Letters to the Editor
A Letter From a Cardinal High School Student
There’s a seemingly ominous matter approaching on Nov. 8 that no one in the schools, nor anyone in the community, seems to want to address.
This “ominous” matter is the Cardinal Schools levy. I know everything there is to know about this levy and I will not sugar coat it for any student or even any parent. It is no longer possible to bury your head in the sand and attempt to ignore it.
For some reason, the details regarding this levy are not well known to the public, on their fault, not ours. The information is out there, readily accessible to anyone who wishes to know more about it.
It is unfair to the students of the Cardinal school district for you to vote “no” without knowing absolutely every detail about this upcoming levy.
Thirteen dollars a month is all we’re asking to keep our schools functioning.
What does this $13 a month goes toward, you ask? This $13 a month goes into Cardinal school district’s general fund budget.
This budget covers salaries, maintenance, transportation, supplies, educational services and everything else needed to be a working school district.
What will happen if the levy doesn’t pass, you ask? The next option would be consolidation of the schools. Because of this, your income tax would jump from 1 percent to 2 percent, and the total mills collected on your property would increase from 53 mills to 60 mills. Then an additional levy would need to be passed to support the operating costs of the new building, which is estimated at a cost of $100 million dollars. Not to mention, the pay-to-play costs for all of the sports teams would inflate to about a $1,000 per sport, per student. Let me tell you what I think about consolidation. Attempt to look at this from my point of view. I’m a Cardinal High School student and I’ve gone to the Cardinal school district my entire life. I have 96 people in my grade, almost all of whom I’ve gone to school with since kindergarten. I know every single person in my class. I would be lost, overwhelmed and unable to thrive if we consolidated schools.
I will put it in the simplest way I possibly can. Without Cardinal High School, I have nowhere to go. So for the sake of your bank account, the sake of all of the future Cardinal kids growing up in Middlefield, Huntsburg or Parkman, the sake of all of the students currently enrolled in the Cardinal school district, and the sake of me, please vote “yes” for this levy.
It would mean a lot to graduate from the school that I’ve attended for the past 11 years.
Kailyn Foutty
Parkman Township
Insane Tenure
Let’s see some ACTION!
I’m eagerly watching for Judge Grendell to spring into action, appointing a Special Prosecutor and finally ridding the taxpayers once and for all of the insanity that has been John Oro’s tenure as executive director of Geauga Park District.
So what’s John done now? Well, he’s gone and granted a couple of non-park groups the right to auction off exclusive use of an entire park and park lands – for their OWN profit! Yeah, the very parks that he’s supposed to protect and defend.
And yeah, the same guy that felt that a wide-open free photo club was “too exclusive a use for the park facilities.”
I’m not attacking hunting; I myself am a hunter. But anyone (except John, apparently) can see that allowing an outside group the exclusive right to sell access to park lands is not only inappropriate, but seems likely to be illegal.
I’m sure Judge Grendell’s appointed prosecutor will let us know the full extent of the violation as well as addressing the question of whether John himself in any way profited from this egregious misuse of his position. It’s so hard to tell, when everything is done in near secrecy at the parks nowadays.
Go get ‘em, Judge!
Bruce Bennett
Claridon Township
