Your guess is a good as any.
John,
I doubt anyone in this community can give you a satisfactory answer to your question of the impact of the most recent school ($74 million) bond issue. I was very disappointed in our school board when they refused to present the repayment schedule to the taxpayers in 2000. I will say there was a preliminary schedule presented that was full of errors and only the school board members had access to it unless as a citizen you asked for a copy.
It was a very poorly thought out plan for our school district because our growth is primarily residential growth and the school districts the school board wanted to compare us with were districts like Hilliard that has commercial growthy around the West Outerbelt. Our type of growth will cause as much NEW COSTS to our school system as it provides in additional revenues.
The problem here is that the school board sold the idea to the unsuspecting public as if there would be more TAXPAYER?’S here in our district next year and we will ?“share?” the cost of this bond issue with these new residents. The problem is that these new residents brought in more kids to the school system at about $7,000 per kid to educate.
John, you have narrowed in on the problem facing this community. It is well documented on this discussion page for those willing to take the time to find out about it. The head cheer leader of the most recent levy campaigns doesn?’t understand the way our schools are financed here in Ohio. The simple way to understand the school funding issue is the more real estate property valuation per student you have the more money you can deliver to the school system per pupil.
I have heard we would need about $700,000 average home here in the district to support our children and the schools and not receive any state aid. We currently have a little over $200,000 per student in property valuation in the schools district. Now I believe everyone can understand that if we build a $150,000 house that has four bedrooms and that is all we build then what happens to the above average per pupil? If that $150,000 home has only two children in it, we than take a hit on property valuation of about $1,250,000.
Sorry John, there is no answer to your question. The PLSD is flying by the seat of their pants on this one. Mr. Rigelman would be the closest one to being able to answer your question. I afraid even his answers would depend on how the economy washes out in the next few years and what the market value of our homes are. I do know there is another property reappraisal in 2007. That is when the big jump again will occur. They did get us last year (2001) with that property reappraisal.
