Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

From a review of the postings on this site it is obvious that only Bruce R. of the Board is a regular visitor. Bruce R. on this site has indicated that he will evaluate the K issue and potentialy reconsider his position but that he is only one vote and that their is nothing else he can do. I dissagree. Bruce R. as a bourd member you have a lot of potential. I commend your decision to reconsider your position. However don't sell yourself and this community short. Please call upon your peers on the Board. Disscuss the K educational issue with them and specifically request that they independantly evaluate the issue and then that they share their findings with all the other members of the Board and the public as well. Larry S. will not be present on June 30 so a reversal of the Boards prior decision will prove to be challenging with only 4 Board Members present. However even if Larry S. is not present he does have the ability to evaluate the issue and to share his findings and to try and influance the decision of the four remaining. Bruce R. as a regular visitor of this site please respond to this posting and indicate which Board members you have contacted and what level of commitment each of them expressed to you in regards to evaluating the K issue. As stated in a prior posting the public does not have to agree with the Board but we do have to understand the basis for the Boards decisions. Trust is built upon fact based decion making. Build that trust.

Progress Report

Actually, all of the school board members -- and, I understand, all of the councilpersons and trustee -- regularly visit this site. However, Dave Shaver and I are the only ones who regularly post here.

When I have completed my review of the data, I will write up my findings and share them with my board colleagues. I do not believe that any of us wants to save transportation costs at the expense of the educational quality of our kindergarten program. And I believe that we all have open minds on this issue.

The relevant data base is massive, and I have only scratched the surface. A few things do, however, stand out already. First, children do benefit significantly from all day kindergarten programs, although there also is evidence to suggest that the benefit wears off in the early grades.

This confirms my own experience with my two oldest daughters, both of whom were in all-day programs. The longer time allows for more intensive instruction, and also for field trips and the like. My oldest daughter actually read at the third grade level when she left kindergarten. There is also evidence that the all-day format significantly helps educationally disadvantaged children. The research, however, generally has focused on all-day, every-day programs.

All-day, every other day programs also are very common. Such programs have been adopted by private and parochial, as well as public, schools, including many schools in Ohio. Although the state's insistence on counting each kindergartender as only one-half of a student has discouraged schools from going to all-day formats of any sort.

School districts generally have gone to such programs to save transportation cost. Moreover, it is not uncommon for school boards to reverse their approvals of such programs, in response to parent protests. However, many school districts have operated on such schedules for years, without apparent problems. Thus I think it is fair to say, at least, that such programs work.

However, the school districts that have been most successful with such programs probably did more to prepare parents and teachers for them, and did not adopt them as suddenly.

For me, the jury is still out on whether all day, every other day programs are educationally better than, or inferior to, half day every day programs. I plan to continue mining the data, of which there is a wealth on the internet. You just need to plug in the search terms ''kindergarten'' and ''every other day.'' I turned up over 200 pages of relevant web sites.

You are welcome to join me in this research. Let me know what you find. With so many web sites to visit, it is easy to miss stuff. You can e-mail me your results. I'll also need to spend some time at OSU reading the education journals.

Dear Anonymous


While I too thought the Kindergarten presentation made by parents at the last school board meeting was very concise & presented very well, that should not be the end of it.

While it is terrific that Bruce has contacted the other Board members - if you are interested in a change - you too should do no less. You should be researching your position so you have a strong case to present & do so to each Board member, one at a time. They all have email addresses & phone numbers listed in the phone book. None that I have spoken with were rude - I believe they are all approachable.

It's not up to others to fix problems you don't like. It's up to each of us depending on how strongly we feel on a particular issue to stand up & make a difference. While it's great that you encourage Bruce to do so - if you really feel it's important don't expect others to do the work for you.

Part of the problems in Pickerington, in my opinion, is people don't get involved until it's almost too late. As you can see from postings on this site they are ''Too Busy''. The budget problems that face this School Board have existed for the past year - that is why a levy was on the November Ballot. People made no move to get educated on the issues until major cuts were made. Major cuts have to be made, they need to have a balanced budget by June 30th & I am sure as they have to find $6.0M that won't make anyone upset with the cuts, they would take public input as to where the $6M should come from. The fact that the public waited until mid May to begin to be vocal demonstrates the apathy we have in our City. People don't step up to get involved with a problem unless it stops directly in their back yard. To have a better community than we currently do - we have to do a better job than that.

Think of the bigger picture & be global in your approach & we will end up with the School system & Community that you want.

By Hopeful for the future

Don't be Too Busy



Guys -

We have to take back this City & let it become with the people want. That means get involved.

Too busy to go to a Council Meeting?

Can't make it to School Board ??

Too busy to sign a petition or God forbid carry one?

Too busy to see or comment on the REAL Players in Growth Soap Opera we face? Rigelman can't as a School Board member control Growth - he has spoken on it & asked for lower density numerous times. Something Sigman, Sanders or Monhollen can't seem to bring themselves to do - they might make Lou (Postage) mad.....

Too busy to call Postage, Maxey, Wright, Parker, Fox or Sabitino? If not call Tom Hart, he's got them all on speed dial.


By Hello ?????????????????