Letter to the Editor

Edi­tor,

As a pre­vi­ous employee of the Galion City School Dis­trict that was affected by the recent reduc­tion in force – I believe I have a great deal to say about the sta­tus of Galion City Schools, as well as the upcom­ing Levy. I was Super­in­ten­dent Kathy Jenney’s Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary from June 2009 – July 2012.

Due to the Gov­ern­ment fund­ing cuts of 3.1 mil­lion dol­lars to the oper­at­ing fund of Galion City Schools in the past two years (2.5 mil­lion this year alone), deep staffing cuts had to be made to ensure that the Dis­trict could remain oper­a­tional. Pub­lic schools are man­dated to run in the black, regard­less of fund­ing cuts – iron­i­cally, unlike almost all other gov­ern­ment enti­ties. As a result, my posi­tion, along with 22 other teacher and sup­port staff had to be cut this fall. This was the sec­ond round of staffing cuts this year due to gov­ern­ment bud­get cuts.

I would first like to say that I com­pletely under­stand why my posi­tion and oth­ers needed to be cut, and I have noth­ing but respect for Dr. Jen­ney and the Board of Edu­ca­tion mem­bers who had to make these dif­fi­cult deci­sions. I know first­hand how excru­ci­at­ingly dif­fi­cult it was for them to do so. Cut­ting staff was the very last resort, and the last thing that they wanted to do, but they had no choice. The alter­na­tive to a bud­get in the black, is that the State comes in, takes over and declares fis­cal emer­gency – then there will be no more sports pro­grams, no more extra-curriculars, bus­ing, no more nothin’ – except the bare bones required for edu­ca­tion. I believe that will be dam­ag­ing to our stu­dents and the Dis­trict as a whole, and that is not an accept­able alternative!

I have had sev­eral peo­ple come to me and express their frus­tra­tion that the Dis­trict pur­chased lap­tops for the stu­dents “instead of pay­ing teacher’s salaries”. I have had to explain on numer­ous occa­sions that the com­puter pur­chase DID NOT affect the cut­ting of jobs. The funds for the com­put­ers came from a grant that SPECIFICALLY FORBADE the use of those funds for oper­at­ing costs – so could NEVER have paid for staff salaries! We had those funds as a direct result of Dr. Jenney’s very hard work to find other monies through a spe­cial fund and spe­cial pro­grams specif­i­cally to pro­vide won­der­ful tech­no­log­i­cal advances for our stu­dents, enabling us to stay cur­rent and com­pet­i­tive with all of the out­side sources vying for our student’s atten­tion and try­ing to draw them away from our Dis­trict. Cur­rent tech­nol­ogy is cru­cial for our stu­dents to emerge from our schools with the com­pet­i­tive skills required to help them obtain careers in today’s global soci­ety. That is Dr. Jenney’s and the Board’s vision for our stu­dents. If we do not remain com­pet­i­tive, we lose stu­dents to other Dis­tricts or options.

Part of the finan­cial issue that has led to the cur­rent fis­cal state of the Dis­trict is the repeal of the 2004 tax levy which caused an annual loss of $785,000 annu­ally – had this repeal not hap­pened, the Dis­trict would most likely not be need­ing this cur­rent levy. Between the gov­ern­ment cuts – 3.1 mil­lion, the repeal of the levy — $785,000 yearly, and the huge chunk required for staff insur­ance cost increases. The dras­tic cuts became a neces­sity to pre­vent state control.

The Dis­trict Staff has agreed to a salary freeze for this school year and has sig­nif­i­cantly increased their con­tri­bu­tion to health care ben­e­fits, the Dis­trict can’t cut it’s way out of this sit­u­a­tion any further!

If the upcom­ing Levy that will be on the bal­lot this Novem­ber 6th should pass, it will ensure that the Galion City School Dis­trict will be able to con­tinue to oper­ate with­out mov­ing into fis­cal emer­gency. With­out it, the State will prob­a­bly come and take over in 1–2 years and will cut all of the great pro­grams that our stu­dents love and need. It is absolutely cru­cial that you vote YES for the School Levy. The Levy funds WILL go directly to fund­ing staff, extra-curriculars, sports, trans­porta­tion, ther­apy and much more. If you own a home worth $100,000 – your esti­mated taxes will only increase by $21 per month! Come on peo­ple — that’s less that the cost of Din­ner at McDon­alds for your fam­ily! If your house is val­ued at less than $100,000, then it costs even less per month!

When my fam­ily and I moved to Galion from Toledo, we scouted all of the towns in the area, and there are some great ones, but we chose Galion specif­i­cally for the schools. We came and toured the Mid­dle School prior to mov­ing here, and Prin­ci­pal Andy John­son and Sec­re­tary Julie Nog­gle were amaz­ing, as are the rest of the Dis­trict staff – who love and sup­port the chil­dren of this Dis­trict. We had no doubt in our minds that this was where we belonged, and have never changed our opin­ion. For all of those folks who have elected to attend else­where – Why aren’t you going to Galion City Schools? — Galion City Schools are great! They are one of the high­est rated Dis­tricts in the region!

Galion City Schools have a very proud her­itage of amaz­ing grad­u­ates, as attested to by the incred­i­ble Career Day and Alumni Hall of Fame that is cel­e­brated each year at Con­nec­tions Week­end. These folks who have made amaz­ing strides in the world return to share their suc­cesses with our stu­dents because they have a deep sense of pride in Galion, and a desire to give back to our cur­rent stu­dents – pay it for­ward. We have much to be proud of here in Galion, both past, present and for the future – but we have to help our schools to ensure that the future remains bright for our kids!

We are in this together peo­ple, this is YOUR Galion City Schools, this is MY Galion City Schools. It is a GREAT Dis­trict that my fam­ily and I are proud to be a part of. Come Elec­tion Day – Please, it is CRUCIAL that you vote YES for the Levy and help avoid fis­cal emer­gency. I hope you will be a part of the solu­tion and not the problem.

I would urge any­one that has ques­tions about any­thing I have men­tioned in this let­ter, to instead of bas­ing your deci­sion on emo­tion, with­out hav­ing the facts, call Dr. Jen­ney or any of the Board mem­bers. I know they would be happy to answer any and all ques­tions. Be informed – sup­port YOUR Galion City Schools!

Seija Brown

Proud to be a Cit­i­zen of Galion and sup­porter of Galion City Schools

Posted by Guest 2 Columnist on Nov 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.