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Residents within Pickerington Local School District (PLSD): if you were not paying attention the last 4 years, you?’d better pay attention now! PLSD Board of Education (BOE) and F. Yocum are going to come begging for money again from us soon. No question about that. But they won?’t do it before the November elections. But as long as they have the 3-2 majority on the BOE, they will always come back to the voters.
Now the funny (or not so funny) part: Carlier, Sanders, Sigman and Yocum will be asking for an operating levy and blame it on the teacher contract! Yocum just got his pockets lined with our money and the majority 3 of the BOE know that they are going to pay through the nose for our teachers, who are, by the way, the best in central Ohio. I?’ve got to be honest; the BOE?’s majority should have their heads examined to send the teacher contract to arbitration while approving a pay raise for folks that don?’t teach even one student.
Is Yocum worth $110K/ year? Are you kidding? He just fell into a prime job with an already great support staff. Now he wants to make his mark by doubling the student population and being the biggest district in central Ohio. His ego is far too big for our district. He?’s got to go. Why not hire some young school administrator with many years less experience that can do just as good a job or better. Heck, why not promote H. Lewis Stemen? Why did we have to bring in some outsider with one heck of an ego problem?
PLSD voters: the only way we can assure his ouster is to get rid of Sanders and Carlier. We all know Carlier needs to go. When she was President of the BOE, her head got way too big and she was miserable at getting her message out. I?’m still wondering what her message was after four editorials and at least a dozen or so quotables. Pro city perhaps? Pro merger (city/township)? Pro district growth? Pro taxes to support district growth? What? Sanders, why she would be just an insurance policy.
Thousands of kids have yet to move to our district and occupy our portables, but it is a fact -- they will be here soon. As soon as Homewood and Dominion finish those 10,000 or so bedrooms, those kids will be at PLSD?’s doorstep begging for remedial education. Gotta get those Columbus transplants up to speed with our Pickerington students. Or maybe dumb-down our Pickerington students to meet those Columbus transplants halfway?
If you PLSD voters don?’t wake up this November (Nov. 2001), then all is lost folks! PLSD will never be the same again!
u.v.t.r.
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Elections are coming
I saw an article in some paper the other day that said the number one worry among high school students is overcrowding. How about that? Not drugs, not drinking, not poor grades, not violence or sex.
OVERCROWDING!
I wonder if the PLSD BoE majority or the Superintendent, Mr. Wonderful read that. You think that those teenagers would be worrying about Honor Roll, a date for the dance, paying for a car, pimples?….. You know, NORMAL STUFF. What has it come to that kids have to not worry about making the team, being popular or having a cool haircut but instead worry about portables?
It?’s come to this ?– the city council and the BoE majority are selling out our children. Their insatiable thirst for residential growth and power is fed with the futures of our children.
Will there be a levy on the ballot this November? Probably not. Will there be one in March?? Next November?? COUNT ON IT. There is no other way to feed the annexation and rezoning machine. As someone else so eloquently put it here in this forum, you can?’t build ?“Dileyville?” without building schools for it.
I don?’t know how the reassessment of your property value affected you but for me it was a 17% increase. If someone knows the estimated total property value in Pickerington/Violet Township and can increase that number by 17% and post it here on this web page, you?’ll see how the City Fathers and BoE Majority have successfully devised yet another way to suck the life blood out of its taxpayers. They?’ve successfully raised the limit they can borrow against to plunge the City further into unrecoverable debt and the BoE Majority has an additional cut coming in that at least kept their names out of the paper for now wanting another levy. Remember, elections are coming.
That?’s right ?– elections are coming. Let?’s get rid of these losers. Let?’s elect a Council that will force Queen Bushman to abdicate her throne. Let?’s elect a Council that will send King Berry into exile in Zanesville. Let?’s elect a Council that will force Emperor Gray to deliver his own pizzas.
Elections are coming. Elect a Board of Education that can work with The Best Damn Teachers In The Land (TBDTITL for those of you that speak Buckeye). How tough can that be? Elect a BoE that has a plan for the future. A proactive BoE instead of a totally reactive one. A BoE that will stand with its students and teachers and tell the City ENOUGH!, we need a break. A BoE that will send His Royal Egocity Yocum back to his little landlocked, zero growth, don?’t have a clue district in northern Ohio where he can just try to collect $110K a year for sitting on his can deciding if they should plant new grass on the football field this year. Elect a BoE that has some mutual respect for each other, a little respect for themselves, a LOT of respect for the faculty and occasionally gives a hoot about the taxpayers.
Elections are coming citizens. Have the decency and self-respect to make your voices heard and get rid of the very people that selling their souls to residential developers and selling our kid?’s futures and quality of education for something to line their pockets.
By New Kid on the Block
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WOW, great insight
I could not agree more. I would even venture to forecast into the future. If the current trend continues, taxes will spiral out of control, people will look for housing elsewhere, residents will not be able to sell their homes, residents will have to endure tax increases long after the current wrecking crew is gone and a new breed of council is attempting to fix the problems left behind. NOW IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE > > > MAKE SOME NOISE!!
Currently there are many homes for sale in developments that people don't even look at because new homes in the same development are offered at similar prices with many incentives (financial and material). The Sheriff sales in the Lancaster paper lists one full page or more every week and many of the foreclosures are in Pickerington. What does that say? People need to move, but cannot sell their home.
As far as the BoE, I am very glad I do not live in the PLSD or the City of Pickerington. I will fight very hard to stay out of both, there are too many conflicts and not enough concern for the residents.
Can residents of Pickerington comfortably call their elected officials to discuss issues?
Can residents in the PLSD call their school officials to discuss issues?
If the resident discusses issues, are the concerns acted upon?
I doubt it.
I have called my township officials many times to get information or discuss issues and get clarification.
I have called Mayor Hall to ask questions; she is more than happy to discuss openly anything going on in Canal.
I get my information from reliable sources, I make calls until I connect with knowlegable people. I do not accept the written word in the local (pickerington) papers. I call those the funny papers (pun intended). I only read those to keep myself focused on how crooked it all seems, so I will ferret out the truth and make personal decisions based on facts.
I am very happy to live in V.T. and have nothing to do with Pickerington or the PLSD.
By Violet
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More PLSD Stuff
OK, here comes another rant about the PLSD. These thoughts come after I read the articles in This Week in Pickerington, August 15th.
My dear Mr. Yocum, I have a response for your quote that ?“Our biggest hurdle will always be growth and our ability to maintain a quality educational process as we continue to grow at a rate of 300-400 students per year.?” That response is DUH! Did you finally hear what we have been saying both publicly and in these boards? Let me do some math for you (and NO, Hughes didn?’t teach me math so I?’ll probably get this right)?– that equals 12-16 new classrooms needed per year. Also, because you lately seem to forget them, that means 12-16 new teachers per year. Mr. Yocum, you can chime in here for the percentage calculation of how many more support staff members will be required. You know, the people you could agree on a contract with: cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers?….. You can also chime in here to tell us the cost of these new annual requirements. I?’m willing to bet you have those numbers somewhere. Here?’s another: tell us how long it will be, with a requirement of 12-16 new classroom per year, how long will it be until all the present and funded to be constructed classrooms will be filled?
A couple of more observations Mr. Yocum and I?’ll step aside to await your response. You say it is becoming more and more difficult to keep the ?“neighborhood feel?”?…?… Are you talking about the schools or the actual neighborhoods? The reason I ask is because if you?’re talking about actual neighborhoods, I?’ll have to ask you to expound on your statement. Thanks to your brethren at City Hall, we have NOTHING BUT neighborhoods. And we?’ll never have ANYTHING BUT neighborhoods. If you?’re talking about the ?“neighborhood feel?” at school, I?’ll say it will be difficult. Rather than effectively use the land you (we) already owned near the present high school, you chose to build out near the Legion where you?’ve done nothing but created a real us and them feeling in the community. The community has never been divided when it cam to our schools until you came along.
You said ?“People in this community say there is no planning in this district and that?’s just not true.?” You?’re right, there?’s lots of planning. You plan how to get further into my wallet every day. You plan how to mess with the best teachers in the state while diluting their talent pool by half. You plan how to cozy up to the City Council instead of demanding more controlled growth. You plan how to conspire to get reassessments done to safely glide through an election day where the majority of YOUR Board could shift towards taxpayer advocacy and the interest of our children rather than the constant unprofessional and petty bickering. You plan how to spend your next raise that YOUR Board gets you. You plan all right.
Mr. Yocum, please respond. Lay it on the line to all of us readers here. Tell us in your own words what you can do for us and our children. Here you won?’t be edited, forced to use politically correct speech or partially quoted by the newspapers that are more interested in advertising dollars per page than news.
Tell us ?“YOUR PLAN?”
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