Meeting addresses levy issue
By Rob Treynor
Staff Writer
“How did we get into this situation?” Steve Allen, superintendent of London Public schools asked at the beginning of a special question-and-answer meeting held Monday night in the London Middle School lunch room.
“This, unfortunately, was a perfect storm.” Allen said. “If you’ve been paying attention to what’s going on in the state of Ohio, you know that a third of the schools are in the exact same situation that we’re in.”
“To put it bluntly, it’s the economy. The state has cut back its funding to us, and we’re feeling that. Our 1-percent income the school collects came in $600,000 less than in 2010. We had stimulus money, but that ran out.”
“In short, we’ve lost more than two million dollars in revenue since 2010.”
To make up that shortfall, London City Schools is asking voters to pass an 8.5-mill,
five-year emergency operational levy, which is on the ballot this November.
If Monday night’s attendance was any indication, London voters have already made up their mind on the levy. Despite a telephone invitation to every parent in the school district, only about 30 voters showed up for Monday night’s meeting.
Those who came out for the meeting were first greeted, as they entered the lunch room with levy campaigners, handing out leaflets, and yard signs.
Rob Treynor - StaffLondon School officials spoke during a question-and-answer session Monday evening at the London Middle School. The superintendent, treasurer and London board of education explained the reason an 8.5-mill emergency levy is on the November ballot.
Treasurer Kristine Blind, and board members Marvin Homan, Martha Geib, Vici Geer and Curtis Brooks joined Allen in answering voters’ questions. Pastor Gordon Johnson, of the London First Presbyterian Church, moderated the meeting.
Among the questions asked were:
• Why is the school district asking for 8.5 mills when last spring they only asked for 7.5 mills?
Marvin Homan replied, “When the board put the 7.5-mill levy on the ballot, we didn’t know about the additional state budget cuts that were coming. So our budget took another hit in May.”
• Why do people think that $1.5 million is missing from the school’s budget?
Treasurer Kristine Blind answered, “I’ve examined our position and what our balance was. We have thorough audits. Every expenditure is accounted for. I can assure you that no money has gone missing.”
Homan continued, “We’re absolutely certain that there was no impropriety. We make decisions based on numbers given to us. What happened over the course of two years is, that we were told our revenues would be a certain dollar amount. We made decisions based on those projections. Then, we discovered that those predictions were wrong.”
“Nobody took any money.” Homan said. “We had misinformation on which we made decisions. That $1.5 million dollar number wasn’t stolen money.”
• If the levy fails, why is the district keeping sports?
Steve Allen said, “If you don’t have sports, people leave. We had 23 enrollees from Central Crossing. That’s $5,600 per student in state aid. If we lost sports, our enrollment would go down as well as our income.”
“We’ve looked at cutting sports. What we found is we have contracts with other schools with which we play.” Martha Geib said. “If we don’t play those schools in sports, our contracts state that we’d owe them money in fines.”
“So if we cut sports, we’d lose revenue from the students that would leave the district, pay our $118,000 in fines, we’d have no sports to offer, and we’d still have to make more budget cuts,” Geib said.
• If the levy fails, what will happen to the marching band?
“Instrumental music would still be available as a class.” Vici Geer said. “The marching band would only be at London home games. The band would not be able to participate in away games or any band contests.”
The board plans a second Q&A meeting at 6:30 p.m. on October 18 at Choctaw Lake lodge.
Twenty-something years ago when my children graduated from LHS it was much different. Most of the teachers and parents were on a first name basis….the teachers did not wait for parent teacher conferences to discuss problems….they would call after dinner and we would discuss problems and or concerns. My grandchildren are now in London schools, everyone one of them are having problems. I don’t know what the problem is nor do I know the solutions. I do know that I will vote “yes”, and hope that the “powers that be” within the system can figure it out. I do believe however that we need quality teachers today within the school system that are really involved and concerned about the education of our kids. I have seen a few exceptions of FINE teachers within our system….but not many !!! Just my thoughts.
My kids went to London when we moved here from Columbus. We have to look at the reasoning for throwing money at every problem. While in Columbus, my kids went to Catholic schools. I know plenty don’t want to hear this, but it’s true. They got twice the education for less than half the money. One school offered lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. The whole school brown bagged it the other 3 days. The teachers were paid less than public school teachers and their benefits were not nearly as comprehensive. But most stayed anyway. I’m sorry but I just can’t see throwing more money into a system where we’re 25th in Math, 17th in Science and 14th in Reading. This is out of 34 countries. We’re behind Finland, South Korea, China, Singapore, Canada and so many others. Singapore?? Yes. We pay tons of money to school systems and there has to be some sort of buyer’s remorse eventually.
So much misinformation… so little time. I don’t know where to begin.
London City Schools has always stretched their dollars farther to make due with less. For years, London had one of the lowest per pupil expenditures of any school system in the state. Our schools are already no-frills.
Let’s not confuse new construction with frills or wasteful spending. Is it wrong to retire a building that opened two years after Lincoln was assasinated? I don’t think so. Was the replacement of our old schools driven at the state not local level? Yes it was. Is it wrong to let the state pay for our new middle school entirely with state funds? Wise investment choice I would say.
Can we expect the same state testing results as districts with different demographic and economic backgrounds? I think not.
Let’s not pretend the influx of families into the Alder district from neighboring cities like Dublin doesn’t influence the district’s finances and test scores in a positive way. That’s not a knock on Alder – to their credit they have great results there – it’s just a reality that the two districts are very different. Do we have top-notch athletic facilities? We sure do. Were they paid for with tax dollars? Most definitely not. London only has these things now because when voters repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly turned down levy requests back in the 70s and 80s to relieve overcrowded schools, local citizens and businesses raised the money themselves to build the facilities we have today – many years after the “new” new high school was built.
Thank goodness for our Booster organizations. We have an unfortunate history in this community of holding onto the purse strings so tight that the schools must reach near collapse before we act.
Anyone else remember split sessions? Truth be told, the most frustrating thing about this is that the school funding system in Ohio is broken – and badly.
Our children’s education should not be negatively affected when the economy goes south or when voters don’t feel they can spare anymore of their hard earned dollars.
Unfortunately, until we fix that problem we still have children to educate. For my money, London is doing everything it can to give the children of London a positive learning experience. I hope that the citizens of London can see fit to support their efforts – it will only benefit us all in the end if they do. Vote Yes!
The community is tired of putting dollar after dollar into a school system that does not produce positive results, which was very resoundly noted in the last levy vote. Now the school board is coming and asking for an increased levy.
There are a couple of issues still outstanding that the board has not and cannot answer because of the non-disclosure agreement with the past treasurer. There was an error made that no one is being held accountable for. Yes, the treasurer made and continued to make compounding errors and the board has tried to sweep it under the rug. The community wants the remaining board members out — they were and continue to be inept in their duties to be responsible for the well being of the district. What London schools need is change.
The school’s may have great athletic facilities, but learning and being prepared to work or continue a student’s education should be first and foremost. LHS does not prepare their students to enter college or the workforce at an adequate level. When the cumulative GPA to participate in sports programs can be raised to at least 2.5, maybe the students will have something to strive for.
Having a new school board, increased standards, and the ability to hold people accountable will produce positive results and a community willing to get involved and open their wallets. Come on School Board, do the right thing — resign.
Come on School Board, do the right thing — resign.
No better words than that here.
You say you will only vote for the levy if the administration is overhauled? Well what do you think has happened? We have a new treasurer, and the superintendent is resigning in December. In January, when the taxes will be collected, there will be three board members with less than 2 years experience. If you say you will only vote for the levy once the administration is overhauled then I guess the school can count on your vote in November!
I see a lot of comments regarding mismanagement of funds and not allowing that to happen any longer. If you truly believe that funds have been mismanaged, then vote when you can effect change – for the folks on the board. The vote this month is for the kids – and only for them. A no vote this time around takes us one step closer to the state coming in and taking over. No thinking person can possibly believe that the government will do a better job making decisions for our kids and our schools than we can. However, a no vote in November is a yes vote for state control. I respectfully request that you research this issue and vote with your head, not your gut. You will not be sticking it to the people who make the decisions, you will be sticking it to the ones who sit in the classrooms. That can’t really be your intention.
Love your comments Brian. I will be voting NO! I’ve never had kids in the London school system and never will and lived here for 28 years. I think I give plenty to the schools as it is.
I cannot speak for eveyone, but those that I have spoken with share the same concerns as I do. Simply put, we have seen our school system go broke with what appears to be mismanagement of funds. We have heard and read plenty of negative news which imply that those in charge of our school’s funding have been clueless as to how much we really had and overspent money that never existed. The problem is this: We love our children and want the best for them, however, the same people who have led our schools into this crisis are still there asking for more money. Once you have asked for money, were granted funding, and then misspent it, you cannot expect us to give more. I truly believe the only way to get a levy passed is to overhaul the administration and start over. We are told that the children will suffer if the levy fails. Speaking as a high school parent, I can tell you they already are.
I love Brian’s comment.
I am a product of London City Schools and I was embarrassed when I stepped into a state university at age 18. In no way was I prepared to take on a college education. I had to study 10x more than kids from other high schools and had to meet with professors outside of class to learn curriculum they clearly told me should have been covered at the high school level. The lack of education that goes on in the London school district is unbelievable. The curriculum is below par and teachers are not challenging children enough.
I feel the school board has the same problem that society in general has. We want to look pretty on the outside, and ignore the ugly stuff on the inside. London built and packed these new buildings with top of the line equipment, furniture, etc. so they look pretty on the outside. STOP trying to be like Dublin schools. This is London. Take care of our children, educate and prepare them for further education, trades, and careers. Don’t just build a pretty school with top of the line equipment when you’re cutting teacher’s aides, music, art, etc.
I now proudly reside in Jonathan Alder district – I have never seen a district more together than Alder . They too, built new schools, made educated and conscious financial decisions, and made the district work off of what tax dollars were granted to them, both from the state and their tax payers. This district has very well educated children, and their ratings prove that.
Work on the state ratings, not the pretty buildings.
“We had stimulus money, but that ran out.” – Read they spent it!
“To put it bluntly, it’s the economy.” – The economy didn’t just go south. It’s been this way for years! Maybe, just maybe someone in a position of authority should have realized there was going to be less money to spend a few years ago instead of waiting until the school is broke. Instead of saving money for the future their answer is to spend it while they have it then ask for more from the tax payers after they run out. Sounds a lot like Washington DC to me.
““In short, we’ve lost more than two million dollars in revenue since 2010.” – Yeah so why didn’t you see that coming & stop spending money before the school was broke? Everything this school does/buys has to be top self. Everything except the academic rating with is bottom of the barrel.
Right. They never stop spending even when they KNOW they will have less money coming in!
If we don’t have Allen, Geer, and Geib, we could save a lot of taxpayer dollars!
Voters have already made up their minds? I think that is an unfair statement and trying to push people that read your paper into the “everyone is doing it…voting no” mentality. I am voting YES. My not being at the meeting means I already know that my vote will be such. There are OVER 100 SCHOOLS TRYING TO PASS A LEVY on NOVEMBER 8th. Those are NEW levies and don’t count all the renewals on the ballot ( http://www.jointhefuture.org/blog/451-november-2011-school-levies-and-issues ). These include Dublin, Hilliard, and Westerville. I find it so difficult to believe that every parent in this district needs to ‘think about voting yes’. Really? I already don’t go to the movies, I don’t shop for fun, I drive a piece of junk that has been paid off for 6 years, I don’t have fancy landscaping and my kids don’t wear all the hot new fashion…nor do I…lol. BUT I will be voting YES so to give them the best education I can while living in my home community. I hope that others will be happy to keep their property values from falling anymore than they already have over the past several years and will really contemplate if any extras in their personal lives are as important as a strong education … even for kids that aren’t their own.
Vote Yes if you want, but don’t fool yourself into thinking this affects the education your kids are getting. Jonathan Alder has a levy on the ballot. Their academic rating is one of the highest in the state – “Excellent” or “Excellent With Distinction” across the board for their district. London wants a double dip levy. This one plus the one we already renewed. For all that we got an “Effective” rating for the Elementary, High School, while the Middle School is below that with a “Continuous Improvement” rating. I guess that is better than defective. How about showing some fiscal responsibility combined with some better academic results before you ask me for more money – again…?
We do have great teachers at the school doing their best with what they have. The school is always looking to save money not spending just to spend and not buying top dollar items. People with false information is what is hurting our schools. Voting Yes is the only thing that will continue to help our schools improve. Voting NO is hurting well lets face it our children. Not the teachers they can find other jobs, not the building it will still run, but our children will hurt in the end.