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Denise: Congratulations on your re-election to the School
Board, and to another term as President. You have become a respected leader
in our community, and we appreciate your willingness to accept the
responsibility of guiding the agenda of the Board this coming year.
I have no training or experience in the field of education,
and would not presume to offer any advice or criticism of the performance of
the school system in that regard. In fact, the only thing I have to say is
'Thank You!' for the tremendous opportunities my two daughters were given as
students.
I am however, a well-trained and experienced business
executive. In my career, I have managed an organization nearly three times
the size of the Hilliard City Schools (annual operating and capital budget
in excess of $400 million), with professional and technical staff deployed
throughout the world. I know that for an organization to have a shot at
success, it must have clear direction, a competent team, and sufficient
resources. This letter addresses the last item -- resources.
For most of the nearly 30 years my wife and I have lived in
the school district, we were ignorant about all things related to school
operations. We knew we paid property taxes, and pretty much assumed that
those taxes provided all the money the schools needed. Through subsequent
involvement in the Hilliard Education Foundation, the Community
Communications committee, the Treasurer's Committee, and the Brown Township
Comprehensive Plan Update Committee, I have learned a great deal more about
funding. I've also learned much about how school operations intertwine with
municipal and state politics.
Whenever I've had the opportunity to take a leadership role
in an organization, one of the first things I wanted to understand was the
cash flow, because just about every organization needs to spend money to
operate. The sources of funding, and the stability of that income stream
compared to the outflow, are key things one must know to manage an
organization. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about a volunteer
organization with an annual budget of $5,000 or a school system with a
budget of $150 million -- the leaders must have a comprehensive
understanding of where the money comes from and how it is used.
I presume that we will all agree on this statement: Our
school have three primary funding sources: a) residential property taxes; b)
commercial property taxes; and, c) State Aid -- and in recent times these
three sources contributed about a third each to the total funding. One other
key assumption is that each incremental dwelling unit in our district brings
in on average one new student to the district (calculated using data from
the Franklin County Treasurer's office).
If these things are true, then our funding issues are these,
in order of importance:
#1 - Every time a new dwelling is built in the district, we
get about $10,000 in incremental cost and around $7,000 in incremental
revenue: $3,500 from residential property taxes and $3,500 from State Aid,
but no new commercial real estate revenue, creating an immediate
shortfall. If commercial development and tax revenue don't grow at the same
pace as residential development, the burden of growth falls heavily on the
homeowners in the district. In my opinion, this is the key funding problem,
yet very few residents understand. In the absence of this understanding,
they are blaming all of you for being ineffective stewards of their money;
thinking that the tax bills are going up because you spend wastefully. I
know better, but only because I've put the time into studying the situation.
School officials have consistently portrayed themselves as victims of
municipal development policy because they have no control over the
decisions. However, that ignores the fact that the citizens of the district
vote not only for levies and school board members, they also vote for
mayors, city councils, county commissioners, and township trustees. I
believe that you, the leaders of the district, can bring substantial weight
to the development conversation simply by educating the public effectively
on this matter. Let the voters ask the mayors and city council candidates
why they are allowing the school systems to be bankrupted and their pockets
to be picked by irresponsible development policies! Who better to teach the
public about school funding than professional educators?
#2 - The State of Ohio still has a statewide school funding
problem, and it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which that problem is
solved by giving more money to Hilliard City Schools. We are one of
the so-called wealthy districts in the state, competing with the urban and
rural districts for resources. Politically, the wealthy suburban districts
have a minority of representation in the state legislature. If anything, we
need to be prepared for a future where state funding is further diminished.
You can educate our community about this as well.
#3 - HB920, Phantom Revenue, Cost-of-Doing-Business
adjustments, etc. Indeed these are factors in the school funding picture,
but of lesser importance than the items above. What do you suppose would
happen if the legislature implemented the technical correction necessary to
eliminate Phantom Revenue? My belief is that some other 'knob' would be
twisted in the funding algorithm to take that money back and reallocate it
to the urban/rural districts. We're just not going to get more money from
State of Ohio when the prevailing opinion in the Legislature is that
communities like ours should not only pay for our own schools, we should
subsidize the urban/rural districts as well.
Please -- make it a priority of this school board to teach
our community about these issues. The longer there is an absence of facts,
reasoning and direction, the more risk you have of losing the trust and
support of the community.
I was one of the people called by the agency doing the
current survey. I was surprised at some of the questions (e.g. "What do you
think of Board Member X?"), and am quite eager to see the results. If the
results predict with confidence that voters will pass the building levy in
May, then my concerns are not as serious as I believe. But if the passage
appears in doubt, then communications and education are critical, and there
is no time to lose. Let me know how I can help.
Sincerely,
Paul Lambert
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