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 THE WORD OUT? Send Your News to [email protected] 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