Tom, why are you not an elected official yet?!  While I realize there are difference of opinions between yourself and our city council members, THIS site and your hard work are for the good of our ENTIRE community of Huber Heights.  You bring helpful information to the residents and it is greatly appreciated.  The city would benefit greatly with a website such as this.  Council hasn't learned that we are a viral generation.  FB and the "City" websites are ok however this could be a "coaching opportunity" for them.  Thank you for keeping us informed! One last thing, it would be very nice to know exactly where our elected officials stand, what have they done for "us" in the time they have been elected, what are their plans for the future of Huber, where do they see us in 5 years, 10 years.  Maybe if "we the people" had a site like this to become educated, then maybe "we the people" would be more willing to support "them".  Right now as it stands, if you're not agreeable with "them", you're the "busy body" and "they" take it personal.  I'd like to here "anything" from our officials and those running against them.

WOW!  A MUST read!  My husband stumbled upon this!  Interesting!
http://taxlevy.webs.com/

I think the school board and city need to take "NO" for an answer. Having a revote in November sits a little badly here.
The Schools and the City risk generating a vote of no confidence when they continuously go for more money at every election(at least it seems every election). I am sure it probably is not.
My own opinion is they did not get this levy to pass because they did not communicate enough of their need to the general public of Huber Heights.
They need to know that times are hard. And a lot of people are on the edge of whether or not they will be able to keep their homes in this area. There is a kind of depression going on out there. People are out of work. People are fighting to keep what they have.

So how do we change this NO vote?  No NEW levies. Try to go for maintaining what you have instead of increases. This is something people might vote for is keeping the status quo. Even there, we have no guarantees.  We need some really tough decisions on how to live within our means by the School System. And this means keeping the people we have employed at the salaries they are at now. That is a tough decision for the employees. These people are the ones that have to eat it.

We will not always be in an economic disaster like it is right now. But for the time being it is the way it is.  Going for increases is not the way to go right now.

The library levy a couple of years ago was presented right and they went before the public all over the district and answered questions from the public. It passed. It was sold properly to the public.  At the same time multiple school levies all over the place failed. Including ones from Huber Heights.  To keep making the same mistake over and over again is insane. These people obviously think if they persist people will change and vote for the levies. Nothing could be further from the truth.  To get a levy to pass the people have to have a really good reason to want to pass it.  Right now a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck and having to put  out more money to fight to keep their homes is not a good reason to pass a levy. Especially if that is what finally breaks them. Even so the ratio of failed votes on the levy was something like a 40/60 ratio of failure.

First off, that website link Janell posted…wow! The school board definitely wants that to remain hidden.

My wife and I voted no. My main issue is what do we actually get out of the schools? When these kids graduate, what are they actually qualified to do? Basically nothing. McDonalds will still have to train or retrain them. Students might get hired by Walmart but then they can not afford to pay higher taxes for another school levy.

I think that the school system needs to get some real marketing feedback if they want to pass the next levy. They need to list the benefits of a Huber education  and specific highlights you get from going to Huber schools. For example, how many kids get selected to go to Ivy league colleges? How many kids plan on majoring in college in advanced degrees such as engineering or medical doctor? We see zero positives coming out of the school system. Every kid coming out HAS to go to college simply because they aren't skilled for the real world. The school system needs to sell us on why we should give them more money.

There is a statistic that in Ohio colleges, basically 80% of new students have to take remedial math and English courses before they can start taking the actual college courses. I wonder what that percentage is for Huber students.

The school budget is over 60 million dollars and they say that isn't enough money. They really needed another 4.5 million from this levy? This is why people voted no.

One last thought, if this levy would have passed…when will the next levy be placed on the ballot again? The school board needs to say something about this. "Vote yes this time and we guarantee no new levies for 2 years". I would really like to hear something like this.

How was this levy presented to the citizens? They said it will be cheaper in August than in November because the state would have to pay a percentage. So vote for it now before it costs more later. I thought this was the dumbest marketing they could possibly do. And the citizens agreed. The last levy failed by 84 votes. This one failed by over a 1000 votes.

The school board needs to take some serious thought and input from its teachers and staff. The next levy (vote) is only 3 months away and I don't see it passing either unless something drastically changes.

The school board also needs to say something like, "vote yes this time and we guarantee no new levies for 2 years." This would be a big deal to me.

Jim:  

Trust me nobody on the Levy Committee tried to slip this past anyone.  We had many, myself included out on foot going around and many events in Huber Heights passing out information.

But really I don't think you guys understand how you have been paying LESS in property tax that goes to the schools.  The schools have been getting less and less from property tax, less and less from the state.

HHCS is near state minimum now due to the $15M operating cuts a year.
Thankfully the Teachers/Para's/Janitors took a 2 year pay freeze and pay more towards their health care. If it wasn't for that we would have been under state control and would have to be borrowing money to the state that would have to be paid back.

Right now my wife and I are looking at an exit strategy to get out of Huber Heights where my wife and I lived her 33 years and myself 28 years.  And I don't want to hear about sacrifices and crying, I lost my job in '08 and am now making about $50K less a year.  I did what I had to do like cut cable, cut cell phones, cut out going out to eat as much, going to Starbucks, not buying a new car every 2 years.

There is so much misinformation as in the "Huber Residents are spending to much money on the Aquatic Center, Amphitheater, Music Center, and new shopping area" These people don't understand the TIF. smh

Hey Bryan,

I had a discussion today with someone at work that mistakenly thought it would be a good idea if the State took over the running of the schools.  He didn't realize that if that happened that committee could force the city schools to borrow money and pay interest until the citizens approved a high enough tax levy to pay the bill.

I didn't quite understand why you are looking for an exit strategy to get out of Huber Heights.  Your writing it in this response makes it seem like this issue is a major reason - that logic doesn't make that much sense to me.

On your last point - spending $10 million to build a $6 million Aquatic center is spending too much money no matter how it is funded.  More importantly do you have a good internet reference that explains Tax Increment Financing (TIF).  I've been trying to put out good information on this site but there are things I know are missing.  For instance I'd like to know a break out of the property tax that is transferred to the TIF fund.  Looking at the 2014 city budget (last page) we know there are 9.79 mils of Police and Fire levies that are diverted to TIF but I haven't been able to get a full breakout.  

TIF Info that I haven't read yet but will. Site | Ohioline

Also the exit strategy is NOT because I don't want my kids to go to Wayne.  I don't want them to go to school where they are at a State Minimum, where my kids won't be able to do school oriented extracurricular activities. I would rather live in a district where the people actually support their schools and the parents actually care about their kids education.

*Disclaimer My wife is a school teacher in the district, we actually live in the area where she teaches at.  I have seen where parents demand that the teachers should be raising their kids.  I have even seen parents threaten my wife and other teachers to the point where they have security in the parent teacher meetings.  But thankfully my wife doesn't teach at that elementary school and hasn't had the problems at the one of the northern elementaries.

Also this was one of my FB posts the night after the election.

     To clarify my comment last night about being able to sell my house by the time Alexis gets to High School. It isn't because I don't want my kids to go to Wayne……

I want my kids to go to Wayne! I think the diversity of Huber and Wayne High School does wonders to the development and growing of someone in the real world. But if the residents are not willing to support the kids/teachers then I will be forced to move where they do.

If your kids cannot survive Wayne High School, Then how can you expect your kid to survive the real world?

Of course there are a few bad apples, and just because those few bad apples make a big scene doesn't mean the majority of the students are bad.

My thing is when Alexis gets to be High School age, Do I want her to go to school where there is NO College prep classes? No Honors Classes? DECA is already Long Gone! Just go to school with state minimum classes where you get a minimum education because that is all the residents are willing to pay for…..actually there not even willing to pay for state minimum.

I'll be interested in your reaction once you read the TIF reference you posted.

I'd appreciated it if you made it over in the TIF topic section.