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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. All of that is being put at risk by the actions of the political and administrative leadership in our community. 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 $203 million per year to operate our school system, and that number is projected to balloon to over $230 million by 2012. The central problem is that our income stream is not growing nearly as much as our expenses. The only answer Hilliard School boards have had to that fact for years is to keeping 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 2-3 years. Why isn't anyone talking to us about this? I have personally appeared before the Board of Education on numerous occasions asking that the public discussion of this situation begin immediately. I have written letters to two different Board Presidents with this recommendation. I have been a member of two different funding committees in which I suggested that educating the community about school funding should be the most important goal of the school leadership. Little has been done in this regard. Instead, our leadership has put its energy into efforts to convince the Ohio Legislature that it needs to send us more money. Our own Superintendent Dale McVey has served as the Chairman of the Alliance for Adequate School Funding, an organization created to lobby the Legislature in that regard. At its April 23, 2007 meeting, our Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution supporting the new school funding amendment, encouraging "students, faculty, staff and members of the public" to give their support as well. I think this amendment is a bad idea: we'll end up with more taxation and less control. Read more here. A committee was formed nearly two years ago to educate the community about school funding. What have you seen from them? To get the last operating levy passed in 2008, the Board promised to create an independent Audit and Accountability Committee. Are they truly taking an independent look at things? 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. We should have been talking about it before the first time the high school construction levy was on the ballot. That levy barely passed, and I fear many people believe that they voted for not only the construction of the high school (and elementary school), but also for the cost of its operation. Those folks are going to feel surprised and betrayed this time around. 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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