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Our school system and our community are headed for some serious trouble. There are many things about our school system which are exemplary and for which we can be proud. Our children are given the opportunity to learn and excel in the classroom, on the performance stage, and on the field of competition. They are mentored by an exceptional team of skilled and dedicated faculty and staff. Our facilities are attractive, functional and well-maintained. I know little about the art and science of educating children. But I do know something about how to lead and manage an organization built to serve its customers. Whatever the mission and vision of an organization, it needs leadership and resources to pull it off. A key resource is money, and that is certainly the case in our school system. We spend about $162 million per year to operate our school system, and that number is projected to balloon to over $191 million by 2015. The central problem is that our expenses continue to rise while revenue remains essentially flat. The only answer Hilliard School boards have had to that fact for years is to keep putting more levies on the ballot and raising our property taxes. The members of our community can expect to see a new operating levy on the ballot every 2 years. I had a boss who often said "bad news doesn't improve with age." Well, there is some very bad news on the horizon for our community -- when it becomes clear how big the money problem is and how much more we, the homeowners and businesses of the community, are going to need to pay to cover the bill if we allow expenses to continue to rise at recent rates. So this website, started in February 2006, is an attempt to convey this information to all of you in the absence of effective communications from our School Board. You can use the buttons below to find out what I've learned.
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Send mail to
savehilliardschools@msn.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
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