Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Be careful what you wish for

Ancient Chinese proverb: Be careful what you wish for; you may get it.

OK, just for the sake of argument, let's say we go ahead and separate the athletic booster clubs so they can raise their own money and not have to share. I see a few problems with this approach.

So many people comsider the North district to be ''rich'' and the Central district to be ''poor/poorer''. So, the North boosters get all their rich parents to pony up big bucks for their kids, and do wonderful things with their complex. The Central boosters, meanwhile, have a tough time raising money because they can only raise it from ''poorer'' parents (remember: they aren't part of the ''rich'' North district), and, by comparison, Central's athletes and facilities aren't quite as good as North, and the disparity grows wider every year. Screaming parents hound the school board to ''do something!''. One board member says, ''I remember back in 05 when you demanded the groups be separated so you could do it on your own'', and gets ripped for that true statement.

One of the reasons given for adding the 8th lane to Central's track was ''we can't hold a district or state meet here without it''. When was the last time a state meet was held anywhere other than OSU? Never, that's when. That part of the argument was a non-starter.

Yes, North now has their precious girls hoops classic, along with their beloved/despised coach. Guess what? Central will play in that tournament this coming season. I have no idea if it's a one-time deal or not, but it's a start.

Central girls hoops have the three day hoops classic of their own with tons of teams from all over Ohio, that has been very successful since it's inception.

It seems to me, in talking to kids and parents, that it's the parents who are all bent out of shape about a perceived difference between the two schools. The kids don't care near as much as the parents; they just want to study and play their sport.

Mr. Brown seems to think everything should be separate, and ne'er the twain shall meet. These kids all grow up playing in PYAA, and PASA, working at Kroger or elsewhere together, and they are not split because they are in one district or the other. It's a community thing. They still have friends at the other schools as they grow up. Are there people out there who are going to be horrified if one of the ''rich'' North kids decides to date a ''poor'' Central kid?

Instead of yelling about what you see as a problem, get involved with the schools, run for school board, join booster groups, and work to make ''your'' school the best it can be. In the long run, this community as a whole will benefit greatly.



By anon

Parity

Dear Anon:

We could fix the parity problem in a heart beat by re-districting. That has been a problem since the schools engineered those rigged boundary committees. What has been so damn frustrating for the POOR district is just how blatant these folks are that are running our schools.

If there is parity and sharing of the Boosters money how come the Central school still has the old uniforms and North has nice new ones.

Who controls the money now? Clearly if there is less desire on the part of Central to raise money for the boosters so what.

What is the main cog in the gear is the amount of public money that must be spent to maintain the North facility. They have TWO EIGHT lane tracks up North and ONE SEVEN lane track at Central. These tracks only last less than ten years. Will it just be routine for the board to replace both tracks up North when the time comes and then say to Central that these tracks are already here so we can't build you a stadium near your school? Anon that is public money we are all paying that $77 Million bond to finance it. If you folks up North want to take on the $77 Million then we can finish paying off the $25 Million or so for the Central High then things would be even.

The reason the parents are the ones complaining is that they are the ones that are paying the highest rate of property tax in the county and probably Central Ohio with 3.2% of our pay going to the schools yearly.

When does it start to dawn on you elitist?

No elitist here

You may have missed my point. Since so many have referred to Central as poor and North as rich, it plays into biases and prejudices. I believe rich North has brand new uniforms because the school is only in its 2nd year. I do not know how often uniforms were bought for Central's athletes when it was just PHS.

Yes, I live in the North district, and have done so for over 15 years. My kids went to PHS. They were all through before the split. I attend athletic, theater and music events at both schools. When my kids made band and sports teams as freshmen, they got the hand-me-downs, the same way I did many, many years ago when I played high school sports. It wasn't until any of them made varsity that the new uniforms were provided. We had to pay a good part of the uniform cost at that time. The sport club put up part of the cost as well.

Re-districting is very likely going to happen in the next couple of years for the high schools. It will only affect a small number of families in relation to the total number of families at both schools. Not that many will change districts. I am more interested in seeing the effect of the coming elementary school re-districting. How many parents will whine ''my kid won't be with all of hi friends'' or ''he won't have the same experience as his sister because he's going to this other school'', o woe is me please don't do this horrible re-districting please!'' yada yada yada. Give your kids some credit, please. If you look at the change in a positive light, chances are very good they will do so as well.

By anon