Friday, February 15, 2008

WHAT IS A NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL?

Please read this next sentence carefully... I am looking for people's definition of a neighborhood school, that is ALL. If you can't post your definition of "neighborhood school" then don't post on this thread. I'm just curious since that term is thrown out there a lot. I'm pretty sure there will be as many definitions as there are posters but I have only heard one "definition" that seems to fit with what happens when proposed boundary changes occur.

So please give us your definition of a "neighborhood school" -- anything off topic will be deleted.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

IMPORTANT INFORMATION RE: SO-CALLED CALCULATOR TO PREDICT DROP IN PROPERTY VALUES

Well it didn't take long but I didn't figure it would. A local blogger has jumped on a presentation from the board meeting last night and posted a link to a website that will supposedly calculate the value of your house based on its proximity to schools. I say supposedly because the blogger failed to include the disclaimer from said website. The disclaimer reads:

Data is provided for informational purposes only. Actual sales value of a home will depend on many factors, of which proximity to schools is one. Estimates are based off of a study of 1075 residential properties sold in the Oshkosh area over the past year as recorded by the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and City of Oshkosh Assessor's data. Beta Biostatistics makes ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY on the suitability of these estimates for any purpose.


Well the way I read the last sentence, these estimates are basically USELESS since the "site" gives ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY that the estimates are suitable for ANY purpose. The site itself says they won't say the estimates can be used for any purpose yet the blogger puts it out there as if it is a fact that your property WILL decrease as the site indicates.

The blog owner also doesn't understand how, even if these figures were accurate, this would work. Contrary to what is posted, property taxes are based on ASSESSED values, not speculative sales price and if the property values did actually drop, the city is still not allowed to increase taxes to "make up the difference", the state holds the city to pretty tight revenue controls and even if property values dropped (and remember there is NO WARRANTY that any of these figures can be used for ANY purpose) the city would have to cut the budget NOT raise taxes.

So don't be fooled by a website that won't vouch for itself. There is no way to verify any of this so called data or the calculations presented.

For those of you who still insist on believing this nonsense, then what you are saying is the district can never change a boundary line that would require a student to go even 6 blocks further to school as it would have a negative impact on property values. Of course once again if you insist on believing in this flawed data, those students who live on the South side of 14th and all of 15th between Oregon and Minnesota have to be happy, under the current plan, their property values would actually increase because Jefferson is closer to their house than Smith is! I'm sure there are many other locations that would find similar results but I'm not about to waste my time on this flawed non-verifiable, non warranted website.