular classrooms it can be spent on administrators for the new schools.
The fact is we will never get a new stadium on the Central site as long as the current board remains in power. They have all of the answers already scripted to tell us how important education is now and in 2000 when we were spending our kids inheritance on the North school for athletic facilities. They couldn?’t go on with out the big fields and the over sized school. They have the same attitude that the previous board had. They are still sticking it to the Central tax payers.
A previous poster talked about the city forming a city school district. I am also intrigued by the Mayoral candidate (William Todd) in Columbus threatening the same thing. I am wondering about the home rule powers that Pickerington might have in this regard. Aren't our scores with the ODE the same now?
By Tiger supporter
|
|
|
Won't happen
There's no way the State of Ohio will split Pickerington, but it might be a fun platform to see someone run on.
If you look below the rating label you will see that regular ed kids actually faired better this year than last year. Scores are up. 9 buildings are excellent, 2 buildings are efficient.
There are 26 other school districts lined up to have the same thing happen to them next year that happened to Pickerington & Worthington in Central Ohio.
It's all on the ODE website you just need to take the time to look.
When you compare schools with Continuous Improvement labels - look at the number of indicators passed - that tells the story.
The school district is 38 square miles & the city is 8 square miles of that - 21% of the land. I think I remember someone saying it's about 30% of the kids. Why do we think it needs 50% of new schools to be equal?
If I am looking right there are 6 schools (43% of buildings) in the City of Pickerington:
PHSC
Ridgeview
Diley Middle School
Pickerington Elementary
Heritage Elementary
New school at Sycamore Creek
So it sounds like there are more buildings than land or kids - am I missing something? Maybe I have a building listed that's in the township?
By Realist too
|
