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Should we vote No?

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August 15, 2010

November is quickly approaching and we have to make a decision. The decision is whether we should Vote Yes or No for the school levy.

Quite a decision to make. What factors should we consider when we make this decision. Should it be the hybrid schedule, should it be the overspending, should it be the attorneys fees, should it be the lack of following policy, should it be the percentage of Salaries to Benefit? Should it be the Administration?

Those are all problems and some have something to do with the costs but the bigger problem we are going to face is the economy and what it has in store for us in the future.

In Sunday's Record Courier August 15, 2010, Section A, page A4 in the bottom left of the publication, is an article called "Double Dip" Resession?

How's that for referencing. Those who subscribe to the Record Courier for home delivery can login into the paper and read it on-line if you already threw yours out.

It is a scary read. It states our economy isn't going to improve until 2015. A group of analysts all agreed upon it.

If the levy passes and the economy continues on it's current trend, then a burden that could have been prevented will occur and force many to move. More so than we would have experienced if the levy failed.

In our world today in the private sector, many jobs are being lost because businesses are folding (just look around Streetsboro for the evidence), pay is being cut, hours being reduced and more of the burden of cost for medical and dental benefits are being placed upon the employee.

Fuel is rising, groceries play a big part and insurance is still rising in all areas, but jobs are disappearing and the future is yet unstable.

The Government and Public sector jobs are beginning to take a big toll on society and the trends they have been on have changed very little in ways of economizing and reforming to accommodate and economy that we have evolved into.

We have not followed the way of the private sector and by not doing so we are endangering the education of the quality of it for the children that will eventually make it to the work force.

It has been seen that overflowing funds do not have a direct impact on quality education, we have seen that smaller classes also do not have an impact on quality education, we have seen block scheduling does not have an impact on quality education. Those items are costing the district a lot of money and they do little to improve education. What other explanation can there be.

Will anyone offer up something other than the parents don't care, the community doesn't support the school, the kids aren't taking home work home. Parents don't help at home. No one wants to pass a levy. Well community did by the way in 2003, 2005, 2007.

The fact is the community is not going to have the funds to help make ends meet in their homes.

Drastic changes have to be made if the district is going to survive and the measures have to be made now rather than waiting for Union negotiations. Administrative contracts will have to be voluntarily rewritten to accept a cut in pay for a cost savings. It is happening in the private sector and it is something we must now put in place rather than consider if the district is going to survive.

The private sector has had to make many cuts in their budget and are starting to feel the pain in job losses, pay cuts, increased medical and they just may not have what it takes just to pay the for either one of the levies.

Any cost savings they can incur within the next year would not be a bonus but just maybe what they will need to survive our current economy.

The County is experiencing far less revenue along with our city and they are doing what they can to adjust without laying people off and they are reforming different cost savings methods all the time.

The economy is hurting and it will have to take the courage of many to try to make a difference.

We could all volunteer our time to the district for many things to help educate the children whether we are Yes or No voters. The district has to believe that there are two sides to every fence when it comes to perspectives and opinions. All should have the right to express them without fearing or even being worried about retaliation.

I can't and refuse to believe that even those public employees in our district do not agree 100% on what is being done or how things are done.

But I do believe what I see when I look at the shape of our economy and how the cost of education needs to be adjusted to reflect the state of our economy.

I fear the levies passing would break the foundation of our community or strain it to a point that it would be extremely unstable and not able to support the district at all.

Many in the community have bit the bullet and have drawn down on it so hard that it is ready to go off. That is a reality. That's a metaphor by the way. May be too deep for some.

Is the school district ready to make concessions to save a district they say they love working in and couldn't wait to teach here, or will we cross our fingers, wait for the levy and maybe pass a point of no return?

And there is the question?

There is the reality. Think about it.

Some have chastised the community for their lack of involvment. Some have chastised the parents. Some have chastised the teachers, administration and the overall mindset.

But what I have seen that when the members of the community were called upon and given an asignment, they appeared, showed up, volunteered themselves and generally came through.

I have rarely (2 in 25 years, those were from Mr. Langle), seen a letter from the school district asking for volunteers to help educate the children from the school district. I am talking about other than parents. But just community members. Their presence and their involvement on a volunteer basis could possible improve an students education and the quality at the same time that it is a volunteer and not subject to pay would provide some sort of cost savings would it not?

Sure %50.00 for a background check but just think of the possiblities.

If they can't give from their wallet maybe they can give another way. Have faith in your commuinity that funds the district.

Rather than quote a previous poster, but you can get many things to happen on a two way street.
And they can all be good.
\
Maybe that is the problem? Maybe that is the solution?

The truth is, they want your money but they don't want your time until they need your money again.

Martin Fleming

Comments

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10.	Posted by whizzard1 September 1, 2010
	Voice of Reason, I whole heartedly agree. The parents have to take control of their children and should be responsible for their behaviour. The school district has the school policies available on the web site and I think ALL parents should review them. On another note, can you provide documentation that all these attorney fees are generated because of the items you listed or is it just speculation and assumption. A few people have posted on this site concerning their interest on these attorney fees. Staff, Administrators and Board Members read these posts and any one of them can respond to the public to indicating attorney fees are generated for this reason. The district should be accountable to the public for they don't do it at Board Meetings and any question presented to them are rarely if ever answered. If the reasons you mentioned are the reasons for all the attorney fees then the district should relay that to the public. For how can the public make any decisions when then are kept in the dark for the attorney fees? Please if you can, provide us some type of documentation as to this is why the attorney fees are generated and I present this to you, the school board, the administration or the teaching staff. If the public doesn't receive an explanation, the the public will make their own assumptions and unfortunately, we all know the path the public will take on their analysis. Is there embarassment for revealing why these attorney fees are so high? If the district is not adhering to school policy and it generates a lawsuit, then the only answer is the district better do a better job at enforcing policy and making sure the parents understand and follow the policy (by the way, the district does not follow policy through all grades and this is a major problem, rules aren't made to be broken but refined to accomplish the desired task, mission or problem). Some parents can be very ignorant and many do not discipline their children at home, they do not teach them manners and they do not teach them respect for others. There are many examples I can give you but if you really, really pay attention around you, you will see them for yourself. Teaching staff also have to realize they are teachers and are expected to be teachers. They are not their to be the students friend. When they cross that line, they no longer become effective teachers and children will always try to take advantage of the freindship. We are not expecting teachers to be "hip" and with it. We are expecting them to turn out students who will become highly productive in our society and have a chance to make it in the real world. This is a serious business and all teachers should approach it that way. However, if we as a community and school district do not provide the tools, materials, technology and maintenance, and keep dumping all the money into to salaries and benefits, then the only recourse for the teacher is to become the students friend. Without the tools of the trade, the concept of the trade is greatly diminished and no one will win in the end. Pure and simple. Martin Fleming

9.	Posted by The Voice of Reason September 1, 2010
	Ah Legal Fees Mr. Fleming: That is a craw in most people's bellies, and this is the reason why they are so high. Everyone in the school system is afraid of law suits. Just the mention of "law suits" sends shivers down all administrators' spines. Let me see: Touch my Johnny because he is a dickweed! Law suit. Try to discipline Bobby. Law Suit! Ridicule Tammy because she deserves it for being a strumpulet. Lawsuit. Take away Betsy's cell phone so she can't text Jody - her BFF - sitting next to her in class. Law Suit. And the show goes on. There are teachers who even tell their children to stand in a straight line. When they can't do even that, the teacher places her hands gently on the child's shoulders to get them back into line, and the kid's bitchy mother is in the principal's office the next day demanding an apology. Or its, yep, you got it! Law Suit. It's time to make the parents accountable for what their children do to the buildings, the teachers and to other students. Sock the parents with $12,000 worth or repairs because Tommy flatten the school bus tires. And send off the parents to jail for their kid's misdeeds. And until that happens there will be no joy in Mudville! Cuz the school board has struck out.

8.	Posted by whizzard1 August 24, 2010
	Please go to this link and look at the info there. http://www.whizzards.net/levies Martin Fleming

7.	Posted by whizzard1 August 22, 2010
	Factualinfo, The new treasurer returned the reports to me in under 3 days. Quite impressive. It is appears to me that she is quite receptive to requests for reports and as far as I'm concerned, accommodated me rather quickly. I think she will be as honest and straitforward as Mr. Barnes was. Only time will tell at this point. You're right, the fees spent for attorneys I believe is quite high and it is a curiosity as to why we have them. Prior to 1999 you rarely saw fees for attorneys. Especially before Ms. Linton, and since then, they have become common place in our district and no one does question it. It would be quite interesting to find what and why they are spending all these attorney fees for to begin with. I'm not a big fan of sports unless it's Da Bears and my grand daughters basketball but I think the sports are a necessity and do have a high value as it brings a connection to the students we could not otherwise develop and it provides commradery and bonding of the student body when we can all cheer for the same thing. Sports do excitement to the district. I'm usually on pins and needles when I watch the girls play basketball. It is always a sit on the edge of your seat kind of thing, and quite frankly, their games seem a little more intense than when the boys play. At times it is like watching rugby, football, wrestling and soccer all rolled up in one. Even when I went to school I have never seen anything more fascinating or electric than girls basketball. Boy is it intense! The public does have to make some kind of demand of the board to justify these attorney fees. Is the Board or Administration generating these fees? Is it something our district is doing or not doing that generates them. Is it lack of experience in the field of education or is it because the district didn't comply or follow a policy or is it because we did follow a policy? It would be great if we could get an answer that would pacify or justify these expenses. I fear however the answers we will get is that it is confidential. These attorneys are working for the school district which the school district is as the public dictates it should be. The public is the actual client and not the school district. So if they say client/attorney priveledge the information should be passed on to the public on why we paid those fees. Even though they were paid to the attorneys, it is public funds. We should know why as well as how much was spent. Just saying attorney fees is not enough. I personally would like to know more. Martin Fleming

6.	Posted by factualinfo August 22, 2010
	Not that the info on the attorney fees surprises me, as I've been keeping track of these expenditures, but why doesn't the general public start questioning these expenditures. This is not normal for districts to spend this type of money on legal fees. Imagine how much they will go up this year with contract negotiations actually taking place. Yet, the district raise sports fees and think it may save $20,000 per year. Dozens of kids are opting out of sports programs due to the huge fee increase and yet we don't seem to care as a district. Our board of education backed this decision, although the vote was not unanimous. Mr. Lesak, Mrs. Baba, and Mrs. Hanish all voted to impact our kids by raising fees to possibly save 20,000 yet they NEVER question this ridiculous expenditure of legal fees. By the way, just some inside info, the district is now hiring people to manage the sports programs, on top of the athletic director and coaches, etc. They are creating three NEW, extra duty positions to manage the programs/facilities. So, how much did we really save by getting rid of Mr. Johnson? He has worked to cut the expense of the overall athletic budget but we are already taking steps to add new positions and increase the budget again. Is there anyone with any common sense in the district?

5.	Posted by factualinfo August 22, 2010
	Mr. Fleming, Thanks for the updated info. Out of curiosity, did the new treasurer seem receptive to giving out the info? Will they begin putting the finance reports back on the Board agenda's with the Sept. meeting and the transition of the treasurer's complete?

4.	Posted by whizzard1 August 22, 2010
	For those of you who care to know, I have just posted a new Administrator Salary and Benefits and I have also posted the cost for Attorneys from July 2009 to July 2010. Everyone should take a look at these two factual documents. Received them from the New Treasurer. http://www.whizzards.net/levies There is other information people may want to look at also. Really check out that Teachers Union Contract. Martin Fleming

3.	Posted by whizzard1 August 16, 2010
	Factualinfo, Look at the reality of this. The renewal levy is still in effect. We have no busing, we have no new books, they have not gotten any new technology in the past year unless they came from a grant. Which now, no one is working on grants. When they did get a notice of a grant, they expected the teachers to write them and quite frankly, to achieve success in obtaining a grant, you need someone who requests and writes for grants for a living. Putting that load on a teacher is just unfair to the teacher and depressing when they find out they didn't write for the grant good enough to get it. Their rhetoric is deceiving and their promises are hollow. Look back at the 2007 levy. They stated on one of their flyers that they would eliminate school fees for grades k-8. That never happened. The fact that the past Super deceived the board on what it would cost to repair the roof on Wait took a large chunk out of PI funds to make that repair. Then came the parking lots. It was lack of maintenance to begin with that ruined the roof at Wait, it was lack of maintenance of the parking lot that demanded a resurfacing. Why did that happen? Back to salaries and benefits and small class sizes, block scheduling and the Administrative contracts and to add to all that, the exhorbitant attorney retainers. The only thing that will be provided and continued with the passing of the levy is the Salaries and Benefits and the Attorney fees. There will be no books, there will be no new technology and Mr. Lesak was very careful to state this in his newspaper quote. Passing this levy will still send the children into a downward spiral and the only way out of it is to get the state in to monitor the situation and oversee the Board and Administration. The state may only stick around 2 years. The levy will stave off the state for at least another year, you will still have no busing and they will be back at it again next year to try for another levy. This will make the children suffer two or three more years before things will get straightened out. If we can get the state to come in sooner, the students won't have to suffer as long. There are many programs that are not servicing the children as we need, the attorneys retainers are servicing our children, the marketing firm is not servicing our children, the psychs they outsource when ours can do the same thing is only throwing away the funding we provide, and yes you are right, they have not a single clue as to what they are doing is wrong for it has been done for so long now that even the OSBA supports it for who makes up the OSBA but Board members of the entire state who have the same mentality as the board members we have now. We cannot support or approve a levy if the board has not shown us by now that they can handle the funds. We shouldn't be naive thinking they will. I am not saying you are naive. Not at all. You seem to have a pretty good head on your shoulders. Supporting a levy with our current economic situation will creat greater stress on our community. It will creat hardships and cause many older residents to possibly lose their homes because our Administration and Board can not see the light at the end of the tunnel for what they are doing. Look at your children, look them dead in the eye and tell yourself passing this levy will make a difference. You know as well as I do the change will not occur. We haven't seen it yet. We still have seen decisions that are as dumb as they get. Personally, I think before we pass a levy, the district should provide us with the changes they will be making in the teachers union contract. I would like to see them eliminate supplemental contracts for teachers, obtain volunteers for the coaching and sports, I would like to see them use more of the community as volunteers in the district. This can bring a substantial cost savings to the district along with the Administration taking a pay cut of no less than 3% and pay all their Employee Share of their retirement and at least 30% of their health benefits. If they do that before the election, then maybe I will support just the renewal. If not, then I will probably purchase some more Vote NO signs and carryon as I have. I have written to them on a matter concerning a teacher at the high school and I did not receive a response and I only give them a week to respond. Obviously they could care less about my concerns over this teacher. I expect to wait a resonable amount of time. That amount of time translates to 5 days. They put me off so I can do the same and ignore their pleas. There is no reason to keep paying the vet to revive a horse that has been dead quite a long time now. The only one winning is the vet. Maybe if the board or administration had written back on what there intentions were for this particular teacher, then maybe I would have reconsidered. But, as it stands, from what I have seen they have done nothing and that bothers me. Two board members resign (and they know who they are), and they need to terminate the contract with that one teacher who jeopardizes the safety of the children. Do that, and I might gain enough faith in them to vote or support the renewal levy. Martin Fleming

2.	Posted by whizzard1 August 16, 2010
	factualinfo, I have been going to board meetings for 8 years now. Another notch on the gun handle. For the past eight years I have tried emailing them, speaking at board meetings and very little if any has gotten through to them. I have come to realize working with these people is nothing more than a futile effort. How do we then get the point across and make them listen? We don't. We never will. We then have to take another approach if they are going to consistently refuse to listen. The renewal is need only to keep the payroll where it currently is. I think at this point they have taken all they could from the children. They have stopped supplies a couple of years ago, they have limited their maintenance on the buildings longer ago than supplies, same thing with technology (look around at all the antiques they have now), materials are currenlty supplied by most parents and that has been going on over 8 years now. Programs have been eliminated, building use has been eliminated. We defintely need the state to come in and educate both the Administration and the School Board on the use of funding. These people are not going to learn it themselves and they basically have tied a rope around their nect with the Teachers Union contract. There is no out for them and they don't have the expertise or knowhow at this point to get us going on the upswing. I appreciate what you are trying to say but I have been down that road before and I really don't think that even if we had a thousand people at the meeting, change will not occur. We don't have enough people on the board with the gumption to make the changes this district so desparately needs. It will never happen. This levy or any other that comes about will not give the children a quality education for the monies will only be steered into salaries and benefits and the children will continue to go without. We have been so complacent as a community that board members and Administrators are uncapable of thinking in terms or reality. They fear for their salaries and benefits that is why they are willing to put a childs life at stake to insure their pocket book doesn't go empty. I am simply tired of their logic. None of it makes sense and we need to enforce a change. They have the opportunity to make the change, I think they realize that, but without enough members on the board to have a good head on their shoulders the change for the better will not surface. Changing board members won't be the answer either for new board members will be guided by the old members who have no clue as to what they are doing. If we replace the three coming for election, we will still have the two that were re-elected in November and those are the two we really need to be rid of. Passing the levy will confirm with them that they are doing things right and it will make matters far worse then they are now. I guarantee it. They have a proven track record that shows it. I'm sorry, but I can't wait to vote them out. They will have to resign before the November ballot, the two I mentioned and give their word never to return. Then I might consider the re-newal. Hopefully the other three can vote in two new members that aren't so arrogant and hopefully the two voted in will have some real business experience behing them. Martin Fleming

1.	Posted by factualinfo August 16, 2010
	Mr. Fleming, while I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of the situation in our schools, community and world at large, I do want to re-state an opinion that I had posted a few days ago. Irritated as I am with the poor lack of judgment by the board/administration, I do want to say one thing. These people really believe what they are doing is right and that they can't function without the money from both levies. If the levies don't pass, it will NOT teach them a lesson. It will NOT make them more financially responsible. They will simply take the cuts out on our kids and make them suffer. Please, at least vote for the renewal so we can keep some semblance of order for our kids. And if you can afford the other levy, please consider voting for it too. Again, voting no will not teach them a lesson, these are people who just don't know any better and you can't teach them a lesson. They are unwilling to learn and possibly unable. Vote them out come election time, demand more from them via emails or at board meetings, express your opinions about their lack of judgment, etc. BUT don't take away the finances of the schools to teach them a lesson. Again, it will have zero impact on their lives but will be taken out 100% on the kids in those school buildings. Please, think about the reality of what will happen to the kids if the finances are cut drastically by no levy renewal. Mrs. Keller or Mrs. Hanish will not be walking to school, they won't have to get their education in a crowded classroom or from outdated texts and technology. They will keep their cushy lives and sure be irritated by the lack of support and criticism of the public but their lives won't change. The lives of the kids in those buildings will changes with levy renewal failure, it's guaranteed. But please, get involved and let the board know what issues you have with your child's education and question their spending habits. We spend more per child than many districts and still have such low ACT scores and other test scores. Spending is not the answer to a better education, yet severe funding cuts in the form of a failed renewal levy will reduce teachers in the classroom and result in a poorer quality of education. There is a reasonable middle ground to follow. Your choice.