South-Western City Schools Makes Promises For Levy Passage
Published: July 16, 2009
Updated: July 16, 2009
GROVE CITY, Ohio—Officials from South-Western City Schools are trying something new to gain support for Issue 2, a four-year, 8.3-mill operating levy.
Officials have written a contract with the community and it’s posted on their Web site. The contract includes things like saving money and improving scores on state report cards.
Sandy Nekoloff with the South-Western City School District says it’s no longer business as usual and a contract with the community was written up to show transparency.
It lists four goals and 12 objectives. The district says if voters pass Issue 2, they will make the money last until 2013.
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Reader Reactions
The superintendant and board decided to blackmail us by eliminating these things for the students.If they gave back their ill gotten gains,then they could immediately reinstate these programs(that didn’t need to be taken away in the first place).
Your school system is corrupt and self serving to it’s employees-not our kids and community.You don’t even address the question of what got us here,how they haven’t met minimal mandates,how they’ve chosen blackmail of an entire community.
Maybe you don’t mind being manipulated in this way,but most thinking people do.
Oh yes, focus on the sports scholarships instead of the whole picture of acceptance in general…
Yes sports scholarships are rare, especially the “full ride” variety enjoyed by the top athletes.
But most students are just looking for college acceptance, not free tuition for 4 years. And extra-curriculars, ALL of them, NOT just sports, matter to colleges for admission. National Honor Society matters, NJROTC matters, academic clubs matter, school newspapers matter, student government matters.
School bussing matters—how do you expect students who live several miles from school to get there in January?? I’ll tell you how—we’ll have a situation in our community where there will be numerous teenagers in a single vehicle with an inexperienced driver on ICY roads. That will affect everyone who shares the road with them. These kids will do whatever they can do to get there. I feel much much safer knowing that there will be school busses transporting the majority of students to and from.
Keeping our students off the streets after school matters. It’s been proven time and time again that keeping our teenagers occupied and busy with constructive things lowers the trouble they get into and makes for a better community for all.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We’ll be paying for this levy whether it gets voted in or not. It’ll just be a matter of WHERE the money goes.
The anger seems to be directed at the school board. If that’s the case, use your vote to affect them directly. A lot of people are accusing the school board of holding the kids as leverage. Well my observation is that many in this community are willing to punish the children to “teach the board a lesson”. Seems to me that one side is NO better than the other. And our community is losing. Let’s not let our students lose too.
VOTE FOR ISSUE 2. If you have a problem with the board, educate yourself, go to the board meetings, and hold the members accountable. Vote them out, affect the needed changes if you are truly that concerned with the schools.
Don’t let the students be the pawns for either side.
Kids,you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting a sports scholarship.
Cinnamongirl,75% of people that take their higher education in Ohio,leave Ohio after they get their degrees.To places more"tax friendly” than Ohio.
There is no shortage of teachers willing to take SWCS jobs for less.They all pass the same tests.It doesn’t look like we could do much worse if we did choose “bargain basement” teachers.Are you serious? 16 out of 30?
Let me say this directly.. Read my lips, no new taxes.. George bush sr.. Well here we sit again with SWCS comming to tax payers saying give us more, we need want desire more money.. I say pee on you, cut your top peoples pay first.
And when I run my buisness as a landlord, when I don’t have money to buy tools to fix a unit, do I go whining to my tenants for money, do I go and say well lets vote for the 100th time on upping your rent this year again.. heck no, I find a way to make do or I simply don’t do period.. These jerks and bums need to figure this out, just like the twits that suggested a tax hike for the arena buyout.. Morons and idiots abundant, some people like my neighbor god rest her soul, she was a retired nurse and she was living on a fixed income, it didn’t go up 15% every year to pay for I need this, or pee and whine I need that so go up income go up.. We helped her out a little here and there because she was an awsome person trustworthy(which there aren’t many in this world I would trust like here), and I know she isn’t the only one struggling money wise..
I am going to school full time 22 credit hours this semester and my wife and I are on a limited income, so yeah screw me silly I don’t want to dole out more money to idiots who can’t seem to get their story straight and keep asking me for more, more more..
This isn’t just oh a simple minor hike, it’s one among many hiles, water hikes, sewer rate hikes, property tax hikes, electric hiles, gas costs more, food costs more, general stuff costs more, but hey note this simpltons..
I worked a lousy 7-eleven job cashier in 1998 for $7.00 an hour and GAS WAS .80 some cents a GALLON not two and a half a gallon, but BP or speedscrewya pay basically $7.30 an hour (new state min wage I think, I could be wrong).. WOHO 30 friggen cents more in 11 years way to fing retards asking for more money yet wages are crap, jobs are going way faster than they are comming, and you want more money again..
No.
My neighbors didn’t lose their home because they were frivolous or had a bad loan.Drive through SWCS district on the far west side and see our level of foreclosures.We can’t afford this degree of compensation anymore.We(in the private sector) all work hard to find ourselves laid off or having our pay cut.Our employers don’t pay towards our health care or contribut to 401K’s.
Our homes are already over valued.Franklin County recieved 6,000 requests for reassessments this year,compared to 600 last year.Homes in my neighborhood that sold for as little as 70,000 7 years ago have been sold after forclosure to reality companies for less than 50,000.The reality companies can’t even “dump” them at a loss because no one makes a qualifying salary to get a loan.
Teachers in SWCS have recieved raises equalling 66% in fifteen years-principals 74%.Completely paid health insurance that includes dental and optical.
That is why SWCS “needs” more money.They have disgracefully exploited our children and spit in the faces of the hard working taxpayers that employ them,all the while blaming our financial woes on us and our greed.Not the fact that we haven’t maintained the same level of pay increases,we have suffered PAY CUTS to keep our employers afloat.It’s time they(SWCS) accepts responsibility for what got us here and make the concessions they need to make to get us out of it.
Oh please…. go to www.swatlevy.com and check it out. If you’re on the fence, I think it’ll show you just how ridiculous this whole argument really is, and show you exactly how you don’t want to vote.
For instance, regard the next two quotes, directly from their website:
“According to the American Community Survey, the average per capita annual income for a SWCS resident is $22,173.
How is it fair to raise taxes on a homeowner who only earns an annual income of $22,173 to pay for the salary and benefits increases to a teacher who already makes $57,620 plus benefits.“
The comparison between a PER CAPITA income level to a highly trained and educated field of employment is apples to oranges. Per capita income level is the average if you consider every man, woman and child making the money… compared against the salary of a fully trained, experienced teacher. How are the two even comparable?
And the second statement itself is contradictory to the first… “homeowner who only earns an annual income of $22,173”. In the first statement, the figure is a per capita income, not the individual HOMEOWNER’S income. Why is the second statement using it as the homeowner’s income??
Simply put, it’s been set up that way on their site for it’s own level of shock value—totally manipulative and deceptive. It’s trying to turn you against the evil teachers and administrators.
The levy detractors would have the board go to the bargain basement to find the cheapest teachers out there. They would have us believe that pay to play would be the solution to this whole mess, even though the evil sports are less than 25% of the levy amount. They would tell us that scholarships are pipe dreams for students, without acknowledging that it’s not just scholarships that could be affected, it’s GETTING ADMITTED to a college in the first place. That affects nearly all of the school population. Universities don’t care whether an applicant has the opportunity to do extra-curriculars (which by the way includes NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY), they only care whether they were active or not in them. They would have us believe that property values are not tied to school districts, and we shouldn’t worry about our values going down any further because of a community that doesn’t support the schools.
In short, they would have us believe anything that gets people to vote no, no matter the cost to the community as a whole. Because that $22 a month is DEFINITELY the difference between home ownership and bankruptcy right?? If it is, then everyone has bigger issues than the $22 a month.
#1. You idiots complaining about teachers salaries are a laughing stock. What are they supposed to work for, the glamour of the job? Teachers make 30,000 at the beginnning of their career, and they have to go back to get their masters as well. Guess who pays for that, yes, them. So now that they have 80,000 in loans and they have to put up with parents that think they get paid too much. you can stick that argument up your behind.
#2. When this levy fails, you will never be ever to sell your house, so I hope you plan on dying in your house or selling it for 30,000 less than you bought it for. They are asking for about $45 a month so quit smoking and drinking and you live a little longer and let the kids play sports. The taxes in Southwest are 2X lower than any other suburb. If we don’t keep the values up, guess who will be moving into YOUR neighborhoods gang bangin and robbing your garages. It’s getting sad.
#3—And if you still have a job, quit crying about not having enough money to live. It’s no different now than it was 3 years ago. Boohoo!
Also, I encourage every opponent or those sitting onthe fence over this levy to visit www.swatlevy.com
This has some of the most accurate info I’ve ever seen produced regarding this district. Once again:
www.swatlevy.com
There’s another story on channel 4’s link about the increase in forclosure rates in Ohio.I believe there is a direct link in our over valued homes and tax rates based on those values-and forclosures.
The school system doesn’t care that these houses sit empty because of this and that no one can qualify for home loans due to the pitiful wages we make even if employed.They do NOT CARE because whomever is stuck with these homes has to pay their taxes.All the better for them,no children to teach in these empty houses,but lots of tax revenue for them.
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