Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

K thru 6 grades

Dr. Rigelman

You have my support for making the two middle schools back into elementary schools and going with a K thru 6 grades. The Junior High Schools and Senior High schools have excess space and wasted space at Heritage. Why are we just now coming to this conclusion? It seems very simple to me. It is time to get real and stop all of this pandering to the mother's emotions just to cause problems against other board members.


Let me remind you all that Bexley has their grade schools K-thru 6 and one Junior High and one Senior High. ALL OF THE BEXLEY KIDS WALK TO SCHOOL. The exception is those with special needs.

Now they don't score 27 out of 27 but they send over 92% of their kids off to a four year college every year. My point is it didn't hurt the Bexley kids so how would it hurt the Pickerington kids? Yes the busing could be scaled back and the families could live closer to the grade schools.

maybe if we can get the teachers to freeze their pay raises for a year we might find a real solution to the district's problems.



By Picktown Dad

Let's make this a positive thing

My son is in 4th grade at Heritage, and my daughter is in 5th grade at Harmon. Our kids started at Violet & were redistricted to Heritage for their 3rd & 4th grade, respectively. After being one of a few kids to leave Violet, they have had 1-2 years at Heritage to make all new friends, before being split off again and sent to Harmon, where they will make new friends again, only to be split off at the Jr. High level.

Now, at least my son will have continuity with the group he is going to school with. He is ecstatic. He has been stressing quite a bit this year about being separated from his new best friends for the next 2 years. We live on acreage, not in a subdivision, so there aren't really any kids for him to play with here.

My son will be in a smaller, more intimate setting, with the (wonderful) principal he has known since kindergarten. He knows the staff, and they know him. He will not feel lost entering a new school with lots of new kids. Assuming he gets an equivalent educational experience to those at the middle schools, he may be one of the lucky ones.

Maybe, since the entire grade level at Heritage will be about 100 kids, the parents can work together to find additional opportunities for these kids that would be difficult or impossible for the larger groups at the middle schools. If you have ideas or are willing to work together to make this a real opportunity for our kids, let me know. Maybe we can get something together.