Blog Category: Politics

Author's Name: Robert Nelson Vance
Author's Email: Email Contact Form
Author's Website: robertnelsonvance.com

I'm not here to pick a fight, but I have to wonder why Hilliard City School residents do not ask the School District the right questions. If they're soo worried about their money, why don't they speak up and pose questions about spending.

Case in point, doing a quick Google search for a Hilliard City School (in this example, Hilliard Davidson High School), one can find hits including press releases, news articles, You Tube videos, photo galleries, etc. While browsing through these item, you can quickly get a feel for some of the events that the schools host. In this example, I will use the Hilliard Davidson High School Freshman Orientation.

I came across a few You Tube videos (very good, apparently student produced ones) that highlighted the event. This event is provided for incoming Freshmen at Hilliard Davidson High School. The goal of the event is, in general, to stimulate school spirit, class bonding, a good academic start, and personal self worth. Students also become acclimated to the school building and some of the school's staff.

Every year, the school brings in a "motivational speaker(s)", a professional speaker/performer to engage students in the aforementioned topics. Each year varies, but every year, as you can expect, will become more lavish. When I was a freshman, our freshman orientation was essentially picking up our books and getting our school pictures taken. Every year, it turns into more of an event.

Now, playing Devil's advocate and setting aside any educational and social value that such a orientation with motivational speaker(s) might have, I will ask: Where does the money come from? I mean, motivational speakers themselves can cost five, ten, fifteen, and even more thousands of dollars just for an hour long presentation. Then there's the support staff for the orientation. The utilities to run the lighting and air conditioning. The water for the five hundred extra flushes the toilets will generate for the day. How about the miles of toilet paper used? Need I go on?

I know how most of the expenses are paid for, I am an insider. But does the average tax payer in Hilliard know. I'm not going to say one way or another how the 2007 Hilliard Davidson High School Freshman Orientation was funded. At best, I'll say expenses came from several funds. My point is simply, the community complains about district spending and they don't ask the questions.

Right now, the district is offering teachers a crappy offer for a contract and community members are writing in to the newspapers complaining about how greedy the teachers are. And the Hilliard Board of Education (aka: Hilliard School Board) is telling the media that they have 'no other options'. And the community, as a whole, believes all of this at face value and doesn't ask for any other information. There are other options, evaluate spending as a whole - not just teachers salaries and benefits.

If you want to know how the Freshman Orientation was paid for, contact Hilliard Davidson High School. If they don't help, contact the Hilliard City Schools Board Office. If they don't help, then write an editorial about how the district won't tell you how they pay for other things - not about how teachers are greedy. I urge you to try to collect any information you can about expenses you notice around the district and what you find out about them, then post them here and write a letter to the editor about spending as a whole.

I am proud to be a Hilliard Davidson High School graduate, but right now am disappointed to be a Hilliard City School District resident and be surrounded by community members who don't check their facts, don't take responsibility, and generally don't care about anything or anyone but themselves - especially the welfare of their school district.