MARLINGTON & PERRY: ISSUES OF TRUST SURFACE YET AGAIN IN OTHER AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTS. HAS TRUST BEEN RESTORED IN NORTHWEST?

Over the past year the discussion has been whether or not Northwest Local School District officials had rebuilt trust enough to pass a 1% earned income levy in May, 2010.

The levy passed, but the SCPR thinks it is too early to tell on the matter of rebuilding trust.  Soon the District will be faced with another test.  Ohio, faced with an $8 billion shortfall in the next biennium, will be cutting local school districts like Northwest up to a third of its state monies.

It appears to the SCPR that the Northwest victory in November may have been more the product of a massive public relations effort rather than genuine trust at work.  A post-election Akron Beacon Journal articles reports: 

The district [Northwest] hired a Hudson public relations firm for five months to improve communication with residents, which included conducting a survey last June that revealed that the district had a perceived trust problem on handling finances. (Northwest finally wins at polls with planning, lots of communication,  John Higgins, May 9, 2010)

It is in crisis situations that we find out whether or not trust is sufficient to solve a problem.

The Northwest Board has held at least one post-election community meeting.  This is a step in the right direction.  However, the true test will come as the space between the May, 2010 election success and the current day widens.  Will the meetings continue with regularity and vigor?  If they continue, will they be pro forma or will district officials find a way to make them productive in rebuilding trust.

On to the Marlington situation.

Now we get news of yet another Stark County school district which is in a crisis mode.  The Alliance Review reports in Marlington board talks finances in a special meeting (Joni Bowen, June 5, 2010) that Superintendent Jim Nicodemo suspects that school district voters do not trust school officials.

The answer?

A la Northwest (at a cost of $13,000) about a year ago, the Marlington Board of Education (MBOE) has commissioned The Impact Group ($14,500) to determine the trust level between Marlington voters and the MBOE.

According to The Review, The Impact Group assignment will be:

...  to conduct phone interviews with 360 of the district’s 11,000 residents in order to obtain a 5 percent margin of error, Nicodemo said. The survey may include questions such as what type of levy individuals would support; whether the community trusts the district; whether the community trusts the superintendent; and whether the community would support passing a bond to construct new buildings within the district.

Depending on how the renewal/replacement levy scenario plays out, Marlington faces anywhere from a $918,391 to $2,824.575 deficit by 2013.

As with Northwest, it is obvious that Marlington school officials have be infected with myopia.  Moreover, they have not realized that trust building is a 24/7 year around operation.  Now the MBOE finds itself in a big financial problem.

And, of course, none of the deficit numbers factor in the upcoming state of Ohio cuts of up to one-third within the next year.

Think it might be smart on the part of the school folks at Northwest, Marlington, indeed, all of Stark County's school districts to construct something like the "A-Frame of Trust" and a day-in, day-out way of conducting business within the district.

On to the Perry school district.

The Perry school district is in the midst of destroying trust over the Whetstone matter.  Perhaps, if an "A-Frame of Trust" were in place, that situation would not have taken the ugly turn that it has.

Of many if not all Stark County school district officials, it needs to be said on the issue of trust:


Oh, when will they ever learn.  Oh, when will they ever learn!!!

ANOTHER STARK COUNTY OFFICIAL TRAVELS TO AN OHIO VACATION SPOT FOR "CONTINUING EDUCATION." IS THIS A GOOD MODEL IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC DISTRESS? AND HOW ABOUT RETIRE/REHIRE? IS SUCH A GOOD STEWARDSHIP OF PUBLIC MONIES?

Pictured above are Stark County clerk of courts Nancy Reinbold and Stark County recorder Rick Campbell.

Why put the two together?

Because they both are traveling at taxpayer expense (although Reinbold in paying for her own gasoline) to a continuing education event in mid-June to an Ohio resort location:  Campbell to Put-in-Bay resort and Reinbold to Kings Island resort.

So what is the point?

First, The Report digresses a little to pick up a point well made to yours truly by local attorney and community activist Craig T. Conley.

What point?

That working in the public sector is the best employment deal going in America, Ohio and Stark County.

It used to be that "public service" was done at a sacrifice to what one could earn in the private sector. But that is not the case much anymore.

For most government workers, the SCPR agrees with Conley's point.  The best jobs in the $35,000 to $150,000 range in Stark County, Ohio and in the U.S. of A (as Archie Bunker used to say) are in government.

When one considers the salary AND the benefits (heath care, retirement et cetera), there are few in the private sector who outdo their counterparts in the public sector.  Many, many private sector employees have jobs which pay a pittance (considering the total package) of what most in the public sector get.  And yet, it is the private sector which pays the lions' share of taxes to support the better paid public employee.

Here is where the SCPR gets to the nub of the matter with Reinbold and Campbell and their traveling to resort locations for continuing education.

For the Ohio Recorders Association, the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association and the like to schedule continuing education events at resort locations is a perk which underscores Conley's point.  Who wouldn't want a government job?

Educating and sort of vacationing at the same time is a bonus for the publicly employed.  At least for chief deputies, directors and title bureau czars.  Of course, these "special" trips don't go to the ordinary government worker.

So, what if upper level county employees get a "little" special treatment?

Here is the so what if.

What is about to happen to government, especially at the local level, is that the voting public is going to escalate refusing to vote in additional taxes to support the comparatively "puff" - "money-making" jobs that exist in too many numbers in the public sector.

Apparently, the days are lost past when one used to go into public work with "public service" as being a powerful motivator of doing so.

Take school teachers.  It used to be than everyone knew they were underpaid.  However, no one questioned their dedication and their affect/effect on the lives of all of us.  Who doesn't have a number of teachers who left and indelible, positive mark on our lives?

But there is less and less of that coming from teachers this day and age.  More and more it seems that teachers and administrators (most of who came out of the teaching ranks) are doing it for the money.

The retire/rehire phenomenon, it appears to the SCPR, is a big thing within the education community.  Moreover, it has a large place on other public sector employment venues.  And it is beginning to bring out a huge public reaction.

Why?

Retire/rehire is seen as a money-making proposition;  not about public service nor what is necessarily good for the public interest.

Take the Northwest schools.  The district's superintendent - William Stetler -  made $108,000 from Northwest in 2009.  Moreover, Stetler retired from Lake a number of years ago as was his right to do.  Of course, the SCPR can only conjecture as to what Stetler makes in retirement income, but it is likely at least in the $75,000 per year plus realm. 

So let's take what the SCPR believes to be a conservative $183,000 number in estimating Stetler's total income as a public official and public employment retiree.

How many taxpaying citizens of the Northwest school district or in an Stark County school district take in anywhere near $183,000 per year?  Not many!

Some believe that Stetler was brought to Northwest specifically to pass a levy which had not passed a new tax issue in about a decade.

There appears to have been some effort in Northwest (by Northwest's Board of Education) that Stetler not be seen as a front and center proponent that Northwest voters increase the taxes they pay (the 1% earned income passed in November)?

If so, the effort failed.  His footprints are all over it.  He was a $1,000 contributor to the Save Tomorrow committee.  No surprise, here.

It is a credit to Northwest voters that they were not put off by the Stetler publicly derived income numbers.

They are sacrificing in paying more of their declining income for the public good.  Many are without hope of retire/rehire or getting a job promotion or in getting a pay increase.  All too many are looking at givebacks or will get laid off from their jobs and within a short time will have "no or substantially reduced earned income" on which to pay taxes "for the public good."

It will be interesting to see how the revenues will be parceled out in Northwest from the May, 2010-passed 1% tax.  Financing of the tax issue campaign largely came from school employees.

Of course, we all are cognizant of our Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson and his multiple retirements while collecting a salary as Stark County's elected sheriff amid questions of how energetically he is working as sheriff. Moreover, he demonstrates contempt for the Stark County public in saying to the Stark County commissioners words to the effect of "poop on the public," when the matter of his retire/rehire came up.

In this retire/rehire scenario, there is no room for younger/less experienced persons to advance.  It is extremely important to have an infusion of new thinking and new energy into our public positions.

If board of education members and other determiners of how the public purse is spent had any - let's say - intestinal fortitude, they would only abide retire/rehire at a substantially lower salary (no more than 60% of the pre-retirement salary) and only on a convincing case being made that the rehired retiree has something of substantial value added over a new hire.

Back to Reinbold and Campbell and "the point" of this blog.

What is the moral of the story for them?

Answer:  For them to take action.  Yes, action.

The Report is all in favor of public officials getting more education about their jobs.  So by all means their associations need to continue their continuing education efforts.  However, they need to deliver the education more efficiently.

Reinbold is showing some sensitivity to the public by absorbing the "gas expense/wear and tear on her car" part of going to Kings Island.

The Report sees no corollary sensitivity from Recorder Campbell.

What both Reinbold and Campbell can and should do is to make an issue at their respective mid-June Association meetings as to where future meetings are held, or, if they should be held in physical assembly context at all.

When many taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet, it is not good public relations for public officials to be going to resorts at taxpayer expense.

In fact, maybe the associations should invest on teleconferencing equipment and expertise and thereby save counties lots of travel, hotel and meal money that way.  With the professions, it is getting more and more common for members to do online education or assemble in nearby (to their home locale) room to watch the session by video conference.

Like Campbell, Reinbold is taking two employees with her to Kings Island.  Why?

Can't she find a way to gather the important information for improvement of the operation of the clerk of courts office without the expense of meals and housing for two employees (German and Louis Giavasis)?  Likewise for Campbell.

Both should be keeping in mind that a renewal of a 0.250 sales/use tax is coming up soon.

Shouldn't they be taking action with their associations to nix the "boondoggle" appearance of where association meetings are being held?

If they don't, then they have only themselves to blame when the voting public gets sick and tired of hearing about public employees education/vacation packages and other "the public be damned" expenditures of taxpayer monies and vote NO repetitively on renewals or new tax issues.

If public bodies and officials do not change how they do business, the public will change it for them at the ballot box.

And the change is going to be a painful process for public officials/employess as well as for the public at large.

NEXT ELECTION: NOVEMBER 3, 2009; HAS NORTHWEST BEGUN ITS MAY, 2010 LEVY CAMPAIGN?

Some folks living in Canal Fulton, Clinton (Summit County) and Lawrence Township would argue with the phrase on the Northwest Local School District website.

Well, at least part of it - "fiscally responsible."

But be that as it is, it could be that a September 30, 2009 article in The Massillon Independent (Northwest enrollment impacting finances, Erin Putsay) signifies that Northwest officials have begun their campaign to get a levy passed in May, 2010.

It is hard to follow the mathmatical logic of the piece because of the confusing Superintendent William Stetler statement quoted below.

Here is how the SCPR computes the numbers:

Northwest is losing 230 students a year through graduation, while gaining 140 in at the entry level.

Hmm?

Minus 90 a year on the basis of current trends, right?

But Stetler says:

What we are finding is that students, between the fifth- and sixth-grades and sixth- and seventh-grades, are leaving; they aren’t staying,  With the exception of the (middle school age students) we aren’t really losing students, but we aren’t seeing an influx because no one is moving in.

Sounds like, not only is Northwest losing through attrition (the 230-140 equals a minus 90), but, apparently, because of Northwest's financial woes - students' famililies moving out of the school district to other area school districts.

On the Northwest website Stetler cites a statement from Charlotte Perkins Gelman:, to wit:   "You cannot put a quart in a pint cup."

And then he goes on to paint a rather dismal picture for Northwest schoos:

The Northwest School District is trying to do just that. Please consider:

• 
  
  Northwest's revenue per student is in the bottom 3 percent in the entire state of Ohio.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Northwest is one million dollars in debt.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Northwest has lost and will continue to lose essential programs and services that our children and families need.
  
  
  

Earlier in October, yours truly had a brief exchange with the Stark County Educational Service Center's Larry Morgan (superintendent) who expressed great concern about the Northwest situation.

The SCPR believes that a Northwest levy campaign has begun.  But the question is this:  Is there any hope?

Stetler says there is.  In is superintendent's message on the website, he quotes Christopher Reeves:  "Once you have hope, anything is possible." Kind of sounds like:  "With God, all things are possible?"

Statler himself is a believer in miracles.

And, it will take a miracle to pass a levy in Northwest, even with this early start on the campaign.

Stetler himself articulates the reason:

We are in this dire situation due to a lack of trust and an absence of communication, (emphasis added) according to our recent community survey. Let's begin working together. We are looking for volunteers who are willing to help save our community and schools.

 Government officials from the local school board to the White House never quite get it on the matters of trust and communication.

Trust and connection are not lost in one large, cataclysmic event.

Trust and connection are lost grain by grain over a long period of time.

Getting them back does call for a miracle.

Right now that seems to be the only thing for Northwest officials have to hope for.

Now we shall see if William Stetler is the "miracle worker" the Northwest Board hired him to be.

DISCUSSION: IS NORTHWEST BOARD PRESIDENT STEVE JONES WORKING FOR OR AGAINST THE UPCOMING LEVY?

Obviously, working for it.

But from the way Jones (the board's president) is handling the replacement of a recently deceased board member "in secret" (according to a report in yesterday's Rep), the effect may be that he working against it.

Anytime a public official does something "in secret," it raises eyebrows.

And the upcoming levy approval request by the Northwest schools may be decided by the narrowest of margins. In November, 2008 and February, 2009 levies failed by less than 400 votes.

All Northwest needs is a few "fence-sitting" voters to go negative because of Jones' uncalled for secrecy.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) recommends that Mr. Jones return to his alma mater Malone College and take a course in Politics 101.

Actually he needed to take the course before now. In 2003 he failed to qualify for the regular ballot in running for the Northwest Board of Education because he turned in a petition with the bare minimum of 25.

So?

Well, one of the 25 was invalidated because the Stark Board of Elections determined that one spouse had signed the other spouse's name. He ended up running as a "write-in" candidate.

Politics 101 truism: "write-in" candidate do not generally win. And guess what? Jones did not come close to being one of the winners, even though he had been on the board for 8 years by the 2003 election rolled around.

Anyone who has a ordinary political IQ knows better to show up with the bare minimum of required signatures.

Jones has been on the Northwest Board of Education for going on a total of 13 years. He should have more political sense than to do what he doing in the handling of the board member replacement.

It's one thing if he suffers individually for his political mistakes. It's quite a different matter when the victim could be an entire school system.