More Survey Results

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...

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

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?

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

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

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 ....

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....

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'

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!

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...

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

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"?

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

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!

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!

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

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?

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

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?

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.