COMMENTS ON BOARD MEMBER KEARNS MUD-SLINGING COLUMN

8-11-08

The following is Board Member Jerome Kearns Column that appeared in the Fairfield ECHO on 7-31-08.  The board member he is referring to is me (Arnie Engel). His comments are at the very least misleading. However, many readers probably concluded that Mr. Kearns was lying, a trait shared by all my fellow board members whenever they personally attack me.[1]  The bottom line is, this column is nothing but mud-slinging to discredit the facts that I've shared with the community. Please note that my fellow board members never provide facts and data to prove their slanderous claims against me. They don't even have the common decency to refer to me by name.

My comments are in RED.

Student success will be the standard by which we make decisions

Fairfield ECHO 7-31-08

By: Board of Education Member Jerome Kearns

Let's closely examine the title. I agree that student success should be the standard by which the board makes decisions. However, my fellow board members conveniently ignore one of the most important ingredient to student success. That is, the costs. It is very easy to be successful if someone gives you a blank check. Achieving success on a limited budget is what separates the men from the boys. I have said it many times. The road to an excellent education for our children is paved with accountability and not more taxes.

I made the following pledge to our community during my campaign and remain committed to constantly strive for excellence and offer our children a high quality education.   One of my fellow Fairfield City School Board members is committed to seeing how cheaply we can run our school district.  I believe our focus should be on how well we can run our school district and achieve greater student success.  This is exactly why I am committed to pursuing a definition of student success that will be the standard by which we make our decisions over the next few years. 

This comment is typical of the mud-slinging that I face from my fellow board members, on a regular basis. Mr. Kearns is falsely suggesting that I am not looking for excellence in our educational system or committed to greater student success. Placing a "cheap" label on me is ludicrous. First and foremost, an excellent education for our kids comes with accountability and not more taxes. Secondly, we should be running our district more EFFICIENTLY and NOT more cheaply. For example, if all our teachers taught 6 hours a day, then this change alone would save our district over $5,000,000 per year. All my fellow board members are opposed to this idea. Instead of studying my proposal like professionals, they subjected me to ridicule and baseless attacks.

Mr. Kearns talks about his campaign pledge to "constantly strive for excellence and offer our children a high quality education" He also made another pledge "to make it his mission to seek alternative funding methods so that new levies would be the absolute final resort." [2] Then Mr. Kearns and the rest of the board voted to place a new 2-mill levy on the ballot this November. Not once did Mr. Kearns suggest alternative funding methods so that the November levy could be avoided. His pledge appears to be nothing but a lie and a clever ploy that got him elected.

Mr. Kearns also said “I believe residents deserve someone who will represent their interest.”[3] “I will never forget who I work for”[4] His platform issues included the importance of community connectedness.[5]  Well, Mr. Kearns is clearly out of touch with the hard economic times faced by our community. Why, because he happens to be a highly-paid government employee who also benefits from a taxpayer-supported retirement and health insurance plan that the majority of us can only dream of. He is definitely NOT connected to the fiscal conservatives in our district who voted NO on 4 of the last 5 school levies. And sadly, he has forgotten who he works for. Mr. Kearns has made it clear that the staff in the school is his priority.[6] The community, who he is supposed to be representing and our children, come in a distant second.

One of my fellow board members has characterized the rest of the board as uncaring if we increase the tax burden on the community in these hard economic times.

I stand by this fact. They are uncaring! I shared 33 cost saving revenue generating ideas on how the board could save over $10,000,000 a year. I have given the Fairfield Board of Education a solution to avoid this years Permanent Improvement Levy increase and next years new Operating Levy and they have yet to even consider discussing any of the 33 ideas. In fact, the board president and vice president attacked me viciously over the proposal requiring our teachers to teach 6 hours a day[7].

I’m a little confused as he has also stated: “This increase is excessive. Five years ago, the board increased the permanent improvement levy by 300 percent. Permanent improvement tax levy collections went from $4.5 million over five years to $13.5 million.”  He also stated:  “If our board renews the permanent improvement levy for the same money, I will vote for the levy.”  I’m confused as one minute this individual will tell us that this increase is excessive and the next minute will state that he would support it.

Quite frankly, Mr. Kearns' point is confusing. The comment I made to the board was “If our board renews the PI levy for the same money I will vote for the levy. If our board asks for one additional nickel from the taxpayers, not only will I vote against putting it on the ballot but I will lead the community effort to defeat the levy at the polls.”

[8] The board's million dollar increase is excessive in light of the fact that five years ago the board increased this levy by 300%. It is also excessive in light of the current poor economy. It doesn’t surprise me that Mr. Kearns is oblivious to these hard economic times. As I said before, he along with board members Morris and Murray are all highly-paid government employees who also benefit from retirement and health insurance programs that the majority of the community could only dream of. In short, they are not feeling the same pain that the rest of the community is feeling. They are oblivious.

Please stop misleading the public by portraying yourself as being the only fiscal conservative member on this board.  Mr. Murray and I have met with administrators and discussed cost saving ideas.  These ideas were presented at the July 14th meeting and will be further discussed at the August 7th meeting with the rest of the board.  The self proclaimed fiscal conservative on our board and I met to review his thirty-three cost saving ideas, some of which did come up during the discussions I had with Mr. Murray.  Again stop claiming that none of your fellow board members will listen to you.  This is not true and is misleading our public.

If you watch the board meeting videos on TV, then you will understand the anger and hatred I must put up with on a regular basis[9]. Do my fellow board members listen to me? Yes. But Historically, when sharing my ideas to balance our budget with our board, my ideas were not well received. To this day, I’ve been bombarded with hostile responses. There has never been a collaborative, intelligent discussion. Instead, my fellow board members have twisted my comments and suggestions into untruths. Then they have the gall to present these untruths as facts to the public.[10]

Regarding Mr. Kearns' and Mr. Murray’s cost saving ideas, they are a joke. They shared 5 ideas.[11] Four amount to a measley $250,000 in savings. Two of the ideas were from my list of 33. The fifth idea involves a hiring freeze in 2010. A hiring freeze in 2010 won't prevent the $6,000,000 deficit spending situation the board is facing this year.

So, am I the only fiscal conservative sitting on the board? I shared 33 cost saving revenue-generating ideas that amounted to over $10,000,000. After I challenged the rest of the board to present their own cost saving ideas[12] they come up with 4 that represent a measly $250,000. You be the judge as to who is the only true fiscal conservative sitting on the board.

Why a permanent improvement levy?  First and foremost we must ensure that our staff have the necessary resources so that our students have the greatest opportunity for success.  For me, it is about the kids.  In addition we must ensure that our students are warm, safe and dry as they pursue their educational objectives.  The proposed permanent improvement levy would cover such things as building repairs, buses, textbooks, and hardware replacement to name just a few.  For an additional $5.17 per $100,000 valued house we will be able to bring these items to our district, providing us with the opportunities to promote student success. 

Where do I start? First of all, Mr. Kearns is suggesting I'm against giving our staff the necessary resources so that our students have the greatest opportunity for success. This is untrue and laughable. So, how do we pay for the needed resources if not a PI Levy? The answer is in my board comments.[13]

Secondly, Mr. Kearns would like you to believe I am not in support of our children. Yet, he has no data or facts to prove this outlandish suggestion.

Third, as I have stated many times before there are many reasons to vote NO on this levy.[14]

Fourth, claiming that this levy is to "ensure that our students are warm, safe and dry" is yet another falsehood. The fact is, over 75% of the money from this levy is earmarked for expenditures other than building maintenance.[15] Most of the money is actually targeted for buses, books, computers and smart boards. Sadly, my fellow board members don't want you to know that the above mentioned items can be paid for out of the general fund. Why? Because they would have to admit that there really is no need for a PI levy to pay for these items.

Fifth, back in 2007 I asked the board to join forces with the rest of the schools in Butler County and ask the County Commissioners to roll over the expiring ¼ % communications sales tax for the benefit of all the schools in our county. This tax could have eliminated the need for our PI levy and saved taxpayers millions of dollars in property taxes. As you might surmise, this idea was squashed by my fellow board members without a shred of data or fact to support their opposition. In fact, board president Morris said that now is not the time to increase the tax burden on those who can least afford it. Mr. Kearns said the same thing during his campaigning in 2007.[16] There are two problems with their statement. First, there would not be an increase in taxes if the ¼% was simply rolled over to the schools from the communication system. Second, Mr. Morris and Mr. Kearns need to explain their flip flop on taxes. Last year they did not want to increase the tax burden on those who can least afford it. But this year they do  want to increase the tax burden on those who can least afford it. Are they being hypocritical? You be the judge

Finally, Mr. Kearns tells us this levy will only cost us an additional "$5.17 per $100,000 valued house." The tax-and-spenders always minimize the costs by calculating what you will pay on a $100,000 home. Moreover, they only talk about the additional cost, not the total cost. According to the County Auditors office, the average home value in our district is approximately $155,000. The true cost of the new PI Levy, for the average homeowner, based on a $155,000 home, is $109 a year. Unfortunately, this same homeowner is already paying approximately $1,500 a year in taxes to the Fairfield City School District.

I am not surprised by my fellow Board Member’s vow to fight this levy.  I am hopeful that it occupies his time, enabling this community and my fellow board members to finalize what will become the standard by which we make our decisions -Student Success.

First, Mr. Kearns definitely should not be surprised by my vow to fight this levy. I publicly stated “If our board asks for one additional nickel from the taxpayers, not only will I vote against putting it on the ballot but I will lead the community effort to defeat the levy at the polls.”[17]

Second, To suggest that the community in general will be a part of the definition of student success is both misleading and an exaggeration. I went to the first student success community meeting. Most of the people attending were school staff not average community members.

Finally, once this process is completed we will have a definition of student success that was formulated by school administrators and staff and not by the community as a whole. As a taxpayer, you can expect the “solution” to the successful student will be lots of new tax money. Student success will undoubtedly be used as the primary reason to pass the Operating Levy next year. I would not be surprised if it is even used to justify the PI Levy we will be facing this November

I said it before and I’ll say it again-Mr. Engel, it’s about the kids.

If Mr. Kearns really believes “it’s about the kids” then I want to know when he is going to start putting the kids before the staff in our schools.[18]

History is about to repeat itself. Due to the Fairfield Board of Education’s refusal to balance the budget, our community will once again be divided in 2009. I expect things to be much worse than in 2004. I warned our board and the community about this in February. I also shared what a responsible board would do to prevent a repeat of 2004.[19] However, it appears this uncaring board is willing to subject our community and our children to another black eye and utter embarrassment. Let me remind you that back in 2004, during the last school levy, Fairfield was on every TV station in the city, every week. The news papers were flooded with negative headlines. Why, because of criminal acts being committed against people who dare demand responsible spending from our schools and who dare vote NO on a school levy.

Jerome Kearns

Member Fairfield City School Board

You may be wondering why people like Mr. Kearns stoop so low as to personally attack those who don’t agree with them. The answer is simple. I have given our Board of Education and the community a solution to the never-ending barrage of new school taxes. They clearly cannot defend themselves from the ideas and facts coming from conservatives in the community (such as the CARE group). They run away from the facts exposing the excessive and wasteful spending in our schools. Our community has repeatedly been shown that we have a spending problem in our schools and not a funding problem. Yet, the tax-and-spenders continue their pro-tax campaigns based solely on emotion. They attack and demonize anyone who dares to demand responsible spending from our schools. They know they cannot successfully attack people who demand responsible spending from a government agency. So, they spread lies to the public. They will claim that conservatives hate teachers and kids, and have vowed to take our school district down. There you have it. Campaigns built on emotion and hatred with absolutely no substance.

As a member of the Board of Education, Mr. Kearns is a community leader. Instead of adding fuel to the fire of hatred, I suggest that he and his pro-levy friends follow the lead of the Journal News editors. In their 7-28-04 editorial "UGLY HARASSMENT MUST STOP IN FAIRFIELD," they said: "We call upon the district to teach the most important character lesson it will ever be called upon to explain: the right of all citizens in this country to speak their mind on political issues without the fear of reprisal. If someone expresses a political opinion that does not coincide with your view of how things should be, that does not give you free license to attack them. If we strive to win at any cost, we have lost the war, and we have lost our integrity. Before we go to the polls to decide whether this district deserves more money to mold our children, please tell us that our trust is well placed. Tell us that this behavior is un-American. The Fairfield schools must be out-front on this issue, forcefully demanding that attempts to intimidate and silence dissent not be tolerated. The schools may not be able to sway adults, but they certainly can make sure that our children understand what is at stake here."

I agree with the Journal News. The anger, hatred, mud-slinging, intimidation and harassment must stop and it must stop now. The Fairfield Board of Education holds the spark that can ignite a fire storm of anger and hatred that will leave our community chared for years to come. On the other hand, the board can lead by example in positive ways. It's high time that we show the community how to get along with those who hold political beliefs contrary to our own.

If Mr. Kearns intention was to sling mud and stir the pot of hatred he was successful. He has placed himself with the lowest class of political activist. Those who sling mud, attack and demonize because they have no facts to defend their position.

We do live in America and because we live in America we all have the right to hate anyone we want. In my opinion, however, that does not make it right. And it certainly isn’t something we should be teaching our children.

Arnie Engel

Fairfield Board of Education

All my Board comments can be accessed at www.thetaxpayersvoice.net