"Competent leaders solve problems within available resources... The district is now pursuing its "Rube Goldberg" bond issue by conversion of bathrooms and closets to tug at the community's heartstrings.  In the October 2 News-Current an advocate adds locker rooms to the mix... What happened to the modular classrooms--a preferable alternative to the space conversions unless these conversions are only campaign tactics?"

Closets, locker rooms, faculty work areas, book storage rooms, and at least one bathroom have indeed been converted into classroom space in an attempt to use available resources to mitigate the impact of overcrowding.  Modular classrooms are also being used but are expensive.  The suggestion that space conversions are "campaign tactics" has no factual basis.

"I see all the homes and businesses that have gone up since [1969] (Fairfield Commons, The Greene) bringing in more money for the same schools that were bought and paid for years ago, and wonder why the School Board supposedly can't build even ONE school today...What 'gravy' expenses aren't they admitting to that, with greater income, prevent them from performing as efficiently as when 7 schools were built in the span of only 15 years?"

First, there is no "greater income."  Tax laws prevent the districts' operating revenue from rising on pace with rising enrollment.

Second, the School Board does not and should not have enough operating money available to build a new school.  Operating levies pay for salaries, fuel, electricity, books, maintenance, etc.  The schools constructed during past periods of growth were built with funds raised by construction bonds, not operating levies.

Third, Beavercreek schools are operated at a lower cost per student and with a lower percentage spent on Administration than most schools in Ohio. The suggestion that the schools have 'gravy' expenses or are performing inefficiently has no factual basis.

"Half the Beavercreek households--mostly established residents who have supported the schools for years--are paying much more. The other half--mostly new residents causing the school's enrollment glut--are paying much less."

"One [established resident] recently quoted a single-household bill of $13,000--before the proposed [school construction bond] increase."

Beavercreek taxes currently total 63.766 mills for city residents. A $13,000 property tax bill would mean the owner's property is valued at approximately $665,000.

"What amuses me is the district is always bragging about its state report card, which most of us know doesn't mean much. But if the schools are doing so well, why do they need more?"

Performing well despite overcrowded conditions and aging buildings does not mean there is enough space for current or new students, or that boilers and roofs do not eventually need to be replaced.

Beavercreek's academic record for the past eight years places it in the top 5.2% of all districts in Ohio. Whether that "means much" is up to each individual to decide. See Beavercreek School District Tax Levies for comparative cost and performance records.

"These are FACTS and I challenge ANYONE to prove them wrong. In 1968 the population of the Beavercreek School System was approximately 8000 students.  The projected population for year 1969 was 8200 students. The projected population for school year 2008/2009, according to the much heralded 'PLANNING ADVOCATES' report is approximately 7700 students, and the projection for school year 1969 of 8200 students is not reached until school year 2013."

Yes, those are facts and as such they cannot be proven wrong. But the conclusion that Beavercreek school enrollment is not currently over capacity is incorrect.  Capacity is a function of requirements, not just of space. Legally-mandated requirements today are more stringent than they were in 1968.

In 1968 there was no requirement to provide preschool services. Today, the state requires local school districts to provide appropriate education to all children with disabilities who are at least three years old. Class size is limited by law to 12, and of those 12 no more than 8 may be special-needs children—at least 4 must be typical children of the same age group. As of the 2007-2008 school year there were 83 special-needs preschoolers enrolled in Beavercreek public schools. Since no more than 8 may be in any single classroom, the school district must devote at least 11 classrooms to preschool—compared to zero in 1968.

In 1968 Beavercreek Schools had 66 students identified as having special needs; for the 2007-2008 school year there were 987, not counting the 83 preschoolers (see below under February 13, 2008, for more information). Of those 987, hundreds have circumstances requiring they be educated in class sizes ranging from 6 to 16 for some or all of their school day. Classrooms that may have held 30 students in 1968 must by law be used today for fewer students. 

In 1968 there was no requirement to find space for computer workstations in classrooms. Today the state requires a minimum of five computers per classroom in all school buildings that do not have a fully equipped computer lab.

Concerning space, kindergarten and some first grade classes were held in community church facilities before Valley Elementary and Ankeney Middle Schools were built, because student enrollment at the time exceeded capacity of the actual Beavercreek school district buildings.

"What Vinson never addresses [on this website] is the real reason some levies, bond issues and other taxing proposals get defeated: Those initiatives fund efforts that are not the proper function of government. In other words, what public services are we talking about, Mr. Vinson?"

"...I would like to suggest to Vinson that funding golf courses and preschools are not proper functions of government."

I am talking about public schools, public streets, and public police services.

I have never advocated for the city's involvement in the golf course. I have not researched any financial or operational details about it and do not have an informed opinion on whether it is a good or bad thing. I will study it and write about it on this website if some future ballot issue gives Beavercreek citizens the opportunity to end that involvement.

"To imply [on this website] that citizens will not support core government services is an insult."

"Once issue was classroom size, but don't ask what the optimal size is because it must be smaller than whatever it is at the time."

Beavercreek School District class sizes are larger than in 39 of the 53 other school districts in the Miami Valley.  Modular trailers are already in use, and more have been ordered, simply because there is not enough room in the permanent school buildings to hold all enrolled students.  The use of short-term facilities for a long-term requirement is by definition an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.

"Let me get this straight.  A service is provided where its cost has no direct bearing on who is using the service."

Public education in Ohio is funded primarily by property taxes. The people who "use" the service include the children who go to school, the young adults who go on to live constructive lives because they received a decent public education, and everyone who ever benefits from the labors of anyone who received that education.  If the author of that letter would prefer for education to be funded on a direct pay-as-you-go basis, with a fee charged to parents for each individual student, he may wish to write to Representative Kevin DeWine at district70@ohr.state.oh.us, or via mail at:

The Honorable Kevin DeWine
Ohio House of Representatives
77 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111

In the meantime, public education is still funded primarily by property taxes, and the school district administration is responsible for publicly documenting their requirements and associated costs.

"Morrison claims that he and others in the education industry have tried for a better statewide system to pay for education.  Let me translate that.  A better tax system is one where local bureaucrats don't have to beg for money and the revenues geared for education are less locally accountable than they are now."

No, a better tax system is one which does not contain the structural and procedural problems that Ohio's system has repeatedly been found to have, in the eyes of the Ohio Supreme Court.  Some of those problems result in a high reliance on local property taxes.  See Tax Law 101 for additional information.

"If we can't vote on the growth before it happens, we will vote after the fact and let our government know we won't live with or pay for the city council's bone-headed decisions to continue to allow growth that is unplanned, unwanted, and unaffordable."

"Beavercreek schools are overrated and we are paying exorbitant property taxes for what we are getting."

Of 13 Dayton-area districts, only three (Beavercreek, Centerville, and Oakwood) earned Excellent ratings from the Ohio Department of Education for each of the last seven years. Beavercreek's cost per student for those same seven years was lower than in 11 of the other 12 districts; only Sugarcreek had a lower cost per student. High performance at low cost would not seem to qualify as "overrated" or "exorbitant."

See Beavercreek School District Tax Levies for comparative cost and performance records of the 13 local districts and state averages.

"I hoped [the school board and superintendent] would have reevaluated their 'long term message' of wants and needs to a more moderate 'absolute current' needs (3-5 years) message."

"...any plan which attempts to address the entire school system and uses the school board's 'most likely' student projection as its basis is a short term solution that is financially irresponsible... I believe the proper way is by using the master plan as outlined by the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) and addressing 'true' future growth by utilizing the 'highest' student growth projection."

"Why would citizens pass a school bond issue with all the frills that are being asked for?"

"The schools have over 900 employees. How many were employed in 1969?  Want to bet there were fewer employees?"

I have no information on how many employees the district had in 1969, but State-mandated programs and requirements are far more extensive now than in 1969 (see additional discussion below, under October 24th, 2007).  The same laws that force class size down force employee levels up.  The school district does not make those laws; it simply has to comply with them.

Even so, current manning levels are not excessive. Beavercreek School District class sizes are larger than in 39 of the 53 other school districts in the Miami Valley, so clearly the district is not employing an excessive number of teachers.  For the past seven years, Beavercreek has spent an average of 9.64% of total expenditures on Administration, compared to an Ohio state average of 12.26%. Clearly the district is not employing an excessive number of administrators and staff members either.

"How many voters know that the State Supreme Court ruled that funding of schools via property taxes is UNCONSTITUTIONAL?"

The court did not rule that funding of schools via property taxes is unconstitutional.  In "DeRolph vs. State of Ohio," it ruled that the current system is not thorough and efficient for a variety of reasons, including that it relies too heavily on local property taxes. "Relying too heavily" does not mean that no property taxes can be used.

"Why is ONE OUT OF SEVEN of the students classified as special needs?"

Various factors contribute to a higher proportion of students being classified as having special needs, compared to previous years. Clinical improvements in understanding MRDD issues result in earlier and more effective diagnoses than in past years. Special-needs students are more often educated in public schools than in private institutions, compared to the past.  A relatively high proportion of Air Force personnel with special-needs family members are assigned to Wright Patterson, because it is one of only a few remaining bases with an advanced medical facility.

As of October 2007, the 1070 students classified as having special needs were further classified as follows:

78 autistic 59 multi-handicapped 60 emotionally disturbed 2 visually impaired 7 hearing impaired 1 deaf/blind 4 traumatic brain injury 36 cognitive delayed 397 learning disabled 156 speech 14 orthopedic 1 other health impaired - major 147 other health impaired - minor 25 "504 plan" other additional services 83 preschool

Not all special-needs students require smaller class sizes or specialized teachers, but many do.  The school district is required to provide appropriate educational services to all enrolled students.

"Every time someone moves into Beavercreek, my property taxes go up."

No, they don't.  They go down.  All so-called "emergency" levies and the 1995 school construction bond each generate a constant dollar amount, the same amount every year.  Every time someone moves into Beavercreek and begins paying a share of that constant amount, the rest of us pay a little bit less.

Total school levy millage for the 2003 tax year was 37.7 mills; for the 2007 tax year it is 35.1, even though exactly the same levies are still in place.  That 2.6 mill effective reduction means each residential taxpayer is now paying about $80 less per $100,000 of appraised property value than he or she was four years ago.

See Beavercreek School District Tax Levies or contact the Greene County Auditor's office for the rates at which existing levies were originally approved and the reduced rates at which they are currently assessed.

[Concerning the proposed construction bond] "Let's moderate the enormity of the construction project to a more judicious size and not attempt to rebuild the entire Beavercreek school system on the backs of property owners."

The construction plan does not attempt to rebuild the entire Beavercreek school system.  It relies on adapting and reusing existing facilities to a very large extent, and by doing so is tens of millions of dollars less expensive than the plan proposed by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.  

The overall scope of the plan is a judiciously estimated balance of financial constraints vs. current and most likely future needs, but it is just as likely to be too small the day it opens as it is likely to be too big--and being too small is a more expensive problem over the long run, because we would have missed out on the economies of scale that a larger construction project would have provided.  There's no way to know for sure exactly what future requirements will be, but the existing plan represents a judicious, carefully researched, financially-constrained estimate.

"The taxpayer does not get to vote on how much growth is acceptable. He/she only gets to vote on the cost of that growth whether it be new facilities for schools, improved roads, more police/firemen, or any other public service impacted by the growth."

It's true that we are being asked to vote to approve a school construction bond at a specific cost.  But that's not the same as "voting on the cost of growth" as if it were a Yes or No question. The growth, and its costs, are realities.  Our votes will determine whether we address that growth in a way that minimizes long-term costs (energy-efficient, low-maintenance, permanent facilities designed to support excellent education), or in a way that maximizes long-term costs (inefficient, high-maintenance trailers designed only to provide a temporary increase in space).

"Please don't tell me that Ohio mandates a ratio for some grades. Who do you think influences law makers? So what's the magic ratio; 25, 20, 15? Why not 10?"

"Many school districts have much higher student-teacher ratios without impacting anyone."

Ohio law mandates a student-teacher ratio of no more than 25 to 1 for kindergarten through 4th grade, but does not mandate ratios for the older grades. For the 2007-2008 school year, Beavercreek's ratio for grades K-4 is 23.56 to 1. In the older grades, as of the 2007-2008 school year Beavercreek has 95 academic-subject classrooms where the student count is over 30. Ratios that high clearly impact the nature of a teacher's interaction with students, in an undesirable way compared to smaller ratios.

"82% of the school's budget pays for personnel. Morrison makes well over $200,000 and the teachers are some of the highest paid in the state."

Over the past seven years, Beavercreek has spent an average of 9.64% of total expenditures on Administration, and an average of 55.93% on Instructional Expenditures.  The averages for 13 Dayton-area school districts are 12.01% and 56.34% respectively. The averages for all districts in the state are 12.26% and 55.54% respectively. See Beavercreek School District Tax Levies for comparative cost and performance records.

"The 1967/1968 projection for students for school year 1968/1969 was 8180 or a whopping 763 more students than year 2006/2007. I have lived in Beavercreek for 35 years. I have seen unparalleled growth in the community, and yet, over those 35 years we have fewer students."

Surprising at it seems, those figures are correct.  Beavercreek student enrollment in grades K-12 rose steeply throughout the 1960s and early 70s, peaking at 8662 in the 1973/1974 school year. It then dropped to 6405 by the 1988/1989 school year, stayed relatively stable through the 90s, and since 2000 has once again risen steeply.  The growth is projected to continue, most likely adding another 800 students within the next decade, according to the consulting firm which was highly accurate in its previous forecasts for the district.

In 1968 there was no pre-school; now the state requires it and limits class sizes to 12. In 1968 Beavercreek Schools had 66 students identified as having special needs; for the 2007-2008 school year there are 1070, including hundreds with circumstances requiring they be educated in class sizes ranging from 6 to 16 for some or all of their school day. In 1968 there was no requirement to find space for computer workstations in classrooms; in 2007 the state requires five computers per classroom in all buildings that do not have a fully equipped computer lab. Before Valley Elementary and Ankeney Middle Schools were built, kindergarten and some first grade classes were held in community church facilities.

"I know that several expansions have been completed at the high school, main elementary and other locations, so unless those tax dollars were wasted, additional capacity should have been created."

Additional capacity was created and it served the community well in the dozen years since the last construction bond was passed, during which time the student population has grown by approximately 750.

"First do you remember the Schools Supt. giving a great run down on preparations for getting school ready to open in the Aug 2007 Current issue.  It is here where he stated maintenance was conducted and schools were made ready for 2007!  No mentions of horrible despicable living and learning conditions then."

Maintenance was conducted over the summer and schools were made ready for 2007 to the extent possible given the age of the facilities. At some point, "maintenance" on roofs, windows, boilers, pavements, and other basic infrastructure stops being enough, and the items need major repairs or replacement.  Except for 1990s additions to some buildings, Ankeney Middle School is the district's newest facility, at 38.  Main Elementary is the oldest, at 75.

"Oh and have you seen the signs 'Our future in now Vote Yes on the Beavercreek School Bond?" If school money is used to promote an issue should not our taxpayer dollars be used to fairly represent both sides of an issue or make believe problem?"

Taxpayer dollars were not used to produce those signs. They were paid for by Citizens for Beavercreek Schools.

The rapid growth of student enrollment since 2000, and the expected continued growth, is not a make-believe problem. Those students will be in Beavercreek School District classrooms. We can choose to minimize the cost of those classrooms over the long term (energy-efficient, low-maintenance permanent facilities), or we can choose to maximize the cost over the long term (modular trailers).

"The superintendent talked about not asking for operating funds since 2003. Never mind that those funds were supposed to be temporary."

Operating funds by definition are for operating expenses: Schoolbus fuel, electricity, teachers' salaries, building maintenance, etc. Beavercreek voters prefer to use so-called "emergency" levies to fund routine operating expenses, rather than "continuing" levies (which would not expire), because many people believe that if leadership behaves irresponsibly with tax money, we voters can enforce discipline by voting down the next tax levy.  That's a choice we can make, but we should not then blame the school district for asking to renew the short-term "emergency" levies when they expire.

[Concerning a recent school forum on the proposed construction bond] "No one spoke long about the mismanagement of the past!"

The mismanagement of the past was inexcusable: Financial record-keeping and oversight so sloppy that the books could be off by millions of dollars. The superintendent and the treasurer from that period are no longer employed by the Beavercreek School District, and no school board members from that period are still on the board. The current superintendent, treasurer, and board have compiled a multi-year record of exemplary financial responsibility and meticulous accounting, earning credit ratings among the highest of any school district in the state.

"The pattern is clear: every three to five years established residents are asked to spend hundreds more per year, not to improve the schools, but just to subsidize new residents not paying an equal share."

New residents pay taxes at exactly the same rates as old residents, based on the value of their property. Since our voted operating levies generate a constant dollar amount, rather than increasing revenue in proportion to new development, the arrival of additional residents actually makes the existing residents' tax rates for those levies go down. Total school levy millage for the 2003 tax year was 37.7 mills; for the 2007 tax year it is 35.1, even though exactly the same levies are still in place.  That 2.6 mill effective reduction means each residential taxpayer is now paying about $80 less per $100,000 of appraised property value than he or she was four years ago.

See Beavercreek School District Tax Levies or contact the Greene County Auditor's office for the rates at which individual levies were originally approved and the reduced rates at which they are currently assessed.