Kellie PattersonCuyahoga Falls School Board Candidate

New Blog

2010-03-03T19:08:00.002-05:00

I have a new blog site and a new blog is up. Click here to redirect to www.KelliePatterson.com

Trials and Tribulations

2009-11-20T22:43:00.003-05:00

I know a lot of you have been waiting for me to post. I’ve had a lot going on ;) and haven’t had much spare time. I know you’ve read the papers and are scanning ahead already trying to see what I have to say about it. Well sorry to disappoint...

I’m not blogging about that. But I do want to talk about another hot topic going on in our district. The uniform/dress code committee. Many people and students have been waiting to hear what the verdict is. I was happy to get an E-mail from the committee chair about a week ago saying that the committee was going to make its recommendation to the board at its December meeting. I thought that would be nice that a committee I volunteered for would wrap up at my last board meeting.

I had suggested looking into this a few years ago so I was pretty excited to see another member show interest. There was some early disappointment when many community members were excluded from the committee, but in the long run I thought we ended up with a nice group. But as with most committees each meeting saw one or two fewer people attend.

I did my homework and submitted it to the committee. Basically what it came down to was this; Uniforms and/or uniform like dress codes had no lasting effect on academic performance, attendance rates, or behavioral issues. I made packets of information available for each member of the committee. Some of the studies cited dated to the 90’s. Some.

So what was to be the last committee meeting was had last week. Imagine my surprise when what I thought would be a meeting to draft a final presentation, became a discussion of maybe we didn’t do enough. WHAT? The high school, one middle school and one elementary took a dress code violation survey near the beginning of the year, the superintendent informed us that there has been one “serious” dress code violation in all the elementary schools in the last six years, the middle and high school tallied less than ½ percent of students cited for violations, and the committee came to what seemed uniform consensus (pardon the pun) that inappropriate dress really isn’t a problem here. Not to mention the two sets of clothes thing. I could blog forever about that.

Now we must back up and take a closer look. One member commented that some of the uniform data regarding academics, attendance and behavior dated from the 90’s and implied that things could be different now. I suppose they could have sprinkled some magic academic dust on the uniforms of today to make kids more apt to learn if they wear them. And maybe the uniforms of today are made of a higher standard of cloth that makes kids want to come to school just so they can wear the uniform. Do I hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow playing in the background?

This is why I hate committees. If there was some information out there contrary to what was found that made a profound difference somewhere, why wasn’t it already presented and so convincing that the committee was swayed?

My last talking point on uniforms is this- Why on Gods green earth would you make 5000 kids buy khakis and polos when inappropriate dress is a non-issue in our district and no lasting benefit has been proven? And the real kicker- We are a public school district so apparently you can opt your child out of wearing the uniform anyway.

PS: This blog will soon be moving to www.KelliePatterson.com

The Fat Lady Sings

2009-11-04T07:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all my supporters and especially those that helped me drop literature this year. It's been a rollercoaster 4 years and it is bittersweet that it has come to an end.

Best wishes to Dale Petty and the school district on keeping that "Excellent" rating!

2009-09-06T10:58:00.003-04:00

Wow. The superintendent and treasurer will not be getting raises this year. The board president’s quote on The Falls News Press.com- “Knowing that many in the community are losing jobs or losing hours, taking pay cuts or furloughs...”- is a culmination of what I’ve been saying for the last four years. In fact I’ve never heard anyone on the board speak of furloughs until I mentioned how difficult a week long furlough had been on my family. I’ve been saying these things for four years but funny how an election year will bring people around.

Most regular people have been facing layoffs, mandatory furloughs, losing jobs and hours for the last few years. How politically savvy of the board to notice now. Two years ago, raises were announced shortly after the election. See THIS POST for a walk down memory lane. Last year raises were approved a month before the board suddenly realized drastic cuts needed to be made. Goodbye gifted, goodbye welding, goodbye field trips, goodbye professional development. Timing is everything.

So for once I was in the majority on the issue of raises. I’m still in shock.

The uniform committee had its first meeting last week. It was an interesting couple of hours. We listed some common held beliefs regarding uniforms. For example: Uniforms level the playing field for the economically disadvantaged. This was listed as a fact. But is it? I thought we would take the approach of gathering data and using it to decide if a uniform is advantageous to the district. Kind of a- Do the pros outweigh the cons? kind of thing. I seemed to be the only person questioning whether there was any basis to these types of statements.

Another “fact” that was listed: Less hassle in the morning. I don’t have any hassle now. If a kid is causing clothing hassle in the morning, I feel it’s more of a parenting issue than a uniform one. In fact a uniform policy would actually cause me hassle in the morning. I currently do not have to iron jeans and T-shirts. In fact I am breaking out in a sweat at the thought of daily ironing.

We are getting together again the 23rd of September at 7 PM in the board offices. The public is welcome.

Lastly, there is an article I would like you to check out and give me some feedback on.

Ohio School Sports Costly Even With Student Fees

I have always said when cuts are needed we should sacrifice the athletics first. I am frequently told sports are necessary and cost very little. Hmmmm...

Vacation is Over

2009-08-23T02:29:00.003-04:00

I guess when my E-mail gets this full of requests to blog, I’d better blog. I’ve been on hiatus for many reasons I won’t bore you with. But I am going to make a concerted effort to blog at least once weekly.

A quick note about the superintendent and treasurer’s evaluations... The Falls News Press was a little off. I gave the evaluations directly to the employees. It was not a different evaluation from the rest of the board. It was the same form. Why did I give them separately from the board? Because the last two years of evaluations have turned into a fiasco. Two years ago, Barb Gunter gave the lowest scores possible (all “1”s) and infuriated fellow board members. In turn the board majority chose to break protocol and give the individual evaluations rather than a compiled form. This action caused distrust, embarrassment and community outrage. Last year it was agreed that a compiled score would be given but Barb Gunter, as board president, decreed that she was changing the rules and releasing individual scores. This caused another member to go ballistic. And sorry to disappoint my detractors, it wasn’t me.

This year it was known from the start that individual scores would be given. I saw no reason to revisit the controversy of the last two years. If the individual scores are given, why do they need to be averaged for a man with a PhD and a district treasurer? The simple answer is, they don’t. In fact, I would say it’s safe to say that they probably look at individual scores along with member comments, and ignore the average score entirely. The board agreed to give individual evaluation scores, and I gave mine. Perhaps they’re just ticked they didn’t get to preview it first.
Next on the agenda...The renewal levy. I’ve had quite a few people ask me to explain my statement comparing the school district to a drug addict. Actually I compared supporting the renewal levy to supporting a drug addict. You see, years ago one of my best friends became a drug addict. So I have experience with the processes people and families go through. The biggest mistake people make when a drug addict is in their lives is bailing the addict out of tough situations they’ve got themselves into and supporting the addict through thick and thin.

When there is no incentive to change, bad habits continue or get worse. Why stop using drugs when mom will pay your mortgage, dad will make your car payment because he’s the co-signer, your sister will buy groceries because she can’t stand to see the kids go without, your friends will give you gas money so the kids will get to school.

With me so far? So, in the case of the school district, the taxpayers are the friends and family support. Taxpayers don’t necessarily like how their money is spent, and are having a hard time paying their own bills, but they aren’t willing to let the children suffer.

In the case of the drug addict, the monetary support had to stop before she was willing to make changes in her lifestyle. And yes, she had to watch her children suffer before she took steps to change. The same can be said of the school district.

There is never any forward thinking. I have numerous times voted against pay raises, increased benefits, and expensive projects in an attempt to avoid new levy requests. Yes, I know this is a renewal but supporting bad spending is supporting bad spending. Giving 3 years of guaranteed raises to administrators, rather than reviewing yearly what the budget can handle is one example of what I’m talking about. We all know how volatile a school budget is. It’s no secret how often the State giveth and the State taketh away. By supporting a levy, you are supporting this type of thinking. Lock in raises regardless of what our financial status may be in the future.

Meanwhile the rest of the working world is taking pay cuts or layoffs, or the new craze- unpaid furloughs.

Part Two

2009-05-08T17:19:00.003-04:00

...Continued from yesterday

While the sub-committee of the sub-committee of the Plan for Excellence committee was busy looking into district configurations, the rabble-rousers were looking into school district business as well. And eureka! A discovery was made. The problem wasn’t the evil troll misappropriating district funds. It was the holiest of all objects in the districts possession. Silver Lake Elementary. It seems that the school district I trust my children to, lied to me. Actually they lied to all of Cuyahoga Falls. To justify building closures, the district presented a cost benefit type report to the people. In fact to a packed auditorium. They showed us building enrollment numbers. You can’t argue with cold, hard numbers.

Problem is, when the school district reported those same enrollment numbers to the state of Ohio for funding purposes, they weren’t the same numbers. Want to guess where the anomalies were? Save your breath, I’ll tell you. Newberry, Sill, and Silver Lake. I am going forward from here assuming that the enrollment numbers reported to the state are the accurate enrollment numbers. That means that the community presentation was not accurate. I had to ask myself why the school district would lead Cuyahoga Falls to believe that Newberry had fewer students than it actually did and Silver Lake had more.

So the rabble-rousers dug deeper. Administrators said the extra money spent at Silver Lake was because salaries were so much higher there. The rabble-rousers had two arguments for this response. Number one that would mean it had most if not all highly qualified experienced teachers. Not true and shame on them if it were. Number two- according to the Ohio Department of Education the real reason for spending disparities most years was in supplies and materials. You know-stuff. Not salaries, not benefits, not maintenance. Stuff. But they will tell you that any of the cool stuff in that building, is courtesy of the PTO. No I did not have a typo. I said PTO. You see if they were a part of the PTA, like the rest of Cuyahoga Falls City Schools, they would have to share stuff.

Anyway, the Ohio Department of Education numbers don’t lie. Money was being spent on supplies and materials. They are also high cost in the purchased services department. For all normal people out there, think utilities. For some reason government cannot call things what they actually are. All accountants, please shut up. You are a very small portion of the population.

Rabble-rousers started getting a little public about this apparent protection that was going on. The school district wasn’t making decisions with responsible financial impact. It was implementing “recovery plans” and “curtailment plans” and proposing levies. It was closing schools in Cuyahoga Falls and telling me my kids were resilient and could handle a change fine. They don’t even know my kids.

OK Sherman, one more time in the Wayback Machine, except this time we’re only going back to February 20, 2007.

The sub-committee of the sub-committee of the Plan for Excellence committee has come to a board meeting to make their recommendations. Drum roll please....

“Reaffirm and celebrate the district’s commitment to its neighborhood schools in the existing configuration ofK-5, 6-8, and 9-12.”

Wow. What a let down. Two years of work so we can do nothing. Typical. Just like the bus committee. Oh, you didn’t know we had a bus committee? That’s because they did nothing either. See that’s how we work in this district.

Run out of money, get the community riled, form a committee, have committee decide that nothing should change, ask for a levy.

Repeat cycle for 40 years. BTW- Got the levy renewal schedule from the treasurer today. Good timing.

Déjà vu

2009-05-07T11:05:00.004-04:00

It looks as if the district boundary lines will stay the same. For now. Everyone seems to be happy about it.

What is that old saying? Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it?

We have been down this path before. We have a problem, form a committee, and do nothing.

The bus committee touted the other night is a perfect example. Last year the board president put together a committee to study bussing. They pulled employees from their regular duties for hours on end to study and supposedly revamp district bussing. Make it more efficient, you know. In the end, they did nothing.

But we have also traveled this same redistricting road too. So today, I dug through the garage and found the Wayback Machine. Mr. Peabody is on his way over.

To understand what is going on, you need to understand the dynamics of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District. We used to be teeming with children. The neighborhood school I attended was K-6 with 4 classrooms per grade. That same school today is K-5, 3 classrooms per grade and encompasses 2 additional school building districts. That’s a huge decrease in enrollment over 25 years.

Ah, Mr. Peabody has arrived. Let’s go. We’ll set the dials for 1982.

I was mere babe. I heard some talk of lower enrollment than in years past and the next thing you knew, three Cuyahoga Falls schools were closed. My dad said kids were consolidated. I felt like a product. Little did I know it then, but I was. And just like in private industry, the cost of the product had to be kept down. But for different reasons. Dad said the same thing was happening at GM. They might close his plant and consolidate too. Times were gettin’ tough.

Shortly after this, Stow faced a similar crisis. But they had some forward thinking people on their school board. They knew that this declining enrollment thing wasn’t a fad. It was a steady measurable thing. So they tore down buildings, built some new buildings, and reconfigured their entire district. They set up grade leveled buildings. They rightly assumed that as enrollment fluctuated across the city, it could be easily adjusted for by adding or eliminating classrooms per grade level. Since then Stow has seen a boom in new housing. But I haven’t seen any major school realignments in Stow.

In fact if you notice the two districts that seem to be constantly moving students, realigning boundaries and closing buildings are two of the three that are still in neighbor school configurations in Summit County. Akron and Cuyahoga Falls. Barberton is the other. The rest of Summit County school districts are grade level configured, or a close hybrid. Coincidently, they are also the three out of five districts in Summit County that are in the “needs improvement” status academically.

4 years ago we were told that there was a financial crisis. The students of Newberry and Sill paid the price. There are some that will tell you that everyone paid a price, but I’m here to tell you that no one suffered like the kids that went to these schools did. It was a smack in the face to everyone that paid taxes in this neighborhood; I mean once again we were being asked to close our school. But the emotional toll on the kids’ that were fed the “love your school” propaganda for years was immeasurable. These were their schools, their teachers, their principal.

That’s why I find this quote in today’s Akron Beacon Journal so insulting. “Board Vice President Therese Dunphy acknowledged that Falls residents have an affection for their neighborhood schools. ''There's a sense of community with the building they're in,'' she said.” Really? This from a woman that has had 3 years to offer a solution to the spending and class size disparities and has offered nothing but lip service.

9 months ago the administration indicated a need to make cuts and make drastic changes due to the possible mandate of all day kindergarten. They asked the board to decide what was important, what should be looked at to cut, to save, basically what were our priorities and focus. I offered my idea. No one else did.

Then they asked the same of the community a month later. 5 forums were held and suggestions were offered. The administration took what they had to work with and presented the findings. Now the board, that sat back and did nothing, wants to do something. They don’t like what was offered from the people they pay to do this work. Now they want to form a committee. I’m disgusted.

Why? Because we just had this proposed redistricting committee.

Get back in the Wayback Machine, Sherman. Set the dial for 2004. Remember the 2nd set of building closings I mentioned above? Well it started here in 2004. We are all tip toeing through the daisies until one day we are told an evil troll has destroyed our finances. It is dire. Much will have to be sacrificed to the Holy document known as “The Five-Year Forecast”. And of course, the district will form a committee. It shall be called- “The Plan for Excellence Committee”. Of course there are always those that can’t conform to the status quo. They are commonly called rabble-rousers by administrators. The rabble-rousers formed their own committee and did some home work.

This is getting long, so I’ll leave you with this ‘til tomorrow. While the rabble-rousers were toiling over our cauldrons, the school district was busy forming committees, sub-committees and focus groups. All of which I’ve come to despise but I accept them as it is all these people know. One of the sub-committees formed was the reconfiguration committee. Oddly enough it was co-chaired by two Silver Lake residents. The rabble-rousers raised a fuss and the district reluctantly allowed one Cuyahoga Falls resident to join. I couldn’t wait to see what he outcome of redistricting would be....

Tomorrow... The Recommendations from the Reconfiguration Committee.

Meeting Announced

2009-04-30T13:09:00.002-04:00

The treasurer has called for a Special Meeting of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District, Board of Education.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 5:30 PM in the board offices located at 431 Stow St. (To the left of the band doors at the high school). 2nd floor.

Surprise! Not.

2009-04-30T01:18:00.003-04:00

Don’t you just love surprises? I told you a couple of weeks ago that I heard mumblings of redistricting. But to be honest, since the current district policy had come through the policy review committee with no changes, other than ones I made correcting some minor inconsistencies in the stated, current boundaries, I wasn’t immediately concerned. Then I received the board meeting agenda with attachments last Wednesday.

I’m sure I was as shocked as the people that received letters this Saturday informing them that they may have a new school next year. I almost choked on my cappuccino when I read the letter that was mailed. Listen to the reasons given for this move:

• Overcrowding enrollment at Price and DeWitt Elementary Schools.
• Under enrollment and under utilization of building and staff at Preston and Silver Lake Elementary Schools.
• The need to create a more equitable distribution of class sizes district-wide.
• The need to create available classroom space for the expansion to all day kindergarten in anticipation of the state mandate. All-day kindergarten could begin in the 2010-2011 school year.

Sound familiar? It should because it’s the same points I made in my reconfiguration proposal. Except for the all day K piece. I mean I put all day K in it, but I didn’t know about the state mandate at the time, that was just forward thinking on my part.

I continued to read the letter with the taste of irony on my lips. After all, I’ve been asking for a “comprehensive reconfiguration” since the district closed Newberry and Sill. I remember the promises made. Although many may not remember this one, I do. Three years ago, I was told that the Plan for Excellence committee studied this and decided it wasn’t needed. Two years ago, I was told the same thing. A year ago I was just ignored.

Then about 8 months ago, the board was told that things were lookin’ bad. Real bad. Bad, bad , Leroy Brown bad. We need to pass renewals and get a new levy passed. The members were asked for ideas to save money, retain current programming, and balance the books. I worked for months on my ideas. My friends and family thought I was crazy to care so much. I probably was. But I was brought up to believe that if you’re going to do something, do it right.

I put my presentation on the November agenda. One member was absent and the board president walked out shortly after I started. In other words, interest was low. But I pressed on knowing that it wasn’t necessarily a perfect plan, or an all around likeable plan, but at least it created equity, financial impact, and most importantly- academic benefit. Oh- and don’t forget- all day kindergarten. Yes it affects everyone, yes it’s totally different from the configuration we have now, and OMG yes it utilizes the Newberry building. There, that’s all out of the way.

The inequities in class size, per pupil spending in addition to socioeconomic and academic disparities across our district are shameful. But rather than make some tough lasting decisions, the people of Cuyahoga Falls are once again being asked to sacrifice their children and schools so that certain areas can maintain their status quo. Another knee jerk reaction to appease particular segments of the district. This has nothing to do with all day kindergarten. First of all this is still a State of Ohio pipe dream and second, in the current economy the legislature is going to have a hard time mandating further costs on cash strapped school districts.

So will we have to shift the children of Cuyahoga Falls in 4 or 5 more years as enrollment continues to decline? Or are we willing to make some tough moves now that will be lasting? Make no mistake; these constant, unexpected upheavals of children are detrimental to performance scores, community support and participation, and most importantly a child’s psyche.

I wanted to have a public forum on this issue. Ohio Revised Code says that either the Treasurer, the board president, or two board members may call a special meeting of the board. I tried today to get another member to agree with me to call a special meeting of the board. They were not interested. They wanted to meet first with the Superintendent and see if they could get him to make some changes to the boundary changes. Hmmmm... Looks like some other neighborhoods better watch out. And why are they presenting ideas now? Wasn’t this supposed to be done months ago?

Apparently they want input, and I assume if they get their way, yours will be unimportant. I will try again tomorrow to convince another member to call a special meeting. Hopefully someone will come to their senses. The lack of providing a venue for public participation is appalling.

Oh and remember the needing renewal and new levy part? No worries. I was told that someone looked into this and the affected neighborhoods generally vote no on levies anyway. Whew! We wouldn’t want to mess with neighborhoods that have money!

Did Someone Say Transparent(cy)?

2009-04-03T00:51:00.002-04:00

Today was a very interesting day.

There was a policy committee meeting today. These are open to the public, if you are ever so desperate for company that you want to join us. The district boundary policy was in the set to review. I mentioned a couple of discrepancies that I had noticed and was informed that the boundaries may change soon so it’s probably no biggie. Yeah, it's because of all day kindergarten. The district needs to make room for the kids and the only possible way in the whole wide world to do it is to redraw the district lines.

And suddenly the splitting up of children at the middle school level concerns people. It seems that Price and Lincoln students divide and some attend Roberts and some attend Bolich. Gee someone should have thought of the bad boundaries and division of schools 4 years ago. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.

I’ll bet you a pack of crackers that the new boundaries involve moving CF students into Silver Lake Elementary. And I’ll put up some cheese for those crackers that it will cost us. I know one thing. There is no way they would do this because the significant cost of the building is embarrassing and it doesn't currently have the enrollment to support itself.

Dollars and Sense

2009-03-22T00:45:00.009-04:00

Since the Falls News Press is not interested in publishing data, but would rather publish dueling letters, I have taken the liberty to answer through my blog, some letters from the last few weeks’ issues. When you are done reading take a few minutes to watch my very first YouTube video. This is the first of what I hope will become a regular thing. I have been looking for a way to simplify the confusing world of education funding and the mountains of paperwork that go with it. I hope you enjoy it!

From the Falls News Press of March 22, 2009, my comments in red:

Criticizes School Board Member for Exit

I don’t even know where to start with this one. The letter writer is upset that I didn’t excuse myself or ask for a recess to use the restroom. “she could have at least asked for a recess” He should have asked me why I didn’t ask when I returned from the restroom. In the past, I did ask for a recess and it was denied. Then another member spoke up and the board president graciously allowed 5 minutes. Do you really think I’m going to put up with that? Since my requests are ignored or denied, I will leave if necessary. Which has been twice in 3 ½ years.

“She was a big supporter of the survey that the board sent out…But on this night she seemed to care less what we had to say.” The survey and community input are important to me. But the letter writer wasn’t really there to do that. He wanted to insult and criticize me as he had at previous meetings. Can’t say I’m sorry I missed it. The other speaker that night knows that I oppose gas and oil drilling at Newberry/Bolich as much as she does and will oppose it alongside her.

I do not owe him an explanation as to my restroom visits. Nor do I owe one to the board. The last time I checked, I was a big girl now and don’t need a hall pass or permission to go. As for showing respect to him, well that’s a two way street. It’s nice that all of Cuyahoga Falls now knows that I took a potty break.

I also take note that he doesn’t mention at all if he is upset that open enrollment is so costly and that gifted programming is on the chopping block in lieu of open enrollment.

From the Falls News Press of March 15, 2009, my comments in red:

Asks if Silver Lake school is 'untouchable'

“but I'll ask the question: Is Silver Lake Elementary School untouchable and is any question of its future existence dead on arrival based on the current makeup of the School Board?” Yes and yes.

“can we afford any "sacred cows?"” No. “It's understood that students transferring from other districts bring a certain amount of state funding with them. Does that influx of money offset the savings that could possibly be gained in limiting enrollment to residents of the district and scaling back the number of school buildings, with their related expenses?” No. The so called “revenue” gained from inter-district open enrollment is $1,593,373. The cost of these children is $2,538,762. “Is it not inevitable that we will be closing additional school buildings sooner rather than later?” Unfortunately it’s not inevitable. What I think you meant to say is wouldn’t it be prudent to close additional school buildings sooner rather than later. And yes, it would be. “Isn't now the time to make the hard decisions and garner the savings they could generate rather than asking an already reeling electorate to pass additional levies, which is doubtful, or cutting the services offered to our children?” Yes it would be. But that would require cutting loose the sacred cow you mention above.

From the Falls News Press of March 8, 2009, my comments in red:

Disputes School Board member's claims

“Do your homework and learn your lesson before misleading parents and property owners.” Note to self: Forward your homework to letter writer. Apparently she is only checking the homework from Silver Lake. I wonder if she picked up the gold star stickers…

In a Feb. 15 letter, ("Defends reconfiguration proposal," Page 9) the writer (me!) said that 118 children attending Silver Lake Elementary are "from other cities outside our district." I believe that statement is false. Ooops. My bad. I should have said that 118 children attending Silver Lake do not belong in Silver Lake Elementary and cost us bunches of money.

“… and have made the choice to attend this school through intra-district open enrollment. (Thanks Curt Grimes for demonstrating that other Board members do understand enrollment terminology.)” I also have problems deciphering left from right and figuring out what acronyms stand for. You have discovered my flaw. I can’t keep inter-district and intra-district open enrollment terms straight. Luckily I’m really good with math.

“Open enrollment actually brings in significant dollars from a source other than my property tax bill and I appreciate that.” They also cost a significant portion of your tax bill. Open enrollment “revenue” is $1,593,373. But the cost of educating the very same inter district open enrolled children is $2,538,762. Do you appreciate that? Still feel like thanking “the four Board members who I believe are putting all of our children first.”

“I'm fed up of proposals to close Silver Lake, Price and Preston elementary schools. I'm tired of reading letters designed to pit one neighborhood or side of town against another.” “Proposals”? Is there another board member that did his or her homework and made a proposal I’m unaware of? My proposal made efficient use of our space AND retains current academic programming. My proposal brings the district together as one CFCSD. Not the current “my side of town” attitude.

“Two members of its (Silver Lake PTA) executive board are intra-district open enrollment parents who were warmly welcomed to this school as I'm sure all open enrollment families are in other schools.” I never implied that under the current structure, PTA groups were shutting people out. Where does this come from? When almost half of your schools population is comprised of open enrollment, it would stand to reason that your PTA would reflect the same percentages. Is 25% of the “executive board” from Akron? “District parents, whether through PTOs or PTAs, volunteer their time and energy to help support the education of district children.” I realize this as well. The thing is, I don’t want to support them with my tax dollars.

“My thanks to Barb Gunter, Curt Grimes, Dave Rump, and Therese Dunphy -- the four Board members who I believe are putting all of our children first.” They have put your children first. There is no doubt about that. On the other hand, my “neighborhood” school has been put last for over 20 years. Thanks.

“The letter writer”

“Cuyahoga Falls”, River Estates. Where they call Silver Lake Elementary their neighborhood school. The school they’d like to keep regardless of the cost to the taxpayers of Cuyahoga Falls. At least this lady didn’t lie about where she lives.

End of letter comments.

Enjoy spring break. Scrabble is always a blast in the cold spring break weather.

The Truth Hurts

2009-03-08T03:38:00.007-04:00

I’ve got a message for the Kellie basher of the week. By that I mean the latest letter in the Falls News Press regarding my facts that some would like to remain under the rug. I have done my homework. More so than many of my comrades. While the powers that be continue to tout the money that inter district open enrollment brings in, they conveniently do not talk about what is SPENT on inter district open enrolled children. Ms. Goodrich should ask the board members that she lauds why they apparently don’t realize there is COST involved in educating these kids.

I will make it as plain as possible.

TOTAL IN FROM OPEN ENROLLMENT: $1,843,415.71

In and used for inter district open enrolled Spec Ed -$250,042.56

Actual amount Inter District Open enrolled children bring in: $1,593,373.15

School, Number of inter district open enrolled pupils, Building cost per pupil cost, Total building cost of inter district students.

Silver Lake- 53 @ $8741 PP = $463,273
Richardson- 14 @ $7278 PP = $101,892
Price- 32 @ $7228 PP = $231,296
Preston- 20 @ $8760 PP = $175,200
Lincoln- 9 @ $6716 PP = $60,444
Dewitt- 25 @ $7193 PP = $179,825
Roberts- MS 19 @ $8336 PP = $158,384
Bolich MS- 35 @ $9085 PP = $317,975
CFHS- 117 @ $7269 PP = $850,473

Total COST of inter district open enrolled children -$2,538,762.00

Actual in from inter district open enrollment: $1,593,373.15

Local tax dollars SPENT on inter district open enrolled children -$945,388.85

Yes, almost a million dollars of your property tax dollars are spent on children “from other cities outside our district”.

The above only deals with inter district open enrollment. Intra district generally cost the taxpayer as well. For example, a child that should be at Lincoln at a cost of $6716, when open enrolled at Silver Lake costs $8741. $2025 more than at his or her home school. The only time an intra district student saves us money is when they leave Silver Lake or Preston for a lower cost per pupil school. But being that Silver Lake boasts the highest inter and intra district open enrollment numbers, just like the above example the 50 intra district open enrollees COST the taxpayer quite a bit due to the abundance in a high COST building.

You may wonder about the special education deduction. $250,042.56 of the inter district money the state provides is for special education services. Services that the same inter district special education children are using and we are paying for. They actually use more than they bring in special ed, but in this case we’ll call it a wash. So just to clarify- the state pays the district this amount because the children use this amount. It is NOT revenue.

Keep in mind that the above inter district open enrolled children brought in $5614.42 each; with some funding adjustments for the special education. Same deal as special ed, sort of. The state pays the district this amount because they use this amount. But… as you see above they use more than this amount. In most cases an inter district open enrolled child brings in far less than it COSTS to educate them in any of our schools.

Who is trying to mislead property owners and parents? I am trying to educate them. There are ways to save money, operate efficiently and retain current programming. I want the taxpayers to be armed with knowledge when heading to the polls. I’m not trying to “pit one neighborhood or side of town against the other”.

I’m trying to show people how our money is SPENT.

Lastly, I’ve emphasized COST and SPENT because I felt they sorely needed pointed out. So I wonder if I have convinced the letter writer that I have indeed done my homework. I've done it so well that I'm hoping I get a gold star.

En Garde

2009-02-23T09:34:00.001-05:00

Interesting letter in the Falls News this week. I guess the attempts to deceive the public will never cease. What he forgot to tell you is that while some open enrollment at Silver Lake are Cuyahoga Falls children, they still cost more to educate in Silver Lake than at their home school. To make it simple for those of you that are confused- if you belong at Lincoln you would cost us $3000 less to educate you than it does at Silver Lake. No matter how you try to shake it down, 47% of Silver Lake elementary is open enrolled and it costs the people of Cuyahoga Falls more than it needs to. Way more.

He also forgot to tell you that the morning kindergarten is just as small as the afternoon kindergarten, and please take note that he left Dewitt out of the stats. He also failed to mention that while he was throwing out averages, there are many CF classrooms at 26-28 students and there none close to that large at Silver Lake. The biggy is this- if we would stop accepting open enrollment Silver Lake elementary would have one classroom in grades K-5. And still have the low average class size. That’s 5.5 extra teachers and one expensive building they want us to support.

Why am I making such a big deal about it? Because we are now faced with making cuts and facing levy threats again. When I look at our priorities, I am appalled. I am looking at this letter two days after paying my property taxes to the county and I have to say to myself, am I getting my moneys worth?

I guess the letter writer would have the people of Cuyahoga Falls support the curtailment plan which calls for gifted programming, auto technology, industrial arts, and foreign language cuts, reduce text book purchases, cutting teachers, and eliminating after school activities and field trips, so that the district can afford to keep his neighborhood school open.

I am still waiting for clarification on why my proposal is expensive and unrealistic. I will say this again- A majority of Summit County districts educate children in the same manner as I propose. They do it efficiently and effectively, and they score better on Ohio standards tests. Only Akron, Barberton and Cuyahoga Falls cling to the neighborhood schools concept which is proving to be a dinosaur in the world of education. It has put buildings in each of these districts at risk of parent choice programs. What that means is that if a particular building in a district performs poorly 3 years in a row, the school district must offer the child their choice of a school within a district at district expense. If the poor performance continues the child qualifies for a voucher to attend the private school of his/her choice. This IS where we’re heading ladies and gentlemen.

The district can set goals and form 15 more committees but they will not begin to make progress for this district as a whole until they face the real problem. The academic, socio/economic, and class size disparities will not go away on their own. We cannot achieve the “Excellent” rating doing it like we’ve done since the 1800’s.

Same Threat, Different Day

2009-02-11T23:43:00.002-05:00

I don’t know where to begin on the “Curtailment Plan”. I know a lot of time and effort went into it. The funny thing is it is terribly reminiscent of “Project Recovery” of 4 years ago. In fact, if the district had followed through on “Project Recovery” we may not be in the situation we’re in today. But…

The plan was presented as a tactical levy move. Just as this one is. They might as well call it the “This is How We’re Gonna Stick it to You if You Don’t Pass a Levy Plan.” There is a little bit in it for everyone.

First I’d like you to remember that this board has publicly said that academics are of the utmost importance to it. Yet the cuts are deepest in this area. Eliminate gifted programming in elementary and middle schools, and advanced placement in the high school, eliminate industrial arts programs, reduce textbook purchases, eliminate field trips, auto technology, and one foreign language.

Are sports your thing? Well. We will raise the pay to play fee. This was unaffordable in 2005 but I guess with today’s improved economic conditions this is a viable option. Perhaps go to varsity sports only.

Think that jobs are valuable? We will RIF (read: lay off) some of the positions that we rehired from RIFing them 4 years ago.

After school activities? We will start closing buildings after school like we did 4 years ago until we abandoned that idea too.

Lower the GPA requirement to participate.!!!??? What a novel idea! Too bad somebody didn’t suggest that we not raise it to begin with because of the costs involved.

Eliminate district cell phones. This one makes me laugh. First of all, it can’t be done. Once again stepping backward. Just because we have a costly plan now, doesn’t mean we don’t need cell phones. And really? What is the savings on this one? How about eliminate half of the desk phones that no one answers anyway? Example- does every custodian and janitor need a land line? Walkie talkies and cell phones for key employees are necessary. Do you want Joe Wrestler traveling to Columbus on a bus with no cell? Granted, all the kids will have one despite the rules, but still…

Eliminate overtime except for emergencies, weekend building checks, and athletics. Ummm…. This one leaves me speechless. Where are our priorities?

My favorite- Pursue additional revenue by installing gas-oil wells on Bolich/Newberry property for natural gas for two buildings and royalties. I’ll let you decide who suggested this one. I thought those people were smarter than that. They must have locked in at $15 per MCF.

I must say a little something about this weeks Falls News Press. Particularly this letter to the editor. It seems the author forgot that he actually lives in Silver Lake. Geez, they might spend less on our education over here, but I can read a phone book. Apparently he knows better than the Falls News on the subject of what should or should not be in their paper. I guess he thinks falsehoods should be in the paper and facts on where our money is spent shouldn’t be.

I implore you to check out the “Curtailment Plan” as well as my proposal. There are many reasons we need to rethink how we spend our tax dollars. I wont settle for academic blackmail when I know we have the ability keep and enhance academics and programming while operating an efficient district.

Baffle Me With Bureaucrat

2009-01-27T11:43:00.008-05:00

Well the curtailment plan has been unveiled. But first I want to talk about the open enrollment report that was distributed. It seems the administration wants to convince us that open enrollment is a good thing.

An airplane analogy was used. Here’s how it goes: An airplane has 100 seats filled at $600 a pop, and is readying for take off. At the last minute, they sell 20 more seats at $300 each. The rationale is that the flight attendants, pilots, air traffic control, etc are all there and being paid anyway (fixed costs) therefore is there really any harm in selling the last minute seats at a lower cost? It’s going to fly regardless. The answer is no, if you only have one plane.

But generally companies have a fleet. Let’s say they have 6 jumbo jets, 2 Cessna’s and 1 stealth bomber. Each of these planes has been flying for 30 years with 20% of their last minute tickets selling for ½ price. A stewardess does some math and realizes that by filling each plane with full price customers, one whole plane could be grounded. Eliminating 1/9 of the fixed costs (fuel, pilot stewards and stewardesses, baggage handlers, etc.). The stewardess does a cost benefit analysis on sending the grounded plane full of ½ price seats and realizes it would be foolish to do so. She also notes that there is ½ of one plane still unsold. Profit wise it is now best to sell those seats at ½ price. But what about the customers that paid full price? Maybe the airline could reconfigure the seating and give all the full price payers a little more room each and eliminate ½ price tickets. She then recommended that the airline sell the grounded plane to the airport it is located at for use as a community center. Not everyone can afford the dues at the Frequent Flyer Club, so the airport may be interested in the community center plane. The stakeholders marveled at the genius of this stewardess. Stock in the airline reached an all time high and the economy was saved.

For those of you that are confused, Planes are buildings, full price payers are CFCSD children, ½ price tickets are open enrollees, Fixed costs are teachers, support staff, utilities…
And yes the grounded plane is a closed building. No, this wont really help the US economy. But it might help us avoid state takeover.

Here is what nobody wants me to say out loud. IF we would stop accepting open enrollment, Silver Lake Elementary could not sustain itself. It would be reduced to 1 classroom per grade. What’s more is each of these class rooms would easily fit into Lincoln elementary. No matter how you try to baffle with your complicated forms and misleading math, it comes down to the fact that open enrollment costs the tax payers of Cuyahoga Falls. Or to word it another way, not accepting open enrollment would save the tax payers a substantial amount of money.

Let me show you another way it costs us. According to the complicated State form provided to me, an open enrolled child brings $5,614 with them. Last year we spent anywhere from $6,716 to $9,085 per pupil to educate that same child. That difference is our local dollars being spent on kids from other cities. Another thing eliminating open enrollment would do is reduce class size in many buildings. This is the beginning of a very public campaign for equity for CF children and fiscal responsibility for our taxpayers.

My thoughts on the curtailment plan are in the works…Stay Tuned! Meanwhile, check out the Falls News for thier coverage.

Just the Facts Ma'am

2009-01-13T02:11:00.003-05:00

This weeks issue of the Falls News was a good one. I’m going to start with the letters to the editor. I swore I heard the dueling banjo song in the background as I read them. This was the best one.

Then there was Shame, shame, who’s to blame? That was the title of an administrative presentation in Columbus in 2007, wasn’t it? But who’s to blame for what? The letter writer wants you to focus on buildings closing first and foremost. Keep in mind grade level configuration was something she supported her first two years in office. The academic benefits would make a profound impact on a majority of children in our district. It would also level the playing field between various “neighborhood schools” in class size and spending inequities. This is where the focus should be. It seems the board president is willing to accept a simple “it wont work” rather than look at research based evidence that says it will.

There are several problems with the superintendents “three page report”. First, there is no data to back what the administration is saying. In my opinion this is because the facts that I presented cannot be refuted on paper. Secondly, it is filled with misleading numbers and misinformation, There was NOT a “preference for neighborhood schools” according to the survey the district paid for. In fact 71% thought we either should reconfigure or take a look at reconfiguration. Only 30% thought we should keep doing like we’ve done since the 1800’s.

As for “socialization issues”, well a majority of Summit County school districts are grade-level configured. I wonder how screwed up all those kids are? The ones in Hudson seem out of control with all their drop outs and low test scores. Oddly enough the “issues” seem to be in the neighborhood school buildings. There are only three districts in Summit County that have neighborhood schools- Akron, Barberton and Cuyahoga Falls. Those three are in the bottom 6 performers in all of Summit County. In reality Hudson, which is configured almost exactly as I suggested for CF, is number 1 in performance.

I have been told several times that 8-10 busses will be needed. I have shown on paper in black and white (actually in color) that 4 busses are needed using numbers directly from district employees. I’ve asked how they have come up with 8-10 busses. As Ms. Peabody always said, just the answer will not suffice; I need to see your work. Because when this number was originally thrown out there, I was in the room. I happened like this: Um, it looks like we’d need 8 or 10 more busses to bus that many more kids.

As I’ve shown on paper many times, it may look or seem like a lot of things, but research and data frequently show otherwise.

And one outright falsehood is that we "would lose an estimated $2,621,104 in state and local revenue by canceling and closing open enrollment." We would lose no local money by eliminating open enrollment. Open enrolled children do not bring local dollars with them. The truth is, the actual dollar amount CF would lose by eliminating open enrollment is about a half million dollars. On top of that, what he doesn’t want to tell you is this: We spend $212,000 per year of our local dollars on out of district children in one building alone. The state money these kids bring only covers 2/3’s of the cost to educate them. The tax payers of CF support six additional classrooms in this building due to open enrollment. This what the board president should have complained about a lack of coverage on. Why won’t the Falls News report on these atrocities against the taxpayers of Cuyahoga Falls? This district spends less on its own kids than it does on an open enrolled child from Akron. That’s news the community should know.

The last article explains why there is no data to back the assertions that my proposal is “unrealistic”. There is only so much time in the day. While working on this funding plan, the superintendent suggested that the board reuse envelopes to save the district money.

Who is being unrealistic?

Good Reading

2008-12-29T00:05:00.002-05:00

I'm just going to post some good reading between now and the new year.
Let's start with this:

Cleveland Plain Dealer article, December 27, 2008.

Hmmmmm....

2008-12-26T01:24:00.002-05:00

Want to see a sample of what the Beacon Journal is talking about? Click on the link to my proposal in the right hand column and page down to the per pupil spending charts. Not only are the inequities among elementary schools, you see there are many years the Cuyahoga Falls City School District spends less on our high school students than we do on particular affluent elementary schools.

Here is a link to the actual report: The Education Trust

I’d say more but you know my opinions on this subject. Until we have equity, we will not reach excellence as a district. Guess what school district configuration doesn’t have uneven distribution within them? Thank you Beacon Journal for highlighting the problem that has plagued this district for 40 years or more.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Wishes for a Happy New Year!!

Call Off the Witch Hunt

2008-12-19T20:44:00.003-05:00

Wednesday night was something else. About 15 parents showed up to have their say about my presentation. The strange part is I don’t remember them being at my presentation. If they had been, or bothered to Email or call, the first thing they would have learned is this was my idea for what we could do. I’m flattered that they hold me in such high regard to actually think I myself have the power to make all that is in my proposal happen. In fact it pained me to have to tell them that I don’t. So to everyone that told me their kid was lying in bed crying in fear of their school closing, tell them to sleep well tonight. The wicked witch of Cuyahoga Falls holds no magical powers.

Needless to say, a majority of the speaking crowd Wednesday night were from Silver Lake. They mainly wanted to tell me that they love their neighborhood school, their small class sizes and their highly qualified teachers. Was that supposed to surprise me? I’m sure the people of CF would be as thrilled if we had the same. One compared Silver Lake Elementary to Hudson schools. Well I hate to break it to him but Hudson uses a grade level configuration almost identical to what I proposed.

Another parent said she would rather see this money go to hiring teachers. Somebody forgot to tell her that my proposal adds ten teachers. She added that she couldn’t see 800 kids fitting into the Roberts building. Well another news flash, almost that many did in 2005 and that amount and more did in the 70’s and 80’s. My proposal would fit that many kids and cap the class size at 25. That’s a max, not a given. Our current CF enrollment would actually put that building at around 650. Another lady suggested I proposed this because I have a stake in Newberry. Unless God has a big surprise in store for me, I assure you no Kindergarteners from my loins will be attending. So she must have been misinformed as well. So to set the record straight- again- Newberry is bigger than 4 of the buildings we currently use. And we wouldn’t lose the revenue from the lessees. There would be four other CFCSD buildings to choose from as per the lease agreement.

Another parent was concerned with start up costs. What were the start-up costs to move our kids in 2005? Because that’s what were doing- moving kids and furniture. We’re not starting something new. In fact we are doing what we’ve done since the 1800’s. The last concern from a parent I’ll answer is this one: How will I participate in my children’s activities if they are in different buildings? The same way I do now. You do stuff at one building one day, and you do stuff at another building another day. Or you can do stuff at two buildings on the same day if you plan well.

Another astonishing moment was when the union president accused me of saying “things” that she felt were insulting and maligning to teachers. But she never actually said what I supposedly said. So I asked her afterward. I imagine she was quite surprised to learn that those “things” that she attributed to me, were not said by me, but by herself and other district staff. She is the person that told me that the reason per pupil spending is so high in Silver Lake is because they have the most experienced and highly qualified teachers of the district. It was also district administrators that created the “Road Blocks to Excellent” document, not me. So please don’t try to credit me with the bullets listed.

In fact although a lot of rumor and innuendo was thrown around, no one actually attempted to back up what they were saying. No one ever said schools were closing, yet apparently kids were at home crying. Class sizes would be smaller, teachers would be added, and money would be saved. But instead of researching any of the realities of this proposal, people preferred to gossip, lie and spread fear. They took the time to come to the meeting and admonish me but couldn’t find the time to look at the problems facing the district, the inequities we deliver to our Cuyahoga Falls students, or what this proposal actually offered.

At the end of the board meeting I made this statement. I was then admonished for “attacking” fellow board members. I was actually retaliating for the attacks on me. Two weeks ago I was attacked immediately following my presentation and Wednesday night I was attacked for the first 45 minutes of the board meeting, and at various intervals in between. I was also accused of interrupting. Which I did. I can’t allow people to make statements about me that are not true.

I’ll leave you with a few points the Summit County District configuration chart showed me. Most of the grade level configured schools were OK in the eyes of the State of Ohio. None of the neighborhood schools did. In fact the top 10 scorers on the performance index have a grade level configuration similar or identical to what I propose.

A Must See!

2008-12-12T22:35:00.005-05:00

Academic Challenge

Saturday, December 13, 2008

7 PM

WEWS News Channel 5

Starring:

The Cuyahoga Falls Black Tigers!!

You Might Think I'm Crazy- Part Two

2008-12-09T21:11:00.005-05:00

What's Stopping Us?

One definition of insanity is this: doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Sound familiar?

Several people have asked me for a copy of my proposal to the district. For those less computer savvy, you can click on the above link and print it, save it, or just simply view it. You have mastered E-mail therefore I think you can master this task.

Let’s talk a little more about my proposal. I’ve decided it will be easier to explain many of the questions I’ve been asked here rather than to continue repeating the info over and over. I do plan to continue the push for grade level reconfiguration. Regardless of the naysayer’s that have not offered any ideas other than tax increases, I believe this is a viable option for this district.

Some questions have arisen regarding building closures. I left names out of the proposal for a reason. This proposal is about effective delivery of curriculum, and equitable allocation of tax dollars. The buildings utilized in this proposal were selected based on capacity and nothing else. We currently use 9 district buildings. Under my proposal we would use 7.

You will notice that one district building (E) is not used yet has more space than 2 other buildings used. This is for several reasons. Number 1 being that building E has already proven to be the 2nd most inefficient building to operate, (building J is number one in inefficiency), reason two- its condition, unless you don’t mind the tree growing through the foundation into the hallway, and the last reason is when I was preparing this proposal, there were interested buyers. I think the tree might have been a deal breaker.

A few more items need a quick explanation. The documents “Road Blocks to Excellent” and “Wish/Gift list” are not mine. These are documents created by district employees last year. These were items that they saw as either standing in our way (roadblocks) or items that would help (wish list) our district reach an “excellent” district wide. I have highlighted the items on each that Grade Level Reconfiguration would affect. Lastly, all per pupil spending, revenue, enrollment and performance numbers come straight from the Ohio Department of Education. Building statistics, bussing statistics and employee numbers were all provided to me courtesy of the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education offices. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both governmental offices for making this invaluable information available to me, a mere member of the tax paying public.

Now let’s talk about some of the advantages of my proposal. Smaller class sizes district wide. Under this proposal K-2 class size max would be 20 students. Grades 3-8 max would be 25. It’s very simplistic how it works. The district divides CF students evenly into classrooms, and then fills in any open spots with open enrollment if necessary. This plan can do this by hiring 1 additional classroom teacher. The next benefit is extended day kindergarten with the ability to offer before and after school programming. The kindergarten day would be from 9:15 thru 2:15. But we would be employing full time teachers. I suggest that we utilize the extra time by offering some before school programs that start at 8AM and after school programs that end at 3PM. Resulting in a longer K day than we currently have, but not so long that we need nap mats. In addition the before and after school programs will benefit working parents as well as children that need an academic boost. Akron currently offers after school programs that are on the surface fun and games, but are actually core curriculum studies disguised as arts, games, and sports. This part of the proposal requires adding 9 classroom teachers. So how can saving money on top of adding teachers, smaller class sizes and an extended kindergarten day be a bad thing?

To listen to some you would think it is. I read that my proposal is "overly simplistic and unrealistic". I will admit the presentation is simplistic. That was on purpose. I do possess more complicated spread sheets and have the ability to throw in all kinds of educational acronyms if that would please anyone. But I wanted to keep it simple. I wanted it to be a work in progress, a foundation to build on. But most importantly, I wanted it to be understandable to everyone. Because I know it faces an uphill fight. But just as I have provided documentation backing up my assertions, I will expect the same from detractors.

Be wary of comments made with no basis. Such as “several inconsistent figures presented as savings” and “an increased expense to our budget by $2 million to 3 million” with no explanation as to why. Besides the fact I never claimed that there wasn’t cost involved. But the overall monetary savings on top of the academic benefits more than negate the costs involved.

It’s sad that everyone was prepared to tell me it wouldn’t work before it was presented. What’s worse is that no one can tell you why it wont work, just that it wont. People told Abraham Lincoln that giving slave’s freedom wouldn’t work. They told Christopher Columbus he was crazy to think the world wasn’t flat. They are telling me that I’m unrealistic, but at least I have a vision of what we could be if people would step outside the box they’ve lived in for 150 years.

You Might Think I'm Crazy, But Baby It's Untrue

2008-12-04T02:27:00.003-05:00

My Proposal

Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling right now. I put a proposal on the table at tonight’s board meeting. A proposal, that with some input and adjustments, could have saved our district a considerable amount of money over the next two years in addition to putting dollars into a permanent improvement fund. I did not expect it to be met with open arms. In fact I knew it would be picked apart like the carcass at a pig roast. But I figured compared to the other proposals that were offered…

Wait- there are no other proposals at this time. There is a valiant effort to garner community input. In fact tonight (Thursday, 12-4) is the last one. It’s in the high school library if you’re interested. But as far as cost cutting ideas, it appears mine is the only input so far. And not to disparage the good will of the district by asking for input from you, the covert intent is clear. An explanation of how school funding works (I uses that term loosely) in Ohio, followed by and explanation of how we spend money, and then the taxing proposals. Because it never really is the question of question of “do we have to ask you for new money?” The question really is “in what form do you want us to ask you for new money?”

So back to my proposal. I did it Power Point and actually thought I had too much information included. You see, I actually started this with improving academics in mind. I hoped that at some point the board of education would be experienced enough to start taking a serious look at how our district is configured and how it affects our academic outcomes. Financial goals have always been a priority with me, but I could not get a majority of board members to add these goals to the BOE’s official list of board goals until…

The Five-year Forecast showed up on our doorsteps with red on it. Then someone said “we should probably add financial goals to our list”. That kind of thinking has been the problem with school boards everywhere. Spending and financial goals are not a priority until expenditures begin to exceed revenues. Then make cuts and spend light for six months so you can laud to the public how frugal you have been while the levy signs are printed.

So seeing that our finances were finally becoming a priority with this board, I went back to my reconfiguration proposal and saw the economic benefit my original academic improvement plan offered. So I tweaked it. And it was no easy task.

The district bussing department was hard at work for the board president and her bussing committee. A committee that took a lot of time and effort and did a ton of information gathering, printed a document as thick as any good romance novel but in the end, changed absolutely nothing and offered no economic impact. So I scraped up some maps and basic bussing population information and went to work. I soon realized that the best I could do on my own was come up with rough estimates. Estimates that turned out to be fairly accurate though. So I patiently waited for the bus committee that went nowhere to finish up and worked with my estimates. I eventually went back to the bus department employees and gave my assumptions and stipulations and asked for a simulation of bussing with a new grade level reconfiguration with two separate mileage requirements. The first was 1.25 walk limit and the second was a 2 mile. The document they produced for me was more than I could have hoped for. I can’t thank them enough for taking the time to put it together. And now I had exact numbers. I spent weeks on this aspect alone and I know I have produced a document that can back up the numbers I claim in this proposal.

I am focusing on bussing at this point because it was, much to my surprise, seemingly the biggest irritant to the board. I want to make a few more comments on the bussing part of this proposal and I will post the sequel to this saga tomorrow.

Bus drivers were a sticking point. Some were perplexed as to why I would add only two bus divers when four new busses are needed. When asked why, I explained that we currently have some part time drivers. We would make them full time drivers. They are 4 current part time employees that would cost us 50% of four new employees. The member raising the question then informed me that we do not have part time and full time drivers. He stated that what we do have are 3 hour and 6 hour drivers. I don’t know about you, but, even if a 3 hour driver actually makes for a four hour day, it’s still part time in my book. If the member would like, I can rewrite the presentation and call them 3 hr drivers rather than part time drivers.

And to leave you on a somewhat happy note before I go to bed, I want to clue you in on a little more of what my proposal offers before you start hearing how utterly preposterous it is. Smaller class sizes district wide. 10 additional classroom teachers. Extended day kindergarten with the ability to offer before school programming. The ability to sell excess properties gained through reconfiguration and gain significant revenue as an alternative to a levy. All that in addition to a $1, 797,856 savings over two years.

Check back soon for the rest of the story.

In the Spirit of Change

2008-12-02T23:36:00.004-05:00

I know you've missed me. Wondering where I've been? I've been holed up at home, locked in my family room, doing some heavy duty research. Wednesday night I will give a presentation to the board regarding my findings. I have put together a proposal that will save our school district over 2.5 million dollars over the next two years.

Is it perfect? No. After all it was me, myself and I that put this together, and as much as I'd like to say I have all the answers, I don't. But it is definitely a good place to start. I know I haven’t given much notice, but to be honest I wasn’t sure I would have it together in time. But my offer is this:

I will post my Power Point presentation sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Anyone that wants to get together a group of 6-10 people and have a chat about it should Email me at KPforCFSB@aol.com

I do my best work when coffee, cream, and sugar are provided. We can discuss my proposal and make your input a part of it. I am willing to discuss the methodology and madness behind it. This offer extends to everyone, regardless of motive. I know there are plenty of people out there that will want to string me up and flog me for some of the suggestions I am proposing. I am more than willing to sit down with those people and explain the reasons why we need to look at this proposal not only for the financial impact, but the academic benefits. In fact, I feel safe in saying that the academic impact far outweighs the two year monetary savings.
Once again, I apologize for the late notice of the board meeting presentation. Check back soon for the Power Point.

A quick Congratulations! to Mr. Hofer. He is what is known to us old school peeps as the shop teacher. You know, woods, metal..I’m sure it has a much more technical name now. He has been nominated for an award for the work he does with our kids. More on this after he wins it...;0)

And thank goodness it’s almost December 13th. That’s the magical day when the Academic Challenge airs the competition that our awesome Cuyahoga Falls High School students participated in.. I can’t tell you who won ‘til it airs. I think I can brag about how professional our students looked and acted. They and their instructor wore matching shirts, didn’t mumble or stutter, appeared confident and calm. I was so proud to be a Tiger!

Fixing Funding

2008-11-10T19:49:00.002-05:00

Today I attended the Ohio School Boards Association Delegates Assembly. Governor Strickland made an appearance. I was curious what he would say regarding fixing school funding. Remember- he claimed that he would be a failure as Governor if he didn’t fix school funding. Unfortunately it will most likely cost us in one way or another. If we aint paying it in property taxes, we’ll be paying it in some other form. Unless we come up with a new thing to tax. (cough, cough, casino.) But done right. Anyway, back to the governor. He’s for and against all the right things when it comes to public education. Hold charter schools to the same standards, end unfunded mandates, and increasing the state share of district money. Everyone clapped at that one apparently unaware that the money still comes from the same pockets in the end. Yours, mine and theirs.

But I guess as a board member, it means a little more money for the district. Or does it? This amount will not even offset the amount lost as tangible personal property tax is phased out of district revenues. But I have to give the Governor credit. At least he realizes it is a serious problem. And more to his credit he is willing to give the people a voice in it. More forums from the Governors education series will be held in the next couple months. This time they are funding sessions.

Let’s hope that some Ohio’s best and brightest show up with solutions that will work. I think we have a Governor that is willing to listen to the people and a legislature that will back him up.

I didn’t support Governor Strickland but after having listened to several speeches and forums hosted by him, he seems like a man committed to funding schools fairly and adequately. His emphasis on the importance of public education in Ohio seems genuine. His desire to fix the funding problems in Ohio was reiterated today. He doesn’t have long to prove it. But after listening to him today, I think he just might be able to do it.

Would You Like That On Ice?

2008-11-02T10:06:00.003-05:00

In regard to TR Harts letter (Falls News Press, Nov. 2, 2008) regarding my professionalism or lack thereof, I would like to ask him if he has attended any board meetings of late to witness the mentioned disruptive behavior? In fact I found Board President Barb Gunters quacking (CFBOE minutes Feb. 21, 2007) like a duck far more disruptive than anything I’ve seen so far. I question the letter writers motives being that he is the board presidents neighbor (two doors down I believe?) in Silver Lake. I ask Mr. Hart to list the criteria for constructive dissent. I assume this wont be a problem as he apparently reads my blog.

Constructive dissent has done nothing to prevent a levy from hitting the ballot next year. In fact let me tell you a funny story about constructive dissent Mr. Hart. Last year someone (me) mentioned that the GPA for participation in extra curricular activities seemed too low. Being lucky in the draw of the game of DNA, I was blessed with smart genes and have a hard time understanding why other people can’t “get it”. So the board decided that raising the required GPA should be considered. I did research and listened to what our staff had to say about it. It became apparent to me that raising the GPA helped no child. It only hurt those already having problems with school. I found no data that supported the notion that raising the GPA would bolster the overall education of the kids it affected.

Meanwhile, other board members were spending their time requesting data on who and what teams the higher GPA would affect and how to implement the plan that was concocted with no forward thinking and little to no research of the effects on kids or our budget. My (and the administrations) presenting data contrary to what this elite majority wanted was scoffed at and the new GPA was ram-rodded down our throats.

So here we are, almost 2009 and we can’t afford the intervention services that the higher GPA requires, in fact we can’t afford the contracted raises without passing a levy. Or making serious cuts. Again.

Constructive dissent got the people of this district nowhere. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid and remember that while you may be willing and able to vote yes on new and renewal levies, many of us over here on the other side of the lake cannot afford to.

The statement about attracting candidates intrigues me. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find someone more dedicated than me. You may not agree with my reasons for wanting this position, but apparently a lot of other people did. You see, I don’t just represent the “rah rah schools” crowd. I realized a long time ago that a representative was needed to protect our tax dollars. I have kids in our schools. I want the best for them. But just like at home, there is a limit. We can’t have the Cadillac on an Oldsmobile salary. And that, my friend is what the Cuyahoga Falls City School District is.

2-1 odds on Issue 6

2008-10-14T09:58:00.002-04:00

This will be a touchy one. In my daily endeavors I have encountered more people wanting to talk about the GAMBLING ISSUE than even the presidential race. It’s an issue many are passionate about but few are willing to learn about the other side. So I’m going to attempt to negotiate both sides today. This is an issue that will directly impact school funding if passed and could adversely affect it in the future if passed as written. I am flexible enough to see the pros and cons of both sides, as a mom, taxpayer, and member of the school board.

Let’s start with the vote no side. This is where I am right now. Not because I see gambling as the end all evil, but because provisions in this particular issue have too many loopholes and guarantees nothing for education. Most no voters are concerned with morals and ethics. They fear that crime, prostitution and drug related activities will follow. Deterioration of families and surrounding communities is a given in their eyes. Mr. Smith will spend his entire paycheck at the casino and surrounding activities while Johnny goes hungry at home. The social ramifications outweigh the economic benefits.

Loophole 1: “The taxes are to be used first to pay expenses of regulating and collecting taxes from the casino, then for funding of gambling prevention and treatment programs”.
Translation- more bureaucrats and government run agencies sucking up your tax dollars.
Loophole 2: “Reduce the tax paid by the casino authorized by this amendment to the lesser of the rate taxed on another casino or 25%”.
Translation: There is an unlikely possibility that this casino could eventually pay nothing to counties. IF, and that’s a big unlikely if, but if a Native American Indian tribe would begin operations of a casino, the tax rate on the Clinton County casino would go to 0%. That’s right. Nothing. So money that counties had become dependent on would disappear. A little less devastating but still making an impact would be that if any other casino begins operations in Ohio, the Clinton County casino would drop to 25% or a rate lower than the tax rate of the new casino.
Loophole 3: “and that no fee shall be charged for applying for a casino license or for renewing a casino license.”
Translation: The only no cost license and renewal in the history of the state of Ohio. This state expects a welfare mom to pay for drivers and dog license renewals yet exempts a fee for a multi million dollar casino operator?
Loophole 4: “shall pre-empt any local zoning resolution, code, or ordinance that would otherwise preclude a casino from operating on the property described in the Schedule to this section or that would require any local hearing, vote, variance, license, or conditional use approval for the establishment of a casino on that site.”
Translation: The new casino will be above the law. And intends to stay that way with language that basically says, no local or state ordinance

Now this isn’t a loophole but…“The General Assembly shall provide by law for the establishment of a Gaming Regulatory Commission, whose members shall be appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate.”
See translation to Loophole 1. Substitute “crony” for bureaucrat.

The people in support of legalized gambling in Ohio make some strong points as well. I must separate pro casino from a yes on this particular issue because of the loopholes. There are many Ohioans that support legalizing casino gambling in our state, with protections and provisions in place that benefit the citizenry and consistently supplement local and state revenues. Many in Ohio still feel duped by the Ohio Lottery vote of 30 years ago. They do not want another program that replaces dollars rather than supplementing them. For those of you confused on how the lottery works, I’ll simplify it for you.

Note: NOT real numbers. The state tells our district that we will receive 10 million dollars this year. We do not receive lottery money on top of this. As the state collects lottery money, it uses it toward the10 million it promised the school district. So if the lottery has a good year, we get 10 million. If the lottery has a bad year, we get 10 million.

Benefit 1: 5000 or more jobs, in addition to the hundreds of construction jobs. Nuff said.
Benefit 2: Money currently leaving the state for West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Canada, Indiana, and riverboats will perhaps now stay in Ohio.
Benefit 3: Aside from the casino taxes, other money in the form of income taxes, property taxes, etc will flow to the state and local governments.

What does all this have to do with education? Nothing. Which is the whole point. This is why I’m voting no. This could have been a viable alternative source of income for our schools. People have been yelling for over a decade that the current system of school funding is illegal (it’s not), and they want (need) a reduction of their property taxes. It’s the “over reliance” of property taxes in schools budgets that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled must change. But until that money can be supplemented by another source, it doesn’t look promising. I’m the first one to say lets look for cuts. But you can only cut so much before there is nothing left to cut.

Am I against a casino? No. In fact I would like to write the next set of rules regarding casino gambling in Ohio. The money would go directly to school districts, in addition to the state money already promised, with no abatements or breaks. I don’t believe it is my or the states responsibility to regulate how you spend your money. People in Ohio love to gamble. Ten years ago I did a survey of my own. I asked the dealers in Las Vegas what state they perceived as being Vegas’ biggest customers. All but one said Ohio. The one that didn’t say Ohio said she didn’t know. I went on a bus trip to Windsor, Canada. Six busses from Stow with 60 or more people on each bus. Say each person took $200 (which is being conservative). That’s $72,000 the Canadians got from Ohio. In one trip.

I deal in reality and the reality is this. People want a break on property taxes. Casino gambling is a tangible way to do this. People in Ohio spend lots of money gambling in other states. Right or wrong, it’s money being spent and taxes being paid to other communities. I want that money spent here on my kids and my schools. Now back to that bus trip. The reality is the average person on that trip took $500. That’s $180,000 that went to Canada. I know of one guy that came back with $10,000. That’s a potential $51,000 in taxes Ohio could have collected. But Canada did instead.

Society Propriety

2008-09-28T01:57:00.001-04:00

The new rules at the Natatorium have got me to thinking. Are our children so naughty that they need to be banned? I would say that the real story is probably the few ruined it for the masses. But the kids are not the only ones at fault in this situation, we all are. Most have all taken a back seat to behavior correction and discipline. Especially when it comes to other peoples children.

Hillary Clinton isn’t one of my role models but she did get one thing right years ago. It does take a village to raise a child. It used to be that any adult not only corrected ANY child that misbehaved in their presence, they felt it was their duty. In fact they would question your upbringing as they corrected you. “Were you born in a barn?” “Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?” Kids were afraid to misbehave in front of the neighbor, grocer, librarian, teacher, or just about any adult they had contact with, because they would tell your parents and your parents would, without a doubt side with them. You slowly learned societies rules this way. No matter what the rules were at home. And you didn’t question any of it. If you asked why, “Because I said so” was as good as it got.

For example, my dad frequently read at the kitchen table. Morning paper, newest Stephen King novel or JFK conspiracy book, whatever. So once while on an outing with a friends family, it got kind of boring at lunch so I whipped out my latest Little House on the Prairie paperback and went through a wicked 19th century blizzard with Laura Ingalls-Wilder. I was soon made to realize by my friend’s family that not only was this unacceptable, they also found it offensive. Not only that- when they dropped me off and “told” on me, my dad lectured me in front of them on my rude behavior at lunch. Of course I didn’t say a word about his table reading. I just accepted that these two adults obviously knew society rules and I didn’t. I was ashamed of myself.

I was paddled in second grade. My offense? Running in the hallway. To this day, I cannot run in a hallway. Anywhere. I’ll walk fast, and even take a couple bursts of a jog if no one is around. It obviously made an impact. I’m not (necessarily) advocating paddling, but discipline. It should be on the food pyramid with servings per day requirement. I’ve watched so many parents try to reason and compromise and bribe their children for compliance it makes me want to vomit. Fear of dire consequences builds character. You cannot reason with a 15 year old girl that thinks she’s in love or a 14 year old boy that found a Zippo. Reasoning is for adults that actually have brains that understand other points of view.

I don’t think any of us can deny that there has been a shift in society propriety. Many people see offensive behavior as a constitutional right. Kids today need to be made aware that acceptable behavior at home is not necessarily acceptable public behavior. But that’s where things have changed. We walk away, ignore or ban these kids, instead of being a village. There is no shame because no one is made to feel ashamed of themselves.

Kids don’t understand the business point of view on this Natatorium decision. But I would bet you a donut that if they start seeing other teens being escorted off the property for smoking, rowdiness, etc. you’d see a change in the element of teens attending. The Nat isn’t suffering because teens are there. It’s suffering because it allowed a few bad teens to stand out and be noticed instead of booting them off the property and telling them why. Maybe even they could have suggested that the bootees inform their friends of the acceptable behavior rules at the Nat.

Going to extremes is much easier than a few weeks of cracking down followed up with monitoring. There are not many places for teens to go these days on a Friday or Saturday night. “The Light”, a teen dance held at the Nat gets out of hand because they let it. And because they let it, decent people don’t want to go. Society rules are the same as parenting rules. You need to let kids know that there are behavior expectations and consequences. And in some cases we need to let their parents know too.

Take a Seat and a Nerve Pill

2008-09-18T11:17:00.005-04:00

I have a sneaking suspicion our administrators were attempting to do me in last night. I’m not sure if they were trying to give me a stroke, heart attack, or just give me a mere nervous breakdown. Either way, they almost succeeded.

The first presentation of the evening was on RTI. That stands for Response To Intervention. Believe it or not, that is the politically correct term for saying, helping kids that need extra help. But for some reason, when we talk about the kids that bring our scores down or have behavior issues, we must use terms that are ambiguous or acronyms that you need a decoder for.

Anyway, it’s obvious we need to help kids that need help. But at what cost? Three years ago we “RIFed” 90 people. Translation- 90 people were let go. Lost their jobs. Canned.

But over the last three years, and in addition to the hiring’s proposed last night, about 1/3 of those job cuts will be negated. Between that and paying off the loan early, I’m really starting to question how dire the circumstances were back in ’05…Back to the presentation. This additional staff in total will be an additional $ 460,641 per year in salary and benefits. It will most likely be a little lower, as the analysis was done assuming everyone hired will take full family benefits.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the next presentation was the next phase of the bus garage/warehouse property. I don’t want to tell you the cost yet. First I want you to take a trip down memory lane with me. So hop in the Wayback Machine with me and the Professor and let’s go back to 2006. We have landed at FirstMerit bank and saw the District deposit over $800,000 into our bank account for the sale of the Bode building. Whatever will they do with all that money? Here were my thoughts.

But, it’s too late to for shoulda, coulda, woulda. Now that we own the new property, we might as well finish what we started. So we slowly acquire the neighboring properties for parking. Sorely needed parking. I will not deny that. But it’s never that simple. It also needs fenced in. And now a fancy schmancy awning. And electric gate. And salt barn. And of course landscaping that will get ruined by snowplows.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not necessarily against the above improvements. IF and that’s a big if, the administration can show significant savings. For instance, I was told that we now buy salt by the bag. Not very cost efficient for the amounts we use. Also not very convenient for the guys and gals using it. Truck hoppers must be loaded by hand. With a salt barn we could use our front loader and bada bing and awayyyy we go. But the problem is there was no data to back up the alleged savings. The same thing with the awning. Now this isn’t your typical awning. It would cover two rows of busses facing each other with a walk way and outlets to plug in the engine blocks in the winter time. Yes- plugging in the busses is a must for all of you that just questioned that one. It’s wonderful idea. The time saved not having to remove snow and ice from vehicles can’t be argued. In addition it would have lighting for added safety and security. But again I was told it would save us time and money but no data.

Show me how much we save on salary and benefits by not cleaning off snow and ice. Prove to me that the cost of the salt barn is worth it. Is the electric gate a need or a convenience? I have a strong suspicion that much of this could have been justified with a cost benefit analysis but none was provided. Another piece of data I’d like to see is insurance and accident costs. The current bus parking situation is atrocious. Our drivers currently must back into the parking lot and then to their spaces. That’s right they can’t even pull in and park. This happens 40 times a day. Imagine how lucky we’ve been that nothing catastrophic has happened.

Lastly, show me how long you anticipate this project serving the community. The last bus/warehouse is over 140 years old. So the savings in salaries and benefits and the operations efficiencies are only realized if this is a lasting investment. Does the administration expect this building and lot to sustain the public for 10 years or 50? Are the existing gas tanks on our property of that much importance in a day and age when alternative fuels are becoming more common? Forward thinking tells me that our dependence on gasoline for bussing will change in the next twenty years.

I guess you want to know the cost of all the above. Keep in mind, there is much more involved than what I have mentioned. And much of it has to be done whether we like it or not. And I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t see anything in the plans that was over the top. But I hope you are sitting down and have taken your blood pressure medication, prozac and have your nitroglycerin nearby. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly and then scroll down…
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Phase One: $ 420,000

Phase Two: $ 160,000. This involves tearing down the existing 140+ year old building L ,paving and landscaping. Apparently the city is insisting on landscaping so the salt trucks can kill it. There must be a salt truck driver-forsythia farm connection.

Total cost of Wednesday's proposals? One million forty thousand six hundred and forty one dollars. It doesn't look as bad when you write it like that.

Did I mention that there were whisperings along the lines of something about a new levy?

Is Virtual a Reality?

2008-09-02T11:31:00.001-04:00

I will assume that if you are reading this, you are familiar with the internet and its many capabilities. We are a society that expects to Google a word and have 5 million resources at our fingertips in about 3 seconds flat. Notice how the word Google has replaced “search”. And notice how spell check likes Google, but not google. It will be in Merriam Webster before this decade is done. It used to be that people gathered in the town square and waited for the Pony Express to deliver weeks old, sometimes month’s old news. Now we can watch congress with a ten second delay.

Many cities and townships broadcast their council and school board meetings through the cable systems local access channels. But that leaves out satellite users. And the five people that still use antennas.

The internet solved these problem years ago, but government bureaucrats have been slow to embrace this “new” way of community outreach. It’s simple and cheap to broadcast meetings via the web. If you want it to be.

But what about the things that are behind the broadcast? The contracts, the resolutions, the financial transactions? There is more paperwork involved in school business than you can imagine. I’m sure an entire forest in southern Ohio has been cut down and turned into documents I have received over the last two years. On top of that, the tax payers never see 99% of these public documents. Oh, they could. They could go down to the board offices, request and pay for copies. Or they could set up an appointment and inspect records all day with a district employee.

Or we could start using BoardDocs.com. Please check out their web site. To attempt to sum it up, any and all information could be available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 day a year, plus leap day. Meetings are recorded electronically and vote counts can be posted instantaneously. Paperwork can be, but doesn’t have to be, non existent. But the best part I think is the public access. I have always been a proponent of open government and easy access.

We want involvement but at what price? People cannot structure their lives around government meetings. But they can and do look for info on the internet at their leisure. Does not going to meetings mean you do not care about the state of affairs? Or does it mean you have a busy life? I fully support implementing this program. It embraces everything I feel open government, transparency, public access, and open records should be. When you want it. At a cost of $10,000 a year. A drop in the bucket is a phrase I commonly hear about amounts such as this.

A powerful tool for the public, as well as the board and administrators. I’ll put it in levy terms. That’s 50 cents per household per year. Or about 20 cents per person. It’s an expenditure I fully support.

Big Brother Knows Best

2008-08-12T02:08:00.002-04:00

I’ve received a lot of Email these past two weeks regarding the new vocal music teacher. Actually they were about the old vocal music teacher. He filled in this last year as a long term sub. According to my spies, he apparently built the vocal music program back to levels not seen in years. I heard comments like “the spring musical rocked!” and “a position he has already filled admirably”.

Before I go on I want to make it clear that I have no reason to doubt the new teacher’s credentials or abilities. In fact it is just the opposite. His resume looks impressive. And just to be clear, the board traditionally only hires two people- the superintendent and treasurer. The superintendent is responsible for the remaining employment issues. The board can make its own appointment to positions with a majority vote, but it is rare and in reality you should have faith that the administrative team is doing the right thing.

So why did I move to table the hire? First of all I knew it didn’t stand a chance, but I had to try. You see several things occurred before and during the meeting that made me take a step back and remind myself what this job is all about. I was warned several times that the meeting would most likely be attended by angry parents. While walking to the meeting I was warned by the board president to not ask questions of those that wish to speak. If that doesn’t raise a red flag I don’t know what would. Why shouldn’t I ask questions of those who support us not only financially but with their time and attendance in our programs? I know what our policy says regarding public participation, but it’s a bad policy that needs changed.

It was most embarrassing to watch the board president converse with the treasurer and roll her eyes during the public comments. This was my second red flag. Afterward, I received the following Email that was addressed to the board president:

“Barb
When you get a second and you are not being condescending and rude to citizens attending board meetings, please read the following letter addressed to the parents of the acapella and M&M's choirs. Please note that actions taken by the board of education and the Cuyahoga Falls City Schools DOES IMPACT OTHER PEOPLES LIVES.”

The vocal music teacher of yesteryear had something to say and in her three allotted minutes spoke volumes. It seems last years sub was a former student and CFHS alumni. Getting this position was his dream. (I read longevity into that comment) The sub recruited 30 new students to the program and gave new breath to a program that was by most accounts, struggling to stay alive.

The respect and gratitude shown for the sub resonated in the room. I then recalled a few years back when parents of a certain elementary school were involved in the hiring process of their new principal. That was red flag three. This district and board continue to call on the community for involvement, yet when involvement happens it’s met with this attitude? It’s at this point that I decided to move to table and attempt to have further discussion regarding the hiring. The motion died for lack of a second.

I thought elected representatives were supposed to represent the people. I regret that I had to be a part of an experience for many teens that will be everlasting. Last Wednesday was a perfect example of why people generally don’t get involved with their schools. It seems it’s a waste of time and energy. The Falls News reported the general sentiments of the meeting. But they left out one detail. The kids that hung the sign had a little more to say than was printed. The sign they hung also said “This board is a joke” I’m sorry they were left with that impression but I take heart in knowing that maybe the frustration they feel today will provide inspiration to do something about it.

When in Rome

2008-08-05T09:57:00.001-04:00

I had an interesting conversation this week. It was regarding my language. Not English, but slang. Or how about street talk vs. office. We all do it. There are things we say at home with friends that we wouldn’t say to our boss. But…

What about profanity? If I use “bad” words, does that make me less of a board member? Have I somehow worked less or researched less or went to fewer meetings as a result of my bad words? I don’t think so. Personally, I find bad grammar and poor spelling much more offensive than profanity.

Anyone that knows me knows I have uttered a cuss word or two. But I have a general rule of thumb. I don’t do it ‘til you do. So if you use profanity in my company, I will most likely return the favor. I know when and where profanity is not acceptable.

Now back to who we should not cuss in front of. The number one people are your own parents and grandparents. Even if they themselves cuss like truckers, you never cuss in front of them. Number two on the list is your boss and/or clients. Number three would be clergy. Number four would be anyone in an official capacity- like law enforcement, the President, etc. Number five is small children. I’m sure you have a few of your own, but that is my list.

The rest is open game. To some I have vices, to others I am human. But despite what anyone thinks, I know what my standards are as a board member. And please don’t throw the ethics argument at me. Ethics are not something that is written in stone. Ethics are a personal set of morals and standards held by an individual. Ethics in the legal sense generally involve breaking the law, not profanity.

I want the best for all children. But just like in my own home, there are limited resources. When money is thin, you make do with what you have. I also know that there are equity problems that need addressed, but continue to be ignored. The academic issues will not go away until equity is addressed. And raising academics is what it’s all about isn’t it? I didn’t run for office and make the promise that I would clean up my language.

Safety Dance

2008-07-01T00:44:00.000-04:00

What is your idea of security? When I think of security in the generic sense I think of things like safe, protected, unable to be harmed or removed from the premises. When I must define security in the school system I come up with the same answer.

So about a year ago I proposed that we lock all doors to the buildings and install intercoms and door buzzers for entry during school hours. It’s a cheap reliable solution. Akron has done it for years with success. But as with most of my ideas it was met with eye rolling and all the reasons it was an impossible, outrageous, expensive idea. As usual I left frustrated that yet another simple cheap idea of mine was shot down.

So imagine my shock when “security” cameras were proposed on last weeks agenda and my further dismay in knowing I would be on vacation and unable to voice my dissent.

You see cameras do not provide security. They provide surveillance and monitoring as well as a record of what happened. Prevention is not a part of their job. They cannot stop anything from happening. They may deter a problem in their viewing area but not to level that a locked door does.

I want to know that our kids are safe not monitored. And contrary to a fellow members thinking, safety is a priority for me. Obviously academics are a priority; we are a board of education. Safety was also a priority in the community survey.

I was floored to read in the Falls News that for once in my life I would have been in the majority on this vote. Dang! The one time in my life my opinion was the majority opinion and I was on vacation! Sometimes life is full of irony.

Another ironic vote happened while I was away. For once in my term I was willing to add a new position. A benefits coordinator was something the auditors have been recommending we add and it is the only new position proposed that I actually felt would have saved the tax payer money and paid for itself. In fact the CFO presented a cost-benefit analysis showing that the position would pay for itself and then some. Insurance and prescription costs are going to kill us if we don’t get it under control. It didn’t even get a motion so discussion could take place. So sad.

That's What I Want

2008-06-24T09:22:00.002-04:00

Today I am doing a quick post on someone and something I should have done a long time ago. Our district treasurer, Kathryn Sines along with the help of Lou Schott have put up a web site that is dedicated to district finances. This is the kind of utilization of technology I’m talkin’ ‘bout! Everything you want to know is a click away either from her FAQ’s page, quick links, or if your question is so obscure it’s not already there she has provided her E-mail.

CFCS CFO Awesome Financial Site

I will be providing a permanent link on the right as soon as I learn HTML!

Thanks to Kathryn and Lou for providing a much needed and useful service.

Gotta get back to the sun and fun.

No Worries

2008-06-15T00:40:00.003-04:00

Wow. Wednesday night was the worst board meeting yet. It started out great. I was asked by the board president to lead a discussion regarding the community survey conducted over a year ago. I prepared a power point with aspects that stood out as either “what we’re doing right” and “what we need to improve or implement”. It was met with the usual eye rolling, lackadaisical, I’ve got better things to do attitude. I suggested that some of these resident concerns be made a part of our newly minted goals. After all wasn’t this what the survey was for? Or did we do it so we could have a good read about resident concerns and then do nothing about it?

Then something interesting happened. I was surprised when at the beginning of the meeting an addendum to the agenda was presented that included a surprise executive session. It stated that it was for discussion of the Patterson litigation. I was shocked that they were willing to discuss it with me, but glad because I thought maybe we could finally work through the issues that I feel are Sunshine Law violations and putting our actions at risk. So after all regular business, it was moved and seconded that to enter executive session. A five minute recess was called rather than the customary 10. Upon my return in 4 minutes 56 seconds, I was physically blocked access to the executive session. I explained that I needed to hear it from the board president and attempted to enter the room. The door was then opened for me and the board president stepped outside with me. She agreed I should be denied access and returned to the room and the door was shut. I attempted to enter the room to request that the record reflect that I was being physically denied access but instead the door was opened and the treasurer was asked to step outside to hear my request. I waited outside 1 hour and 6 minutes, watched the stage crew remove all recording equipment, and adjourned with the board, once again asking that the record reflect that I was physically excluded from the meeting. We agreed on something for a change. The vote to adjourn was 5-0.

Then I read the Falls News today. I find the statement of “she can’t be a plaintiff and a defendant” was sort of ironic. Why not? I can be a board member and not a board member at the same time.

My biggest problem with the whole scenario is that no one even had the decency to ask me to excuse myself. Not that I would have. I see no reason members cannot meet in pairs with the board atty. Wrongful acts have already occurred in executive session yet I am supposed to trust that this time things will be different. And why do I have a problem with the defendant meeting in this manner to discuss the pending litigation? Because their collaboration is not my concern. Because they frequently do discuss items not allowed. And how about because they could have done this in a proper manner, on the record and given me a proper forum in front of the entire board to defend myself rather than clustering themselves in a room and barring my access.

And now a little blurb on last Mondays goals board meeting. The noob pointed out that finances didn’t make it into our goal session a few months back. That’s right- no financial goals. I pointed out that I had many financial goals on the board but they didn’t get a majority vote to move forward. He ignored me and went on to say that now that he’s seen the five year forecast he thinks we should add that one! Novel idea noob. But the best goal is this one- Having the district labeled “Excellent” by the end of next school year. Don’t get me wrong, I will be thrilled if we did, but I generally set attainable, realistic goals. Maybe by 2010 or’11. But ’09? Come on. I dare our staff to prove me wrong. But it’s not just them. It’s parents and the kids themselves too and I don’t we are quite there yet. Just like with raising the GPA to participate, it’s a lofty idea that hasn’t been thought through.

Luuuu seeee....

2008-06-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Guess I’ve got some ‘splaining to do. Today’s Beacon Journal was a surprise to most people I’m sure. Before you read the article and jump to conclusions, let me fill you in on what is going on and why.

First of all “suing” makes it sound like I’m out for money. The only money I asked for is my $225 filing fee. This is not about money. It’s about an injunction to compel the board to abide by the law. Don’t get me wrong, I could have asked for damages for each violation in the suit. But I didn’t. I asked for an order from the court to stop all wrongful acts committed by this board and a little something extra. I am also asking the court to order that an opinion from the Ohio Attorney Generals office be obtained before a member can be censured.

Let me explain how censure works. There is no book on the right and wrong reasons to censure. If I cross my eyes during a meeting and fellow members don’t like it, they can censure me if they have the votes. Just so everyone is clear on a few things, it is pronounced “sen-sure”. Not “sen-sore”. I point this out because previously this board censured me and referred to it as censoring me. I’m sure censoring me is what they had in mind, hence the Freudian slip. But fortunately for us they only have the power to censure me. I feel an opinion is needed because this board uses the threat of censure in an intimidating manner.

The Beacon Journal wanted to focus on the executive session voting. That is the least of our worries. The more important issues are the ones that involve the publics right to open government, clear and concise minutes, and the ability to trust that your board of education is conducting the business stated in the notice given and that the notice and/or agenda doesn’t leave you guessing. You can’t go into executive session for employment promotion, demotion, compensation, discipline, etc.. unless the board is actually performing each of those acts. The board can go into ES for promotion if they are promoting someone.

I assume the people of Cuyahoga Falls elected me to represent their stances on issues. How can I effectively do what I was elected to do when I cannot garner a majority vote to do the very least for the citizens and follow the law? Example- the law states you cannot amend the agenda for a "special" board meeting. Yet a member moves to amend it, it receives a second, I object and state the reason, I'm out voted and the board proceeds to conduct business outside the scope of the notice to the public. The citizens of Cuyahoga Falls, and the press for that matter, have a right to be an informed public. Would you like notice that we were going to discuss goals, you decide not to come because goals do not interest you, and then find out the board also voted to cut all extra curricular activities? No chance for input. No having your voice heard (not that there’s much of that now), no chance to respond. It’s just done. No that didn't happen, but it could with this board. This is one example of many violations. This is why we have laws protecting the publics right to open government.

I have attempted to resolve these issues and many others on numerous occasions. But it's a five member board and I am but one. I assure you this was a last resort. I am dismayed that an injunction is the ONLY remedy at hand to resolve these types of issues. There is no agency or official that can compel a board or council to adhere to the Sunshine Laws other than a court of law. I am confident that the courts will resolve these issues and the board can move forward with doing what we were elected to do- serve the people of Cuyahoga Falls.

The purpose and spirit of the Sunshine Laws are crystal clear. Open government. That's what the people expect and deserve.

Do Your Homework

2008-06-03T00:59:00.002-04:00

I often take a lot of flak for my stances on public education. I guess I am not your typical school board member. I have often said that in my opinion teachers make above and beyond a fair wage for the degree earned. Especially when you factor in the benefits. It seems teachers and their supporters have a hard time seeing what I as a parent see. What many parents see.

Before I go on I want to say that Cuyahoga Falls is very lucky. We have many caring dedicated teachers. But we have lackluster teachers as well. And yes, as hard as it is for some to admit, we have some teachers biding their time ‘til retirement. Please don’t insult my intelligence by pretending these things don’t exist in Cuyahoga Falls.

The Plain Dealer did an interesting series last week on teacher training, post graduate training, and quickie degrees. It’s a very insightful series. I’m particularly interested in the field experience degrees. The way Ohio’s economy is at the moment, I bet you could find a few accountants willing to teach high school math for 40K, summers off, spring break, two weeks at Christmas, and the lucrative benefits. In fact, I know of a teacher in CF who quit a six figure salary job to teach in CF. Why? Less stress, better bennies. At least that’s the story this teacher gave me.

Research questions quality of teacher education
Posted by Scott Stephens and Edith Starzyk May

Post-grad education training includes strong CSU course -- and quickie degree mills
Posted by Edith Starzyk and Scott Stephens

But the most telling part of the article for me was this- “In a four-year study released 20 months ago, Arthur Levine, former dean of Teachers College at Columbia University, found that students who intend to major in education, as a whole, have lower scores on college entrance exams than other college-bound students.” Eeek!

Read the articles and let’s talk about what we can do to ensure that Cuyahoga Falls employs quality dedicated teachers without resorting to the “pay them more” mentality. But if “pay them more” is the only solution in your mind, then I ask you to tell me- what I as a tax payer can expect in return as far as accountability and a return on my investment?

Ideas Blossom

2008-05-27T16:03:00.001-04:00

I’d like to tell you about Cuyahoga Falls High Schools new greenhouse. “Promise” is the name it has been given. It is an effort that involved too many people to mention but a few groups of people deserve some kudos.

Last fall the board took its annual tour of the buildings. While at the high school someone mentioned that they’d like to see if a greenhouse could be erected near the multiple disabilities area of the building to benefit these children academically as well as therapeutically. It was one of those comments that seemed more like wishful thinking than something that could happen.

Then three weeks ago DECA (the marketing class) scheduled a presentation for the board. They proudly unveiled their class project. Promise Greenhouse. They worked tirelessly and creatively all year long to market and raise funds to purchase a top notch greenhouse and have secured the labor and materials necessary to install it this summer. They have collaborated with the city to incorporate the Adopt-a-Spot program into the greenhouse by winter housing plants for sponsors.

Not only that, a 2001CF alumni Tim Madden of HydrOranics has donated a hydroponics system along with installation as a congratulations gift to the class and Promise Greenhouse. Not just any system either. An 8 section, solar powered system. He has also offered to come in and help with set up and training with the staff and students on optimum usage. I’m getting choked up writing this because this project will help people with special needs in more ways than most of you realize. Besides the obvious therapeutic and sensory experiences these kids will have, they will also gain life skills. A DECA student said it best when he said “they will leave with something on a resume”.

Promise will be wheelchair accessible. All students in the MD unit will be able to grow and learn, pardon the pun, and leave high school with a real world skill. Something usable and a local job source boon. Just leafing through my check book register I can tell you there is no shortage of greenhouse and nursery businesses around these parts! And my hope is that the district can forge partnerships with these businesses and learn what their needs are so that this special group of kids from Cuyahoga Falls can graduate and have a usable skill, rather than have to face long waits for social services and the few resources currently available once you age out of a protective and coddling public school system.

This is also an example of how to be selfless rather than selfish. DECA needed a project for a grade. They chose something that not only helped them reach their goal but something that gave to many layers of our community. From the kids in the MD unit, the sponsors of Adopt-a-Spot, the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls with beautification projects and even those grouchy tax payers. How Taxpayer may ask? By providing job training and skills before the “system” must get involved.

Thank you to everyone involved in this project but especially Ms. Kilgore, the DECA coordinator. The lessons taught this year reached far beyond your classroom.

Project Projections

2008-05-19T23:37:00.001-04:00

Sorry, I’ve been a slogger. That’s my new word for a slacking blogger. First I’ll fill you in on the upcoming agenda. The new five year forecast is up for approval. The never ending review of policy. Personnel and stipends, and my favorite, approving the granting of diplomas. For your presentation entertainment we will be having Curriculum and Intervention Program items. Under board business we have summer meeting dates (ugh!), board goals, and a discussion on paperless board meetings. Should be a quick one. That is sarcasm for my fans with no sense of humor.

Now on to something that has been bothering me all weekend. I wont go into the whole mess but to sum things up I was accused of twisting my children to believe what I believe. Apparently this is a bad thing to do.

This all started with a city project. City infrastructure problems have caused property damage through out my neighborhood. Our environmentally friendly administration offered a solution that did nothing to alleviate the infrastructure problem, but it was a really cool idea that would put Cuyahoga Falls on the map if successful. Nobody had ever done it this big before. In fact it was so innovative that the City administration suggested they would do these projects all over the city.

Unbeknownst to me the City had a poster contest for my child’s class. I was not aware of the contest or that my son had entered a poster until the Grand Opening was over with and I picked him up from school later that day and after seeing a few of his friends receive awards, asked him about it. He described his poster as he saw the project with his own eyes; after all it happened directly across the street from us. For months he saw standing water, smelled the stink of the manure and mulch, and heard his parents concerns and questions. So yes I suppose his rendering was what he knew. The city saw it as mockery to them, and told me so. I suppose I should have taught my kids to blindly follow and never question.

Even though the project is a disaster and did nothing to solve the infrastructure problem, according to the letter I received, I should teach my children to place trust in the people spending your tax dollars but never question how they spend them, or what they spend them on. Heaven forbid you have a voice in where your money goes. Sound familiar?

I almost felt as if the letter writer felt she was somehow smarter than us peasants. What could I possibly know about the problem? I only live it. Three quarters of a million dollars spent on this project and none of it on the infrastructure problem. This project has turned into exactly what Madam Kellie predicted it would be two years ago. A stinky mosquito hatchery. But I somehow did my kids’ wrong by trying to convince the city that this project was not the solution to the neighborhood problem. Trying to convince them before they spent our tax money on a fashionable “green” solution.

I’m proud of my son for coloring his poster in the fashion he did. It wasn’t ugly or a mockery. It was a pond with frogs, bugs and sunshine. I’m glad he didn’t conform and color a picture of what he was told it should look like. I’m not raising a sheeple.

A Friendly Game of Dodge Board

2008-04-19T00:15:00.001-04:00

Hmmmm…Wednesday held several surprises. The first was the intervention presentation. What started out two months ago as an additional position has now been word smithed into “additional staff”. I find that statement activating my spidey senses.

I again asked our board president if we taxpayers were spending money to send her to an educational workshop only to have her move from the district in a few months. I prefaced this by stating that I support continuing education for all.

Even Madam Kellie couldn’t have predicted what happened next. First the superintendent jumped in and gave a brief overview of the workshop pointing out that other district staff, including himself, were attending the workshop. I was assured that plenty of people would be in the know even if one was leaving. He also added that the board president initiated this endeavor so it was fitting that she attends.

I’d agree with all of this if she’s not moving. But if she is she should step aside and allow someone who will continue to have a stake in our community go. But, back to the meeting…

The next statements came from board members. Here’s a sampling:

“I heard a rumor that you were moving” directed to me. Sorry, you heard wrong. No one wants a house in my neighborhood because we don’t have a quaint neighborhood school. And I didn’t hear a rumor. I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. As did many others.

“Let’s take a look at who has spent what on workshops. Dunphy $30, Rump $719, Grimes $30, Gunter $48, Patterson $1258.” The figure with my name drew gasps from the audience! Three corrections. Rump has actually spent $582, Gunter $30, and Patterson $249. What you say? Why the discrepancy? The balances are encumbrances. You see I have registered for future workshops. I have a busy schedule and many obligations so I try to schedule early. So gasp if you must but $1258 is for 6 months of work shops. And I refuse to be ashamed of it. I can’t control what OSBA charges for their sessions. The board sets aside $15,000 for training, publications, workshops, etc. We all came into this with no experience and it shows. So why should I feel guilty for educating myself in the ever changing world of education? Especially since that’s what the board service fund is for.

Another member said “It doesn’t matter if she’s moving. Right now she is a full member of this board and should be treated that way”. I agree. I didn’t suggest we put her in a separate room until she moves. I suggested that if she’s moving she step aside in attending the parent university and let a representative from the CF PTA council go in her stead. I know. Silly idea.

The board president then moved on to the next order of business. So I guess only time will tell if we’ve spent $1000 on information flying south this summer. It’s a question that is being avoided but can’t be denied. I’m not saying that her circumstances haven’t changed, but I know what I and a few respected people in the community were told 8 months ago. Come on Pres, do the right thing, if you’re leaving let a long term Tiger go.

oooh Bus, The Magic Bus

2008-04-16T12:59:00.002-04:00

The gift that keeps on giving is giving us another expense tonight.

Just a quicknote to let you know that up on tonights agenda is the purchase of a few properties on 2nd St.

Seems our former business manager turned noob board member didn't plan well when he pushed for and got the new and improved bus garage. Apparently there isn't enough room for parking and turnng around. Mind you they do it now on a postage stamp lot.

Prepare to open your cheque books because we've only just begun. Seems our formr business manager forgot that it would also need fencing, an alarm system, and new windows too. It's like Whack-A-Mole. Every time you think you've killed an expense, a new one pops up.

Also on the agenda is a presentation for the NEW POSITION that is now being considered because my fellow board members passed a new GPA to participate in extra curricular activities. Against all administrative recommendations. Because they didn't think this through, they are now going to implement the CYA policy and hire someone to help these kids they blocked from participating. Wow! That sure is being fiscally responsible. Maybe next time they'll think to ask about the cost of one of their cockamamie ideas before they push it through.

Metamucil Anyone?

2008-04-04T21:42:00.001-04:00

Regular meetings. Every January, the Board of Education at their required organizational meeting must- “Bylaw 0154 (C). designate a day, place, and time for regular meetings which shall be held at least once every two (2) months; R.C. 3313.15”. Another part of that bylaw says- “Bylaw 0154 (D). establish a reasonable method whereby any person may determine the time and place of all regularly scheduled meetings and the time, place, and purpose of all special meetings; (R.C. 121.22(F))”.

It was real simple. Back in January, the board approved a schedule that set meetings for 7 Pm on the first and third Wednesdays of each month except June and July. Seemed simple enough to follow. But our meetings of late have been anything but regular. In fact they change so much even I am having a hard time keeping track. Throw in all the special meetings, (half of which were wastes of time and money) and it’s amazing the entire board makes it on time each time. Of the last 7 “regularly scheduled” board meetings, 3 have been moved to an earlier time. With another scheduled to. in the future.

Which brings me to my complaint of the day. Plan A was to have the May 21st meeting start at 6 PM rather than the scheduled 7 PM and go over the community survey attempting to tie in community concerns with the “Plan for Excellence”. So I planned my schedule to accommodate. Now it seems another member decide to schedule an out of town trip that same day and can’t fly back in time. So the “board” rescheduled the May 21st meeting to 7 PM and moved the June 11th meeting to 6 PM. My question is this. Why do I constantly have to readjust my schedule to accommodate other peoples bad planning and over extending themselves? I plan around regularly scheduled meetings and make every effort to be present at the plethora of special meetings planned of late. In my opinion this member should have said “I’m sorry that date is bad for me because I have the business of the school district to. How about the following week?” It’s simple. I do it all the time so I don’t inconvenience 10 other people and their schedules.

This board has made it so the public must request an agenda to keep track of meetings. I know when City Council is going to meet. It’s regular. I even know when their committees will meet because they are regular. I don’t have to check the web site or pick up a paper to know when and where to show up. If there is extra business to attend to they do it during the “regularly scheduled meeting”. If it means staying late, it means staying late. Another thing City Council does is letting citizens have input during discussion time on individual issues. It’s hard for a citizen to make comments, have a complete understanding of issues, or have their statement have meaningful impact when it must be given before the actual meeting starts or at the end, after a vote is signed, sealed and delivered. This board could learn a lot about conducting meetings fro CF City Council.

Lastly I want to answer a few of you that have Emailed me regarding the question I asked of our board president at the meeting. I was informed by our board president almost a year ago that she would be moving out of state at the end of this school year. She told me her husbands company was sold and they were being transferred south. She had very valid fears that her opinions and decisions would not be taken seriously if employees knew this and asked me to keep quiet about.

I recently found out that we were sending several district personnel to a program in Kentucky that basically fosters parent and community involvement for the district. I am all for this program It is the Center for Parent Leadership. The part that concerned me was that I was informed that our board president would be attending the workshop. Which normally would be ideal, but if she is moving in a few months I had to question if this was a wise choice or if we should be sending someone who will be here to utilize the information. This will cost almost $1000 per person so I would like to ensure our tax money will be spent wisely. I didn’t think it was an unreasonable question to ask. But each time I asked the response was to just stare at me. ?

If you don’t answer a question does that mean it wasn’t asked. I will ask here because I know she reads my blog, and I will ask her again “at the proper place on the agenda” at the next meeting- “Are we investing our tax dollars in training and workshops on someone who will be in the district to utilize the information for the next school year”? I’m all for bettering ourselves and professional development as well as conferences and workshops that expand our horizons. For everyone. Teachers, administrators, board members, even support staff. It’s money well spent but not if the knowledge leaves the district.

Ho Hum

2008-03-27T22:23:00.000-04:00

As usual, nothing to report regarding the wonderful things we are doing for the children and taxpayers. Of course the board president has decided to waste more tax payer money on the board attorney because regardless of how hard I try, they just can’t seem to understand open meetings, public records or why any of the sunshine laws exist.

I have spoken with Attorney General Marc Danns office regarding violations involving this board. When I relay the advice and guidance from Danns office to the board, and strangely enough, the board attorney, I am rebuffed. I again contacted Danns office and asked what remedy is there when the board attorney gives advice contrary to the attorney generals office? They suggested the attorney call them. I suggested this to the attorney. Apparently he hasn’t called them yet.

The Sunshine Laws, in my opinion are the most important laws enacted that touch each and every one of us. In fact let’s quote Dann- “Democracy flourishes when government operates in the sunshine, available to the citizens it serves and open to public scrutiny. To preserve and encourage openness, the Ohio General Assembly passed the Open Meetings and Public Records acts, collectively known as the "Sunshine Laws."
The highlighted parts are reminders to my fellow board members. They seem to not care when Joe Public is misinformed, not notified, and constantly changing meeting times so that “regular meetings” are no longer regular.

The point is clear in my previous blog. I see no need to rehash it. Our policy is in direct violation of the law and needs fixing. Paying the board attorney to come in and say he doesn’t agree with the interpretation from Danns office is pointless. There. Madam Kellie has predicted the outcome of that $250 an hour.

I can’t sign off without mentioning the bus committee. Two parents are on the committee. I couldn’t help but notice they live within 600 meters of each other. None of the administrators live here, and even though I’ve made bussing an issue for three years, and I’ve lived here my entire life, I wasn’t “allowed” on the committee. Was there a fear that I might actually save us some money? Only the shadow knows.

I'm Not Obeyin' Your Stinkin' Laws!

2008-03-09T10:33:00.005-04:00

I’ve suspected it all along. Now it’s official. The board members I work with are insane. Saturday was one of the worst snow storms this area has seen in 20 years. All over Ohio snow bans were issued. Every city in North East Ohio called for snow emergencies. Road travel was restricted to essential personnel only. The Summit County Sheriff issued a snow ban which essentially made driving or parking on the street a misdemeanor.

For those who don’t know, essential personnel means snow removal people, nurses, doctors, police, tow tucks, etc…You know, important people. And they don’t issue these orders, which by the way are law in Ohio, because they are worried you can’t make it to your destination. They issue these orders so civilians aren’t clogging the roads while they are trying to clear them. To put it simply, they don’t want your dumb butt in their way.

Apparently our board president hasn’t brushed up on Ohio law recently. Apparently, she thinks the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education is essential personnel. She didn’t have the common sense or decency to cancel Saturdays’ board meeting. Now it wasn’t bad for me, I live 4 blocks away. Our Superintendent lives in Stow, who incidentally ran out of salt last week, and had quite an ordeal making it in to CF. In fact as we were leaving the meeting your Silver Lake contingent could hardly get their vehicle off of Stow St. It was comical watching them fish tail a path for me.

Now let’s see, the Plan for Excellence people had enough sense to cancel their portion of the meting on Friday, the executive session was the only item on the agenda. And it was a monumental waste of time. The questions raised were answered to me in a five minute phone call 3 days prior to the meeting. It was all regarding a typo anyway. A typo that had absolutely no effect on the business of the district whatsoever.

Talk about micro managing. Did we really need to waste time and tax payer money for this? And as is becoming typical of this board, we have once again violated the law. The Ohio Sunshine clearly states the following:

PURPOSE STATEMENT: When holding a special meeting, including an emergency meeting (see discussion below), in addition to advising of the time and date of the meeting, the notice statement must also disclose the purpose(s) for which the special meeting is being conducted.
Where a special meeting is simply a “regular” meeting occurring at a time other than the regularly scheduled time, it is sufficient notice under the law for the stated purpose to be for “general purposes.” However, where the special meeting is being held to discuss particular issues, the purpose statement must specifically indicate those issues, and those specific issues are the only ones that can be discussed at that meeting. If, at the special meeting, the public body discusses matters not disclosed in the purpose statement, the meeting violates the Open Meetings Act.
Moreover, if a public body plans to adjourn into executive session during a special meeting, the topic of the executive session must relate directly to some matter included in the notice.
The rule for notification of special meetings must require at least 24 hours advance notification to all media outlets that have requested such notification, and to people who have specifically requested such notice.

I did attempt to prevent the agenda from being altered, as it clearly undermines the intent of the Sunshine Law- an informed public. But as usual with this board, they asked me for proof, I offered to get on line and show them, they then decided there wasn’t time for such trivial matters as the law, and refused to allow me the 2 minutes it would have taken to clear this matter up. They bulldozed into an illegal executive session (as usual) because they want an uninformed public. That’s why the true purpose is never stated and always altered.

Now let’s talk about the administrative pay scale for a second. It is a document that does not allow for favorites to be played. Our administrative positions are on a scale that has set responsibility factors and education factors. Years of service also play a part. So basically if you take this job with X responsibility, you will make 50K. Then you education comes into play. No degree gets you nothing extra. A bachelors gets you a little more, a masters gets you even more and so on.

I like it. No one can say it’s not fair. The only discrepancies are the people that were making wages above and beyond the scale when it was adopted. By law the district cannot reduce their wages, so they remain above the scale until the base wage finally catches up with them or they retire. So why are the same people that approved it now whining that some people now seem to be underpaid in their eyes? Aren’t these the people that promised fiscal responsibility? I find it odd that the person they think is underpaid lives down the street from them in Silver Lake. Apparently the wages aren’t that bad. I guess it was worth going out in a snowstorm. The board president suggested I should have stayed home if I was concerned about the weather. I guess it would have been easier for them to reward their cronies had I not attended. Sorry, but I just got new tires.

UPDATE: I received the notice below in my Email after posting the above. I find it extremely ironic.

After conferring with BOE president Barb Gunter and Superintendent Ed Holland, the meeting of the Steering Committee scheduled for tomorrow morning (Saturday, March 8) has been postponed due to the winter storm warnings.We will not reschedule our meeting until after the coming spring break. I will let everyone know of the new meeting date as soon as possible.

A Long Strange Trip is Beginning..

2008-02-24T13:17:00.002-05:00

Wednesday’s meeting had some news. We reviewed the board goals and had a presentation. The goals session was fairly uneventful. But the presentation had a few surprises.

It was regarding the new grade point average to be implemented this coming school year and the steps our district is taking to ensure our athletes and extra curricular students that fall below the GPA requirement receive intervention. I’m OK with that. I had some concerns that we were focusing on “participators”. By participator I mean the kids that participate in something, anything, which requires a GPA standard. By focusing on these kids I felt we were ignoring a larger part of our student population that does not participate. I was assured that this is just one of 13 legs of what will be our new intervention program. I have two problems with it.

One is that it requires hiring a new employee. No salary was suggested and a cost benefit analysis was not provided. The presenters indicated that there was an analysis done, so I look forward to reviewing it when it is provided. The second problem I have with the approach is that invention will take place before school. Now I’m no teenager but I do know one thing about being one. Getting up early sucks.

The reason for before school intervention was this- These kids have practice and games, and other activities that start right after school. In order to participate they will have to come to before school intervention. OK. So you have a carrot for this small population of our schools. What about the rest of the kids, the non-participators- that need intervention? Yes a small percentage will come if threatened by parents and teachers. But a large portion will not because they lack the parenting and discipline that is required to better ourselves. In school intervention is the common sense approach. Require that an intervention class replace an elective if your GPA is below a certain standard.

I’ll be honest, I’m tired of tax money being spent on sports and extra curricular, while the gifted programs in our district and, more importantly the gifted and talented children, are offered very little in terms of their special needs. The current proposal for intervention smells like an Activities Office program to me. Oh yeah, the new Intervention Specialist will be under the command of our Athletic Director. This should be about raising grades and bettering yourself, not ensuring eligibility. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the intervention, just the approach offered.

Final tidbit- we gave the superintendent his evaluation. If you want some funny reading, I suggest you request it. Here are some excerpts, as usual I have comments to the comments and they are in red:

“Does not seem to have a feel for the community in general, since he does not live here. Still has problems with relations with city officials”
Is this a performance evaluation or a residence evaluation? I understand the want for a super to live here but should he evaluated for it? Make it a goal and a policy change, then an issue on the evaluation.

“Move into community (CF school district) to show full belief in district”
What about his wife showing support for the district she works in? It doesn’t count?

“Don’t try to play god to the role of a supreme dictator”
Shame, shame, you can’t play God in a public school system. Do you want the ACLU to come knocking? And am I the only person that knows God should be capitalized?

“The superintendent should be aware of all deadlines”
OMG! I can’t even keep track of the deadlines at my kids’ school let alone every deadline set by the efficient government. Tasks with their deadlines are and should be delegated.

“Manages by fear, threat of the unknown, low staff moral”
Morale, moral what’s the difference? And how do manage by threat of the unknown if it’s unknown? I have to say, when I complained about our CEO two years ago, every staff member I talked to defended him, his character, his leadership skills, his decision making processes, in fact he was almost God-like. Hmmm…I’m starting to see a connection here. Anyway they convinced me that even though I didn't like some decisions he had made, his intentions were, and would always be what's best for CF school district.

“Show a more caring attitude”
I’m embarrassed to even have to comment on this. Our CEO is not a mother. I don’t want caring, loving, pushover CEO. I want no nonsense, tows the line, gets the job done CEO.

Just the Facts Ma'am

2008-02-11T01:16:00.000-05:00

I’m floored that Phil Keren, editor of the Falls News Press would do the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls the favor of printing our board president admitting a vote took place in executive session. Although the article was wrong on one part. It was not a unanimous decision as I and one other member did not vote. I stared at them and was quickly ignored, and the other member (noob) stated that they had their three votes and didn’t need his either way. Remember- he just had those new board member sessions with the Ohio School Board Association.

Bad fact checking Falls News! I mean, with today’s technology it wouldn’t have taken much effort to call me. Especially before you print something that is clearly a violation of Ohio’s Sunshine Law.

You can check it out here, or you can continue reading and I’ll explain to you what it says and of course my opinion of why it says this.

You can enter executive session for very specific reasons. They are few because we are a public entity. One of the reasons is discipline. Not that our board has ever bothered to be as specific as they should despite my raising concerns several times over the last two years.

Anyway, once you have convened into executive session you may not vote. That means no voting, polling, hand raising, etc. No vote. Period. The reasons for this are very simple. The public has a right to know what their board of education is doing. They also have a right to know how a decision was reached.

In fact I left the executive session February 6th because of illegal voting. They were voting on whether to censure me for leaving the meeting with a board document. Yes you heard me right. I was threatened with censure if I left the board meeting with the superintendents evaluation. The board president stated at the onset of the meeting that she wanted the document returned. I made no comment. I wasn’t made privy as to why I couldn’t leave with it.

I think it has something to do with the fact that she stated she couldn’t find last years evaluation. Even stranger is that she actually thought this was confidential information! The document is there by the way, but if you really need a copy, just ask around. Many copies were made available courtesy of a concerned citizen at a board meeting. In fact some board members had copies in the executive session.

Then it got bizarre. Obviously my scores were shared with other members, even tough we turned them over to the board president anonymously. The minute we took a peek at the scores another member stated, “boy Kellie you sure had a change of heart from last year” What?! How in the hell would anyone know that? In fact, if information wasn’t shared and you compared from last year you’d think the scores were anyone’s but mine. I’ll admit my scores have gone up this year. But only because I have seen improvement. I was not going to base the entire evaluation on one incident involving the missed deadline.

One Half of One Percent

2008-02-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

A few people have asked about the potential loss of $288,000 in “excess costs”. First let me give a quick brief of excess costs. Excess costs is the monies that the district receives from other school districts for money we spend on special education services for their kids. For instance if a special education student is in our schools but lives in Akron, Akron must reimburse us for the money we spend to educate this child, that is above and beyond what we already get from the state for a “typical” child. But of course the state being the state, it must gets its hands on this money first and cause red tape and bureaucracy. So to get our money from Akron we have to report to the state. They collect everyone’s “excess costs” and redistribute them. The above was made possible by your friendly local state representatives. Not only that, districts now had to keep track of each and every kind of student we have. Even though we are not supposed to label kids anymore, there a whole section of reporting that labels every possible handicap, race, creed, sex, one parent, two parent, income, a child could have or not have.

So most districts, typical of government offices had to hire someone to do this new job. The “EMIS” coordinator was born. Because you know job responsibilities can’t shift or become obsolete, they can only grow and refine with your tax money. Once this excess costs business took effect somebody had to it. So some districts had this person do it, some districts had that person do it. Our district had the EMIS coordinator do it.

Everything went smoothly for all districts the first few years. Then this year something changed. It seems a newly imposed deadline was put on this excess costs report. Apparently our EMIS coordinator was unaware of the deadline and we filed late. Of course your first reaction is “How could you not know”? Until you get some facts behind it.

There are 10 districts in Summit County eligible to file for excess costs. Five claim they did not know of the deadline and three of those five filed late, including us. One of the other unaware districts just lucked out and filed on time and the last one filed over the weekend at the witching hour, after hearing of the deadline two days before the deadline. Notification about this new deadline was sketchy at best.

But let’s go back in time a minute. On or about December 4th our Superintendent was notified that our district had missed the deadline. He took immediate action in attempting to recover district monies and disciplined those responsible for the deadline. He also informed the board president Curt Grimes and vice president Therese Dunphy. Apparently they felt no need to inform the rest of the board of the missed deadline or take any disciplinary action regarding the loss of funds. In fact I assumed the entire board found out about the missed deadline the same day I did. January 8th. Silly me. But I guess at the time they didn’t think it was a big deal. Funny how things change. Because now that everyone knows, it has become a big deal.

Except everyone keeps forgetting that an appeal was filed prudently by our superintendent and we may be reimbursed. Only time will tell. In the mean time, I think we should sit tight and hope the state does the right thing. If 50% of Summit County was unaware, I wonder what the state average is this year. If we don’t get reimbursed, it is not the end of the world. While I admit it is a significant amount, it’s not much more than the office renovations. I guess we’ll have to put that on hold. And to put it into perspective, it’s one half of one percent of our budget. It’s a hit but we’ll survive without asking for a levy! And lastly, if the state doesn’t reimburse, we can try to bill the individual school districts ourselves. It will take some time but I think it’s a very real possibility.

Sherlock Anyone?

2008-02-01T01:23:00.000-05:00

It’s been a very disturbing week. I don’t like much of what’s going on. I’m not even sure if the last meeting we had was legal. We entered executive session for the discipline of a public employee. No it wasn’t me! I know amazing, but true. That’s as much as I want to say about that right now. I can’t get censured two years in a row you know. But as usual I will give you an idea of how things work here in the good ole Cuyahoga Falls City School District.

First of all, I am tired of breaking the law. That’s right the board has been doing it for quite some time. You see, I finally heard back from Marc Danns office. Only to have some things verified that I already knew. When entering an executive session, you must state the specific purpose for which you are entering. In our case it’s “Personnel”. Our district has commonly listed every item available, from employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, discipline, etc... I have asked numerous times to stop this practice. But of course it has fallen on deaf ears. We need to state that we are going for “promotion of a public employee” or “compensation of a public employee”.

So at Tuesdays’ special meeting, I insisted we correct the agenda to state the actual purpose. You would have thought I asked them to jump in a Lake. No undertones intended. And imagine everyone’s surprise when the noob supported my stance on the issue. He’s fresh out of new board member training and obviously paid attention! OK I have to say this; I never thought I’d see the day when I’d like the guy who gave me in-school suspension. In case you are unaware, the noob board member was also my high school principal. (PS, they lie about that “pal” thing).

After spending $75.00 in attorney fees it was decided that I would be ignored for the time being and the agenda was approved listing all items. I asked that record reflect my request was ignored. You see, this was the proper place to correct the agenda. But our board president has let her newfound powers go to her head. So they proceeded with moving to enter executive session and then amended the motion to read “employment, discipline, and appointment of personnel”. Hmmm. We’ll see.

Now for the disturbing part that happened in executive session that I will talk about. Our board president asked that the board agree to present a letter to particular administrators. And then the strangest thing happened. When I asked to see the document, I was told no. Ummm, no? Surely I heard wrong because no one in their right mind would actually expect four other people to agree to an unseen document. Now it got really weird because two people were willing to go with the unseen document. Me and the noob said no way.

Long story short, despite my disagreeing with it, it was presented to the particular administrators, as a board document from the board president. I had to write a statement of dissent just to be able to detach my name from it. No vote. Oh except the vote in executive session whether to go public or do it privately. It was a 3-0 vote. Noob wasn’t going to vote in executive session. He knows better. That’s as far as dare go on that for now. You know, censure and all has me paranoid. I’m sure you’ll be getting details soon from the reliable Falls News Press.

We exited executive session and I asked that the record reflect that the board did not discuss “employment and appointment”. I was half appeased. They argued that appointment was discussed. I still disagree. We adjourned shortly after 9PM. I’m stunned that this was railroaded in with out a vote. I’m not even sure it’s allowed.

Mixed Bag

2008-01-24T23:40:00.000-05:00

Man do I need my head examined. I should have seen it coming last night. The board agreed to form a committee to study our bussing program. The board dictat- errr I mean president, asked if anyone was interested in this committee. Two members were to be appointed. Our newest member spoke up first, then myself, then the VP. Well the noob got it (for those of you net lingo dummies, a noob is a person that is new at any particular event, game, board, etc.) and then after much hemming and hawing she appointed herself. Let’s see, which board member has been concerned about bussing inequities from day one? Oh, I believe that was me. Let’s see, who has lived here their entire life and knows our streets, I dare say, better than even our most experienced bus driver? Oh, that also would be me. And maybe the noob. I guess what really perplexes me is that afterward while waiting for our new board photo to be snapped, the pres explained to me the she wanted the noob for his bussing expertise and herself because she’s really interested in this. Um OK. So why ask during the meeting if anyone was interested if you already knew? Why not just state the people and the reasons? Are any of you interested in kissing my butt? Well too bad if you are because I already know who I want to kiss my butt. I only asked so I could tell you no.

Some strange happenings have happened to me lately. This morning I go to my favorite coffee shop to sit in my car and drink over priced coffee and use their internet service for free. Why my car you ask? Because it’s my comfort zone where no one can bug me. Anyway, I’m sitting there gazing at the new Hoover Mahal, when one of our administrators strolls inside with a gift bag in hand. Dang! I knew I shouldn’t have worn my pajamas out of the house today! I had to go home and change just so I could go back and be nosy! I saw her greet some dudes in suits and was convinced they were meeting to steal her away from us! I like this lady. I couldn’t let them woo her on my turf! So I raced home and changed and very slick like went back to nonchalantly go inside and shock every barista working, as they have only seen me in my car at the drive thru and parked out front using their internet. (Barista is a fancy term for the person who makes the over priced coffee).

Much to my surprise there was no wooing. There was a party (complete with gifts)/ Cuyahoga Falls administrative educational meeting happening. Eeeek. I’m not sure who was more uncomfortable, me or the nine or so of our employees par-taying. Don’t worry, they’ll have to water board me to get names. They’ll have to pry the list out of my cold dead hands, they’ll have to… well, you get the picture. Some might say “lighten up Kellie”. I have a question. Why is it the only people you see hanging out in food and beverage establishments during normal working hours are people whose wages come from our tax dollars? And attorneys, but they’re not really people. I’m not just talking about our employees. It starts with them but it’s city workers, it’s county workers, way obvious with state workers, and on down the line. Now I don’t know about you but I have to stay at work and work. And presents have never been part of the mix. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the gifts were part of some educational training exercise. I actually don’t really have a problem with a meeting outside district offices if it’s something that warrants it. But could you at least give the appearance of not having a party?

Lastly I want to share a quick story about one of the many things that it wrong with society today. My sons cell phone was stolen. The mother of the thief called me to see if his story of how he acquired it was true. We agreed that the police should be called because his story had changed four times. From the original story that my son gave it to him, to the final- a dark haired stranger from Roberts Middle School gave it to him at the park, told him whose it was and then roughed him up a little. The police went to his house and he stuck to the dark haired stranger story. The police called me back to tell me that I should instruct my son to not show off his expensive ($30 cell phone?) electronics to his “friends” and there was nothing they could do to the thief. I quote “we’re not gonna do the bright light in the face and strong arm a nine year old”. So I guess the moral of the story is this, it’s ok to steal and lie before you’re ten years old. My kid and the thief learned this lesson today. Today a nine year old stealing a cell phone tomorrow an eighteen year robbing the pizza delivery man.

Lies, Lies, Lies Ye-ah

2008-01-20T11:25:00.000-05:00

OK. I lied. I’m a politician now, it’s a part of the job description. I told you I haven’t seen a Falls News editorial that has moved me in years. Actually, I have. The most recent was this one. I don’t know what I like about it more, the novel idea of incorporating a song title into the header, or the content itself. This is how you inform people. This is how you begin to get the public to understand how to take ownership and responsibility for their tax funded entities. I was thrilled to see this piece in the Falls News. Board and Council meetings are scary and daunting to many people. Making the process understandable and user friendly is a great service to the community.

There’s a few opinion letters of late that I’ve liked as well. This one and this one are two of my personal favorites. Speaking of letters, there was one that I didn’t like so well. I find the letter to be poorly written and a prime example of where the term “baffle you with bull%#@!” comes from. You can read my response in this week’s edition of the Falls News, but you know they have that pesky 300 word limit. It almost killed me to limit myself to that! I got desperate and used FNP instead of Falls News Press. One word vs. three you see. So I’m going elaborate here because I am free to be wordy. In the past I have submitted letters to the FNP that required files of public record to back up statements I made before they would print it. It was frustrating but in hind sight, they didn’t know me and the fact that I do my homework. So imagine my surprise when I saw this letter from my fellow board member. Notice how there is no facts to back up the claims made. I would like him to cite the pertinent and relevant facts left out of articles. I can’t believe the FNP let him say this without documentation to back up the claim. It’s one of the most unbiased acts I have ever seen from the media.

But the one that really blows my mind is the “certain disgruntled board member” comment. The nerve!! No one even had the decency to inquire if I actually was disgruntled before printing this! And for the record I am not disgruntled. I’m thrilled that we have one elementary school that is the 4th highest per pupil spending in Summit County. Of course you’ll be shocked to learn that they are an “Excellent” school on the state report card. Meanwhile my child sits in a classroom of 28 kids in his “Effective” school and wonders when the promised “more comprehensive reconfiguration” is going to take place. I’m also pleased that the board hasn’t found a way to efficiently and equitably bus our students. It’s good that a proposal to lower the bussing limit and eliminate exceptions was proposed. I’m sure using many busses to haul 12-15 kids is proving cost effective with today’s gas prices. And our streets are so squared off that I know bus stop points every 2-3 block radius is a preposterous idea.

Maybe our new board president will lead this board in a new direction. Maybe we will start focusing on the problems and stop trying to convince ourselves that all is well. Maybe we will finally start utilizing the survey results. Maybe.

Trust Everybody, But Cut the Cards.

2008-01-12T01:25:00.000-05:00

I have had several people ask me about my vote for president and vice president. Allow me to explain. Not only did I vote Gunter for president, I seconded the nomination. And yes I also voted yes on Dunphy for vice. You see I was under the false impression that these two women truly wanted to turn a new leaf and begin a year of cooperation. Silly me.
As was witnessed at the meeting, I kept my end of the cooperation deal. I foolishly believed that this board could come together and start working for the people of the district. I was led to believe that I had support in my nomination of a Cuyahoga Falls resident to be appointed to the districts finance committee. I would not have nominated him had the support not been there. But I went into the meeting believing it was. I thought that perhaps all those hours of mediation and thousands of dollars spent on boardmanship and training seminars had finally paid off. How nice that the board could finally put some time and energy into working for the taxpayers and their children.
First up on the agenda- electing a president. Gunter was nominated. I thought to myself, what better way to show my appreciation of the new board attitude than to second the nomination? During the discussion a speech was made by a fellow board member talking about working together and coming together for the common good, etc… I was almost moved to tears. New pres is elected 5-0 and sworn in. Then Dunphy was nominated for vice president and our brand new president gave a similar spiel on cooperation and the new board love. I almost asked if we could have a group hug. I also voted yes on this nomination. But it seems our newest member wasn’t fooled by this display of ours and voted no. Really loud. But alas 4 yes votes and she’s sworn in.
The meeting then proceeded as usual until it came to the finance committee approval. Since only four of the original five members expressed interest in continuing their service, I contacted a gentleman who had previously expressed a desire to serve over a year ago. He was still interested so I decided I would recommend he be added to the committee the board was asked to approve.
My does word travel fast. Much to my surprise, an amendment to the agenda was waiting for me at the board meeting. Boy was this going to be uncomfortable. It seems there was a last minute phone call and whamo bammo we have the fifth finance member back! I didn’t think this was going to be a problem though. After all, it’s not like they make any binding decisions. I decided that I would move to add my recommendation as well since an odd number and majority considerations aren’t needed for this group.
Shouldn’t be any problem, I was thinking. After all this guy’s a well known in our city. He’s a 17 year resident of Cuyahoga Falls, has a stake in our property values, and the health of our districts’ finances as well as the quality of education here. Oh and did I mention that he has an intimate knowledge of school finance? In fact he has more years experience with school finance than any one else on the committee including our own employees. And he was willing to share his knowledge and expertise gratis. Not only that, he was a respected employee of the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education awhile back, left on good terms, and has offered help and assistance through the districts financial fiasco of 2005. Surely a shoe-in!
I moved to add the sixth member and it was seconded. My first clue something was amiss was when the new and improved board president suggested that this was the superintendents committee and she didn’t think the board had the authority to alter his recommendations. I was stunned. Apparently someone needs to brush up on who the agenda belongs to. Wait a minute! I remember this same board member waving the agenda around during a meeting in 2006 and pointing out to this same superintendent that the agenda and its items belong to the board. Surely she knows the board has the authority to amend any item brought forward!
Here’s a little meeting lesson for those of you that luckily do not have to deal with it- When a motion is made and seconded it must have discussion and then be put to the vote. Now here was our new board president trying to declare the motion illegal! I guess the new title went to her head. We elected a president not another dictator. Guess that speech at the start of the meeting was lip service.
After trying to calmly say to her that she couldn’t declare my motion illegal and began to explain why- she cut me off and “called the question” which means end all discussion and vote on the original motion. I in turn declared a “point of order” which stops her action and forces the explanation of my right as a member to have my valid, seconded motion put to the vote. I sat there perplexed as to why voting to enhance our districts finance committee had become such an issue. Needless to say, I won this round and it was put to the vote.
Imagine my surprise after thinking this gentleman had support and publicly nominating him to this committee only to watch the motion fail 2-3.
I guess the contract of personal agendas is in full force and effect. I was a fool for believing that this board was making progress.
On a lighter note it looks like my idea of having more meetings in the library might happen after all. Yeah I know I got ignored when I suggested it. Yeah I know it took one of the majority members suggesting it with one of those over the top of the glasses glances. But regardless it’s happening. It will be much easier for handicapped, disabled, and just plain old achy people like me to attend board meetings. It’s a good thing no matter how it gets done.

Decisions, Decisions...

2007-12-26T18:16:00.000-05:00

Too bad you weren’t at last Thursdays’ meeting. How do I know you weren’t? No one was. The board discussed changing the meeting times, days, location, even the newspaper that the district uses for public business. Yes you heard me right. The Falls News has apparently ticked off a few members. The timing is uncanny. Last month when the Falls News was chastising me, no one breathed a word of change. Now that last weeks paper printed details of my complaint to Marc Danns office, they must suffer. When I questioned our superintendent about this new development I was surprised to hear the following: The board president said he wasn’t pleased with them because he doesn’t have time to check his Email, therefore he cannot make a timely statement and get his side of the story in the paper. Yet last month and last week there were plenty of statements from him. Another member stated she wasn’t happy with some recent editorials…??? I haven’t seen an editorial from the Falls News in years that has moved my emotions in any way shape or form. Maybe it’s a journalist thing. Either way I fail to see how thier editorials affect our districts using them for publishing purposes. From what the board was told they are the cheapest, most reliable, effective way to go. Let’s compare: The Falls News goes to every resident and business in Cuyahoga Falls- for free no less, costs way less to run public notices, solicit bids for contracts, ads, etc. But the best endorsement? The community survey clearly shows that the Falls News is where our residents get their information about our district. This is one of those issues where you just go DUH! Besides the fact that the Akron paper appears to be on its last legs. I buy it more out of pity than for information.

I buy the Cleveland Plain Dealer for news. You can’t beat the PD for in-depth information articles. Some of the statistical comparisons they have done on educational issues are worthy of a local Pulitzer and are a breath of fresh air. The regular series the run on Ohio’s Sunshine Law and public records information is another example of the forward thinking going on in Cleveland. The more you educate and inform the public, the more open your government entities must be.

Which brings us full circle back to which newspaper to use. The article in last weeks Falls News was a surprise to me. I mentioned my complaint and opinion request to the reporter while talking about GPA requirements two weeks before the article was printed. She used a public record request to gather facts and write the article. In fact the board president appears to be the only person that made a statement to her. I guess what he really meant was he doesn’t have time to check his Email, consult with other members and then make a statement to the Falls News.

One of the reasons stated as to why I was censured was because I violated the Ohio School Board Associations code of ethics. Ethics are a touchy subject with this board. I seem to have a different set of ethics than some of the other members. Mine involve keeping the taxpayers informed of how the district is spending their money in the open meeting. And since we’re busy checking ethics violations, maybe we should check and see how ethical it was of our board president to be writing letters of recommendation for his buddy that applied for, and got, a coveted position in the district. I have a feeling that using your position to secure a guy a job that your wife baby sits for isn’t very ethical. Funny how no one felt a censure necessary in that case.

I know nothing will come of my complaint. It would need to be brought to the Court of Common Pleas by any fine citizen of our community and I just don’t have the time or energy for that.

Let Them Eat Cake

2007-12-07T19:06:00.000-05:00

I’m so confused. I can’t figure out if this board wants to parent our children or not. I’m told time and time again that it’s not our job to raise other peoples children. Yet we have now made the decision to go above and beyond state GPA standards for participation on extra curricular activities. It didn’t matter that our administrators ALL recommended against it. It didn’t matter that will affect 17 athletes and about 56 kids involved in other extra curriculars.

But let’s get to some facts:

14 of the 17 districts we compete against in the Northeast Ohio Conference have GPA requirements of 1.5 or below.

All studies by major universities, regardless of biases or reasons for the study came to the same conclusion; Participation in any extra curricular activity, regardless of GPA, made for better college students and successful citizens after graduation. And considering only about 35% of our students as well as students nationwide actually graduate from college, it’s something we really need to think about. Is it really worth alienating 73 students from activities that lead to better people in the long run?

Children involved in extra curricular activities have lower instances of teen pregnancy, drug use, criminal behaviors and is directly correlated with lower drop out rates.

My favorite fact is this: 95% of Fortune 500 company executives participated in extra curricular activities yet only 47% of the same group were National Honor Society members.

I guess I have to be the realist in this situation. I have never been one to mince words. I was questioned whether or not I believed that all children should be capable of maintaining a C average. No I don’t. I can be selfish and say to myself, yes my children are capable of maintaining a C average therefore everyones child should be! But I know that the 4 kids that lived in the meth house over on 14th street probably had difficulties maintaining a C average. I saw on a list with my own eyes a girl that I know is a vibrant productive member of society, that lost her mom a few years ago and having a hard time maintaining a D average. I also know that there are kids that will excel in areas that do not involve academics, yet still become successful, productive members of society. This policy doesn’t appear to help anyone and it seems to hinder those who might need after school activities the most. I guess since life is so good in the village they must need a reminder of what life is like for many kids over here.

Speaking of the list, I was given the list of affected students at the start of the meeting I was expected to vote on it. Once again a board majority with an agenda railroaded an idea in, despite recommendations against it from district administrators, parents, and every national statistician I could find. I also heard some complaints from teachers that were miffed that a union leader read letters in support of this issue at the meeting but other members opposing views weren’t heard. But the worst part of the meeting was at the moment I offered a counter proposal. It was so outrageous I received four phone calls about it today. I offered a counter proposal of leaving the GPA requirement at 1.5 but requiring two consecutive semesters rather than the only the prior one, and a no F’s requirement. While I was trying to state the proposal, another member giggled, laughed and pointed. I found her conduct to be rude, childish and unprofessional. I put a lot of time and research into this issue and did not appreciate the disrespectful display. I am truly perplexed by these odd behaviors lately.

In closing I just want to say that three weeks ago I was all for raising the GPA requirement. After much research I have come to the conclusion that we need to focus on the children that aren’t participating at all. These are the kids that end up being the statistics we hate to read about.

From Bad to Worse

2007-11-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

What a Thanksgiving! I wake to my name in the paper for being censured at the Tuesday night board meeting by my colleagues. Funny thing is, they made it a last second addendum to the agenda and gave me absolutely no time to prepare a response. Don’t get me wrong, I responded. But I plan on responding further.

About two months ago an executive session was held in the high school library after a public meeting. Items were discussed that concerned me as being outside the scope of what should be talked about behind closed doors. You see the law has set in place specific items that your board may discuss in private. At the next meeting during an executive session I brought this up to the board attorney with the full board present. His advice was this: You probably shouldn’t have done it and don’t do it again. I asked how we could remedy the situation and was scoffed at by the board. I then called the Ohio School Board Association for advice. Their legal counsel suggested that a complaint could be filed with Marc Dann’s office. “But” I was cautioned, “do you really want to embarrass the board like that?”

Then we held a public meeting in Columbus of all places. It was all open and the item was briefly discussed. Curious? Request the minutes. Although I bet you’ll find them scantily clad.

My reasons for being concerned about this item vary. First of all, I find it strangely coincidental that two months before an election this expensive project was discussed in private. Secondly, I think the board attorney should “probably” have been a little more precise with his answer. I think the “don’t do it again” says it all.

Despite the warning of the Ohio School Board Association, I have decided to file the complaint. Yes, I know it appears retaliatory. But the censure of myself and this issue are both tied to the same problem. Items discussed in executive session. What is confidential and what does the public have the right to know? I think my colleagues sometimes forget it is the tax payers money we are talking about. My money. Your money. I anxiously await Marc Dann’s opinion.

A rebel without a clue...Hah!

2007-11-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

If you saw Friday’s Beacon, don’t fret! I am not in violation of anything. While the article gave the impression that I did something wrong, I assure you I didn’t. Well, unless you consider informing the public wrong. The reporter left the story in the board room and printed the opinions of my fellow board members. Then to add insult to injury he printed this statement: Patterson said that all she did was tell a reporter that a contract extension would likely be voted on soon. I didn’t say any such thing. I said a meeting was called by TWO board members and the reporter was notified as the law requires and she was given an agenda with attachments. The attachments are in the blog below. Once the meeting was called the items were given to the media making them an open public record.

It’s reporting like this that leads me to today’s’ Dick Feagler column in the Plain Dealer. He complains that bloggers do not know how to write a story because we aren’t in the trenches like beat reporters are. I admit I have not seen the face of a dead child that appears to be sleeping. Thank God. I don’t need to see it in person to have opinions and feelings about the why and how it happened. Another complaint he makes is that bloggers don’t pull all-nighters with politicians. Maybe it’s just the blogs I read but I see a plethora of functions bloggers attend, then write about. I think what ticks off reporters like Feagler is the fact that bloggers are unrestrained.

Yes you may have the occasional blogger that doesn’t know his or her @$$ from a hole in the ground. But when you find a good reliable blog, you know it. I think Feagler is jealous that bloggers really don’t have a worry in the world when they write. No editors to tell me I’m going to offend people. No finance department complaining that subscriptions are down. Nobody telling me I have to cover this or report on that. No leaning to one side or the other to please the new flavor of the week owner. It’s all me and my blog. I can be serious, I can be funny, I can make fun of people, and I can be sarcastic. I can make up my own words- and I have. I think what really irks him is the fact that I didn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a college education to do this. And I’m arrogant enough and free enough to dare say that I write better than most, not all but most local reporters. Part of it is because I don’t have the restrictions I talked about above and part of it is because I truly love to do this and see the need.

Back to the Beacon. Just the facts. How you use information has always been a tactic of biased people. Leaving out important facts can be very misleading. For instance, in the example above of a dead child, most people assumed the child met a violent end. What if I were to tell you her heart just stopped? Still a sad story but the facts change your opinions of how and why she died. The beacon left out so many facts in Fridays article that it gives the appearance I did something wrong. I didn’t. And for the record, I spent the beginning of this week pulling all-dayers with our treasurer. She assured me she is not upset about the situation with her contract. I’m sure you wont find that in the Beacon Journal either.

Along with the dirt and the dust, we have a few cockroaches

2007-11-04T12:36:00.000-05:00

Wow!! I cannot believe the lengths people will go to keep things under the rug. I had decided not to elaborate on the details of the treasurers contract in my last blog to give the Falls News Press the opportunity to do the right thing and print the details of the contract that was released to them with the agenda for the special meeting. What they actually printed was pitiful. I don’t blame the reporter. I know from my conversations with her that she had intended to inform the public. I’m not sure what happened in between our conversation and the printing of the paper but apparently someone put the pressure on to keep the details to themselves. So basically everyone on the board, and at the offices of the Falls News Press know what’s in the treasurer’s contract and superintendent’s salary increase is but felt it was OK to wait until after the election to fill in the rest of Cuyahoga Falls. Who is involved in the shrouding? My spidey senses tell me it was Phil Keren and Scott Shriner, as these are the two people generally responsible for keeping you uninformed. I guess your only recourse is to call them at 330-688-0088 ext.3110 and ask them what is in the contracts.

Just kidding you can always just click here (superintendent and treasurer) and see them for your self. You see, once these documents were released to the media as an attachment to the agenda for the Monday Oct. 29th meeting, they became part of the public record. My only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner. I foolishly thought our local paper would publish the facts. The facts are this: The board came to a tentative agreement at the Thursday Oct. 25 special board meeting and had already told the Falls News Press that we would be taking action on it that night. Then your board majority decided to let the Oct. 31 deadline pass and make the new contract retroactive and supersede the old new contract. Feeling that our treasurer was worthy of signing before the deadline and knowing that the contract was finished Bob Heath and I called for the Monday Oct. 29th special meeting, attached an agenda with details, filed it with our treasurer, and released it to the media. Unfortunately I did not hand deliver a personal invitation to each and every board member. Therefore, proper notice was not given and the meeting was cancelled. My bad, I admit.

Remember when looking over the contract that our treasurer has been responsible for much of the turn around our district has seen. She has renegotiated contracts with vendors that have saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, she performs the fiscal duties of our district as well as Schnee Learning Center and The Cuyahoga Falls Foundation, she also oversees the 4th largest budget, ranks fourth in years of experience yet is one of the lowest paid treasurers in Summit County. In fact the four treasurers that rank below her on the pay scale have fringe that exceed ours and more than make up for lower compensation. In doing comparisons all treasurers with budgets the size of Cuyahoga Falls earn $90K or more plus fringe and benefits.

Contrary to the claims of one incumbent, the turn around Cuyahoga Falls has seen is due to our treasurers skills and watchful eye on our finances. The Board of Education has not given direction to our administrators for two years. The successes this district can claim are due to employees who, despite their board who can’t even approve a contract on time or set meaningful goals, continue to give our children a quality education and keep our budget in the black.

What's under your rug?

2007-10-30T01:11:00.001-04:00

Once again I feel the need to write a disclaimer. The statements in todays blog or any other blog I write for that matter, do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of other Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education members or employees of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District. I write this blog to convey my views and concerns to the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls so that they may make an informed decision at the voting booth. I also write to elicit feedback from citizens regarding current issues facing me as a board member.

I don’t know what to do so I’m going to blog about it. Last Friday another board member and I called a special meeting. It was scheduled for Monday night at 6 PM. I attached an agenda to the notification letter that stated the purpose of the meeting. The purpose was to vote on the treasurer’s contract and an addendum to the superintendent’s contract. Two items that would have taken all of five minutes to vote on. Why a special meeting you ask? Well, that was because there is a deadline for the treasurer’s contract. That deadline is October 31. Unfortunately it is also precariously close to Election Day. So even though the board and treasurer came finalized the details last Thursday, in plenty of time to meet the deadline, the board majority has chosen to miss the deadline and put it on the November 20th agenda. It could have been voted on last Thursday. In fact the newspaper was told it would be.

What’s most distressing to me is that the board member that agreed our treasurer was worth signing on time, he didn’t want to sign for a second proper notification. You see the original notice wasn’t hand delivered so the meeting couldn’t take place. Even though the board has held other special meetings without proper notification. But I guess when you can get a majority to show up with or without proper notification it really doesn’t matter. I asked the member to sign a second notification and he said that he would leave it up to the board president. Translation- He’s been talked to. I can hear it now. How dare he try to do the right thing. Don’t you realize people will be voting soon? My goodness it’s amazing how a weekend full of phone calls can change your mind.

I wonder why no one wants to get together and approve these contracts? I heard talk of needing a “clean copy”. That’s odd, the board has approved many contracts previously without a “clean copy” including the teacher’s contract that we still don’t have a copy of. I could be wrong but I am highly suspicious that your board is keeping something under the rug ‘til November 6th is over with.

Speaking of under the rug, there’s one more thing I’m a little unsettled about. Do our employees’ goals really fall under the guidelines of executive sessions? And do costly projects really fall under the category of a goal? Or could your friendly local school board be using new and improved ways to spend your tax money behind closed doors? I bet you’ll find out all about this doozy after November 6th as well.

Some people may question my motives in writing this. I think my motives are pretty darn clear. Election day is November 6th. You can make a difference by making an informed decision. If you like being informed like I describe above and spending like my last blog talked about- vote for it. If you want someone with a strong finance background and common sense- Vote for Molly Benedum!

Thoughts at Election Time

2007-10-21T13:17:00.000-04:00

I'd like to preface this blog by stating that the opinions stated here are mine. The numbers and facts I cite in my blogs come from various sources of public record. I do not have time to list my sources in every blog. If you'd like to refute any number I use, feel free. I don't post it unless I'm confident my source is solid. The statements in todays blog or any other blog I write for that matter, do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of other Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education members or employees of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District. I write this blog to convey my views and concerns to the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls so that they may make an informed decision at the voting booth. I also write to elicit feedback from citizens regarding current issues facing me as a board member.

I’ve been pondering whether to write this blog. After all, it seems so outrageous that I should even have to. But I am told that the rumor mill has been grinding up some tall tales. I guess election time does that to people. I got a call today from someone who was under the impression that I want to close more school buildings. I thought this issue had been buried a long time ago but it seems that this bit of misinformation is once again making the rounds. First of all, I don’t have the authority to close buildings. Second of all, I have never said I want to close buildings. I have said that I feel this district needs to reconfigure. We have some buildings packed full and others nearly empty. We have an elementary school with more students than the middle school it feeds to. I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again… I’m tired of some kids in this city getting the short end of the stick while other areas are pampered. I really find it odd that people are talking about me when I’m not even running for office. The caller felt it was a shallow attempt by the candidate to create a diversion from the real issues.

Another point the caller wanted clarified was whether I only support candidates from the City of Cuyahoga Falls. This one is easy. Yes. Silver Lake is overly represented on the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education. The small village is about ten percent of our population, provides ten percent of our local revenues, and yet controls sixty percent of your board of education. I strongly believe my city needs fair representation on the board. The median income in CF is much lower than SL and I’m not convinced that the candidate from SL understands the financial burden of new levies on us mortals. I’m not sure former administrators do either. That leaves two. You figure it out.

One of them I will mention here. Molly Benedum. Contrary to popular belief, I did not know Molly before the school districts’ financial fiasco of 2005. She contacted me and offered her financial expertise because we shared a common goal. That goal is to see our tax dollars spent wisely and see to it that information is not only available to the average Joe, but that the average Joe can understand it. Only then should you be asked whether you support an issue or not. Molly knows school finance almost as well as our treasurer and I feel would provide a valuable service to the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls.

Don’t forget what your current members up for election have done for the last few years. One was responsible for being asleep at the wheel and letting our finances go to pot and then promising to either “resign after the new members are settled in or finish my term and not run again, depending on how things go.” I guess that was a lie. But alas, society has become used to lying politicians and it hardly fazes us. So let's move on and look at what has been done. Both incumbents have voted to approve the purchase of a 50-year-old money pit of a bus garage still not being used (and needing about another quarter million dollars dumped into the project before it is usable!), encouraged the CEO to explore the drilling of natural gas on school property in the heart of Cuyahoga Falls, but the real kicker was they gave the largest percent increase in salary to the superintendent and treasurer before they were evaluated, before their contracts were negotiated, and without them even asking! They then approved a replacement levy to be placed on the ballot, even as the CAT tax is performing better than expected. In fact it is performing so well that we went from a deficit two years out last October to smooth sailing for the next 5 years. So don’t let them fool you like they tried to do with the friendly caller. Our positive financial future is due to three things: Prudent budgeting by our treasurer, generous payments from taxpayers, and a better than expected CAT payments.

Doing It For The Kids

2007-10-05T12:04:00.000-04:00

I know it’s been a while. I wish I had the time to be on the computer as much as some of you can. I haven’t reported on the last few meetings so I guess I should fill you in on some details. Administrative raises were approved. 3% for the next three years. Another $500 in merit pay can be had each year if we meet district wide excellence. The cost is more than worth it if the results are achieved. Unlike some people, I believe in dangling the carrot for results. It’s a tactic that works as long as you’re using a carrot that tempts the subject. For instance, one of my children had a teacher that would allow the student to skip the “main” spelling test if they passed the “pretest” on Wednesday with a 100% score. I never saw that kid practice so hard for a test so he didn’t have to take the test. The goal was accomplished and everyone got something out of it. Merit pay has its benefits. Good teachers aren’t afraid of it. Good negotiating teams are. Oh! That reminds me- you really should check out this web site:

Union Facts.com

I listened to a speaker from this organization a few weeks back and was intrigued. What I find interesting is that the states with the poorest economies have the strongest union holds. Hmmmm….I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Before you send me hate messages let me give you some background:
My dad was a bona fide UAW officer. I was brought up Union Strong, Union Proud. We had all the medical and dental care a person could want. I didn’t understand that GM was in this business to make a profit. My dad said they owed it to us for his time in the company and quality workmanship and such. I also saw other members of my family work as hard or harder and not get these benefits. Then I had some history classes and I learned that way back in the old days unions were formed to protect workers. People were literally worked to death. They were organizations that fought for rights and protections that are law today. Then I turned 18 and got a job and much to my surprise found out I was part of a union whether I liked it or not. To add insult to injury they took union dues out of my $80 paycheck. But they didn’t even meet with management when the department was eliminated. But let’s get back to the lessons of our fathers. GM realized that they could get non-union workers elsewhere and still pay a decent wage but cut benefits. Why wouldn’t they? The UAW realized if it was going to keep jobs i.e. membership in the United States major concessions would have to be made. Plants closed and new workers started paying for benefits. Then old workers did. Then retired workers started paying. What they realized is free insurance will kill a business. If a for-profit company cannot sustain free insurance benefits how is a school district supposed to? The difference is the school district can’t go to Mexico via NAFTA.

I’ll tell you what bothered me most about negotiations. No one fought for classroom resources, new books, building security, or updated technology. All the things I hear from teachers time and time again that these are the things they want. Nothing “for the kids”. It was all “for the raises and benefits”. Remember this at levy renewal time. I hope they don’t try to guilt trip me with the “do it for the kids” mantra. I just paid $200 for a field trip, $100 in school fees, and a $1000 property tax bill. Not to mention the money I’ve spent on school fundraisers. I don’t dare print that figure here for fear of being cut off from the checking account. I feel like the community has done and is doing its part “for the kids”.

BTW: Just to clarify something for people. A proposed bylaw change failed. Bylaw 0147 will stay as passed in 2002 and revised several times since. It was a nice re-election gesture but so transparent I actually lost respect for the member that proposed it. There are times when this position takes more time than a full time job. $125 per meeting with a maximum of 30 meetings per year. That's $3750 per year. No benefits. No fringe. Heck nobody's even tried to bribe me for a vote! Besides, you can relinquish any part or all of the board compensation if you so choose.

It's a bargain for the taxpayer. A changing of the guard in November could really impact how your tax dollars are spent.

Diatribes of Kellie, Part One

2007-09-15T02:13:00.000-04:00

This blog is actually a response I wrote to an article in a magazine I receive- the American School Board Journal. Click on the link below, scroll down to "The Skill Set" and let me know you agree with my response or not.

American School Board Journal

I am writing in response to your Sept. 2007 issues article entitled "The Skill Set". While it may appear that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world, the reality is we are still world leaders and continue to turn out the best and the brightest. Global awareness is needed but an accurate picture is also needed. I'm not saying countries such as China and India to use your examples, aren't producing some skilled workers, but...

You cannot say an engineer from China or India has the same qualifications as an American engineer. Some recent recalls from China serve to support my argument. Standards and quality control are NOT a factor in countries where corruption, communist government controls, and a lack of technical aptitude based on life experience is the norm. A graduate from the most prestigious engineering university in China has not seen- let alone used- industry standard testing machines and tools commonly used in small machine shops to billion dollar companies across the U.S. Indian outsourcing allows for minimal training and the ability to copy procedures, but the lack of understanding why certain procedures are followed or particular materials used shows the true lack of education.

Two real life examples, embellished some and of course, names changed to protect the innocent. Both involve tool manufacturing. USA company has invented the GreatTool. USA’s engineers have worked tirelessly on the specifications for GreatTool and it must be made exactly to the specs to work properly. USA company sends the specs to the Chinese manufacturer with strict instructions to make GreatTool exactly to specs. The manufacturer, ChinaCrap Inc. discovers that they do not have the machines to make what USA asked for. But if they put an extra notch in the design they can make it easily and faster than they originally thought! Not only that, the owner of ChinaCrap has discovered that his cousin has cheap steel. So he tells his ChinaCrap engineers that they WILL use the cheap steel. He doesn’t care if USA needs pure steel, this steel is only 38% other metals and it’s his cousins. So China Crap makes it to their new specs. USA company receives large shipment of tools that break and USA company president scratches his head and wonders why this happened when the ChinaCrap engineers said the changes would work. And it was cheaper than the qualified, properly trained, detail oriented Americans would have cost. This example happens in all trades and businesses across the U.S.

The next example involves India. USA company needs sterile computer chips for their new cutting edge digital tire gauge. Same as above- exact specs must be followed. USA sends the specs to the manufacturer in India, IndiaINC. IndiaINC has a great web site but their offices are actually in a corrugated steel shack that cows roam in and out of freely. Most of the “staff” do not own shoes and live in a kind of poverty that Americans couldn’t begin to comprehend. On the way to work they pass signs on buildings that read “DO NOT PASS URINE ON THIS WALL” (by the way, not an embellishment!) in several different languages and Indian dialects. Their cities and country have no infrastructure, let alone plumbing, sewers, and knowledge of common safety practices and hygiene. IndiaINC’s engineers are glad to make the $7500 per year because most of the staff lives in tents and huts. Thank goodness American companies outsource! The owner of IndiaINC has facilities all over the country. He sneds out the specs but with over 800 dialects in India, much of what USA wants gets lost in translation. Not to mention sterile is something very few doctors understand in India, so needless to say IndiaINCs employees have never heard of such a thing and assemble the tire gauge one the back of Bessie with raw human waste running through open trenches from business to business downhill until it reaches the nearest body of moving water. (Again that’s not an embellishment!) When USA company receives their first shipment of tire gauges from IndiaINC, the receptionist, Fannie starts reminiscing about her uncle Lem’s farm and Richard, the obsessive compulsive, Purell toting, clean freak, immediately breaks out an ultra violet light and discovers oodles of germs and contaminants. So many that he dons rubber gloves and drags the shipment outside himself. When the CEO of USA company visits IndiaINC in person he sees the conditions and fondly remembers the company that used to do this work in truly sterile conditions back in Ohio but closed because the jobs dried up. Oh well IndiaINC does it wayyyyy cheaper. I’ll just tell USAs engineers to adjust the specs so that fecal matter is incorporated into the design.

My point is, you can’t pluck people out of third world conditions, communist and easily corrupted environments, stick a degree in a few hundred thousand of their hands with standards far below the civilized world and be expected to taken seriously. In the long run it catches up with you. People are quickly losing trust in “Made in China”. Let’s see, poison pet food, lead paint on kids toys, antifreeze in toothpaste, these are all things that happened because it was cheaper for these American companies to have poorly educated and dare I say- corrupt- Chinese workers make their products.

An engineering degree from China or India doesn’t hold a candle to an engineering degree from an American University. I would bet my last dollar if you were to administer to Chinese students the test to qualify for the Society of Professional Engineers you would see the number of actual qualified Chinese engineers fall drastically.

The innovators of the world are American. The progressives of the world are American. The people who set the standard of quality and workmanship are Americans.
As for U.S. children falling behind the rest of the world in K-12 education… don’t even get me started!

We the Special Interest Groups...

2007-09-08T15:48:00.000-04:00

The only thing I have to say is everyone should read the following links. The first link is an article that appeared in Scene Magazine. The second is a link to Ohio Secretary of State's searchable database. You can search a contributor's name or a representative's name or both! The last link is a fun site I found a long time ago that helps people understand where the money is coming from and how it influences your representatives votes. Government really has become "By the Special Interest Money, Of the Special Interest Money, and For the Special Interest Money."

"Education at It's Worst"

Searchable database of Ohio campaign contributions.

OpenSecrets.org

A Fair Contract Indeed!

2007-08-27T14:10:00.000-04:00

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Teachers took 2%, 3.5%, and 2.9% raises over the next three years. But realizing that $10 per month toward a premium doesn’t cut it with today’s rising insurance costs, the insurance contribution is now $40, $80, and $100 over the next three years. Still much less than most of us pay, but a positive step in the right direction. The taxpayers will be thrilled! Now maybe the voters will go for that bond issue for new buildings when the tobacco settlement money comes through.

Kudo’s to Rootstowns’ school board and teachers for agreeing to a truly fair and equitable contract. Knowing that this August 85% of school levies failed across Ohio, they did the right thing by trying to cut the cost to the taxpayer. We cannot continue to pay for unsustainable perks and fringe benefits. This contract is something that I think is precedent setting in the state of Ohio.

The contract for Cuyahoga Falls was the best we could get and avoid a strike. While we will receive insurance premium payments in years two and three of our new contract the $120,000 in payments over the next three years doesn’t even begin to offset the added $1.4 million in liability due to an increase in the maximum claim on dental from $1500 to $2500. I personally would have liked to see a percentage put on insurance payments, so if the district sees another large increase like a few years back, everyone will absorb the cost. But although the raises are based on percentages, insurance will remain fixed and extremely low. No step increases in the insurance department either. And rather than an attendance bonus, I would have liked to seen a “didn’t use the insurance bonus” Oh wait- we have that too. The buyout program. But not many people use this option because our district is one of the last men standing that still offers FREE insurance. I’m sure at $10 per month we will still have very few buyouts, as you will not find cheaper insurance anywhere. In fact it has been my experience that the people that take the buyout have a spouse in the education field with the same lucrative benefits. In fact one teacher told me that he left the private sector making a higher salary because nowhere in the private sector could you get benefits totaling 50% of your salary AND summers off. I voted yes on this contract because I was promised that no new general fund levies would be needed for the next two years. The CEO would only promise two years because that’s the cycle of the state budget.

I want to give you an example of what an average teacher in Cuyahoga Falls makes. Please don’t get mad at me as I am just reporting the facts as I see them. I am using a teacher with 10 years experience, a BA+150 hrs. with a base salary of $50,758.

Base Salary $50,758
Medicare $736
Workers Comp $700
Retirement $7,106
Medical $10,676
Prescription $3,918
Dental $1,091
Life $110
Total actual cost of one Cuyahoga Falls average teacher $75,095

This is the amount paid by the taxpayer via the board for one year. This amount does not include the following perks:

First of all what is tenure worth? It most definitely is worth something. After all most of us aren’t guaranteed a job just because we kept our job. So this item does have a value. I’ll leave it to those smarter than me to come up with a dollar amount for this one. So what is the guarantee of knowing you’ll have a job with guaranteed percentage raises including step increases for not leaving your guaranteed job worth? My personal opinion is, knowing you have a job until you retire is almost priceless, worth at least $250,000 over a 30 year continuing contract.

Next up- summers off. This is also worth something. This dollar amount is a little easier to come up with. 15 weeks vacation. Yes, I’m counting Christmas and spring breaks. And I don’t want to hear about the things that need to be done on these breaks because we all have to do things and we don’t get that much time off to do it. Most of us with full time jobs and two weeks of vacation and the 10 common holidays off, work an average of 1,928 hours per year. A full time teacher works 1,314 hours per year. That’s a difference of 614 hours. Using our average teacher salary that means summers off are worth a whopping $23,712.68. WOW! Even more than I had suspected. But this is slightly unfair as it uses an hourly wage as its basis. So I’ll try to be fair and use the logic that ¼ of the year is a vacation (actually 15 weeks, I gave 3 weeks as 12 month worker time off) therefore ¼ of the total board paid amount is what summers are worth. That totals $18,773.

The attendance bonus is worth between $275 and $500. I would have liked to see this item taken out of the contract but it was not to be. Take heart in the fact that now a teacher can only miss three days now to qualify for it rather than the previous contracts eight days. Geez I need a bonus for going to work like I was hired to do. In my opinion this perk encourages people to come to work sick and spread it to our kids and other faculty and send it home to me. For a lousy five hundred bucks.

Let’s get a grand total so I can rest my weary wrists.
$75,095 Taxpayer funded salary and fringe amount.
$??? Tenure = continuing contract = job guarantee
$18,773 Value of summers off
$0 This average teacher missed too many days :o(

$93,868 Total teacher compensation…so far...

Add to this total, your tenure value, plus the value of accumulated sick leave buyouts, early retirement notification bonuses, and the many stipends and extra duty contracts offered.

My total, dividing all other perks with 30 years, is an average $104,000 per year on our current average teachers salary and fringes.

Permission to Blog Freely, Sir?

2007-08-16T01:27:00.000-04:00

I don’t usually rehash things but a comment was made on my last blog stating that “it’s a crying shame you’re allowed to have this blog”. Strange considering it came from someone who blogs, none the less the comment was made. So tonight I went to his blog and checked it out. Seems a lot is going on regarding his comment and subsequent comments. I would like to clarify a few comments made about me. First on censorship. There has only been one comment I have ever censored/deleted from my blog and it was the “God hates fags” web link. I refuse to allow something that hateful and wrong to be posted here. Other than that, this blog has had free reign.

Next on my reasons for this blog. People have made a lot of assumptions about me without bothering to click on the Email link and ask me themselves. My reasons for this blog were talked about in the beginning and I am not going to post a refresher course for newbies. Suffice it to say I am secure in my reasoning for this blog. I guess I am to assume that being professional means I should not have an opinion, and if I do have an opinion I should not voice it. I had opinions when I ran for this office. I voiced them during my campaign and I was elected by a majority of votes. So I can only assume that a lot of people liked what I had to say. I wish all board members, city council members, state and federal reps would blog. It would make deciding whom to vote for a heck of a lot easier. Instead of little post card sound bites at election time, you might actually get to know your representatives if they blogged.

What a novel idea! Let people know how you think so they can make an informed decision. Keep people up to date on what their elected officials are going to be voting on. Let people know what is being discussed at meetings. Since another blogger mentioned the gas wells at Bolich and Newberry, I’ll use that as my example. I never claimed I could or did single handedly prevent the gas wells from going in. I have told people from day one that I can't change anthing alone. It is hearing the voice of many, from the public- that's you voters and taxpayers- that can change the minds of administrators and board members. But- I do credit this blog for informing people and getting them involved before a vote was taken. I can assure you that most in the administration and board was in favor of the gas wells before the public forum was held. But thanks to an informed public making an excellent presentation of how much they loved their neighborhood and felt the small dividends were not worth the dangers and looks of ugly wells, the project was dropped. Back in 20 B.B. (Before Blogs) these types of actions were reported on after the fact. Usually as a shocking headline that would have went something like this:

GAS WELLS TO BE INSTALLED NEXT TO SCHOOLS
Neighbors outraged that $1000 per month was worth more than the safety of their children and neighborhood.

The position I hold on the school board did not suddenly put me above others, nor change my views on the changes that need made in education. They are views that I had and expressed before, during and after being elected. I am “allowed to have this blog” because I live in the greatest country in the world. Your biggest fear should be to ever have to live in a society that doesn’t allow these types of liberty’s and freedoms. John J. Chapman said it best: “Attack another’s rights and you destroy your own”. In the communistic view suggested, if I weren’t “allowed to have this blog”, 50% of you wouldn’t be allowed to vote, another 12% of you wouldn’t be allowed to own property or vote, and most of us would be in prison for searching and receiving information over the internet. You don’t have to like this blog, but you do have to like the fact that we’re all allowed to have opinions and voice them if we so choose. I am grateful to those before me who understood how important our freedoms are and were willing to give their life so that we may enjoy them today. It’s that attitude that allows me to have this blog.

Equitable [ek-wi-tuh-buhl] –adjective 1. Just and right; fair; reasonable: equitable treatment of all citizens.

2007-08-09T01:20:00.000-04:00

Alert!!

Thursday August 9ths special board meeting is NOT to vote on a negotiated contract. Sorry to burst your bubbles but it will be a quick, boring meeting.

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself” Eleanor Roosevelt

I guess it’s time for a new blog. First of all I have been asked several times about the status of the CEO’s evaluation. The Ohio Historical Society has deemed that it cannot be destroyed and it has been made a part of the public record. I am about to explode from keeping mum on negotiations. So I guess I’m just gonna let loose and tip toe around what’s actually going on and just point out a few facts on life. Many statements were read at the board meetings by teachers stating that they wanted what was “fair and equitable” and that’s fine with me. The Beacon Journal did a great article this weekend. Be sure to check it out. Anyway you decide what is fair and equitable.

The average household income in CF is $42,263 annually. Keep in mind that household part!

The average employee in CF works a 12 month year with an average of 2-5 weeks vacation. Sick days and personal days were “use it or lose it”. Some hospital employees could carry over 5 days from year to year.

An average insurance benefit was impossible as it varied so widely. It went anywhere from 10% for government workers to 30-60% for corporate workers to 100% for self employed and small business employees. I also talked to four people that had no insurance because the premium was 100% employee contribution and they couldn’t afford it and buy food, clothing and shelter.

The average doctors visit co-pay is $25.00.

Everyone I talked to that held a professional license paid for their own license renewal and continuing education if required, sans some hospital employees that had c/e paid for. Many people buy supplies they prefer to use rather than use what is provided by their employers.

One person receives an attendance bonus and he works for the government. Big surprise there! Many receive performance bonuses and some receive Christmas bonuses.

No one I talked to had a guaranteed job. All cited job performance, attendance, meeting goals set by the employer, efficient department operations, and customer satisfaction among the reasons for continued employment. No one kept his or her job because of longevity.

When asked if they wanted to pass a new levy every two years in addition to ALL renewal levies and continue to run our district status quo the answer was a resounding NO.

Now, let me share some more facts that may startle you so make sure you are sitting down.

The average teacher salary in CF is $48,000. An average teacher in CF receives $25,000 worth of benefits annually on top of wages. In addition to that many draw extra wages from the taxpayer in the form of stipends and extra duty contracts. That comprises coaching, club leadership, various continuous improvement committees, heck we even pay someone at each building to haul the DVD players from storage to classrooms and back.

One last thing I want to say. Remember the year 2005? Let me give you a refresher course. The district found itself about five million dollars in the hole. We let go of 90 teachers and a couple administrators. We closed two school buildings, and passed a levy that put a strain on many people struggling to get by. Wages and benefits are 85% of our, and most school districts budgets. I can tell you this- the five million dollar deficit didn’t happen solely because of the other 15% of the districts budget.

Fuzzy Math Again?

2007-07-26T22:39:00.000-04:00

It’s been a while. I needed a summer break so I took a month off. I guess it’s time to get back into the swing of things. I have many people ask me if the board is off for the summer. No we are not. It is business as usual for the Board of Education. No rest for the wicked, as grandma used to say.
I’ve had a lot of emails and phone calls regarding the high school dance team. It seems a much-loved coach’s job is on the chopping block so a certified employee may take over as per union contract. I only know one thing. There are many girls involved in this “club” and I hope the involvement continues. I can’t speak as to whom is the better candidate as their qualifications are not something I can compare. I thought about requesting they compete in a dance contest but this would probably be deemed unprofessional. So I will use this as a litmus test. Please realize that the board really has no say in the employment procedures. This is a duty assigned to the CEO. We can give input and opinions, but for the most part these things are a done deal before the board knows anything is happening. This has been a successful program for ten years. Built and babied by the same person. I’m always told if it aint broke don’t fix it and it seems to be a good policy to me. So like I said, this year will be a litmus test for me. I hope the district continues to have a successful program.
As usual it gets murkier. We are hiring an interim high school principal. Besides having been my high school principal and partying all weekend together at my high school reunion, he is the father in law of above mentioned 10-year dance team coach. So my vote at the Aug. 1st board meeting should come as no surprise to anyone.
But regardless of the above connections let me tell you why this interim stuff bothers me. I have always wanted people to try to save money. So I made a suggestion. We have an administrator that is retiring effective Dec. 31. We have created a temporary position for this person to fulfill the contract and employ a new guy. The new guy will cost us $75,000 plus the cost of the new position created for the old guy. (Approximately $60,000). My suggestion was to ask the old guy to stay an extra 6 months, eliminating the need for the new guy and the created position. It would cost about $60,000. And give us plenty of time to do one of two things. Either begin a search to fill the old guys position when he finishes the school year, or plan B and my favorite plan by the way: Retool the high school for 3 principals instead of 4. My main argument for this the fact that there are half as many kids there than 20 years ago but the same amount principals and double the administrators overall. That would be a savings of over $125,000 per year!! We could survive with one main principal and two unit principals serving two grades each. One unit gets even year grads and the other gets odd year grads. Woo hoo the money we could save!
But I have a feeling we'll be working on important issues such as if the board should get as raise from $80 per meeting to $125 per meeting. Thats a grand total of $1350 per member at the maximum of 30 meetings per year. So I guess the $6750 the district would save by the board not taking the raise seems substantial to some members but $75,000 and more isn't worth considering. Hmmmmm......

More Survey Results

2007-06-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

First off, let me say that I have been trying to get the survey posted on line for several weeks now. Our technology department has assured me that it can be put up lickety split once permission is granted from above. Once again humans are bogging up what technology can do instantly. I hear your pleas to see what it says and I understand. I know your tax money paid for it and you want to see the data. I am doing my best to get it posted on the district web site. If I must resort to scanning it myself and posting it, I will.
But for now I am once again going to give you some highlights from the survey. This time around I’m going to give you the low down on what the low priorities and dissatisfaction with the district numbers are. To make this list, the percentages of the bottom 2 satisfaction/priority section of the survey had to total 25% or more. I know this is a much lower threshold than the previous list but I figure if a quarter of respondents are dissatisfied or think an item is low priority, it’s an area we should look closely at.

Low priorities are:
Air conditioning 39.2%
Building use for community functions 27.3%
Public relations employee 42%
Public relations specialist 51.5%
Bussing for high school students 46.4%
Dissatisfaction areas:
Maintaining small class sizes 32.1%
College entrance guidance 33.3%
Counseling and social services 34.1%
Life skills instruction 31.5%
Parental involvement training 40.4%
Public relations employee 39.5%
Efficiency of bussing 28.5%
Life skills courses 29.7%
Workplace preparation courses 32.7%

Not too bad. Another thing that really stands out to me is how our community seems to be in tune with what is going on inside and outside our school buildings. They really seem to know what it’s going to take to send our kids into the future armed with the necessary tools to succeed. So tell me, what do you think so far?

The Survey SAID...

2007-06-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

The results are finally in and now that I’ve had time to go over them I feel safe in saying there was nothing earth shattering in it. But quite a few surprises. Uniform dress being the biggest one for me. 67% somewhat or strongly agree we should consider uniform dress. That doesn’t necessarily mean uniforms. But a strict common dress code such as khaki or navy dungarees (I love that word), a BELT, shorts and skirts to the knee cap, etc…
I know, dream on. But it would solve the over revealing, walk holding your pants up look. But people would actually have to enforce the rules and there is the problem. But I like the idea anyway.
First let’s talk about what items were on the high priority list. To make this list the item had to get 65% or more of the 2 highest priority votes. A simple majority wont make my high priority list!

Keeping the public informed 76.2%
Maintaining small class sizes 68.1%
Safety and security on school grounds 85.6%
Upkeep and maintenance of buildings 71.7%
Career/ vocational education services 76.2%
College entrance guidance 84.4%
Counseling and social services 69.5%
Drug awareness and prevention 72.6%
Academic extra curricular activities 66.6%
Life skills instruction 66.5%
Quality of school libraries 74%
Quality of school lunch programs 65%
Special ed services 70%
Tutoring 69.4%
Safety of neighborhood walkers 81.2%
Safety on the busses 81.3%
Safety at pick up/ drop off 81.2%
College prep courses 89.1%
Computer literacy and technology 88.6%
General life skill courses 69.4%
Language arts 69.6%
Math 92.1%
Science 88.2%
Social studies- history civics government 82.2%
Workplace preparation courses 73%

The “how are we doing” section related to the same items above aren’t as high but I’m working on a simple to read chart to sort that all out. Now lets cover what made the strongly/ somewhat agree list. Same criteria- 65% or over:

CF buildings are safe 79.4%
CF should implement all day kindergarten 66.1%
CF should consider elementary after school programming 70.8%
CF should maintain inside open enrollment 77.9%
CF should consider uniform dress 67%
The quality of CF schools affects property values 90.7%

I’ll do the next blog on the problem areas people perceive and the least preferred/ low priority items. For now let’s focus on what people overwhelmingly want and expect from us. Here’s a few final statistics that scored the highest vote in its respective category excluding the “don’t know”:

34.3% prefer K-5, MS 6-8, HS 9-12 configuration
46.6% have no school aged children in the house
22.9% are between the ages of 40 and 49
28.4% earn between $51,000 and $75,000 annually
57.8% have lived in CF more than 20 years
76.2% say the Falls News Press is their school info source
42.5% prefer a county sales tax as a school-funding source
49.1% say we do not need new school buildings
30.1% say there is a need for district wide reconfiguration
28.8% vote for nearly all school tax issues
79.7% use the Internet at home
57.7% think bussing to state minimum should be first cut made if needed
42.4% think the pay to play fees should remain the same

That’s a lot to digest! I think you’ll find the next results I post as surprising as some of these are.

Self Censoring Sucks

2007-06-07T02:42:00.000-04:00

First I just want to say that I was thrilled to see so many people show up for tonights meeting that we had to move it to the library. Although once again I wasn't surprised to see so many people considering we were presented with an informational session regarding health care costs and... THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN!! More on that later when I've actually had a chance to study the data.

I don't have much to say because as it turns out, everything I write is an unfair labor practice. So the best I can do for now is say - talk quietly amongst yourselves. Feel free to start a topic or hijack the blog for the next few days with your own agendas. I know there are plenty of them out there.

Change Is A Good Thing?

2007-05-18T09:57:00.000-04:00

This weeks meeting was the best ever! We had our very own attendace bonus! I'd like to see that kind of turnout for every important issue we discuss. It was standing room only. Everyone wanted to hear what the Plan for Excellence committee was submitting as their recommendations for next year. I was so happy to see around 75 people show up to see the presentation. It doesn’t surprise me. Transportation, configuration, boundaries, bell times, increasing instruction time, all day kindergarten, hiring a communication specialist, and many, many other important issues were discussed. Much to my surprise the only citizen comment made regarding these recommendations came from a high school student. He made the point that it was stated several times at public dialogues that the high school bell times would remain unchanged. But it turns out the times were changed. Starting next year the recommendations are as follows:

Elementary 8:45- 3:20
Middle School 7:55- 2:50
High School 7:45- 2:40
You think you have middle and high school tardiness and elementary kids arriving way too early now? Just wait ‘til these times kick in! Madam Kellie predicts many high school kids will be hungry and paying the consequences of severe tardy overages. As you can imagine Mr. High School was not happy. He made some excellent points and I hope his input will be considered, as he made some very good points.
I have been waiting for several weeks for the numbers on the amount of district students we bus. I don't have them yet but I suspect we are disrupting the schedules of a large portion of the non bussing populace to make it convenient for about 500 people. One offering of a solution was to add more kids to bussing! It’s like these people have never heard of cutting back! It was readily admitted to me that we could eliminate a few busses if we did zoned neighborhood pickups. Yes that means putting your elementary Johnny on the bus with your middle school Jane. And like I said before and cannot say enough: Your start and end times can be closer, therefore not inconveniencing the much larger majority of driving and working parents.
The communications specialist is another biggy that no one commented on. We have fewer and fewer students each year yet we have new and improved reasons for continuing to add administrators. The job description here can be done on a part time contracted consultant basis. Biggest bonus is… WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY BENEFITS. Benefits are the only area on our district profile report where we are above the state and similar district averages in expenditures. Benefits are going to put us back in the same position we were in two years ago if we are not careful. We faced a 42% increase a few months ago in premiums and administrative costs, but our dear CFO negotiated it down to a mere 28.8%. Now I’m no math whiz but it smells like more money from the taxpayer to me. I’d say we should consider contracting out any services that we possibly can just to avoid paying benefits and fringe.
Of course these are just my sensible opinions. I will fully disclose that I am completely biased because they are after all my opinions. But I have the unique gift of looking at things from all perspectives. If we are “celebrating” neighborhood schools, then start treating them as neighborhood schools. Do we really need to bus kids 8 blocks? I’m sorry but prepare yourselves because I’m gonna say it- We have a lot of little chunky monkeys that need to walk more, not less. I have not received one phone call, E-mail, or letter in support of the changes. The new proposal would put my kids on a bus and save me gas. But the larger portion of our population would be adversely affected by the time changes being considered to accommodate bussing. It’s not worth it financially or aggravationally. Yes I made that word up. I do that sometimes when it is needed. Somebody else made up all the other words we use. Why shouldn’t I get to add one to Websters?

Levies for Dummies

2007-05-08T11:54:00.000-04:00

Let’s talk about levies. I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who are clueless about how they work. For those of you who get it, bear with me or skip this blog.

First you need to know a levy can expire or be continuing. A continuing levy never expires. The only way we can stop paying on a continuing levy is to put it back on the ballot for voter removal. I don’t know of any school district willing to do this, so obviously a regular citizen would have to take it upon him or herself to do it. A pretty daunting task for Joe Schmoe. Needless to say it rarely if ever happens. Next we have expiring levies. They are put on the ballot for approval with a set amount of years. Usually 5 years. All CF levies are either continuing (3) or expiring 5 year (3). We also have one, 20-year bond issue passed in 1998 due to expire in 2017.

Now it gets hairy. I am going to use the last new levy CF passed as my example. In May of 2005 the voters of CF passed a 7.9 mill levy. We now find ourselves in May of 2007 and are actually paying 7.3 mills. Huh? See back in 1976 the State of Ohio passed a law that said the dollar amount passed at the time of a school levy will stay that dollar amount. So forget about those confusing mills for a minute. Think of it this way. If a new levy passes today, and because of the value of your home, your actual new tax amount is $250 per year. Next year your home value rises (hopefully) but you still pay $250. After 5 years you are still paying $250 on the levy but your home value, it is assumable has gone up. Now one of many things can happen. There is simple, confusing and confusinger. The district can let the levy expire. Simple. Hah, fat chance! They can ask for a renewal. A renewal will simply keep your rate at that $250 per year. You’re just renewing what you’re already paying. They always back this one up with the familiar “it’s not a new tax” mantra. But really it is a new tax because I voted for a 5 year expiring tax. What they really should say is “we didn’t ask for a large enough or long enough tax last time.” The other common thing districts ask for is a replacement levy. A replacement levy should really be called a restorative levy. Now the amount you pay goes up. The county takes a look at the current value of your house. We already know it has gone up in value over the last 5 years. So now your $250 is $325.

Now I don’t want you to think these are the only things a district can do. There are many variations of the above that can happen that I will cover in “Levies for Dummies part 2”.

A quick myth I want to cover is the renters don’t pay property taxes myth. Surprisingly to me many renters believe this myth as well as the many property owners who tell me to stick it in my ear when I attempt to debunk this one. Renters pay property tax. It’s as simple as that. I will break it down in simplistic terms. Pretend you own your home and three other houses in CF that you rent. A new tax levy has just passed. All four of the homes you own are valued at exactly $100,000. Your new tax amount is $250 per home per year. Now if you are a really nice person with a trust fund from Uncle Bill Gates, you write a check to the county each year and pay all your taxes yourself. But if you are a normal person trying to survive in this world, you are now going to raise the rent in your three rentals. Probably $50 per month per house. Renters usually take a harder hit when a tax levy passe because not many landlords only raise the rent for the amount of the tax. They round up. They didn’t have new math. I know, I rented here for 5 years. If you don’t believe me, ask any of our local landlords. We have plenty from what I’m reading and seeing.

Now I’m going to give you some gobbledygook. But I think these are numbers that are important for you to know. Our district will “earn” almost fourteen and a half million dollars for the January through June 2007 period. This is only from local money. Property taxes. The rest comes from the State and Federal coffers, which is also your hard earned dollars in different tax forms. To give you another example of how millage amounts are actually disappearing revenue for a district we must go back in time. Back in 1976, all CF current continuing levies were combined into one giant 31.8 mill levy. Wow! This amount was the entire local contribution for the next 8 years. But as you know from the example above, the cost of doing business went up yet the money the district collected remained the same. That same 31.8 mill levy is now actually a 7.3 mill levy. What was 100% of our local money 30 years ago is now 21% of our money. Or look at it this way: Imagine trying to live today on the same amount of money you made 30 years ago. That’s what the case would be if we did not have the 6 other levies and a bond issue on our tax bill right now.

I’m not promoting either side. I just think it is important that people understand the entire scope of the problem when voting. My personal feelings are a sales tax or earned income tax would take care of part of the problem. At least then if money were approved by the voters, it could grow with inflation. I know many spending problems exist within the walls of education that need fixing too. But give me a break. One blog at a time!

Board Member 101: Rule #1, Do Not Repeat Mistakes of Former Board

2007-05-01T09:07:00.000-04:00

I want to start out with this week’s meeting agenda. First up is a presentation from our Six-District Educational Compact. For those of you not in the know- this is a vocational education sharing program between the Falls, Hudson, Kent, Stow, Tallmadge, and Woodridge. Next is a presentation from the High School Business Department. Last but certainly not least is… Transportation. We will finally get to hear where the wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round to.

Now let’s talk about what everybody else is talkin’ ‘bout. Levies and evaluations and bell times and bussing. Ok I can’t really talk about all that on one blog and since I’m not allowed to talk about levies on here we can scratch that one. But it was nice to see the Falls News print a fair and balanced 3 “For” and 3 “Against” letters. Then there was the seventh letter.

The writer feels the evaluation is the boards “latest folly”. He opines that the board has failed “Board Member 101” despite the many training sessions we have attended. He then goes on to point out that the board has only two jobs- to hire and supervise the CEO and CFO and to set policy. He then goes on to say that the board minority, meaning Mrs. Gunter and myself, are somehow to blame for the problems of this board. I must respond to this outrageous claim. I put the two jobs in bold to remind everyone as I write that this is the point I am referring to.

Let’s start with the first part- to hire and supervise. A board hires and then directs its employees. In February of 06, I asked this board to set goals. As a member of the minority I was ignored. Then talks of raise came about and not only I, but also the board attorney expressed concerns that goals had not been established, nor had evaluations been conducted. The board majority ignored these concerns and handed over raises anyway. Is that what the voting taxpayers wanted from their elected officials or is this what the professors of “Board Member 101” expected? We are a board of education expected to give direction and set policy that benefits the voters of this district. The professors of “Board Member 101” are former school administrators who now still earn a living off taxpayer money teaching propaganda to newly elected board members on how to behave in a board room. They say things like “support the decisions of the board”. So if the board decides to jump off a bridge I should follow? With this philosophy I am supposed to say it was OK to be bullied into a new contract and a raise because a majority was willing to give in to threats of leaving for greener pastures?

Now let’s do the next part- to set policy. A board majority also passes policy in our district. So once again meaningful changes cannot happen in this department until our district has a board majority that is setting policy that will make a difference. We have policies coming out the wazoo “against” certain things. Bullying, drugs, weapons, etc. But no clear-cut rules, and more importantly consequences for when these policies are violated. There seems to be rules and exceptions and much is left to the discretion of teachers and principals. I have said many times that we need to have some clear cut guide lines and consequences but the majority representing you and setting policy do not think it is important.

If memory serves me correctly, the letter writer is a former board member whose lessons in “Board Member 101” led us to financial disaster and two neighborhood school closings. Anyone needing a refresher course on “screwed taxpayer 101” see this blog. (Scroll to “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Truth). He’s right about one thing. The next election will be very important. We need responsible money minded people that understand the impact the districts spending has on the education of kids but the impact our spending has on the taxpayer as well. The one mistake he makes is assuming students are a part of his constituency. Their parents are and they are also taxpayers. I want to give my kids every opportunity the world has to offer. Unfortunately I can’t afford to. I must draw the line and say we only have so much money to fund your activities with. The same mentality should apply to all taxpayer funded agencies. There is not a money tree in my back yard. I cannot endlessly fund you.

We dump more money than ever into public education yet enrollment continues to drop, administrative employees and costs continue to rise, yet not surprisingly to me, graduation and standardized test scores have remained flat for the last 30 years! Yes I said 30 years! The obvious conclusion is throwing money at the problem is not going to solve it. Innovation, dealing with reality, and leading kids into the world with a grip on a profession or vocation as well as the knowledge you need to perform basic daily functions like banking and bill paying and credit sense is a must in today’s world. The middle class jobs of General Motors and Ford are gone along with their benefits and retirement packages. No longer are people doing fairly well with few skills or an 11th grade education.

As for the letter to the editor in Monday’s Beacon Journal, the writer states that is no is no bank account in Columbus with my children’s names on it. I beg to differ. That account follows my family to whatever city I chose to open enroll my children in or move to for that matter. If my local public school is failing, that account can even follow my kids to private school. Districts need to strive to succeed academically and fiscally or watch the flight of desperate parents and their money continue.

Opinions Are Like ....

2007-04-23T13:14:00.000-04:00

Everyone is bugging me to write about last Wednesday’s meeting. I had to wait because I would have been too cruel to too many people. I’m sure some of you will find the following cruel anyway. But I assure you it is not as cruel as it would have been had I wrote this blog last Thursday. I am not naturally a politically correct person. Writing without offending someone is virtually impossible. An opinion letter in today’s Beacon Journal (scroll to T minus Imus) from a Falls resident said it beautifully: Don’t say anything, you’ll offend someone, Don’t hear anything, you wont be offended, Close your eyes, you wont see the hypocrisy.

I was shocked at the army of Silver Lake residents in attendance. But the motive became clear a few minutes into the meeting. It’s the start of the campaigning season. A member of the public asked Mrs. Gunter to resign. Before I go into specifics, I want to clarify a few things. I call this person a member of the public because he is not a home owner or renter. In fact he has no idea what it is like to support a family, pay property taxes, city, state and federal income taxes, insurance premiums, etc, etc, etc… He twice ran for school board and lost, is a politician’s dream lackey, and lastly, our superintendent was his high school principal and Mr. Public Member absolutely admittedly worships the ground he walks on. That said he made the following statement, the grammar belongs to the speaker. As usual my comments are in red:

I just have a few comments and questions that I would like to share regarding the Board evaluations of Dr. Holland and the subsequent newspaper articles related to the evaluations. To start I would like to remind this Board that on September 22, of last you year, you voted to give Dr. Holland a four-year Contract extension, some of the reasons that you cited for giving him this contract were things like his outstanding performance as he led the district out of financial disaster, your desire for continuity in the leadership of this district, and Dr. Holland's sincere desire to remain a Black Tiger. (I did none of this and the “desire” was so sincere that our superintendent applied for two jobs subsequent. Do you think that was on the boards’ minds while evaluating?)

Now, almost 6 months removed, we have all this controversy that comes out about individual board member evaluations and whether or not they are fair. So I think that the community deserves some very direct answers from the Board and specifically one board member for his or her evaluation of Dr. Holland. I am only singling out this one board member because (as I prepare to run for school board again and) as I read each of the evaluations and the comments contained in them, this person is the only one who fails to show any hint of objectivity in their evaluation. I am very interested to know what has changed from Sept. 22 of last year when this person sat at that table and excitedly voted yes to renew Dr. Holland's contact and Feb. 13 of this year when this person submitted their evolution of Dr. Holland to the Board's attorney. The public deserves an explanation as to why this board member voted yes to approve a contract worth close to a half a million dollars (because when dealing with a frightened-of-losing-the-superintendent board majority, you agree to vote yes to negotiate the BS out of the contract, my little grass hopper) to a man that he or she has deemed to be grossly inadequate, so inadequate that this Board member rated him as such in 34 of 39 areas of evaluation. (Here are copies of the evaluations for those who are interested) I would also like to know how Dr. Holland, the man that this Board member has deemed to be so inadequate and down right unprofessional has made it through his entire professional career of more than 20 years without having anything less than outstanding evaluation, evaluations that are actually done by qualified professionals. (Oooh, that hurt)

I also question why this Board member at the March 21 Board meeting chose to congratulate Dr. Holland, the man that she deemed to be inadequate and unprofessional a month earlier for not getting the Hudson superintendentcy, ( <--- not a word) a position that would have taken his alleged inadequacy out of Cuyahoga Falls. (What was she supposed to do, say ha ha?) It just doesn't make sense to me. It seams that someone is talking out of both sides of their mouth.

As I conclude, unless there are some very compelling reasons that this person can come up with to explain their actions, it seems to me that they have clearly have lost all objectivity as a Board Member and it has clearly become their goal to slander the superintendent, opening the district to a tremendous amount of legal liability, liability that the taxpayers should not have to assume. (LOL! Opinions on an evaluation do not equal slander! I hope you are not looking to be Public Member, Esq.) In addition, I would say that not only this persons lack of objectivity but their highly unprofessional behavior during board meetings (for instance the time that this person quacked like a duck in lieu of a yes or no vote) (Grrrr ruff ruff) tells me that this person no longer deserves the privilege of holding this office. A privilege that in my opinion, this person has abused time and time again. It is time for this community to step up tell this person and other public officials that this conduct is not okay. With that being said, I want to publicly ask Ms. Barb Gunter to resign. Without objectivity and a clear sense of right and wrong you are of no use to the children and taxpayers of this district. Thank you

First of all I want you to know Mrs. Gunter has no intention of resigning. Talk about losing objectivity! Objectivity was lost on him when he assumed that his opinion of the superintendent should be Mrs. Gunters’. Walk a mile in her orthopedics before you rush to judgement! You have no idea the personal experiences each member has had with the superintendent. I guess you’ll have to wait until she is up for reelection to show her your personal dissatisfaction. The Falls News sums it up best this week in their editorial.

Next up in the firing line was the survey. It seems quite a few residents who couldn’t bother to read about or come to meetings regarding the survey, couldn’t understand why there was so much in the survey and why it was formatted the way it was. I will explain once again why the survey was so daunting for all of you that were perplexed by it. This board agreed that this was a costly undertaking but a very important one. The only way to know what the public wants and expects from us is to ask them. We put each and every piece of information into it that we could think of. The work sessions where input from the public could have been garnered, were posted and advertised! Where were your regiments then? I suspect garden club. If it was too confusing throw it out! But I believe this board did one hell of a job getting all the information we could into this. We were putting a lot of money into it and wanted to get the most out of it. We have 5 members. Everyone wanted to know something different. I wanted to know financial priorities. Another wanted to know how people thought we were presently doing. Another wanted input on reconfiguration. Another thought all of our ideas sounded great and had nothing to add. Get involved next time and maybe you’ll understand it better!

If I Could Save Time In A Bottle....

2007-04-16T10:29:00.000-04:00

The times, they are a changin’. No, I’m not talking about the times we live in. I’m talking about school start and stop times. Looks like those rumors of this happening have proved to be true. Funny how you get lambasted for “spreading rumors”, yet time and time again they aren’t really rumors. The proposed time changes are 9AM til 3:30 at the elementary level and 8AM til 3PM at the middle school level.
So far we have had two public meetings regarding the time changes. We used the super-sized Post-It notes that so many meetings have. Silly me assumed that the positives and negatives were being noted. I questioned why the comments were noted as “Strengths” and “Opportunities for improvement”. When I questioned it another board member told me that the facilitator of the meeting doesn’t believe in negatives or weaknesses. Now I’m not of the yarn toed hippy generation so I was a little perplexed by this slant on things. Especially when most of the parent comments seemed to be how these changes would negatively affect them.
A few things concern me. The main negative effect I heard about was drive time to work and explaining to the boss that 9:15 or 9:30 will be the new starting time. I know that is going to go over well. In fact I know an attorney that is going to be thrilled to tell a judge that court can’t start until 10 AM because his paralegal can’t get to court with him until then. And I’m sure the judge wont mind telling the jails to hold the prisoners an extra hour and having the prosecutors office change their hours as well. And what about doctors offices and the post office and every other business and governmental entity.
“Get morning childcare in addition to after school care” they said. Yeah, that’s a walk in the park. I just lovvvve having other peoples kids at my house in the morning. It makes getting my kids ready for school so much easier. Oh yes, there are people you can pay. That’s an extra $25- $50 per week. More than the cost of a levy!! And I can tell you right now that this school district cannot be involved in setting up morning parent provider networks as suggested. I don’t know many people that will leave their kids with just anyone, but I assure you that this district cannot shoulder the liability. Please don’t try to convince me that someone wouldn’t sue us if a morning provider turned out to be a bad person. I don’t even want to touch morning parent providers with someone else’s ten-foot pole.
Another negative was the 1-hour difference in start times between elementary and middle school. This means middle schoolers who might typically help with getting younger siblings off to school when mom and dad leave for work would now have to leave with mom and dad, leaving little Sally to watch out for herself.
“But this will make it easier on bussing:” they said. But an excellent counter point was made when a gentleman asked, “what percentage of our students are bussed? Are we inconveniencing 90% of parents for a mere 10% that are bussed?” Oddly enough it was a question that for the first time in administrative history no one had an answer to. Apparently once again, no one thought about what segment of the community would be most affected by this. When we closed Sill and Newberry, it was sacrificing the few for the greater good. Now the sentiment seems to be let’s turn an entire cities schedule upside down for the few that are bussed.
“Well… actually we are doing it to improve academics” they said. This proposal adds 15 minutes to the elementary day and 20 minutes to the middle school day. OK. I can go for that. But how about leaving the middle school proposal as is and starting elementary at 8:30 AM or the current 8:45 and dismissing at 3:15 or 3:30? Parents have expressed to me that the earlier drop off time is crucial to them. After school care is much easier to come by. But then another voice piped up and stated that middle schoolers need more sleep, not less, to excel academically. So I say how ‘bout middle school from 8:30 to 3:30, elementary from 8:45 to 3:15, and use neighborhood bussing where middle schoolers and elementary kids ride together.
“Oooooh scary” they said. Children do it across the US and the rest of the world for that matter. Kids ride with their siblings. My cousins do it and much to everyone's amazement- live through it every day. There are even districts that add high schoolers to the mix! Oh and guess what there is a bonus! You fill each and every non special education bus up with kids. No more running big giant busses with 2 – 10 kids on it. You assign each bus to its capacity. Then the 15 minutes between elementary and middle school start and end times works for bussing, but more importantly works for parents who drop off and pick up as well. I also feel it is the most cost efficient way to bus. If you add to it designated stops rather that curbside pick up you save even more! I guess if everyone is on this school board to push an agenda, I might as well push one too. Mine is the taxpayer-stake holder-funder agenda. I push the agenda of that very important majority. And that majority seems to conflict with the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education majority most of the time. Where is the fiscal prudence that was promised? I think it got lost in the agenda schematics.
Is this a done deal? Don’t ask me. I’m always the last to know. Besides I’m the same person who was told that “Newberry wasn’t closing” and “rumors get started over the dumbest things” Only to have someone show up at Newberry the next day and announce it was closing. I was also given false information regarding building student populations that were slanted to under populate Newberry and Sill. Am I leery, distrustful, and cautious? You better believe it. I have no reason to feel otherwise.

These Rules Are Made for Breakin'

2007-04-10T17:11:00.000-04:00

This dictatorship by our board president and his minions has reached new levels. Let me ask you all a question. Do you have the authority to refuse an evaluation from your boss? Do you get to decide whether it is fair or not?
In February the board president handed the board an evaluation form and instructed us to evaluate the superintendent individually. We were to turn them in to the board attorney by the 14th of February, said attorney would tabulate the scores and present the board with a composite evaluation composing of the five scores averaged into one with comments from members included. The superintendent was to receive his evaluation from the board president by March 1st.
We followed all the set rules and received back a composite score evaluation. I was then told that certain board members didn’t think this was a true reflection of our CEO. It wasn’t fair they said. They proposed that we give our evaluations individually. They refused to sign the composite evaluation. This was at the March 7th meeting. Our board president had already let the deadline slip by! I shouldn’t have been surprised yet I was. At this point the CEO also declined to accept the evaluation. For the first time in my entire life I was speechless.
Now I didn’t necessarily like other members’ comments or scores myself but this wasn’t my evaluation, it was the boards. So I was willing to accept that. But I am not willing to change the rules after the game has begun. That’s what they want to do.
The board agreed on a procedure and I followed it. I can’t help it some members did not like the outcome. But since it was obvious the board was going to remain dead locked forever regarding this issue I offered a compromise. I moved to have the board president explain to the media why there was no evaluation given to the CEO this year and have the completed evaluations destroyed. The motion passed 4-0 with 1 member abstaining.
Then this Monday morning our board president released the evaluations to the Falls News with the following statement, my comments are in red:

Press Statement: April 9, 2007
At the April 4, 2007 meeting of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District’s Board of Education, the Board passed a resolution directing the Board president to provide the public, through the media, an explanation as to why there has been no written evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Edwin Holland for the 2006-2007 contract year, and to dispose of (actually it was “destroy”) all evaluation forms.In an effort to produce a written Board evaluation document, each Board member had submitted individual evaluation forms to the Board’s legal counsel in February. The individual evaluations were compiled by the Board’s legal counsel who issued two written drafts of a composite evaluation. (Actually he submitted one written draft as was expected. The second draft with the individual scores arrived days later after a board member requested it that way).Several of the board members stated that the draft composite evaluation was not an accurate representation of the majority opinion (? Board majority was not in the instructions!) and therefore a consensus on the draft composite evaluation could not be reached. No written evaluation was finalized or signed by the Board of Education or the superintendent. (It was finalized when it was returned as a composite from the attorney, I’ve found nothing that says a signature is needed.)Although a written evaluation for the superintendent was not approved for the 2006–2007 school year, Board members provided Dr. Holland with a verbal evaluation (I must have missed that portion of the meeting) regarding his job performance. Several Board members indicated that he is meeting or exceeding expectations, and this was reflected in the majority of individual evaluation forms. Pursuant to the Board resolution of April 4th, these forms will be submitted to the district records commission in accordance with law. (Why bother now?)The Board is working in conjunction with the superintendent to establish goals for the 2007-2008 school year. (Well, we voted to anyway) The evaluation process for the upcoming school year will in part be based on these goals.

Suddenly the phrase “board majority” has entered the picture. Never before in the history of our school district has a superintendent been evaluated by a majority vote. This evaluation wasn’t supposed to reflect the positions of the majority. In fact it was the board majorities idea to do this evaluation in the manner and format that it was. If it had been agreed upon from the beginning to evaluate based on the board majority, I wouldn’t have wasted my time filling out the form. I could have predicted this outcome. But our board president told me that we were to fill out the forms and get them to the attorney so he could average our collective scores and comments. I did that. Now that the majority of the board has voted to destroy the completed evaluations, then released them to the media, I’m not sure I can enter into an agreement with these people in the future. Twice now regarding this evaluation they have reneged on their own decisions. And I guess my attorney client privilege only applies to levy memos, not documents that are sent to the attorney sealed and meant for his eyes only, as these individual evaluations were.
This board member was betrayed, bullied and violated. I do not know how to work with people I cannot trust, even when a vote is taken.

Woo Hoo! Surveys Hot Off the Press!

2007-04-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

Who would’ve thought that a survey could cause so much controversy? To the nice lady in Silver Lake that is concerned I might cry foul if the results aren’t to my liking, fear not! I am not ashamed of myself and I hereby promise to accept results of said survey as they come in whether I like it or not. You see, my intent is not to verify any preconceptions. My intent is to find out what this district needs, wants, and is willing to pay for. I do not fear the results as some people seem to. I embrace the opportunity to make changes according to what the funders want. Now I’m not a member of the Gallop Poll board as the letter writer claims to be but I am a member of society. I have a stake in this district and a right to be heard.
Now let’s talk about the cost and my seemingly thrifty ways. I’m not against spending money. We obviously have to spend money to operate. But there is spending and there is waste. Money spent on a survey that can garner input better than any committee or public forum ever could is money well spent. Money spent on consultants to reorganize administrative offices is waste. If you don’t like where you sit, drag your desk down the hall. I guarantee this survey costs less than the money the district has paid to the “Plan for Excellence” facilitator.
I wasn’t going to brag about this but under the circumstances I feel I must do something to justify my asking for more money for this survey. I recently placed three district surplus items on E-bay. I put together the ads and listed them out of the kindness of my heart and brought in over $18,000.00. Not bad for a couple hours work. I think this amount more than covers the added cost of the surveys.
I must tell you the hell I was put through to get a letter to the editor put in the Falls News. Let me explain something to you. Therese Dunphy sent a letter to the Falls News stating that the district had decreased expenditures by 12.2 million dollars from fiscal years 05 to 06. What she failed to mention was from FY 04 to 05 there was an unusual one time increase of expenditures of over 12 million dollars. There was never a decrease in expenditures. There was an increase in expenditures in 05, then back to normal spending levels in 06. Funny thing is, everyone involved was real reluctant to set the record straight. It has taken almost a month to get my letter printed. Why would a paper print something so misleading and then make me present exhibits with witnesses to state the facts? It’s as if they didn’t care that people were fed a line of crap from an elected official.

The Grass is Always Greener...

2007-04-02T00:42:00.000-04:00

I was out of town the last few days. We took a little trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I noticed quite a few interesting things. The first thing I noticed was how all the asphalt roadways and parking lots are a blackish pink color. This is because the area is a pink granite treasure chest. It’s everywhere. In fact the only thing I didn’t see pink granite used for was side walks. The falls of the Sioux River was a gorgeous mix of pink granite and white fluffy foam that floated through the air and made it seem you were in some sort of fairy tale. The only thing missing was a mermaid.
The one thing that made me feel like I was at home was the local newspaper the Argus Leader. Their school funding problems and local community involvement issues were strikingly similar to our own. In the three days I was there, a local district joined a statewide lawsuit suing for school funding, the community is in an uproar over a behind closed door decision to close an elementary school and move the kids across town. Yet at the same time lauding the same school district for other boundary changes last year where parent groups were consulted, eight public forums were held, and made the decision based on public input seven months before they were to take effect.
Some of the concerns were that parents were notified of the decision with a three week time frame to voice concerns before a vote of the school board. Sound familiar? One parent said “that breaks all the rules when it comes to change and parental involvement.” I agree. The frustration of knowing something is a done deal before the public is made aware is maddening. It sure doesn’t gain support from tax payers to know their voice doesn’t matter.
One thing that occurred to me while reading about the funding problems all school districts seem to face. Most districts have a set of goals when it has become apparent to me that what we really need is a list of priorities. I hope our survey can help Cuyahoga Falls do that. Base our spending on what our priorities for our kids are.
Another oddity in Sioux Falls- they don’t have spring break. School’s out the middle of May. I’m not sure how that would fly here. Maybe a mid September start? Next year is the start of spring break moving to the middle of March. Brrrrr. I’m going to start calling it winter break II. Don’t yell at me, it wasn’t my idea. When I questioned this move I was told that spring break is about education not a vacation. Thank goodness indoor water park construction is on the rise in NE Ohio. Most of the northern United States is still frozen that time of year.
I hope everyone had a nice break. I know I needed it. Now it’s yo heave ho. Back to work we go.

Tell Me What You Have to Say

2007-03-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

The shock has worn off enough that I finally find myself able to write. I went to Wednesday’s meeting thinking that my motion to secure the funds to see that the survey goes to every school district residence would be a 2-3 vote and wouldn’t carry. Much to my chagrin an unexpected turn of events occurred and my motion carried 3-2. I was speechless which doesn’t happen often! I’d like to thank the board members that voted for this motion but I can’t. They didn’t do it for me. They did it because it was the right thing to do. Changing the mailing list has caused a delay but it turns out that is a good thing. It was scheduled to go out next week. Spring break. Duh. So look for it mid to late April. Remember, this is finally a chance to have your voice heard loud and clear. A resident made the statement that getting the survey to everyone was a waste of money, that everyone didn’t need to be heard. But I heard the contrary from a majority of the taxpayers. In fact, every E-mail and phone call I received warned me of the particular consequences I would suffer from that resident if he or she did not get a survey. I told them I would do what I could but I am only one person. I do not have the power to make this happen alone. But apparently enough people spoke up that I can sleep soundly now. All threats are off. If you don’t get a survey it’s because your house does not exist.
I have to admit I am curious about the results. What are we doing right and wrong according to the funders? That’s what I want to start calling the taxpayers that live here whether they own or rent. The funders. Because contrary to popular belief, renters most certainly do pay property taxes. Indirectly of course, but they pay. I made a little chart I would like you all to see. It is a comparison of my house value appreciation over the last ten years versus the property tax increase percentage. As you can see my taxes have increased twice as much as my house value. I doubt that’s a good economic indicator.
The districts’ new web site is going to be awesome! I’m so impressed (except for my picture), and I bet you will be too. It’s much easier to navigate and up to date.
Have a good spring break!!

How About "Get Real Ohio"?

2007-03-18T11:52:00.000-04:00

What a week! I’m so exhausted I think I’ll sleep all day Sunday. I went to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Wednesday for an Ohio School Boards legislative update. This has been scheduled for months. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Governor Strickland decided to have his State of the State address the same day this was scheduled. He hit on most of the issues near and dear to educators. Charter schools and vouchers being two biggies. Of course funding was much anticipated and really a let down when it was over. Cuyahoga Falls City School District doesn’t benefit at all. But the one that nobody is talking about is the Ohio Graduation Test and what it will do to kids that think they’re college bound. Passing the OGT to receive a diploma is going to shut a lot of people out of scholarships and more importantly certain colleges. I’m particularly talking about athletes. If the requirements are high school diploma or equivalent they can get a GED and still apply. But the schools that require a high school diploma only will be losing out on a lot of athletic talent. No more will kids be able to slide by in high school and go to college because of athletic ability. Now those college slots and scholarships will go to kids who must pass the OGT and earn a diploma according to the criteria set by the Ohio State Board of Education. Pretty sad that they think that all kids need a set standard of education to succeed in life. The only time the date of the start of the Civil War was important in my adult life was when I was in a room full of old ladies in a beauty shop showing off my arm chair Jeopardy skills.
But such is life. We allow these people to spend our tax money on testing companies and printing companies and consultants and data analyzers and the list goes on and on. All for a system that does not and cannot work. People do not want to deal with reality. The reality is everyone cannot and will not pass the OGT. You set these kids even farther behind by denying them something that was at least barely attainable before. On the other hand it improves the chances for smart poor kids to get into college.
The one good part of Stricklands’ speech was the charter school restrictions. I don’t agree with canceling vouchers in all but Cleveland schools. I think vouchers should be left intact everywhere. They are generally used at private parochial schools and I believe they promote competition. I also feel that if your local public school is failing your child, you should have the right to take your child and your tax dollar elsewhere. Failing charters are another story. With so many stories lately of charter school operators running off with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to other states. Not to mention the operators that stay here and dole out our tax money to our legislators in the form of campaign contributions, so these same legislators will pass legislation allowing the charter school operators to profit from our tax money. It’s a vicious cycle. And did I mention that most of them are failing or have closed because of educational and financial failures? Charter schools have succeeded in other states but Ohio’s system of charters is a failure thanks to legislators (they set the rules) pimping their votes out to the highest bidders (David Brennan, charter school Don) instead of putting Ohio’s children first.
I left the Ohio State House feeling invigorated, powerful, arrogant and strangely unclean. You go in feeling like you can change the world and you leave realizing that unless you become some special interest groups’ political whore, you’ll change nothing. It all goes back to the back scratching I so often talk about. The lobbyists dig deep in their pockets at campaign time especially but really throughout the term of the “elected”. In return the elected dig deep in their murky bag of amendments and throw them into seemingly reasonable legislation. It’s an unspoken rule that an aye vote is attached to the amendment. One of those things they teach in “How to Screw the Taxpayer 101”. I took the longest, hottest shower of my life when I got home and felt much better.
I guess I should mention that it looks like our CEO is staying for now. I’m surprised Hudson didn’t want him. He’s a financial wizard who knows school funding inside and out. I thought he would be a perfect fit. Oh well, their loss and Revere is still looking. After applying at two different places in five months I have to wonder if the handwriting is on the wall. And all this after getting a new contract and a raise. And this business about being “asked” to apply at these jobs is starting to get to me. If you don’t network you don’t get “asked”. They ask because you ask.
Friday night was Roberts Middle School’s all night party. I went at midnight and stayed ‘til about 3 AM. Middle school girls are hyper and high pitched and middle school boys are aggressive and mean. I dread the day I am the one who has to actually stay all night!

It's President, Not Dictator

2007-03-09T00:26:00.000-05:00

It’s official. PBS is playing a Pink Floyd concert that I am sitting here enjoying. Now I don’t know about you but I have always felt that PBS concerts were for old people. So, one of two things has happened. PBS has suddenly become really cool or the other alternative. Not to mention that I am suspicious that they playing actual Pink Floyd because those dudes on the show are old. But damn they sound just like them! My groups have migrated to PBS from MTV. And they censored the BS from the song “Money”. Sigh.
It looks as if the title of President has went to someone’s head. I tried to ignore the seating debacle. I figured maybe he was having a bad day when I heard the hall way argument of who should sit where. As I scurried away from a conversation that turned to what could technically be considered “board business”, I heard the Pres state that he has the “power, duty and responsibility to sit board members where he so pleases.” While I found the comment to be comically presumptuous and petty, I sat where I was assigned. Although I now have no elbowroom and am constantly paranoid that others are reading my very important notes, I suffer through the situation. I liked having my own desk because I am very high maintenance and need lots of “stuff” with and around me. I might try setting up folders between us like the third graders do so no one can cheat.
But last night the Presidents dictatorial attitude reached new levels. I shouldn’t lay all the blame on the Pres. His attitudes were supported by his right hand (wo)man. Please excuse how generic I must be, but because of a lack of our president to honor a contracted timeline, certain documents are not public record- yet. So I must be careful. But it is known that the board is responsible for evaluating itself as well as employees. A procedure is agreed upon and implemented. A major part of any evaluation is based on opinions. Do I think this task is performed effectively or not? Let use president Bush for example. If we all were to evaluate his job performance, and came to the war section of his evaluation, one of us may think too many have died and we need to pull out and give him a zero here. Another of us may feel that he is doing a great job with the resources congress has given him and would save the entire Middle East if congress would just let him have his way and give him a ten. Neither is necessarily wrong just an opinion of how that individual sees Bush’s job performance on that issue.
The board President needs to realize his place on the board. His place is not to admonish other members for their opinions, beliefs, and question our reasoning for decisions we have made. And I understand that sometimes the results of a combined effort of five very different people may not be pleasing to everyone, you will have to learn to live with it. There will be some instances where a board majority cannot keep a dissenting opinion off the record. Another thing the board president needs to learn is that you can’t change the rules of the game after it has started. A procedure was agreed upon. You can’t come in after the fact and try to write new rules for the game because you didn’t like the final score. Geez I was in the band and even I know that!
He stepped over the line last night by attempting to give that over-the-glasses dad look and whine about the outcome of a procedure that he gave the board one week to complete and told us how it was going to be done. And no one complained and we did it and got back on time. Missing the deadline because you didn’t like the outcome doesn’t fly in my book. Wanting to change the way things are done after fact doesn’t fly either.
But the most intriguing threat came from another member. She said “you know, our policy says we could have done this procedure and just had board majority rule on the score.” I’m waiting to see that policy! Sometimes the things these people say never cease to amaze me.

SPECIAL! SPECIAL! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

2007-03-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness the cat is finally out of the bag. I’m sure you’ve all read about it by now. Our illustrious CEO has submitted an application to the Hudson school district. I can’t say I’m surprised. The CEO was approached by “Finding Leaders” basically a school district head hunting group. One thing strangely missing from their sales pitch is the fact that they are taking leaders too. The same leader they find for you, they approach later with an offer from another district and take them from you. In the mean time they have used about 10 grand of your tax money. Notice the CEO’s statement that he didn’t apply for this job. Here’s where once again the back scratchin’ comes into play. This is not just our district- this is districts throughout the United States. Superintendents hire attorneys and consultants and boards consistently rubber stamp their employment. Employment for things like union negotiations, building designs, remodeling projects, district improvement plans, etc, etc, etc. These same attorneys and consultants moonlight for companies like “Finding Leaders”. Guess who comes to mind first when job openings arise? The very same people who used tax payer money to butter their bread. As stated in the previous blog by many- it’s me first, the education of your kids second.

I like SmartAlex’s suggestion to look into a residency requirement. I’ve heard the argument that “you exclude a lot of highly qualified candidates when you limit your residency”. I am insulted by that comment. In effect that says there is no one in our fair city or quaint village that is qualified. HAH! I know better! I also know that there are people that would line up to move here and lead a school district as safe and low maintenance as ours is. I’m not saying we don’t have any problems, but they are minor compared to the “Big 8” and high poverty districts. Over two dozen people applied for the Hudson job. Hardly a shortage of people willing to take on a challenge. And they applied knowing 3 board members, several administrators, a treasurer and a superintendent have resigned in the last year! Good luck with that situation! Hudson’s former superintendent gave a presentation to the Cuyahoga Falls board 4 weeks ago. You’d think she would have warned the CEO while she was here!

I should get to the point of this blog. Mrs. Gunter and I have called a special board meeting for today (Monday March 5, 2007) at 1PM in the board office. Proper notification was made to the papers but apparently too late for publication. I guess there wasn’t a chance to bring it up during the interview that somehow made it in time for publication. Anyway it’s only an executive session so don’t get excited that you’re already at work and can’t make it. You’d just get kicked out. I can’t tell you who it’s about but I can tell you it’s to discuss the employment of personnel.

BTW. Looks like the survey is done. More on that later.

It's My Money and I'll Cry if I Want to!

2007-02-27T11:49:00.000-05:00

Note: This started to be an answer to the first comment on my previous blog but turned into much more so I decided to make it a blog.

I'm not surprised by the comments. First of all you must realize a few things. Vouchers cost more than you put in locally. Therefore no state can offer every child a voucher for the school of their choice. So that leaves an option of lowering the voucher amounts to provide a small amount for everyone or a decent tuition amount for some. Dollar for dollar your best bet is public schools. I think you would be hard pressed to find a private school that could educate your child/ren for what you pay for schools locally and state tax combined BUT....

I do believe that many changes are needed for the public school system to compete and be successful. The following comments I picked out from the above mentioned poll in the Arizona Capitol Times. The comments indicate to me that people are fed up with the take all you can attitude from employees while our kids continue to languish with mediocre and poor scores.

"I have a family member who is a teacher. I have seen first hand how the school administration is populated with cronies who care only about their salaries, and who only care about their student's education now that the students have to pass standardized tests. Why should a parent be "forced" to send their child to a school that cares primarily about the status quo, while education of the children is secondary. If teachers are hamstrung by administrators, parents should be able to send their children elsewhere. Like I said, many administrators care primarily about their paycheck - education doesn't even come in a close second. "
-- Ned Weatherby

"Parents put the child first in education. Educators put themselves first in the education of children. The parents should have vouchers to back up their selection of school educators."
-- Phyllis J. Clark

"Parental choice in school selection will do for education what consumer choice has done for all other facets of markets: increase quality and reduce cost. We all win except those beneficiaries entrenched in the status quo."
-- Kathy Gornik

"Freedom of choice fosters competition. Competition breeds excellence. So it is with every other aspect of our society. Why would we not want the same principles to benefit our children's education?"
-- Jim Ferrin

"Tax money is OUR money, not the government's. They take our money, and then tell us that our kids have to go to failing government schools. Lovely system... "
-- Tom Jenney

"Choice inevitably raises quality."
-- Steve Murphy

"School Choice should be a right of every parent....just as voting. My support of School Choice is my vote for who will lead my child's future."
-- Tracy Richardson-James

"The formulation of the question shows a bias. The money belongs to the tax payer he/she should be able to spend in in the way he/she sees fit. We need choice in education like we want it everywhere else. The public schools need competition...badly."
-- Steve Balog

Some of the themes I see here are waste, need for reform, and a voice that goes with our money. My favorite line out of this is “competition breeds excellence”.

Some questions we need to ask ourselves:
Why do administrative positions continue to be added as student population declines?
Why is so little being done at the state level to give all our kids an even playing field? I.e.: Mandating districts fund every aspect of special needs children with no funding to support these laws. Letting charter schools operate with sub standard scores then move to a new address and continue to operate under a new name with the same sub standard services. Oh wait, I know why that is. David Brennan and the likes of him are able to donate up to $30,000 to each and every one of our legislators. Impossible you say. There is a $10,000 cap on donations. Yes there is. But when you personally donate 10K and your wife donates 10K and your foundation donates 10K….Gee it’s not hard to figure out how failing charter schools continue to operate under the current law. I bet the couple of charter school operators that stole taxpayer money and fled the state really ticked ‘em off. They didn’t even get their cut. Or did they?

Competition can happen when we have an even playing field. The next time you see your state legislator and he or she tells you how much the state has increased funding to education in the last 8 years or so ask them this question: How much of that increase went to vouchers or charter schools and how much went to my public schools? If you can muddle through all the BS they feed you and figure out the answer, let me know. I know the answer. Verrry little.

I want us to be competitive. But when we are fighting the state and feds who force us to teach an archaic curriculum and focus on passing tests, instead of looking at what is going on globally in the market place, we will never be able to compete. The pocket lining will go on regardless of who we elect. But we need to elect people who will at least allow us to focus on the world we are becoming.

I hear about Japan, China and India surpassing us in education and our jobs going over seas. Right or wrong these are also countries that segregate their populations early in life. Usually by the age of 8 or 9. Performance is a ticket to a path down a vocational or labor career versus a higher education. A focus on the capabilities of the person rather than unrealistically thinking that everyone can- and has the desire to learn the same things as everyone else. There's a lesson for us all to learn from that.

Let the Games Begin

2007-02-26T11:32:00.000-05:00

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.

Who? Me? Micromanage?

2007-02-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

I didn’t get my Falls News this week so I don’t know if there was anything needing a rebuttal but there were some great articles in the Plain Dealer last week. Teacher salaries was a good one. One thing I have always said is that teachers make plenty of money. A study by the Manhattan Institute for Public Research says the same thing. And please don’t post that I don’t understand the amount of extra work and things that teachers must do at home. We all take work home. Of course the Ohio Education Association doesn’t agree with this report. Surprise, surprise. Teachers Vs. Unions touches on this issue of the NEA and local teacher unions is trying to do something about the teacher pay myth. Their main complaint is that teacher unions are not using teachers union dues wisely. No one has a problem paying an excellent teacher fair pay. It’s the crappy teachers with tenure that we are tired of supporting with tax dollars. It’s contracts slanted to benefit union officers with not one mention of student achievement that we are tired of funding. It the system of no accountability while the rest of us must prove ourselves to keep our jobs that we want to see change. But unions wont touch these issues with a ten foot pole. I was told to not even think about making student achievement with a merit pay system part of the new teachers contract. The strange thing is that good teachers do not seem to be afraid of an accountability system. But unions are. The same people who tell you that all children can learn are the same people who refuse to make it a contract issue.

Another great article was on the many superintendent job openings in the area. The part that struck me was the amount of money spent on superintendent searches. This is another area of extreme school district waste. Consultants, associations, contractors, etc. One of the great fears of the board majority during out CEO’s contract renewal scare was the cost of a superintendent search. It never even crossed their minds to look from with-in like Kent did. Duh! Besides, whatever happened to classified as in major newspapers, not to mention that new fangled internet thingy with places like Monster.com. It’s like every small claim must be made into a federal case. Another thing the article points out is that most local openings have had 10 or more applicants. Of course these are highly sought after jobs. It’s one of the few jobs you can hold and dole out favors and tax money and not be held accountable to the voters. One thing I have noticed since being involved in this school board business is this- generally a school employee is part of a school family. And I don’t mean that in the sense of “work” family. I mean if you are a school employee, chances are your wife, husband, brother, cousin, son-in-law, and spouses best friend are also school employees somewhere in some capacity.

I got a memo in my Friday board packet that suggests we try using the Ohio School Board Associations “consultant” for board relations to fill us in on what our roles are as board members. Along with this was a suggestion to read an article in the months issue of their magazine entitled “Is micro-management stalling your board?” Ironically this was the first article I read when I received my issue. Here’s the problem. The OSBA is staffed by former school administrators, not board members. We all know by now that administrators expect a board to approve their recommendations. Period. No ifs ands or buts. Recently across Ohio school board positions are being filled with concerned tax payers. Not the traditional levy cheerleaders. This has become a concern to the people spending your tax money. Yes OSBA is spending your tax money. We pay dues to belong. Here’s the part that kills me. We pay dues and get a magazine and various new letters. But the first thing you get from them is a list of consultants we can pay to use and a list of courses we can take for a fee. Now I get to the funny part of all this. I pushed for FREE federal mediators to come in and try to smooth this board rift we have and I quote our board president on this one “We need to learn how to get along on our own”. Now it seems someone wants to pay a buddy to try to help us understand our roles. I took the role course from OSBA. It basically goes like this: You pay a superintendent a lot of money to run your district. Let him do his job and do not interfere. If you interfere you are being unprofessional and difficult. What you promised the voter does not matter now. Do not question the super. Just realize that he knows best and blame the screwed up state funding for all the problems you face. Pay us $3000 - $8000 and we will send you your own tax spending personal trainer for more details. We’ll throw in a free Power Point presentation with every $5000 you spend. (Read this part really, really fast) Meals, mileage, and lodging not included in consulting fee but are expected to be paid in full. High end lodging only and valet parking must be included. Spa and pool desired but not required.

So let’s answer the question: Is micro-management stalling your board? Was I elected to be guided by the administration or the other way around? Is making suggestions to the administration on how I am told taxpayers want their money spent micro managing?

One last quickie. Make sure you check out the Plain Dealers' Regina Brett article on “The Homework Myth”. The book should be required reading for all teachers, parents, administrators and testing companies.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

2007-02-13T18:47:00.000-05:00

I guess it’s feast or famine. There’s so much to talk about today I don’t know where to begin. I guess first I should give the Falls News some credit. Quite a few wonderful articles. Ok I am sooo biting my tongue regarding the Silver Lake trash can debate that I can hardly stand it. So I must clear up a few things. In CF when we go out of town, generally a neighbor will haul our cans back for us. In some instances we must pay a teenager for this task. Most of our out of town visitors’ realize that we produce trash and it requires pick up. Most people here bring their cans back within hours of pickup. I’m sure a few stern looks at the lake will take care of any slackers.

The article on Molly Benedum was great! I will admit I am one of her biggest supporters and very biased. I owe much of my understanding of district finances and inequities to Molly and her ability to make the confusing understandable. She has poured her heart and soul into sorting out school finance and what it takes to run a fiscally responsible and accountable school district. I’m glad she has decided to run again. This board needs someone who can get tax payers their moneys worth, yet still want what is best for kids. She has a long term investment in our district having graduated one already all the way down to one who hasn’t started school yet. She has already put 14 years in our district and has at least 15 years to go! Good luck Molly! I know you would make a wonderful addition to the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education.

The article on the survey was great too. Ellin Walsh should get a raise if anyone over there at Record Publishing is listening. I need to ask the question: What are some people afraid of? Asking the community about their wants and needs in a survey does not mean you can or will provide every single thing that has a majority vote. But acknowledging that you want input and being able to explain why some things just aren’t possible is another way you can use a survey. But I think the main point is to gauge what the community at large wants and expects from our district and strive to offer all that we can with the resources these same people are willing to put in.

And I can’t avoid it any longer- The levy. I received an interesting Email. I guess at one of the meetings I was absent for a member was appointed to represent the board on the levy committee. But I wasn’t absent for any you say? Well I had to have been. Unless it was yet another one of those meetings I wasn’t invited to. But surely since that would be against the law….

Please stop calling me to complain about school closings or the lack of closings. I do not get to make this call. I just wear my PJ’s inside out and keep my fingers crossed like everybody else does. Why do some of you think the board actually makes decisions? We’re just told what’s best for everyone and expected to agree.

Did I Miss Anyone?

2007-01-31T00:38:00.000-05:00

Why am I so pessimistic? I guess because I’m one of those people that is destined to grow up and be a cranky old lady. It’s my nature to distrust governmental agencies. When you read “real” newspapers (sorry Falls News) you get information about how non-elected administrators are spending our money. Take the Plain Dealer (Monday, January 29, 2007) the other day for instance. They point out that Mr. Sanders may have other favors, I mean reasons, for refinancing. He’s certainly handing out a lot of jobs to his buddies. These are the things taxpayers are tired of. And you can’t vote them out. Favors and grabbing all the taxpayer money you can is the main reason these jobs are sought. Trust me, I grew up in a family that had every extended family member in some sort of government job or another. That or they were a union officer and employee at one auto maker or another so I understand what unions are all about too. Most administrators aren’t in this “for the kids”, and unions aren’t in it for the employees. That’s my opinion anyway. Teachers are at as much of a disadvantage in the current school culture as our kids are. I’m told time and time again that it’s their own union contract that prevents them from teaching methods and curricula that they feel would be successful. Another thing I’m secretly told, but no one wants to say out loud is if they actually had a choice as to joining the union or not, some teachers would not join. But if you want to teach, you’re in. You pay the dues whether you want to or not. Kind of ironic that the union says the teachers are not paid enough, yet force people who don’t want to give up the money for dues to pay. Now let’s talk about administrators, favors and tax money.

The Falls News did do an article this week on the reconfiguration committee meeting. I notice little was said regarding the committee chairs or how this looked to several of us from CF. First let me point out that there are three committee chairs. Two from Silver Lake and one from Cuyahoga Falls. Take note of the ever-present Silver Lake majority. And for the record, nothing from the CF committee chair made it to the recommendation list. Only SL suggestions made it The PFE facilitator was fine with this. But I guess this is where the favors come in to play. The facilitators’ relative recently got a job in the CF school system. But this isn’t supposed to look funny to the taxpayer. After all, it is business as usual. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
SL chair #1 headed up “reconfiguration; grade level based” SL chair #2 headed up “reconfiguration; neighborhood schools. CF chair headed up “reconfiguration; best practices”. All committees agreed that class sizes directly impacted student achievement- yet one SL chair asked the question “Do class sizes really drive excellence?” I wonder if she would have asked this if her kindergartner was in a class of 28? Besides the fact that she had already said that class sizes do affect achievement. The only research not included in the recommendations was research on best practices. If we aren’t doing this reconfiguration based on best practices why are we wasting our time? There are two things I know for sure about grade level based configuration. #1, it’s the most cost effective way to even out all class room disparities and inequalities. #2, it’s the best way to achieve teacher curriculum collaboration. So when kids hit middle school, they don’t come from six different “backgrounds”. Strangely enough the only cost benefits or achievement benefits mentioned were ones that favored keeping things the same. Did I mention that none of the CF chair best practices made the recommendation list?

A disturbing incident happened when the various tables were told to discuss what would make it to the recommendation list. Four board members were present including myself. Two of us sat back with the audience and kept our respective mouths shut. Two of us participated in the discussions. One of those board members wasn’t even a member of the committee. The board will be expected to vote on these recommendations. I have to ponder if it will be difficult to vote on your own recommendations? And strangely enough it's the same board members that don't want a question about reconfiguration on the community survey. Even I'm smart enough to know that neighborhood schools would overwhelmingly win in a community "vote".

The one point made that I can possibly agree with is that no particular configuration drives achievement. Good! Then we can focus on which configuration is the most cost effective. Because isn’t that what project recovery and the plan for excellence was supposed to be? A way to responsibly spend tax dollars and achieve greatness amongst all students? One of the “Plan for Excellence” district beliefs is “All students can learn” LOL! Let me know when that happens. We’re too busy trying to find new and improved ways to keep things the same. How much do you want to bet me that the push will be to redraw the elementary school boundaries? I’ll bet you a bagel and a cup of coffee. I’ll warn you though. I drink $3.50 cappuccinos. This is a desperate attempt to keep a cash cow open. I guess people would rather continue spending $2000 per pupil extra of our own money on open enrollers. (68% of kindergarten at SL is open enrolled) to justify this neighborhood school. Meanwhile break out your check books for the pay to play fees. And school fees, which by the way I still cannot get a straight answer as to what “school fees” are actually used for. I mean I pay for the gym clothes, I pay for the weekly readers, I pay for the assignment books, I pay for workbooks. So what are the fees for? C’mon all you administrators have my Email address in the handbook. Somebody please give me a valid, non BS answer. Oh and if anybody wants to take me up on that bet, let me know soon. We just got the property tax bill so Tarzan said I can’t go to the coffee shop for a while. Something about us not getting a levy increase when our expenses rise. Must cut back. Look for ways to save. I miss that cup of coffee.

Because...

2007-01-23T11:18:00.000-05:00

I couldn't have said it better. This is a must read.
Molly Benedum's Blog

Sour Grapes Anyone?

2007-01-20T00:55:00.000-05:00

It looks as if the naysayer’s were right. I think we wasted everyone’s time with mediation. What does listening mean to you? Does it mean just hearing what someone is saying? Or is consideration of what was said come into play? For me it is this: to take in what someone has said, consider it against my own point of view, perhaps use what was said to modify my point of view, perhaps not. But last night was an example of how it really works. It was stated that “we have to listen to what they have to say, but we don’t have to consider them or capitulate to them.” Gee, thanks. If you’re not going to consider others’ ideas, what is the point of my going to meetings? I also found it very telling that one board member stated that she had planned to be president and have another member to be VP, but “allowed” the current set up to try to compromise and give the appearance of harmony. So I guess we really do have one person running the show. At least that’s how it sounded to me. The selections were done behind closed doors and the rest of us were let in on it at the meeting.

I have said it to many in individual E-mails but I guess it’s time to say it here- You are complaining to the wrong person. You need to be E-mailing your concerns to the three board members that are running the board. They are the ones that can make changes happen. I can tell them how you feel ‘til I’m blue in the face. But as stated above, it falls on deaf ears. Don’t get me wrong, I still want your input on issues, but when you write to complain to me about the very same things I’m complaining about, it’s not productive. If you don’t hear back via Email, call them. They are who is directing how your tax dollars are spent. Not me.

I know there are some of you chomping at the bit about Wednesday’s levy vote. I would like to clarify a few things. First of all we voted to send the language to the County Fiscal Officer, not to put it on the ballot. I do still have questions and concerns before the ballot vote. But I do think Mrs. Gunter made a valid point. She said that in her mind putting this issue on the ballot is giving the voters a chance to evaluate the board. I’ll take it one farther and say it’s a chance to let the voters evaluate this district. Some will say that by putting it on the ballot it’s an endorsement of it. I disagree. I think there are blind followers on both sides of every issue. If people think this district needs and deserves this money it will pass. If people are fed up, it will fail. Either way I do know this. The state auditor said our staying out of fiscal watch depends on renewal levies. Having a school system in fiscal watch isn't good for your property values. And if you want your community to be desireable to families looking to buy a house, fiscal watch is not what you want to present them with.

I better get to bed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow. The board has an executive session scheduled at 9:30 AM to discuss union negotiations. I know it’s a waste of time for me. After last night it was made clear to me that I will be heard but not considered. I’m wondering why I should bother.

Here We Go Again

2007-01-16T00:08:00.000-05:00

Looks like placing a renewal levy on the ballot is on the agenda sooner than I had expected. Not much time to gauge public opinion. Not that public opinion matters much. I’m going to step out of my school board member role and step into my taxpayer role. This is what started my trek down the school board path. Does my district deserve to continue to be funded by me? Is it living up to the same standards I place on myself?
Let’s take a look at this. Our household income did not go up but our property taxes did. So we had to cut back in other areas. I heard propaganda that said “it (the levy cost) is the cost of a daily cup of coffee”. Well it’s a cup of coffee I don’t appreciate losing. And for what? Our elementary kids still don’t get field trips, we pay to play extra curricular activities, and our district condones biased bussing practices and class sizes. Why? Because we have a board that allows it. This board has handed over raises and continued to allow spending in areas that are unnecessary. Oh and guess what? The new bus garage needs windows and an alarm system before it would be safe to move in. Well guess what? I need new windows and an alarm system too. Oh and laugh if you want but I still say a Doberman would work as well, if not better than an alarm system. Can I get back that cup of coffee per day if this renewal doesn’t pass?
Then there is the other side. First of all if this renewal fails a couple times, the first cuts will affect our kids. One of the first battle cries you hear at levy time is “do it for the kids”. Yet I know kids in the Falls that are denied bussing because 1/10th of a mile is more important than the safety of an eight year old, families that were “redrawn” at the last minute last year for the sole reason of denying bussing, and kids that are threatened with not being permitted to participate in art projects because their parents haven’t paid school fees. Like a kid has any control of their parents paying fees. And why can’t our kids take AP classes without paying fees? What the hell are my tax dollars going for if not to educate the brightest students to the fullest? But this is where they will make us suffer if we do not pass a renewal. Our kids.
So you’re between a rock and a hard place. Unless you have a board that is willing to make cuts. We could close another building or two if we move to grade level alignment. Big savings involved in that, as we can recall from two years ago. Now when the last two buildings closed I was told that kids are resilient and could handle the change. Now I’m hearing that it’s detrimental for kids to switch buildings. Hmmmm. I was also told a while back that a certain administrator could leave and it wouldn’t pose a problem to us. Another employee would be able to perform their own job as well as the vacant position. This tells me there is a job that’s not needed. Needless to say both jobs are still filled.
And to top it off, “Project Recovery” is more like real life than you know. We have relapsed. Tax and spend with out an eye on the future of education. So what do I do? It’s like enabling a drug addict if I vote for it but I punish what’s most dear to me if I vote against it.
Gee it would be nice to have a board majority that focused on educating our kids and insisted on less waste? Let’s hear the pros and cons of putting this on the ballot. I’m truly in a quandary.

Let Them Eat Cake

2007-01-08T11:26:00.000-05:00

Please excuse my long absence. I need an extended break from the craziness of the school world! But I’m refreshed and back. As you probably read in the paper, not much has changed. I was hoping that after our first session with the federal mediators we could start to try to cooperate. Silly me. I thought we could start focusing on the education of children. But instead we continue to focus on who can outdo whom. Did I really think I would be elected to serve as VP? No. I was nominated to prove a point. You see two of us have been dealing with being shut out for a year now. They do it under the auspices of a majority. Yet they do not care they are shutting out the voting public majority. If you’ve been to any of the board meetings I think you would notice one thing about the five of us individually. There is only one member who continually keeps the focus on education, testing scores, and student achievement. She was appointed to the Cuyahoga Falls Foundation committee! What a slap in the face. I knew the triumvirate would never elect her president of the board even though she would have been the best pick. Their original pick for president and the reasons were unacceptable to me. My vote for board president is not going to be based on politics. Someone needing a title because they are up for re-election this year is not sound reasoning. Since I knew common sense would never prevail, a 5-0 vote was promised for the current president (lesser of two evils) and our education person as VP. But it became apparent that was not going to happen. My pick for VP declined my offer to nominate and offered to nominate me instead. What the heck, I had to try! I strongly feel the taxpayer majority deserves a voice on the board. But politics prevailed and winner takes all by a margin of one. I found the whole scene a comical waste of time. It was known going in who it would be. We should have skipped the formalities and just sworn them in when we walked in. Could’ve shaved 15 minutes off the meeting.
Now let’s touch on a few hot button (pardon the pun) issues. Cell phones first. Driving home from Bolich, I watch my friends’ daughter text message a 3-paragraph dialogue in 10 seconds flat. Keep in mind you non-text message users, each number on your phone stands for 3 or 4 different letters. “S” for instance requires 4 pushes of #7 on your phones and the actual #7 takes 5 pushes! Kids can text faster than an executive secretary can type. In fact Madam Kellie predicts that future keyboards will resemble a phone number pad more than our familiar keyboards. And everyone will type one handed. Eventually people will only type with their thumbs. I was told a story Wednesday night of a kid who texted 28 messages back and forth with his girlfriend during class, phone under the desk because he can do it with his eyes closed. I’m actually getting proficient at it and I’ve only done it about ten times. Everyone is fretting what to do. As usual I have the solution but no one will listen. We have the ability to block transmission in the classroom. Now I’m no techie, but I do know that if I go into secure areas, my cell is rendered useless. Scramble the signals, or whatever it is that these computer guru’s do that I know nothing about, but do know is available.
And thanks to the Beacon Journal, let’s talk about retire/rehire, or more commonly referred to as double dipping. There are two schools of thought on this one. First is the “it’s saving the taxpayer money” argument. You as a taxpayer will no longer pay for insurance benefits, (I wonder about the $1000 payment for not taking our insurance though), and perhaps a slight decrease in pay. This side will also point out the years of experience you are getting for the money. While this side has some merits the other side counter attacks with cries of how unfair it is. And to a point I agree. If you are a productive employee hoping to apply for that job when it is available, what is your incentive to stay if retirees are keeping their positions? And although a state pension is money the retiree earned, most taxpayers do not have this option after retiring and it leaves a bad taste in the voters’ mouth. It gives the appearance of a good ole boy system. It also eliminates young fresh professionals from bringing new ideas to a system. And they generally come in at a lower pay rate too. And the new person would generally buy a house in the neighborhood and start contributing to the local economy.
What’s your thoughts on these issues?

Dream On

2006-12-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

No it’s not an ugly rumor. The CF BOE actually had federal mediators come in (for free!) to help us learn how to function together. You see some of us are concerned that the constant friction present is doing this school district no good. I want to see us move into the 21st century. Follow global trends. Send kids into the world prepared for life, not just college. We have another meeting with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services in January. Just enough time to ponder what we’ve discussed thus far. To try and sum it up- we all come from different places. Different morals, ethics, beliefs, and backgrounds. Besides looking for flaws, look for some positives, some strengths that person has and appreciate them.

An interesting conversation took place among friends the other day. Do we have enough family time during the school year? I think complaints about homework have been around since homework has been issued. But today there is a valid argument that too much is coming home. We have after school sports and church and girl/boy scouts and music programs and practices, not to mention family activities suchas birthdays and shopping and doctor appointments and the rest of life. And most teachers do not plan homework and assignments around these things. I’m not saying they should but the amounts of homework that come home can be overwhelming. I hear of 2 hours and more and I’ve experienced it myself. My son had 3 reports dues in one weeks time. That’s a lot for a fourth grader. I like the 10 minutes per day and day per week rule. That means in first grade you have 10 minutes of home work once a week. In second grade you have 20 minutes of homework 2 days per week. But it should never exceed 4 days per week. Homework should not come home on Fridays in my opinion. Weekends are my time for family. School work should not dominate peoples lives. I have actually read about districts that issue no homework! Can you imagine that? I’m not necessarily saying that is a good idea, but it’s worth looking into. I’d revamp our whole system if it were up to me. Core classes would be 50 minutes. Art and music would be 45 minutes every other day. Gym class would ½ hour every day. That’s right-every single day. Obviously the high school would have to be different. But the focus should be on future trends not past practices.

That’s the end of my day dreaming today. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the policy committee will consider looking into some of these items next year. No meetings this week. What will we do with ourselves? I’m planning on shopping. Only 13 days left!

How good do you have it?

2006-12-05T00:26:00.000-05:00

The Plain Dealer did us a favor. If you haven’t seen Sunday’s PD you must check it out. It has a list of every districts pay scales in our six county area. The article points out that our teachers don’t have it so bad. In fact a new teacher in CF makes the same annual wage as our city’s medium income. Add in the benefits and time off and we have first year teachers out pacing the average taxpayer paying the bills by 50%. It also says that there is not a teacher shortage. One of the lowest paying districts in northeast Ohio had over 150 applications last year. The article also says to me that our pay is on par with our community. The higher the community’s medium income, the higher the teachers pay. Ohio is 14th in the nation for average teacher pay. Not bad.

I often hear the argument of what is a teacher worth. I’m the first to admit that it depends on the teacher. Some teachers are worth their weight in gold. Others aren’t worth the paper their degree is printed on. So instead of trying to decide what a teacher is worth at this point, let’s discuss what people are worth in general.

Most of us come out of college or technical school in debt to some degree. And I hope we can agree that most professions have their own unique challenges and levels of brains needed to perform. Most of us pay out of our own pocket for continuing education. Many of us must get our C/E hours on our own time as well to keep our licenses. Most of us take work home. Most of us work 238 days per year. (I gave everyone weekends, 12 holidays and 2 week’s vacation.) Most of us can’t demand a raise because we feel cheated in pay from the profession we chose. Most of us don’t have free insurance. In fact most of us pay 50% premiums or more. Most of us can’t earn $5000 to $15,000 on top of our wages with supplemental and extra duty contracts. Most of us don’t have tenure. Most of us have to prove our worth through performance to keep our jobs. Some of us have mandatory overtime. Some of us must take vacations when the shop shuts down for maintenance. Some of us haven’t had a raise in years. A few of us have taken pay cuts, layoffs, elimination of positions, wage freezes, and no benefits at all. Some of us are held to 30-hour workweeks. Some have had their names on the delinquent tax list. Most people live paycheck to paycheck and carry some debt. If you think any of this is off base, let me know.

Someone asked about the survey. The survey has been put on hold. With the holidays here and the hustle and bustle of all that comes with it, it was decided that it would get lost in the junk mail and Christmas cards. I have been asked about the cost. It seems some board members have been spouting about the huge expense of this survey. Let’s put it this way. It cost $10,000. That’s less than the raises and benefits this same board member handed over to our top two administrators. Hardly an amount to sneeze at yet in the scheme of things it’s really a drop in the bucket. I can guarantee we will get a better idea of what this community want’s from this survey than from the people who got raises. Another reason it was put on hold is the board cannot agree on a direction the survey should take. Some want it centered on the “Plan for Excellence”. A plan most people who pay taxes here know nothing about. OK. Let’s waste ten grand asking people about a plan they don’t even know exists. Another smart move from the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education.

Speaking of the Plan for Excellence, I have an update. A third co chair has been added to the redistricting committee. Cuyahoga Falls’ Molly Benedum was asked to join the two Silver Lake chairs. Thank goodness! It will be an uphill battle for equity but I have faith in Molly. She knows the numbers in this school district better than anyone. If you have never looked at her blog, you really should take a peek. She puts the numbers, facts and info behind all the things I complain about. She also has a vested interest in our district for at least the next 20 years with generations W, X, Y, and Z at her house.
As for the board meeting this week, should be long but informative. Part 3 of school finance from our CEO. A presentation on the 07/08 program of studies for the HS. The regular business of appointments and such. Approval of an agreement for a property tax valuation reduction from 15 million to 11.3. Hope to see you there!

What can we expect?

2006-11-28T00:24:00.000-05:00

It’s Saturday night about midnight. Right now about 20 teenagers are hanging out around the corner from me. Trash in the street, bikes lying everywhere. Cussing like Hells Angels at a truck stop. Do they have parents? How can the people living on that corner put up with the noise and trash? I’m disgusted. I wish some of the people on the Plan for Excellence would come and take a look at what they’re up against. When I say all children will not learn, these are the kids I’m talking about. They know I’m on the school board, yet willingly tell me they have left school. One asked me if it was OK to leave the HS because she had a headache. Two boys from Bolich left for the day because they “didn’t feel like being there anymore.” If we don’t find a way to reclaim these kids we will never achieve excellence. They do not have guidance from home on what it takes to survive in the world. Yet we expect them to take tests, bring up our scores for the state, graduate and become productive members of society.

As idealistic as it is to say parents need to do their job, the reality is many don’t. Whether you like it or not, these kids go to school with your kids. They smoke, they drink, they do drugs and they have sex. They are also a part of our scores to the state and federal government. We need to do something for these kids so that regardless of where they come from, they know where they are going. Out into thr cruel, harsh world. If our schools do not show them what it takes to survive, who will?

My fourth grader was taught last week how to write a check. That’s nice but first he needs to understand how the money gets into the checking account. Fourth grade isn’t too early. We need to add to our curriculum financial literacy, maybe even an overhaul of the “home ec” course. These children do not understand what a resume is. They do not have a clue what it takes to get into college at an early enough age. We do not spend enough time steering kids in directions that suit them individually. We spend an inordinate amount of time teaching things the children of this generation will never use. Computer literacy should be it’s own class in each grade in this day and age. And why do we force music class on kids? Some kids just are not cut out for singing or playing an instrument. Some are born with it. My opinion- it should always be an elective. Phys ed on the other hand should be mandatory daily. I can get up the stairs faster than some of our fifth graders. Nutrition is another area we lack in. We preach the food groups and healthy eating and all, yet we serve pizza and French toast and rarely anything that resembles beef, pork, or chicken. It’s all processed and frozen. I realize this is a real money saver. But it is at the expense of our children’s health. Don’t even get me started on the pop at school. Millions of people have survived by only being offered milk at school. OJ is available for those with allergies.

I guess what I’m getting at is we have to be examples and teachers of what life is all about in the classroom. Because unfortunately this is the only place many of these kids are going to get it. We need to use our imaginations and incorporate real life into our curriculum. Otherwise ours will never be an excellent district. The kids around the corner have no desire to learn. I want them to. What I’d like to know is this- what areas of education do you think need adjusted or a complete overhaul?

If It Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All

2006-11-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

What a week! If you think you’ve had a bad day, allow me to make you feel better about yourself. First Saturday. Hold B-Day party for my 96 month old baby. Secretly wish I had 4 more babies. Then other kids invade my house and I’m grateful I didn’t. Feed children donuts, ice cream, soda pop, and other sugar-laden goodies. At 1 AM I wonder what the hell I was thinking. At 2 AM I wonder why my kids are asleep and the others aren’t. At 3 AM I contemplate leaving for Columbus now rather than waiting until 2PM. Wake at 7 AM to automatic machine gun fire and Nerf bombardment. Wonder why they say kids need 8-10 hours of sleep but these ones only need 4.

Leave for Columbus at 2:30. Decide to be lead car in a 2 person caravan. Realize that 80 miles per hour is not fast enough for Miss Leadfoot. Wonder if cop will believe I was forced to go this fast. Probably not. Arrive at check in with my printed out reservation from September CLEARLY showing my smoking room. Informed that the hotel is 100% non smoking as of last May and my minority butt can stand outside if I wish. She also informs me that my blue and yellow outfit was not a good fashion statement this weekend. Huh? Whatever.

Go to dinner. The first clue should have been when the hostess directed my companion to not sit in a particular seat because of the vent above. So she moved to the seat the hostess suggested instead and I sat down. Long story short, froze the entire time and my food was cool after my first three bites. And I should have known that chicken pizza would suck.

Depressed Monday cuz it’s my baby’s actual birthday and I’m not with him. Call baby and tell him the story about the day he was born with a tear in my eye. Baby reply’s that he was playing Spyro Year of the Dragon on his new Nintendo DS Lite and forgot (?) what I was saying. And wants to know why I didn’t name him Spyro. And if he can change it to that. Go to bed wondering why my mom didn’t name me something cooler too.

Tuesday fairly uneventful. Except for the fact that I got up ungodly early to attend a meeting that was supposed to unveil the legislation to solve all the states education and property tax problems. Had to get presentable, pack, check out, get bell to put bags in storage, take shuttle to conference for- NOTHING! That’s right. The plan that brought everyone together, that mayors, and just about every educational entity is a part of, get this- wants us to donate money and get petitions signed for a piece of legislation we still haven’t seen any part of!

Wednesday. Take kids to school and pull back in driveway. Hope the green antifreeze all over the driveway is from someone else’s car that was at my house while I was gone for 5 minutes. Nope. Call Tarzan and listen to 20 minute tirade about car repair people, cost of radiators, and the fact that we will have to use our furniture funds to pay for car repairs. (The furniture isn’t due for delivery for 6-8 weeks.), told to not answer the phone if Wayside Furniture calls. Laugh because of this outrageous staement. Like furniture ever comes early! Get ride to Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Miss winning 50-50 raffle by one number. Get free hand sanitizer and a ride home. Realize my car is gone. Hope it was stolen only to find out it’s already at the repair shop. With all my stuff in it. Listen to messages. Wayside called. Furniture is in. I can call call them anytime to pay the balance and set up delivery. Repair shop message says they think they can fix it for only $350. Only?!

Computer repair guy is scheduled to come at 5PM and repair shop has finished and closes at 6. So I take Tarzan’s car to shop while he stays home to meet techie. Leave home at 5 and get to shop only realize his car needs gas and I don’t have time to get it. Leave shop in my car and race to board meeting. Get there with one minute to spare. Gotta pee but I guess it can wait. Take my car home and get ride to Kent from Miss Leadfoot to pick up Tarzan’s car. Argue the entire way about teaching and learning and if people come to games for the team or the band, when we all know it’s for the band! Oh and did I mention the air conditioner was on the entire way to defog the windows? This must be how they do it down south. Finally in Tarzan’s car and driving home. Car starts dinging at me. I instinctively hit the brakes because that’s what you do when the car dings. Realize the brakes are barely there. Debate whether to go home and tell Tarzan or go to bar and drink. Decide to go home and drink and then tell Tarzan. Realize I have broken two cars in one day and hysterically laugh and cry the whole way home and why the hell wont the car stop dinging? I know already for God’s sake! Does it think I can just stop and walk home? Besides even if it wants me to I’m not sure I could since it’s the brakes!

Thursday. Volunteer in Library. Tell Library buddies I feel like Schleprock. Informed that Schleprock must be from the OLD Flintstones because no one but me remembers him. For anyone who doesn’t know, Schleprock was a guy on the Flintstones that had gloom and doom follow him where ever he went. Go home and find out Tarzan’s car will cost $1000 to fix AND they will have it for a WEEK. Wonder why I didn’t become a school administrator so I would never have money problems.

TGIF. Friend stops by and tells us she’s leaving town for 2 weeks and want’s to leave her car in our driveway. Wishes one of us would drive it while she’s gone because she doesn’t take it out enough as it is. Um, OK. Maybe I won’t need a drink after all.

Lady Luck Doesn't Live Here

2006-11-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

I’ve had some interesting conversations lately. A relative in South Dakota tells me that their teachers pay is 49th in the United States. Yet they are ranked one of the best school districts in the nation. Oh yeah, and their property tax bills laugh at ours. Taxes levies fail resoundingly over and over. Guess what I suspect funds their schools. Gambling. Let’s look at Nevada. Per pupil spending in Nevada is some of the best in the country. I think you all know what funds it. In fact Nevadans aren’t real clear on what taxes are. Now a conversation from Iowa. For over 20 years the state of Iowa tried to legalize gambling. The issue finally passed a few years back. To quote the source- “Once people realized what a cash cow it was for the state, gambling issues passed faster than prunes through Grandma. We pass gambling issues to fund just about everything.”

Now I’m not saying issue 3 was perfect. But I would like to take at look at what other states, especially Nevada, to allocate so much funding to schools from gambling proceeds. What I find perplexing about this issue is that the people who wanted property tax relief and legal way of funding our schools, seem to be the same people that voted against issue 3. Without an alternate source of funds, property owners will continue to foot the bill. Strickland’s “Learn and Earn” is going to cost the tax payers money. Whether its income tax or sales tax or a reduction in Medicaid funding to reallocate to Learn and Earn programs, we all will pay for it one way or another. Unfortunately it won’t be through gambling proceeds. So in order to help out our freshly minted State Representative, tells me folks, how should we pay for education AND reduce property taxes? Or how about one better. Until someone in the state figures out how to pay for the mandates they issue, and make the playing field fair, public school districts should not have to abide by them. The same could be said to our federal lawmakers. Let expensive court ordered special treatment centers come out of the court’s budget not the school districts. And please legislators stop trying to tell us that local dollars do not follow a child to a charter school. When we must pay a charter school more money than the state pays us for that child, the difference is local dollars. If you want to send money to charters schools, let the district send ONLY what we get for them from the state.

The Ohio School Board Association’s capitol conference is next week. The whole gang is going. I will learn all the new and improved ways to spend our money. There will also be legal lectures as well as educational issues. The room of vendors peddling their wares rivals the IX center. Some are truly valuable products. Most are consultants. Surprise. But I always learn something at the seminars offered. The free highlighters and stress releasing squeeze balls make it all worth it. Bonus- our very own Plan for Excellence team will be there filling other districts in on how we saved ourselves from financial ruin and brought the community together.
Stay tuned, if time allows, I’ll be posting from Columbus.

It's Getting Deeper

2006-11-06T14:07:00.000-05:00

I need a question answered. Maybe I am being unreasonable. I asked that our survey indicate where the responder lives. Some think this aspect is unimportant. But whether you have DSL vs. high speed cable internet service is. Don’t get me wrong. “Do you have internet service?” is a good question. But is the type really going to help us any? I also am a little worried at the direction the survey is taking. Seems a few people think it should focus on the “Plan for Excellence”. I hate to be the realist once again but most residents of CF do not have a clue what the PFE is nor do they give a crap. BUT they do know how they want their money spent. And they DO have opinions on our schools and what is important. I want to know if athletics are a high or low priority here. I want to know what the people paying our bills want. Not what they think of committees they know nothing about and don’t understand.

I am disturbed by the happenings on Molly’s blog. Why any of this mattered to anyone anyway, I will never understand. And how was this a topic of discussion? I can’t even imagine how the subject came about. Let’s pretend.* We’re all sitting around sipping our cosmopolitans listening to each others rings clink the glasses.

MargaretKatherine: So Buffy did you hear Jane open enrolled her kid to our building?

Buffy: You’re kidding! Do you suppose she wanted $1500 per pupil more spent on her kid?
(Laughter)

MargaretKatherine: Maybe she wanted to benefit from the amplified sound system throughout the building, or the air conditioners, after all the schools in the city don’t have them.

Buffy: Well then her kid would just be costing the district more money then. After all we don’t get reduced electric rates like they do in the city.

Steph: Now ladies, everyone knows it had to be because of our low class sizes. Who wouldn’t want a student teacher ratio of 15:1? My child wouldn’t be so exceptionally gifted if the teacher had to spend her time with 25-30 kids!
(Gasps of horror and disbelief)

Buffy: Well if most if the city’s residents would send their kids to private schools like we do, they could have small class sizes too. It’s not our fault we don’t have an over crowded building.

MargaretKatherine: I heard if the district keeps pushing all open enrollment to our school we might have class sizes of 17:1 next year!

Buffy: Thank goodness we are the grand ring masters of the district wide reconfiguration! I hope our idea of making our school building the districts school for elementary aged geniuses goes over well. I mean who wouldn’t want that?

Everyone: Shhhhhh. Buffy!

MargaretKatherine: Buffy, you can’t talk about that! We haven’t figured out what to do with the rest of the district yet! There are a lot of kids in the city you know. We need to figure out a way to make ours a magnet school for talented kids and appease the city folk as well. It wont be easy. They actually think they deserve as much as we do!

Buffy: But they actually haul their own trash. To the curb!! I don’t understand how you can do this without getting some sort of debris on yourself. Besides my nail technician would die if she knew I was handling trash.

Steph: I hear they make their kids haul the cans back to the garage. Like my little Stanford is going to walk from the curb to the garage. It’s all he can do to ride his electric motor scooter to the lake and walk to the sand.

MargaretKatherine: I’m not sure why Jane didn’t enroll her kid here, I just thought I would bring it up. I really have no details or actual information just rumor and innuendo. I could ask Jane about it, but that wouldn’t be nearly as fun as figuring it out for ourselves. After all we have all the answers to the districts problems.

Steph: Refills anyone? Oh and I made the stuffed pumpkin soufflé that was on Martha the other day.

Buffy: Steph you are so talented.

OK. I better stop there. I feel myself getting out of hand. If this much time was spent working on the problems that face us we might actually move forward. But petty BS keeps occupying otherwise smart and talented peoples minds. The work that the PFE sub committee is doing has already been done. By Mayor Robart’s KIDS committee and the CEO of our district as well. I have been assured that the reconfiguration is being handled fair and impartially. But I must question why it is headed by two people from SL. Is it wise to have people from a small outside wealthy community making the decisions for a much larger much poorer part of our district? Can you be objective when it would so adversely affect your child’s education? I sure hope so. But the gossip on my friends blog makes me wonder where peoples priorities are. Molly’s priorities are with the facts and inequities in our district. Where she enrolls her kids has nothing to do with what we need. So how does community get togethers sound once some preliminary plans have been proposed? Or will we once again be handed a plan that a few have been involved with and no feed back from the community affected?

I haven’t talked about tomorrow’s election because I am so burned out on politics I could puke. My recycle bin is stuffed full of smiling faces telling me why the other guy is a bad person. One thing I have noticed. The History Channel doesen't play poitical ads. Please get out and vote. If there is anyone who understands how one vote can make a difference it’s me! So please go and make a difference.

* The people and names depicted here are fictional characters and not meant to portray any actual characters you may know. The author apologizes for any similarities between these fictional characters and any people the reader may know to be real.

Git Yer Boots On

2006-10-24T11:48:00.000-04:00

WOW! My comment to Sarah wasn’t even up for 2 hours and my phone rang. I gotta give the guy credit. Mr. Widowfield made his case pretty well. AND he apologized for not responding to the boards’ request to attend candidate’s night. He also says that Sarah never contacted him. I find the comments from Sarah strange anyway considering only one candidate actually knows me. So if Ms. Hanna wanted to invite me to a mental health forum, I’m sure it was to help me understand some of the people I serve with.

Mr. Widowfield pointed out to me that it is not easy to legislate. While I only have to deal with 4 other points of view, he must deal with 99. He has a point. But then again that’s why we hired him. He told me he has done much to increase state funding and protect local dollars since taking office. But he did defend charter schools. He claims that there a many charter schools outperforming public schools, I pointed out that are a few that are outperforming local "Big 8" districts but generally publics outperform. He also claims that David Brennan’s money has no effect on his decision making in congress. I must be suspicious of that comment until he stops taking his money. How could you take someone’s hard earned cash (she said with a snicker) and not feel some sense of partiality? When I posed the solution of closing all failing charters now and allowing new start ups that must succeed within a 3 year period he said that's how it is now. Except for the closing the already failing ones. And except for preventing them from reopening down the street. Read this article for more on this issue.

As for the judgeship comments I made, he says I’m off base on this one. To sum up what he told me in a nutshell, The juvenile court had said for years they needed a judge. Summit Co. Common Pleas was also yelling for more judges. Mr. W asked the most independent person he knew, Justice Moyer, to look into each request and decide what was needed where. Later the power shifted at juvey and the demoncrats said another judge was not needed. It is my understanding that cases move fairly quickly through the system at juvey. Not the case at Summit Co. Common Pleas. So I have a feeling politics play into this a smidge. But I’ve gotta give him credit too. His kids are enrolled in public school and they do and will continue to feel the effects of funding deficiencies. He does understand DeRolph and asks people this question: What is your formula or answer to fund schools? It’s a good question. There is no easy answer. But then again that’s why we hired them (legislators). If he is re-elected I expect him to find the answer to this question. I’m not paid enough to find that answer.

The Plan for Excellence comment stems from the fact that there is one parent from CF on the building reconfiguration committee and the rest are SL parents, teacher/SL residents, and administrators. The committee chairs both hail from SL as well. This is not fair and balanced. Madam Kellie is going to make another prediction. Madam Kellie predicts that nothing will change. Instead of going to grade level based buildings, a proven winner, we will keep our "neighborhood" schools. Well some of us will. Some of us will continue to trek across town to our neighborhood school. Unfortunately not many people were aware that our district was reconfiguring. I place blame on many people for this, including myself. But I gave up on the Plan for Excellence after my first meeting. You see the committees were set up and one was labeled "facilities and resources". Common sense would dictate that building reconfiguration would happen on this committee. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the "teaching and learning" committee would be handed this task. That’s when I began to realize that the whole process was flawed. Is this committee looking at the financially beneficial configuration? Hmmmm… It’s obvious our district needs all day kindergarten. Look at the percentage of two career households and single mothers in our district. Did this topic really require a committee? Along the same lines, I hope they look into letting middle school aged children out 15 minutes before the elementary aged kids. After all they are the baby sitters of these kids.

People are throwing their hands in the air. I remain hopeful that the community survey will provide some guidance for these committees as to where the taxpayers want to see our money spent and what we expect in return. Please O please return your surveys!