Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland Board of Education will meet for a regularly scheduled business meeting on Tuesday, November 19 at 6 PM, which will include a hearing of the public. Immediately following the meeting, the board will host an opportunity for dialogue between the community, the board, and the administration.
The board will need to submit ballot language for a potential operating levy on the March ballot no later than December 18, requiring a first resolution to be passed at the December 10 board meeting.
“We welcome input from our residents on how to gain community support for the school district to meet its financial needs going forward,” said Art Jarvis, board president. “Based on the results of the recent election, we are not able to pursue a comprehensive approach to the facilities issues as proposed in our master plan at this time. We must, however, continue to serve our Loveland students with a quality education. An analysis of the district expenses will be made over the coming weeks and we are asking our residents to provide input on what they are willing to support in terms of educational programs and services.”
The board will need to submit ballot language for a potential operating levy on the March ballot no later than December 18, requiring a first resolution to be passed at the December 10 board meeting. In order to prepare, the board has added three meetings to its regular meeting schedule and may supplement with additional opportunities for the community to provide input in the process.
The Board of Education’s full meeting schedule can be found here. Meetings start at 6 PM and are held in the LMS/LIS Media Center on 757 South Lebanon Road.
Kim and Rick Donaldson live on Paxton Road in Miami Township
By Kim and Rick Donaldson
As a community, we support the goal of providing high-quality education for our children. But we also need to consider affordability. Loveland is largely a residential community whose local tax burden falls primarily on individual homeowners who are somewhat less affluent than those in surrounding districts. Whereas a one mil property tax raises about $228 per student in Mariemont, $249 in Madeira, $339 in Sycamore and $607 in Indian Hill, it raises only about $191 per student in Loveland. Consequently, we need to recognize that our school budgets are necessarily more limited, and just as a family with a limited budget must prioritize needs and manage money wisely, so must the school district. The proposed building master plan does not, in our opinion, adequately address these budget constraints.
We wonder what other cost reduction opportunities we might find were we provided with a more detailed plan.
In the board of education’s January 23rdcommunity meeting presentation, there is a single slide showing a $65M baseline plan for repairs at all existing building sites, which was rejected because it “does NOT address any of the core identified needs that were discovered during the assessment process.” After evaluating multiple options for addressing these “needs”, the board settled on a $165M plan and a $7.7M land purchase, i.e. $108M more than the baseline plan. From the very high-level cost breakdown subsequently provided by the administration, we can see that the plan includes $10M for athletic facility upgrades and $22.6M for a new fine arts building. That’s 30% of the incremental cost over the baseline plan going toward enrichment programs affecting a subset of the students, not to fundamental academic programs affecting the entire student body. We wonder what other cost reduction opportunities we might find were we provided with a more detailed plan.
To arrive at a more cost-effective solution, we need to start again from the beginning with clear priorities regarding what is needed, as opposed to what is wanted.
To arrive at a more cost-effective solution, we need to start again from the beginning with clear priorities regarding what is needed, as opposed to what is wanted. Building safety and security come first, followed by those facility improvements that have a proven impact on academic achievement. Increasing classroom space to enable reducing the student to teacher ratio might fall into the latter category. We then need to develop facility concepts that satisfy these needs in a manner that minimizes both construction and future operational costs. For example, the current facility master plan envisions three separate buildings for pre-K through 5thgrade. Combining these into a single building would reduce construction costs, reduce heating and cooling costs and maximize the opportunity for sharing resources and occasional use spaces like cafeterias, gymnasiums, and auditoriums. A two- or three-story building would also provide the opportunity to use an existing site, eliminating the cost of land purchase and development.
These are just a few ideas meant to illustrate the point. Given the right set of objectives and constraints, the district’s architectural consultants would undoubtedly come up with more and better ideas. But the first step toward developing a school facility plan that strikes a reasonable balance between the educational needs of our children and the financial limitations of the community is to vote against the Loveland school levy and bond issue on November 5th.
The prospect of higher property taxes brought on by the proposed Loveland school levy has spawned Tigers Helping Tigers, a charitable foundation formed to help those with limited resources pay their tax bills.
Cati O’Keefe is a resident of Downtown Loveland
The foundation was conceived by Art and Kim Jarvis. Art Jarvis is the president of the School Board, which proposed the ambitious new building master plan for the school system. “My job on the Board of Education is to make sure kids get the education they need to excel in the future. And that’s the purpose of the levy,” he says.
That’s his board member perspective. At home with his wife, however, he found their conversations frequently turning to the impact the financial ask could have on those with limited resources. “The community member Art Jarvis was bothered with the thought that the levy could cause fixed-income neighbors to suffer,” he says.
The Jarvises reached out to friends in the community, started sharing ideas, and Tigers Helping Tigers was born. Jarvis and the fledgling board (currently Kim Jarvis and Loveland residents Deb Ricci and Katherine Dannemiller) sat down with Greg Knake, executive director of The Care Center, and detailed their plan to raise $80,000-$100,000 to launch the new foundation.
Knake was on board immediately, framing the issue as a problem that needed to be addressed long before the current levy. “We’ve seen poverty grow 100% locally from 2005-2015 in Loveland,” he says. “Approximately 15% of kids in Loveland are on free and reduced lunch. This is an eight times faster increase than in urban areas.”
We’ve seen poverty grow 100% locally from 2005-2015 in Loveland. Approximately 15% of kids in Loveland are on free and reduced lunch.
Knake believes the proposed tax relief adds another spoke in The Care Center’s service wheel. “We are trying to bring help and resources to families teetering on the edge, and do it in a targeted way by getting people back to work or into a better job, giving them life skills, and breaking the cycle of poverty with one-on-one coaching and mentoring,” he explains.
The Care Center, which Knake describes as a faith-based organization, is collocated with the non-denominational North Star Church on Lebanon Road. The center is in the midst of a fund-raising endeavor itself, with a new facility slated for completion October 2020. “Our strategy employs best-practice research that has started organizations locally, like CityLink and the Healing Center, and is focused on bringing resources together under one roof,” he says.
Knake highlights the synergy between Tigers Helping Tigers and The Care Center: “ We already have relationships with many of the families who would qualify for assistance from the foundation,” he says. “We have the forms and processes in place needed to prequalify families–plus financial coaches and mentors–because hopefully this isn’t just a little bit of help on taxes but is also integrated with financial coaching to get them to an even better place in all parts of their lives.” (While The Care Center encourages people to discover and use its services, participation in the program is not a prerequisite for assistance through Tigers Helping Tigers.)
Tigers Helping Tigers board members are equally pleased with how the two organizations dovetail.
While The Care Center encourages people to discover and use its services, participation in the program is not a prerequisite for assistance through Tigers Helping Tigers.
“I am passionate about The Care Center’s impact on our community, and Tigers Helping Tigers is just another piece in assisting the marginalized, says Ricci. “The Care Center embodies the culture of our community, which generously gives back to those in need. The work of the Care Center team has helped so many cross the bridge of poverty to thriving in life. Having a strong education system is vital to our youth in reaching their greatest potential. This paired with the resources of The Care Center represents a community I am proud to be a part of.”
Dannemiller, who also serves on the fund-raising executive team for Nest Community Learning Center, believes the partnership will pay dividends for the Loveland community. “We have put six kids through the Loveland school system and stayed for the quality of the schools,” she says. “The levy is a hardship, but bridging the gap for people on limited incomes through the Care Center is a natural fit. The organization takes care of people who need help and creates a continuous path for them to get on their feet. Combining our program with theirs will extend help to people in a way that is impactful.”
At the end of the day, it is immaterial whether the current levy passes, fails, or gets kicked down the road to return in another iteration. Real need exists now.
The process of pondering cost versus value on the levy has, for many citizens, served as a reminder that levies–even modest ones–threaten the fragile existence of some community members and families. At the end of the day, it is immaterial whether the current levy passes, fails, or gets kicked down the road to return in another iteration. Real need exists now. Please consider donating to Tigers Helping Tigers and The Care Center. Inquiries regarding donations, receiving services, or volunteering can be made through Greg Knake at greg@carecenter.com or Art Jarvis at jarvisa@fuse.net .
