Voters say 'no' to school levy

[LEVIES EQUAL RAISES]

...your AP scores--the best predictors of college success--roughly mirror the remediation rates (the confirmation of unpreparedness). This is the district's internal indicators that they are graduating your children unprepared for college.
Of the AP students who do pass only about 8% of them score "A's". This means that, not only is there an issue with kids requiring remedial math and English before they're allowed to take college math and English, but large percentages of graduates are UNDER prepared for college, meaning that they'll struggle through it.

It's not just an outrage, but a scandal. Wake up Reynoldsburg!

[Anonymous]

Given the egregious, outrageous economic inequality in the community, a voter/citizen would have to literally be a blithering moron to vote money for anybody, anything, or any cause. Solve the problem of exploitation FIRST, and then talk to me about requests to fund social ends such as education. As far as I'm concerned you can send the bill to educate these kids to Bill Gates or a like capitalist bloodsucker

[LEVIES EQUAL RAISES]

Anonymous wrote:

Given the egregious, outrageous economic inequality in the community, a voter/citizen would have to literally be a blithering moron to vote money for anybody, anything, or any cause. Solve the problem of exploitation FIRST, and then talk to me about requests to fund social ends such as education. As far as I'm concerned you can send the bill to educate these kids to Bill Gates or a like capitalist bloodsucker

Huh? Who's being exploited?

You have the freedom of movement to relocate to Lincoln, Montana and take up residence, tax and cost-free, in Ted Kaczynski's vacant shack if you so choose. My guess is that you'll choose to stay in your community and continue to be "exploited".

[OUR TOWN]

Sad mom wrote:

<quoted text>
Thanks for the clarification! I guess people will look for any excuse to justify voting against it...even if it's not the truth. Maybe it makes them feel better about denying today's children what they deserve -- the things former students were given when they were in school.

I have lived in the 'Burg' for 50 years. I graduated from RHS and went on to earn my degree from The Ohio State University. My husband and I have been property owners since 1980 and our child graduated form RHS and went on to earn a college degree. Do not tell me as a repeat NO voter that I have a reason to deny today's children an education. I voted for the bond levy to build the additional schools, however had the Board been honest about their finances and shared with the voters that not only would there not be enough money to operate the two new schools, but there would not be enough money to operate the exisiting schools I would have voted no on the bond levy. Let's think about this, why in the world knowing what they knew then would they hide from the voters the financial status of the school system? I personally no longer have the funds to allow any more increases in my property taxes to fund a school system where the teachers and their union are not onboard with pay freezes, pay cuts, loss of jobs etc that the majority of the voters are experiencing. I am not concerned about the devaluation of my propoerty due to the failure of this levy, but am concerned about my abilty to find a buyer for my property who is able to pay the current property taxes of which I believe close to 70% is already earmarked for the school systm. Please keep in mind employed residents of the 'Burg' pay 1/2 % of their income in addition to any property tax earmarked for the schools.I am sorry that your research led you to Reynoldsburg schools, I question how much research was done, since most people know that the 'Burg' is not a premier suburb.

[Sad mom]

OUR TOWN wrote:

<quoted text>
I have lived in the 'Burg' for 50 years. I graduated from RHS and went on to earn my degree from The Ohio State University. My husband and I have been property owners since 1980 and our child graduated form RHS and went on to earn a college degree. Do not tell me as a repeat NO voter that I have a reason to deny today's children an education. I voted for the bond levy to build the additional schools, however had the Board been honest about their finances and shared with the voters that not only would there not be enough money to operate the two new schools, but there would not be enough money to operate the exisiting schools I would have voted no on the bond levy. Let's think about this, why in the world knowing what they knew then would they hide from the voters the financial status of the school system? I personally no longer have the funds to allow any more increases in my property taxes to fund a school system where the teachers and their union are not onboard with pay freezes, pay cuts, loss of jobs etc that the majority of the voters are experiencing. I am not concerned about the devaluation of my propoerty due to the failure of this levy, but am concerned about my abilty to find a buyer for my property who is able to pay the current property taxes of which I believe close to 70% is already earmarked for the school systm. Please keep in mind employed residents of the 'Burg' pay 1/2 % of their income in addition to any property tax earmarked for the schools.I am sorry that your research led you to Reynoldsburg schools, I question how much research was done, since most people know that the 'Burg' is not a premier suburb.

How nice that you were able to have people who cared fund yours and your children's education in Reynoldsburg, and now that it's our turn to fund the next generation, people can just turn our back on them. However, I am curious if you still had children in school, if the ability to sell your property would be more important than your child's education.
As far as your questioning "how much research was done," I did as much research as a mother who cares about her children's education would do. And I don't recall saying the 'Burg', as you call it, was a premier suburb; however, it was superior to the area where we came from where a majority of the schools were in "Academic Emergency," so "Excellent with Distinction" looked pretty good to me!
People can post and post and post their justifications for voting no, but in the end you win, the kids lose....no matter whose poor judgment got us here in the first place.

[finally]

Just try to hang in, the school will put another levy on the ballot. I live in the SWC School district(GroveCitySchools) It took 4 tries, but it finally did pass. I to was very disappointed. Bussing was cut for the seniors, so that meant either parents needed to provide transportation, another student or neighbors.
I lived in Hilliard City Schools for 23 years and after I children graduated when down sized and thought the Grove City area would be nice to relocate to, but the people do not support their schools. Evenually we also would like to move and I knew that we to would have a very hard time selling our home, because no one wants to live in a community where the school system is not supported. Just hang in and stay involved with the schools.

Sad mom wrote:

I don't understand how anyone could not see how important this

levy was to our CHILDREN. I just moved to Reynoldsburg last year to get away from a poor-performing, failing school district in Northeast Ohio. The reason it was so bad was because they didn't put any money into the school system, and nobody wanted to move there because of the schools, which meant no one could sell their homes and people were "stuck."
I did research on our school district before I made the move, and I was very impressed with the diversity and support and academic achievements of Reynoldsburg Schools. Now after only being her a year, I don't think I made the right decision by coming here and am already having to consider another move.
I understand the economic factor that I'm sure went into most of the "No" votes, but I think voting no and denying children a good and safe education is not going to be the answer, it's just going to begin a downward spiral for the City of Reynoldsburg. And those of you who were worried about your property taxes will now have other things to worry about.

[finally]

You must not have children or grandchildren in the school district.

robby wrote:

i am glad that the levy did not pass . well the school just like to waste the money . like for one thing why do we need astro turf on a high school football field? and another thing why should we pay for busing for kids that goes to private school i think that the parents should have to pay the bill for the bussing? I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL OF THE VOTERS THAT VOTEED NO.

[finally]

Thank you for everyone that voted. Families are moving out of the SWC Schools because the community was not passing their levies. I lived in Hilliard for over 23 years and our community always supported and passed levies. We also have people living on fixed incomes.

Laura wrote:

You guys had the gumption to stand up to the evil government machine and stop accepting blackmail from your school system.I wish those in our district(SWCS) had the compassion that you all do in Reynoldsburg,for the working poor and those trying to live on fixed incomes.BRAVO.

[Lady]

To say that we No Voters in SWCS do not support education is saying the same as we don't support soldiers involved in a war because we don't approve of the war.

In SW it really is about the abundance of personnel on the payroll, and the payroll bill vs. the graduation rates. We pay top dollar for a 50% success rate.

Even though they didn't have to, they inconvenienced the parents enough by eliminating bussing and sports. That got the levy passed and now, we have no leverage with the unions to get these ridiculous pay packages reduced.

But hey, we'll pay for it because it's for the kids...to go to school and learn guerrilla tactics to get their agendas through. Have your kids come to tell you what a waste of human flesh you are because you won't pay more? That's what our kids are learning, and we're paying for it.

Good luck Reynoldsburg. It's coming your way.

[voter]

LEVIES EQUAL RAISES wrote:

...your AP scores--the best predictors of college success--roughly mirror the remediation rates (the confirmation of unpreparedness). This is the district's internal indicators that they are graduating your children unprepared for college.
Of the AP students who do pass only about 8% of them score "A's". This means that, not only is there an issue with kids requiring remedial math and English before they're allowed to take college math and English, but large percentages of graduates are UNDER prepared for college, meaning that they'll struggle through it.
It's not just an outrage, but a scandal. Wake up Reynoldsburg!

The teacher raises do provide a small bit of sustainability to the school district finances, but not nearly as much as the school funding system in Ohio does. You can blame George Voinovich for creating House Bill 920--which was designed to be the taxpayers best friend. It's turned into the taxpayer's worst enemy. Do your homework. A school district property tax doesn't work like a city, state, or federal income tax. The state caps the dollar amount they can collect on say, 9.9 mills, forever. They will never collect more than $7 million on 9.9 mills--not even as property value goes up. They only collect money adjusted for increased home value on 6.04 mills of "inside millage." The entire 9.9 mills would have been additional outside millage.

No matter how much they cut programs, services, salaries or benefits, additional revenue is a mathematical necessity. Again, do your homework.

[Laura]

Lady wrote:

To say that we No Voters in SWCS do not support education is saying the same as we don't support soldiers involved in a war because we don't approve of the war.
In SW it really is about the abundance of personnel on the payroll, and the payroll bill vs. the graduation rates. We pay top dollar for a 50% success rate.
Even though they didn't have to, they inconvenienced the parents enough by eliminating bussing and sports. That got the levy passed and now, we have no leverage with the unions to get these ridiculous pay packages reduced.
But hey, we'll pay for it because it's for the kids...to go to school and learn guerrilla tactics to get their agendas through. Have your kids come to tell you what a waste of human flesh you are because you won't pay more? That's what our kids are learning, and we're paying for it.
Good luck Reynoldsburg. It's coming your way.

Unforunately SWCS proved that it was/is not concerned with the unconstitutional funding issue that it blames for everything including test scores in the district.
When voters were blackmailed into a Yes vote to restore what was robbed from their childrens' school experience(to fund salary increases for employees),they also robbed homeowners from ever having the unconstitutional funding issue dealt with.
Good job SWCS-you proved where your priorities were.We couldn't have the busses ready to roll the day after the vote,BUT THEY HAD 41 COACHES RETURN THAT DAY,ALONG WITH GYMS FILLED WITH PRACTICES.What a sham!

[LEVIES EQUAL RAISES]

voter wrote:

<quoted text>
The teacher raises do provide a small bit of sustainability to the school district finances, but not nearly as much as the school funding system in Ohio does. You can blame George Voinovich for creating House Bill 920--which was designed to be the taxpayers best friend. It's turned into the taxpayer's worst enemy. Do your homework. A school district property tax doesn't work like a city, state, or federal income tax. The state caps the dollar amount they can collect on say, 9.9 mills, forever. They will never collect more than $7 million on 9.9 mills--not even as property value goes up. They only collect money adjusted for increased home value on 6.04 mills of "inside millage." The entire 9.9 mills would have been additional outside millage.
No matter how much they cut programs, services, salaries or benefits, additional revenue is a mathematical necessity. Again, do your homework.

Nice try. One has nothing to do with the other. Even with the cap your school district does not deserve the additional revenue--even if it were "inside millage". Your district is failing your kids, period. They are graduating your kids with a substandard, inferior education. This is fact. The deans of Ohio's colleges and universities have been screaming this for years http://regents.ohio.gov/perfrpt/hs_transition... , and now the Nat'l Center for Education Statistics has quantified it http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/stu... .

Residents accepted or rejected the levy request under the premise that their kids were receiving a good education. This isn't the case. Your kids are receiving a terrible education.

[Good stuff]

I found this on another post, this is very informative. Good information to keep in mind for anybody voting on the next levy ballot issue in May.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_nypo...

[concerned resident]

Let's call it what it is people - those moving out of Reynoldsburg.

The old Reynoldsburg population is/has died and dying. When Columbus ran out of space to build more low income housing they looked to annex with Reynoldsburg, which I believe to started what is known as white flight.

Reynoldsburg is not a premium suburb any more.
I've noticed in the last two years that the majority of foot traffic up and down main street has increased dramatically.

I say let's petition to join Columbus - taxes will be cheaper - utilities will be cheaper - housing prices will be justified (low/high)and the diversity of people moving in will blend and feel more at ease.

Who knows - maybe one day we will experience the same re-birth as the inner city. "NOT"