The Coshocton County Beacon February 26, 2020 | Page 6
6 • The Beacon
February 26, 2020
Setting the ‘record’ straight
Tax increase needed for
River View School District
Letter to the Editor:
Hello fellow Black
Bears. My name is Dale
L ewel le n . I a m a 1980
graduate of River View
High School. I received my
entire k-12 education in the
River View District. I grew
up in Warsaw and attended
Warsaw Elementary and
Junior High.
After school I went on to
become a high school band
director and later a school
administrator. I taught in
the Coshocton City schools
and in the Oak Hill Union
Local schools before
becoming a principal in the
Riverside Local Schools in
Logan County. I moved on
from the Bellefontaine area
to become a superinten-
dent in the Pandora-Gilboa
School District and then
in the Bath Local School
District before taking my
cu r rent posit ion a s t he
superintendent of the Lick-
ing County Educational
Service Center in Newark.
I give you all this back-
ground, hopefully, to lend
some credence to what I
am about to say. I am a sea-
soned, tenderized school
administrator. If you look
into my career, you might
say I have been successful.
I will tell you I have been
privileged to serve organi-
zations that, through a team
effort, experienced success
during my tenure.
Through that process of
tenderizing — for those of
you who cook, you under-
stand this refers to being
beaten with a spiked mal-
let — I have learned school
finances are tricky, and the
only ingredient to maintain-
ing a healthy financial fore-
cast is providing a quality
educational experience to
the students in my commu-
nity. I have found when this
happens, people recognize
the value being offered by
the school district and will
support the continuation of
this good work.
I r e c e ive d a q u a l it y
education from the River
View School District, and
I believe the district contin-
ues to offer the same, if not
better, product today.
Your district has expe-
rienced a traumatic adjust-
ment to its revenue due to
the changes surrounding
the power plant. One of my
former districts, Bath, expe-
rienced a similar impact
with the elimination of the
Tangible Personal Property
Tax. I hope you will trust
me when I say it is very
similar to what River View
is experiencing.
At that time I told the
board and the community
that although they used
to be a high-income dis-
trict and lived like a high-
income district, they were
now a middle-income dis-
trict and needed to learn to
live like a middle-income
district. What we learned
from this meant the district
had to make some changes
in the way we spent money,
and the residential tax pay-
ers would have to take on
more of a burden to main-
tain the high-quality educa-
tion traditionally offered in
the Bath Local Schools.
As I review the River
View Local Schools Fore-
cast, I would say you were
a n u p p e r- m id d le - cl a s s
school district as far as your
former revenue, and you
are moving very quickly to
becoming a lower-middle-
class district as it relates to
revenue. Also, your board
Need to Advertise?
I can help!
Drinko
Contact Nina Nina
Drinko,
Account Manager
[email protected]
or call 220-201-6920
[email protected]
has worked hard to keep
expenditures as low as pos-
sible. Soon you will not be
able to afford many of the
tools necessary for provid-
ing a quality education.
Your forecast shows you
will have a $182,000 bal-
ance at the end of the sec-
ond year of the forecasted
period. On a $21 million
budget, this is less than 1
percent. If that happens,
it will be catastrophic for
your district.
I always told my boards,
I will never ask the com-
munity for more money
unless I am certain we need
it to continue to offer the
education they expect for
their children. I asked my
boards to hold the same
standard as it makes the
levy effor t ver y easy to
defend.
You, my fellow Black
Bears, are in that state now.
You need this levy to pass
if you want to continue
offering the education I
know you all expect for
your children.
I know I do not pay your
taxes, so I will not have to
pay the tax if it passes. But
I have always lived in the
district I served, and I have
paid ever y tax I helped
pass. If I still lived in your
district, I would not only
be willing to pay this addi-
tional tax, but also would
be afraid of the result if it
does not pass.
I could speak to how
wise it is you r board is
seek ing an income tax,
but that would be long and
boring, and I fear I have
reached that level already.
I hope you will support this
new income tax so you can
maintain the rich tradition
of a Black Bear education.
Dale Lewellen
Licking County Edu-
cational Ser vice Center
Superintendent
NEED TO GET
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Wow. OK, I knew I was
getting older, and we all
know — whether we want
to recognize it or not —
that sometimes the memory
starts fading as the aging
process catches up with us.
Well, for me it did in a big
way in last week’s Mark’s
Musings column, “First
Date Remembered.”
To be fair, it was mostly
on target, but I did get some
of the details wrong. Let’s
set the record straight.
And a special thanks to
the folks in our community
who took the time to point
this error out, one in particu-
lar who shall go un-named.
Let’s also thank the won-
derful folks at River View
who helped me sort this out.
Thank you!
Here’s the deal. When
I made reference to Scott
Aronhalt setting the scoring
record at River View, I some-
how mixed up the number of
points with his actual jersey
number, which was 44. I
am pretty confident on that,
but who knows? But I know
that is right because Scott’s
favorite player was none
other than “Pistol Pete Mara-
vich,” who wore number 44.
Let’s move on. The cur-
rent record holder in boys
varsity basketball at River
Mark
Fortune
Mark’s Musings
View is Marcus Olinger
with 42 points, set during
the 2000-01 season. Aron-
halt, D. Curtis Lee (that’s
right — our county commis-
sioner) and Neil Sampsel all
scored 34 points during a
game: Aronhalt during the
1976-77 season, Lee dur-
ing the 1978-79 season and
Sampsel during the 1986-
87 season. That should —
should — set the record
straight so to speak.
There is a lot of positive
happening in our commu-
nity, and the folks at Our
Town Coshocton have been
busy helping make things
happen. Thank you!
Things are happening on
Main Street, in Roscoe and
all across the county. People
are investing in property,
fixing up, cleaning up and
moving forward. It is a great
time to live in Coshocton
County.
Yes, we have our share
of naysayers — they need
to get out and take a look
around. The Three Rivers
Bridge project is moving
forward as you can see
more safety measures being
placed at strategic locations
to help move pedestrians,
bicycles and vehicle traffic
smoothly and efficiently.
Have you been watching
any college basketball? The
leader among all confer-
ences this year is none other
than the Big 10 — the prog-
nosticators are calling for
10 of the conference teams
to be in the NCAA field
for the March tournament.
Several are ranked in the top
10, and even the Buckeyes
have enough wins (usually
it takes 16 or more) to make
the tournament.
While flipping channels
this week, I picked enough
chatter to know Maryland,
Penn State and Iowa are
all pretty good. It’s tough
though — when you have
that many teams in —
because the chances of them
playing each other early in
the tourney are good.
Thanks to everyone that
continues to tell us how
much they like the new
format of The Coshocton
County Beacon. As you
have noticed, the text is
larger! Let me know your
thoughts via email to mfor-
[email protected].
Walser is RV proud
Letter to the Editor:
I grew up in Wester-
ville, and I was in a very
rich district: Big Walnut. I
always felt I needed to be
the best and succeed. When
I had my daughter and she
was born with cerebral
palsy and life was a lot
harder for her, I knew the
slower-paced school like
River View would give her
the very best chance to be
successful. She is now in
sixth grade, and you would
never guess she has C.P.
Our absolute love for
this district is why we live
here. I have been on the
PTO every single year,
and I’ve become entangled
with the kids and staff at
Warsaw Elementary also.
I am an artist, and when
Union closed, I painted
a painting of Union to
hang in Warsaw when they
walked in welcoming them
to our school.
I know it was a big part
of their community, and
it was hard to change. In
almost every class in War-
saw, you will see a paint-
ing I’ve done to inspire
the kids and teachers, and
when our last levy failed, I
painted a picture that said
what we do matters so they
didn’t feel so broken. We
also have 4,500 subscrib-
ers on YouTube and 20,000
followers on social media
with our YouTube chan-
nel called Katies Wacky
World, which is focused
o n l i f e i n Wa r s a w a n d
the schools and kids. The
school is a very big part in
why this town matters.
My point is simple: We
have this amazing part of
heaven in our backyard
that if you grew up here
you may not understand
the importance of it. This
school has given Katie
tools to not just survive,
but thrive. When we leave
town and come home, she
feels safe and connected to
this community, and it has
set her up for a future and
to be successful in a way
that wasn’t possible before
we moved here. The teach-
ers aren’t just teachers;
they are part of our tribe
and take time anytime I
need their help.
I can go on for a lot lon-
ger because I’m so proud
to just be here, and I wish
everyone could see this
See WALSER Page 7