Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

To add a little more

To add to your experience requirements I think it is paramount that this person have direct leadership experience in a district that was at a point that we are at now with the growth, overcrowding and continual sellout to developers.

This person should have the track record showing how he or she worked with the Board, Administration, and government entities to pull the District out of the deep hole it was in while maintaining the quality education we have come to expect.

Add courage. This person will have to deal with the fact that you can?’t make all the people happy all the time. If there are cuts to programs needed, have the courage to make them. If it means staying in the black and out of our wallets, make the call. Pay to play if you have to.


By Maverick

Superintendent & Courage

I do agree with Maverick that the new Superintendent must have courage and he or she will not be able to make all the people happy all the time. I agree with Maverick's financial example for courage, but in the opposite way.

I hope that the new Superintendent will have the courage to let the community decide what to do when we are faced with budget shortfalls. I hope the new Superintendent will not cater to the small, but very vocal, anti-tax element in our community, just like I'm sure Maverick doesn't want him or her to cater to the equally vocal school supporters. Let the community decide if we want to invest more in our children's education or cut back on programs. Let us participate in the decision making.

I hope we never hire a superintendent that will cut programs 'to stay in the black and out of our wallets' without asking us first.

Finally, I applaud Forest Yocum's courage (and for that matter his batting average) for letting the community decide how to best fund our schools. In the five years Forest has been Superintendent, voters have approved 2/3 of the bond issues & levies that were placed on the ballot for us to decide. That's a very successful batting average. I hope that we look at all candidates' batting averages before hiring a new superintendent.

And, finally, I agree with Maverick that the new Superintendent should also look to other sources of revenue for our schools...pay to play fees, developer/home builders contributions, grants, business donations, etc. Every dollar will help.

Reply

Mark,

Please don't think or infer that I am anti-booster. That is not the case. But given your involvement in so many school issues, you can certainly appreciate the average John Q Citizen's, like me, perception that come November, we will again be offered split sessions and cutbacks in music and sports if we don't approve levies because that is always the threat.

I can only hope that a new Superintendent can sing a new song. The old one gets very stale. I would hate to have to be the one leading the charge in finally calling the naysayer's bluffs and encourage them to indeed go to split sessions or cut back in sports or music. Some of these would affect my kids.

I am glad we agree that there should be other options studied and I am glad we will have another hopefully fresher and stronger individual to look for ways.


By Maverick

Threats to Get Levies Approved

Maverick,

I agree with you 100%.

I hope we NEVER use threats of cutbacks in/elimination of extracurricular activities such as sports and music to ever again obtain passage of a levy. We did in December 1996 - February 1997 and it was UNETHICAL. Sports are basically self supporting and overall sports/music/other extracurricular activities account for such a small fraction of our overall budget ... so cutbacks save really only save pennies. I had several real heated discussions about that with Pat Stover, who was a board member at the time.

I truly believe in a highly educated community (like the one we live in) that the more financial information you give the public ... the better the chances of passage of a school levy. People are smart, they don't need to be threatened to make wise decisions.

I hope we learned our lesson and never make threats again (and, by the way, the levy failed in the special election in February, 1997).