Let the Games Begin

Much to my distress I have learned that board members cannot discuss their personal feelings about a particular levy while speaking as a board member. So when you see that I’m not telling you my feelings one way or another on this blog, it’s because of the title above. Kellie Patterson “Board Member” has sealed the deal. Someone suggested I start another blog and call it Kellie Patterson “Citizen”. Strangely enough I could then legally let it fly! I wonder if a lawyer was involved in writing that law? I doubt there are many people who don’t know how I feel about levies anyway. If you don’t- I hate them. That’s not to say I don’t vote yes on tax levies. I voted for the zoo and the metro parks. I used to regularly vote for school levies as well. But don’t ask me how I feel about the districts’ upcoming 4.75 mill renewal levy. I can’t tell you.

You can Molly Benedum or Barry Ganslein though. The links to the right will take you to their blogs, as well as a few other links you might find interesting. You might have noticed a name I haven’t talked about before. Barry Ganslein. He’s a dad here in Cuyahoga Falls who has decided to run this fall for one of the school board seats. Two positions will be up for grabs. I’d like to see Cuyahoga Falls have a balanced representation on the board. A village of 2000 people should not be the majority making the decisions for a population of 24,000. And please don’t start screaming at me that I’m anti-Silver Lake. Some of my best friends are village people. But even they see the unbalance on the board. The “well to do and reasonably well to do” cannot possibly understand, let alone make tax dollar decisions for the “scraping by and the barely scraping by”.

Molly and Barry live like the majority of people in Cuyahoga Falls do. And some in Silver Lake as well. I received and E-mail from a friend in Silver Lake. It said she talked to a fellow board member of mine about her concerns about tax levies and the fact she could no longer afford to fund the schools. The response was “I feel your pain”. My friend then went on to say that “I guess she felt my pain so much that she wrote a glowing letter to the Falls News endorsing it and voted yes to put it on the ballot”. This is what I’m talking about when I say a majority of the tax payers interests are not being considered on the current board. “I feel your pain” does not address the problem many of us face when the tax man shows up in February and August. I wonder if she feels the pain of my neighbor who lost his home of 53 years to Summit County.

I want everyone to know that I don’t want you to vote for Barry or Molly because I said so. I want you to do some home work (10 minutes a night!) read what they have to say, go to candidate forums, and most importantly, pay attention to how your money is being spent! Molly has the finances nailed down and Barry has a level of common sense and fairness that is rarely seen in people. If you think I like them because they think like me, you are sadly mistaken. In the various meetings and conversations we’ve had I have to say the only common thread is we want what’s best for kids and we want it equitably and ACAP. That’s my acronym for “as cheap as possible”. I figure I have to deal with all the education acronyms I might as well have one of my own. I know it’s only February but I want people to get to know the people behind the signs you see in yards.

I’ve learned one very important lesson in my last fourteen on the board. A majority makes all the decisions. All this district needs is a majority that is representative of the community they serve and has taxpayers best interests at heart.