No Action Taken By the Board
With all due respect to those offering opinions here, I disagree with some.
The facts are the PLSD Board of Education has taken no action what so ever over the last seven years to control residential growth in the district. Not one motion has been offered and no action has been taken (the only exception may have been when the board authorized Lew Stemen to attend the meeting on June 9 in Liberty Township to express the PLSD's interest and position).
While it is helpful that board members as citizens and 'board liaisons' attend other government's meetings and express opinions, they are not doing so in a formal capacity advocating a position on an issue. And, the elected officials know that.
Many residents including Jim Brink and I, in public comments last year (Jim's was in August and mine in November), urged the board to take ACTION to control the residential growth that is destroying our community. I urged the board to vote to support a six-month moratorium on all housing permits within the district, and establish a blue-ribbon committee to make formal recommendations that the board and other unit of governments could act upon during the moratorium. Almost at every meeting citizens have urged the board to action and they have ignored us.
Talk is cheap. Action is not. Please review the legal record of the actions of the our school board in the minutes (still not on the PLSD website) and you'll find not one motion was offered, no second of a motion, and no vote 3-2, 5-0, 2-3, 1-4, 4-1 was ever taken on any action to control growth in the school district.
In addition, if you would review the elements of the new superintendent's contract, there is not one word about control growth and no performance on growth offered.
In my opinion, the last effective advocate for limiting growth in our school district was Dr. Ross who tirelessly worked all elected officials from the General Assembly to City Hall to control growth. I guarantee you we would not have this kind of growth if Dr. Ross and the leadership we had on the board then. He kept the issue before the public's attention.
For the largest employer to use it's influence and resources to solve the biggest problem facing this community, action must be taken at Heritage Elmentary School on Monday evenings by all five on the board.
By Mark W. Uher
With all due respect to those offering opinions here, I disagree with some.
The facts are the PLSD Board of Education has taken no action what so ever over the last seven years to control residential growth in the district. Not one motion has been offered and no action has been taken (the only exception may have been when the board authorized Lew Stemen to attend the meeting on June 9 in Liberty Township to express the PLSD's interest and position).
While it is helpful that board members as citizens and 'board liaisons' attend other government's meetings and express opinions, they are not doing so in a formal capacity advocating a position on an issue. And, the elected officials know that.
Many residents including Jim Brink and I, in public comments last year (Jim's was in August and mine in November), urged the board to take ACTION to control the residential growth that is destroying our community. I urged the board to vote to support a six-month moratorium on all housing permits within the district, and establish a blue-ribbon committee to make formal recommendations that the board and other unit of governments could act upon during the moratorium. Almost at every meeting citizens have urged the board to action and they have ignored us.
Talk is cheap. Action is not. Please review the legal record of the actions of the our school board in the minutes (still not on the PLSD website) and you'll find not one motion was offered, no second of a motion, and no vote 3-2, 5-0, 2-3, 1-4, 4-1 was ever taken on any action to control growth in the school district.
In addition, if you would review the elements of the new superintendent's contract, there is not one word about control growth and no performance on growth offered.
In my opinion, the last effective advocate for limiting growth in our school district was Dr. Ross who tirelessly worked all elected officials from the General Assembly to City Hall to control growth. I guarantee you we would not have this kind of growth if Dr. Ross and the leadership we had on the board then. He kept the issue before the public's attention.
For the largest employer to use it's influence and resources to solve the biggest problem facing this community, action must be taken at Heritage Elmentary School on Monday evenings by all five on the board.
By Mark W. Uher
