TPS to seek a continuing, never needing renewal levy in November

I am sooooooooo glad my school taxes go to Washington Twp. instead of the Black Hole known as TPS.

No levy until a performance audit is done. http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/05/tps-should-do-performance-audit-before.html

Timing is everything. My assumption is they understand quite clearly if they can't get a levy passed on this November's election they never will. It's their best shot - that's why it is not one that will require renewal.

I'm really tossed on this. Kids shouldn't have to suffer a bad education, then again I have no faith in the TPS system and don't feel they would do better even with the funds.

Sadly I have friends who are TPS teachers, know their horror stories and have seen how much they spend personally just to have supplies. I think it's the teachers unions that's partially to blame. Good teachers have a hard time moving up, and some who don't care stay for life.

INC - Why do you think that TFT is to blame? What has the union done to prevent improvement. And what do you mean when you say that good teachers have a hard time "moving up?" How does a teacher move up? Do you mean pay? Just asking.

Not putting all the blame, just saying I personally believe it's part of the problem. Of my friends who are teachers have spent 5-10 years to get their first job, spending that time in sub-hell. Then once they get in see teachers who simply don't care, borderline abusive or uninterested in students but can't get removed because of tenure.

One friend who landed her first contract made almost as me an IT manager, teaching K-3. Only to lose her contract due to budget constraints while others got to stay.
I've seen her spend countless amounts of her own money to pay for kids food, supplies since none were provided. She paid to photocopy play books since the school only gave her 1 real copy (when each student is supposed to have one).

She would really sum it up a lot better than I ever could, and I don't claim to know even a fraction of the problem but everything I've heard from real teachers has left a bad taste in my mouth for the union and TPS in general.

On the flip side, I could never handle her job. Teaching really is a small part of it. She plays mommy for emotional needs, feeds kids their lunches since parents won't pay or provide (only a few kids), buys them halloween costumes because they had none. Let alone all of the illegal activities going on in the kids lives that she has to hear then go through the ranks reporting events (which seems to get buried).

The system is sadly broken in so many ways.

ops that was supposed to be italics not bold.

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I really don't care.

Why do parents choose to send their kids to TPS?

Aside from the stereotypical parents who don't give a damn about their kids. Why does any logical person choose to live in the TPS school district if they know that they are going to be raising school-age kids?

I say we approve a levy to burn 4 million dollars of taxpayer money.

At least that way the students can be entertained by watching it for a few minuts. It makes just as much sense as giving TPS more money.

Never going to happen. It would be immoral to give these idiots any more money.

Never going to happen. It would be immoral to give these idiots any more money.

This is to answer dell diva's question. We moved into TPS district because we could not afford a decent home in our price range in the suburbs. So, TPS was our only choice housing wise, but we have a small home in a decent neighborhood that we can afford our mortgage payment and the money we are saving in taxes and huge mortgage payments is going to pay for our children's Catholic school tuition, which we feel is a better education then any of the public schools in the area.

Imho TPS is way too bloated in it's administration. It's time to tighten the belts and the best way to do that is starting with the people who don't actually teach the students. That is, after all the primary mission is it not?
It's way past time to examine whether they need dozens of assistant principals and other high paid positions that don't even teach.

They are going for a levy now because when the new core curriculum standards hit next year, state reports cards are going to plummet and there's no way they could get more money when their rankings slide even more.

Is this a renewal of an existing levy or an additional tax on homeowners?

Also, since this is a permanent tax increase and will never be up for vote again, that means TPS can come back 2 years from now and ask for another levy which will get added to this permanent one - correct?

NEW levy, permanent

Is it unusual for a school levy to be permanent? Most that I notice tend to have renewal dates at some point.

(I'm not an Ohio native, so I don't have a terribly long history with Ohio school levies.)

Not going to happen in my books. I spend enough keeping my kids out of that hell hole that is TPS in Private school tuition, I will vote NO until they stop misspending my money.

Ditto, I wish I didn't have to shell out for private education. That is the money that should be going into my retirement fund.

I'm not rich, I'm trading my future for theirs.

We did the same thing with our kids.They went to private schools because we live in the TPS school district.We both may have been able to retire earlier had not we spent so much money on private education.I do not regret sending our children to private schools because they both are college educated and have very good jobs.One of them is a Software Engineer and the other has a BSN in Nursing.

I have occasionally half contemplated moving into TPS district to save money. (My kids already go to Catholic school...paying tuition + taxes for Sylvania schools is killing me.)

But this levy that never ends or needs renewal thing makes me nervous. Eek.

Mom2 - the majority of Sylvania School's levies are continuous/permanent, as are the ones for Sylvania fire and police; the Senior Center and SAJRD are renewals (except for capital, which are always tied to a bond for a specific number of years.)

IMO, the only time a school district goes for a term-limited levy is when they are desparate and need to convince the public that they are accountable by making it a time-specific levy.

If all levies were renewable, we would actually end up having one on the ballot constantly; they are still collecting the levies that were passed 10, 20, and 30 years ago at the same dollar amount.

Thanks for the info, MrsArcher. I haven't been an Ohio voter long enough to know how all of that works. I've seen some renewals come up, and guess I didn't realize that most were indefinite.

Come on its for the children! /sarcasm off

The primary reason for this levy is so the district won't have to further reduce pay and benefits of employees. It doesn't have a single thing to do with improving kids' education. It's a nearly 20 million dollar money grab. It will an additional 20 million $$$ from Toledo property owners, and hand it to a workforce, 60-70% that lives outside the city.

I don't believe we ever should be asked for permanent levies.

I'll be voting against this levy.

I'll repeat, I strongly believe the main reason this levy is even written in its present form with the crazy amount asked for as well as the permanent feature is because they see this election in November as their big opportunity based on the expected voter turnout in this area.

NO! NO! NO!

I agree with Foodie that I am grateful to live in the WLSD. 4 generations of my family have attended these schools and graduated from Whitmer.

I do wonder how Toledo can ever prosper and grow without a viable public school system in place. Without a good public educational system we will continue on our downward spiral. What the answer is I do not know.

if 60%-70% of the TPS staff & Teachers lived in the city limits, I would vote for this levy as well. Are their statistics on this? I'd be very curious to see how many live here!

Yeah? I'm a pencil sharpener and I'm going to dump shavings all over you three.

Given the money that TPS is costing Toledo, I think it should be a zero tolerance policy that all employees live within the city limits and be property owners.

Good luck with that, ain't gonna happen. The teachers who don't live in the school district have NO skin in the game and like it that way.

I'm no fan of TPS but I don't think your address should be prerequisite employment.

If we shook the bush and separated the wheat from the chaff by getting rid of the bad teachers, over paid admin hierarchy, and 100k a year copy makers it wouldn't matter where they lived.

I think if you work for the city you should have to live in its city limits, same with a county or state. Does TPS have any schools outside the city limits? I consider the TPS employees government employees and as such should live where they work. They should be paying taxes and supporting their own establishment. And with such great job security they don't need the all the priviledged perks they receive either. Who ever gave away the candy store when unions, administration and other employees negotiated their contracts should be brought back and charged with crimes against the citizens of those communities. Toledo would be in a lot better shape if the politicians would not of scratched the backs so hard of the people that got them elected and instead looked out for the city as a whole.

Yeah, and under normal conditions I'd agree with you. The entire situation with TPS and the Toledo BOE is so far removed from normalcy that you'd likely find it in Timbuktu by election time.

What a shocker:

TPS, Unions In Lock Step to Support $6.9M Levy

1.) Someone at the Blade is stupid or misleading (or both). It's either a "6.9 mill levy" or worth "$18.5 million per year". The headline makes it seem like the levy is 1/3 of it's actual cost.

2.) The slogan pushed by boosters during the campaign kickoff, "TPS Proud," came from TFT, an effort to counteract a state proposal to rate school systems on an A through F grading scale that Mr. Dalton said unfairly labeled all Toledo Public School students as failures.

Nice misdirection. The school system rating is a rating of the system, not of individual students--they get their own grades.

"Our system gets a failing grade, so let's argue about the grading system" instead of "let's work to get this system to a C, B, or A level". Great. What do you want to bet Ottawa Hills or any of a hundred other currently well performing systems will also get A's and B's in the new rating system??? Point being, maybe it's not the "new ranking system" that is failing the students, champ...

3.) The campaign appears to be aimed at voters who do not have children.

I'll rephrase: "The campaign appears to be ready to blow smoke up the ass of people who have no children imprisoned currently in the failing system; from now until November they will cry about "the children" and once this levy is passed will demand raises, perks, bonuses, threaten strikes....and the classrooms will still be short of books, supplies, etc. to foster actual learning and raise TPS out of it's "F" rating", and--as an added bonus--the new money still does not balance TPS budget in the future. Vote yes!".

Good luck selling this one...

How many of the people posting about this have been in a TPS school recently?

In the Blade today 3 groups are proposing levies for the November ballot.
http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/06/07/3-groups-proposing-levies-for-Nov-ballot.html

First note worth mentioning - I thought it really odd that in the levy for TPS noted above they came up with a figure that it would cost the owner of a $60,000 house $127. The $60,000 house figure seemed like a mighty low number to use in discussing the levy (THE $127 IS NOT!)

The 3 levies listed in today’s Blade below all give tax payer estimates for $100,000 homes.

Mental Health and Recovery - $30.63 cost for $100,000 homeowner
Lucas County Children Services wants an increase of $26.03 in addition to the $56.66 they already get from a $100,000 homeowner
Imagination Station - wants $5.21 from the $100,000 homeowner.

So, let’s make all things equal. The math tells me that TPS wants $127 from the $60,000 homeowner which equates to $212 from the $100,000 homeowner. Are you all listening out there who are working 5 days a week and paying that mortgage?

Let’s see – TPS - $212, Mental Health - $30.63, Children Services an extra $26.03 on top of what they get, and $5.21 for Imagination Station.

That comes out to $273.87 per year for these four levies. Sure WTF and take my credit cards and watch while you’re at it!!!

I’ll say it again – behind closed doors I GAURANTEE these agencies are certain THIS Novembers election in our voting area is their chance to score big. I just hope they realize they might just alienate their own party members who would prefer NOT to take a $273.87 hit on their own personal budgets next year.

It's only $273.87. Everyone has that much extra money.

I don't.

But I already earmarked that money toward steak dinners at the new casino.

Dannes

You do not have to vote for this levy.

But I believe that in order to have a city that grows and thrives we need not only excellent schools, but also parks and recreation for the community. Add into that mix the art museum, zoo, etc.

I do not believe this levy has a chance to pass this fall however.

Yeah Jackie, because the zoo, museum, and the parks that have been here for decades have made this city an absolute utopia so far.

In the 50's Toledo was bigger and thriving. It had a larger population than Atlanta GA. Too bad we tied our wagon to the auto industry.

And gave away the farm when things were good.

Maybe they should tie tax paid wages on a percent of gross revenue, kind of like profit sharing, when things are good you get more, when things go bad you either suck it up enjoy having a job at all and deal with your losses.

Opps left the either unresolved, or leave leave for greener pastures.

Spot on, dell diva, and if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow your wisdom.

Recreation budget??? Why??? Why am I being asked to pay for this??????

1.) Because you can be.
2.) Because they know you'll pay under penalty of law when this idiotic town votes for it.
3.) Because more money always fixes everything (see: public schools, road maintenance, etc. All gigantic successes with regular levy requests for more more more).
4.) Because somewhere some idiot is saying "this will increase the value of your home".
5.) Because the collective brainpower and creativity of this town's leaders couldn't power a 13 watt CFL bulb for 2 hours.
6.) Because the thought of a parent(s), family, or other non-government organization providing recreation opportunities for their own kids (and...god forbid...paying for them or...even worse... supervising them) is a foreign concept nowadays.
7.) Because if you don't for this, you're just "stingy". Probably one of those Republican bastards. $18 is probably what you tip your maid, you heartless prig.
8.) Because playing in someone's front yard is just too goddamn boring for today's kids...the same kids who prove their academic prowess every year by placing the schools (via their standardized test scores) into "academic emergency".
9.) Because your money will not be spent for as worthwhile of a cause as Webb, Steele, Collins, etc. would spend it.
10.) Because there are votes to buy, "look at what I did for you" lines to put in re-election advertisements, and general slush funds to divvy up among interested parties. All "for the children" of course...

And that's just off the top of my head. Continue on my friends...

Thanks oldhometown, it's perfectly clear now : )

Seriously, all good points.

11.) If you don't vote for this, kids will have nothing better to do than play with guns and shoot elderly people.

12.) Because new, shiny teeter totters make property values go up.

13.) Because it's "ONLY" $.05 a day! And, of you can't pay $.05 a day you must hate kids!

14.) Gangbangers will be able to settle their turf battles on the tether ball courts instead of the streets.

Reminds me of their NATIONAL search for someone to head the TPS, so we get some yahoo coming for the 6 figure salary. They get here with no idea or interest in how this city works or operates, takes about a year for it to sink in, might try to make changes and runs into the proverbial brick wall. That's year 2, then starts to look for somewhere else to flee to, year 3. Gets the hell out of Toledo as fast as he can. There is your academic excellence in the TPS system.

Linecrosser - that would be a great story if it actually ever happened. The current super has not fled, the prior super was not the result of a national search, he was local, and he was around for a reasonable amount of time. Prior to that, all TPS supers have been homegrown and relatively long-serving. You make a point however, being a super for any school district is a big challenge that deserves big pay. The scenario you describe happens everywhere. Otsego's new super is 29 years old - how long you think that guy is staying?