Wake up Westerville! We need to come together and pass this school levy for
the benefit of our children and our community.
It is hard for me to believe
that 30 years after I benefited from attending Westerville Schools my
children will probably
have less academic and extracurricular opportunities
and larger class sizes than I did. On top of fewer elective courses
to
distinguish students in their college application process Westerville
students face high pay-to-participate fees
for all extracurricular
activities. Even if our family can afford this, many students who would most
benefit from the
academic encouragement and life skill lessons taught by
coaches and advisors may not be able to in a system that clearly
is
discriminatory and will be divisive.
With Westerville Schools ranking 17/18 in administrative costs and 14/18 in
overall per pupil spending among Franklin
County school districts it does
not appear we are a spendthrift district. Yes, in any organization there are
always
ways to be more efficient and those should be pointed out but that
cannot come close to covering the projected 8 to 14
million dollar deficit
caused by growth in student population without growth in operating revenue
and by cuts in state
funding. The only way this can be made up is in the
loss of over 50 teaching positions and a similar number of academic
support
staff resulting in maximum legal class sizes and eliminating many valuable
courses in the middle and high schools.
If we become known as a district that does not support our schools above
state minimum requirements and has lower
educational opportunities than our
neighbors we will all lose far more in our property values than we save in
taxes
not to mention the cost to our youth. A strong school system is
clearly the best investment we can make.
The opposition leadership in their not hidden agenda to break the teachers
union is instead breaking our sense of
community. Despite the many other
amenities the Westerville area has to offer they have pitted young families
versus
older residents, public versus private education, teachers versus
administration, and academics versus sports and the arts
in a way that is
destructive and painful to watch. This is not the Westerville School
District that I grew up in and
chose for my home, my family, and my
profession. I feel we need to reverse this course for the good of all.
Please join
me in voting for Westerville City Schools.
Douglas Fosselman, MD
