Crystal Ball.......

               As you may have seen in the paper, only three people are running for the two board positions, and my wife is the only one opposed to Whole Grade Sharing. I was under the impression that someone else opposed to WGS was running as well, but I should have followed up with that person better to make sure. So, it appears that no matter how the vote goes this September, the board will only have one person at most opposed to WGS. Even if we would have run two candidates and had them both win, we still would have been one vote shy of ending WGS. However, it would have sent a message that people don’t want to see their school consolidated with North Fayette.    

               I guess the best we can hope for this vote is to gauge just how the patrons of Valley feel about losing their school. There can’t even be a valid argument anymore that this will not lead to consolidation. I have shown enough examples on this website, and done enough research to know that Whole Grade Sharing is the tool that is used to ease schools into consolidation. It serves no other purpose. Since consolidation requires the votes of the patrons, and WGS doesn't, then this forces us into what I guess I would term as “consolidation by-proxy” wherein both schools are essentially consolidating, but say that they’re not for the purpose of not alarming the patrons of the school districts, and as it appears in our case, to collect state money that comes along with WGS. Once we are essentially consolidated, the vote will just be a formality in order to make it all official. The proponents of WGS and consolidation will then argue that it will be too costly and disruptive to return to two separate schools. It’ll be all over but the crying. It's funny that they glossed over the disruption and costs when it came to putting the two schools together. What I'm getting at is that they will make whatever argument they need to in order to keep the two schools together. Why? Do you think Mr. Willhite wants to go back to $116,000 or so per year? He'd have to make a major lifestyle change taking that sort of pay-cut. I'd love to play God for just a few minutes and see what sort of plans he has made for his large pay raise. A new car perhaps? Maybe a new home or remodel? Maybe a vacation? Meanwhile, several teachers got the axe to make this WGS a reality.
              Mr. Willhite’s tone in his last newsletter alludes more and more to the reality of where we are heading. He speaks of not wanting to go back to the old ways, and waxes fondly about the old schools that have formed to create the new schools. That’s exactly what is going on here. It’s just a little more secretive now than it was back in the 1950’s. At least back then, the patrons knew what they were getting into.

               What I have been trying to understand is why some people are so happy to throw in the towel and hand the keys of our school over to North Fayette? Do they not understand that we will eventually consolidate, most likely within the next ten years? Is this fine with them? Are they really so unhappy with Valley being a small school? Do they have an inferiority complex where being a part of a small school doesn’t fit their self image of living large?

             Do these people really believe that they’ll have a better say in what’s going on at school once we consolidate? Do they not realize that the 5 school board members who currently represent our district will most likely be whittled down once we consolidate? You’ll have less of a voice and will have to fight the interests of those in West Union and all the other outlying areas. The larger the school district, the less say you have. That’s not even debatable.

             Do they really believe that a consolidated school district will have much to do with Elgin and Clermont other than to suck in their tax dollars and ship their kids to West Union? We’re building that expensive storm shelter out there at the Elgin campus right now. Once consolidation comes, do you think they’ll continue to invest that sort of money into the Elgin campus? Just take a look at their Fayette and Hawkeye campuses for the answer to that question. Everything will be centered in West Union. All major upgrades and improvements will be made in West Union. All decisions will be made in West Union. All the outlying areas will solely be tax base for West Union. They may keep the Elgin campus open for awhile, but it will no longer be a priority. It’ll be a satellite building and be treated as such. It will be closed long before that West Union campus will be. Do you think any administration will be in the Elgin building once consolidation comes? They’re already wanting to hold joint board meetings where? Where else? West Union. Don’t the proponents of WGS see this? If they do, do they truly not care?

              Those of us who live out here away from West Union will be paying for all the jobs, buildings, and other benefits that go along with having a school in West Union. The Elgin campus will eventually look like the ones in Arlington, Wadena, and the numerous other towns who sang the praises of consolidation only to have it leave their town with a crumbling school building which in almost every case becomes a burden to the taxpayers of said town.

               Why are our board members just so hell bent on handing us over to North Fayette? Are we so arrogant that we think we have any sort of future other than being absorbed by North Fayette out of this? Are we really content to have only created a name, school color, and mascot change for handing them the keys to our school? That’s all they will lose. For now, it will be a pain for them sending their 7^th and 8^th graders to Valley, but again, once consolidation comes and they have the expanded tax base, they will push for a central campus. It will all return to West Union. Do our board members not see this future? Do they not care?

               I understand that whole “expanded curriculum” argument. Just how much “extra” curriculum are we getting in return for handing the keys to our school over? Will it be worth it in the long run? Could some parents be supporting this because it will expand our sports programs? Some have quietly wondered if this is the case.

               What is so great about our kids spending extra time on a bus each day? What is so great about larger class sizes, especially in the middle and high school levels? Right now the elementaries are separated, but don’t count on it continuing once consolidation comes. Mark my words. There will be a push for a central campus all in the name of “saving money”.

                I understand why Mr. Willhite is all for WGS. I pointed out right from the start that I smelled a rat and figured he had a financial gain in this matter. I was correct. He will now receive $183,000 per year in salary and benefits. Compare that to your paycheck and then take a look at your property tax bill. That comes out to around $3500 per week. That’s more than most people make in an entire month! Just Mr. Willhite’s wages alone will come to about $140 for each pupil in the consolidated school district. I see others getting pay raises out of this too, and it’s a damned shame since we were complaining that we didn’t have enough money to pay our teachers and had to lay them off or force them into early retirement, but we surely found the money to give our administrators raises.

               Do the proponents of WGS have so much money that they don’t care if their taxes go up? Most of the proponents that I have met come from higher income households. Maybe they want higher property taxes? That’s just what we’re going to get. North Fayette’s taxes are higher than Valleys and once we consolidate, theirs will probably go down, and ours will most likely rise. Is the picture becoming a little clearer? I know why North Fayette is pushing for this, but I really don’t know why we are. It just feels like we have board members who are content killing our school off as long as administrators and other “important people” come and pat them on the back and shake their hands. Give me $183,000 per year and I’d pat you on the back too.

 

               I just don’t understand the other side’s position. I can respect them, but I just can’t figure it out.

 

               It’ll be interesting to see how this vote turns out. No matter what, we won’t have the votes to stop anything. It will tell me where the people of our district stand. I probably won’t write much more to this blog unless KinDee wins a spot on the board. If she does, she’ll be the lone voice for keeping our school K-12. Nothing will be different than it has been to this point.

               Regardless, I will keep this blog up for several years. I will do this for two reasons. The first reason is to prove that what I’m saying here will come to fruition for the most part. It cannot be said that the people of our school district weren’t warned. It was the proponents of WGS who twisted the truth about what WGS is. I have told the truth. It is a tool used to consolidate schools. I said Mr. Willhite would be the superintendent and get a big raise. That too has happened. The rest of what I said will most likely happen too. I can see the handwriting on the wall. I’m fat – not stupid.

               The other reason will be to serve as a warning to other school districts. When WGS was pushed on us, they hit us so fast with it that people didn’t really have a chance to learn about it fully and understand it. A lot of bullshit was pumped down people’s throats and a lot of sugar fed to them to make it taste good. It is my hope that others can avoid becoming victims to this surreptitious process. Every single school that I have found which has ever entered into WGS has ended up becoming consolidated. Not a single school have I found that has ever come back to become K-12. If someone at your school is throwing out this idea of WGS, hopefully the information contained on this site will allow you to understand exactly what the process is and how it works. Maybe you can save your school. It appears that we have lost ours.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                     -Eric