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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > September > 25 > Entry
Kettering levy: It’s up to parents to pass it
Bob Mengerink
Check out these amazing numbers from Kettering Superintendent Bob Mengerink, who visited with the DDN’s editorial board Monday to tout his district’s 4.9 mill levy on the ballot this fall following a defeat in May:
—Kettering has 55,000 residents and the district has 7,400 students.
—In last year’s November election, which included a race for governor, about 20,000 people in Kettering voted.
—In May, just 8,000 Kettering residents voted, and the levy lost by about 300 votes.
—About 7,000 Kettering school district parents live in the city.
—Of those, 5,600 are registered voters, a significant gain from 2002 when just about 3,500 parents were registered to vote.
—In the may election, just 1,400 Kettering school district parents voted. That’s only one in five district parents and less than a third of Kettering school parents who are registered to vote.
—There have been four school levy votes (new money or renewals) since 2002. Just 500 district parents have voted in all four.
The message was pretty clear. If parents show up and vote, Kettering school levies will pass. If they don’t vote, the levies will fail.
Here are a few more interesting bits from our discussion with Mengerink:
—The levy campaign will be buying and distributing about 1,000 yard signs at a cost of about $3 a piece. In May, the committee did not buy yard signs, a move some blamed for a lack of community awareness about the levy.
—The district has made $4.2 million in cuts over the past two years, mostly through attrition by not replacing employees who retired or resigned.
—Kettering, which has 490 teachers, hired just three new teachers this year — an occupational therapist, a speech therapist and a construction trades teacher. Not a single classroom teacher was hired for the first time in recent memory.
—The percentage of students in the district labeled poor by the state has grown dramatically in the past five years. Now about a third of student in the district come from low income families.
—The district’s annual budget is about $70 million. The levy would raise $6.7 million in new dollars and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $150 a year in new taxes.
—School consolidation is not currently an option on the table, but it has been discussed. Kettering has two elementaries with small enrollments — Moraine Meadows (135 students) and Orchard Park (281) — and two middle schools. Mengerink said neither elementary could have its students easily redistributed to other schools and that is why the district has not seriously considered closing either school. Also, he said he believes the community supported the 2002 building levy in part because they want to keep neighborhood schools as they are.
—About 90 Kettering school district residents now attend charter schools — about half online and half in brick-and-mortar schools in neighboring communities. About 15 of those kids attend Moraine Community School, which was recently sued by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann in an effort to close the school.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Comments
By Mike
October 1, 2007 2:17 PM | Link to this
Great post Oldprof. I, for one, am tired of always throwing money at problems - particularly when it is a cop-out income tax levy. How many more times can we go to the well? Fix from within…that goes for the state as well as KPS making further cuts/adjusments and reallocate monies to what makes sense.By Scott Elliott
September 27, 2007 2:30 PM | Link to this
Mengerink did not mention the impact of other Kettering taxes. We did discuss enrollment. It has generally been falling for several years although, interestingly, he said this year enrollment actually made a slight gain of about 30 students.By joe mamma
September 27, 2007 1:08 PM | Link to this
Scott, Did the superintendant think that the recent local income tax increase in Kettering had anything to do with the levy failure? Also, is enrollment in Kettering schools increasing or declining? ThanksBy BOBBINO
September 26, 2007 5:09 PM | Link to this
The Kettering Schools are on the ballot for a 4.9 mill levy, Montgomery County wants 7+ mills for Human Services and the local community college is debating a Spring levy. There are many in this community that are struggling to retain ownership without the additional burden of these levies. When the county auditor reappraises real estate and values decline,we will see a need for more millage to compensate for deflation……….. The last vote of many residents of this county will be with a moving van.By Buford
September 26, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this
Since I do not live in Kettering, I actually do not have a “vote” in the proposed school levy coming up this November. And, from most of what I have read of Kettering Public Schools, the management team has tried to get the most from each funding dollar obtained. Plus, their schools certainly are rated better than DPS. However, IF I was a resident/property owner in Kettering, I would still have reservations on reaching into my pocket and doling out more money for the schools - because every time the voter/citizens approve another levy based on property taxes the Legislature is being given another “pass” from their responsibilities to fix the school funding system within the State of Ohio. If the educators and the voters both pounded on the legislature and the Governor - you would see movement and change in the funding system.By Oldprof
September 26, 2007 8:21 AM | Link to this
Let’s look at the forest instead of the trees. Once again, an entire school district is going to have to marshall resources to pass an “inflation adjustment” school levy in a state where the tax revenues for schools are frozen and never keep up with inflation, where the mechanisms for funding have been declared unconstitutional, and where our legislators think that it’s a good idea to spread the few available resources more thinly. Want to fix education? Then make John Husted DO HIS JOB, which is to legislate an equitable way to fund schools adequately (or perhaps—one only dreams—generously!) and allow teachers to concentrate on teaching, students on learning, parents on parenting and administrators on creating and supporting a learning climate. Every tax levy saps the strength of a school system—again and again.