School Levy Recap
March 9, 2008 at 9:22 am | In Education, Levy Campaigns | 2 CommentsTags: campaigns, levies, Plain Local, PR, public education, public relations, Stark County
I’ve already blogged a couple times about school levies in Ohio and thought I should follow up with the results from the election last Tuesday. After all the votes were counted, only 1 out of 7 Stark County school districts saw their levy passed. As this article in the Canton Repository asks, “now what?”
I certainly don’t have any easy answers for these school districts – but school officials better be prepared to start communicating with their key publics and evaluating their levy campaigns.
One school district, Plain Local, is going to move forward with its “Phase V Crisis Plan.” This will include limiting bus services, shorter school days for students, closing the building promptly at the end of the school day, and teacher lay-offs.
I’m sure parents will have questions about the limited busing and the shorter school day; students will probably want to know how the building closing will impact their after-school activities, and teachers will, undoubtedly, want to have more information about the lay-offs. I suggest the school district send a handout home for parents and students to review and also hold a few town hall meetings to discuss the Phase V Crisis Plan. The information sent home can give a brief overview of the up-coming changes and the face-to-face meetings can be a chance for school officials and those affected to discuss changes. Additionally, information about the lay-offs should be communicated as soon as possible – there are probably rumors and unease among the teachers.
If schools are considering putting their levies back on the ballot, it’s important to evaluate their previous levy campaign.
For public relations campaigns, it’s always important to have set goals or objectives that can be measured. The schools probably measured the success of their campaigns by whether the levy passed or not. For the 6 school districts with the failed levies, officials should look at the specific tactics used during the campaign and assess what did and didn’t work.
It will be interesting to see if any of these schools do put their levies back on the ballot and if they change their campaign tactics.
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Lots of solid advice in this post, Lindsay, but I have concluded — after 16 years of watching this nonsense — that the system is the problem. I’ve been a homeowner in three other states and each one used real estate taxes, at least in part, to fund schools. But never once outside of Ohio was I asked to vote on a levy. How do other states avoid the constant hat-in-hand approach to the voters, and how can Ohio learn from it? I haven’t done this research – but surely someone has. There has to be a better way.
It’s gonna get worst as the economy tanks and Northeast Ohio becomes “economically disadvantaged.” How can we expect folks to vote for schools when they can barely afford gasoline to drive to work — assuming they have a job?
Comment by Bill Sledzik — March 19, 2008 #
I agree that the system is the problem, Bill, and that it needs to be changed. Hopefully Governor Strickland will deliver on his campaign promise of over-hauling funding. Otherwise, as you said, things will only get worse as the economy tanks. There has to be a better way for us to fund our schools.
Comment by lindsayk — March 23, 2008 #