Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Input is Not Enough

We've gone way past the point where a little public input will solve our school problems. We voters need to take ownership of our schools. We need to decide, among ourselves, what course we should take. We need to get away from this ''we/them'' stuff. The PLSD is not someone else, it is us, all of us. There are our problems, not someone else's. And we need to solve them.

By the way, anyone who wants to find out what our current school millage is can look it up by going to ''TaxFAQs'' on the web site of the Fairfield County auditor. For tax year 2004 (the most recent year the auditor currently reports), our total effective school millage was 37.4 -- by far the highest in the county. This included 10.1 bond mills, including 4.6 mills for the North/Lakeview project.

Yes. But

Yes, but, we are also the richest school district in the county by per capita or family income either one and also have by far the largest growth rate. Poor mouthing aside, we are one of the richest school districts in the state, believe it or not. We just done seem to care.

More a question of bloat

It is not a question of caring in my mind, but rather a broader one of what we offer as part of public education. Our schools (not just Ptown but most of the others as well) have become massive monsters with high overhead and program offerings far beyond basic education. We've ended up with multi-million dollar theaters and atheltic complexes beyond belief. Each new school in each suburb tries to outdo the previous one. It will be interesting to see who tries to top the French Quarter design commons area at Westerville Central.

The schools need to provide a basic education paid for by the taxpayers, nothing more. If Mom and Dad want their child in a program beyond the basics they need to pay for it via a fee structure that includes the facilities cost and teacher compensation cost or find it outside of the public structure. I for one do not feel I need to pay for anything beyond the basics. Currently the only way I can influence the schools is to control their pocketbook as my voice regarding limiting their expanding programs is vastly overwhelmed by the participants in those programs. Not unlike the national environment whereby the minority of folks paying the majority of the taxes are outvoted by those receiving the benefits.

Maybe in Ptown our voice is a bit louder at this point.

two cent warning

After all of this discussion one good point was brought out and that is the effective milage of the North Complex has dropped some what to 4.1 mils. The bad news is that the district had to grow to accomplish that drop in effective milage thus needing more buildings.

The problem those folks have in the community that strongly support ANY school levy is a trust factor with the school board and the school administration. Many of those people that made these decisions in 2000 are no longer with the board or in the administration. However their legacy still lingers.

Many of the voters that were in the district in 2000 remember the promises and the desperate demands of NEEDS from those then in charge. Some of us saw the problem before the complex was built and some didn't see the problem until after the complex was completed. I think we all reached a common conclusion that this was a waste of tax payers money. So now when the school comes to the voter for their needs those requests are taken with a ''Show Me'' attitude. Mr. Keaton appears to get upset when we don't just take his word for it.

I see another disaster coming in a few years when the school relies on the OSFC standards to build their schools. Mr. Keaton made some vailed threats that we might not get state funding if we don't increase the size of our school buildings to meet these new and much larger standards. I believe Mr. Keaton is in error on that statement.

As an example Pickerington Elementary was designed for 600 students and it has done a fine job up to this point. I believe it has over 700 students attending currently. To qualify for this state funding we must nearly double the size of these schools in terms of square footage per student. I believe then that Pickerington Elementary would only be allowed to house less than 400 students.

One big issue here is that the state funding is not guaranteed in 2008 or when ever. Then if we build over sized schools and waste money now will we then be holding the bag in a few years when maybe a new governor cuts these funds or they find a new way to finance school buildings in the state? Thus creating another trust issue with the voters?

Somewhere in these discussions was the idea of giving the portables a chance and looking at other districts and schools and how they utilized their portables. I do know there are some nice grouped portables around the country that have restrooms within the building and they are all linked together making them much more resistant to storms. They have only a few entry points to address security of the students.

I think the approach the Ohio school districts have done in convincing voters to pass levies has been to exaggerate their need. If the levy fails they stick to their message until the situation gets so desperate that the voters finally pass the issue. Many times when the voters and the parents do see what they have spent their hard earn money on they are even more bitter and they become less accepting of future requests from the schools and their needs.

One last comment was that I hear on these discussion pages about what about our children's future? For those of you that demand that we spend all of this money on local public education and for all of the bells and whistles that go with it you should also realize that Ohio is one of the highest taxed states in the Nation and this has been a problem in attracting new business and industry. I think the question should be does this state need to all of these extra curricular actives and driving up the taxes in the state? A very high percentage of our young people are leaving the state to seek employment elsewhere.