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Mrs. Ko has pulled petitions to run for the BOE this November (My Comments in red.) ECHO 4-21-09 Fairfield school district is not on a ‘spending frenzy’ All I want to ask is, “Are we tired of it yet?” The community won’t get tired of it until the board quits wasting their tax dollars. No matter how successful our school district is, no matter how many awards our students earn, no matter how much we save through conservative spending it will never be good enough for Fairfield City Schools Board Member Arnold Engel. She is right on this one. We should never stop striving to be and do better. Recent reports show that 33% of our kids, who go on to a state college are unprepared. I have shared this problem with the district and board going back to 2002. Our board has yet to address the problem. WHY? Because the Fairfield schools are about presenting the correct image to the public and not the truth and the truth is we failed all those kids who were unprepared for college. She is also right about spending because I know the taxpayers are fed up with taxes. I know the majority of our community want us to run a balanced budget void of taxes. Not only do I know, but the board knows if I get 2 additional conservatives elected to the board there will be a balanced budget void of Operating Levies. They know the new conservative board will finally place the community and our kids first, instead of the staff who always seems to come first in regard to spending. Have you ever heard him say something nice or good about our school district? Our school district is one the shining stars of this community. Although Engel sits on the school board, he never enters our buildings without the pretense of looking for something bad and negative. He never enters to help at an event or to educate the students. He only enters our buildings to criticize and point a finer of wrong doing toward some of the best people in education. He goes after an individual’s character and is relentless when he does not get his way. Are we tried of it yet? WOW! What a pack of lies! I say good things about our schools all the time. I recently praised our choral group for bringing home the Gold Medal as National Show Choir Grand Champions. I praised our students and staff for putting on the Arts Fair that is coming up Sunday May 3rd.At our last meeting I commented that everyone sitting on the board loves our kids and loves our district. I have attended sporting events, A high school seminar on how to better the high school and retirement parties for staff. I have walked in every school parade since being a board member. When first elected in 2006 I visited all 10 buildings to speak with the staff and give them the opportunity to meet me. I was asked by 2 teachers to come and sit in on one of their classes and I did. When my son was in school I volunteered as an after school basketball coach, room dad, science fair judge, and chaperone for school trips. I also spent an entire day with my son in school. Mrs. Ko has to know about the $400,000 weight room that was built with private funds. That was my idea. When I ran for the board, in 2005, I suggested we build a new stadium with private funds. That idea turned into a weight room with the stadium put on hold until the weight room is paid off. I will also inform Mrs. Ko that I volunteer hundreds and hundreds of hours for my community each year. It is not her job to decide where those volunteer hours are to be spent. As far as criticizing staff, if the staff is doing their job then they have nothing to worry about. This community deserves better. We need teachers, administrators, support staff and coaches to want to come to Fairfield and serve this community, knowing they will work long hours. Some qualified individuals will not even give a second look, knowing Engel may attack their character, their work ethics, and not even take into account the actual work that is being done. Engel has no clue what job performances are being done because he doe not care to know. He deceives the community by trying to get people to believe the district is out to spend every red cent you have with no regard. Again WOW! What a spin on the facts. First notice Mrs. Ko states “the community deserves better” then she goes on and on about the staff. This is exactly what is wrong with my fellow board members and Mrs. Ko. They are all sitting on the board, with Mrs. Ko wanting a seat on the board, to represent the staff and not you the community and our kids. They did spend every red cent of your $17,000,000 surplus on staff contracts and left nothing for new books, new buses, computers or planned building maintenance. If Mrs. Ko is honest with you she will tell you she would have supported the boards bad decision. Second, According to our last business agent, the district regularly gets over 2,000 applications to fill 40 or 50 teaching positions each year. Recently we received 86 applicants to fill the athletic directors position. For Mrs. Ko to suggest qualified people aren’t coming to Fairfield because of me is nothing but a misrepresentation of true fact. Look at our aging buildings, look at our sports venues, look at our starting salaries, our student/administration ratio, our crowded high school. Look at our classrooms at 100 degrees in fall and spring. I could go on and on. Does this look like a district on a spending frenzy? Fairfield has always been conservative in its spending and will always be good stewards of your tax dollars. Will all decisions be perfect, no, but we need school board members who are not vindictive, paranoid and shot-sighted. We need progressive, hard-working, knowledgeable individuals who are willing to help a child get ahead. And maybe help with the math facts. The district is on a spending frenzy! Just recently, the board voted 4 to 1 to freeze all spending on new buses, books, technology\computers and planned building maintenance and then spent the taxpayers $17,000,000 surplus on status-quo staff contracts. I shared 33 cost saving ideas that could have saved the district over $10,000,000 a year and instead of discussing my ideas, I was attacked over them. Why? Because many of the ideas required contract concessions. When we have a board who is placing the staff first you will see very few changes in our union contracts. The board just wasted $120,000 by picking holidays to make up days missed for snow and storms even though it was planed, 2 years ago, to make up the days at the end of the year. They raised our children’s lunch prices and then gave the lunch director a $15,000 raise. Please note his salary is paid out of our kids lunch money. Just a few days ago they let out a $1,500,000+ bus maintenance contract without bidding it out. One local resident and taxpayer address the board, asked to have an opportunity to bid and told the board his company could save the district $80,000 to $100,000 a year. This poor decision by the board just cost the taxpayers of our community at least $240,000. If we were more conservative with our spending there would be money for new classrooms, air conditioning for our older buildings, new books, new buses, planned building maintenance and on and on and on. As long as we have a board that places our children’s needs last there will never be money for the above mentioned items. A SPECIAL NOTE FOR THE ATHLETIC AND BAND BOOSTERS The current board is running our district right into fiscal crisis. This year, the current 5 year forecast shows us spending $1,700,000 more than we take in ,next year $4,800,000 then $8,200,000 and on and on and on. With the current board there is only 2 solutions to their madness. Massive cuts that will lead to the elimination of busing and sports, or more taxes that our community will not support unless they are blackmailed. The real solution is to elect at least 3 board members who will balance the budget using the 33 ideas I suggested. In conclusion I would suggest Mrs. Ko knows nothing of what she is talking about. Her tirade against me is full of misrepresentations of the fact and out and out lies. This is to be expected when she has nothing to offer the fine citizens of our community but higher taxes. Instead of slinging mud and personally attacking me I would suggest Mrs. Ko explain to the community just how she plans on bettering our kids education. I would expect she has no plan or ideas on balancing the budget and avoiding the next tax levy. If she is going to criticize me and my ideas she owes it to the community to explain how she plans on raising the money to keep us out of the red. She needs to tell the community how she plans on addressing (in her words)“Look at our aging buildings, look at our sports venues, look at our starting salaries, our student/administration ratio, our crowded high school. Look at our classrooms at 100 degrees in fall and spring. I could go on and on.” Mrs. Ko, if this is a problem, you need to tell the community just how you plan on fixing it once you are a board member. I shared my ideas. Instead of criticizing me, tell the community how you will handle the many financial and educational problems of our district. I know you will try to blame all the districts problems on me but you can’t and the community will see through your pathetic attempts to do so. I am only one vote and when it comes to conservative spending I’m out voted 4 to 1. Fairfield, are we tired of it yet? I will have to agree with this statement. I want to know if the community is tired of the excessive and wasteful spending in our district. I want to know if the community is ready to get out and vote for a new conservative board this November. Are you satisfied with the status quo of wasting your taxes on no bid contracts, make up days on the most expensive days costing the district thousands, status-quo union contracts that result in no savings for the taxpayers,$15,000 raises for select administrators and then hearing the board and now Mrs. Ko claim they have been “good stewards of your tax dollars”. When the spending frenzy is over, and they demand a new levy, will you believe them when they claim they had no choice but to blackmail the public with the elimination of busing and sports? Are you ready to be blackmailed into passing a new levy or are you ready for change? Are you tired of our community being dragged through the mud by the pro levy fanatics? Are you tired of these people slinging mud at anyone who does not agree with them? Are you tired of them teaching our children to hate anyone who dare oppose a school levy? Or are you ready to tell these people that this is America and that everyone’s opinion matters and should be respected. I respect Mrs. Ko’s right to her opinions on school issues. She however chose to use her opportunity, in this article, to sling mud and attack me with claims that have no basis in fact. She has stooped to the lowest form of politics, that of personal attacks and mud slinging. Why? Because she knows she can’t win on a status-quo tax and spend platform. She knows she could never win a debate with me based on facts. And she knows the majority of the community supports my conservative views. It’s sad but it’s looking like Mrs. Ko is going to run her campaign on mud slinging lies, anger and hate of me. Her article is nothing more than an exhibition of her poor character. I’m not sure this is the type of board member anyone wants representing them. It will be a monumental task to over come the schools political machine. It looks like the schools, status-quo, tax and spend candidates will be current board members Mark Morris and Dan Murray with Mrs. Ko filling out their slate. The conservative slate will be me (Arnold Engel), Erik Rivera and Tony Steer. If your “tired of it” give me (Arnie Engel 829-7840) a call and volunteer to help stop the status-quo excessive and wasteful spending in our schools. Sharon Ko Fairfield |
