Inform Hilliard - by Justin Gardner

Yard Signs

2011-12-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

I received a message that a yard sign is still floating around out there somewhere, but the person did not say where or leave an email address for further contact. If you have seen any of my signs out, please let me know the location. In my travels, I've picked up all that I've come across, but I did not put out all the signs, so I am unaware of where some might be.

Thanks for your help!

Thank you and Congratulations!

2011-11-09T09:06:00.000-05:00

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.

Yard Signs - If you want one, let me know

2011-11-05T10:32:00.000-04:00

This is the last big weekend before voting. Yard signs are springing up everywhere, otherwise they'd be stolen if put out earlier. I'm traveling all over our district today placing yard signs. If you would like one, please email me at Justin@informhilliard.org and I can get you one. It is much easier to find places in yards with permission than to place signs in random "public" areas. Also, if you need some "No on 17" signs, I have those as well from the ForHilliardKids group.

Thanks for your support and I hope I have earned your vote on Tuesday!

Abigail Adams Voter Guide

2011-11-05T09:55:00.001-04:00

Here is the answer to their questions in PDF format.

Narrative Responses are here.

Distpatch Voters Guide

2011-11-05T09:51:00.001-04:00

I thought it best that the most recent post be my answers to the Dispatch Voters Guide. Here are my responses and you can go here to see the other candidates resposnses.

Campaign e-mail:Justin@InformHilliard.org

Age:29 30 (Nov 7th)

Marital status and family:Married 7 years to my wife Laura, a 2 year old daughter Brooke, and a baby due February 2012.

Education:Franklin University, B.S. Accounting in 2004

Religion:Member of Mountview Baptist Church

Experience:Accounting Manager of Unwin Company, a Hilliard based firm specializing in protective forces, safeguarding, and security consulting. Former Public Accounting Senior Auditor of major corporations and specializing in retirement plans. Hilliard homeowner & taxpayer since 2004. InformHilliard.org blogger; videographer of school board meetings

What are the top issues in your school district?

Justin Gardner: Hilliard had a severe reduction in State funding and minimal increases in Commercial revenue. The funding burden rests on Residential Property Taxes to maintain the school board's increased spending. Residents voted against the levy in May 2011, a clear sign that the board must reduce expenses and contain spending growth. An irresponsible board continues to push for another levy, instead of looking at programming for reductions. This board continues to hold the residents hostage and are not looking for other options. It has been said, the best way to pass a levy is to cut busing and sports.

Transparency: The administration only provides a budget and 5 year forecast. These are large numbers with little detail for the public to discuss. Working meetings scheduled at 5pm on a weekday are not helpful. The Board was told semi-annually for 3 years by the Audit & Accountability Committee their spending was unsustainable, and the board did nothing. Why aren't we hearing from them now?

If elected, what will you do about these issues?

Justin Gardner: The solution is for the Board to lead by reducing expenses and not spending more. This includes asking the administration for $20M in potential reductions, instead of the Administration handing the Board a list of $10M and not providing options to the public.

Commercial revenue must increase before residential growth continues. With the help of City Council and Nathan Painter, formerly on the A&A Committee, we must emphasize the importance of Commercial revenue. If a new house brings 1 student to Hilliard at a cost of $11,500/year, assume $5k is paid by the new property taxes, State incrementally funds $0, and Commercial Taxes are fixed ($0), the other $6500 must be funded by existing home owners via new levies. This is unsustainable. City Council must understand the finances if they promote growth. I will work to maintain property taxes, stop forcing out fixed income individuals, and still have schools that are excellent with distinction for the future.

In this tough economy, more attention is being paid to salaries, which compose the majority of school districts' spending. Does your district pay employees too much, too little or about the right amount?

Justin Gardner: The common misconception is teachers are underpaid. The average salary of 1200 teachers is $67k with a range of $20k-101k, the 79 Administrators average $83k ($24-180K), and 400 support staff average $37k ($6k-82k). These numbers do not include the pension plan or other benefits. This shouldn't be a secret and the community needs to have input on what compensation levels are reasonable. The latest contract negotiation did not hold any meetings prior to negotiations where the public could voice their concerns on compensations. Voting no on a levy and 75 teachers terminated as a result, is due to the Union contracts protecting seniority and therefore the highest paid employees. Salaries and benefits make up 88% of the budget, but the only way to make reductions is by reducing positions.
It takes more positions at lower wages to achieve meaningful saving. Reducing positions does not mean we lose our Excellent with Distinction, it means we reduce our selection and focus on fewer programs.

What else would you like to say to voters?

Justin Gardner: Our community has an excellent rating because of involved parents, dedicated staff and community, and students willing to learn. My concern is that we as a district maintain our great community and diversity by keeping property taxes reasonable. A levy cycle of 2-3 years is unreasonable. With a child yet to be born, I have a 20 year outlook and I am not looking out for what only affects my child. We have great programs and talented people, but spending less in the short term does not mean we are moving towards minimum standards. Instead we should be fiscally responsible and run at a surplus for a number of years to rebuild our cash reserve. Board policy requires a 10% cash reserve, but this board has spent increasing amounts each year and caused that reserve to be $0 at the end of this school year. I will vote "No" on the levy in November because I refuse to give an irresponsible board more money. A levy will be needed to get out of this mess, but who do you want in the driver's seat?

Yard Sign Stealing.....You just woke the sleeping giant

2011-10-15T22:50:00.001-04:00

This morning at 2am my doorbell was rung, which woke my dog, wife, daughter and me. While armed, I checked the front door and noticed my "Gardner for Hilliard School Board" was stolen and in its place was this gem. Looking at my neighbors yard, his sign was stolen as well. What makes the story even better is that exterior survallience recordings show this to not be "kids" as everyone likes to blame.

I have always respected when people have yard signs that are differing from my view. What makes this community strong is that people think differently and I'm thankful. Over the last week, I had been really considering my vote on the levy, but knowing this is what the Levy committee feels is allowable, there is no way I will vote for this levy. Levys are not about kids, they are about compensation and benefits for employees, who are also on the Levy committee.

Please be aware, that my main concern is the safety of my family. My wife and I are CCW's and are armed when legally allowed, especially during this campaign. Many people think I might be over reacting, but the boldness not only to take my signs (theft) but also ringing my doorbell for a confrontation, makes me wonder to what lengths the pro-leviers will go to silence me from pointing out the mismanagement of our Board.

I ask that if you have issues with me and my campaign, voice it at the voting booth, in person, by email, in letters to the editor, but leave my residence and my family out of your games.

Thanks and if you need any Gardner yard signs let me know. If you need "No on issue 17" signs, I can forward those requests for you as well.

Yard signs are now available!

2011-10-10T21:59:00.000-04:00

If you would like to help me by placing a yard sign on your lawn or would be willing to volunteer to hand out some signs, please contact me at Justin@informHilliard.org.

Thanks!
Justin

Meet the Candidates Night at Bradley High School 10/11/2011

2011-10-05T10:15:00.000-04:00

The Hilliard InterSchool PTO is hosting a meet the candidate night at Bradley High School at 7pm. The event will have the school board candidates answering the same question. These are great events, but usually not well attended. If you want to hear the candidates and see what they bring to the table, this is the event to attend. This is also a great venue to pick up yard signs for your candidates.

Hope to see you there, and don't hesitate to come talk to me.

Interview with the HEA for their endorsement

2011-09-30T16:29:00.000-04:00

On September 7, 2011, all the school board candidates met individually with the Hilliard Education Association (HEA), also known as the teacher's union. I had done this 2 years earlier when I ran for school board and knew I was unlikely to get their endorsement. My purpose for meeting with their panel was out of respect for the teachers and willingness to accept any communication opportunities with the group that fosters comments like, "Are you for teachers or against teachers?"

I did not receive their endorsement, as expected, but we had a great conversation and I enjoyed getting to know their group a little better. Here are their questions and my responses.

1. State your reasons for becoming a candidate for Hilliard City School Board of Education (HCSBOE)?

I’m a parent of a 2 year old daughter and a child due Feb 2012. My concern since moving to the district in 2004 was that eventually my children would receive a quality education from Hilliard at a reasonable property tax rate. Over that time period (8 years), property taxes have increased 40%. That is not all directly related to schools, but if you look at the tax distribution, schools receive 61% of the residential property taxes collected. This is alarming and the increase is due to the rate of spending in the district. According to the CAFR on the districts website, the 2004 district expenditures were $139M and the 2010 was $197M. The rate of growth has to be limited to fix our budget problems. The current board has not led, but instead waits until it is too late then requests more tax revenue. The public I’ve spoken to since 2008 does not agree that the schools need more funding, because of the growth in spending. I hope that my children can attend the quality district from k-12, and my wife and I can afford to remain in the community after they go to college.

2. Briefly describe your personal experience and involvement with public schools?

I have attended football games at Davidson and Darby, volunteered in teaching financial education at Beacon, attended a few PTO meetings with other parent/members, attended the theater performances at Darby and Davidson, and been to the dedication of Bradley. These are the only times I have been on school grounds, seeing that I don’t have any children in school yet. My involvement is really with the Board meetings. I attend the meetings and video record them so I can post them on my blog, InformHilliard.org, so people that are unable to attend can see what actually happens at the meetings. Since 2008 when I started recording the meetings, we have seen an increase in discussion and fewer meetings that last only 10 minutes. I have spoken out to the board, contacted all board members about numerous issues, and field comments on my blog concerning the financial matters of our district.

3. What qualities and experience will you personally bring to the HCSBE and for what three major issues will you advocate?

I was a Senior Auditor for a public accounting firm with clients having the annual revenue of $190M or more. We found inefficiencies or internal control problems and communicated them to the audit committee and management. These financial skills and problem solving abilities are needed on a Board with budget problems. While all background provide a different perspective, the financial background is very important.
A. Increased communication/Transparency – The current board has been anything but transparent and proactive in their communication with the public. It was very after the levy failure and the HEA contract ratification, that the HEA members were unaware that they subsidized Sports and Music.
B. Fiscal Responsibility – I sat through numerous board meetings where the A&A committee prompted the Board to act on the unsustainability of the budget, yet the board did nothing until it ran through the cash reserve.
C. Maintaining an Excellent with Distinction rating – Just because our revenue decreases and spending needs to be cut does not mean that our teachers will provide anything less than the best education to our students. We may have to reduce our offerings and really evaluate what is state mandated, instead of having the Board say that everything is mandated at the current levels and we are heading to minimum standards with any cut.

4. If SB5 is not repealed in November, what do you see as the top two issues from that Bill that will immediately impact HCS?

Hypothetical – I have no idea if it will be repealed or not. I remember in 2008 the big issue was House Bill 920 and the implementation of all day kindergarten, but that is not something we are concerned with today. We will find our way through SB5 should the need arise. With the correct leadership, we will conference with other local districts, look to the Ohio School Board Association and other states to see what has worked and what has failed in those districts.

I’m sure this question is based on what will happen to compensation? No matter the outcome contract negotiations need public input prior to negotiations and there should be meetings held to discuss compensation, as allowed under labor laws.

5. HCSD has earned the rating of “Excellent with Distinction.” What do you see as the contributing factors to that success?

Committed teacher/staff, involved parents, teachable students, and a diverse community. No one group can take the credit, because it is all parts that combine to get us an Excellent with Distinction rating.

6. With the current trend of decreased funding for education at the state level, please share 3 creative ideas on balancing the HCS budget. Be specific.

I would love to provide you with specific details, the fact is that the details have not been available to the public after numerous requests. The administration continues to tell us that they can't tell us the cost of any individual class or program because they do not use activity based costing. Interestingly, when discussing the cuts to sports and pay-to-play options, Tim Hamilton, the Assistant Superintendent of Operations, was able to provide the working session attenders with the exact cost per program. It's too bad they can get the data when nobody shows up to a meeting or when it is convenient to them. Until we are given the whole picture, how can anyone determine where we can find savings? (see the August 22nd working session video)

Paul Lambert looked at the $10M cut list provided by Dale McVey, the Superintendent, and requested that busing with a cost of $400k not be on the list due to safety concerns around Bradley High School. Brian Wilson and Dale Mcvey, both asked him what they should cut instead, to which there was no answer. The problem was the Board received only a list with $10M in cuts, not $20M that the Board could make a decision through selection. The Administration made this decision and the Board is following not leading.

Posting Comments on the Blog

2011-09-30T08:12:00.001-04:00

If you posted a comment on the blog and it hasn't appeared, that is normal because I must personally allow/publish the comment before it can be seen on the blog. Someone emailed me saying their comment didn't show up, and my wife tried too using Anonymous, but go have it working. Seems blogger was having issues.

Thanks for following!

Q&A with Justin Gardner

2011-09-29T17:14:00.000-04:00

I've received a number of emails concerning my stance on different issues, so I thought I'd compile them here. This might get lengthy.

Where do you stand on the levy?
I plan to vote against the levy in November. The Audit and Accountability (A&A) Committee was established at the passage of the last levy in 2008 to assure the taxpayers the Board was being responsible. I'm not sure if any of you followed the A&A committee's semi-annual reports, but they consistently said the rate of spending was unsustainable for our district. This was due to the annual increase of compensation and benefits. For a time line, the Board signs a 3 year agreement with the Unions allowing for a 3% base raise and 4.15% step raise annually. This equates to a 23% raise if you were eligible for the base and step those 3 years. Do you remember what happened to your salary in 2008 and 2009? I took a 10% pay cut and many of my friends lost their jobs, I was lucky to retain mine. It wasn't until last year that I finally got back to even with my pre-recession wage. In 2009, the wages of Hilliard residents collectively increased only 1%. The Board made a deal that our district couldn't afford at the time. Now the taxpayers have realized what happened and while residents are very cautiously optimistic about our economy, the Board is saying they were responsible by stretching the levy an extra year (not really responsible considering they spent down the cash reserve during that stretch, so we will have $0 left in reserves at the end of the 2012 school year.)

The board requested 6.9 mills in May which would collect $16.7M annually, based on a valuation of $2.4B. Levy fails. In November the Board is requesting a 5.9 mill levy which would collect $14.2M annually, based on the same $2.4B property valuation. What is interesting is that we know that the property valuation was reevaluated, while I can't locate the number I have heard that the valuation was more than the $2.4B, which means the levy would collect more than the $14.2M. So what appears to be a 1 mill reduction is actually not 1 mill at all if the revaluation went up.

The Board also is seeking the easy way out by asking for more tax revenue instead of reducing their expenses. When I say reduce expenses, I do not mean by crazy methods like not buying staples, as one supporter of the levy stated in the board meeting on 9/12. This secretary was stapling a mailer by hand, supposedly because the copy machine staples were too expensive. As if, a secretary stapling for 2-3 hours is less expensive than a $40-60 box of staples (mismanagement). No, the reduction must come from the Salaries and Benefits which make up 88% of the budget. That means we only have 2 options for reductions, either the number employed or the wage rate. Since the Board surprised the community with a ratified contract on June 6th, with no community discussion prior to negotiations, the wage rate is fixed. That only leave reduction of positions.

How could we find savings by reducing staff? If the target were $6M, it would be nice to stratify the reductions among the workforce, but due to the contract having a "last in, first out" clause, the newly graduated and newest employed has to be the first to go. That newly employed person was making the lowest on the pay scale, so we must find more "small fish" to amass significant savings. If we could target based on performance or salary or position, then we might be able to find quicker savings, but this is not allowed. If we decided to eliminate a Photography 5 class (we don't have one) that was taught by one teacher for all periods and it was being taught by a teacher making $90k a year, then the savings would be $100k, correct? Not so much. It turns out the the $90k teacher with 23+ years experience can also teach Photography 4, which bumps that $69k teacher out because he/she has only 10 years experience, but that teacher can teach History which bumps the newly employed teacher out of the workforce, because he/she does not have seniority over anyone else. Say that History teacher made $38k, the real savings is only $38k, not including benefits and pension obligations. Thus it causes the School Board to say voting against the levy will reduce 75 teaching positions. I haven't received a clear answer as to the 75 being 75 Full time teacher, 75 classes, 150 part time people, or 13 positions we were planning on filling, but decided against plus 36 part time and 44 full time people. If we had freedom of who we could terminate then we could terminate fewer individuals at various pay rates to get the target dollar amount.

The Board has instead decided to go with an easier alternative. Cut sports (in short I include music and other extracurricular activities as "sports"), busing ($400k in savings), summer school ($10k in savings), 75 teaching positions and 13 support staff. Everyone knows, if you cut sports and busing, the people will be forced to pass a levy, because you held them hostage. You can make it pass easier if you blame the people who fail the levy for having to cut the 75 + 13 positions, when it was the board that employed them and raised their wage so frequently and severley over a short period that a correction had to occur. Also sell the line, that these reductions put our "Excellent with Distinction"' rating in jeopardy or that we are moving to Minimum Standards. The budget is now $160M for 2012 and it was $138M in 2007. Guess what rating we received in 2007? It was "Excellent with Distinction." Would you believe that the student population only increased minimally over that period? So where is all the money going? Remember what I said in the beginning about the Salaries increasing 23% over 3 years? It has been going on longer than that.

I don't support the board and their views of ignore the warning bells until we are out of money, hold the taxpayer hostage by affecting the kids, Sell a levy to parents that by voting against it they are ruining our schools, and finally ask for a "Bailout".

When some one else is at the helm, and the Board shows they are willing to make some tough choices, then I will support a levy.

Am I anti-teacher? No. We have some great teachers and they are real people, including our neighbors.

Am I anti-Union? No. If you want to bargain for wages, fine, but they will be lower raises than if I could evaluate you individually.

Should SB5 be repealed? I'm indifferent on this one. There are benefits having SB5 for controlling costs, but it gives the Board too much power should they choose to exercise SB5 to the fullest extent.

How should negotiations work? I envision a meeting with the public and the unions, where we can have a civil discussion on what we think the wages, benefits, contract language should be and be able to voice concerns prior to negotiating. The board could then negotiate and be accountable to the people for the end product.

Do I have no respect for seniority? No, I am concerned about effectiveness. If you are an effective teacher, based on your supervisor's perspective, parent's perspective and your peers perspective, then you have nothing to worry about because you are effective. Every teacher can name the ineffective teachers. Every employee knows the one that doesn't pull their weight. Why should their time "put in" protect them from termination? If I do a terrible job as an Manager, I get terminated. Could you imagine if I could sit and watch DVDs at my desk, not do any work or just the minimum, then when my employer tries to terminate me, they can't because they'd have to terminate the last 30 people they employed before they could terminate me? My company wouldn't be in business long.

If you have further questions on my stances, post a comment and I'll be sure to add it to this post or have a Q&A version 2.

Hilliard City Schools Informational Meeting on Levy

2011-09-27T10:48:00.000-04:00

At last night's meeting, I became aware of these informational meetings the Administration is holding to educate the public about the levy. I must have been under a rock, because I hadn't heard anything about these meetings. After searching the Hilliard Schools website, I realized these have been going on since September 1.

Here is the media release with the dates, times, and locations.
http://hilliardschools.org/news/newsRelease.cfm?releaseID=082611

I'm not sure if the community can participate, but I plan to attend at least one meeting this week. Since the district is promoting the levy at board meetings and holding meetings at the schools, members of the public need to be at these meetings to promote the anti-levy stance and voice that perspective.

Back in April, I attended a PTO meeting where the levy campaign tried to spin the "it's for the kids or we go to minimum standards" message. Being there and participating in the discussion, brought the attenders to see that the board has been irresponsible in the past spending and now is the time for them to find the excess and reduce, before coming to the people for more money.

I'm not part of the always anti-levy group. I believe there are times that call for levies, but now is not the time and the district needs to be truthful with the people before asking for a bail-out.

My next blog post will cover my reasons why I will be voting "NO" on the levy issue.

09-26-2011 Hilliard School Board Meeting

2011-09-27T08:51:00.001-04:00

09-12-2011 Board Meeting

2011-09-20T10:19:00.002-04:00

09-12-2011 Meeting from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

Excellent with Distinction

2011-08-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to the District, Teachers, Administrators, Staff, and volunteers! Hilliard again received Excellent with Distinction rating by the state of Ohio.

I'm not about to regurgitate all the facts and figures, you can find the whole story here.

I believe that even if we didn't have a rating system or the state changed the requirements, we have such a great environment for learning and dedication from all involved that our children receive a high quality education in Hilliard. Thank you to all involved and I hope we continue to improve and build on this achievement for future students (including my 2 year old and our little one on the way.)

08-22-2011 Board Meeting Approving Cut List (Video)

2011-08-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

08-22-2011 Board Meeting from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

08-22-2011 Special Meeting Concerning Cut List (Video)

2011-08-23T15:24:00.000-04:00

08-22-2011 Special Meeting Concerning Cut List from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

08-22-2011 Special Meeting Concerning Cut List

2011-08-23T10:03:00.000-04:00

Last night there was a 5pm Board Working Session to discuss the cut list. Teater began the meeting by discussing "Pay to Play" and the fee chart in 3 versions: the current fee structure for 2011-2012, 2012-2013 should the levy pass, and 2012-2013 should the levy fail. Here is a recap of some discussions:

Sports

Consensus: No caps of waivers for current or proposed future structure. No individual or family caps.

Hardships get waivers on case by case basis, as determined by the Athletic Director (or equivalent for non-sports). A waiver means the fee would not be collected by the district. Hardships qualifications are based on enrollment in the need based lunch program.

Maggied: Proposed implementing new fee structure at the beginning of 2012-2013 school year for fairness.

McVey: Fees will be $100 for High School and $80 for Middle School. These numbers were selected based on other districts fee level (UA, Dublin, Worthington, Westerville, Olentangy).

Lambert: The Athletic Sustainability Committee put forth a recommendation that fees should be $150 for High School and $100 for Middle School. Nine of Fourteen selected that amount. After discussion by the committee, it appears that this may be phased in to reach this level. Paul pointed out that increasing these fees causes the levy amount to go down, therefore this is a user fee.

Teater: Preferred the $100/$80 structure because higher participation fees cost the community participation. Lungregan chimed in with the 11 minute mile kid on the track team probably won't participate if the fees are high enough. Teater thought that access to participation was necessary and the fees should stay as low as possible.

Lundregan: Inquired of the rationale behind the $100/$80 fees, because that is 22% the cost for Middle School and 19% for High School. This is basically a rounding problem. The discussion led into should the fees be a percent of actual cost. The district would evaluate the cost in the spring then set fees for the next school year. This approach is being implements at the 7pm meeting agenda.

Teater: Fee structure is for all programs that have a participation fee currently (Band, Color Guard, Track, Choir, Drama, etc).

Maggied: What we set for fees, we should not succumb to the pressure post levy of charging less in fees. If so, the public will see it as subsidizing sports.

Everyone: Agreed after much discussion that we do not want sport by sport by building pricing as it gets too complex. Granted, football may cost more than track, but for continuity same pricing for all.

Maggied: Should the levy fail, the full cost will be put on the participant which is $310. This is a result of the May levy failure and parents saying they would pay the cost. This is the cost, so the Board is doing what the people requested.

Lambert: All parents agree that the core (reading, writing, math) will be taught everywhere, but what draws people to a district is the extras like sports, music, electives, etc.

At this point it was 6pm and the discussion turned to Busing. Does anyone find it odd that of all the things on the cut list, no discussion on the 75 teachers, 13 custodial, or 5 admin positions is taking place. Sounds like the typical threat list at this point, cut busing and sports to pass a levy.

Busing

Lundregan: 1. With homes that have two working parents, how do we get kids to school? 2. With Bradley and Davidson Road, how do we manage the liability? Dave proposed keeping the $395k for busing and reducing the cut list from $10,282,000 to $9,887,000. The budget shortfall that we are trying to cover is only $8.4 million.

McVey: We need to cut to $10 million so we have some room in the budget, not just cut $8.4 million. These reductions are moving us to minimum standards.

Lambert: Proposed cutting School Resource Officers (SROs) instead of busing. Wilson chimed in that we pay 75% of their cost in a contract with Hilliard with 1 year remaining on the contract. The discussion led to the SROs are required to show up if we call them, why should we pay their costs especially if the school district is the largest taxpayer to the city. The idea of substitution was squashed by the administrators because they enjoy the comfort of knowing the SROs are just steps away.

Lundregan: Are there stats on cutting busing vs attendance/graduation rate?

Admin: In Newark they cut busing and the attendance rate when up because parents we ensuring their kids got to school every day.

Tim Hamilton: We have 1000 students within the walk zone. outside the walk zone, of all students that are eligible for busing, only 50% take the bus.

Teater: Last levy in 2008 we have busing on the cut list and the community says it was a threat, but none complain.

Maggied: This is not a treat, it is a tough decision. We have to make reductions by State law, and these aren't easy, but it needs to be done.

Whiting: It is about what the state requires. The state doesn't require busing, and we are moving back to state minimums.

Teater: We are only getting better with our labor costs which have driven us to this point. Thanks to the unions that took the freezes so we can contain our costs.

End 6:40PM

My thoughts

After sitting through ~2 hours of discussion concerning the cut list with only 5 members of the public in attendance, here are my thoughts. Yes, the cut list is difficult for a seated Board Member to approve, but the Board letting the labor costs grow at such a fast pace over the last 10 years caused us to be at this point. Remember that Labor accounts for 88% of the budget. Cutting positions or pay affects the 88%, but the busing and sports/music come out of the 12% with the exception of any stipends or the bus driver's salary. This meeting only covered busing and sports, they typical threat tactic. This was pulled by the board after the 2008 levy failed, they proposed the same threats and the levy passed. How can the public support a levy when the Board refuses to discuss options? This list has no options. The Superintendant came up with the $10M and gave it to the board. Shouldn't he provide $20M in cuts and let the Board select what is best for the district and allow the community to weigh in?

Personally, I see busing as a major issue. Mike Harrold, of the Hilliard Tea Party, followed my address to the board by saying it is a major hazard at Bradley to let a bunch of 16 year old new drivers loose on a narrow road with no sidewalks, where the speed limit is 55mph. The Sheriff that partols that area was at a Brown township trustee meeting and said that most cars clock 5-10mph over on Walker Rd. What about the kids that walk or ride a bike to Bradley? With the road being so narrow, we are asking drivers to play chicken when passing a bike or pedestrian.

There is so much liability here, and as Paul Lambert points out, the last thing we want to see is a bunch of memorials on the side of the road where our students have died going to school. We can find something else to cut $400k and save busing. I drive the residential part of Davidson Road daily and I can see a little kid running into the road where the speed limit is 25mph and cars routinely do 40mph. Hilliard police are always on that street ticketing, but it doesn't curb the speeding. I know we can discuss that the little kid should be supervised, etc, but accidents happen and we shouldn't be supplying the ingredients.

Here is my problem with the cut list. Let's evaluate the smallest number on the sheet, summer school for $10,000. Most people I've talked to while campaigning don't understand how it only costs $10k. After doing some digging, here is what I've come up with, because it wasn't discussed at the 8/8/11 meeting (you can watch the video below).

$14,500 Summer school stipends for Prin + Coordinator
+ $90,000 Labor (~50 teachers @ $30/hour x 60 hours minimum)
=$104,500 Total cost

$104,500 total cost
-$ 10,000 Taxpayer funded on cut list
=$ 94,500 Covered by fees

Fees collected at $150 most courses, some up to $345. For simple math lets use $150.
$94,500 Covered by fees
/$ 150 Fee per course
= 630 Student or individual courses need by students.

So the cuts will affect 630 students in a program where almost 90% is paid for by the user?
Could we not raise the cost of summer classes by $15-$20 to cover the difference ($9,450-$12,600)?
How about we pay only $27/hour for teachers labor? That would lower the cost by $9,000.

If the board cannot be creative in the little things, how can we trust them to find answers on the big things. We know the Board doesn't have an outlook of containing labor costs beyond what the unions have offered up for the next 3 years. We need to remove the board and get some new ideas.

One remaining question that I haven't had answered, are the administrators taking part in the pay freeze like the unions?

08-08-2011 Board Meeting

2011-08-22T22:13:00.002-04:00

This meeting was the introduction of the cut list and the vote on the final resolution to put the 5.9 mill levy on the ballot.

08-08-2011 Cut List Introduction from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

08-01-2011 Hillaird School Board Meeting 5.9 Mill Levy

2011-08-11T09:16:00.001-04:00

08-01-11 Hilliard School Board Meeting Levy 5.9 mills from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

This video also reviews the cut list proposed by the Board should the levy fail in November. It is roughly $10 Million.

Hilliard School Board to Meet Concerning Levy on November Ballot

2011-07-18T17:08:00.000-04:00

There will be an August 1st and 8th meeting to discuss the size of the next levy. The requirements is to hold two meetimgs before submission of the levy to the ballot. Please attend these meetings to hear what the School Board is going to do differently this time, if anything. Either they are going to propose reduced growth, put forth a 6.9 mill levy to build up the cash reserve, OR they will do nothing about containing growth and put a 6.9 mill levy on the ballot to cover the proposed spending.

This is no different than what is going on in Washington with the Debt Ceiling. Republicans say "No new taxes, Reduce Spending." Democrats say "New taxes, maybe some reduced spending." The answer will be somewhere in the middle. In Hilliard, the School Board has been spending like a kid in a candy store, but when they run out of money they think asking for it over and over and over again will solve the problem. I hope to hear they will keep the spending growth to less than 3% annually and the interval between the levy to 3-4 years. This helps us determine our levy size. See Paul Lambert's blog www.savehilliardschools.org where he lays this all out.

Right now our Board reduced the growth of the HEA and OAPSE which should save the district $9 Million or more. The HEA and OAPSE were taking the cuts to save jobs and agreed, but didn't see that their stagnant pay was to return sports, music and other programs to the district. There was an obvious communication break down between the board and the unions. As a school board member, it is unfair to do this to our Unions, which provide us with great talent, and should I become a School Board member in November, I will open up this communication by holding public meetings, not hiding behind the "Executive sessions" and if I have to, hold my own meeting with the public that all will be able to attend. Think coffee with the board, but with honest answers and more detail and clarity.

Is right now the time for a levy to pass, why or why not? Will you be at the board meetings to voice your opinion? Don't wait until November. Come hear the promises they Board makes, then hold them accountable when they seek re-election in November.

Help Gather "Gardner for Hilliard School Board" Nominating Petition Signatures

2011-06-13T16:59:00.000-04:00

I received the nominating petitions today to get my name on the ballot in November. I need to get between a minimum of 150 signatures and a maximum of 450 before 4pm August 10th. If you would be willing to help gather signatures, as few as 20 per sheet, please contact me at Justin@InformHilliard.org and I will get you the sheets you need. Thanks again for the support as this will be a hard fought campaign and election.

06-06-2001 Board Meeting Approving the HEA Contract

2011-06-10T15:04:00.000-04:00

Untitled from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

Special Meeting TODAY Monday, June 6th @ 5pm

2011-06-06T08:34:00.000-04:00

The regular June 13th meeting has been canceled and this special meeting tonight at 5PM will approve a tentative agreement for a contract with the HEA and OAPSE. Tonight there will also be a vote to reinstate the gifted programming and delay the elimination of Middle School sports. The Treasurer will be presenting a revised 5 year forecast, so we should see where the money came from to not need a levy to reinstate these programs. Please attend if you can, because a 5pm meeting signals to me that the Board does not want attenders.

05-23-2011 Board Meeting - Pay to Play

2011-06-05T23:12:00.000-04:00

Untitled from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

Hilliard Northwest News > Letters to the Editor > Compensation

2011-05-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

Columbus Local News: Hilliard Northwest News > Letters > LETTERS

Another great Letter to the Editor in the SNP. Union contracts need to come in line with the increases of the community.

05-09-2011 Board meeting following Levy Failure

2011-05-25T08:04:00.001-04:00

05-09-2011 Board meeting following Levy vote from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

04-25-2011 Board Meeting (After 6.9 Mill Levy vote)

2011-05-24T23:06:00.004-04:00

4-25-11 Last Board Meeting before Levy Vote from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

Public Participation at Last Night's Board Meeting

2011-05-24T09:16:00.000-04:00

Last night's Board meeting had a record turnout and the Public participation portion of the meeting was very lively. Many thanks to the people that not only showed up, but also stood before the Board to voice their concerns. I will echo my comment from last night, that if we had regular attenders of this volume and people continually willing to speak to the Board asking them for more discussion and to share information with the public, we wouldn't be in this mess. Very few have been willing to hold this Board accountable, but more people are starting to join the effort. As long as the Board and avoid making the decision making process public, there will be no change in Hilliard. It is extremely important to change the face of the Board and replace both Maggied and Lundregan in the November election.

I was very surprised by the number of people that came over to speak with me after the school board meeting to discuss some issues. While I plan to bring a new perspective to the board, the more people engage the conversation of the School's future, the more ideas I have to draw from. If anyone would be up for coffee and a discussion about what is going on with their experience with the schools and ideas for a change in the future, I would be open to meeting. I live and work in Hilliard, so I am usually available and flexible.

I have a number of videos going up this week and last night's is still converting. The 4/25/11 meeting will be posted this evening. The reason for the delay in posting is this meeting was the last meeting prior to the Levy vote on May 2nd. In the public participation portion, the majority of the meeting, we heard from all levy supporters and I did not want to promote that message at that time.

Decisions, Decisions

2011-05-23T16:13:00.000-04:00

Anyone else wondering why we haven't heard anything about the levy on the November ballot? I'm wondering what we are waiting for. There is a new 5 year forecast being presented at tonight's board meeting. It still contains a major deficit, so nothing really drastic has changed. Tonight they are approving dismissal of teachers, and it looks like last in first out method as they are K-6 teachers and some others. Also Andrew Riggle is having his position ($132k salary in 2010) suspended on July 31, but I'm not sure when he will be reinstated, but I would imagine August or another position will be created with those responsibilities. Attend the meeting tonight to see hear the discussion. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Expect "pay to play" to play a prominent role tonight.

Levy Failure = Board Failure

2011-05-04T10:01:00.001-04:00

If you weren't waiting up last night, glued to your television or getting the real time updates online, you probably heard already that the 6.9 mill levy for the Hilliard City School District failed by 8200 to 6300 No vs. Yes votes, respectively. The question that I'm trying to solve is why did it fail. There are informed voters thanks to SNP, EducateHilliard.org, ForHilliardKids.org, and this blog, as well as the mailers that went out to 22,000 households in our district, but I don't believe everyone that turned out to vote was an informed voter. There are some that come to the polls and vote NO just because they don't want their property taxes increasing. I have no problem with that view, but it means if at some point we want the levy to pass, we need even more yes votes to overcome the always no votes.

Let me stop here, because this message sounds strange to some given my hampering for this levy to fail. We will at some point in the near future want this levy to pass or we become like Southwestern 2 years ago where the district truly suffered and had an exodus of students because of education quality, teachers due to pay, and residents due to falling home values. What I am not saying is we should determine today weather or not the next ballot initiative should be failed. The reason I voted no on the levy was because the Hilliard School Board failed to include the public in the discussion PRIOR to making their decision on the levy amount or the cut list. Once again I have Mrs. Whiting ringing in my ears saying she did, but I'm talking about the residents, in public, not the staff of the district. The only discussion that occurred in public was the announcement of the levy amount and the announcement of the cut list. There was minor discussion following these announcements but consideration was not given to any of the points made and the Board continued down the path to failure due to time constraints that they put on themselves.

Will the Board return to the ballot in August, November or May with another Levy?
This is all speculation, as the Administration has not confirmed anything. I say administration because we usually hear announcements like this from Superintendent Dale McVey before we hear it from the lips of the Board. Let's start with November. Should a levy appear on the ballot in November, there will also be 2 current board member seats up for election, President Doug Maggied and Dave Lundregan. I'm not sure if either are running again, but it has been said that neither wants to run with a tax on the ballot. It would be an uphill battle seeing that the levy itself was defeated.That leaves August 2011 or May 2012. August is likely, but getting together another pro-levy campaign in a short time might be difficult. If the Board wants to continue the irresponsible behavior, they will hold the voters hostage by cutting busing, sports, and band to get the yes votes. It has worked in the past and four of the five seated board members have done it back in 2008. The other option is May 2012, but this option means spending the remains of our cash reserve (or bank account) down to the last penny. Should the levy fail at that point, the district is in a crunch being unable to cover monthly payroll. A May ballot also could put new board members at the table and cause a shakeup of the current agenda.

I want to get behind the levy and keep our schools competitive. I'd like to see my child offered every opportunity when she gets there in 3 years, but I want to see leadership that has a plan. A 5 year plan to be specific. I want to see a board that is willing to take on the school funding and stop blaming the State of Ohio for their own failures in overspending. I want to see truth, not fake numbers of cuts (reduced staff on payroll) compared to reductions in future spending (we planed to hire 10 more, but we will only hire 2 more so we "cut" 8 people). If we can have real conversations and with the voters, and I don't mean me. The taxpayers would be more than happy to donate time and resources to getting a levy passed and our schools going in the right financial direction, me included.

“It says something has to change … If funding schools is falling on the taxpayer and voters are speaking out against that,“ Mueller said.

No, Mrs./Ms. Mueller, this vote was not against the kids (as you said in the 2008 campaign and I called you on it), it was not a vote against the state funding cuts, unfunded mandates, SB5, John Kasich, or whatever other reason you can think up. It was a pure and simple vote against the Board's irresponsible fiscal managment.

We are only going to fix it by replacing them and I will be running in November because the current members are not willing to have discussions or even second a motion of Paul Lambert, who wants to have dialogs in public.

Get out and Vote TODAY!

2011-05-03T14:11:00.002-04:00

Many people have told me, I didn't even know voting occured today until you told me. Remember in Hilliard today we are voting on City Council and the School Levy. If you are in the school district you can vote on the levy, so that goes for all you "Hilliard schools, Columbus taxes" people. This levy will increase your property taxes too. I just came from voting and they are saying attendance is very low. We need everyone out voting. Passing a levy 200 votes to 199 is not the majority.

Nathan Painter for Hilliard City Council

2011-04-29T09:15:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends ago, Nathan Painter and Joe Erb came to my door campaigning for their Council seats. They were great and took a few minutes to answer some questions. No knowing who I was, they both answered that they would vote against Issue 7 and that it is not the right time to be asking for tax increases. Nathan, having been on the Audit & Accountability committee, understands the school finances and that the lack of commercial property tax revenue (Commercial brings no kids, but revenue to the schools) along with increased residential building (brings kids but not enough revenue to the schools to pay for those kids) is hurting our district.

We heard this same argument back in 2009 when Ashenhurst, Sciotto, and McGivern were running and subsequently elected, that they were trying to get commercial and they had only issued something like 7 new building permits in 2009. They've blown it and are building a huge development at Roberts and Alton Darby, without bringing any additional commercial revenue to our schools. Erb chimed in with Painter that commercial is our problem, but that's all he had to say the whole discussion.

Painter understands our school financing and realizes that Hilliard City Council and the Hilliard City School Board need to be more closely tied and are not independant of each other. He also realizes that the school board has put the district in unsound financial standing and asking for more levies is not the answer.

For this reason, I endorse Nathan Painter and he will be the only one I vote for on May 3rd. Erb was ok, but I didn't hear anything spectacular, but I support him with a yard sign. The best reason to vote for one candidate is that a single vote for one person causes the other candidates to pick up 2 votes to cancel out mine. If I vote Painter and Erb, but you vote Iosue and Erb then Erb is beating Painter even though he might be both our second choices. If you have a huge majority voting for 2 of the same person, the it is worth voting for the two people, otherwise just vote for one.

SNP Northwest News "Groups, websites organize for, against Hilliard schools' levy"

2011-04-20T10:55:00.000-04:00

This is a great article and interview done by Bret Liebendorfer of SNP's Northwest News. He's a regular attender of the Hilliard School Board meetings since at least 2009 and has been balanced in his reporting of district finances. Bret interviews Mike Harrold of www.ForHilliardKids.org, the anti-levy site and gets the message out, that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Read the article here.

Great article and many thanks to Bret for covering all the blogs and websites that support financial reform of our school district.

"While timing is tight, Harrold said For Hilliard Kids will hold a community meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 at Jed's Fireballs & Brew, 3799 Park Mill Run Dr." Jed's is the old Damon's near Lowes. Please come out and get your yard signs, fliers for distribution, or hear the issues our district faces without the school board throwing up the "We cut $X million in spending" while the actual numbers show they've done nothing but increase spending.

ForHilliardKids.org - Anti-levy site gets it right

2011-04-15T10:59:00.000-04:00

ForHilliardKids.org is a group of residents banding together to defeat Issue 7, better known as the Hilliard 6.9 mill school levy on the May 3rd ballot. This group is trying to raise support and get volunteers to promote the message that the school board is terminating employees instead of reducing spending. The main page paints a great picture that the School Board is unwilling to discuss.

Misleading Pro-Issue 7 mailer

2011-04-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

I opened my mailbox last night and found this gem staring at me. It is a full color, 6"x11", 2 sided, pro levy postcard. The scans came out poor quality, but if you click on the image you can see the full size text. I will go though why this is misleading.

After millions in cuts, a 6.9 mill levy is the only way to keep Hilliard's education excellent.

Let's revert back to the 5 year forecast, here. If we look at the total budget expenses, we see the increase in Total Expenditures $146M, $150M, $157M, $162M for years 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, respectively. That's 3%, 5% and 3% increases for 2009, 2010, and 2011 for overall expenses. This may be reasonable for all expenses, but there have been no significant cuts that we can see.

Maybe it is in Compensation and benefit saving?
2008 - $128M
2009 - $131M - 2.3% increase
2010 - $137M - 4.5% increase
2011 - $142M - 3.5% increase
Projected 2012 - $147M - 3.5% increase
Projected 2013 - $156M - 6.1% increase
Projected 2014 - $163M - 4.5% increase

There may have been savings on paperclips and deferring repairs, which is not a solution long term, but we continue to spend more and more every year. I know that none of the people in my circle of accountant/professional friends were getting increases from 2008-2011. Most professional that retained their positions received pay cuts of up to 10% and are just now getting back to 2008 salary levels.

At a PTO meeting for Bradley High School on Monday, April 4th, Mrs. Whitting and the Levy Committee presenter kept pressing that Hilliard has been Excellent with Distinction for the last 3 years and we need to pass this levy to remain excellent with distinction. History proves that we can be excellent with distinction by spending $146M, $149M or $157M. Does increased spending of $161M, $166M or $176M, as projected in the forecast make our schools more equipped to achieve Excellent with Distinction? No. Our teachers have done a great job educating out children and should be applauded. The problem is that increasing compensation and benefit spending THROUGH the recession and continuing while the economy has yet to recover, is irresponsible of our School Board and the Taxpayers should not be encouraging this behavior.

The Board Kept the Levy as small as possible and stretched it for an additional year. It's $17.61 a month per $100,000 of home value.

To be more misleading we could scale the levy down to it being only $0.59 per day per $100,000 of home value. That's only 1 candy bar a day from the vending machine. Everyone has that in pocket change, right? Let's give you decision making numbers:

Home Value - Annual New Taxes
$100,000 - $211
$150,000 - $317
$200,000 - $422
$250,000 - $528 + $6125 my current tax bill = $6,653
$300,000 - $633
$350,000 - $739
$400,000 - $844

When we were newly married and moved to Hilliard in 2004, it was because of the reasonable taxes and good school district for my future family. Taxes will have increased 50% in Hilliard since 2004, should Issue 7 pass. Our soon to retire parents are refusing to move to Hilliard and be near the grandchildren because the taxes alone are like a mortgage payment to fixed income individuals. The fact remains that the growth of the budget and increased spending by the board above and beyond whatever cuts they say they've made, have put us in a position of a levy every other year, or perhaps every year. This is not a good thing for our community.

Hilliard Schools cut $6.5 million and froze administrative, teacher and staff pay, eliminated programs and personnel and deferred maintenance and technology.

The schools may have cut $6.5 Million, but the budget still shows us spending $5 million MORE than we spent last year and $5 Million more than we have in revenue this year. There is also a difference between a "cut" and "failed to spend" but the district likes to make these the same issue. When we hear pay "cut" we think a salary went from $40,000 to maybe $37,000. The Board says we were going to raise and individual compensation from $40,000 to $43,000, but chose not to, therefore we cut $3,000. This is what I call "failed to spend." When Mr. McVey says we will cut 298.5 positions should the levy fail, it does not mean that 299 people disapper and don't show up for work. Some comes from failure to hire new employees they expected to hire, the others can be part time workers who's positions are consolidated. This means converting to FTE's (Full Time Equivalents) where 2 or 3 PT workers = 1 FTE.

It is also poor judgement to put off maintenance on items needing maintenance. Most times and asset will need minor repairs, but if put off that asset may need full replacement. A $100 repair on a $35,000 piece of equipment usually will extend the life of the asset, and I don't want to replace major equipment. Since there has not been a list of what will not receive repair, I have no idea if this is a good move or not.

The state continues to drastically cut our budget.

Not surprise there. In fact, Treasurer Brian Wilson has done a great job forecasting for our district and has excellent contacts that help him estimate our reductions in funding and how much the reductions will effect our district. The current 5 year forecast has in the assumption the State's reduction of the Personal Property Tax and the possible Compensation and Benefits increases. With all this data combined in the forecast, we see that in this year, FY11, the board will spend $5 million out of our reserves because we spend more than we bring in, and expect an additional $12 million MORE than this year in FY12. Should this levy fail, the district will have no cash available to even make payroll. Here is a simple view:

2011: $157M Revenue-$162M Expenses=($5M) Bank: $18M Beg. - $5M = $13M Ending
2012: $155M - $167M = ($12M) Bank: $13M Beg. - $12M = $1M Ending
2013: $154M - $176M = ($22M) Bank: $1M Beg. - $22M =($21M Ending)

Three interesting facts from this picture. First, By the 2013 school yearwe will be able to start the school year and by sometime in the winter/Spring of 2013, we will have no money to pay anyone because we spent more than we brought in and have no cushion in the bank account due to depleting it in 2011 and 2012.

Second, anyone notice the increase in expenses expected in 2013 of $9M? That is ALL COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS as noted in the first table of compensation and benefit increases. So while the Board would love to blame the State for this mess, their SPENDING is causing the problem, and they have a choice in that matter.

Lastly, someone at the PTO meeting for Bradley asked if the Board would come back again in August 2011 with another levy should May 2011 fail. Mrs. Whitting skirted the question by saying the Board has not discussed that or made a decision. The answer is in the numbers. They cannot afford to go without more revenue. If the people say no more revenue, the Board must become unpopular with the Unions and negotiate for the TAXPAYERS, finally, and they have no desire to do that.

Vote NO on the levy, because it is all about COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS, not the kids. If it were about the kids, the cuts would start with things that don't effect kids. Gifting, programming, and technology all effect the kids. Compensation and Benefits do not effect the kids, unless the employees react by "working to the contract" as retribution or tantrum.

Hilliard School board members approve $3.8M in cuts

2011-03-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

Share me

This is the article from This Week News on the cuts approved on the 3/28/2011 Meeting. It's interesting to read the comment section to get some public sentiment.

Statement to the Board on 03-28-2011

2011-03-29T15:27:00.001-04:00

This was my statement to the Hilliard School Board at the beginning of the meeting:

I’m here tonight to remind the board of their responsibility to represent the taxpayer as we near contract negotiations with the HEA and OAPSE.
When the last levy issue came up, the school board created an Audit and Accountability committee so that the district’s stewardship of our tax dollars could be independently assessed. I have read two of those reports and I believe several members of this board were sitting members both times these reports were presented. In the latest report the issue of unsustainable expense growth in the district was mentioned no less than three different times. Due to lack of time, I won’t read them word for word, but the main takeaway can be summed up by this statement:

The committee “Recommends, and implores the Board, Administration and employees, and other stakeholders of HCSD to find a fair, effective, and permanent means of managing cost increases relative to HCSD taxpayer income.”

If this graph is any indication, we have a lot of work to do. Expectations have been set in the past with the HEA that are going to be difficult if not impossible to maintain moving forward with regard to COLAs, step raises, and cost share for benefits.

Mr. Maggied, as president of this board, it is incumbent upon you to follow the advice of the A&A committee and work with your Board to fix this issue now. With family members employed by the district, you have an obligation to not only the taxpayers, but to your own family and friends to work with the HEA to come up with a sustainable compensation schedule that fairly compensates teachers in such a way that levies are less frequent and easier to pass and teachers don’t have to fear for their jobs if they fail. For the teachers that are not affected by cuts, what is the point of a 6% raise if you have 10% more children to teach?

Ms. Whiting, when you campaigned for this Board seat, you mentioned several times about the district having to adjust to “the new normal.” Well so far, with the cuts Mr. McVey has already trotted out to the public, it seems like business as usual. What are you going to do differently this time to stand up to your campaign promise during this levy campaign and the upcoming contract negotiation?

Why 6.9 mills and not 1.3 mills? Are we being over charged?

2011-03-29T14:40:00.000-04:00

The Hilliard City School Board (HCSB) last night approved in a 4-1 vote, Paul Lambert opposed, the cut/threat list that will AUTOMATICALLY be cut in the 2011-2012 school year should the levy fail. Paul Lambert had a great comment about his opposition which can be found here.

In the Hilliard Northwest News article, “District Announces Planned Cuts to come with Levy Failure” Superintendant Dale McVey listed all the cuts that will be made should the levy fail. This list amounts to nearly $4 Million reduction in budgeted spending. The article can be found here.

In the Issue 7 facts on the Hilliard City School District (HCSD) website (here), it states that the District will lose $5.2 million in state funding in FY ’12 and $8.9 million in FY ’13 or a total of $14.1 million.

The 6.9 mill levy will generate $16.7 million ANNUALLY (here), should it pass. So we all are thinking:

$16.7 Million x 2 years – $14.1 Million = $19.3 Million. Great! We can keep the programs cut by the $4 million threat and have enough to give 3-7% pay increase across the board to all teachers, administrators, and other staff. We couldn’t be more wrong.

Is this all the Governor’s fault with his budget?
No. There was one-time stimulus money given to the District of $2.5 million and $1.8 million in FY11 and FY 12, respectively. This one time money was used to fund operations. Instead of our School Board putting on their “Big Boy/Girl Pants” and cutting the budget then, they continued to issue compensation raises of 3-7.15%. This is how the local district has spent more than they earn. Now that the stimulus money has run out, we need to replace it with new levy dollars.

If we take out the stimulus money from the Governor’s budget, we only lost $3 million between his cuts and the phase out of the Tangible Personal Property Tax. This is equivalent to a 1.3 mill levy, yet the district is asking for 6.9 mills. I wonder why?

The HCSB has not and will not make cuts or reduce their compensation levels, because it is unpopular and difficult. Take a note that Mr. Maggied is the Board president. His son is a HCSD teacher. Would it be in his best interest to negotiate with the HEA (Teacher’s Union) for smaller salary increases or more employee contribution to their benefit package? No. We have a contract negotiation coming up again with the HEA and they went without increases of 3% this year, and delayed their Step increases 6 months. Step increases are raises for just showing up to work another year, not merit based. If there is any money available, it goes to Salaries and Benefits, which are almost 90% of the budget and climbing.

Vote NO on the levy this year. I know it will hurt students, but that is the doing of the School Board, not the community. Andy Teater in last night’s meeting, you can see it in the video in the last 2 minutes, he states that this is the cut list and it is up to the community whether or not they support the schools. No, this is the usual hostage taking. A 1-2% salary reduction might allow us to keep these programs, like the gifted program and have everyone keep their current jobs. These are the decisions a school board should make. Last night had no discussion of why the programs being cut were selected. Has anyone considered that the new self-imposed Algebra 2 graduation requirement might be something to scrap to keep one of these other programs?

I find it interesting that Mr. McVey trotted out the proposed cuts to the newspaper and to parents via email before the Board meeting to approve the list. In the newspaper article, after the cuts were announced, why was there no mention of the meeting to occur last night? The community would definitely weigh in on the cuts. The fact remains that even though Teater and Whiting campaigned on the band wagon of more communication, like EducateHilliard.org, they are AGAINST more communication from the public.

There were only two comments to the Board last night by the public, and that shows that the community had no idea this meeting was happening. I was one of the two asking for more work on the budget and my statement will follow in another post.

Consider: Why are we issuing a 6.9 mill levy when we only need 1.3 mills to fix the State funding cut? The other 5.6 mills are to continue the District spending beyond their means.

03-28-2011 Special Meeting on Budget and Levy

2011-03-29T10:37:00.002-04:00

03-28-2011 Special Meeting on Budget and Levy from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

SPECIAL MEETING MONDAY NIGHT

2011-03-24T10:37:00.000-04:00

HILLIARD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
BOARD OF EDUCATION
NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
(RC 3313.16)

Notice is hereby given; there will be a SPECIAL meeting of the Board of Education of the Hilliard City School District on MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011 at 7:00 P.M. located at the Hilliard City School District Administration Annex Building, 5323 Cemetery Road, Hilliard, Ohio. The meeting will be held in regular session to discuss budget reductions, personnel actions and any other business that may be lawfully considered.

The meeting is called by Brian W. Wilson, Treasurer/CFO of the Hilliard City School District Board of Education, at the direction of the President of said Board.

March 24, 2011
Signed:
Brian W. Wilson, Treasurer/CFO
Hilliard City School District
Board of Education

02-14-2011 Hilliard Audit & Accountability Committee Report

2011-03-11T14:39:00.000-05:00

02-14-11 Hilliard Audit Committee Presentation from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

Meeting

2011-02-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

Summary of the Board Meeting 2/14/11:

Financial literacy will be added to 8th grade social studies and will cover the states requirements. The financial literacy portion will be taught over 2-3 weeks.

To continue the 2020 project and HB1 requirements, Graduation requirements are changing from 21 credits to 21.5 credits by adding a capstone course. There will be approx 1200 students studying a capstone at the same time. It will be based on different options such as art, business, community service, etc. This is still being put together and developed. Paul Lambert inquired about the Algebra 2 requirement. The response was for the class of 2014 there was an adjustment last year for freshman to take the mandatory algebra 2.

Paul asked if the teaching staff has begun reconfiguring and if new staff is required or additional staff. The respondent had no solid answer other than wait and see. The punchline was 250 kids taking a class they don't want or need, does it result in no increase in teaching hours? Respondent still had no solid answer. Dale weighted in saying we cannot predict as the requirement is that 2014 graduates must have algebra 2, but some students will wait until 2014 to take the class or give up a study hall to take the class. It is unknown at the time if this self imposed requirement is causing additional teachers. Dale also took the point more options are better. Paul agreed that collaboration on things like Capstone was good for students as that is the method more colleges are moving toward.

Bonds: purpose is to concerve energy; presentation on hb264. A project similar was done in 2006 for $1.6 million. The payoff was estimated around 8 years, actual was 5 years, the same as the debt repayment period. Bonds are under ARRA 2009. The fed pays the interest over 15 years and the bonds are taxable securities for bond holders. This will end up being a loan to the HCSD at zero percent interest.

Weaver boiler, Scioto Darby Elementary chiller replacement, district lighting retrofit. Total price is $5 million. Looking at solar on one building not yet specified? There are $185k in rebates from AEP for going green. We have done this program once and there are energy audits done annually to support the savings.

Bruner does the work, a competitor does the energy audit. We are on the hook for $5m weather there are savings or not. Start to finish the whole project will take 18 months. The boiler will be done immediately and that should show cost saving immediately.

F6- Davidson baseball. The press box became unsafe and it was agreed to build a new one as it was torn out. Expected less than 25k, but because over it was put out to bid. $35.5k was the lowest bid. Paul questioned why Davidson is getting a new one and Bradley is not getting one period, but this bid allows Bradley the option to have the same company construct their press box using the same drawings, should the Boosters raise enough money to pay for it. Boosters added the Davidson one and when it was considered unsafe, the district tore it down. The Davidson one was the oldest and not built to current code, therefore it was torn down instead of updated. Darby built one 5 years ago, paid for by their boosters, and the school is to maintain it.

The final resolution was Davidson will proceed with the idea that if the Boosters build a press box, turn it over to the school district, and the time comes to replace the asset, the school district is on the hook to replace it. I disagree as all assets have useful lives.

F7- These were funds received for special education through a grant. If the funds are not used, they must be given back to the Fed. District that have buses with alternative fuels are not saving much money for the hassle, so we continue down the traditional route.

A&A Committee report - Nathan Painter presented the forecast and pointed out that even with the new levy passing, there will need to be a new levy MORE than 6.9mills in less than 2 years. Board stood by this being a worst case scenario, but the reality is the cuts from the State could be deeper than 10%. The Board STILL is not discussing a strategy for reducing expenses from Salaries & Benefits. After hearing the A&A report, common sense would dictate a discussion or planning meeting on options for reducing spending and eventually rolling out the options to the public. Since we have a Board based on avoidance, we will hear nothing. The silence especially from the Board President is telling, as he has a direct (family) interest in not reducing the growth of compensation & benefits.

Full video to come on the A&A presentation.

Operation Valentine's Day: Catch 'em With Their Eye Shut

2011-02-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

It's been a battle all weekend about weather to go to the School Board meeting or not Monday night, because it is Valentine's Day. This morning I took a glance at the Agenda hoping there would be nothing "important" or discussion worthy, and I was let down.

When I was thinking the Board didn't realize it was Valentine's Day (a garbage holiday) and that every Male would be expected to go out with his Significant Other on this one night a year; the Board was thinking this is just great because the one place people are least likely to go is to a School Board meeting.

On the agenda tonight:

F2 - Resolution on Teaching Financial Literacy
House Bill 1 requires the following:
3313.6015 Resolution describing how district will address college and career readiness and financial literacy:

The board of education of each city, exempted village, and local school district shall adopt a resolution describing how the district will address college and career readiness and financial literacy in its curriculum for grade seven or eight and for any other grades in which the board determines that those subjects should be addressed. The board shall submit a copy of the resolution to the department of education.
- Added by 128th General Assembly File No. 9, HB 1, § 101.01, eff. 10/16/2009.

While this is a commendable goal, even though required, has there been any discussion on how this will be achieved? I swear everything does on behind closed doors and the School Board are just puppets waiting to approve whatever the Superintendent put on the agenda.

F3. Approve the new graduation requirements for the class of 2015 and beyond.
No description of what is changing or how it will change. Is it for the better? Is it going to cost us more or less? Are we just complying to some House Bill? IS there any funding for it? Of course, no discussion. Great. Let's just vote on it.

F4. Approve the Tax Budget for the next succeeding fiscal year commencing July 1, 2010
Why are we doing this? Don't we already have a FY10 Tax Budget and if so, aren't we more than 1/2 way through it? What are we amending? If I'm showing my ignorance on this, it's because I've heard nothing about it or even how it works. I'm sure Brian Wilson will do a presentation and there will be a lively discussion, if anyone is there.

F5. A RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE AND SALE OF BONDS IN THE MAXIMUM AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF $5,000,000 FOR BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS.
What are we improving and why? Public perception is we as a district are wasteful, so what are we improving while at the same time asking residents to hand over more money in the form of a levy. Here's an idea, SELL THE LAND ON LEPPERT THAT WAS PURCHASED FOR AN ADDITIONAL SCHOOL AND STILL SITS AS A FIELD. IT CURRENTLY IS A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY.

F6. Approve and award a bid for constructing a baseball/softball pressbox at Hilliard Davidson High School for $39,050
Timing, timing, timing. Let's build a press box and then ask the taxpayer for cash. Great PR. Once again, sell an asset and get a new asset. Why are we doing this at a meeting nobody is attending?

G2. Audit and Accountability Committee report
Great, we get to hear how the district's spending is unsustainable and the Board say, "Yeah Great, no go sit down until we need you to support our levy." This Board has not taken 1 item from their reports and done anything about it. Unless you want to count Lisa Whiting's light bulb conversion to "green" bulbs as a cost savings and a move to sustainable.

Thank God we have Paul Lambert, the Accountability Committee, and a few others, who continually try to get the message out about how messed up the District leadership really is.

Buckeye Institute Teacher Data

2011-02-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

On January 18th, I was watching NBC4 local news and the Buckeye Institute had created a database of all teacher salaries by school district. If you know a teacher, you can look them up by name, building, district, year, etc.

Here is an interesting page. I've searched Hilliard Schools by Building for the 2009-2010 school year. You can see the average salaries per building, average years experience, and number of FT teachers. Good data to have when the Saperstein Surveyors call you and ask "Are teachers overpaid, underpaid, or paid average wages?" Maybe you'll be one of the 500 people that they call and you can answer based on a piece of data.

I've always thought that our teachers are neither overpaid nor underpaid. They are paid what the people are willing to pay them. In Paul Lambert's blog comments here it is discussed that if 12 teachers retire, there could be sufficient cash available from hiring a new teacher with less experience, to pay for the step increases for all teachers that are eligible. This means it costs the taxpayer no additional money to give pay increases just for showing up another year (these are called step increases).

In the regular world, you and I don't get step increases. When we reach our employment anniversary date we get a performance review to give us an annual raise or not. The HEA (Teachers Union) negotiates with the School Board for annual raises. This is similar to you and me never having a review, but everyone receiving x% raise. A Step raise is based on length of time with the district. There are more steps in the early years (annual) compared to later years (sometimes every 5 year increment). The step raises are currently 4.15% and in the past annual raises were 3%. So, a good chunk of employees received 7.15% raises.

If the school board continues to spend like that, our home values will decrease as we will all be paying for the increases. This is another reason not to vote for the HEA endorsed School Board Candidates.

Property Taxes - Do they hurt your home's marketability?

2011-02-03T15:53:00.000-05:00

I ran into a fellow Hilliard resident today who was back from Florida, terrible timing I might add. Soon the discussion led to the 6.9mill Hilliard School District property tax levy coming up on the May ballot. In 2011, he became a Florida resident and still has his home in Hilliard. A few homes in his subdivision are going for about $100k less than they probably should. He even offered the home up to a family member, but with taxes over $10k a year, it's unaffordable.

When we start looking at homes between $90k and $230k, the difference between Hilliard and other suburban school districts isn't that bad and taxes don't weight heavily on the decision of location. When looking at housing over $230k, I don't think we can compete with a Dublin.

A quick trip to Realtor.com and I looked it up 2 homes on the market.
$425,000 3371 Heritage Oaks Drive, Hilliard, OH - Hilliard School District
Last Transfer - 2001
Auditors Market Value - $442,900
Annual Taxes - $10,858
Hilliard Schools - $6,662

$435,000 6296 Ross Bend, Dublin, OH - Dublin School District
Last transfer - 2002
Auditors Market Value - $412,400
Annual Taxes - $10,325
Dublin Schools - $6,165

If you were moving into a $400k home, I know most people look at the total tax number and say right now, it's about the same. If I told you there is a levy on the ballot that will increase the Hilliard house tax an additional $1,000 ($250 per $100k), doesn't the Dublin house look more attractive? By the way, that also means that the Hilliard Schools will receive all $1,000 and now will be collecting $1,500 more than Dublin.

Hilliard Schools when inefficiently run and continuing to run our district like they have an open checkbook, damages our home values. Be on the lookout for my new videos of School Finances as Object Lessons. It should be enlightening.

Educate Hilliard looks for input on levy

2011-01-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

A community meeting to address a May operating levy will be held next week.

The meeting will be sponsored by Educate Hilliard and start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18 at the Joint Safety Services Building, 5181 Northwest Pkwy. in Hilliard.

The goal is to discuss the upcoming levy's effect on the future of the Hilliard City School District, estimated time between levies, and potentially what happens if the levy fails in May.

Gardner said he is still trying to confirm attendance of school board members (Declined by Mr. Teater and Mrs. Whiting, Accepted by Lambert), Hilliard Education Association (No response), Ohio Association of Public School Employees (Confirmed), district administration and members of the Audit and Accountability Committee (Confirmed).

A presentation of the current school finances and the levy options will occur and the panel will be available to answer some predetermined questions and participate in a dialog with the community.

Please invite everyone you can. This levy effects our property taxes and the direction of the schools, which is a major factor in property values. As stated before, EducateHilliard.org is taking no position for or against the levy, only wishing to have a discussion with the community like the school board supported. Informed voters can make better decisions when they are aware of the outcome and direction of our schools.

SNP Article promoting the event

Time to Talk Taxes

2010-12-06T13:56:00.000-05:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Things have changed in the last year, but a few things still remain the same. The state of the economy is still no better, Ohio is still reducing funding to the school districts, and the need for a levy is drawing near. It is expected that the Hilliard School Board will vote on two resolutions to put a levy on the May 2011 ballot. There will be discussions on the levy sometime in the next 3 meetings (12/13, 1/10, and 1/24), but we cannot wait until 1/24 to be heard on what we desire for our tax bill. School Board member Paul Lambert put together a great chart translating mills into dollars that is much easier to understand. http://www.savehilliardschools.org/HilliardLevyEstimator.pdf

There are two questions: How much do you want your tax bill to increase? How soon do you want it to increase again? My comfort level falls in the 5-6mils ($154-184 per $100k of Market Value) and 3 years until we have to vote on raising taxes again. There, that was easy for me, all I would ask is that you look at the chart, pick your number, and let the school board know what that number is for you. If they receive no feedback, then it is up to them to select the number you will pay.

If the school board can make a decision on the revenue, they will be able to negotiate the Union contracts by the end of the year knowing what they have to spend. The Union took a 1 year pay freeze recently, so the expectation is they want to make it up in the next negotiation. As noted in the campaign details, a 3-4% raise is millions in tax dollars that will need to come from residents.

Here is a chart of levy scenarios provided by Paul Lambert that can help you pick your number. I like #4, which is a 2% Compensation and Benefits growth, Levy interval every 3 years and we end 2015 with a 10% cash reserve (a board policy that hasn’t been adhered to in years). http://www.savehilliardschools.org/levyscenarios20101105.pdf

Having the levy on the ballot in May is a primary election which usually has low voter turnout. Should the board select a high mill rate, the majority of the people voting would be supporters of the levy. If passing a ballot issue earned you a pay raise, you’d be out there pushing people to vote for it too. The Board cannot wait any longer to put the levy on in November, because they will be burning though whatever cash remains to keep their promise of no new levy for 2 years.

Please plan to attend one of the upcoming meetings and let the board know your thoughts on the levy. Perhaps a simple, “I’m John Doe from Hilliard and I know the levy is being determined and would like to see it be X Mills. Thank you.” You could also write the Northwest News editorial section and give solid reasoning what you think should happen in the next levy cycle.

12/14/09 Meeting part 2: A&A Presentation

2010-01-18T10:10:00.001-05:00

12-14-09 Meeting part 2 from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

12/14/09 Board Meeting Part 1

2010-01-11T09:55:00.002-05:00

12/14/09 Board Meeting Part 1 from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

This is the first part of the board meeting. Part 2 contains the A&A presentation. Due to the size of the file, it was best to split the content.

00:29 - Tax Budget Presentation
05:20 - Motion to approve
06:20 - Farewell to the board president
16:03 - C3 Tax budget
16:37 - C4 Minutes Approval
17:10 - E1-E5 Consent Agenda
18:00 - F1 Scheduled meetings
19;22 - F2 Board president pro-temp selected
20:12 - F3 Fund appropriations
20:50 - F4 Treasurer to secure taxes
22:54 - F5 Contract renewal with Northwest Counseling service
24:08 - F6 Admin contract approval
29:36 - F7 Amended board policies
30:08 - G1 Retirement and reemployment of Doug Lowery

Tonight's Board Meetings - A&A committee presentation.

2009-12-14T12:34:00.001-05:00

Tonight there are two meetings on the agenda. The first is the Tax budget hearing at Hilliard Station 6th Grade, 6:45pm. The second meeting will discuss the first meeting date of 2010, elect and interim president until the next meeting, renew the Northwest Counseling Service contract, adoption of amended Board policies, Discussion as to the rehire of Doug Lowery, Principal who will retire 1/29/10 and rehire 2/1/10, and the A&A committee presentation to the Board.

Tonight's meeting will be of interest for a number of reasons. One could assume that whoever is selected interim president will be the new Board president in 2010. Also, the rehiring of Doug Lowery is a situation where an employee can work the system to retire, thus receiving pension benefits, plus a salary from the school district. I've never met Mr. Lowery and can't say anything about his performance, but I will be interested to see the Board discussion and maybe some numbers as to why the district should rehire compared to finding a new employee. I'm not exactly sure if someone retiring with 20 years of service, when rehired is paid the 20 years of service rate or if they start over at the 1 year of service rate. Prior to 2009, it looks like a retiree would have their insurance paid for by STRS instead of the School District, which is a bargain for the District. They received a fully trained teacher, but don't have to pay benefits so I can see the benefit. In 2009, according to this website group (http://www.concernedohio.org/history.html), STRS is now a secondary insurer and the District is the primary insurer. Like I said, maybe Mr. Lowery's performance is outstanding and there isn't a suitable replacement making him worth any cost. I'd just like to see it spelled out as to the performance/cost benefit. The last thing we should be doing is hiring someone just because they have X years of service in this position. I have 3 questions:

1. Is this the best choice for our children?

2. Is it the best use of resources?

3. Does the performance justify the cost?

If all three answers are yes, then I'm on board.

The headliner of the night will be the A&A Committee presentation. From my discussions with Mike Stoner, the committee has put a lot of time and effort into the presentation and going through the information available to them. I haven't seen what the purpose/task/goals assigned to the A&A Committee, so the report should be enlightening. The Board members pointed to the A&A Committee during the campaign as the reason the community should be confident in the financial direction we are headed. Thank you to all the committee members who dedicated time to understand the district finances and procedures. It is a time consuming effort that I understand and am grateful that we have these volunteers. Perhaps in 2010 they can serve a more defined purpose.

Christmas Season is not the Time to Snooze

2009-12-09T15:13:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to the Hilliard Davidson football team, coaches, students, and parents on the win Saturday evening. There were some extraordinary plays put together during the game, now if only the Buckeyes were watching and learning something for the Rose Bowl!

As we prepare for the Christmas season and our minds are filled with the cooking, parties, and shopping, the last thing we tend to think about is politics. I attended an Ohio Manufacturers Association conference this morning at the Heritage Golf Club concerning the Employee Free Choice Act that Washington will be voting on shortly. The EFCA will make it easier for non-government unions to organize employees and start collective bargaining. Obama has had 45 meetings with Stern, president of the SEUI, and this is the payback to the unions for helping him win the election. (See Obama’s Ohio Campaign stop in Lorain, Ohio February 24, 2008). If you follow the money trail it is simple, Members = Dues dollars, Easier organizing = more members, more members = more dues dollars, more dues dollars = more political clout. The EFCA will also make it difficult for the employer to educate the employees about union and allow both perspectives. Here are the stats, in the Senate the magic number is 60 votes for easy passage, and the Democrats are sitting at 58.

Take a look at the information that I received at the conference. Note: Bricker has updated the powerpoint, but the basics are there.
Bricker Law firm's PowerPoint: www.bricker.com/legalservices/practice/employ/efca/keller.ppt
Ohio Manufacturers’ Association interactive EFCA website: http://www.wearemanufacturers.com/

This is all to say that Washington isn’t out doing Christmas shopping with Healthcare and EFCA sitting on the desk. If you think local school boards are out Christmas shopping as well, then you’ve been fooled.

In Marysville, the School Board held closed door meetings on a two-year contract with the Marysville Education Association (Teachers Union) before the newly elected board member, Lassiter, could being his term as a fiscal conservative. The board approved salary increase of 0.5% starting January, 0.75% in September and 1% September 2011, not including step increases (an increase for continuing employment an additional year.)

It makes me wonder why government allows people to continue in their positions until January. At my company, if you are terminated your computer is confiscated and all access to the network removed, usually before management is even done informing you of the termination, then you are expected to leave the building. Why not a two week notice? In a financial services company, the destruction that could occur in 10 minutes of unrestricted access and malicious intent to a network containing 1000s of hours worth of data could be devastating. Yet, we allow lame ducks to float around managing our government for months before the election winner can take over. Can you imagine the destruction that can occur? They have nobody to answer to anymore and can leave office a mess for the newly elected individual. It really shows the character of the Board when these things happen, and will come up in the next election, be sure. It already hit the paper here: http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/marysville/stories/2009/12/04/1206malassiter-blasts_ln.html?sid=104

To be clear, I don't believe what happened in Marysville is happening in Hilliard. If you watch the first minute of the last Hilliard School Board meeting, prior to the Children’s program, there was an executive session that took place, but no agenda items requiring a vote on the executive session discussion/resolutions. While I believe our Board members are good people who are looking out for our community, and I don’t believe they would enter contract negotiations without a public discussion, these meetings make me nervous.

Perhaps the Saperstein survey was considered the public discussion? How am I to know, since the Board has yet to discuss the survey with the public and how the results will guide our future?

The $23,000 Public Opinion Survey

2009-12-02T17:13:00.001-05:00

In September, Saperstein performed a public opinion survey for $23,000 paid for by the school district. I first found out about the survey through some people that were called as part of the sample. Requests for the results of this test were submitted September 23, 2009 which was during the sampling period. The final report is dated October 2009 and results were distributed to me November 20, 2009.

I inquired as to the contract and was told there was no contract, but there were two purchase orders. The first purchase order was dated July 28, 2009 for $11,250 and October 14, 2009 for an additional $11,250. These purchase orders do not include things like the scope of the work, who ordered the survey, or when the report was due. So it appears there is no documentation, but it was approved by Brian Wilson, the Board Treasurer, and Jeff Franklin, the Purchasing Agent.

I’m hoping this isn’t common in our district for purchase orders to be approved without a clear understanding on what services we are purchasing and for what purposes. I have discussed this with A&A Committee Chairperson Mike Stoner, who will look into this in January. As an auditor, I expect procedures to be in place for the protection of assets, not just to have procedures for the sake of having procedures. While I don’t think anything inappropriate is going on, I think some documentation or information is missing.

The survey was by telephone to 504 individuals who voted in 50% of the General elections they were eligible for as a Hilliard City School District resident. The questioning lasted approximately 17 minutes and covered a number of topics. You can see the whole survey here: _________________

Question # 5: Over the past year, has your household put off or cancelled any expenditure [on cars, home furnishings, appliances, and vacations] as a result of the economy?
50% Yes
49% No
1% Didn’t know/Refused to Answer

This is interesting because the Yes response is quite high. If people are putting off expenses, will they vote for a 9 mill levy, the equivalent of $276 per year on a $100k home?

Question #6: As you look to the future, say, a year from now, are you likely to be better off financially, worse off financially, or the same as you are today?
28% Better
14% Worse
55% Same
3% Didn’t know/Refused to Answer

If 50% are putting off purchases and 69% are projecting to be worse or the same financially a year from now, this negatively impacts the prospects of a 9 mill levy passing in the near future.
Here is the past levy history:
Nov-2002 $73.2m Bond Issue FAILED
May-2003 $73.2m Bond Issue FAILED
Nov-2003 7.25 mill Permanent Operating Levy FAILED
Nov-2003 $60.0m Bond Issue FAILED
Mar-2004 9.5 mill Permanent Operating Levy PASSED
May-2006 $75.0m Bond Issue PASSED
May-2006 2.0 mill Permanent Improvements PASSED
Mar-2008 9.5 mill Permanent Operating Levy FAILED
Nov-2008 6.9 mill Permanent Operating Levy PASSED

The November 2008 levy passed because it was reduced from the March level of 9.5% and it was marketed as being “for the kids” even though it was mainly “for salaries and benefits.” The economy had just begun its collapse in October 2009 with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and AIG receiving a bail out on November 3, 2008. The market eventually hit bottom in March 2009, but the unemployment numbers for Franklin County are currently 8.1% and for the whole State of Ohio 10.5% which is seasonally adjusted. http://lmi.state.oh.us/laus/ColorRateMap.pdf

If unemployment remains high and the economic outlook does not improve, it will be difficult for levies to pass without threats to extracurricular activities and programs. When the community becomes fully aware that 88% of the levy dollars collected will be used for Union employee compensation increases that the board will have already committed through contract negotiations, the levy will only pass by using hostage negotiations(Cut busing and programs) or psychological warfare again (do it for the kids or you are against the kids).

Question #9: In your opinion, what is the most important issue, problem, or challenge facing the Hilliard Schools today? (open ended)
The three highest responses:
36% Not enough funds/need additional or different funding
18% Mismanagement of funds/Misguided priorities
20% Did not know/Refused to Answer/Nothing

This reflects 54% are concerned about funding and financial management. All other responses were program related (overcrowding, poor quality education, growth, Cutting sports, behavior, etc). These results may be skewed because Questions 5-7 are financial questions and this open ended question comes after people are thinking about finances. For instance Question #7 begins, “If new tax dollars were available…” Could someone explain where these new tax dollars are coming from or would come from? The Governor’s budget reflects a 1% funding cut to Hilliard Schools this year and 2% the following year, so they are not coming from the State of Ohio. Perhaps they are discussing Federal Stimulus dollars, but in the Treasurer’s five year forecast presented in October those are already taken into consideration.

One highlight is Question #11. What letter grade would you give the Hilliard Schools, overall?
28% A
51% B
14% C
1% D
1% F
5% Didn’t know
Result 3.1 GPA

It appears that the public has a good perception of our schools and I know I’ve always heard Hilliard referred to as having a good school district.

There is a lot of information that is available in this survey, yet the School Board has not said anything about the results, their intentions in having the survey performed, or what they plan on doing with this information. In business, information like this has a shelf life and it is even shorter know that this is based on public opinion that changes with the wind. We spent $23,000 on this information and if we plan to ignore it, what was the point?

11/23/09 Board Meeting

2009-11-30T11:50:00.003-05:00

Untitled from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

In this board meeting there was a discussion concerning the employee health insurance changing to a self-insured plan but retaining Aetna as the Third Party Administrator.

At the 2:00 mark, Justin Gardner inquired about the $23,000 Saperstein Survey results and when the Board would discuss the results.

At the 4:00 mark, Kelly Arnold addressed the board about cuts made to the kindergarden busing, after the board sent two letters stating the busing program would be cut if the levy did not pass. The levy passed and busing was still cut.

At the 17:00 mark, There were changes made to the Board Policies and a discussion as to why some changes were made.

All votes were 5 - 0.

Healthy Choices for Healthy Children legislation: Goodbye choices

2009-11-18T11:30:00.002-05:00

As a facebook friend of Senator Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls) he posted the strangest thing on his wall. Coughlin has co-sponsored a bill with Senator Eric H. Kearney (D-Cincinnati) to "fight" childhood obesity in our schools. The proposal has three initiatives:

1. Educate parents that their children are health risks
2. Address poor diet and inactivity
3. Diagnose and treat obese children

At first I thought this was a good social bill. Who doesn't want healthy children? When schools hold our children for 7+ hours a day, the schools would be the perfect place to implement this bill. WRONG!

First, to educate parents you need to identify which parents need education. That means we need to identify the "fat" kids. The bills method of identification is by comparison the Body Mass Index chart (BMI). For those unfamiliar with BMI, you input height and weight and it procures a number. Too low and you are underweight and too high you are obese. Go to this site to calculate your BMI and see if it fits you:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

The problem with BMI is that it doesn't take into account people that are looking for different results. For instance, I'm 6'1" and 205 pounds and I result as overweight. Six months ago I was a couch potato working9 hours a day in a cube, eating fast food, downing large bags of M&M's in a single sitting. I enrolled in a 6 month bootcamp (http://yunfitnessbootcamps.com/) where I work out intensely three times a week. In that time I've built muscle and endurance, seen my stomach shrink. Anyone want to take a guess in my current weight? 205 pounds. Some scratch their heads and wonder why after a moderate diet change and intense workout I haven't lost weight. Muscle weights more than fat, so the assumption is that my fat was burned and replaced by muscle which is evidenced by my better looking body shape.

Let's compare my results to students. Think about a school football player, wrestler, swimmer, etc. They all have different weight goals. For wrestlers they need to be in a weight category to compete competitively, a football center needs to be very heavy compared to a wide receiver, and a swimmer may be underweight because they have a lower body fat for reduced drag. Does an ideal BMI mean you are healthy? Consider challenging a 17 year old that smokes regularly but has an ideal BMI to a one mile race against an overweight BMI football player. These are the flaws with using BMI to determine all the obese children. Being overweight/obese on the BMI doesn't mean one is unhealthy or they can't compete.

I would like to see more exercise and emphasis put on active children in the schools. We can all change the requirements locally to include more exercise or physical education; this is not something that needs to be coupled with requiring a change in diet. I wish to maintain the freedom of putting a cupcake in my child's lunchbox if I so desire.

The bill also requires free or reduced priced breakfasts to all students and a nutritious selection for all meals served at schools. The bill does not state how that will be funded and takes the meal planning out of the hands of the local schools. This is a prime example of what people call unfunded mandates. The State of Ohio restricts the local school but doesn't provide funding for implementation. As Paul Lambert argues successfully on his http://www.savehilliardschools.org/ blog, it is better that it be unfunded because every dollar a Hilliard resident sends to the State, Hilliard only sees 40% of it back, making it an inefficient system of funding. The better way to pay for something is to issue a levy on the residents because the school will receive 100% of the tax dollars. In some districts, like Hilliard, the school lunch program has already been evaluated by the Board to ensure nutritious options are available. This is a healthy choice.

In a time when school levys are unpopular and being voted against because of waste and unreasonable salary increases, see Southwestern School District, now is not the time to go to the residents to fund this unnecessary program. Parents who pack healthy lunches for their children do not need to be taxed because some lazy parent does not care about the health of their child's lunch. In an economic recession where people are concerned about their employment and cutting back in expenses, this is not the time for this legislation.

Children have a hard enough time making friends and navigating their way through our schools without the added "fat kid" label. If we want choice for our children, let them have a choice. They and their parents should be able to select their lunch and see the consequences for poor choices. BMI is not a one size fits all and there are many arguments as to the validity of this chart. Write, call, and visit your Representatives and Senators and tell them we, the parents, want to retain our choices on what our children look like and eat.

http://www.healthychoiceshealthychildren.org/

11/11/2009 Recorded Board Meeting

2009-11-14T20:55:00.006-05:00

11-11-2009 Board Meeting from Justin Gardner on Vimeo.

The Agenda is attached here.

This was my first attempt to record the board meeting, so I've learned a couple things. My tripod was a bit short, so I had to resort to recording freehand. I'm looking for a taller tripod that takes less floor area and should have one by the next meeting. The other thing I wasn't expecting was the board meeting beginning before the kids program dismissed. The recording begins with the vote on agenda E items. There was no Public participation.

The work study program was presented to the board and I was impressed with the sound of the program. It appears that Hilliard works closely with the Dublin schools who host and somewhat lead this program. The businesses in Hilliard can employ students and the student earns credit. It is benefitial for all involved. I'd like to see this program in action because I think it really helps students and I applaud these leaders for putting so much effort into it.

All votes were 5-0, but I will be bringing a score card for each meeting reflecting the votes and the time in the video where specific discussion occured. Stay tuned for more information.

Video Recording Board Meetings

2009-11-06T22:52:00.002-05:00

According to the School Board Policies and Procedures Manual, located at http://policy.ctspublish.com/hilliard-osba/ , section BDDJ, video broadcasting and recording devices may be used at Board meetings. The only requirements are:
(1) Recordings of meetings are permitted only when all parties involved have been informed that cameras, broadcasting and/or recording devices are being used.

(2) Persons operating recording devices must do so with a minimum of disruption to those present at the meeting.

I will be attending the November 11th Board meeting, and using the public participation portion of the meeting to put the Board on notice that I will be recording the meetings on an ongoing basis.

Post Election Congratulations

2009-11-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone for your support in my campaign for Hilliard School Board on November 3rd.

Congratulations to Andy Teater and Lisa Whiting for the past service and continuing to serve our community.
Congratulations to my fellow EducateHilliard endorsed candidate, Paul Lambert, for securing a place at the School Board table. While Don and I were not elected, it is a huge success for our community to have a fiscally responsible voice on our School Board.

For all 3,960 voters that voted for me, I cannot fully express my appreciation for your vote of confidence. I plan on taking this week to determine the level of my involvement in EducateHilliard.org and look to the 2011 election for two seats on the Hilliard School Board. With the continued support of EducateHilliard and maintaining all your votes, 2011 will be a successful year. I have started this blog for the purpose of hosting/discussing the School Board meetings, which I plan to videotape as a record of discussion, or lack thereof, and provide greater availability to the community.

My message remains that the community needs to be more involved in determining the size and frequency of levies. All three candidates that were elected on November 3rd said they wanted better communication, which is an easy campaign strategy because you can say you will, but it isn’t measurable. I intend to question the Board on how they will obtain the community opinion concerning the levy size and frequency, as well as the salary increases in the 2010 Union contract negotiation. Should the School Board decide to negotiate the contract without first finding the public’s opinion, I will hold them accountable, especially come the next election.

I ask that if you care about our schools and are tired of the irresponsible spending, you will pass this blog along for more people to see and follow the School Board decisions. I know we all expect discussion and no more 10 minute meetings. Stand up, organize, and be heard.

Dwindling Cash Reserve

2009-11-06T18:14:00.000-05:00

Cash is king - we’ve all heard it before.

A school district can protect itself from running out of cash by maintaining a cash reserve. If a school district could predict the upcoming expenses and budget properly with perfect accuracy, there would be no need for a cash reserve. But when changes occur, like the Governor’s budget cuts of approximately $375k in 2010 and $750K in 2011, there needs to be adequate cash on hand to absorb these changes until permanent adjustments can be identified and implemented.

In 2006, the school board adopted a policy to maintain a 10% of operating expense cash reserve for this purpose, but has not been adhering to their adopted policy. Policy DBDA states, “The Board believes that maintaining a cash reserve balance of 10% of operating expenses is necessary in the interest of sound fiscal management.” It is clear from the Treasurer’s Five Year Forecast that the current School Board has been not acting “in the interest of sound fiscal management.”

The following table reflects the data from the Treasurer’s forecast in $ Millions:
Year Op Exp 10% of Op Exp Cash Balance Shortfall
2006 $131.9 $13.19 $11.14 $2.05
2007 $138.7 $13.87 $15.38 ($1.51)
2008 $146.3 $14.63 $11.51 $3.12
2009 $151.0 $15.10 $13.15 $1.95
2010 $159.5 $15.95 $11.90 $4.05
2011 $166.6 $16.66 $ 3.81 $13.85
2012 $174.9 $17.49 ($13.45) $30.94
2013 $184.5 $18.45 ($42.27) $60.72

Why is the School Board failing to honor their own requirement? Rather than building up the cash reserve or even maintaining 10%, they spent down the cash reserve to continue funding operations without requesting another levy.

From the above data, we see that operating expenses are increasing $6-8 million per year. At the October 2009 board meeting when this five year forecast was approved by the Board, it was noted the need for a levy in 2011. The Board appeared in agreement that a levy was the solution. The levy will help get back some of the reserve, but the rate of Operating expense growth is the alarming factor. As this number grows, the Cash Reserve requirement grows. To simultaneously cover the forecasted expenses and rebuild a 10% cash reserve by 2017, it would take a levy in excess of 7 mills in 2011, 2013, and 2015.

The board has been non-compliant with this policy in the past and expects to be in non-compliance in the future, which puts our school district at risk of becoming like the cash-strapped South Western City Schools or Reynoldsberg City Schools.

The policy continues, “Upon receiving any indication that such a cash balance may not be achieved at any point within the rolling five-year financial forecast period, the Treasurer shall report such a finding to the Board. Upon such notification by the Treasurer, the Superintendent and Treasurer will propose options that the Board may consider to forestall such an eventuality.”

The only option I keep hearing is the need for more levies, cutting bus stops to save on diesel fuel, and program reductions. The main question is, why are expenses increasing approximately 5-6% a year?

The union labor agreements, negotiated by your current School Board, continue to increase salaries, which have exceeded 7% per year for most teachers in the past two contracts, and are projected to average 5.5% for most teachers in the next contract. With unemployment in Ohio hitting 10%, and those lucky enough to maintain employment receiving an average salary increase of 2-3%, our teachers and administration are forecasting guaranteed future raises of 5.5% – paid for by additional tax levies. The union contract is set to be negotiated at the end of 2010 along with a request for operating levy. This current school board will not take the tough road and reduce spending, but instead continues rely on more revenue through levies.

I am very thankful Paul Lambert was elected to the Board and will promote discussion on these matters. Will the other School Board members listen to Paul or continue on their path of higher expenses? Do you, the voters, want the same compensation increases to continue, without a fight by your representatives, causing our schools to run without the necessary reserves? Are you tired of expenses being the determining factor for the levies?

It would be to the benefit of our community that more people get involved by spending one hour a month at a School Board meeting and perhaps a 2 minute address to the Board about these concerns. Perhaps it is time for a change, and while I don’t propose cuts to salaries, I do propose a discussion about reducing the increase percentage to something the taxpayer can afford in the current economic climate.

A responsible contract negotiation is required to result in a return to adequate Cash reserve balances.