Wilson's faulty analysis: comparing apples, oranges

I'm very disappointed in Worthington school district board member Charlie Wilson's statement in last week's edition. He said, "In 2003 Worthington's salary schedule was second from the highest of the 16 districts in central Ohio and by 2009 it had fallen to ninth." There he goes again comparing apples to oranges.

According to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) there are only five similar districts in central Ohio. "Similar" districts are identified by ODE by grouping districts based on specific demographics such as number of pupils, district wide income levels, diversity of students, overall size, etc. The four other "similar" districts to Worthington are Dublin, Hilliard, Gahanna-Jefferson and Westerville. Any comparison of any part of Worthington 's expenses, performance, etc. to any district outside of the other four is like comparing dogs to horses.

According to the ODE website (the CUPP 2008 report) here are some statistics to put his statement more into perspective, comparing Worthington to "similar" districts only.

Classroom Teachers Average Salary (FY 2008-09)

(This excludes benefits)

WSD $67,375.59

Similar districts $61,394.33 (We are actually the second highest of the local five)

Median Income

(TY 2006-07)

WSD $42,613.00

Similar districts $45,073.00 (Worthington is actually second lowest by only a smidge) – and these are pre-recession incomes.

What Mr. Wilson fails to realize is that our teacher salary/benefit package is too costly considering Worthington's loss of businesses during the last six or so years and that the schools rely more and more on residential property taxes, while a greater percentage of local residents are retiring or living on fixed incomes. It is also too costly when you compare other similar districts' expenditures and revenues:

(Again from ODE's website)

Total expenditure per pupil (FY08-09)

WSD $12,300.97

Similar districts $10,692.26

Total revenue per pupil (FY 2008-09)

WSD $12,487.74

Similar districts $10,527.92

Total property tax per pupil (FY 2008-09)

WSD $8,759.89

Similar districts $7,410.71

We may wish there were unlimited resources to fund an ever-increasing population of school employees, but the real world dictates budget cuts. (From the ODE website)

Number of regular classroom teachers (FY 2008-09)

WSD 471.60

Similar districts 347.71

The schools can't keep spending money as they did in 2003. The current economic times, limited financial resources of the community should equal drastic reduction in spending. The "well" is dry! Closing Perry Middle School is a good start; reconfiguring the elementaries would be another good step. Drastically reducing the number of employees and salaries/benefits would be the most important thing the board could do.

 

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Here we go again. The school district talks about its legitimate and understandable funding difficulties and John Herrington adds his narrow anti-teacher bias to the debate.

This district, in fact schools all over the nation (both with unions and without, for Herrington's information), are in dire straits. And now, as the long and tedious debate commences about what to do, might I suggest that this is a three-pronged issue. It cannot be dealt with effectively when we talk about only one prong. In Herrington's view, it's all the fault of union contracts. The fact is that employee costs are only part of the problem, if any at all.

First off, we must determine the requirements, aspirations, and expectations of the community regarding our school's overall mission. I am not convinced that this has been done effectively, but that important difficulty aside, when financial constraints loom those desires of the community must be reviewed and adjusted.

Second, we must address what the cost of meeting those requirements will be and determine what level of support the community can handle. In other words, a price tag must be put on the agreed upon requirements, aspirations, and expectations. Put another way, you can't have that for which you won't or can't pay.

Third, the workload and benefits of employees and the costs of facilities must be addressed to fit within the district's fiscal capacity but still adequate to meet the community requirements. It is the juxtaposition of these two factors – costs and requirements – to each other rather than either one alone that is the critical.

Herrington's approach obviously falls well short of either "educating Worthington," as he proclaims, or seriously addressing the issue. Unless we address all three components of the issue simultaneously, and properly align each with the other two, none will be addressed appropriately.

 

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What kind of people do we elect and appoint to the Worthington board of education, and the treasurer's post? Do they not know the meaning of a budget, or fiscal responsibility?

Gee, if you are taking in less income than the amount you are spending, what would you do first? That's right, you would scale back your spending, not go to the "cash cow" public. If we (the cash cows) start spending more than we make, we don't go to our boss and say, "I need more money." We spend less (or we go bankrupt).

And, what causes this ongoing mess in the Worthington school district? You will probably say the economy — well, of course, we all have to deal with that. But, it goes back much further in history. Start with the fancy board of education palace (that wasn't needed), then the health care packages, the overpaid top-heavy administrators and finally, the ridiculous teachers' contracts.

The board of education and administration deserve to be replaced for financial ineptitude.I, for one, am tired of constantly seeing our property taxes raised. I know for a fact that high property taxes scare away many potential real estate buyers. The Worthington schools are excellent probably as much due to the quality of the students, as from the school system itself.

I call on the board of education and the treasurer to learn how to stretch dollars, and avoid any further increases in our property taxes. By the way, why don't we have a school income tax (a less regressive tax) rather than property taxes?