Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

No End to the Questions

Thank you Father and Anti-Mouse for carrying on this discussion. You can see, I think, the school board's quandary. We voters are very far from being of one mind. Our views are conflicting and consistent.

Let me, however, lay one matter to rest, once and for all. The school board has, repeatedly and publicly, recognized the grave mistakes that were made in the building of our second high school and junior high school. I listed some of the ways the school board has done so in my last posting.

But, as a former school board member, let me once again recognize the obvious: PHS North and ''Lakeview'' PJHS were mistakes, from beginning to finish. The project has divided the community, driven our taxes to what many consider an unacceptable level, and created graphic evidence of fiscal irresponsibility for all to see. The cost of that project could, and should, have been cut by $10 million, and we should never have fallen for the Fifth Third ''no new millage'' hocus pocus that will keep our tax rates high for years.

But all of that is in the past, and most of the culprits are gone, including two or the three offending school board members, the Superintendent, the Treasurer, the architects and the construction manager. Furthermore, many remedial measures have been taken. At least as far as the school board is concerned, the south has not been ignored.

The question is, what do we do now? We voters must come up with some answers. If we don't like the levy on November's ballot, we need to tell the school board, in a clear and consistent manner, with a community consensus behind us, what we want the school board to do. We can't let them keep guessing, with one failed levy after another.

[To be continued]

Continued

One correction: where I said ''consistent'' in the first paragraph of my last posting, please read ''inconsistent.'' I am a very poor proofreader.

So now the questions:

1. Does anyone believe that the school district does not need at least one, and probably two, new elementary schools?

2. If the PLSD could save significant money by doing so, would you favor building one large elementary school, with a capacity of, say, 950 students, rather than two smaller schools? If not, are you willing to pay the additional cost for two smaller schools?

3. If, again, the PLSD could save significant money by doing so, would you favor building a 2-story elementary school, with a simpler, and more straightforward, design than Tussing, Harmon and Diley?

4. Once again, would anyone support a $5 million bond levy to replicate, at PHS Central, block for block, and track lane by track lane, a new footfall stadium?

5. One again, could we remedy the perceived inequities between the two high schools, at lower cost, by playing all varsity football games at PHS North, and summarily firing any coach who stands in the way of giving PHS Central football teams equal practice time at the facility?

6. Still again, what other inequities are there between the two high schools, besides the football stadium?

7. Does anyone really believe that we should encourage our kids to pursue careers in professional athletics, and build athletics facilities to support such goals? Does anyone know how many PHS graduates have had successful careers in major university, let alone professional, athletics? I can only think of two or three, and they did not make the pros.

Time To Clean House

It is time for a no confidence vote. NOT of the school board, but for the school administration.

One has to realize that the board acts on information provided to it by the sitting administration. Therefore, the administration is largly responsible for the North fiasco.

It is time to clean house at the administrative level. Look at the ones that were here when the North complex was proposed to the board. GET RID OF THEM AND YOU WILL HAVE MY VOTE.


By Fed Up

Once Again

Try, try again. Once again the truth is distorted completely out of shape. According to the county voting records the northern precincts supported,repeat supported, the levy. By the way, every levy has been different. Check the records. Over the last 10 years the community, after some debate, has supported our needs and now we are willing to step up and do our part for the future of the community. It's Pickerington who says to hell with everyone else. Both townships and Columbus understand what is at stake here. At least quote me correctly.

Mr Rigelman, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't time for your children to find you a pleasant garden and a couple of muscular nurses. You may be a hazard to yourself and the public. Growth is moving to the southern and eastern parts of the district. That's why the enrollment at the two high schools is different. The school board has set up a reserve for the future at Central. When I was in engineering school and again when I studied for my MMA they called that planning. One thing to remember, more houses are being built in Liberty TWN than in Violet. And the City of Columbus still has a lot of undeveloped land around Pickerington Ponds. There's talk of a low income housing project with anywhere from 3000 to 5000 units.

That's a bit off the subject. However, numerous studies available from the State of Ohio or from the local board state the optimum size of an elementary school is between 500 and 800. Any more and you're just ''warehousing''. I suggest you check out Groveport-Madison for more details. Multi-story buildings, at least by my research, don't really save anything. Elevators alone eat you up. Remember you have to have enough elevators to evacuate your disabled/wheelchair students in case of a fire, say 10% of the enrollment. And the elevators have to be operable during a fire, separate ventilation, sprinklers, etc. It's worth looking at but I don't think it's really an option.

About Central's football stadium, every year local sports writers list their favorite stadiums and Central's consistantly rates in the top 5. Why? They like the atmosphere of being in that little bowl and the homeiness of everyone together. Do you really want to tear up community heritage and build just another soulless cookie cutter field like North's?

If you really want to see what we're up against check out David Brooks' editorial from Oct 10th or even better Thomas Friedman's editorial in today's paper.

By Any Mouse