SCESC/17 PARTICIPATING SCHOOL DISTRICTS "TOO-HASTILY-PREPARED" TO IMPLEMENT AN "EFFECTIVE" SCHOOL SAFETY SPECIAL TAX FUNDED PROGRAM?

AN "OVERWHELMING" VOTE OF "NO-CONFIDENCE" IN OHIO GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS INCLUDING STARK COUNTIANS HAGAN, OELSLAGER, SCHURING & WEST AS WELL AS AREA EDUCATION OFFICIALS?

UPDATE:  ELECTION DAY 08.07.2018

IS THE PROPOSED ISSUE 1 FOR TUESDAY'S SPECIAL ELECTION

"FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED" AND NEEDS TO BE RE-WORKED?

DECISION DATE

TOMORROW, TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2018
COST OF THE SPECIAL ELECTION:  $300,400

UNDERLYING GRAPHIC FROM POPULAR MECHANICS  SEPT/2018

Orange/Yellow text overlay added by SCPR

Also included are Brown, Dalton & Strasburg Local Schools.

The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) has done an extensive study of:

• the workup by the Ohio General Assembly of HB 24 which empowered educational service centers across Ohio to be the authorizing agent of government for the formulation of a taxpayer supported "security and mental health resources" plan of action,
• the preparation in terms of the adequacy of amount of taxpayer funds to be raised, 
• some $9.5 million annually (with no expiration date of the levy) to cover some 44,000 students at a cost to most affected participating school district taxpayers (a SCPR opinion: of $50 to $150 per year), and, lastly,
• accountability to taxpayers for the likely and actual effectiveness of the planned expenditures.

and concludes that the 1.49 mill levy is a too hastily prepared implementation plan that:

• either needs to be rejected by voters for reformulation AFTER a more thorough consideration of Best Practices already implemented in school districts around the nation, or, if passed
•  reworked to ensure that our students end up after the expenditure of millions of dollars being much safer than the current set of proposals seemingly provide for.

But let the SCPR be abundantly clear.  

There is no doubt that local/Ohio student security is woefully inadequate and there needs to be an infusion of a combination of time-tested and "new" security/mental health strategies and, yes, techniques instituted in our schools. 

Unfortunately, it appears there are a bunch of pedestrian ways and means being implemented that likely will not significantly improve security though millions and millions of dollars (over the "continuous" life of a 1.49 mill tax levy) with no structure of effectiveness accountability in place, being  "hurriedly" thrown at the problem at the "rush, rush, rush" initiative of Ohio General Assembly (which include locals Hagan, Oelslager, Schuring and West) in the wake of the tragedy of Parkland, FL (February 14, 2018) in which 17 students/faculty were killed.

It was shocking to the SCPR the hear Plain Local Schools president and president elect of the Ohio State School Boards Association to give what The Report considers to be a lame and highly irresponsible response to this blogger's "accountability" to the tax paying public questions for how effectively the millions of dollars to be spent over the perpetual life of the 1.49 mill levy proposal are, in fact, spent.

The gist of Halkias' response was that citizens of the fourteen (not including Canton City, Canton Local and Perry Local) Stark County districts have the right to attend local school board meetings and question whether or not the 1.49 mill monies have been/are being spent in an effective manner.

Halkias' "accountability" is not a practical response in the context of the 1.49 mill levy being spread over 17 school districts which he should understand more than most.

What needs to happen, if the levy passes, is for Stark County Educational Service Center (SCESC, note:  this blogger's wife is vice president of the SCESC) superintendent Joe Chaddock to assemble all the participating school district superintendents at the SCESC office complex located at Stark State College within ninety days of the schools' fiscal year on an annual basis to lay out to the taxpaying public:

• a detailed description of security/mental health resource measures implemented,
• a credible assessment of the "enhancement of security" effectiveness of the implementations, 
• the cost effectiveness as compared to other available measures, and
• plans for next year's and "over the longer haul" changes in the security/mental health 

Recently, the SCPR sat down with retired Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge Michael Howard to, among other topics, review the criticisms of the Issue 1 approach (LINK) including the accountability factor.

Plain Township is probably Stark's foremost model of what Stark Countians can expect is and will continue to be done to deal with Stark Schools security/mental health inadequacies.

Here is what Plain superintendent Brent May presented on July 16, 2018 to a collection of mostly Plain  citizens:

Yesterday, the SCPR courtesy of the Stark County District Library (SCDL, supported by and combination of local [1.7 mill property tax levy] and rapidly state of Ohio monies came upon an online edition of Popular Mechanics which provides a model for parents of Stark's students to assess whether or not Plain's plan is the best that can be done for all of Stark's participating in the 1.49 mill levy schools.

Members (free of cost) of the SCDL can access the article in the September, 2018 edition of the Popular Mechanics magazine.

The SCPR encourages citizens and school officials alike to access the thoroughgoing Popular Mechanics treatment of school security/mental health measures to ensure greater safety in our schools.

Here is a collage of the range of coverage the Popular Mechanics article covers.  Parents/school officials and citizens ought to want to read this well organized and thoughtful presentation.

In addition to the Popular Mechanics article, readers of this blog should take the time to view an NBC video entitled:  "Inside the safest school in America."

When tax dollars are spent, the should be spent in the most effective and efficient manner that the "state of the art" provides for, no?