Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

This Friday I sat and watched the Violet Festival Parade in the rain. My opinion of the event hasn't changed since the last parade I watched three years ago. It is nothing more than the city spending a ton of money promoting a pitiful commercial group most of whom have businesses external to the area. This year there were only a couple of politicians thank god.

What I did see is a very obvious difference between the two High Schools and the effort that drives each. Both Pickerington High School Bands marched in the parade. The North Band out shined the Central band by not only their size but their sprit. The Central band director sat in his golf cart and didn't look back but gave hand signals to his field commanders. Lew Steman drove the golf cart. The Central's music was uninspiring and wasn't up to the effort the North school put on. The uniforms for the North school were of better quality and you could see the North boosters had raised more money and their kids looked better in both dress and performance.

Clearly the policy of Pickerington School Board of equal schools has now come to a head. Despite this policy, the North school does have a disproportional amount of the funds and assets. This is not only in capital expenditures but operating expenditures. The difference of these two facilities we will find the red line that separates the two school districts was drawn along a line to separate the more affluent children in the north areas from the less affluence in the southern areas.

Simply put the bigots in the north didn't want their children to attend school with the minorities. Let them attend the ''city school'' was the attitude and it was heard verbally mentioned by a parent during the boundary meetings. If you look at the voting record of the most recent levy campaigns the North high school voters were more in favor of the levy than the Central parents. The boosters seem to be working on different projects and we are heading into a vote on yet another bond levy to build more schools.

The policies seem also to be very biased against the children in the central district. A policy established a few years ago when the North School complex was proposed and the boundaries determined.

Even though board members like Lori Sanders says she wants equal schools the board's policies shows a much different reality. I know the operating levy passed last year but we are running out of emergencies to base our need for more money. Combine the board's action on July 20th and voting in the work session I believe we are about to create a truly divided school district and it will take years to recover.

Those that live in the Township don't want the poor folks from the city to live next to them but they take the poor folks money to operate their schools. I know you pay more taxes because your houses is bigger. I believe a case back in the fifties down in South Carolina made that illegal to run a school district based on those ideals.





By Dripping Wet

Central Band

Mike Sewell, long-time band director at (now) Central, has had a number of health problems recently, and at least one involved a serious foot problem. Given his state of health, it is probable that his doctor did not permit him to walk during the parade. That would be my thought on why he was in a golf cart. All other parades I can recall from 15 years or so of viewing them, I do not recall Mr. Sewell NOT walking with his band.

He has brought a tremendous amount of positive publicity to this school district, and does not deserve a cheap shot that evolves into a ''divide the community by racial lines'' screed.

For your info...

While I agree with most of your comments, it sbould be noted that Central's band director had announced to the band members and parents that Central would not take part in the parade due to staff scheduling problems. He also has medical problems which require some time off of his feet to help a healing process. The school administration and the festival powers oblviously put the pressure on to march regardless of doctor's orders, hence the cart. The students were not notified of the change until Thursday pm.
Many were unable to change work schedules and family plans. That's the reason for the sour faces.

As to the imbalance between schools, the Central parents are very aware of the situation. Just last meeting the school board hired a fulltime athletic trainer for the North athletes, but only a parttimer for Central. Why? Central's band uniforms are eight years old, a year past their usage period, so the warmups are used more frequently to save them for competition. North got new uniforms thru the operating/opening budget. Why didn't they divide the existing 300+ uniforms and make the North Music Boosters raise money to replace theirs? After all, all Booster money was split last fall equally between the two schools.

Just food for thought

Info

During the summer parades, the bands wear summer uniforms which are purchased by each member or his/her parents. They are NOT provided by the Band Boosters, PLSD, etc. Therefore, the condition of these uniforms are NOT a reflection on the unequality of the bands/schools, but a reflection upon the members of each band. The only members required to purchase new uniforms were new members or persons who had changed sizes.

The reason the 300+ uniforms were not divided is the same reason the sports teams uniforms weren't - the school colors didn't allow it.

Due to health conditions, Central's band director has riden in a golf cart on previous occasions (also driven by Mr. Steman). Kudos to the director for showing up and being a part of the program. Shame on the people who condemn him for having a handicap and caring enough to participate with his band.