Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

It appears according to the Times-Sun that Pickerington will see yet another 472 new students this fall. I believe this is only a few numbers away from what was predicted in their Facilities Committee report. However it is also very close to last years total numbers when the city had over 600 building permits and nearly 200 more were issued by the township.

This year the city is still burning off approved lots from 2002 but they only issued less than 130 so far. The township is really down to around 45 building permits.

So where are these NEW kids coming from? Something smells here folks and someone is lying to protect their levy campaign. Granted in mid-November they just can admit to a math error.

The message to us all is no matter how we slow the building down our schools will continue to grow at an uncontrollable rate and there is nothing any of you can do about.

It also is a season when none of the Board Candidates will be out answering your questions face to face. They have no opposition.

We only have one choice VOTE NO!! until they tell the truth.

Not all new

Believe it or not, not every family who moves into the school district opts to build a new home. There are plenty of ''used'' homes available for buyers. Plus, it is not a guarantee that when a 3-person family moves out that only a three-person family moves in. Sometimes a young couple moves in and starts having kids. Really! They do!

Fifteen years ago when we moved into a ''used'' house out here, we brought 3 new kids to the district. The family we bought from had two kids, but only one was in school at the time. So, without building a new home, we added a net of 2 new students to this district all by ourselves. Imagine!

So, it is not just building permits that mean added students. Look at all the existing homes for sale in this district, and ''do the math''.


By Anon

Tunnel vision no more.

Dear Anon

If your theory is correct then all of the data the schools used in their Facilities Report is worthless. Because they used Building permits, birth rates and predictions based on historical data.

So what you are wanting us to believe is that with all of the above indicators falling dramatically our school's growth didn't miss a beat and is continuing growth just like it did when we had building permits in the 800 per year range?

I am sorry I just don't believe it. Some one is cooking the books to make the numbers jive with the FRC report and to help with the crisis generation and the need to pass the levy going forward.

Data

My guess would be they ''only'' used the data you cited in their report because there is absolutely no way to estimate or predict how many additions and subtractions there will be in any given year. Perhaps the administration could have mentioned these type of figures in their presentation to the committee. Just a thought.

By Anon