Thoughts from Summer

Labor Day has passed, the kids are back in school and summer has quickly gone by. I have not posted since the Primary election, but I have been keeping involved with the happenings in the school district. Here are my thoughts on a few of these subjects.

I believe it is a mistake to remove the building scheduling from each individual school to the centralized district. I rarely believe that consolidation in the district office is a good move and that the district will require more personnel for this function.

I would not have voted for the Centerville CDA agreement. I realize that the additional construction will provide additional tax dollars, even if a percentage of the dollars are bypassed for 15 years. The yearly and overall amounts will be comparatively small. My issue is that this is a very-targeted tax break. I believe in lower taxes for everyone, not just one group that is building something new. Business at existing theaters could be damaged and the government helped subsidize the competition. Other projects throughout the county have been constructed without asking the District for tax breaks. I believe the district should have said “no”.

I also would not have voted for the property tax increases that were passed. The transportation levy and capital levy were raised, the later a substantial amount. The capital levy is used for building construction and maintenance. I believe that there are many ways that the buildings in the district can be simplified and building costs lowered. The district received less money from the state for the capital budget this year and felt like the money was still required, thus the tax increase. I believe that the projects in the pipeline should have been re-prioritized and cut back to meet existing funds. I believe the new Endeavor Elementary School is an example of bad spending. The school is constructed around an astronomy theme, which increased the cost of the building. The district noted some of the features in the building that helped the building to be constructed at a lower cost than the previous elementary school. If the astronomy aspect had been removed, the building would have been less expensive. And how much of the savings was a result of the current decline in the construction industry?

The voted and board leeways were proposed to be raised by a small amount, but were removed by the Board prior to the truth in taxation hearing. I have supported this increase as it would be small, will eventually be required to retain matching state funds, and would be used in the general fund to benefit the classroom. I believe that classroom size is an issue in our schools that needs to be addressed. I also believe, as I said in an earlier post, that there are inefficiencies that can be corrected within the existing budget to allow a larger percentage of the budget to be used directly in the classroom.

I plan to add regular posts to the site between now and election day. I thank everyone for their support and encouragement. Please e-mail me if you have a topic that you would like me to discuss.