The Legislature is already getting ready to change the law from what I hear. They will divide the district and the homeowner of the Little Miami district will assume the tax rate of the new tax district they fall into under the new redistricting.
Of course, you can pay for the DD to go to the school of her choice as well. In that case, I think you still pay the redistricting tax rate.
I lived outside of Blanchester awhile back when their levy was going up for vote. They was looking for a levy to match state funds to build their new school building.. which they desparately needed. I voted yes and it shot my property value up when it passed... Seriously, it did.
Clinton-Massie keeps passing their operating levy for their school. I went out there for a football game this year. the first playoff game against Cincy Taft. I had been back there in years. WOW.
What I see the problem in Little Miami is the fact that they passed a levy to build the new schools ... now they needed a levy to pass to pay for the operation of their new schools. The back to back "hit" on the taxpayer was misunderstood by many. I just think they could have not paid so much for building the school ( MANY COST OVERRIDES HAPPENED ) and kept back some of the funds from the first levy to operate it.
That is what Blanchester did and it seemed to work for them. My first question when I went to the "pre-levy meeting" was:
"Is this levy being used to build a school with enough room for classroom expansion in the next five years?" (YES)
"Are you board members going to strictly watch the cost overrides?" (YES)
"Are you going to come back to me, as a taxpayer, in a couple of years and ask for an operating levy?" (NO)
"If there is cost overrides, are you going to spend the money on those overrides or cut costs somewhere else in the building of said new school?
( If there is cost overrides, we will cut down on the square footage of the size of the new building versus spending extra money )
After that answer, I said, " I'll vote for it then as a person that has no children in this district. Obviously, we need new schools as the ones we have are falling in. If it is not right now, it will be later on down the road when it cost EVEN more", and I walked away and out the door. This was after three hours of listening to people asking dumb stuff over and over.
My point with Little Miami, is the people didn't ask the questions needed to understand the process and the board elected to their posts are just parents without a clue about business.
That's where Little Miami's problem lies ... too many cost overrides and people not understanding when you build the big school.. you got to have funds to run the place !!! Back to back levies ( one for building and one for operations ) just confused the people of the district and the school board is to blame for them having that lack of knowledge for they were not "HONEST" with the people. Thus, their taxpayers who support them stopped supporting them.
The best thing for Little Miami and their students would be if the whole board resigned and start new. Because nobody trusts them now. If the taxpayers can't trust the board..then that new levy will NEVER get passed.
I feel for you Merlion. I do. Rock and a hard place comes to mind.
We are a minority in the US by funding our schools this way, and why is that.......BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK!
