Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Here?’s a little piece of history from someone who was on the boundary committee. If you search through the messages on this board, you will see several discussions pertaining to this subject.

The final boundary decision was done long before all the information that the committee required was received. As a matter of fact, maps were brought in with the lines drawn and they were circulated fully three weeks before the requested information began trickling in. Stemen had yet to deliver on the demographics information, potential development areas and more. The finals, incidentally, were provided by the athletic boosters. They pretty much ran east to west along Refugee Road and then north up 256. Everyone east of 256 and north of Refugee was being sent to North and the rest to Central. There was also a second plan presented to us showed a portion of the Turnberry/Hines/Tussing area going to North, but we later were informed that this was a token gesture showing the boosters?’ sensitivity towards the higher concentration of minorities in that area.

Don?’t be kidded into believing that there ever was any chance of equity in the division of this community. Don?’t think that there was really a chance that the token line would have really gone west on Refugee to Hines and then north.

If any of you have been listening to the Diley Road widening debate, take your head out of the sand and think about what you have heard. There are over 2,000, I repeat TWO THOUSAND homes going to be built just in the Diley Road area. At one-point-whatever students per house, we?’re talking over TWO THOUSAND more students going to the non-North district. If there are any Central boosters out there listening, start your plans now to capitalize on this. Strengthen your organization and prepare now. You have the potential in 5 years to hear what you always wanted to hear. In Pickerington there are the Tigers and who else???

While on the subject of population distribution, is anyone on the school board listening? The gross majority of the growth in Pickerington through the next several years will be in the Central district. Why in the world would you construct a darned middle school at North? Why don?’t you park your darned busses there? Have you no common sense? Focus on where the population will be. The school you are proposing for Sycamore Creek will, or can be entirely populated by the kids living in Sycamore Creek. Please, please plan ahead. Please take a realistic look at where you need schools. Don?’t you realize that any potential property for schools near where the population center will be is being swallowed up at a frightening rate?

Stop bowing to the pressure of the North boosters and act on behalf of the entire district taxpayer base. Look at where the students are coming from and build near them. Was everything Monhollen et al said about neighborhood schools just a load of crap? You have overpopulated Heritage and made an unsafe traffic situation exponentially worse in that area all in the name of neighborhood schools. Well if the developers are making the neighborhoods down on Diley, why the he!! would you build a neighborhood school at North?? If you?’re building a neighborhood school for Sycamore Creek, why not build one for I-Diley?

Cut the crap school board! You have proven you can divide this community. Can you try to prove that you can also reunite it?




By Dripping wet AND hopping mad

Take questions to the Board Mtg

You ask some good questions - I think some of those should be asked on August 9th at the Board meeting at Heritage at 7pm.

It's important to try to understand the strategy first then offer alternative suggestions. I think good suggestions would be welcomed.

A couple of things - we have five elementary schools and two middle schools. Most middle school students are bussed - so it makes sense that you would use a site (one we don't have to buy) that will require busses on a student population that you already bus for the most part. If you are versed on the boundaries you know that Township & City children attend both Diley & Harmon. There are not enough children to create two township schools (North) & one city school (Central) and while you are at it there ARE township kids that attend Central.

I also beleive the BOE has stated they will be looking at the boundary lines over the next year or two - if you have suggestions you should give them. This would be the time that input could be utilized & a positive change could occur.

I have friend whose child goes to school in Worthington - they had the same type of problems when Worthington Kilbourne opened Thomas Worthington is over 50 years old. It's great to tell them what they did didn't work, but add what you would like to see done - be specific - that's the only way anything changes. People offer solutions and volunteer time to help fix it.

By Southern Parent

Equal but seperate???

Dear Southern Parent,

First you say to take my concerns to the Board meeting on August 9th. Didn't we just have a mini scandal about the board meetings and voting on issues while the board was in a work session?

The second issue deals with those fraudulent boundary committee meetings. I went to one and left in disgust. They have tables set up for assigned people in the committee to then be controlled by a handler to get the decision needed by the board or superintendent or who ever. My neighbor faithfully attended all but the last meeting and she was exhausted by then. The fact is that the PLS board planned and put on a huge charade and in the end they ignored the parents and citizens of the district.

I have no hope that future projects like this will turn out any differently.

Neighborhood schools

First there seems to be some token gestures of equality here and I would like to debunk them. The fact that the Melrose sub-division attends the North school is shooting your argument in the foot. As bad as it is that is the most affluent sub-division in the city. Clearly someone here is missing the message. I have heard people form Melrose say they didn't want their kids attending school with the lower class kids. The lady says her kids are better than the Tussing Road kids. That fact that a few wealthier township residents attend the Central High school means nothing in shear numbers.

What this school district has done for so long is play this image game and now those movers and shakers have out done themselves in separating themselves from the pond scum.

I believe a very good suggestion was not to put the new middle school at the North High School site. That site was poorly thought out when you try to cancel out busing. I believe that one of the posters talked about 2000 houses along Diley road alone. Wouldn't it make more sense to place the new middle school adjacent to the Central High School site? Students could walk from not only Pickerington Hills and Ra-Mar but they could also walk from Stonebridge estates and the Villages at Sycamore Creek. Surely the Diley Middle school will fill as time progresses and boundaries could remain nearly static. In fact some of this district could move back and forth as the area builds out. The elementary school in Sycamore Creek is a good location. With the connecting road between Stonebridge and Sycamore Creek There are 700 homes coming to Sycamore Creek. Most of them will be K-6 because these are younger families due to the size and value of their homes.

If the school district would just look ahead a few years they would see the writing on the wall but some are looking only to get their kids out of the school system. Demographics count and they will count a great deal in the next few years in the levy drives. I can't see why the three northern elementary don't feed into the north school and the three southern elementary feed into the Central school. I would then adjust those elementary boundaries to conform to the economical boundaries in our community. Clearly if you look at Pickerington Elementary many of the newer homes coming into the city are at the lower end of the housing market. Fox Glen, Preston Trails, and Manchester all are higher end homes. They are out numbered by the nearly 2000 lower end homes.

I would work with the city and township to plan long range plans to provide sidewalks or walking paths to each of these new schools. In the future I would actively plan NEIGHBORHOOD schools.

The question is why did the board put that new High school out on Refugee with no sidewalks in sight? They have a Junior High there as well with no sidewalks. Then across the street is condos for the empty nesters. Does this make sense to anyone other then the board?



By Dripping Wet