Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Attracting more voters

Now we have moved into the position that my priorities are ?“screwed up.?” As if one voter could turn the 1,000 or so needed around on any given election. What many are missing is that the board PROMISED to make both schools EQUAL when North was being sold to the voters and they have failed in doing that.

I know you folks are much smarter than me and us voters but what are you trying to do here? You are trying to get the voters to pass a bond/levy to build classrooms for elementary students. One of the issues is that many in the district have High School age children and couldn?’t care less about the younger kids. Have any of you Einstein?’s given any thought to attracting High School parents to this election? If you remember the number of voters that voted in 2000 to build the north High School was around 16,000 you are only attracting half than now.

As this being a boy thing only, it should be stated that my daughter and grand-daughter received track scholarships at Ohio University in track. Track didn?’t make them smarter and more successful but it did help with getting them through college. Unless the board is prepared to shut down the North High School?’s extra-curricular activities then the very least they should do is to make the facilities and opportunities equal at both schools like they promised years ago.

I learn something every day

Wow, last time I looked a person running on a new 7 lane track ran the same speed as a person on a new 8 lane track. And a football field is 100 yards long. And a basketball court is 94 feet long.

An athlete at Central has equal chance of scholarships as an athlete at North. Scholarships are earned on the field, not on the facilities surrounding them.

Save the money for more important things.

Interest rates changed

One thing no one has brought up are the interest rates the ''old board'' operated under when the promises were made.....

This school district (and many others did the same)used interest monies from Bond Issues to pay for things outside the Bond Issue they needed. In many cases it was textbooks and technology - in the case of North and Lakeview Issue it was to make Central have equitable facilities.

What changed? Besides the make up of the school board - INTEREST RATES. What could have been over $6 million dollars of interest money turned into $2.6 million dollars. The intention was probably there and probably good, but let's face facts $2.6M is not $6.0M.

I understand from what I've read about the new levy that technology, textbooks, furnishings, etc are included in the bond issue. Gone are the days where you can make promises from the interest money - it seems the new board realizes that.

They also made the move to have the interest monies in a Board controlled fund so it did not get frittered away on the administrations pet projects. The other thing this enabled them to do was use these monies for permanent improvements - as I understand it the only thing that could move monies from this fund was a court order. Probably one of the smartest thing this board did with negotiations coming up as soon as they did. This money was ''off the table'' and could not be raided for raises.

Let's only hope that's a practice that can continue.

By Accountant