tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42893453463871943502024-03-05T03:19:19.601-05:00EducateHilliard.comby Paul LambertPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.comBlogger454125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-19346893562755803682017-03-20T10:04:00.000-04:002017-10-08T17:46:06.499-04:00School District Economics - One more timeEach year, the Ohio Department of Education publishes a spreadsheet of enrollment and financial data gathered from every public school district in the state. The latest version has just come out.<br />
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I pulled a subset of central Ohio suburban school districts from this spreadsheet to gather comparative numbers. Those districts are: Dublin, Grandview Heights, Hilliard, New Albany, South Western, Upper Arlington, Westerville, Worthington, and Olentangy.<br />
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Given the frequency of this conversation in our community, let's get this number on the table right away - the property tax rates (all taken from sample properties within the suburban city limits):<br />
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Effective Property Tax Rate:<br />
Hilliard: 97.93 mills<br />
New Albany: 96.07<br />
Westerville: 95.42*<br />
Dublin: 90.74<br />
Worthington: 83.20<br />
South Western: 82.31<br />
Olentangy (Powell): 79.99<br />
Grandview Heights: 77.90*<br />
Upper Arlington: 75.04*<br />
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So yes, Hilliard has the highest property tax rates of this set. But note that in three of these communities - Westerville, Grandview Heights, and Upper Arlington - the local Fire/EMS services are funded from sources other than property taxes.<br />
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What about just the school property tax:<br />
Hilliard: $1,942 per $100,000 of market value<br />
New Albany: $1,891<br />
Olentangy: $1,850<br />
Westerville: $1,812**<br />
Dublin: $1,778<br />
Worthington: $1,543**<br />
Upper Arlington: $1,500**<br />
South Western: $1,433**<br />
Grandview Heights: $1,429**<br />
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Hilliard tops the list again. In this case, note that five of the six lowest** on this list don't participate in a Joint Vocational School district like Tolles, whose tax collection I've included in the list above.<br />
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How about spending?<br />
Grandview Heights: $15,818/student<br />
Upper Arlington: $14,957<br />
Worthington: $12,863<br />
Dublin: $12,620<br />
New Albany: $11,900<br />
Hilliard: $11,338<br />
Westerville: $10,741<br />
South Western: $10,274<br />
Olentangy: $10,102<br />
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Whoa -- what's going on here? Why does Hilliard have the highest property tax rates, while being 6th on this list of spending? How does Grandview Heights and Upper Arlington have the lowest school tax rates, yet spend significantly more per student than the rest of us?<br />
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The answer is in this equation:<br />
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.......Revenue = Tax Rate x Total Property Value<br />
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In particular, the Total Property Value per Student. Here's how that list stacks up:<br />
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Upper Arlington: $297,696<br />
Grandview Heights: $284,657<br />
Dublin: $204,201<br />
New Albany: $192,329<br />
Worthington: $187,984<br />
Olentangy: $182,277<br />
Hilliard: $154,930<br />
Westerville: $154,829<br />
South Western: $103,924<br />
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On this list, we're near the bottom. And that's not good. What should we do?<br />
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From the spending side of the equation, the operating costs of a school district are 85% compensation and benefits. That's what we should expect - our "product" is delivered by teachers and staff in the classroom. Our cost is a function of how many folks we employ and how much we pay them.<br />
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Here's the average classroom teacher salaries:<br />
Upper Arlington: $78,954 (66%)<br />
Hilliard: $73,858 (68%)<br />
Grandview Heights: $73,128 (57%)<br />
New Albany: $72,477 (73%)<br />
Dublin: $72,088 (46%)<br />
Worthington: $71,183 (54%)<br />
Olentangy: $65,959 (52%)<br />
Westerville: $63,422 (38%)<br />
South Western: $62,229 (53%)<br />
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Again, we're near the top of the list. But it's not because our teacher pay scale is higher than the others. Every district has a pay scale which increases compensation based on years of service and degree obtained. While each is unique as a result of years of negotiations with the individual teachers' unions, all fall within a small range of each other.<br />
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The difference in average salary from district to district is mostly because of the seniority of the teachers. Fast-growing districts like Olentangy hire large batches of new, young teachers each year, bringing down their average. That was Hilliard 15-20 years ago.<br />
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Districts with stable or declining enrollment tend to have higher average salaries, as their teachers move up on the seniority steps and few new teachers are being hired. That's the case for UA and Grandview. The number in parentheses in the average salary list is the percentage of their faculty with 10+ years of experience. Note the strong correlation between average salary and this number.<br />
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And when districts have a big spurt of hiring, there tends to be a "bulge" in the pay distribution, with a cadre of teachers moving up and up until they retire and are replaced with a batch of new teachers. We saw a little of that a few years ago when changes to the State Teacher Retirement System (STRS) rules gave many of our more senior teachers reason to retire then rather than wait.<br />
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Those STRS rule changes will also cause current teachers to stay on the job longer, which will in turn cause the average tenure of teachers to increase across the state. In our case, many are in that "bulge" of teachers we recruited 15-20 years ago.<br />
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On the revenue side, it's back to that Assessed Valuation per Student. We need to drive that number higher as fast as we can.<br />
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One way is to increase the average value of a parcel. If all that's getting built in our community is apartments, condos and houses, then they need to be priced pretty high - on the order of $350,000 for a single family home, because those housing units also bring more students.<br />
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Apartment developments that attract families with kids aren't helpful as they drive down the Assessed Value per Student, essentially causing the rest of us to subsidize that housing with our higher property taxes.<br />
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The better solution is to recruit much more commercial development to our community, and restrict new residential development until that happens. We certainly shouldn't be annexing more land to build more houses.<br />
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And that new commercial development has to generate property tax revenue for the school district and the township, not just income tax revenue for the City.<br />
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TIFs and abatements which redirect school and township property tax millage to the City are not helpful. This is the reason many of us fought so hard for Issue 9 - which prohibits the use of TIFs on residential development. It doesn't prohibit residential development, but requires that all the school tax generated by a new development actually goes to the school district.<br />
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I look forward to your comments and questions.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-39103724525176991582014-07-15T15:16:00.002-04:002014-07-15T15:16:38.867-04:00Follow me on FacebookGoing forward, I'll be posting new content on Facebook. Please "Like" my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/EducateHilliard" target="_blank">new page</a>, and let your friends and neighbors know about it.<br />
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All the 450+ articles posted here will remain, as well as the collection of materials which can be accessed from the links to the right.<br />
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I'm looking forward to continuing our dialog.<br />
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<br />Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-72986019997482731592014-05-26T10:41:00.001-04:002014-05-26T10:41:42.729-04:00Property Valuations, HB920 and the Adversarial ProcessOver the years, I've had a few conversations with a commercial property owner here in Hilliard about property valuations. He has appealed the valuation of those properties in hope of reducing his property tax bill, the bulk of which represents revenue for the school district.<br />
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He is angry that the school district has opposed these revaluations, saying he doesn't understand why the school district spends his own tax dollars to oppose his tax reduction request.<br />
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Part of this has to do with the technicalities of a provision in Ohio law often called "HB920," after the 1970s legislation which causes the dollar amount of property taxes collected to remain constant on the set of parcels in existence when the levy was passed. The original purpose of this legislation was to prevent rising valuations from automatically raising taxes, which at the time were particularly burdensome for folks in poor urban neighborhoods that were being regentrified, such as The Flats in Cleveland.<br />
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So if that original set of parcels were given a market value of $1 billion by the County Auditor, and a property tax of 1 mills were passed, the amount of money generated by that levy would be:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tax = ($1 billion * 35%) * (1/1000) = $350,000</blockquote>
In other words, property collectively worth $1 billion would generate $350,000 in property taxes if a 1 mill levy is passed. The 35% is the fraction of a property's value which is considered taxable.<br />
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Let's say that 10 years later, those same parcels would have risen in value to $1.25 billion, as determined by the County Auditor. HB920 would still restrict the total tax collected to $350,000. This is implemented by way of a "Reduction Factor" applied to the tax calculation.<br />
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In this case, the reduction factor would be 0.800000, applies as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tax = ($1.25 billion * 35%) * (1/1000) * 0.8 = $350,000</blockquote>
All this works in the other direction as well - when property values decline. Let's say that instead of going up 25%, property values went down 25%, to $750 million:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Tax = ($750 million * 35%) * (1/1000) * 1.333333 = $350,000</blockquote>
This same calculation is applied to every parcel in the school district. But over time, individual properties do not necessarily change in valuation as the same rate as the whole district. Some may have greater increases, and some may have decreases. All get the same reduction factor applied, and in the end the total amount of tax collected remains the same.<br />
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Here's the subtlety built into this: when one property owner is successful in getting their valuation reduced, the consequence is that everyone else has their property taxes increased in order to keep the total amount collected constant. As the value of one property is decreased, the overall Reduction Factor applied to everyone has to be increased to compensate.<br />
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So who represents the "everyone else" when a property owner files an appeal for a reduction in valuation?<br />
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In most cases, it's the school district. As with so much of our legal process, the various sides in a case present their arguments to an impartial "court," who listens to the arguments and renders an opinion. Whether the case is a capital murder or a property revaluation, the theory is that justice is best reached when opposing parties argue vigorously, and an impartial judge makes the final call.<br />
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That's what's going on here. Nothing evil or unfair - just the wheels of justice turning as designed.<br />
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But someone has convinced some of our lawmakers that this approach needs some tweaking. Language has been inserted into <a href="http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText130/130_HB_483_PS_N.html" target="_blank">House Bill 483</a>, the midterm budget bill, modifying section 5715.19 to prohibit parties such as school districts from opposing reappraisals unless the reappraisal was requested by the property owner.<br />
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In other words, if the County Auditor changes the valuation (remember all the arguments about the valuation of Nationwide Arena?), the school district has no right to argue in opposition.<br />
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Who then represents the interests of the property owners who will have their taxes raised as a consequence? No one.<br />
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Contact your state legislator if you think this isn't fair. For those of us in the Hilliard School District, this is:<br />
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<li>Representative <a href="http://www.ohiohouse.gov/stephanie-kunze" target="_blank">Stephanie Kunze</a> or <a href="http://www.ohiohouse.gov/cheryl-l-grossman" target="_blank">Cheryl Grossman</a></li>
<li>Senator <a href="http://www.ohiosenate.gov/hughes" target="_blank">Jim Hughes</a></li>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-59057413567281657862014-05-23T08:06:00.002-04:002014-05-23T08:11:23.638-04:00Their Education; Their Choice; Our MoneyThe final issue of the year of Bradley student newspaper, <i><a href="http://issuu.com/thebradleyreporter/docs/may_2014_-_the_reporter" target="_blank">The Reporter</a></i>, includes an editorial titled "Our Education, Our Choice."<br />
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First off, <i>The Reporter</i> is a well written and well edited student newspaper. I support and applaud the effort of our students to engage in political discourse. The School Board heard from students when changes were made to the Honors/AP class grade weighting, and it led directly to changes in the policy. We're hearing from them these days in regard to potential changes to the German programming.</div>
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The most dangerous threat to democracy is apathy. I've said it many times on this blog. Democracy is designed around discourse and debate. Not everyone will get their way all the time. To reach a majority, compromises must often be made.</div>
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So I'm glad that there is a student voice being heard about changes in course offerings. But they are also naive in regard to the economic reality.</div>
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Our school district offers an incredibly rich catalog of course at the high school level. Last year, students were scheduled in 209 uniquely number courses in our high schools. The <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/pdf/HighSchoolProgramofStudies1415.pdf" target="_blank">Program of Studies</a> for 2014-15 looks like a college course catalog.</div>
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When I went to high school some 40 years ago, our course options numbered about 30.</div>
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I'm not saying that offering 200+ courses each year is inappropriate. I'm just pointing out that it's not free. Every one of those courses must be taught by a licensed teacher, who gets a decent paycheck and great benefits. There has to be a place for the class to meet in a school building (except for the online courses). Those buildings are pretty nice in our district, and our community pays a boatload of taxes to repay the bonds (ie mortgages) on those buildings and to keep them maintained.</div>
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The range of what school districts spend, on a per-student basis, ranges widely in our state, from $21,776.student in Orange City Schools in Cuyahoga County to $6,000/student in Washington Court House. This is a consequence of both the differences in teacher compensation, and the number of teachers per student. And the number of teachers/student is heavily influenced by the variety of courses offered. You can be sure that the course catalog in Washington Court House pales compared to Orange. Or Hilliard.</div>
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I'm glad we have such a rich course catalog. But it's expensive. If we want to keep it so, then it has to be supported by regular tax levies to generate the revenue to pay the ever-escalating cost of faculty, staff and administrators.</div>
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The students don't bear these costs - the property owners of the community foot the bill. They're the ones who get to decide how much we spend to run our schools. They do so by electing their neighbors to serve on the School Board, and more directly by voting whether or not to increase their property tax burden when we put an operating levy on the ballot.</div>
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A desirable school district is good for everyone. It makes our community a great place to raise kids, and it makes it a place where one can have confidence that the homes we buy retain their value.</div>
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Many kids want more. Nothing should be cut - only new things should be added. Meanwhile the voters tell us that it already costs plenty to run our school district, and they're not eager to increase the rate of spending. In fact, they'd like to see it slow down.</div>
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Economic discussions are about choice, when you can have some, but not all of what you desire. This editorial in the student newspaper doesn't acknowledge that because the students don't understand or participate in the cost side of the debate. Sadly, few voters do either. A parent showed up at a recent Board meeting to angrily tell us that he would campaign aggressively against us in the next election should the German program be terminated. He's free to make that threat.</div>
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I wish I had asked him that if we do not make any changes to the German program, would he be equally energetic in his support of the next levy...</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-40380509533640131472014-04-29T09:08:00.001-04:002014-04-29T09:08:25.394-04:00Entscheidungen über Deutschunterricht<i>These are the comments I made at the April 28, 2014 meeting of the School Board.</i><br /><br />I am of Germanic heritage. <div>
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My children both took several years of German at Darby and received college credit for much of it.<br /><br />I was a chaperone for a group of Hilliard students who spent 3 weeks traveling across German-speaking Europe.<br /><br />I like German cars and German beer and have purchased a fair amount of both.<br /><br /><i>Ich habe Deutsch gelernt</i><br /> <br />Nonetheless, the resources of our community are not infinite, and we must constantly evaluate and adjust how we allocate resources to prepare our children for their future.<br /> <br />Depending on what list one consults, German is barely in the top ten list of first languages, although it is a few places ahead of French. Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese are all more widely spoken as a first language.<br /><br />I traveled to Germany often for business. For the past 70 years, nearly all children in the former West Germany have studied English and are competent in English, and since the German Reunification almost 25 years ago, so have the children of the eastern states. It is not difficult to do business in English in Germany, although admittedly disrespectful.<br /><br />While Europe and Germany will continue to be important trading partners for America, there is no question of the growing importance of Asia and the Middle East in our future. It may be time to begin reallocating our education resources relating to citizenship of the world toward those regions<br /> <br />Education is a people business – teachers instructing students. That means changes to programming and methods affect people. Tough decisions sometimes have to be made, and they will affect the lives of people we respect and care about. <br /><br />That means we need to make these decisions in an empathetic and compassionate, but unambiguous way. No one should be left guessing. <br /><br />If possible, we should allow there to be sufficient time for affected individuals to respond and adapt. If we can provide resources to facilitate the transition, that would be appropriate.<br /> <br />This too is a teaching moment for our students.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-50924378905996054152014-04-25T09:29:00.001-04:002014-04-25T09:29:26.405-04:00April 28, 2014 School Board Meeting<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8cDVZeVNybDNwX1k&usp=sharing">Here</a> are the supplemental materials for the April 28, 2014 School Board meeting, to be held at 7pm at Scioto Darby Elementary. Note that the Administration is posting this stuff on the <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/school-board/meetings/" target="_blank">district website</a> as well.<br />
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I've added a new link to the list on the right - <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8bEVqTWRENG9sanM&usp=sharing">Curriculum</a>. It contains the Course of Study documents which have been presented to the Board over the past year or so. This is our curriculum - not the Common Core. You'll of course see references to some elements of the Common Core, because it's a pretty good set of standards and it makes sense to use many of them. But we add, delete and change curriculum elements as we see fit - locally.<br />
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That's why I don't understand the criticism of the <a href="http://www.educatehilliard.com/2014/02/common-core.html" target="_blank">Common Core</a>, at least here in Ohio. Each local school district determines its own curriculum standards and instructional approaches to deliver that curriculum. If you want to have a conversation with me about the Common Core and Hilliard City Schools, please read these documents first.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-22149023904879477612014-04-23T23:27:00.000-04:002014-04-23T23:27:19.478-04:00Five Year Forecast<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8NklmS0pYSFlzODA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> is the Five Year Forecast that will be presented at the next regular meeting to the School Board by Treasurer Brian Wilson.<br />
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The changes are slight from the last forecast, approved October 2013, and shows a small increase in the projected FY18 end of year cash balance. It shows us in good shape to be able to wait until 2015 before asking the voters for another levy, my estimate around 5 to 5.5 mills. We could even wait another year, but that would demand a levy in excess of 8 mills to fund.<br />
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It might be worth reviewing the article I wrote in 2011 about the four big <a href="http://www.educatehilliard.com/2011/04/budget-knobs-which-ones-do-we-turn.html">Budget Knobs</a>, those being: 1) our cash reserve balance; 2) our spending rate growth, 3) when we want the next levy to be on the ballot, and 4) how large we should plan for that levy to be.<br />
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One of the unfortunate side effects of losing the old SaveHilliardSchools.org domain is any of the links in the blog which refer to that domain are now broken. I'll experiment with fixing that when I have a chance. Sorry for the aggravation.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-47128159349069438472014-04-06T10:26:00.000-04:002014-04-06T10:26:07.822-04:00Whoops....I must have missed the notices to renew the domain name I've held since 2006 - SaveHilliardSchools.org. It is now apparently in the possession of Majid Hussain, who lives in Birmingham, England. One of the many kinds of entrepreneurs on the Internet - those who somehow find out about expiring domains and snatch them up, hoping to collect a "ransom" to give them back.<br />
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Fortunately, that doesn't mean the hundreds of articles and years of work have been lost. I've had the domain "<a href="http://www.educatehilliard.com/" target="_blank">EducateHilliard.com</a>" registered but dormant for several years, so have put it back into service for this blog. I'll put the word out of the change, and hope that folks find their way back. Meanwhile perhaps the scads of spam comments will stop.<br />
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All the 400+ articles I've written are still here, and folks should still find them when doing a Google etc search if they're looking for this kind of information.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-3305657697286558542014-03-23T07:14:00.001-04:002014-03-23T07:14:41.034-04:00iPads for Everyone, Part 2One of the ways in which we plan to offset the cost of a 1:1 deployment of iPads to our students is by acquiring content in a different way than copyrighted textbooks.<br />
<br />
Right now, electronic versions of many traditional textbooks cost nearly the same as the paper version. That's because the textbook industry hasn't yet been transformed in the way the music industry has (see my <a href="http://www.savehilliardschools.org/2014/03/ipads-for-everyone.html" target="_blank">prior article</a> on this subject). Few people pay $20 for a music album any more - we got very tired of albums with maybe two decent songs and a bunch of mediocre stuff. Now we expect the option to buy music by the song, with only a few artists having the market power to demand that their songs be bundled in albums any more.<br />
<br />
Will we see something similar with textbooks?<br />
<br />
Ask most teachers, and they'll tell you that a significant fraction of the material in their current textbooks is never used. In some cases, there just isn't time to cover every chapter. In other cases, most but not all of the contents match our evolving curriculum. So the teachers use what fits, and have to find other sources for everything else.<br />
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An evolving practice is for teachers to assemble much of their material from sources other than textbooks. It may be modules available from online sources, or material written by inhouse staff. And of course teachers have been writing some of their own lesson material for years.<br />
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With iPads in the hands of every student, we have a lot more flexibility as to how to assemble course material. What doesn't make sense is for every school district in America to write their own materials for every subject.<br />
<br />
What I think will develop is a network of content developers, some embedded within school districts but mostly independent, each specializing on various subjects, or courses, or even particular units within courses. For example, maybe Hilliard schools becomes known as an excellent producer of American History content, and we start selling that to school districts across the country. Maybe Worthington becomes the Trigonometry experts. Maybe Bexley specializes in 17th Century French Literature. A school district in Boston becomes the go-to source for Physics curriculum.<br />
<br />
If folks like Prentice Hall, one of the major textbook publishers, are smart, they'll start to nurture and develop these independent content producers. And they'll find a way to package and sell content in a manner like iTunes, where a school district can download a math unit for a couple bucks per student.<br />
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The competition will drive content producers to figure out more and more powerful ways to present concepts, using the full audiovisual capabilities of devices like the iPad. We already see some of this with the <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/#library-section" target="_blank">Khan Academy</a> material for teaching math and science.<br />
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I think we'll also see a kind of publishing standardization develop such that a course is say American History can be assembled from modules acquired from many sources without subjecting students and teachers to jarring and distracting differences between authors. That in turn will drive the device manufacturers to build more and more capability into their devices. And drive down the price.<br />
<br />
In the process of getting stuff organized for the upcoming move of our household (still within the school district), I came across a document from my 9th grade year explaining to our parents why our school was arranging a three day trip to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Here's an excerpt:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Today, we desperately need more effective science instruction, for international competition is ever increasing. Our scientific and technical knowledge is increasing and changing at at such an accelerating rate, that to cram more facts into the heads of our children is certainly not the answer. Professional scientists tell us that 1/3 of what we are teaching today will be obsolete five years hence, and what replaces this knowledge has not yet been discovered.</i></blockquote>
I was in the 9th grade in 1968, forty-six years ago. Yet it's remarkable how much this educator's warning sounds like what we hear today. In those days, our personal calculating device was a slide rule, and we produced term papers on manual typewriters (footnotes were a pain!!). We had to find our information by actually going to a building called a library, looking through the card catalog (title, author, subject), checking out several promising books, searching those books for relevant information, and making dozens of note cards. "White-Out" was our best friend.<br />
<br />
One of the casualties of our move is a set of very fine encyclopedias and a dictionary that my wife and I bought soon after we were married. Today, it's not worth making shelf space for these expensive books in our new, smaller home. Truthfully, we haven't cracked open one of these volumes for decades.<br />
<br />
What does the future look like for today's 6th graders, the first of our students to be issued iPads? We haven't a clue. We know that they'll be expected to locate and synthesize vast amounts of information, and they won't need to be trained on the Dewey Decimal system to find it. They won't be competing with peers who are armed with facts, even though we marvel at Aaron Craft's ability to recite Pi to 60 places.<br />
<br />
I remember a physics professor once saying that in our working lives, we wouldn't be expected to pull the differential equations of thermodynamics from our heads, but we'll need to have internalized that there has been a method developed for addressing such problems, so that when we encounter one we'll know it can be solved, and what resources to use to proceed.<br />
<br />
That's the kind of knowledge we need to impart to our kids, whether we're talking about science and math, or philosophy and history. They need to be able to call on the great thinkers who came before them and add their own insight (a function of knowledge) and creativity to help solve problems that we today don't know exist. And as much as many like to poo-poo the value of a liberal arts education, teaching kids how to think and reason is just as important as teaching them a trade.<br />
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These iPads are both a instructional learning devices, and a portal for access to the incomprehensible amount of information out there. Will they hold up as state-of-the-art for long? No, of course not. The slide rule I mastered in high school was out of date and relegated to a drawer in my first couple of years of college. No one in my workplace used a slide rule - everyone had pocket calculators, expensive as they were.<br />
<br />
But that doesn't mean my high school physics teacher shouldn't have taught us how to use a slide rule. In fact, I was at an advantage when I started engineering school at Ohio State - many of my classmates had never used one before.<br />
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Likewise, I have no doubt that the students of Hilliard City Schools will be advantaged by the incorporation of these devices into our methods for delivering instruction. Isn't that why most of us moved to Hilliard and continue to financially support our schools - so our kids will have a great start in life?Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-26797530862988977052014-03-17T00:16:00.000-04:002014-03-17T18:52:48.201-04:00iPads for EveryoneAt the School Board meeting held March 10, 2013, Superintendent Marschhausen introduced to the public a plan to begin equipping our students with tablet computers. Much of what he said was captured in a story in <i><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8MHp2Sndsb1VWbjA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">This Week Hilliard</a></i>.<br />
<br />
One of the most important statements he made was that this program would not result in any new taxes. That detail was noted in the <i>This Week </i>story, as well as in the story in <i><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8UHo0bkJjbHZiZ0U/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The Columbus Dispatch</a>.</i> In his March 11 <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/message-to-parents-from-superintendent-john-marschhausen-ph-d/" target="_blank">blog post</a>, Dr. Marschhausen goes on to say, "<i>We will pay for this initiative mostly through a reallocation of district and parent resources with only a small amount of additional dollars being spent on the entire program."</i><br />
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That's a big deal to me.<br />
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Readers of this blog know that I've written at length about the economics of our school district, and that our costs are driven primarily and appropriately by the compensation and benefits of our team of teachers, support staff and administrators. Indeed, compensation and benefits represents 86% of our operating budget. But did you know that after compensation and benefits, one of our greatest costs is textbooks and educational materials?<br />
<br />
Textbooks are crazy expensive, especially for the upper grade levels. It's not unusual for textbooks to go for over $100 each, and for them to last only seven years. That replacement cycle is due in part to wear on the books, but also because of changes to curriculum and content. It's the reason virtually every school district in America is looking for an alternative to the printed-on-paper textbook.<br />
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The textbook industry is about to go through the same kind of radical evolutionary process as the music industry already has. I read an excellent story about the music industry a few years ago in which the author made the claim - accurately I believe - that the record companies had once maintained power in that ecosystem because they had built the scale necessary to manufacture, distribute and retail plastic discs: first vinyl records, then CDs. Yes, the record labels did manage to lock up artists and exert creative influence, but the artists signed with the labels because that was the only way to get millions of records pressed and distributed. And that's how everyone made money (except the Grateful Dead, the ultimate touring band).<br />
<br />
Then came the internet. It became possible for artists to record their music and distribute directly to consumers. Some did exactly that and made a few bucks. Then outfits like Napster showed up and nearly succeeded in making the going price for music essentially zero through their implicit support of music piracy (aka copyright infringement). The music industry had a period of chaos when it looked like no one was going to be able to make money.<br />
<br />
Then along came Apple Computer, who changed everything when they released the iPod and iTunes. Concurrently, Napster was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for copyright infringement and won (which I think was the correct outcome), and music piracy came pretty much to an end. A reasonable price point for music was found, and consumers went back to spending $billions, but the wealth was now being distributed differently than before. No one would have predicted 20 years ago that a computer company would be one of the biggest players in the music industry and that the traditional record labels would become almost invisible. But that's what happened.<br />
<br />
No longer did the record labels rule the roost, but they managed to survive by finding a viable niche in the new music ecosystem: they could still help find, produce and promote emerging artists. I suspect that the music industry is bigger than it ever was, and more artists are making a decent buck.<br />
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Similarly, one could argue that the book publishing industry has maintained its power because of its investment in and control of the printing and distribution of bound collections of ink on paper. When Amazon came along, it first began to disrupt the distribution end of books on paper, and life became pretty tough for the brick-and-mortar retail bookstores. The next assault on the book publishing industry came when Amazon released the Kindle, and did to book publishing what the iPod did to music publishing.<br />
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Except in the case of K-12 school textbooks.<br />
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While it seems like an obvious move to start buying all textbooks in Kindle format, it's not that easy. A basic Kindle may not cost any more than many textbooks (Kindles are $69 today), it seems like it would be shortsighted to get a basic e-reader when the potential is so much greater with a tablet device like the iPad or the Android devices.<br />
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As has been done before with big-deal decisions like this, a task force of community members, teachers and administrators was formed to make recommendations on this matter. With their input, the Administration decided that we'd start with the Apple iPad mini, to be first issued to next year's 6th graders. The 6th grade teachers will get their iPads this spring, along with professional development to help them integrate these devices into their instructional routine. Then during the summer they'll have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the devices and applications they'll use in the classroom.<br />
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Not everyone will agree with this decision. The choice of computing platforms has long been like a religious discussion, especially along the lines of PC vs Mac. Recently the Android operating system has become a viable third alternative, and Amazon is still in there as a player with the new models of the Kindle. I've long been a PC bigot, scorning the Mac world in the same way Fox News regards MSNBC (and vice versa).<br />
<br />
Then one of my kids gave me her first generation iPod Touch as a hand-me-down when she got her first iPhone (with her own money, yeah!). I used it mostly as a PDA, storing my calendar and contacts, and giving me wireless email access (I've been a PDA user since the first Palm Pilots were introduced in 1997). But I still carried a cheap cell phone - because I'm cheap.<br />
<br />
When we shifted to Consumer Cellular, I used the radical reduction in our cell phone bill to fund the cost of an iPhone 5C. Love it. Meanwhile my wife started using an iPad mini, and she rarely gets on our PC anymore. The camel had gotten its nose under the Lambert tent.<br />
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After getting zapped by one more virus, or registry corruption, or memory leak, or whatever it is that's making my office PC run like a slug, I finally made the leap to a Mac Mini for my primary office use. I still use Microsoft Office for my productivity software, but otherwise I've fully converted to the Dark Side. Sorry Bill.<br />
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The Apple folks have very aggressively attacked the K-12 education segment, and have developed sophisticated products and efficient management platforms. We've long had a few iMacs in elementary classrooms for shared use, and recently starting making shared carts of Macbooks available for checkout when a teacher wants to teach a module which makes use of online resources. For the number of buildings and computers we have in our school district, it takes a remarkably small number of administrators to keep everything update and functioning. That's partly due to the choice of a Mac environment, and partly because of the wise choices made by our Technology Department, long led by Gary Orr (who retired a couple of years ago), and now by Rich Boettner.<br />
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So continuing our evolution to the so-called 1:1 device environment (one device permanently assigned to each student) with Apple technology makes sense to me. Starting with the 6th grade students, using the iPad mini as their device, makes sense as well.<br />
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But my support is equally due to the commitment our Administration made to pull this off with no increase to our budget. It's easy to spend a ton of money on all kinds of stuff in a school district, and we already spend plenty. Without a doubt, the time would come when it would be a no-brainer to shift to a 1:1 device environment. We're on the leading edge of that curve, and will have to work hard and be smart to make our fiscal commitments come true.<br />
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I'm asking Dr. Marschhausen to develop a way to assure the School Board and the voters that the promise of "no new taxes" is honored. At a minimum, it should show up as a permanent downward inflection in our textbook spending. At a macro level, the spending side of our Five Year Forecast needs to remain on substantially the same trajectory as was last approved in <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8LVh3SmszWmhaV28/edit" target="_blank">October 2013</a>.<br />
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Meanwhile, I'm proud to be associated with a school district who is among the first to take this step. Many are watching us.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-33674788957640115152014-02-15T07:49:00.002-05:002014-02-15T07:49:47.955-05:00Common Core<i>This article was stimulated by one by Michael Petrilli of the Fordham Institute, titled "<a href="http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/lies-damned-lies-and-the-common-core" target="_blank">Lies, Damned Lies, and the Common Core.</a>"</i><br />
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I was a little surprised that during time leading up to the November 2013 election, no one asked the candidates for Hilliard Board of Education what any of us thought about the Common Core. It didn't come up during the "Meet the Candidates" night conducted by the League of Women Voters. The reporters from <i>This Week Hilliard</i> didn't ask about it, nor did the online questionnaire published by <i>The Columbus Dispatch</i>.<br />
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And I was glad.<br />
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Not a lot of people understand the Common Core: what it is, how it is designed to be used, or what it contains. That means most of the questions someone like me gets about Common Core originate from ignorance and prejudice, often fueled by what they hear from folks like Glenn Beck and Fox News.<br />
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The radio in my car has three stations on "speed dial" - WOSU-FM (89.7), WTVN-AM (610), and WODC-FM (93.3). If I'm out during the morning or afternoon drive time, I'm usually listening to 610 because I enjoy the local programming, and in particular have long been a fan of John Corby and Joe Bradley, who do the afternoon drive-time show.<br />
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I also enjoy lots of the WOSU programming: BBC World Service, All Sides with Ann Fisher, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and of course, Car Talk. And when I just need to clear my mind, or want to revel in a beautiful day - I crank up the oldies on 93.3. That's my chicken soup.<br />
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Every few days, I'll decide to listen to what Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh have to say. It doesn't usually last long.<br />
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I remember when I first became aware of Glenn Beck. It was right after 9/11. Before then, 610 had a locally-produced morning show with Bob Conner, a long-respected radio personality here in Central Ohio. Then on 9/12 or one of the days immediately following, Clear Channel said something like "we're bringing Glenn Beck to all our stations nationwide during this time of crisis." I don't know that BC ever returned to the air on a regular basis, and it's been Glenn Beck every weekday morning since then.<br />
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Beck has been able to amass a huge audience in the years following of course. It's more than just an audience though. He now has disciples - folks who absorb what he has to say as truth, and are inspired to act on his agenda, which I'm not quite clear about. I'm not sure many of his followers are clear about it either.<br />
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On some points, I'm right with him: less government, free markets, love for God and our fellow man. Sounds pretty conservative, and one would assume this makes me a staunch Republican, maybe even Tea Party.<br />
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Nope.<br />
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Nor am I a "Big D" Democrat, even though I think an appropriate amount of government regulation is a good thing. If we're going to function as a society, we need some ground rules that we'll all abide by, and in particular our markets needs some boundaries that dampen out wild swings and prevent unhealthy monopolies from developing. Some parts of the Democratic Platform I agree wholeheartedly with - especially those dealing with social justice. Other things are way outside my morals and sensibilities, and I can't accept being labeled a Democrat if those values get attributed to me as well.<br />
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So I'm an independent, or as Ohio law defines me, "Unaffiliated." As I put on my Facebook profile, my political views are - well, you have to ask me about a specific topic.<br />
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Back to Common Core.<br />
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Glenn Beck seems to have taken the position that the Common Core is part of a left-wing conspiracy to indoctrinate our children with liberal values, much to the detriment of our republic. In fact, I think that's pretty much the words he uses. He believes its purpose is part of the long-view strategy of the Democrats and others to win the liberal struggle by bringing up a generation of kids who share their views.<br />
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That view is promulgated by the hard-core right, and the elimination of Common Core has become a key plank in the platform of many Republican and Tea Party candidates.<br />
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Here's my take.<br />
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If you want to have a discussion with me about the evils of the Common Core, the first thing I'm going to ask you is whether you've actually read significant elements of the Common Core standards, and compared it to the curriculum standards currently in place in your school district. If so, what differences do you see that concern you? I'd happily engage in such a conversation, and would likely learn something in the process.<br />
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Or are you just reacting emotionally to the showmanship of folks like Glenn Beck? I think Beck is a marketing genius. He's identified a genre of issues that matter to many Americans, and has been able to stir up a fair amount of fear and emotion around those issues, drawing people to listen to him - which is how he gets paid.<br />
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Yet, the greatest threat to our nation isn't all this political debate and stupid squabbling. Nor is it al-Qaeda and others who threaten us with physical harm.<br />
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It's the ignorance and apathy of the voter. I thank you for electing me to another term on your school board, but by the way, only 13% of the registered voters showed up in November. Only 7% of the 56,488 registered voters in our school district voted for me (just 8% for Andy and Lisa). So do my views align with the majority of the people in our community? Who knows?<br />
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What fraction of the voters do you think have put any effort into the daunting task of understanding the Common Core? Or the Affordable Care Act, potentially one of the most impactful pieces of legislation written in the past fifty years? Heck, most of Congress doesn't understand the ACA. I expect that not a single member of Congress has read the whole thing. Nor has the President.<br />
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Neither have I. I just want to know what it means to me: Can I get cheaper coverage? (No) Is this program going to cost me a bundle in taxes so others get benefit? (Probably). Is the country better or worse off because of it? Note that this is my third question. Me first, country second. Such is the way things are going in America.<br />
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We can get specific information to answer the first question, and I did so. I finally made a successful pass through Healthcare.gov and got quotes for coverage. I compared it to my current arrangement, and found that I'm better off where I am. Nice data-driven, objective decision.<br />
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The other two questions are trickier. Even if I read and fully understand the thousand or more pages of the Act, I still wouldn't necessarily be able to predict all the economic and political consequences, mainly because I don't understand the motivations of all the lobbyists who actually write much of the legislation these days. So like every other American, I'll form my opinions based on what I read in the press and hear on the radio and TV.<br />
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I'll listen to Glenn Beck on occasion and try to pick what makes sense out of the snake oil pitch. I'll listen to NPR as well, and even a little John Stewart.<br />
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By the way, did you hear that the Administration is thinking about using <i>The Onion</i> as a channel for reaching young folks about the ACA? Isn't that interesting - that the most trusted news sources for the Millennials are those who overtly parody the news?<br />
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I'll turn to my Feedly feed, and read some mainstream news sources as well as blog articles which seem to be applicable, like the one by Petrilli which I reference at the beginning of this story. I'll attempt to synthesize all that and form an opinion.<br />
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Or maybe I'll just watch the Winter Olympics. When will it be warm enough to get the Harley out? It already is in Sochi...Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-90764419494039360022014-02-08T10:41:00.004-05:002014-02-08T10:42:47.132-05:00February 10, 2014 Meeting of the School BoardPlease note that this meeting is being held at <b>6pm</b> at the McVey Innovative Learning Center Annex. The agenda is comprised of routine items, and I expect that the meeting will be brief. Note that Board meeting materials are now available on the <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/school-board/meetings/" target="_blank">district website</a>.<br />
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I would like to bring to your attention that the <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/pdf/HilliardPAFR2013.pdf" target="_blank">Popular Annual Financial Report</a> (PAFR) is now online and available for your reading pleasure. I've complemented Treasurer Brian Wilson and his team for producing a document which I think does a great job of explaining the major components of our economic structure. I encourage you to take a look at it, and invite your neighbors to do so as well. There are hardcopies available from Mr. Wilson's office.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-70535355247240489892014-01-25T10:24:00.000-05:002014-01-25T10:24:52.814-05:00Supplemental Materials for the January 27, 2014 School Board Meeting<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8cWFCZDY0amVMWkE&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> are the supplemental materials for the January 27, 2014 meeting of the School Board, to be held at 7pm at Memorial Middle School.<br />
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I'm happy to report that the supplemental materials for School Board meetings are soon going to be posted on the <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/school-board/meetings/" target="_blank">District website</a>. Thank you Dr. Marschhausen for making this happen. Perhaps at some point, documents from prior meetings will be posted online as well, but until then the materials I've posted - going back to June 2012 - will remain available <a href="https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8ZmNfbXYzWlNkT28/edit" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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As I noted previously, we're in the process of going through the three readings of new and changed <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8RjB2LUxVOVplb3c/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">policies</a>, the documents which govern the operations of our school district. This meeting will be the second reading, and if all goes according to schedule, we'll be voting to put these policies into effect at the next meeting.<br />
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Please take the time to read the new proposed language of Policy CBA, the "Qualifications and Duties of the Superintendent." This has been significantly overhauled with input of the School Board, Dr. Marschhausen, and Dr. Bill Reimer of the <a href="http://www.escofcentralohio.org/Pages/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Education Services Center (ESC) of Central Ohio</a>. This policy is much more "alive" than the prior policy, and I'm excited to observe Dr. Marschhausen already spreading its philosophy through the District.<br />
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Please also give some attention to the proposed IGBEA-R, which describes how our district will deal with the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. I understand the motivation behind the Guarantee, but I think it places unnecessary burdens on school districts which have demonstrated success without it. After all, we're not in the business of producing 3rd-grade graduates, it's 12th grade graduate which is our goal. If a kid catches up in the 5th grade, why isn't that a good and acceptable thing?<br />
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I wish our public education system could be redesigned to adapt to the developmental growth rate of each kid, and not try to shove them through 13 years of school like it is an assembly line in which each age cohort is homogeneous in their ability. We certainly do that at the college level - each individual is free to go at the pace in which they can succeed (and afford).<br />
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Meanwhile, we're going to have some drama because of this law and the policies it demands. There are going to be kids who have to repeat 3rd grade who might be better served with other solutions. The parent meetings will be challenging, and as Dr. Marschhausen says, everyone will be crying.<br />
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Item E1f is the approval of supplemental salaries for coaches and leaders of the Spring activities for Davidson/Weaver and Bradley/Memorial. The Darby/Heritage numbers will be brought for approval at the next meeting.<br />
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I hope you're a regular reader of Dr. Marschhausen's blog, "<a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/category/get-connected/" target="_blank">Get Connected</a>." His <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/many-thanks-it-takes-a-village/" target="_blank">most recent story</a> talks about how the decision is made to close the district on snow days. He also closes with a word of caution to the students to be careful what they post on social media sites. Increasingly often, these posts are examined by important folks, like college admissions officers and potential employers. And they don't necessarily disappear from the search engines just because a post, or even a whole account, is deleted...Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-80206658617862043872014-01-16T11:32:00.001-05:002014-01-16T11:32:20.966-05:00Whoops! Spreadsheet Error: STRS Still in TroubleI've been writing for a few years about the ticking time bomb which is Ohio's State Teachers Retirement System. I first became aware of this issue when I came across a blog written by <a href="http://kathiebracy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Kathie Bracy</a>, a retired Columbus Public teacher.<br />
<br />
This week, STRS was again in the news when <i><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8N2lOZEFpMVFJNGs/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">The Columbus Dispatch</a></i> reported that a <a href="http://www.segalco.com/" target="_blank">consulting firm</a> the STRS management uses had a "programming error" in their actuarial evaluation of the investment fund. It turns out that the problem is bigger than was thought.<br />
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Pension funds are simple in concept. Employees and employers pay into a fund during the employee's working career. That money is invested. When the employee retires, the combination of employee and employer contributions, plus the earnings on investments, are used to pay out retirement benefits to the employee.<br />
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Pensions have been around for a while, but became popular during the last half of the 20th century as employers competed for workers in the post-WWII boom economy. The best thing about this component of compensation - from the perspective of the employers - is that it was a promise to pay something in the distant future, and not an immediate hit to profits.<br />
<br />
Then someone got the bright idea to start increasing the pension benefits so that a retiring worker would receive not just the money he had contributed, plus that contributed by the employer on his behalf, plus the earnings on those contributions accumulated over the years - but also a share of that which was being contributed by active workers, and by the employer on <b>those </b>workers' behalf, plus the earnings generated by those contributions.<br />
<br />
Some would call that a classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme" target="_blank">Ponzi scheme</a> - a kind of con game where the first investors are paid off using money collected from newer investors, who are paid off with money from still newer investors. Ponzi schemes collapse when new investors become hard to find, and there's no money to pay off the earlier investors. This is what happened with the now infamous Bernie Madoff scandal, but there have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes" target="_blank">many such swindles</a> over the years.<br />
<br />
STRS is an agency created by the <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3307" target="_blank">Ohio law</a>, and governed by a <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3307.05" target="_blank">Board</a> which includes officials appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate, plus five actively working teachers, and two retired teachers. They don't share exactly the same goals.<br />
<br />
Working teachers would like to contribute less, have the employer (ie taxpayers of school districts) contribute more, be able to retire earlier, and have confidence that their eventual payout will be both generous and secure.<br />
<br />
Retired teachers want to be sure that they get all that they were promised, and that their benefits won't be reduced, or made less secure, by increasing demands from working teachers, or because of risky investment decisions by the retirement fund managers (unless they pay off).<br />
<br />
And the politicians? They want to get re-elected of course. So they listen to the lobbyists who provide the most in the way of campaign contributions and votes.<br />
<br />
What about the voters - the taxpayers - the folks who foot most of the bill for this retirement system? In politics, the ignorant, the apathetic, and the quiet get ignored. Sadly, this seems to be the majority - the so-called "Silent Majority." <br />
<br />
STRS needs more fixing. This actuarial mistake reveals that the current STRS benefits scheme is still designed to pay out more money than can be supported by the current size of the fund, its projected investment earnings (which are still overly aggressive in my opinion), and expected future contributions. Some or all of those parameters need adjustment.<br />
<br />
The only way to fix it is to increase contributions and/or reduce benefits. You could of course get even more aggressive in the investment strategy. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coingate_scandal" target="_blank">Rare coins</a> anyone?<br />
<br />
Two classes of folks have an interest in the benefits side of the equation: teachers already retired, and teachers who are yet to retire. The latter group has the greater political clout, primarily because of the power of the Ohio Education Association - one of the largest unions in the country. The working teachers also have more seats on the STRS governing board than do the retired teachers. So for now, future retirement benefits are prone to be protected at the expense of the benefits to current retirees. This is what Kathie Bracy and her cohorts have been fighting about.<br />
<br />
On the contribution side, the two parties are the working teachers and the employers - the taxpayers. For a number of years, the teachers have contributed 10% of their salary, and the taxpayers 14%. In the last round of adjustments, the teacher share is gradually being raised to 14% as well.<br />
<br />
So what's next?<br />
<br />
STRS invests heavily in the stock market. They probably had pretty impressive returns in the past year or so (the 2013 report is not yet out). They've also had some pretty spectacular losses, like in 2007 when they lost nearly half their money - on the order of $30 <b>billion</b>. They're not expecting those kinds of losses again, but they are making assumptions about investment returns which many - including me - believe are overly aggressive. That's means they think they're better off than they really are.<br />
<br />
I don't know what comes next, but I remain steadfast in my belief that the taxpayers shouldn't be expected to bail STRS out. Our 14% share seems like it should be enough to fund reasonable benefits, given reasonable contributions from the working teachers. Remember that the while the percentage is constant, the underlying compensation isn't. If compensation goes up 5% per year, then the taxpayer contribution will go up at 5% per year as well.<br />
<br />
If the STRS members want to gamble with that money in hope of getting even bigger retirement benefits, that's okay by me. But if the bet doesn't pan out, it's the STRS members who have to take the haircut.<br />
<br />
Not the taxpayers.<br />
<br />Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-41089890736943238362014-01-10T16:32:00.002-05:002014-01-10T16:34:58.338-05:00Supplemental Materials for the January 13, 2014 School Board Meeting<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8M2ZqMmI1RUNNbTA&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> are the supplemental materials provided in preparation for the regular meeting of the School Board, to be held Monday January 13, 2014 at 7pm at Ridgewood Elementary School. Note that this meeting will be preceded at 6:45pm by our annual <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8T3NyU21uOGdlUjA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">organization meeting</a>, during which officers will be elected, committee assignments made, and various annual resolution passed. Andy, Lisa and I will be sworn in for the new term.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Item C3 is the acceptance of the Treasurer's <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8bG9kYUQ4T0hMQUU/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Monthly Report</a> for November.</div>
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<div>
Item F1 is a resolution to authorize the President and Treasurer to sign a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8d3c3SlpVckFvYms/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">contract</a> for the sale of 100 acres of the parcel on Cosgray. The buyer is Help All Kid's Play, Inc. (HAKP), and the price is $3.5 million, or $35,000/acre. These are the folks who want to build soccer fields there, and are who we hoped to sell the property to in the first place. Unfortunately, the first time around, they wanted the school district to provide the financing, and we could not accept their offer on that basis. This is a simple cash offer.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We've decided to retain title to 24 acres of this parcel just in case it makes sense to build a school there at some point in the future. In the meantime, it will be leased to HAKP for use as part of their athletic facility. This is an annual lease with automatic renewal unless either party gives 90 days notice.</div>
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The agreement includes a rider which states: <i>"No portion of the Property shall be sold, leased, licensed, authorized or otherwise used for residential or multi-family housing or any related uses (the “Use Restriction”). The Use Restriction shall run with the land. No residential or multi-family housing building or structure shall be erected or constructed on the Property."</i> Besides the obvious desire to limit new residential development, this also keeps the buyer from just "flipping" the property to a developer at a tidy profit. We accepted a price lower than the $40,000/acre that Rockford Homes thought it was worth only because HAKP agreed to this condition.</div>
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A new set of <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8eHNpUklRdnFxdDA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Policy updates</a> are getting their first reading. I've not reviewed them yet, but will be doing so before the next Board meeting. I encourage you to read these as well, and let one of us know if you have any feedback.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-79778628158512566362013-12-26T10:15:00.000-05:002013-12-26T10:15:36.144-05:00SynthesisIn the course of seven years, I've published 438 articles to this blog. That's a little more than one per week, which has been my goal, believing that I should publish often enough to keep folks interested, but not so much to become just white noise.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure there's that much more for me to say - at least not on the fundamental stuff:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The cost of running our school district is, and will always be, a function of the number of folks we employ and how much we pay them. I believe that the time has come when we must have an earnest conversation about whether we can continue to afford the expansive programming we offer, especially at the high school level, in both the academic and extracurricular dimensions. <br /><br />The regular appearance on the ballot of the property tax levies necessary to fund the rising cost of this level of programming will meet increasing resistance from voters, and our high tax rate will jeopardize our property values. But cutting our programming to the bone and becoming a less-desirable school district will hurt our property values as well. We'll have to make our choices very carefully, and with a lot of dialog.<br /><br />And it can't be done successfully with the abysmal community engagement we saw in the November election, with only 13% turnout. Of the 56,488 registered voters in the Hilliard City School District, only 7,348 bothered to show up. That's fewer than half the number of students we have enrolled in the district - for an election in which three of the five School Board members would be determined. There's probably more folks at one of our intra-district football games.<br /><br />Granted, we, the leaders of our school district, should do a better job of creating opportunities for you to be engaged in these necessary conversations. I hope we take on that challenge in the coming year.<br /></li>
<li>Our revenue will always be a mixture of local property taxes and funding from the State of Ohio. As long as our state and national politics remain so polarized, the state funding component will continue to be volatile. That means we need to keep a reasonable cash reserve on hand to give us time to make good decisions when state funding drops, rather than having to react to an immediate fiscal crisis.<br /><br />And until our local city leaders - Hilliard, Columbus and Dublin - decide that it's more important to protect the current residents of our community than it is to provide profit opportunities to residential real estate developers, we need to understand that when a new housing development goes up, the rest of us are likely going to end up subsidizing the cost of educating the kids who will come with it.<br /><br />By the way, I say that with the understanding that it may well be thought to be hypocritical for the School Board to enter into an agreement to sell 100+ acres to a home developer. This is a unique and unfortunate situation, and <a href="http://www.savehilliardschools.org/2013/04/addition-to-agenda-for-april-22-2013.html" target="_blank">I've explained</a> how I came to support this decision. Since the deal fell through because of the unexpected demands put on the developer by the City of Hilliard, we have one more chance to explore options. Who knows?<br /><br />Regardless, the general economic health of our public institutions - both the School District and municipalities - depends on bringing in businesses at a rate comparable to residential development. Or rather, the rate of residential development should be managed so as not to exceed the rate of new commercial development. It can be done as simply as refusing new annexation requests for residential development until a good more commercial development takes place.<br /><br />An expanding school district doesn't count as commercial development, even though Hilliard City Schools is the largest employer in the City of Hilliard. The income taxes paid by the teachers and staff of the School District may help fund the City of Hilliard, but that money starts out as property taxes paid by the residents and businesses already here in our community. What we need are more employers who get their revenue from outside the school district, like BMW Financial and Verizon.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I'm sure that every once in a while, some issue will come up which merits some explanation, analysis or comment, but otherwise I'll not be trying to keep to a one-article-per-week pace going forward. I also hope that soon all the supplemental materials for our School Board meetings will be provided directly on the district website, along with the meeting agenda.</div>
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Meanwhile, if you have a question or issue you want me to address, please send an <a href="mailto:savehilliardschools@msn.com" target="_blank">email</a>, and I'll be happy to do so.<br />
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-53012058587573776782013-12-16T23:14:00.000-05:002013-12-16T23:14:17.643-05:00Notice of Special School Board Meeting<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>HILLIARD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT</b></div>
<b></b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><b>BOARD OF EDUCATION</b></b></div>
<b>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>(RC 3313.16)</b></div>
</b><br />
Notice is hereby given; there will be a SPECIAL meeting of the Board of Education of the Hilliard City School District on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2013 at 6:00 P.M. located at the McVey Innovative Learning Center Annex, 5323 Cemetery Road, Hilliard, Ohio. The meeting will be held in regular session to discuss regular business as deemed necessary by the Board of Education and any other business that may be lawfully considered.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
December 16, 2013<br />
<br />
Signed:<br />
<br />
Brian W. Wilson, Treasurer/CFO<br />
Hilliard City School District<br />
Board of Education
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<hr />
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I believe the only item on the agenda will be to approve a new 3 year agreement with the employees represented by the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE). I'll publish the final version when available. The base compensation increases are the same as for the Hilliard Education Association (2% each year of the contract), with the same changes to the health insurance plan design.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-27569479045781085612013-12-06T11:04:00.000-05:002013-12-10T08:33:11.401-05:00Supplemental Materials for the December 9, 2013 School Board Meeting<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8QmczTDV6OU56N2M&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> are the supplemental materials provided in preparation for the regular meeting of the School Board, to be held Monday December 9, 2013 at 7pm at Weaver Middle School. This will be the last regularly scheduled Board meeting for 2013.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Item B2 is a presentation of the results from a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8ZkFfM0JLUm5zcEE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">community survey</a> taken in August. A couple of observations:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li> A large majority of folks say the community and the school district is "going in the right direction."</li>
<li>More folks said "managing the budget/cutting costs" should be the top priority than any other choice.</li>
<li>86% said the quality of education provided by the district is Good or Very Good.</li>
<li>30% approve or strongly approve of the job being done by the School Board vs 9% who disapprove. But 60% said they don't know or don't care. This apathy is what's going to kill America.</li>
<li>The community is evenly split on this dimension: a) should we have the very best schools we can even if it means raising taxes; versus, b) we need to control costs, even if it means we're <b><span style="color: blue;">not </span></b>being the best. <span style="color: blue;">(<i>sorry, missed the "not" in the originally published version)</i></span></li>
<li>Over half said we should put more emphasis on reducing operating costs</li>
<li>Over half said we should put more emphasis on preparing students for college and higher education</li>
<li>About half said we should put more emphasis on advanced coursework</li>
<li>About half said we have enough emphasis on fine arts (why wasn't there a question about athletics?)</li>
<li>Less than half said we should increase the access to technology. About the same fraction said we have enough access to technology now.</li>
<li>Less than half said we should more more emphasis on building security. More folks said we are good where we are.</li>
<li>Best sources of information to evaluate the quality of the district? More said the teachers than any other response. Next was students.</li>
<li>Best source of general information about the schools? #1 is the newspapers, followed by the district "E-News."</li>
<li>Here's a critical demographic: 62% of the respondents don't have kids in our schools.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div>
Item F1 is mandated by the <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3313.36" target="_blank">Ohio Revised Code</a> and our own <a href="http://www.hilliardschools.org/board/policy/KH_PublicGiftsToTheDistrict.pdf" target="_blank">Policy KH</a> to allow the school district to accept various <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8aWE1b3YwQ3FjVFU/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">items which were donated</a> this year. We thank the efforts and generosity of the contributors.</div>
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<div>
Item F2 is an amendment to our <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8LVNKd0NVVUoxalE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">appropriations</a>. This is the legal mechanism required to take possession of additional revenue made available to us.</div>
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Item F3 is the 2014-2015 <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8Yl9Wd3U1Vkd0Q28/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">school calendar</a>.</div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-88289338066365825472013-11-29T15:28:00.000-05:002013-11-29T15:28:44.301-05:00Too Many Administrators?It takes a lot of money to run a school district like ours - $202 million for the current school year, as detailed in the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8X180Wi1aQWVPSFE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Annual Budget</a>*. That's not a magic number. Rather it's the result of a collection of decisions made over the years, some big and some small. The big ones are these:<br />
<ul>
<li>What we're going to offer our students in terms of programming and services</li>
<li>How we're going to provide those programs and services, which has both staffing and facilities considerations</li>
<li>How much we're going to invest in the purchase, construction and maintenance of our facilities and capital equipment</li>
<li>How well we're going to compensate the teachers, staff, and administrators</li>
</ul>
<div>
Many times on this blog I have stated that 86% of our budget is spent on compensation and benefits. To clarify, we spend 86% of our <b>General Fund</b> budget on compensation and benefits. This is the part of our financial structure into which the property taxes generated by operating levies are collected, as well as the funding from the State of Ohio. It is from the General Fund that we pay almost all of the compensation and benefits, buy books, pay the utility bills, and fund the cost of the everyday operations of the district. It is the General Fund we're dealing with when Treasurer Brian Wilson presents the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8LVh3SmszWmhaV28/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Five Year Forecast</a> to the School Board. The General Fund Budget is $167 million for FY14, or 82% of the total budget*.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
That means compensation and benefits are 71% of our overall annual spending, used to employ 1,683 people, all who directly or indirectly support the education of 15,838 students.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
A comment often heard is that we're "top-heavy with administrators." A parent said that to me last week. As a candidate for the School Board, Brian Perry said this was something he wanted addressed, and a lot of voters agreed with him.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe it's because I spent a lot of years in management, but I think the opposite might be true. I'm not sure we have enough administrators given the amount of work they have to do. In particular, I'm concerned about the principals and assistant principals because of the new workload placed on them by the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Many of us - me included - would like there to be an accurate, fair and trusted methodology created for evaluating teacher effectiveness so that we can reward teachers accordingly. As my friend <a href="http://mschare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Marc Schare</a> says (who was just re-elected to his third term on the Worthington School Board), under the current <a href="http://www.savehilliardschools.org/2010/07/teacher-salary-history.html" target="_blank">step-and-lane compensation system</a>, some teachers are overpaid, and some are underpaid, and we can't fix either problem. OTES might be step towards getting there, but part of the cost is the time burden it puts on both our teachers and administrators.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So what is the makeup of our administrative team?</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Each of our 17 elementary buildings has one principal. Assistant principals at the elementary level were eliminated several years ago. These 17 principals supervise about 340 classroom teachers, plus many other professional staff, and are collectively responsible for 8,300 kids. That's a ratio of 20 regular classroom teachers and 488 students per administrator.</li>
<li>Our 3 middle schools each have a principal and an assistant principal. I don't have the count of teachers at the middle school level, but there are 2,415 students, making the ratio 402 students per administrator.</li>
<li>The three high schools each have one principal. Bradley and Darby each have 3 assistant principals, and Davidson has four. Together they are responsible for 4,803 students, for a ratio of 300 students per administrator.</li>
<li>Each high school also has an athletic director.</li>
<li>The district-wide School Age Child Care program has one director and four building level coordinators</li>
<li>At the central office, we have 11 department directors, 20 supervisors (e.g. building maintenance, custodial, transportation), and five administrative assistants</li>
<li>The superintendent, treasurer, and two assistant superintendents.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Another point of comparison is the administrative cost per student. The Ohio Dept of Education requires school districts to reports expenses according to standardized categories. Here's how we stack up compared to the other districts in Franklin County (data from the ODE's Cupp Report):<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkB3v9b10KpjFms3e9OWn37eSh8rmB6x3FABRAOC6nPhM4dJqpF0q1eZ82BkTo7XGG7RZ4AkCcKKLMP7nYyIqR4ZcR2g7Izl3QCZy3jJrOFPr_6DvcsenEks88FRKgn6kdfNQh2diWP0/s1600/costs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkB3v9b10KpjFms3e9OWn37eSh8rmB6x3FABRAOC6nPhM4dJqpF0q1eZ82BkTo7XGG7RZ4AkCcKKLMP7nYyIqR4ZcR2g7Izl3QCZy3jJrOFPr_6DvcsenEks88FRKgn6kdfNQh2diWP0/s400/costs.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Click to enlarge; source spreadsheet <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgV1x0-6yWY8dEFrZmU4ZE8yQW1EM1JQdDJFcG1UVnc&usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Notice that we have the lowest Administrative cost per pupil of any district in the county - by far.<br />
<br />
<div>
So I don't agree that we have too many administrators, or that our management structure is too top-heavy. Compared to corporate environments, I think we run pretty thin.<br />
<br />
That's not to say that I think our cost per student is exactly where it should be. That too is a matter of opinion, and can be answered only in the context of the strategic questions I pose at the top of this article. Some districts in our county spend a good deal more per student, such as Bexley, Grandview Heights, and Upper Arlington. This is in part due to the richness of their programming, and in part because of their compensation structure.<br />
<br />
Columbus City Schools also spends a lot per student, I suspect in part because of the large amount of intervention services they must provide to their vast numbers of students from poverty. However, they also have an extremely high administrative cost.<br />
<br />
We need to have an ongoing dialog about how much money we spend for what, and we also have to recognize that we are not of one mind in regard to the answers. But I hope we do agree that the relationship between the perceived quality of the school district and the taxes we must pay to create that quality influences the desirability of our community, and hence our property values.<br />
<br />
The best situation would be to have low taxes and high perceived value. There are probably some districts which fall into this category, but I can't think of any. Indian Hill down near Cincinnati has a very low tax <b>rate</b>, but it also has the second highest property valuation per pupil in the state - virtually all of it residential. In spite of a very low tax rate, they still have enough money to spend $15,740 per student, with 84% of generated by local taxes.<br />
<br />
The worst is to have high taxes and low perceived value. The districts who initiated the <i>DeRolph</i> case many years ago probably felt they were in this category, as they had fairly high property tax rates, but it generated little revenue because property values are so low. This is the situation which led the Ohio Supreme Court to declare <b>that </b>funding system as <a href="http://www.savehilliardschools.org/2013/11/hb920-explained.html" target="_blank">unconstitutional</a>.<br />
<br />
We are in neither extreme. Our taxes feel too high to many folks, but they're that way primarily because we're a relatively affluent bedroom community (meaning we get less state funding support than rural and urban districts) where residential development has been allowed to significantly outpace commercial development.<br />
<br />
But we also have one of the most desirable school districts in the region. Yes, we can probably get by with less. The challenge is getting a majority of people to agree what we can do with less of so we can invest more for the future, and keep the desirability of our schools - and hence our community - high.</div>
</div>
<div>
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I hope you participate in the discussion.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>* The budget actually says $227 million. The difference is due to the way our medical benefits are accounted for, with there being a $25 million expense recorded to the General Fund which is then recorded as revenue to the Proprietary Funds, which is where we pay out actual medical expenses for our employees. Nothing sneaky, just the way the accounting works for government entities. For those of us used to corporate accounting, it makes sense to wash this out, just as would be done when rolling up a subsidiary's books to the parent.</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-88369829776615359312013-11-22T11:42:00.000-05:002013-11-22T11:42:12.786-05:00Supplemental Materials for the November 25, 2013 School Board Meeting<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8Tl9aeTBHcjVtMEU&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> are the supplemental materials provided in preparation for the regular meeting of the School Board, to be held Monday November 25, 2013 at 7pm at JW Reason Elementary School.<br />
<div>
<br />
Item C2 of the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8RTlsSjBHQ1NRUTA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">agenda</a> is to approve the Treasurer's <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8ck9IY1BLV2lYekk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Monthly Financial Report</a>. I see nothing out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Item E1 includes the list of salary supplementals paid for coaches and advisors for winter semester activities.<br />
<br />
Item F1 is the third reading and adoption of a number of <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8VWhIWGRqY1NoMlE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">policies</a>.<br />
<br />
Hope to see you there.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-4006758987805930422013-11-20T10:38:00.001-05:002013-11-21T11:40:37.825-05:00HB920 ExplainedOhio's school funding approach splits the responsibility for funding public schools between the state government and the local school district. Some argue that the Ohio Constitution requires the state government to provide sufficient funding such that every school school district can deliver a "thorough and efficient education" without the need for local funds.<br />
<br />
This was the basis of the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeRolph_v._State" target="_blank">Derolph vs State of Ohio</a></i> lawsuit which resulted in the Ohio Supreme Court declaring Ohio's school funding system to be unconstitutional. By the way, the Supreme Court never said that property taxes were unconstitutional. Their problem wasn't with property taxes, but rather that the state portion of the funding was inadequate for the districts with low property values, necessitating unreasonably high local property taxes to adequately fund their schools.<br />
<br />
It's also worth mentioning that the <i>DeRolph</i> decision is now moot, as the funding scheme it addressed has been replaced twice, first by Gov. Strickland's Evidence Based Model, and then by the approach introduced by Gov. Kasich. The current scheme is constitutional by default until a new lawsuit is filed and the courts rule otherwise. Apparently no one feels it is worth going through that exercise again.<br />
<br />
Constitutionality is not the subject of this article. Rather I want to explain how property taxes are calculated, and in particular to address what happens when the County Auditor reassesses property values every three years.<br />
<br />
You may have heard "HB920" mentioned, especially when there is a levy on the ballot. HB920 was enacted by the General Assembly in 1976. It was designed to protect homeowners from being "taxed out of their homes" as a result of rapidly rising property values, and it does so by keeping property taxes constant while property values rise. The Bill was championed by George Voinovich when he was the County Auditor of Cuyahoga County, and the neighborhood called "The Flats" was being regentrified.<br />
<br />
Some folks will lament that HB920 "prevents property tax collections from rising automatically with inflation," as though that is a bad thing. As I've written for many years, I think this is a good thing, as it forces school leaders to go before the taxpayers when there is a desire to increase spending. I think that level of accountability is very healthy.<br />
<br />
This is a much misunderstood law, and I didn't really understand its nuances until recently, when I attended a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8MS1uYmNaM3E1Mnc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">session taught by Michael Sobul</a>, a former official of the Ohio Dept of Taxation, and current Treasurer of the Granville School district. The process is actually simpler than I thought. Here goes:<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Let's get started by imagining a school district in which there is only one piece of real estate, a home with a market value of $100,000. That homeowner has voted to allow 2 mills of taxes to be levied to fund the school district. "Mills" are tax lingo, and simply means 0.1%. So a 2 mill tax rate is the same as 0.2%. One would think this means that a 2 mill (or 0.2%) tax on a $100,000 property would yield an tax bill of $200.<br />
<br />
But at some point in the past, Ohio's lawmakers decided to adjust the taxable value of real estate by setting the "assessed value" of property to 35% of the market value. I imagine this came to be at some time when the General Assembly decided to reduce property taxes across the board. As a result, under current law this 2 mill levy would apply to $35,000 not $100,000, and the tax bill would be $70.00 per year.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 200px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$100,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$35,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #1</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
2 mills</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Annual Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$70.00</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then another home is built in the school district - this one valued at $200,000. The same reduction to 35% of market value is applied, yielding a tax of $140.00.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 300px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #2</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$100,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$200,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$35,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$70,000</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #1</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
2 mills</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
2 mills</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Annual Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$70.00</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$140.00</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Note that the total tax collected by this levy is $210.00. As long as these are the only two properties in the school district, this $210.00/yr is all that Levy #1 is allowed to collect, regardless of changes to the market value of the properties over time.<br />
<br />
Every three years, the County Auditor may reassess the market value of properties. Let's say that after such a reassessment, the value of Home #1 increases by 1% to $101,000, and the value of Home #2 increases 10% to $220,000:<br />
<br /></div>
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 400px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #2</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$101,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$220,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$35,350</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$77,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #1 Full Rate</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$70.70</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$154.00</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$224.70</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #1 Limit</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$210.00</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction Factor</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
.934579</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>New Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$66.07</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$143.93</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<b>$210.00</b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Change</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
-5.6%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
+2.8%</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As required by HB920, the total amount collected by Levy #1 remains $210/year, but the amount of tax paid on each home has changed. Added to the calculation is the "Reduction Factor," which is simply the amount of tax collected at the original valuations divided by the amount of tax that would be collected at the full rate with the new valuations. In this case, it's $210.00 divided by $224.70, yielding a Reduction Factor of .934579.<br />
<br />
This reduction factor is applied to the tax calculated at the new values, which restores the total tax collected to the original amount, but doesn't necessarily cause the tax collected on each individual parcel to remain the same. Notice what happened in the example above: Even though both homes increased in value, the tax due on Home #1 has decreased, while the tax on Home #2 has increased. That might not seem fair, but it's the way things work.<br />
<br />
The consequence can be exactly that which was pointed out recently by my neighbor, Mike Harrold: the tax burden shifts disproportionately to neighborhoods where home values are rising the most. Kind of a double whammy.<br />
<br />
Now let's say that a new 5.0 mill levy is passed by the voters:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 400px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #2</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$101,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$220,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$35,350</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$77,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #1 Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$66.07</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$143.91</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$210.00</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #2 mills</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
5.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
5.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Levy #2 Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$176.75</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$385.00</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$561.75</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Total Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$242.82</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$528.93</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$771.75</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There is no reduction factor applied to the new tax - it is charged against the Assessed Value at the full rate, and will remain so until there is another reassessment of property values.<br />
<br />
Let's say that a third home is built in the school district, and that this home has a market value of $150,000:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 500px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #2</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #3</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$101,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$220,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$150,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$35,350</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$77,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$52,500</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Full Rate mills</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Full Rate Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$247.45</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$539.00</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$367.50</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Limit</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$242.82</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$528.93</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction Factor</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.981308</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.981308</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.981308</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Adjusted Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$242.82</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$528.93</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$360.63</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$1,132.38</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As you see, it's not true that "Once a levy passes, it never generates more money," which is something which has often been claimed by levy campaign committees in past years. New properties do generate additional revenue, at the same effective tax rate as all the other properties in the school district. It may not be enough to fund the cost of the additional students which come with new homes, but that's a different story.<br />
<br />
The last example I'll present shows what happens when property values decline, a scenario not considered by the authors of HB920 back in 1976, but one which we now know can happen:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" bordercolor="#08298A" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" style="background-color: white; width: 500px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #1</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #2</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
Home #3</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mkt Value Chg</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
-2.0%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
-4.5%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
none</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Market Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$103,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$210,000</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$150,000</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
35%</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Assessed Value</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$36,050</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$73,500</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$52,500</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Full Rate mills</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
7.0</div>
</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Full Rate Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$252.35</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$514.50</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$367.50</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$1,134.35</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Limit</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$242.82</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$528.93</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$360.63</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$1,132.38</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reduction Factor</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
0.998264</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Adjusted Tax</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$251.91</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$513.61</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$366.86</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
$1,132.38</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>% Adjustment</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
+3.7%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
-2.9%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
+1.3%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So one powerful consequence of HB920 is that it protects the taxing entity - in this case the school district - when property values go down. In other words, just as taxes don't rise as property values increase, neither do property taxes decrease - in aggregate - when property values decline. I think a lot of people were surprised by this when the housing bubble popped a couple of years ago.<br />
<br />
This is also why school districts didn't get nailed in the same way as did other governments when incomes fell off in the Great Recession. Granted, when the state budget took the hit from falling income tax revenue, that directly led to a decrease in the aggregate funding from the state to education. However, the impact was not equal across all school districts. The more affluent districts - and we're seen to be one of those - had larger reductions, implemented primarily via an acceleration of the phase-out of reimbursement of Personal Property Tax income.<br />
<br />
As tax revenues have recovered for the state government, some of the reductions to us have been restored, which is the primary reason why we can say that another levy should not be needed before 2015.<br />
<br />
It was looking pretty bleak there for a while, to the point that I was fairly confident that we couldn't make it to even 2014, our commitment when we put the last levy on the ballot, without some painful cuts to programming and services, achieved in the only way we can - to reduce personnel expenditures. This is the reason I voted twice to not accept the Five Year Forecast from our Treasurer.<br />
<br />
Things obviously look better now, allowing us to negotiate a reasonable deal with the teachers and still not need to put a levy on the ballot until 2015.<br />
<br />
I believe we need to use this period of relative calm to spend some time thinking strategically about the future of our school district:<br />
<ul>
<li>Can we maintain the richness of offerings at our high schools and keep the rate of expense growth such that it can be funded with reasonable levies at reasonable intervals?</li>
<li>What things should we consider in regard to the health care coverage for our employees that changes the trajectory of these costs? If Obamacare survives, we're going to run right into the <a href="http://www.uhc.com/united_for_reform_resource_center/health_reform_provisions/excise_tax_on_high_cost_coverage.htm" target="_blank">Cadillac Tax</a> unless we make some significant changes to our plan design. Paying this tax makes no sense at all.</li>
<li>Is it time to look at income taxes as a component of our funding strategy? How about an Earned Income Only Tax? As I've disclosed before, an Earned Income Tax is particularly attractive to retired folks like me, but it narrows the tax base, leaving out not only retirees but also the corporations, who pay only property taxes. In other words, it transfers more of the incremental funding burden to folks still working, who also tend to be the folks with kids in school.</li>
</ul>
<div>
As always, my mission is to educate the voters of our community so that we can have an informed dialog about these matters. I hope you will participate.</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-56442567253417645092013-11-14T10:46:00.000-05:002013-11-14T16:46:41.776-05:00Role of the School BoardNow that the election is over, and the composition of our school board is set for the next two years, it might be worth a reminder of what it is the Board of Education of an Ohio public school district is supposed to do.<br />
<br />
<div>
<a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3313" target="_blank">Section 3313</a> of the Ohio Revised Code answers much of that question, plus there are a great number of other requirements placed on school boards in other sections of the state law. One can get a sense of what those requirements are by looking back through the <a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8YXdkZ0FHZkRCWVU&usp=sharing" target="_blank">minutes</a> of prior meetings and reading the resolutions which were acted upon. With few exceptions, those resolutions were mandated by something written into a law. For example, the law requires that school boards must review and approve the Five Year Forecast twice each year. Look at the minutes for May and October, and you'll see resolutions to that effect.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So while a school board must perform certain duties as dictated by the law, a school board has the ability to engage in pretty much any matter it cares to when it comes to the school district - nothing is off limits.</div>
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That doesn't mean it's a good idea for the school board to participate in the day-to-day details. This is perhaps why the Ohio Revised Code requires each school district to also have a <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3319.01" target="_blank">Superintendent</a> and <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3313.22" target="_blank">Treasurer</a>, who serve as the executive officers of the school district, reporting to the school board, but with their own statutory responsibilites. Clearly the state lawmakers believe that governance and management are separate roles. So do I.</div>
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But what is the difference in those roles?</div>
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This is a point of debate and often tension between governing bodies and executives in all kinds of organizations, not just school boards. Shareholder-owned, for-profit corporations have Boards of Directors and Chief Executive Officers. Many not-for-profit organizations do as well. I have served on both kinds of Boards, and have at times been witness to a divergence of opinion between the Board and the CEO. It's never fun, but neither is it something to be avoided when the success of the organization requires it.</div>
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In the corporate world, this tension is sometimes prevented by naming the same person to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as the Chief Executive Officer. While this may streamline the decision-making process, it can also lead to out-of-control management. Since the meltdown of the stock market precipitated by the collapse of companies like Enron and Worldcom (briefly my employer), having both roles held by the same person is viewed much less favorably.</div>
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The Founding Fathers set up the federal government of the United States of America with three branches, each of whose powers are limited by the other two. Within that, we have a legislative branch with two houses which must agree on exact language before a law can be enacted. </div>
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One can complain that this structure is inherently inefficient, but the objective of the Founders was never efficiency - it was restraint of power. The Founding Fathers thought it was okay if the federal government would have a hard time generating new legislation. After all, they were generally in favor of less government, not more.</div>
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Nonetheless, Congress can be acquiescent to a popular or powerful President. Lyndon Johnson is said by some to have been the most productive President the post World War II period, based on the number of initiatives championed by his administration which made it to law. He also had the advantage of holding the Presidency at a time when his party had held the majority in both houses of Congress for 26 of the prior 30 years. And it is often said that the members of Congress feared LBJ because he was a bully, and they weren't really sure what dirt he might have about them.</div>
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These days our federal government is almost dysfunctional because the Senate and the House of Representatives are ruled by two different parties, and the President has been unable, or unwilling, to build a workable middle ground. That too has happened from time to time in the history of our country. It has a way of working itself out - when the people grow tired of the shenanigans and start replacing incumbents who thought they were safe.</div>
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So how does this relate to public school boards, you ask? After all, the superintendent of a school district isn't directly elected by the people, as is the President of the United States. The superintendent is hired by the school board, evaluated by the school board, and has his/her contract renewed (or not) by the school board. How can there be any conflict?</div>
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In this case, it might be helpful to look not at the model of the relationship between the President and Congress - both elected positions - but rather between the President and the officers in charge of the military, the latter whom are appointed by the former.</div>
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While Presidents are limited by the 22nd Amendment to no more than two terms in office, the top military officers serve for their whole adult life. When President Obama graduated from high school, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dempsey" target="_blank">Martin Dempsey</a>, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was already a Major in the Army. By the time Mr. Obama was elected President, without any prior executive leadership experience, Dempsey had risen to the top of our military command structure as a 4-star General, having commanded hundreds of thousands of troops and received extensive training in international affairs.</div>
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It can be easy to understand why our professional military leaders sometimes get a little frustrated with an organizational structure which places them under a civilian Commander in Chief who may never have served in the armed forces, or have much in the way of leadership experience. Douglas MacArthur was famously belligerent toward President Truman, as dramatized in this clip from the movie <i>MacArthur, </i>with the General portrayed by Gregory Peck:<br />
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Note the character's use of the term "temporary occupants of the White House." He clearly has disdain for the notion that folks he perceived as amateurs should be allowed to control the actions of lifelong, professionally trained, experienced military officers. Of course, that got MacArthur fired - Trueman wasn't about to let The General or any other military leader threaten our system of government.</div>
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I think similar dynamics happen in a public school district. While in abstract it is true that the school board appoints the superintendent, the fact of the matter is that school board members come and go while superintendents often hold their jobs for many years. </div>
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During the 34 years my wife and I have lived in our school district, there have been I think only three Superintendents prior to our hiring of John Marschhausen this year: Dale McVey (2000-2013), Roger Nehls for ten years or so before him, and before Mr. Nehls someone I never met.</div>
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In that same period, 26 different people have served on the school board, 17 for only one term. Very few were professional educators. So one can understand a Superintendent being wary of a school board that gets too engaged.<br />
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But a school board has to willingly abdicate its authority to the superintendent - the superintendent can't take it away. Strong superintendents will fill the vacuum left by a board that doesn't exercise its lawful authority, and if that condition is allowed to exist long enough, it will become the cultural norm. This is exactly what happened with Columbus City Schools in my opinion - a deadly combination when the superintendent is not effective. </div>
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I'm grateful to have been one of the few board members who in the last 30 years has had the opportunity to participate in the hiring of a new superintendent. I think we did a good job in hiring Dr. Marschhausen, and hope that he too will serve our district until his retirement.</div>
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During that time, I suspect the Hilliard School Board will have had a number of new members, and the unique relationship Doug, Andy, Lisa, Heather and I have with Dr. John - being the Board who hired him - will be replaced by new relationships with people whose names aren't even on our radar. It's therefore crucial that the roles of the Board and our new Superintendent be well defined now, and sustained through successive generations of the Board.</div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-69787770534510774562013-11-11T19:45:00.001-05:002013-11-22T11:31:41.358-05:00Supplemental Materials for the November 13, 2010 School Board Meeting: New Teacher Contract<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwV1x0-6yWY8NjRrWEl5dkxMa1U&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here</a> are the supplemental materials provided in preparation for the regular meeting of the School Board, to be held Monday November 13, 2013 at <b>5pm</b> at the ILC Annex (formerly the Central Office Annex). Please note the change in time, adjusted so that a couple of our folks can make it to their childrens' school activities that evening.<br />
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Without a doubt, the most significant item on the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8SW9SVW9DR1RaQTg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">agenda is F1</a>, a resolution to accept the tentative collective bargaining agreement we have negotiated with the teachers' union, the <a href="http://www.hilliardea.org/Hilliard_Education_Association/Home.html" target="_blank">Hilliard Education Association</a>. In various shifts, all five members of the School Board participated in the negotiation of this agreement, and it is my expectation that the resolution will be adopted unanimously.</div>
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I'm not an expert in labor law - none of us on the School Board are. So we retain the services of <a href="http://sswlaw.com/donald-scriven/" target="_blank">Don Scriven</a>, a partner in the law firm of <a href="http://sswlaw.com/about-us/" target="_blank">Scott, Scriven and Wahoff</a>, to advise us. Mr. Scriven has represented the School Board for a number of years.<br />
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Likewise, the teachers negotiate with the assistance of an attorney from the Ohio Education Association.</div>
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Rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper, labor agreements are negotiated via a process that begins with the parties exchanging proposals as to how they would like various articles in the existing agreement to be changed. One party says "we propose these changes to A, B, and C," and the other says, "we propose these changes to C, X and Y." Then the negotiations would proceed on A, B, C, X and Y only - the rest of the contract is not brought into the dialog.</div>
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In the course of the negotiation, the parties might agree to take items B and Y off the table, leaving the negotiations to be about A, C and X only. Perhaps agreement on X is reached quickly, but A and C, which might be related, take more time. Eventually (hopefully), "tentative agreement" is reached on all items.</div>
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That tentative agreement is first presented to the union membership for their ratification. This step has been taken, and the teachers agreed to accept the tentative agreement. The last step is for the School Board to accept the tentative agreement, which is the purpose of item F1 on the agenda.</div>
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At this stage, the tentative agreement is not in final contract form. Rather it is a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8YkZrM0VOWlQwemM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">collection of markups</a> of the prior agreement (which is the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8NTUwMzE5OGUtOTBiMS00ZDE5LTk0YzYtMTllNTJkZDI3Mzc1/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">2008-2010 agreement</a> in this case), initialed by representatives of the two parties. If the School Board passes the resolution to accept this tentative agreement, the final contract will be drawn up, and the duly authorized representatives of each party will sign.</div>
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So the real question, what has changed in the new agreement?</div>
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Because the tentative agreement shows all the markups, I'll not address every change here - you can easily find them. But what most people will be interested in is what changed in regard to compensation and benefits, which represent 85% of the district's operating budget.</div>
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First, I would encourage you to read <a href="http://www.savehilliardschools.org/2010/07/teacher-salary-history.html" target="_blank">an article</a> I wrote in 2010 to explain how teacher compensation works in our district, which is structurally identical to virtually every other district in Ohio, and is commonly used in similar form across the country (<a href="http://www.serb.state.oh.us/sections/research/WEB_CONTRACTS/WebContracts.htm" target="_blank">go here</a> to examine the labor agreements for other public sector unions in Ohio). It is in essence a three-dimensional matrix which considers length of employment (steps), the level of education of the teacher, and a base salary number.</div>
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This contract resumes the 4.15% normal steps and 6% educational columns, although we need to remember that in the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8Yjc1Y2RjM2EtZmU5MS00NWVjLTk0MWUtYjYzYjcxMTBiZDFi/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">2011-2013 agreement</a>, one step was permanently skipped. This means that teachers with N years of experience are paid according to step N-1.</div>
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So the only change to the pay grid is the base salary. While the 2011-2013 agreement had no increases in the base pay for those three years, this new agreement has a 2% increase in the base pay in each of its three years.<br />
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Therefore teachers on steps 0 to 15, plus steps 20 and 23, will receive a 4.15% step increase and then a 2% base pay increase each of the three years of this contract (ie a combined 6.233%). The rest of the teachers will receive only the 2% base pay increase each year. Any teacher who reaches one of the target education levels will receive a 6% increase in addition.</div>
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However, in conjunction with these salary changes, the School Board requested changes to the design of the health insurance package to reduce the cost borne by the taxpayers to provide coverage to the teachers and their families.</div>
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Some may recall that prior to 2008, the employees of our district made no contribution to the cost of the premium we paid for our health insurance. In the 2008-2010 agreement, the School Board negotiated a change to this (and it was a difficult negotiation), increasing the employee's share of the premium from zero to 10% in 2010 (ie the taxpayers still paid 90% of the premium). In the 2011-2013 agreement, the employee share was increased to 15%, and it remains this in the tentative agreement.</div>
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You may also recall that in 2010, the School Board and employees agreed to convert to a self-insured system, meaning we now pay directly for all claims, albeit with stop-loss coverage to limit our risk. So rather than there being a premium per se, the Insurance Committee (on which I sit), examines the claims history each year as well as our insurance fund balance, and determines the employee contribution necessary to fund the plan for the coming year. Therefore the 15% refers to the percentage of this contribution, which is currently $1,605.93 per month for family coverage, making the employee share $240.88 per month.</div>
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What is less obvious are the parameters of the coverage. Up to now, the employees had neither a deductible nor any co-insurance liability. In other words, if an employee (or covered family member) had a $10,000 medical procedure, the cost to the employee was zero - we taxpayers covered it all.</div>
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In the new contract, the deductible will be $250 for 2014, stepping up to $500 for 2015-16, and the co-insurance amount will be 5% in 2014, becoming 10% in 2015-16. At the same time, a family "out-of-pocket" maximum has been implemented (which is unnecessary if there is no deductible or co-insurance) of $2,000 in 2014, $2,500 in 2015, and $3,000 in 2016.<br />
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Therefore in the event of a $10,000 medical procedure, the employee in 2014 would pay the $250 deductible, plus 5% of the remaining $9,750, or $488, for a total of $738. The school district would pay the remaining $9,262. If the same procedure were to take place in 2016 or later, the employee would pay the $500 deductible, plus $950 in coinsurance for a total of $1,450, leaving the school district with responsibility for $8,550.<br />
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This is still excellent coverage, at least compared to the medical insurance I have, which includes a $1,500 individual deductible, 20% co-insurance, and a $5,000 family out of pocket max. This $10,000 procedure would cost me $2,500. I suspect many of us in the community have plans similar to mine, although HSA/High-deductible plans are becoming much more prevalent.<br />
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The big question mark remains on what changes the Affordable Healthcare Act will cause, should it survive in something like its present form. We know there is a potential collision out there, when the so-called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_insurance_plan" target="_blank">Cadillac Tax</a>" provision comes into play in 2018. Our health insurance consultant has projected that if no changes are made to our plan design, we could trigger this tax.<br />
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In future years, we need to discuss the merits of plans based on a different structure, such Health Savings Accounts with high-deductible coverage. It's always about the apportioning of risk between the employer, the employees as a group, and the employees as individuals.<br />
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The effect of this insurance plan change will be to offset some of the cost to taxpayers of the salary increases. How much we won't know for a while because when you change the plan parameters, you also change the behavior of the folks who are covered. </div>
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We don't want folks to put off going to the doctor until they're really sick, so the plan design continues to encourage preventative care, which is further encouraged via our wellness programs. Nor do we want folks to suffer when they get hit with really big medical bills. But we want them to be wise consumers of medical care, and being exposed individually to a little more of the cost should foster that.</div>
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I feel this new collective bargaining agreement is a reasonable deal. Nothing about it changes our statement that no levy will be on the ballot before 2015, provided the General Assembly honors their current biennial budget. That doesn't mean we can stop looking for ways to moderate the rate of spending growth. I feel some tough conversations about the breadth of our programming, particularly at the high school level, are still needed.</div>
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Your feedback is welcome, but as always, I'll require that it be rational and respectful.<br />
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-33879840765707205402013-11-07T15:06:00.000-05:002013-11-08T11:41:55.034-05:00Change in Board Meeting Time<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>HILLIARD CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT</b></div>
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<b><b>BOARD OF EDUCATION</b></b></div>
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<b><b>NOTICE OF CHANGE IN MEETING TIME</b></b>
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(RC 3313.16)</div>
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Notice is hereby given; there will be a CHANGE in meeting time of the Board of Education of the Hilliard City School District on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2013 to 5:00 P.M. located at the McVey Innovative Learning Center Annex, 5323 Cemetery Road, Hilliard, Ohio.<br />
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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.<br />
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November 7, 2013<br />
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Signed:<br />
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Brian W. Wilson, Treasurer/CFO<br />
Hilliard City School District<br />
Board of Education</div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4289345346387194350.post-63392678915883147822013-11-06T10:32:00.000-05:002013-11-06T10:32:49.352-05:00Thank You!Thank you to all who voted to allow me to continue to serve on the Board of Education of Hilliard City Schools. I am grateful for your trust and support.<br />
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And congratulations to Lisa Whiting and Andy Teater for also winning re-election. Well done to Brian Perry, who ran a serious and respectful race. I'm sure it's not the last time we'll see this young man's name on a ballot.<br />
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Ohio law requires candidates for public office to file campaign finance reports with the county Board of Elections. These reports detail where the money came from to run the election campaign, and how the money was spent. I decided early on that I wasn't going to spend much if any money in this campaign, so I took the option of filing a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV1x0-6yWY8aHRnWjVNektPTVU/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Local Candidate Finance Report Waiver</a>, which is an option created by the Ohio Revised Code, section <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3517.10" target="_blank">3517.10(K)(1)</a>, allowing candidates to attest that they will accept less than $2,000 in contributions, and will spend less than $2,000 running their campaign. By doing so, the candidate is excused from having to file campaign finance reports, meaning you won't see one from me.<br />
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I didn't do yard signs, flyers, posters, t-shirts, pins or anything. My hope was that the people of the community now know me well enough to decide whether they wanted me to serve another term. If that isn't so, then my communications efforts have been in vain.<br />
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Of course, like Lisa and Andy, I was endorsed by the teachers' union - the Hilliard Education Association - who was good enough to produce a post card that was mailed to a few thousand people in our community. I know this had an impact, especially in this low-turnout election. I kicked in a couple hundred dollars to help pay for the postage, and that was about it for my campaign spending.<br />
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The money came from $100 I had to deposit to open a campaign checking account, which I did only because the law requires a political campaign to have a bank account separate from the candidate's own money. Other than that $100, I had a total of about $150 in contributions which came from two individuals, meaning I have a small balance left in my campaign account.<br />
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The other three candidates clearly spent more than I did. If you really want to know how much they spent, and where the money came from, you can request copies of the campaign finance filings from the Board of Elections after the filing deadlines in a few weeks.<br />
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I'm worried about the way campaign economics have perverted our political system. Thousands of dollars get spent on school board and town council elections. Hundreds of thousands for a seat in the state legislatures. Millions are spent for bigger offices like governor and member of Congress. To be elected the President of the United States, one had better be able to raise a billion dollars or more.<br />
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You can't get there without having most of the funding come from a decent number of very large contributors, and those folks expect favors in return. That's why the lobbyists own Washington DC, not the people - the lobbyists have the big checkbooks. And it's the lobbyists who are writing legislation these days, not the elected representatives. How many members of Congress do you think have read the Affordable Care Act?<br />
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I know I'm preaching to the choir. If you take the time to read this blog, it means you're one of the minority of Americans who are engaged in how our country - at least our community - is run, and are likely one of the small percentage of eligible voters who casted a ballot in this election.<br />
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Thanks again.Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05960574627644930183noreply@blogger.com7