I would like to congratulate Heather Keck and Doug Maggied on their success last night and election to the Hilliard School Board. I look forward to seeing Heather's perspective on the Board.
Congratulations to Homer Logan and Brian Perry. If you have never run for political office, you don't probably understand the campaigning and the type of person you need to be to survive in the arena. Having done it twice, thank you both for your willingness to serve our district and promote your views.
Thank you to all the voters who supported me this election. While not the result I expected considering the number of "Anti-levy" votes, it was great to see the total votes higher than the 2009 election. I have really enjoyed meeting many of you, the discussions, and the sharing of ideas. While currently unsure about the 2013 election, I will still be involved taping the Board meetings and speaking out against the levy (should Issue 17 remain a failure) and the Board's methods of threatening the public with cuts.
Many thanks to the "No on 17" crowd. We have shown the Board that we are a divided community and that is a reflection of their failure to lead. Since we are now at full pay to play, they can't threaten us anymore with increases there. They could reduce busing further, but at some point there is no more savings. Now we must engage in a discussion on class size, compensation, benefits, administrators, class offerings and the 88% of the budget that needs attention. If true meaningful discussion takes place, then and only then, will I support the levy. I might even join the pro-levy campaign at that point.
I look forward to our new Board and what they accomplish in the next 2 years. Please congratulate them, as running a campaign and being a candidate is enormous work and they should be proud of this accomplishment.
I hope you finally get the message, after failing twice, that you are not wanted on the school board. You don't have the districts best interest in mind. You are a TEA PARTY, RIGHT WING person. People know this. Your views are purely selfish in nature and that is evident with your messages on here at times. Your comments about joining the pro levy are ridiculous. You know as well as I do, that will never happen with your tea party beliefs. I and many others are NOT sorry you did not make it. Move on.
ReplyDeleteLots of big talk from "Anonymous" people. If you have something to say, man up and sign your name.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going anywhere, especially if there is another levy on the ballot soon.
Thank you for your willingness and strength to stick up for what you believe in. Our government(Federal, State and Local) does not have any more money to give out, and people better be ready for higher taxes or smaller government.
ReplyDeleteJustin, thank you for once again for being an informed voice for the community. I think more people are getting the message that the desired changes need to start at the board. Just not enough voters this time around.
ReplyDeleteNow that the election is over Justin I have some questions considering you are not going anywhere and seem to be committed to staying involved by going after the leadership you present to the community as lacking on the Board of Education and also your proclivity to attacking the big, generic 88% number that you claim goes to salary and benefits within the budget of the school system.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would suggest something thing to you. I personally wonder where else do we want, and need, 88% our funding to go? I cannot believe that you could even debate the fact that in reality 95% of the impact on the community this organization serves (our children) comes DIRECTLY from the human resources. I would also respectively submit to you that this is ALL of the human resources including custodial staff, office staff, teaching staff and, YES, even the administrative staff!
Second, you often talk about course offerings and class size. I would like to request that you present actually published, peer reviewed research that indicates that increasing class size or reducing class offerings (including any "extra-curricular" activities) actually improves, or even maintains, the successful education experiences for our children. I can provide with you with hundreds of white papers that would suggest the exact opposite. Going back more than 50 years there is research from many reputable professionals and organizations that would counter the idea that we can maintain an excellent educational organization while increasing class size and decreasing our class offerings to students.
Third, you concentrate on the 88% number yet I have never seen one post indicating that you have actually looked at, or suggested any specific recommendations on where you would suggest we cut. You could very easily go to the treasurer's office and request the line by line budget and go through it and give me, and the community, your specific courses you would cut and human resources you would reduce. Are you suggesting a simple global reduction by saying we just reduce the "number" by a specific percent? Say 20 percent....?? This doesn't reduce the 88% number you seem to be attacking. It just reduces the total, not the amount going to salaries compared to all expenditures. Make the recommendations and then the community would have something to compare to what the Board of Education is required to do. These are, again, not threats. These are the realities. So I would again, respectfully, request that you and your team offer some specific recommendations that would be a comparison for the community. I want to know exactly what you suggest we "cut". You indicate in your blog that the board recommendations were made without discussion. Well even if they didn’t have a discussion I would suggest you take your blog and make the specific recommendations you seem to have.
To be Continued....
Finally, you spend a great deal of time videotaping the School Board Meetings and speaking at those meetings. Have you ever ONCE spent a minute of time in a classroom at any of the schools reading to a child, helping them with their math or art project? Have you worked in the lunch room of an elementary school helping a first grader open their milk? I would suggest that you should do this BEFORE your two children enter the schools. I may just provide you with a perspective on the things going on that you don't have now. I speak from experience and will tell you that for my child's first 7 years (elementary) I spent one full day a week in the school doing anything from making copies for a teacher to reading with children having difficulty. I've worked on projects and have come to love every single one of the students and staff I've had the privilege to meet. Now that my child is in High School I remain involved and spend many hours every week supporting the programs being offered in our schools. Until you actually do this, Justin, you don't have the complete knowledge that I would require to respect your views. We need volunteers in the schools and I would again suggest to you that if more people (retired, parents of young children, anyone) volunteered in our schools maybe we would have a better informed community. Also...before you shoot this down...No one is "shunned" from volunteering in our buildings and if you think for a moment you would be unwelcome let me know. I will find a school and will physically go with you and set you up with a teacher and principal who will give you the opportunity to actually work with a child and see the experiences they have, as well as the experiences the 88% of the school system budget compensate.
ReplyDeleteSchoolsAreImportant,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for not seeing your comment, blogger inserted it into the spam folder without notifying me.
I have been in our schools teaching elementary students Junior Achievement and the financial education associated with it. It is a very rewarding program, one that I heavily support. I have since moved out of Hilliard teaching this program and teach in downtown schools that really have uncaring parents. I know the difference in students, teachers, and services provided having been in both environments.
It seems odd that you can't respect my views until I've been in a class room. Would it be fair for me to not respect your views until you've been through an accounting class and open up the school budget and financials? I think what you hold as your primary value is different than mine, but I'm okay with that and respect that. My hope is that those of us that are primarily financial people looking at numbers gain some compassion and feeling about schools, while those that only speak about experience gain some understanding of the unsustainability of our finances. The end goal is the same, we want the best education for our student based on affordability of our district residents.
For too long we have been divided on these issues and a real answer is not to continue the way we have for the last 16 years with our heads in the sand concerning the finances. If we have a committee like the Athletic Sustainability Committee, made up of finance people, teachers, parents, and non-parents, we might be able to find an answer, providing we have good data from the Administration.
I would be happy to volunteer in our schools, just let me know when and where. I'd be happy to speak with you further about this.
Let me start with your intro and first point, I continue to attack not the 88% number, but it comes up because of increases to the 88%. I am not arguing that we should be spending 79% instead of 88%. The Board continues to increase compensation and benefits annually resulting in the budget increasing. Simple math:
ReplyDelete$100M total budget
x 88% comp & benefits
= $88M total spent on Salaries and Benefits in year 1
x 5% increase (between base and step raises, estimate not actual and yes I understand the freeze.)
= $92.4M total spent on Salaries and Benefits in year 2
My problem is that the contract is negotiated for 3 years at a time and the community says nothing about it. Where is that extra $4M going to come from? This whole levy according to the Board was due to the State of Ohio reducing our budget $10M. If the Board decides to add $12M to Comp & Benefits over 3 years, isn’t that just as significant as having to make programming reductions? This is the conversation that is missing and causing the divide in our Community.
The Board looks to be pro-teacher by granting increases and supporting the levy and the blame for reductions goes to the “No” voters.
Point #2. People don’t like the above fact that we continue to spend more and more on C&B. As I speak against the increasing Dollars (not Percentage) of these expenses, I assume you agree that this is not sustainable. If you do agree, then we need to find where we can become sustainable again. This is a math problem, not a research study, which I have discussed in numerous posts.
The formula is Wage Rate x Employees = Compensation.
Let’s start with where we were Sept 1, 2011. The HEA and OPSEA contracts have been set for the next 3 years. We know that the wage rate is established and leaves us with either the number of employees. Since the wage rate & benefits cost more at the end of 3 years, if we wanted to keep our costs constant (assuming no inflation adjustment) or minimal (small inflation adjustment) then we would have to reduce the employees and find savings through larger class sizes or reduced elective offerings. If you want data on HOW we do this, no data would be available to represent the priorities of our community. Hypothetically, you may love sports, busing, and drama where I put a priority on music, languages, and photography. If we both believe we want to contain costs, then we have to review the course offerings and see how we accomplish this. Not an easy task and not one I would like one person to take on alone. The problem we have, and I spoke to in the last few posts, is even if I eliminate one photography class, it doesn’t cost any less unless we eliminate a whole position or ~8 periods for that one person.
Continued....
ReplyDeletePoint #3. I hope I have unfolded that the 88% is not the problem, but the growing number of dollars the district requires to operate each year is the problem. Hands are tied as far as changing compensation, eliminating employees based on performance, etc. If we decide, like you said, to reduce our budget $3M bases on C&B, the problem is we have to eliminate on a last in first out method, due to seniority alone in the HEA and OPSEA contract. Last in’s usually are near the bottom of the pay scale, so it requires more quantity of them to be terminated resulting in more classes having to be cut. This is no easy answer and the Board jumped for the first list provided by the Administration (the one that the Board places in charge over the district to oversee and be involved in the day to day duties of our schools). The Board has no place in the details, but can make recommendations and inquire as to how the Administration determined their cut list.
My point has never been that I have the answers or can open door number 2 and find an extra $4M. What I have advocated time and time again is communication between the Board and the residents, financial education on school funding and involve the community in the discussions surrounding significant cuts, tax increases, and contracts. These are the most important things to the sustainability of our great school district. Without the money, we don’t have schools.