LET'S LOOK AT SOME FACTS

FACT:

Oshkosh has the lowest tax rate of 9 comparable districts for 2007-2008 school year:

Sheboygan $10.10
Kimberly $ 9.25
Eau Claire $ 9.15
Janesville $ 8.34
Neenah $ 8.33
Menasha $ 8.25
Fond du Lac $ 8.15
Kaukauna $ 8.13
Appleton $ 7.88
Oshkosh $ 7.39


Oshkosh has 4 more Elementary Schools and 2 more Middle Schools than similar sized districts in WI--- Eau Claire, Janesville and Sheboygan all have 12 Elementary schools (Oshkosh has 16) and 3 Middle Schools (Oshkosh has 5)

Oshkosh School District mill rate in 1992 (over $15 per $1,000 equalized value)
Oshkosh School District mill rate in 2008 ($7.39 per $1,000 equalized value)

What does that mean?

I'll use my house as an example --- in 1992 my house was assessed at $39,900 which means my school tax in 1992 would have been approximately (I don't have the exact rate but I know it was over $15 so I just used $15 as the rate) $598.50 ($39,900/1,000 =39.90 X $15 = $598.50)

In 2008 my house was assessed at $73,000 which means my school tax was $539.47

Well look at that my 2008 school tax was $59.03 LESS than it was in 1992 (that isn't even accounting for inflation) [$598.50 was worth more in 1992 than it is today].

If your house was assessed at $100,000 in 1992 and $200,000 your school taxes would have been:

1992 --- $1,500
2008 --- $1,478

That is what the revenue controls have done, in Oshkosh, they have cut the mill rate by more than half. I have to wonder about those who say the school district keeps increasing taxes. The facts just don't seem to bear that out.

If you compare Oshkosh with surrounding and like-sized communities Oshkosh's tax rate is significantly lower, which means we have done more with less dollars than other districts.

Cost of the Referendum

There is a story in the Sunday, January 25, 2008 Northwestern that states that the total cost of the referendum, in year one, if all 3 questions pass would be about $52 on a $100,000 home. As I suspected, less than one month of cable television or two months of the dish and a whole lot less than the new ipod touch.

I don't know how many different ways to let people know that teachers do NOT get a 3.8% pay raise, that if the district offers teachers less than a 3.8% package the teachers can go to arbitration and the district risks losing and if they lose they must give the teachers whatever they asked for in the last proposal that went to arbitration (as well as paying arbitration fees, lawyers fees etc.). It is unfortunate that posters who do NOT at all understand the QEO continue to post misinformation. Moderating comments saves me time in deleting these erroneous posts before people read them.

Back to the referendum. I do not think $52 on a $100,000 home is outrageous, my home is not even valued at $100,000 but I could certainly find $52 a YEAR in my budget. And before you all go on and on about those on "fixed incomes" my 80 year old mother is on a "fixed" income but you know what? Her SS income goes up every year and more than $52... by the way she lives in Milwaukee in a home valued at about $125,000 and her property taxes are well over $3,000 and she manages to pay them. The taxes in Oshkosh don't even come close to that figure.

I must say, reading the comments on the NW regarding the cost of the referendum makes me want to move, then I remind myself that the posters are NOT representative of Oshkosh in general, just a small negative segment of Oshkosh.

Now if you have questions about specifics of the referendum or comments about the capital improvement priorities, please post. If you want to go on about "extravagant teacher pay" find somewhere else to post, I've read more than my fill of those and won't be posting them.

Referendum Issues

I have moved some comments from the "Candidates" thread to this one as they are about the referendum not the candidates. I would really like people to focus on the issues (using facts would be great but I know many bloggers don't want to bother with that). If the post isn't on topic I'll delete, if that becomes too much work I'll have to go to moderating (which I really don't want to do and if that becomes too cumbersome I'll just shut the blog down).

This thread is to post questions, concerns or opinions you have about the proposed referendum, I know there isn't a lot of information out there right now but I expect that to change very soon. We don't need a rehashing of the Ryf Road site, that has been decided, that will be where a new school, if approved, is located. So maybe posters could focus on the other two questions, and if you don't support those, please explain how you think the district should go about fixing up its buildings? Should any buildings be closed? How would YOU decide which buildings to close? Which buildings to repair? Which buildings aren't worth repairing?

If you want to talk about candidates for the School Board, please post on that thread. If you just want to post nasty things, find a different blog.

School Board Election

The previous thread has way too many posts and very little discussion. One of the last posts I am moving here. I found it just a little interesting that the "announcement" would end up on MY blog rather than the candidate's.

Here is the post:

Anonymous said...
A friend forwarded this email to me. All I can say is not again.


Good Morning,

Kent and I have weighed the pros and cons of one more run at the BOE. Due to health concerns, I was hesitant to consider a campaign as I do not feel I can give it everything I have in the past. I am not able to do door to door and put up signs primarily. Kent is not able to help as he has to travel to Virginia with his job. Not to mention we have four children.

After much discussion and giving consideration to our school district's current situation, I have decided that it would be a bigger crime not to run. With your help, I can run a great campaign. I believe that there is a better way to address our district's challenges and with common sense budgeting and conservative approaches, we can turn this school district around and take care of our schools.

I am asking for your help. I need to collect 100-200 signatures by the end of the month. I would appreciate if you could take 2-3 sheets and fill at least 1-2. Let me know if you can take nomination papers and I will drop them off for you by the end of this week.

Also, if you could help with my campaign, let me know what you would like to do.

Thanks much and Merry Christmas.

Michelle Monte


Saturday, January 3, 2009 3:44:00 PM CST



It still remains to be seen whether there will be enough candidates to require a primary.

I just hope at least a few of the candidates will have specifics on EXACTLY what they would do differently... saying one will not raise taxes just isn't enough for me. If you won't levy to the limit, then where will you cut/save to balance the budget? If you are going to put $3M in the operating budget to repair our buildings where will those dollars come from. Stop hinting around... if your plan is to offer the unions 2% packages say that, if you plan to increase class sizes say so, I'm tired of people campaigning by having great sound bites but NO substance. Of course they don't want to offend any voters so I'm sure for most their "plans" will be very short on details. Why voters tolerate that is beyond me. I'm just hoping I'll be able to find 3 candidates to vote for.

Once Tues comes we should know who the candidates are. I hope we can have a REAL discussion of the issues the district faces and the "plan" each candidate comes with.

Referendum Proposal

At the September 24 Oshkosh School Board Meeting the referendum questions were discussed. The VERY short story is the interim superintendent recommended a 3 question referendum with the questions looking something like the following -- dollar amounts are NOT set in stone, just a place to start discussions:

Question 1: New Oaklawn/Sunset probably on Ryf Road $15,000,000 (approx. amount based on Feb. 2008 figures)

Question 2: Exceed Revenue Caps by $1,300,000 per year for 5 years for deferred maintenance projects

Question 3: Exceed Revenue Caps by $500,000 per year for Capital Action plans (one example of this might be secured entrances at all schools)

Here is a link to the entire board packet, the referendum information starts on page 38

Here are the deferred maintenance projects:

Projects Prioritized from Deferred Maintenance History

2009
All Schools
Electrical/Lighting Improvements, Upgrading fixtures, emergency & gym lighting $653,400

P.Tipler:
HVAC
A/C $ 275,000
Roof $ 225,640
All Other
North Cylinder repair of elevator $ 80,000
Total $1,234,040

2010
E. Cook Media Center
Roof $75,000

Roosevelt
Boiler $975,000

West (1 of 2)
Bleachers $195,000

W. Stanley (1 of 3)
Windows $55,000

Total $1,300,000

2011
S. Park
Boiler & DDC controls $1,350,000

Total $1,350,000

2012
District Wide
Roof repair/replace $750,000

W. Stanley (2 of 3)
Windows $55,000

West (2 of 2)
Bleachers $195,000

Merrill (1 of 2)
HVAC upgrade $315,000

Total $1,315,000

2013
District Wide
Roofs $750,000

J. Shapiro
HVAC $150,000

W. Stanley (3 of 3)
Windows $55,000

Merrill (2 of 2)
HVAC upgrade $400,000

Total $1,355,000

One thing really jumped out at me... the cost of a new boiler at South Park $1.3 MILLION ... Should the deferred maintenance question fail, I shudder to think what the cuts would look like if the $1.3 Million cost of a new boiler was taken out of operating funds.

A few people have posted on various blogs that the district should fund all its maintenance and capital improvements out of its operating funds. I wonder how many homeowners have enough money in their "operating" budgets to replace their furnace should it go out? I would imagine most would either take out a loan or take the money from a savings account.

So what do you think? Do you like 3 questions vs. just one or two? Would you support any or all of the questions? Why or why not?

What is the Role and Responsibility of Elected Officials?

When I served on the school board I attended a conference where the speaker was a Philip Boyle (at the time a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and now a private consultant) he was an excellent speaker who really understood the role of elected officials. That conference clarified for me, my role as a school board member and helped in some ways to explain why the BOE had (and still has) such difficulties making decisions at times. This article explains very clearly what the role of elected officials should be.

Here are some excerpts from the above article:

We call them public values, because they come into play when we act or are affected as citizens. We can group them into four core values (Note: for more detailed discussions of these values and how they shape public policy and political theory, see O'Toole, Stone, Okun, and Brinkley et al.):

Liberty, which includes freedom, choice, access, autonomy, mobility, openness, transparency, individual rights, voluntary, opportunity, individuality, exemptions, privacy, due process, independence, personal responsibility, self-determination, and self-sufficiency.

Prosperity, which includes economy, efficiency, growth, productivity, profit, cost reduction, development, incentives, competition, consolidation, centralization, privatization, standardization, specialization, performance measurement, benchmarking, return on investment, using market rules to make decisions, and quantity of life.

Equality, which includes fairness, justice, tolerance, acceptance, diversity, equity, inclusion, representation, equal rights, equal opportunity, equal treatment, equal results, grandfathering, and a level playing field.

Community, which includes safety, security, a sense of connection and belonging to the people and places where we live and work, a sense of place and identity, health, aesthetics, preservation, restoration, conservation, tradition, customs, the sacred, uniformity, social and moral order, and quality of life.


As shown below, each of these public values represents a competing vision for public education:

Public Education and Liberty
Let parents choose schools, control how education dollars are spent
Charter, magnet, cyber schools
Private schools, home schooling
Open enrollment and transfers
Academic freedom, freedom of speech
Local control and governance
Open meetings, transparency, public input

Public Education and Prosperity
Meet global standards
Further economic progress
Compete in 21st century workplace
Career preparation, real-world learning
Apply market principles to education and schools
Treat parents as consumers
Continuous school improvement
Measurement and certification
Commercialization
Operate schools like a business

Public Education and Equality
Equitable funding
Equal opportunity
Eliminate race, gender, class, ethnic, and cultural biases
Teach all history and cultures
All courses and sports available to all students
Alternative, special, bi-lingual education
Free and reduced breakfast/lunch programs
Non-discriminatory policies governing public use of school facilities
Close achievement gaps
Title IX

Public Education and Community
Meet social and emotional needs
All children learn together
Avoid competition, ranking, social sorting
Strengthen families and communities
Smaller classes, neighborhood schools
Art, music, civics, character education, service learning
Health, exercise, diet, nutrition, physical education
Drug testing, dress codes, zero tolerance
Safe, clean, secure, comfortable, welcoming schools
Raise children, don't just teach children
Save recess!

While there are statements I agree with in all 4 values, my values run much more to the Community/ Equality set than the other 2 (though there are one or two statments in the community set that I do not agree with) as I think anyone can see there are others who were or are on the board whose values run much more to Prosperity and somewhat to Liberty. As the article indicates, no one value is better than any other, the key for elected officials is to balance all the values and leave everyone better off than before they started. It is a tall order and since many officials are not even aware of the struggle with these values, this is rarely the approach taken.

An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life. -- Unknown

Private organizations and institutions can promote one value over the others, but government cannot. We expect the American Civil Liberties Union to promote liberty, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to promote equality, the YMCA and Sierra Club to promote community, and the chamber of commerce to promote prosperity. But only one institution -- government -- is responsible for protecting and promoting all four public values. We prevent anarchy and tyranny, as the Founders intended, by making room for each public value in the public sphere.

And we ask our public officials -- both elected and appointed -- to make good public choices by balancing these values. In this context, public school leadership is not about power, authority, or public opinion. As James Madison might have put it, school boards and administrators are charged with refining and enlarging the public views so that they may best discern the true public interest.

So what do you think? Does this make sense? Does it explain to some degree why the BOE gets stymied? Please keep the discussion ON TOPIC... I will delete ALL posts that stray from this topic.

A Little GOP Hypocrisy

I moved the link here from a different post... thanks anonymous...

I found this to be quite amusing, especially O'Reilly's comments on teen pregnancy...