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This is a discussion started before the May 2006 election.
The comments are still relevant:
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I believe we need a third high school in Hilliard --
soon. Whatever arguments we might have with each other about how
overcrowding came to be, it is fact and needs to be fixed if want to keep
our school system great;
May 3:
Issue #2 has passed, and the Hilliard City School District now has the
money to build the third high school. The margin of victory was tiny --
1,110 votes out of 16,610 cast, only 3%.
The members of the Board of Education cannot declare victory with this
number. There is still much work to do!
I very much doubt that everyone who voted in favor of his construction
levy understand that it will soon be followed by an operating levy.
All that has been passed so far is the funding to build the two schools (the
high school and an elementary). The funds needed to actually operate the
schools -- paying the teachers, the cost of utilities, mowing the grass, and
so on, has yet to be placed on the ballot.
To staff both the high school and the elementary school will take, in
rough numbers, 150 teachers and administrators making an average of $40,000
plus 25% in taxes and benefits (very conservative). That's $7.5 million
per year. If there are 15,000 households in the district, salaries alone
are going to cost everyone an addition $500/yr in taxes.
Did you understand this when you voted in favor of this levy?
UPDATE May 22, 2006:
At the Board of Education Meeting, Treasurer Brian Wilson gave his updated
Five
Year Financial Projection to the Board of Education. His presentation
confirms my calculations -- and then some. The projection is that by the
year 2010, the District will have a funding shortfall of $20 million per
year. Of course, Ohio law does not allow this to happen, so the
District will certainly be on the ballot with an additional operating levy
within the next two years. I estimate that this will cost the average
homeowner in our school district an additional $650 to $1300 per year
in property taxes.
When do you think they're going to tell the community about this??
Superintendent Dale McVey's most recent
State of the Schools address was all but silent on this critical issue!
- Building the high school on the Emmelhainz farm is not
necessarily a bad thing. Even though my home is very close to the
Emmelhainz property, I do not believe the high school itself will be a bad
neighbor. It might be fun to walk to ball games, concerts, and plays. If we
choose to sell our home and move, we note that it is not unusual for the
value of homes near a school to increase.
- However, if thousands of acres of land are opened to
development as a result of building the high school on the
Emmelhainz land, it's a big problem. For all of us.
Please read my
comments on Mayor
Schonhardt's recent announcement regarding development around the proposed
new High School. Let us know what you think about this
in the blog.
UPDATE 14 Jul 06:
The Mayor had additional comments in the Hilliard
ThisWeek newspaper concerning the Big Darby Accord.
Here is a copy of his letter in
case you missed it. Just by coincidence, I had a
letter on the subject in the same
issue.
Update 28 Nov 06: In the Nov 16
edition of Hilliard ThisWeek, Development Director David Meeks is quoted
as saying the City of Hilliard has placed an emphasis on commercial
development in the city. Here is
my response.
IT'S ABOUT MONEY. YOUR MONEY. Please read on:
This website has been created to give the folks in the Hilliard School
District a place to learn about fiscal management of the school system. School
funding is a complex subject in Ohio. Nonetheless, it is our responsibility as members of the
community to understand how it works because it is our money which is being
spent.
Once you understand the simple relationship between residential growth and YOUR
taxes (here is how it has affected mine), you'll become as alarmed as I am. The funding crisis in the Pickerington,
Westerville and Southwestern (Grove City) school systems has little to do with
educational costs. This is a source of revenue problem (see what
The Columbus Dispatch recently had to
say about this!).
The root problem in those other communities, and in Hilliard as
well, is that the residential developers seem to be in control of annexation and
zoning policy, and the elected officials who are supposed to
protect us are instead allowing our tax dollars to be used essentially to
subsidize the developers. If our community is an economic wreck after the
developers have finished building thousands of houses, it is of no consequence
to the developers. Seems like our Mayors and City Councils should be concerned, but they don't seem to care either. Why is that?
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