Austintown levy forum at middle school tonight

First boardman, now Austintown...the hood rats and thugs will be on their way in..

Everyone in Austintown needs to vote NO on this levy.

The previous BOE and the Architect (same one they hired for these projects) both campaigned that if the last levy was passed that A-town would be reimbursed for part of the new construction once their OSFC funding was available. It has been recently proven that we will not be receiving any reimbursement since the building was not built to OSFC standards including other details.

Also, approx. $500,000 of the left over money from the previous bond was used to construct the new board office (via change orders) that was not in the original plans for the middle school. Why was this money not used for upgrades to Fitch or the Elementary schools?

The taxpayers are deceived any time the board sees an opportunity and it needs to be stopped.

I am all for upgrading the schools but when the people in charge use the money they are given for the wrong things (ie. Board Office) and when they continuously want us (the taxpayers) to keep paying more and more the line needs to be drawn. Also, in these economic times, they want us to fork over more money that alot of us do not have.

Other key facts. The Architect that was hired for these proposed projects is the same from the Middle School and they have to team up with an Architect out of Columbus to get these types of projects (hence more money leaving the area.) Their firm was actually selected over an Architect that actually lives in A-Town, works in Youngstown and has done many more OSFC and school projects around the State than the one that was hired. Why did the BOE not hire the local Architect that lives in Austintown as they would have a much higher stake in this project and the money would have stayed locally?

All of the taxpayers need to be educated on what has been done and what is still going on in the school system and vote NO on this matter.

The following is a previous post to my previous comments regarding the OSFC reimbursement that we will not be receiving.

Posted on April 30 at 11:23 p.m.

Those really interested please search Vindy.com for the following "AUSTINTOWN State program to pay 39% to repair schools." It is a story by the Vindy written in 2001 about the OSFC ELP Program (Expedited Local Partnership Program.) At the time they (BOE and the architect) were planning the Middle School, they were telling the public that the ELP would partially reimberse Austintown for the construction costs. Ultimately, I need to get the official documenation; but it is becoming known that the OSFC will not be reimbursing Atown for any part of the new Middle School. NO to the levy and new schools. They need to get their heads out of their (bad word) and get Atown into an excellent rating and worry about the kids.

Another update.....

The business journal has an article saying that 'the BOE wants to be a model of educational excellence for the region.'

So in order to do this they need more taxpayer dollars? They need new buildings? Why?

There are so many other schools around here that have buildings in worse shape yet have better report cards. Look at Poland for example, their buildings are old yet have an Excellent report card (compared to A-Town at Effective). Also, their superintendant is making no where near what ours makes so they can take their savings and put them back into the buildings.

Follow the following link to research the District's Report Card Data: http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templat...

Just proves that new buildings do not do anything for the districts report cards......only the curriculum and quality of education do.

A campus for schools may make sense for a spread out district with not too many students in one specific area....but in Austintown we have multiple areas that are packed with students that go to one of the local schools in the area (Lloyd, Watson, Lynn Kirk, etc.).

Instead of trying to build new schools why doesn't the BOE explore a house bill 264 project that, if executed properly, will make the buildings much more energy efficient; ultimately reducing the amount of capital needed for everyday operation?

These are the things that the public needs to learn about and throw back at the BOE by voting NO on any new school levy.

Austintown doesn't maintain schools. If they did, we wouldn't have these issues. But then again, by not maintaining they can bury that fact under the need for updated schools because they are old. Other districts can maintain their schools and have buildings just as old or older then ours that support the new technology.

Just curious, what elementary schools do your children attend? Also curious, do you think that the quality of the school buliding/facilities your child/children attend are up to par? One more question, how will the district replace the schools without this 47% assistance package from the state?

Regardless of the quality of school buildings/facilities being up to par this district has not done anything to either maintain or update any facility or take positive steps to improve education like other districts have. They let the schools go so far and then say....Ohh we are in dire need of new schools.

Look at Poland, their schools are older yet they are continuously maintaining their schools and doing minor improvements every summer to increase the life and usefulness of their buildings.

The fact of the matter is that Poland maintains an Excellent rating and yet Austintown again receives another Effective rating while both districts have older buildings....therefore one cannot say that new schools will improve the quality of education.

Do maintenance on the schools (rather than build a new board office that was not needed), get rid of the troublemakers, the drugs that are becoming more apparent in the community, the negative attitudes in the schools and prove to us that the quality of education in Austintown is Excellent, not Effective, then ask the public to consider paying more money for something new.

Until these people get their heads out of their rears, VOTE NO to the new buildings.