CHUH School District:
We Pay more - we get less!
Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District Going in Wrong Direction!!!
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- See the outrageous base salaries of CHUH Administrators!
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Fight the Levy
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Teachers' Union President Email RE: Possible strike
This email was sent to members of the CHUH Teachers' Union. The other CHUH District unions are awaiting the outcome of this negotiation before they will attempt to negotiate with District leaders.
Per the statements in this email and the above salary data, it is apparent many have no problem with continuing to feed heavily at the trough of tax payer money while the classroom programs and support are cut and district outcomes remain in the toilet. |
September 14, 2016
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Behinds The Scenes Updates RE: Operating Levy
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1. The November 2016 ballot will feature another CHUH School District operating levy – Issue 109.
The campaign committee leadership in support of the levy informed the Cleveland Heights Democrats Club that it will have Superintendent Dixon and Krissy Gallagher speak for the campaign at this Thursday’s meeting. The Club membership will then voter if it will or will not endorse the levy. That meeting is Thursday, Sept.15, at 7 PM in the CH Community Center. Anyone can attend to listen, but cannot vote about levy endorsement unless a membership fee is paid. A concerned citizen contacted me when he, wanting to present the side against the levy, was told he could not unless he belonged to an “organization”. This was confusing because the meeting notice does not identify the organization that Ms. Gallagher represents: so why the double standard? After several email exchanges, this gentleman will now speak on behalf of the Citizens Leadership PAC at that Thursday meeting to present arguments against the levy. My physical limitations prevent me from attempting to repeat my efforts to speak before this Club as I did the last time around. I do hope the Club leadership and its members behave in a more civil, respectful, and considered manner than when I spoke, or tried to speak, at their meeting. I am still awaiting a corrected meeting notice that includes my representative and the name of the organization that Ms. Gallagher represents so that the Club’s membership are aware of just who will be speaking to them about this operating levy. As a hired public-relations communication contractor with the School District, Ms.Gallagher cannot legally participate in any campaign actions in favor of the levy according to OCR 3315.07. To do so means the |
District is in fact using taxpayer money, employees or resources to promote the levy. The fact that the pro-levy campaign informed the Club leadership Dr. Dixon will speak for it is counter to OCR 3315.07. Yet, Dr. Dixon, in her email response to my questioning this, is not bothered by this fact.
2. The School District’s Lay Finance Committee again needs members. It can’t seem to keep a full cadre on board. That could be because this group of citizens who are suppose to ensure the facilities bond money is spent responsibly have enabled/allowed the District to go $10 million plus over budget - and it hasn’t even begun building the high school! They are now seeing what they have allowed to take place. Such as the $13 million Wiley facility (only $3+ million over budget) which was built using shockingly cheap looking materials for a life span of only 4-5 years! If you are interested in working on this committee, send a letter/email to the Superintendent’s office, which will then forward it to the committee for its review. This time around the committee will choose who will sit on the committee. That might be a good sign it will actually do what it was tasked to do! Dixon Talisa <[email protected]> 3. The CHUH League of Women Voters met with pro-levy campaign leaders Saturday, Sept. 11 to get the League’s endorsement. Blanche Valancy, co-chair of the local League did not bother to try to hear both sides of this levy. In her email, Ms. Valancy claimed she was “unaware” any organization was against the levy! This claim is quite disingenuous and shameful! I spoke to her at the FutureHeights Annual Meeting just 3 months ago about the possibility of a panel discussion to discuss school funding. |
Additionally, her activities when the levy was on the May 2015 ballot certainly made her well aware of my work to defeat the levy at that time. We even exchanged emails back then; just 1.5 years ago!
So much for an objective non-profit organization claiming to exist for voter education! 4. For those wanting to support the school levy, you can buy a yard sign from the Heights’ gear-selling web site for $75! This is according to a post on the District’s web site by Scott Gainer, District Treasurer. So, the District’s web site and an District employee are openly breaking OCR 3315.07 by using both an employee and its resources to support a levy! But this simply demonstrates the arrogance and bulletproof beliefs of the leaders and their supporters in our area that any action expending taxpayer money is allowed if it supports their agendas. Deana Bremer Fisher appears to be one such supporter since she has not informed readers about a related conflict involving the FutureHeights publication, The Heights Observer and articles it has run on its web site or in the paper itself. I say this because Ms. Fisher has not corrected the fact that certain “opinions” were in fact written by a public relations communications contractor for the School District. I am speaking of Krissy Gallagher. When I wrote for publications as an editor and then a contractor, those publications were very diligent about submitted any “article” written as a press release. My experience in publishing was that such items were clearly identified as “advertising or an advertorial” so that readers understood it was not an objectively written piece. Readers were not to be mislead. ~
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See Ohio Department of Education data yourself (below).
Source: Ohio Dept. of Education FY13 and FY14 Expanded Lists; Fiscal Benchmark Reports; 2013-14 Employee Salaries (one administrator, not the Superintendent earned $192,044). District Data for last school year will be out 9/25/16. Stay Tuned! |
Remember This from May 2015?
"WE DID IT!
Yes, we defeated the levy!!!! So, now after taking a brief vacation, we are planning our future strategy since District "leaders" say they will put the levy on the November 2015 ballot. Thanks to all who came out to deliver flyers door-to-door, to all the voters who turned out in University Heights, and to all those who spoke out and were willing to stand the abuse by posting or commenting on public web pages. Thanks all! "
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Voters passed the 2011 Tax Levy so the District wouldn't have to "cut classroom programs or cut teaching staff" ~ yet, that is what District leaders did any way while ballooning administrative spending!
ADMINISTRATION
FY10 $2,177
FY13 $3,262 FY14 $3,311 % Change +52% Source: Ohio Depart. of Educ.
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INSTRUCTION
$8,843.52 $11,132.12 $9,307.83 +5% |
STUDENT SUPPORT
(i.e., social workers) $2084.48 $1694.82 $1,171.12 -56% |
STAFF SUPPORT
(i.e., teacher training) $681.06 $783.29 $623.80 -9% |
High Taxes Threaten
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Voters Require Education
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Vote "No" on tax increases - stop the downtrend for the city. Higher taxes make the city more unattractive to newcomers, especially families with two wage earners. Evidently the high taxes are a detriment to real estate investment, too, because last year the city council offered special tax credits to developers to entice wealthy homeowners to reside in the city without paying high real estate taxes.
The economic and demographic trends in Cleveland Heights have pointed downward for over a decade. Sharp increases in government spending and taxes on citizens will perpetuate and worsen the decline. Just by anyone's observation of crime, empty storefronts and decline in business activity, we can see the decline in the city's economic fortunes. According to website information at City Data, Cleveland Heights ranked #9 in the country on the list of Top 101 cities (in the 50,000 population range) with the largest number of people moving out compared to moving in. From 2000 to 2013, the city population declined by 9.1%. The city has fewer families and more single persons living here. About 40% of school age children attend private school. So, regardless of the attributes of our schools (and all agree we have very fine teachers), the product is not selling, and charging a higher price in the way of higher taxes (and much higher relative to other cities) will bring worse results. Cleveland Heights is a very nice place to live, but so are Hudson, Rocky River and Chagrin Falls. In our region, only Shaker Heights has an equally high tax burden. But Shaker Heights residents earn much higher incomes on average (about $20,000 per year higher). They can afford it. In 2010, Income and Property Tax for a Cleveland Heights resident with $50,000 of income and house valued at $100,000 was $4,826 per year. For other cities: Brooklyn Heights - $2,508, Mentor - $2,604, Northfield - $2,680, Willoughby - $2,732, Twinsburg - $2,722, Beachwood - $2,919, Westlake - $2,940, Highland Heights - $2,969, Hudson - $3,016, Solon - $3,503, Gates Mills - $3,486, Chagrin Falls - $3,640, Orange - $3,663, Rocky River - $3,576. Economic data show that Cleveland Heights residents have about 11% less to spend on average. No wonder we have so many stores empty or closing - we don't have any money left to spend after paying taxes. ~ |
This editorial was written by a 4th generation homeowner in University Heights, in the family since 1925; and second generation graduate of Cleveland heights High School.
Its time to educate VOTERS, not just students. CH/UH school system has been good at being vague about how our tax money is being used. It's time to look at certain facts about how school taxes are collected as well as how they are being spent. There are a lot of misconceptions. First; the state of Ohio has public records of how much money every school system collects, as well as how much goes toward classroom (education) and how much goes toward administrative costs as well as TOTAL costs. There are 611 school districts in Ohio. CH/UH is in the TOP 1% of tax money collected for our schools. This means that 99% collect LESS than we do per student. Out of these 611 districts, we rank 578 in actual school performance scores. This means we are in the BOTTOM 5% in performance. Do you see a problem here? Common sense tells us that we are collecting enough tax money. I know that people who support the levies have good intentions. Many roads to ruin are paved with good intentions. Our "good intentions" of supporting more levies, are not going to fix the problems. The problems are NOT of our making and we cannot fix them with more money. Levy Supports boast that our school CFO, Scott Gainer has a Crains Cleveland Business, TOP CFO award for 2014. Lets examine the situation from a "business" standpoint. A CFO is responsible for how money is spent and distributed. Lay finance committee chairwoman, Jane Geneva, is quoted in the CH/UH schools "UPDATE" bulletin that the school "DESPERATELY" needs the current 5.9 mil levy. Words mean things, and the word DESPERATELY makes me wonder. If we are in the TOP 1% in the monies we collect per student, WHY are we in DESPERATE need of more money. A top rated CFO should be able to manage this money better than that, I would think. And from a "business" standpoint, being in the bottom 5% in Performance, they are failing to do the jobs they are paid to do. Should we reward this with MORE money? continued . . . .(link below) |
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Citizens Leadership PAC is a Ballot political action committee
Diane L. Hallum, Treasurer, 1059 Oxford Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44121. |
This web site is a collaborative effort of several individuals.
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