What Next?

Please see our website for our official statement on the levy result.

Folks have been asking us all day what happens now?

First off let's just say we're relieved that the levy result was decisive.  Throughout the campaign we were hopeful that a strong message would be sent and I think we accomplished that.

So what now?  Well, the next thing on the agenda is for the community to continue to make its voice heard.  This Saturday (May 7) from 9:00am-10:30am, the board of education will be holding a "coffee with the board" which is an opportunity for discussion with members of the board.

It's very important that people come to these meetings.  They are more-or-less open forum, and it's a good way to make your points and then listen to what other members of the community are saying.  Remember, we are a community, and it's important that we learn as much about how the school system functions, and perhaps more importantly, how people think it functions, if we're going to succeed.

So, clear your morning schedule on Saturday, and be a part of the dialog to set the "agenda" going forward.

Secondly, the district treasurer will be presenting an updated 5 year forecast to the board sometime in the very near future.  We believe that it's past time that this forecast was examined in considerably more detail than it currently is and that we don't just accept the assumptions that create the forecast.  We need to understand those assumptions much better than we do, and we need to challenge the assumptions we believe are wrong.

And thirdly (and lastly for now), just as with the 'Coffee with the Board' it is important that more members of the community attend the board meetings that are held twice a month.  We can't expect the board to make the necessary changes if we show up to vote and then disappear back into the woodwork until the next time.  People in the community need to stand up as leaders and start asking the necessary questions and start examining potential solutions.  The board meetings are the way to do this.

We'll have more as we move forward.  Stay tuned!

Time to Send a Message

So here were are, election eve.  Everything comes down to what happens tomorrow.  If the levy passes, we get to watch the district squander our tax money once again.  Yes, people say it's all for essentials, but the reality is it's all going in the pockets of the district's employees through their salaries and benefits.

And that's the problem.  It's not that district staff don't deserve to be paid, or that their pay shouldn't be above minimum wage.  It's that the rate at which the spending on compensation increases each year is now at a point where the tax base simply cannot support it any more.  It's not just this levy.  It's the ones coming in 2013, and in 2015, and in 2017.

At some point the train comes off the tracks, because it continues to increase speed and not one person steering the train is willing to apply the brakes.  OK, well ONE person -- Paul Lambert -- is willing to try, but none of the others will let him near the brake pedal.

And in the end that's the crux of the issue: we have a bunch of folks running the train that don't understand how it works.  And those people need to be changed.

But that's November's battle.  Right now the focus is on tomorrow.  Right now we must send a clear message to the board of education that enough is enough.  Cut spending -- heck, just cut the rate at which it's growing to start with -- and live within your means.

People in this district have lost their jobs.  Our senior citizens on fixed incomes have seen no Social Security increases since George Bush was the President.  Let that sink in a minute.  Three years and no increase.

They're managing -- so why can't our district also manage?

Why must they continue to ramp up the speed of the train, knowing full well it will derail and that the kids that are still waiting to get on the train -- those yet to start school -- will be the ones paying the price when the train they're left with to get their education is nothing but a mangled wreck.

And it IS about the kids.  Just not in the way that the Hilliard City School District and its board of education would make you think.  It's about our future as a community for the next generation of kids.  At some point, the adults in the community need to step and take a stand, and force those in charge of the train to take their foot off the pedal and bring it under control once again.

That time is now.

Vote NO on Issue 7.

The $6.5m "Cuts"

From the Columbus Dispatch's recent article on the Hilliard Levy:

McVey said the district has cut $6.5million in spending growth since 2008. That includes $4.5 million after a 9.5-mill levy was rejected that year, resulting in the loss of five administrative positions and 34 teaching jobs.

After voters approved a 6.9-mill levy in November 2008, the district continued to trim anticipated expenses, he said.

So, let's see if I have this right.  They've cut $6.5m.  (Something we know is false since spending went up $15.5m.)  But $4.5m of that is cuts implemented when the levy failed initially in 2008.

So only $2m in cuts came AFTER the last levy passed?

But wait, there's more!

Didn't the district reinstate the $4.5m in earlier cuts when the levy passed?  Wasn't that part of the promise made to the voters if they passed the levy?

So, bottom line is this, if you are still wavering on how to vote:  Were they lying then?  Or are they lying now?  Either way, do you trust them with more of your money?