No, we are not anti-teacher, anti-levy, or anti-…

Paul Lambert

Are Don Roberts, Justin Gardner and Paul Lambert just another set of those anti-tax, anti-levy, anti-teacher, anti-everything crazies that have popped up of late in seemingly every school district in Central Ohio?

Most definitely not!

We know that a strong community is built around strong schools, and that strong schools are built around a skilled, motivated and effective team of teachers, staff members, and administrators. Our concern is that too much of the dialog about school economics is based on false beliefs and rumors, leading voters to invalid conclusions about what needs to be done to preserve the excellence we have come to expect in our schools.

Don, Justin and I were recently interviewed by Brett Liebendorfer of the Hilliard Northwest News recently for a story he wrote about the formation of EducateHilliard.org, and its endorsement of us for the three seats on the Hilliard School Board to be filled this November.

Brett did a nice job on the story, but he got one crucial quote wrong (he takes handwritten notes rather than making an audio recording). Bret quoted me as saying:

“None of us have any beef with the educational process,” said Lambert who had two children graduate from the district. The common issue is finances; we don’t see why our taxes have to keep going up.”

What I said was that the people of the community don’t understand why our taxes have to keep going up. That’s different.

Don, Justin and I understand very well why our taxes have been going up. There are three reasons:

1. The State of Ohio has been redirecting an increasing amount of school funding from suburban districts to rural and urban districts for years;
2. The Cities of Hilliard, Dublin and Columbus have allowed residential development to explode without bringing in corresponding commercial development to help share the local funding burden;
3. The cost of paying the salaries and benefits of our teachers, staff and administrators has increased from $102 million in 2004 to $132 million in 2009, and is projected to reach $163 million by 2013.

This is a multi-dimensional problem which must be addressed on all three fronts. However, the reality is that the School District has direct control over only one these elements – the cost of salaries and benefits for its employees.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of work to do on the other two fronts. The School Board can organize and lead a conversation directed toward our elected leaders in the Statehouse and the City Halls. Our current School Board feels this is outside their sphere of influence. They’re dead wrong, and their silence is costing us money.

Changing the behavior of our representatives in the Statehouse requires the combined effort of all the suburban school districts in Ohio. The EducateHilliard.org team has already developed lines of communication with like-minded groups in Worthington, Westerville and Olentangy school districts. Has our School Board tried to develop a relationship with their counterparts in other school districts? Not that we know of.

Our position is that we want the people of the community to understand these dynamics well enough so that we as Board members can facilitate an open and reasonable dialog about how to manage these costs, and therefore the rate of increase of our taxes.

Will there need to be more levies?  Of course. In fact we believe our current School Board has put us in a position where we may need to pass a levy in 2010 of approximately 7 mills in order to keep our school district solvent at its current level of services to our kids. And if something isn’t done about our spending trajectory, another 7 mill levy will be needed by 2012.

The work to be done has a longer horizon.

Certainly, we need to put pressure on the Governor and our State Legislators to stop taking money away from the suburbs. That’s not a job the School Board can do alone – every member of our community has to make their voice heard in the Statehouse to get the attention of our representatives.

In the same way, the disastrous residential development policies carried out by the Mayors and City Councils of Hilliard, Dublin and Columbus will continue unless the people of our communities start telling these local leaders that we’ve had all the new home building we can afford until they start bringing in a lot more commercial revenue.

There is no doubt that with an operating budget approaching $150 million, there are some dollars to be saved in the $20 million that isn’t salaries and benefits. But we aren’t going to keep our fiscal house in order by worrying about 13% of the budget and not seriously dealing with the 87%.

This brings me back to the connecting of the dots: operating levies are about salaries and benefits. We need to frame the conversation in that way so we can rationally move on to the key question:

How much will the people of our community agree to increase their property taxes to give raises to the teachers, staff members, and administrators employed by our school district?

I think the teachers might be surprised by the answer they get from the community. After all – other than the few among us who were born and raised in the Hilliard community – the vast majority of us moved to Hilliard to put our kids into the Hilliard School District. There is a built-in bias in favor of keeping our teachers and staff happy so that they will continue to do all the things they do to keep our schools Excellent with Distinction.

But in these tough economic times, I suspect a heavy-handed posture on the part of the teachers union, which includes the threats of work stoppages and  strikes – as happened during the last negotiation – will backfire, as it is in so many of our neighboring school districts.

I believe the people of this community have a reasonable right to say to the teachers: “We have been supporting you contract after contract, and levy after levy, for many years. Now we’re asking that you back off on your demands for a while, until we see where this economy goes.”

Let’s spend some time bringing the general knowledge of the community up to a level that we can collectively sit down and figure out a solution we can all live with.

That’s the platform Don, Justin and I stand on.

Dwindling Cash Reserve

Justin Gardner

Cash is king - we’ve all heard it before.

California is to the point of printing IOUs because they have run out of cash. A school district can protect itself from running out of cash by maintaining a cash reserve. If a school district could predict the upcoming expenses and budget properly with perfect accuracy, there would be no need for a cash reserve. But when changes occur, like the Governor’s budget cuts of approximately $375k in 2010 and $750K in 2011, there needs to be adequate cash on hand to absorb these changes until permanent adjustments can be identified and implemented.

In 2006, the school board adopted a policy to maintain a 10% of operating expense cash reserve for this purpose, but has not been adhering to their adopted policy. Policy DBDA states, “The Board believes that maintaining a cash reserve balance of 10% of operating expenses is necessary in the interest of sound fiscal management.” It is clear from the Treasurer’s Five Year Forecast that the current School Board has been not acting “in the interest of sound fiscal management.”

The following table reflects the data from the Treasurer’s forecast:

Year            Op Exp  10% of Op Exp   Cash Balance            Shortfall
2006            $131.9          $13.19                  $11.14                  $2.05
2007            $138.7          $13.87                  $15.38                  ($1.51)
2008            $146.3          $14.63                  $11.51                  $3.12
2009            $151.0          $15.10                  $13.15                  $1.95
2010            $159.5          $15.95                  $11.90                  $4.05
2011            $166.6          $16.66                  $  3.81                 $13.85
2012            $174.9          $17.49                  ($13.45)                $30.94
2013            $184.5          $18.45                  ($42.27)                $60.72

Why is the School Board failing to honor their own requirement? Rather than building up the cash reserve or even maintaining 10%, they spent down the cash reserve to continue funding operations without requesting another levy.

From the above data, we see that operating expenses are increasing $6-8 million per year. At the May 2009 board meeting when this five year forecast was presented by the Treasurer, he noted the need for a levy in 2010. The Board appeared in agreement that a levy was the solution. The levy will help get back some of the reserve, but the rate of Operating expense growth is the alarming factor. As this number grows, the Cash Reserve requirement grows. To simultaneously cover the forecasted expenses and rebuild a 10% cash reserve by 2017, it would take a levy in excess of 7 mills in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

The board has been non-compliant with this policy in the past and expects to be in non-compliance in the future, which puts our school district at risk of becoming like the cash-strapped South Western City Schools, or California.

The policy continues, “Upon receiving any indication that such a cash balance may not be achieved at any point within the rolling five-year financial forecast period, the Treasurer shall report such a finding to the Board.  Upon such notification by the Treasurer, the Superintendent and Treasurer will propose options that the Board may consider to forestall such an eventuality.”

The only option I keep hearing is the need for more levies, cutting bus stops to save on diesel fuel, and program reductions. The main question is, why are expenses increasing approximately 5-6% a year?

The union labor agreements, negotiated by your current School Board, continue to increase salaries, which have exceeded 7% per year for most teachers in the past two contracts, and are projected to average 5.5% for most teachers in the next contract. With unemployment in Ohio hitting 10%, and those lucky enough to maintain employment receiving an average salary increase of 2-3%, our teachers and administration are forecasting guaranteed future raises of 5.5% – paid for by additional tax levies. The union contract is set to be negotiated at the end of 2010 along with a request for operating levy. This current school board will not take the tough road and reduce spending, but instead continues rely on more revenue through levies.

Do you, the voters, want the same compensation increases to continue, without a fight by your representatives, causing our schools to run without the necessary reserves? Are you tired of expenses being the determining factor for the levies?

Perhaps it is time for a change, and while I don’t propose cuts to salaries, I do propose a discussion about reducing the increase percentage to something the taxpayer can afford in the current economic climate.

A responsible contract negotiation led by EducateHilliard’s supported candidates, who have a background in law, finance, and accounting, will result in a return to adequate Cash reserve balances.

Learn more about EducateHilliard.org by visiting our website.

4th of July Parade

Paul Lambert, Don Roberts (with Haley), and Justin Gardner

The three candidates kicked off their campaigns with a bang, literally!

We engaged with the public while walking along with the Hilliard 4^th of July Parade – sporting our stylish new t-shirts.   EducateHilliard.org delivered a powerful message with the business cards through an invitation to visit our website to have some very important questions answered.  As we traveled the parade route, each of us had the opportunity to briefly discuss a few issues with our neighbors.  As I handed out cards, I was asked (actually “told”, is the more accurate term), “I hope you’re gonna change what we have now!”  I directed those citizens to the front of my t-shirt, which read “Leadership for a Change.”  It brought a smile to the man’s face and a chuckle or two from those surrounding us.

As I pulled the wagon that my daughter, Haley, rode in behind me, I shook hands, introduced myself, and just waved once I ran out of cards.  It was great to see so many people welcoming our message and even asking for the cards as we walked along the route.  With my son attending Ridgewood elementary and my daughter attending the special needs preschool, I felt I had already met a lot of the Hilliard community, but the parade gave me the opportunity to meet many new people, including a young man with Down Syndrome who made it a point to shake my hand, as well as Haley’s.

Toward the end of the parade, I spoke with a woman who identified herself as a Hilliard teacher.  I responded that I thought that was great, and that we need to ensure that we can maintain the high quality schools that we have.  She agreed, “absolutely!”  I felt a strong sense of pride knowing so many of us can agree that we have something pretty great here in Hilliard, and we are willing to work hard to keep it.

When the event was over, I talked with my fellow EducateHilliard.org endorsed candidates, Justin Gardner and Paul Lambert, who shared equally rewarding experiences.  Paul told how he made some real connections with a couple of the voters, and Justin had received many positive comments from the community. All three of us ran out of cards.

The parade was a huge success. We were able to meet with members of all parts of our community: the young , the young at heart, students, parents, teachers and businesses owners.  All three of us would agree that the campaign is off to a great start!