The New City of ETNA, Ohio

The Pataskala Comprehensive Master Plan dated September 18, 2006 includes the following statement in the background information:

"Facing strong development pressures from these western municipalities [Reynoldsburg and Columbus], the Village of Pataskala and Lima Township determined they had three future interests in common."

That statement has always bothered me. I think the Village of Pataskala needed a few more people to reach the 5,000 mark to allow it to become a city. So, using the fear of aggression from the west, the citizens of Lima township voted to become the city of Pataskala.

Now there is talk that the Lima township area is no longer needed because they are not voting for additional Pataskala city taxes.

I say the city of Pataskala was a bad idea. The place for a new city is Etna!

Etna has the I70 and old US40 access. Pataskala has a severley restricted St. Rt 16 and St. Rt. 310. Etna has room to grow in all directions. It has a well established industrial park. Lets preserve Pataskala village like the people of Pikerington preserved "Old Picktown".

It would be a beautiful thing to have Lima Township back and Pataskala as part of the city of Etna. No more 35MPH speed limits in Lima township.

Full State Funding for K-12 Education

I think full state funding is plausible. But only on my terms. Lots of ideas flying around about full state funding. There are many of traps and pit-falls with full state funding: What is: Education? Extracurricular? Non-state required courses? AP classes? The Arts? Cultural education? Of course, if you are part of the education system you can spend any money given to you. But, people need to start defining education before any funding scheme can succeed. I am developing a plan to define what full state funding should be. See www.fullstatefunding.com

Will I Become a Candidate for School Board November 2007?

20080101 UPDATE: Not quite ready to run for school board. May try again in 2009.

I am gathering signatures on a petition that would allow be to have Bob Charles on the ballot for Southwest Licking school Board. This will be an interesting experience. My vision is to be a Board member whose focus is on the community members and their responsibilities to the District. And the Districts responsibilities to the community members.

The most important objective will be to account for how our local money is spent verses the State contribution. If we are using State money to fund local activities .. we have a problem. If we are using local money to fund State requirements .. we have a problem.

When the community sees what they are actually paying for with local funds they will gain ownership.

As soon as the campaign starts I will post some links to my ideas.

SWL LSD Treasure Explains TIFS and Ohio School Funding

This post is the continuation of the December 22, 2006 post on TIFs. I made the following confusing statement in a letter to the editor.

"The taxpayers could remove the schools from this issue [TIFs] if we would just meet our States minimum 23 mill requirement and get off the 20 mill floor. We have suffered that 3 mill penalty too long."

Later I asked the Treaurer the following question:

"I don't understand the 23 mill requirement. Can you give me an example of funding now and what funding would be if we meet the 23 mill requirement? Then explain how the TIF work with the 23 mill requirement."

He was very kind to give me the following reply:

Bob,

The 23 mills only apply to the State of Ohio’s school funding foundation program. The 23 mills do not have any effect on TIFs. When a parcel of land is placed in a TIF, the value of the land is not included in the TIF only the value of new buildings built on the land after the TIF was created will be included in the TIF. Therefore, the school district, county, fire department, etc… will still receive property taxes from the value of the land and 25% of the property taxes for any new buildings built within the TIF. The school district, county, fire department, etc… will not lose any of the property taxes we are currently receiving from the land within the TIF. The school district, county, fire department, etc… will only incur a reduction in the amount of additional property taxes we would have received from the value of new buildings being built within the TIF. The property taxes paid on the value of the new buildings will be paid to the TIF instead of the school district, county, fire department, etc… The only way the school district could have been or could be held harmless from the TIF is by an agreement between the City and/or Township and the school district that required to City and/or Township to pay to the school district the amount of property taxes the school district would have otherwise received without the TIF. The issue with a hold harmless agreement, with the school district, is that a majority of the property taxes levied are for the school district. The amount of money collected for the TIF would be significantly reduced by not including the property taxes levied for the school district; thereby, reducing the number of projects that could be completed with the money generated by the TIF. In the end, a large portion of the local dollars collected and spent from the TIF would have otherwise gone to the school district.

I have attached in PDF format an article on TIFs that may be of an interest.

"Don't Let Your 'TIF' Cause a 'Tiff'"

Thank you,

Richard D. Jones
Treasurer
Southwest Licking LSD

USA Flag Displayed Proudly at District Office

My Letter to Superentendent,

Thank you very much for expediting a solution to the lighting problem. It made my day to see the flag at the District office illuminated as I came home from work tonight. Your efforts and those of your staff are greatly appreciated.

Public School US Flag Display

As a State institution the school district should respect the flag of the United States.

The students of [a district] Elementary showed respect for their flag every day as they hoisted and lowered it every day.

The flag at [a district] middle school is left up all night without proper lighting. It is small. In the past I have seen it tattered. The flag at the District office is flown in the dark without being properly lighted.

The proper display and care of the flag by a school makes a positive impression on the community. It at least shows the community a openly disciplined activity and some respect for property.

See: Flag Code

I am sure the District would show respect for the flag if it wasn't such a financial burden. I do believe the community would donate larger flags and even the lighting for the base of the poles, if asked.

No TIFs No Abatments

Update August 20, 2007:
After attending the School Board meeting on abatement last week and talking with many area leaders and citizens I am reconsidering my ideas on this. I am exploring a new idea: If Harrison Township is doing a good job of restricting development to a narrow band near RT 16, clean commercial development in Pataskala may not be so bad. ONE CONDITION - The Schools have to benefit substantially if abatement is granted by the School Board.

Update January 23, 2007:
I have learned that my statement about going to 23 mils to solve the Districts TIF problem is wrong. See the above post: "SWL LSD Treasure Explains TIFS and Ohio School Funding" dated Tuesday, January 23, 2007.

================

Dear Pataskala Standard Editor,

TIFs may work in depressed or impoverished areas to jump start economic development. But SWL doesn't need that. If we want quality development in SWL it is best to not to offer TIFs. It is best to have strong zoning and building codes that encourage stable high quality public and private entities to locate here. It is best to have high quality development or no development at all.

If a company locates here with an abatement they will leave if the abatement is not continued. The only way to replace them is to offer an abatement to another company to fill the vacancy.

School funding seems to drive our community to encourage any type of industrial and commercial economic development. These types of developments may relieve some of the burden on residential property owners. But I moved here knowing property taxes were a little higher and I can live with that in exchange for a nice community.

The taxpayers could remove the schools from this issue if we would just meet our States minimum 23 mill requirement and get off the 20 mill floor. We have suffered that 3 mill penalty too long.

Please encourage our leaders to stand strong and not offer abatments and TIFs to encourage unwanted development in SWL.

Justification for Teaching the 5 Major Religions

****> UPDATE 12-07-2006 : <**** See responses to letter at end of this post .

Please note the following SWL LSD bylaw 149.1 concerning the Board members' comments contained in this post:

"The Southwest Licking Local Board of Education, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publications by its members. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board or of the author's colleagues on the Board."

* * * * * * * * * *

Every activity in the public schools should be accountable to a Federal requirement, a State requirement, or local Board requirement. This gives a purpose for the activity. Every dollar spent on an activity should have a Federal, State, and local component. That is what accountability means. The following letter was written to my Board of Education and the middle school Principal. It addresses an activity that I think needs justification.

* * * * * * * * * *

Board members and WMS Principal,

My son's 6th grade Social Studies class is learning about the worlds five major religions. They include Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

Can you tell me what State requirement is met by teaching this subject?
Is there a local Board Policy that covers the teaching of this subject?
Is there any official purpose for teaching this subject?

What other purpose(s) is achieved in learning this subject?
Why do you believe this should be taught in public school?
Why do you believe it is age appropriate for 6th graders?

A written response would be most appreciated.

* * * * * * * * * *
Responses:

From Board Member Hayes:

Sorry for the delay. I've been trying to determine if your question is a 'board question' or if I should suggest you contact administration first. Based upon the manner in which it is put, I've come to the conclusion that it is a board question. However, to the extent there may be an issue related to the manner of presentation in class or a case-specific concern, these should follow the appropriate chain (teacher/principal/district administration) prior to being addressed by the board so as to avoid 'micro-management.'

You may have guessed that I don't have Ohio's standards, benchmarks, or factors memorized, but here's what I've found out:

This is a 6th grade standard being taught per Ohio Content Standards.

The standard is People in Societies - Students use knowledge of perspectives, practices and products of cultural, ethnic and social groups to analyze the impact of their commonality and diversity within local, national, regional and global settings.

The corresponding 6-8 benchmarks are as follows:

A. Compare cultural practices, products and perspectives of past civilizations in order to understand commonality and diversity of cultures.

B. Analyze examples of interactions between cultural groups and explain the factors that contribute to cooperation and conflict.

The grade 6 indicator is:

#2 - Compare world religions and belief systems focusing on geographic origins, founding leaders and teachings including: a) Buddhism; b) Christianity; c) Judaism; d) Hinduism; e) Islam.


Let me know if you'd like to discuss further.

**********

From Board Member Huber:

I notice that [Board memberHayes] has responded to several of your questions.

I will therefore only respond to the question, "Why do you believe this should be taught in public school?"

Briefly, I would answer that:

1) Religion(s) have played an important role in shaping human values, perspectives on life, etc. The ties with social and political events are numerous and ongoing. We simply cannot understand what has motivated large numbers of persons historically, or contemporaneously, without understanding something about their religious belief systems. (My personal definition of "religious belief systems" is rather broad-- in addition to the major "world religions" in the state curriculum for 6th graders, I would include also several "philosophical" systems that persons hold with "religious" fervor.)

2) The absence of this kind of information from a public school curriculum would constitute a kind of bias. Public schools should teach something about all major observable phenomena. Religion(s) certainly qualify in this regard. Of course, the teaching should be as objective as possible. This can include theological matters, but only in a descriptive way (e.g., regarding Islam -- "Islam teaches that God is One, and that Mohammed is his prophet.") There should be no bias toward religion or irreligion, insofar as is humanly possible.

3) Expanding on #1 a bit, I would note that the various expressions of religious belief often embody both the best and worst in human nature (I am assuming, of course, some core moral values that almost all people seem to have held throughout history). Religion has inspired people to be both altruistic toward, and destructive of, others. It is a powerful force that cannot be ignored, except at our peril.

I think your question about age-appropriateness is a good one, but I will defer to Dr. Miller-Smith in that matter.

One other note: The government in its many expressions has long recognized the validity of teaching rellgion phenomenologically in public universities. Some state schools even have religion departments. Many (most?) have chairs of religious studies within history, philosophy, English, and other departments. On the other hand, the Supreme Court in particular has been hesitant about teaching religion in K-12 because of the long history of religious groups trying to utilize this instruction for prosletyzing. Nonetheless, the Court has more than once opined that the objective teaching of religious phenomena (including the Christian Bible) in K-12 is acceptable. During the Clinton administration guidelines for doing this were issued by the DOE. I believe they are still in force and constitute the framework for Ohio curricular decisions in this matter.

I hope this is helpful.

**********

City of Pataskala Mess

UPDATE August 9,2006:
Pataskala Street Levy fails in Special August 8, 2006 Election.
FOR 614, AGAINST 830.

The Pataskala Comprehensive Master Plan dated November, 2002 includes the following statement in the background information:

Facing strong development pressures from these western municipalities [Reynoldsburg and Columbus], the Village of Pataskala and Lima Township determined they had three future interests in common. First, most citizens from both entities were satisfied with their community and did not want major change or expansion. Secondly, the citizens enjoyed the rural nature of their living environment. Third, if changes had to occur within their community (such as increased industrial or residential development), the citizens wanted to be able to control and have a voice in the manner of such expansion. These common beliefs led the Village of Pataskala and Lima Township to propose a merger,...

The feeling I get especially after the Pataskala levy campaign of May 2006, is that there is a big push to encourage development to build commerce, etc. I think the government of the new city is not really concerned with what was the original intent of the merger of the village and Lima township. This needs to be looked into.

See Pataskala Comprehensive Master Plan

Also, we might as well look at all the documents about the city of Pataskala. Documents

And, The official City of Pataskala website

Pataskala Library Levy May 2, 2006

UPDATE May 8, 2007
Another try. This time 0.5 mill for 5 years for current expenses. This is to cover parking lot and replacing carpet. These are items are normally budgeted for within the current State funding allocation.

Concerns:

o The library is for books. Why expand its function beyond that?

2007 Primary Election May 8, 2007 Southwest Licking County:Pataskala Public Library (SWL) - Additional

FOR THE TAX LEVY 847 49.9%
AGAINST THE TAX LEVY 850 50.1%

UPDATE May 3, 2006:
2006 Primary Election May 2, 2006 Southwest Licking County:

Pataskala City Public Library (Yes... the term "Pataskala City Library" was on the ballot)

FOR THE TAX LEVY 1786 42.19%
AGAINST THE TAX LEVY 2447 57.81%

UPDATE April 27, 2006:
The April 15, 2006 letter below was published in the Pataskala Standard, April 27, 2006, "Opinions", page 9A. It may contain the only anti May 2 Library levy info ever printed. Well, I put "it may contain", because contrary to my search, the Standard says there are opposing views in the paper. I never could find them:

05/04/2006 02:38 PM
From: Joseph A. Williams Jr, Pataskala Standard Interim Editor

"Mr. Charles: I know of at least three letters to the editor that we published while I have been here that opposed the tax. And Chad assures me his stories included opponents. "

* * * * * * * * * * * *

April 15, 2006

Dear Editor of the Pataskala Standard,


I love the library and may vote for the levy. However, I have concerns. I go into detail at gravaman.com . Here is a summary.

The levy is being used to encourage the growth of the city of Pataskala by providing a large library with many expanded social service features. We outside Pataskala will share the increased tax burden at the same time we endure an increased threat to our way of life. Pataskala annexed Lima Township to protect us from Columbus and Reynoldsburg. The undesirable growth of Pataskala now presents the same kind of threat to its neighbors.

The SWL School Board, not the city of Pataskala, is the taxing authority for the Pataskala Library. Only the voters who live in the SWL School District will be burdened by the 15-year 1.99 mill Library levy, even though the city of Pataskala is served by two school districts.

The SWL School district is going to need those 1.99 mills and more in the near future. The mills will not be as easy to come by if they are tied up in the new greatly expanded library.

The SWL School district is going to need more money in the near future. That will not be as easy to come by if taxpayer money is tied up in the new greatly expanded library. [Note: The wording of the striked paragraph was mis-leading. At the editor's suggestion I rephrased it. I had copied the Library Director on the original letter when I sent it to the Standard.]

If we vote for the levy lets try to change the name of the library to the SWL Public Library and push the board to allocate more money to books, less to meeting rooms, big offices and dangerously misused computers.

No District Wide Time Standard

* * * UPDATE April 10, 2006 * * *

The School Board referred the original April 2nd letter below to the superintendent, Forest Yokum. He took action to correct the time problem system wide. He sent the following directive to the administration:

I have requested that all buildings and the bus garage set their clocks to the LACA time appearing on our computers district-wide. Forest

* * * * * * * * *

Letter to the Southwest Licking Local School District Board of Education concerning time standard problem:

April 2, 2006
Board Members,

It is very important that the Southwest Licking School District use a common time source. Example: US Naval Observatory master clock .

Most cell phones use GPS/Atomic Clock/satellite time standard. Your newer TV's, VCRs, wire telephones, network connected home PCs, and XM radios use it.
I would be surprised if all the PCs and servers attached to the LACA network did not have a common time standard.

Your bus schedules, class schedules, meetings, etc all depend on accurate standardized time to operate efficiently. Minutes count a lot. I have seen recently clocks off by more than 3 minutes building wide in the district. Students and parents, running on tight schedules, are surprised to be counted tardy to class because they are running on GPS time and the school clocks are 3 minutes fast. (Well, today they were 57 minutes slow due to EST-EDT change). People show up for 15 minute parent/teacher meetings 3 minutes late. The District office sees delays in what should be synchronized activities between buildings.

There are many solutions. I see them in about every organization I deal with daily.

One example of many: Adena School District Frankfort, Ohio and their vendor Primex Primex

Thanks for your time

The SWL Mission Statement is Meaningless

Mission Statement of the Southwest Licking Local School district

"The mission of the Southwest Licking School District is to assure that all students are prepared to be lifelong learners who possess a sense of self-worth, critical thinking ability, and necessary life skills enabling them to solve problems, adapt to change, value beauty, diversity, and cooperation, and be productive citizens. The mission will be accomplished by a skilled and dedicated staff providing personalized instruction with family and community support and participation by students in safe, modern facilities where quality educational and technological materials are the standard.." - Reference http://www.swl.k12.oh.us/

In 1993, I lead the "Critical Thinking Objective" action plan team for the Strategic Plannong group. Our group included 11 teachers, ex-board members, administrators and parents. There were similar Action Teams for other objectives. Today, the objectives are no where to be found. There are no measures to indicate the mission is being fulfilled. None have ever been collected. In other words, the foundation statement for the organization called the Southwest Licking Local School District, has nothing to do with the District or reality. I am convinced the Board and Administration do not know why the organization exists other than providing employment to people and as a place for children to stay while the parents are at work.

I have highlighted the buzz word terms. The first one I will address is "Critical Thinking". The purpose of my Action Team was to draft the action plan related to "Critical Thinking". I would like to know what the District thinks "Critical Thinking" is; why it is in the Mission statement; and how it is being applied in the District.

The confusion over the "Critical Thinking" term could possibly invalidate the whole Mission statement and thus the organization that is based on it. What this means is that the organization's espoused values as expressed to the community in such statements have no effect on the internal deeply help beliefs that really drive the organization.

Letter to Treasurer - Local vs State SWL Money

The first step in my school reform plan is to find out if the District can account for how Local verses State money is spent. In the text of the following letter to Southwest Licking Local School Distrcit treasurer I try to define Local and State money and make the request for accounting.

* * * * * * * * * *

February 28, 2006
SWL Local School District Treasurer,

I am concerned by the use of money to fund State requirements and the use of money to fund the Local supplemental activities.

QUESTION 1 - How much did SWL spend in FY2005 to fund just the State requirements?

QUESTION 2 - How much did SWL spend in FY2005 to fund just the Local supplement: In other words, fund activities over and above State requirements?

QUESTION 3 - Can you account that Local money goes to fund only Local resources and activities? And that State money goes to fund only State activities? Given many resources are shared and each funding component contributes a percentage of the funding.

Why this is important to me:

If I am to support ideas like full state funding, I need to be able to separate State and Local funding. I do not want one school district paying for another's swimming pool, etc.

When I vote for Bond issues and Levies for SWL it would be nice to know what our local supplemental money is supporting and that we are funding State requirement completely.

First some numbers. Please correct or restate if you see where I am leading:

Southwest Licking Local School District FY2005 Local VS State Funding

A Local Share (23 Mils) = $9,683,381.43
B Total State Share = $10,912,132.37
C Total State Requirement funding (A+B) = $20,595,513.80
D ADM (iLRC Data FY2005) = 3,502.00
E Expenditure per Student (IRL Data FY2005) = $7,335.00
F EFM Total Expenditure (D*E) = $25,687,170.00
G Total Local (F-C) = $5,091,656.20

o I contend that SWL should be able to fulfill State requirements with item "C".

o I contend that SWL should then be able to fulfill "Local" activities, or those over and above State requirements, with item "G".

If SWL is spending State money "C" to achieve Local activities or If SWL is spending Local money "G" to fund State activities, something is wrong.

I realize there are shared resources but every organization has shared resources and can account to separate types of activities.

Thank you

* * * * * * * * * *

References:

FY2005 SF3 Report - OHIO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-DIVISION OF SCHOOL FINANCE DATE 03/03/2006 (FY 2005 FINAL SF3 VERSION 1, EMIS DATA 03/18/2005)

Foundation Settlement Report - SCHOOL FOUNDATION STATEMENT OF SETTLEMENT FOR MONTH OF JUNE NO 2 2005 NAME OF DISTRICT - SOUTHWEST LICKING LOCAL S.D. LICKING COUNTY

EFM Total Expenditure (Excel spreadsheet) Get MS Excel viewer

iLRC Districts Home

Outsider's View of the Ohio School Funding Crisis

No one else has really checked the other side of the big money grab scheme dealing with reforming Ohio's school funding system. Our Ohio Governor and Legislator really did us a favor by not coming up with a fix.

In 1998 I compiled the data, produced the charts and wrote the paper: The History of the Ohio School Funding Crisis: An Outsiders Point of View . It argues against everything The Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding is trying to do to the Ohio school funding system. I welcome anyone to challenge anything in the paper. I will publish your comments.

To prepare the report I collected 1996 EMIS data from all 611 Ohio school districts. I searched for correlations between performance and several measures. These measures include expenditure per pupil, student teacher ratio, average teacher salary, teachers with masters degree, and median family income. An analysis of the actual data used by the plaintive in the DeRolph is presented. Big decisions were made based on statistical shotgun patterns.

On March 24, 1997, the Ohio Supreme court ruled that the Ohio system of school funding was unconstitutional. Specifically, Ohio's elementary and secondary public school financing system violates Section 2, Article VI of the Ohio Constitution, which mandates a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state. See: DeRolph v. State (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 193 .

On October 20, 2003, the Court ended its involvement in the case. See details: DeRolph history . The Ohio General Assembly's response was to form a Blue Ribbon Task Force that was charged to come up with recommendations to solve the problem. They made some minor recommendations but the system remains about the same as it was in 1997.

Southwest Licking School District, Ohio - Local verses State accounting

I am presently only concerned with primary and secondary public education funding in the state of Ohio. And more specifically, the funding of the Southwest Licking Local School District.

The major thrust of school reform will be the separation of state requirements and local requirements. Here are some of my thoughts:

o The District can not account for local funding going to local activities. Neither can they account for state funding going to state requirement. They should.

o With the help of data from the state, I may be able to come up with a total cost estimate of non state required activities in the District. This, for course, reveals the cost of state requirements. Does it compare with the states foundation formula?

o How do I account for shared resources? This will be a challenge. I know it is done in most other organizations. Maybe I can get the help of an accountant.

o Once the local/state entanglement is resolved. The community will know where the state money goes and then be able to vote on what extras they would like.

o The District must be forced to provide state requirements with the foundation money they are given. If they can't, then they can present a good case to the state.