I Gave It My Best

I had to preempt my prepared remarks in order to share this afternoon's Sun Press article entitled:

Cleveland Heights City Council frusturated (sic) with delayed Milikin School lease agreement
http://www.cleveland.com/cleveland-heights/index.ssf/2013/07/cleveland_heights_city_council_41.html

It closes with this:
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At the June 27 meeting, council voiced frustration with the prolonged negotiations, offering to serve as an intermediary as it did for the preliminary agreement last summer.

“It seems that there should have been a way to work something out in a year,” Councilwoman Cheryl Stephens said.

The school board members were also warned of the possibility of losing voter support for the November bond issue should a positive resolution for Millikin not be reached.

“We need this (Orthodox Jewish) community to feel good about living (in the CH-UH school district),” Councilwoman Bonnie Caplan said.
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That's a "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya", if I've ever seen one.

Then I brought up the $4 MILLION Meadowbrook-Lee tax abatement that the BOE approved last year, which eventually got canceled, and how they ignored all sorts of problems with documents and deadlines, to say nothing of the implausible project, itself.

[I've uploaded the "Application with no applicant", the Recommendation from the former superintendent and treasurer, where they advise approving the abatement for "political" reasons, along with a faulty, barely existent "analysis", and the odious Compensation Agreement.]

Then I mentioned the survey the BOE commissioned in May and June that shows barely a majority of voters supporting the bond issue.

And that they just had to replace the superintendent.

This BOE does *not* inspire confidence. Not to give them a check for $154 MILLION.
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Here then, are my prepared remarks, which I only got about half way through tonight:

This $154 MILLION facilities proposal has something in it for everyone... to dislike.

If you are a voter who tends to vote “Yes” for school operating levies – for the kids – well, this bond issue spends all the $ on buildings, not teachers. And on only 3 buildings – the high school and two middle schools.

If you are a voter who tends to support the ideas of our elected representatives, well, first of all, you've got it backwards. Those elected representatives are supposed to support the ideas of the electors. And in my humble opinion, your faith is misplaced with these guys.

If you want to see our district become sustainable in various manners of energy and natural resource usage, well, again, this only covers three schools. There's 8 more schools in use, plus Coventry, Taylor, Millikin, this building we're in right now, and a bus garage. And a stable? And you need to really understand, passing this plan precludes any other capital improvement plans for all of those buildings for the better part of the next decade.

And if you are the kind of voter, like me, who only votes “Yes” after analyzing the data, you're out of luck.

Because there is nothing to examine. Beachwood renovated their high school in two years for $35.6 million. This proposal calls for spending about $100 million on Heights High, alone, nearly three times as much.

No comparisons. No explanations. No details of any sort. We're supposed to take the BOE's and the LFC's word for it that this is a good use of taxpayer $. But in under two minutes, I've already shown how it can't be.

Regardless, from the school district's web page on June 18, 2013:

“Our community has come together and worked very hard for more than three years to create a facilities plan that will mean improved educational spaces, lower costs, increased community access, and the protection of our community assets,” said Board president Ron Register. “This plan accomplished all these goals at the lowest possible cost. It is an opportunity that this community can’t afford to pass up.”

“You have some valid points. I do wonder what the plans are for the elementary buildings in the next 7-10 years, and I question the last-minute addition of the football field, the need to make the project so all-encompassing, and the "use-it-or-lose-it" mentality.”