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Post by Sam_Clark on Aug 11, 2009 11:52:10 GMT -5
I guess I will get things started off!
What do you think we need to do for this next levy? What are your feelings towards going back on the ballot in November?
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Post by cchsmom on Aug 11, 2009 11:56:33 GMT -5
Good afternoon, it appears we were both posting at the same time. lol I'm not sure what happens next, but it's rather obvious that something needs to happen and happen sooner rather than later. The community needs to rally together once again and write their legislature in regards to school funding, the Board also needs to use their education and put their heads together to fix this issue. It's a sad day in Mudville.
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amh27
New Member
Posts: 7
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Post by amh27 on Aug 11, 2009 12:46:05 GMT -5
Lets keep this forum focused, providing information that the average person (voter) will understand and not argue amonst ourselves....we all need to support the schools and teachers and most importantly our students......we all need to remember community is about all of us....I will volunteer any time I have to the levy activities...
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Post by cchsmom on Aug 11, 2009 12:53:25 GMT -5
I believe our number 1 focus should be the students!!!
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Post by megacat on Aug 11, 2009 13:55:11 GMT -5
Why can't both sides understand that they are creating a lose - lose situation? The community refuses to help the schools and the schools won't educate the community. This is not rocket science people. The Board needs to explain in detail where the tax dollars come from and where they are going and the community needs to fully understand that without strong schools, the home values and local economy will continue to suffer. It is a dangerous cycle that has begun and the kids (who have no voting rights) are the innocent victims in it all....very sad.
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Post by cindyd on Aug 11, 2009 14:35:04 GMT -5
During the meeting last night it became more apparent that the anger among the citizens on both sides is about to explode. The school board has put out the numbers, the list of cuts, what the passage of a levy will reinstate and the deficit it will create if not passed however many people simply don't listen. During the last levy campaign there were many many voters who I personally talked to and discussed the cuts being made and that it was not only sports and band. When it failed some of these same people told me they would have voted yes if they new the cuts were more than sports and band. Yesterday another person said that the cuts in bussing and AP classes were never in the newspaper. Yet these same issues were told to this person numerous times over the past 6 months. How do we get the voters to listen to what information is being given?
The students are the ones being harmed by the adults who are unwilling to support the schools or even compromise. The state funding issue won't be solved by the total destruction of our school district. The state funding issue I doubt will be changed any time soon. If we wait for this to solve our problems our school district and communities will never wake from the resulting nightmare.
While I do think the board should put a levy on for November the only reason for that is because by waiting until 2010 it will cost everyone a higher amount due to tax not being collected until 2011. However, whether they change the millage or not the employees and administrators should agree to a pay reduction to show that they are willing to support the students. The option for pay to play or participate should also be available to all students. Since the pay reductions and PTP were the main reasons given by most of the opposition, if these are included in the levy proposal by the Board on 8/12 there should no reason for it not pass.
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Post by austin on Aug 11, 2009 14:36:37 GMT -5
I agree with megacat. I just can't think of a venue that would get the job done. I've attended every school forum/school funding forum and it just seems not that many people, other than staff and a few parents like me, are there. I know these are advertised, postcards are sent to community households, etc. How do we get the community to truly engage?
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Post by austin on Aug 11, 2009 14:43:51 GMT -5
I do not agree in principal with P2P, but perhaps some modification could be made to the way it is usually run to see that all kids who want to can participate. Franklin Heights does not even have an athletic booster organization, so I don't know who is going to help those kids.
I do not agree with staff taking cuts beyond what they already have and I am not a teacher, nor do I work in any way for SWCS. I just don't think that it would ever end if they did that and the community would just make it impossible for any quality teacher to stay here. If the community had a history of supporting schools, I might agree, but that is not the case. It has failed 19 out of the last 22 levies. I don't want to argue that point, however, as I know it is an emotional one, but I think a freeze for the length of the levy should be enough, especially with their continuing ed and licensing mandates which they personally finance and their health insurance premiums going up every single year That already amounts to a paycut.
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Post by msuchar on Aug 11, 2009 15:03:58 GMT -5
does anyone know if this is true. The $2.5 million that the district has cut for extracurriculars was made up of primarily wages and benefits. There was another small chunk for transportation but I believe the figure was $1.9 or $2.0 million for wages and benefits
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Post by lateach on Aug 11, 2009 16:41:54 GMT -5
This is my first post to any SWCS or Grove City forum of any kind. I am glad to see a positive website dedicated to working to pass the levy. I am a teacher in the district but I am not a resident of the district. What do we need to do? I don't think I have seen anyone work harder at passing a levy or bond issue than the folks who ran this campaign or who worked night after night to get out the message and get out the vote. What an effort - and still for naught. We need to discover why folks either voted "no" or did not come to vote. We can no longer sit among ourselves and speculate. We need to find ways to survey voters, especially in the townships, at least one of which voted very differently than it had in the past. We need to find these reasons, directly from the mouths of the voters, and we need to address these reasons, whatever they REALLY are.
We also need to create a way to civilly respond to the misinformation, wrong information, and fabricated information presented by the anti-levy campaign. It was disheartening to regularly read and hear erroneous citations of salary-increase percentages, teacher quality, and so on. We need to civilly insist that local journalists find the pro-levy folks when they prepare their news reports, and get our quotes too. We need to make sure that district voters know the facts about how the school budget is spent; I was disappointed, as I stood outside last night, when the treasurer rose to present these facts and so many people outside wandered away without hearing what he had to say. What I have heard through these last three campaigns convinces me that many voters simply don't know the particulars of the budget, or the laws and policies governing school-district budget allocations. We need to find ways to get this to voters and district citizens.
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Post by smiths5 on Aug 11, 2009 18:13:29 GMT -5
I think that what needs to get done is get the Levy passed! How do we do that? We have to find a way to get the people who voted no to see that the community will suffer greatly without the extra curriculars and that our property values will never recover from this. Get that in the literature. As far as teachers taking a pay cut, what will that do? The community will only want more and more. SWCS teachers are already in the bottom third of Franklin County on the pay scale. As a teacher in the district, and as a mom of three girls attending SWCS, I am devasted. I am also practical. I have seen a lot of good educators leave this district this summer to go elsewhere because of pay. What is it going to take? How much do we need to lose? When the distrcit went to split sessions, the next time the building levy went on the ballot it passed. Will this one pass in November if put on the ballot? Maybe with the first two months of school being a nightmare with the kids bored in the neighborhoods on the weekends and after school, the community will see that every decision can have lasting effects.
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Post by austin on Aug 11, 2009 18:38:50 GMT -5
I really hope your union doesn't take a paycut, smiths5. If it would be a one time thing, maybe, but we all know it won't be. I heard a lot of people say before the teachers took a freeze, "If the teachers will only take a freeze, that will help pass the levy". Now the levy didn't pass and some people are calling for paycuts. If it doesn't pass, they'll want bigger cuts. Pretty soon all of the good teachers who can leave will leave. I don't understand why they would stay. The only ones left will be the ones who can't get jobs elsewhere. Is that what we want for our kids?
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sp
New Member
Posts: 3
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Post by sp on Aug 11, 2009 19:24:13 GMT -5
In response to msuchar -
This was sent to me back in March after I requested the breakdown of the $2.5 as it relates to athletics and a couple of questions I asked at the time. (I hope the formatting is OK when I paste):
... Attached is the information you requested from Treasurer Hugh Garside. Please let me know if you need any further breakdowns.
Thanks! Sandy
Sandra C. Nekoloff Executive Director of Communications and Community Relations
South-Western City Schools Breakdown of Extra-Curricular Budgets (Athletics Only) Fiscal Year 2008-09 Amount Salaries 1,430,000 Benefits 268,000 Transportation 252,000 Total 1,950,000
1. If a coach is also a teacher in the district, does their salary (and benefits) fall into this amount? No. This is for their supplemental contact only. The only benefits paid for out of this number include those required by law, such as retiremen workers compensation, and Medicare. Additional benefits, such as health care, are not included in this amount.
2. Does the amount also include athletic directors that are also employed in other roles in the district? No. The assistant principal in each high school that has athletic responsibilities is not charged in this amount. The athletic supervisors at Central Crossing, Grove City, and Westland are charged to this account because their sole duty is athletics.
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Post by Grandma on Aug 11, 2009 19:25:36 GMT -5
I agree with austin. When this first began, all of the employees took a pay freeze to show they were serious and that seems to be a cut. That apparently did not matter because now the no voters are calling for a cut of 10% - just pulling off the top of their heads? No matter what scale you are on, that is a large cut, and even for the classified who don't make near that much. There could be many concessions made, but it will never be enough in peoples eyes, they will ask for more. We have to come together and figure out a way to make this community strong again. The funding fix is questionable because the legislator I met with said that it would be fair funding, taking from the richer districts and giving to the poorer districts to make an equitable funding solution. So what would that really mean? Less for us then what would that do - the money would have to come from somewhere.
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Post by uptight97 on Aug 11, 2009 19:42:19 GMT -5
While I do hate to see people loose money they work hard for, I think that a paycut would change alot of minds...not 10% though. The economy does really have people strapped to just maintain their households. There are two senerios I have heard within my own family:
1) Over the last year people have seen an inceases at the stores, gas, utilizies, you name it. Households have had an increases insurance preminums compared to last year and some of those same households have had to take a pay cut just to keep a job. To top it off, you have the additional tax passed if you work in Columbus.
2) Another scenerio...a retired senior citizen who is just barely making it by with their spouse in a nursing facility. There have been cuts in medicare and they are paying several hundreds of dollars for medications. They own a home so they cannot get assistance from medicaid.
These are tough scenerios that I'm not sure what would change their no votes.
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