There’s an old newspaper saying:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t bury the lead\u201d.\u00a0 So here\u2019s the lead of this essay.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s a school bond issue on the ballot this week for our local schools.\u00a0\u00a0OUR schools need to build new or add-on to existing buildings, to keep up with the increasing population.\u00a0\u00a0Drive around the Southwest Licking Local School District.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s new houses and apartments popping up like corn used to in those same fields.\u00a0\u00a0All that building means more kids, and more kids means more schools. More schools NEVER gets cheaper.\u00a0\u00a0So vote FOR the school bond issue, it\u2019s the inevitable result of our current growth.\u00a0\u00a0It (likely) will NEVER cost less, and it just has to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can argue about state school funding, federal funding cuts, voucher programs, and whether our community deserves an athletic complex with a swimming pool. But it\u2019s all incidental to the real issue. More kids means more desks in classrooms. More desks in classrooms means more classrooms, more buildings, and room to grow. We can\u2019t dress our kids in the pants they wore ten years ago \u2013 they won\u2019t fit. And neither will the number of children going into our school district. So buy new pants now \u2013 it\u2019s the best bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have lived in Pataskala, Ohio for over forty-seven years. When I came here to teach public school in 1978, Pataskala was just becoming a suburb. There was still a working grain elevator in town, next to the railroad tracks (the building is still there), and the seniors had \u201ctractor day\u201d at the High School. But the suburban growth was already here too. In a few years, many of the old corn fields were getting sewer, water, and houses. It happened on every turn of the winding, formerly dirt and gravel, soon to be paved, roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That development hasn\u2019t stopped in our community. The schools did some major \u201cgrowing\u201d in the 1980\u2019s, with a new high school in 1981, and the old high school becoming the middle school. In the next years, a \u201cnew\u201d elementary school replaced a turn of the century (1900\u2019s) building in Etna, and the other two elementaries were expanded. There was another expansion in 2001. I remember because we taught high school in a building \u201cunder construction\u201d, and the school-wide television system was down. We watched, with hundreds of kids, an \u201cold school\u201d TV on a cart in the wrestling room, as the nation suffered the attack on 9-11. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2001 work added to the high school and the middle school, expanding classrooms and arts and music areas. In addition, more work was done on the elementary schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the suburban houses kept going up, like weeds in an untended soybean field. By the mid-twenty-teens the 1955 middle school wasn\u2019t big enough for three grades, and the 1980 high school wasn\u2019t big enough for four. In the meantime, the elementaries were re-organized into grade level buildings \u2013 two grades in each. But that \u201cshell game\u201d only postponed the inevitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017 the School leadership found a bargain. The state of Ohio would pay nearly half of the cost of a new high school, renovate the older high school (the white building), Kirkersville and Etna elementaries, and build a new (and bigger) elementary to replace another \u201cturn of the century \u2013 1900\u2019s\u201d building in Pataskala. The \u201ccost\u201d of their money: the state controlled the size. And while the new schools were \u201cbigger and better\u201d, they also were \u201cfilled\u201d in just a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here we are. The school district promises; a new fifth and sixth grade building, turning the current fourth and fifth grade building into another K-4 elementary, a new high school \u201cwing\u201d, and more, will meet all of our future needs. I\u2019m a little skeptical about that; I\u2019m sure the folks up in Olentangy never thought their one high school would turn into four, or the Hilliard folks would go from one to three. But Southwest Licking is making a good faith effort to fill the District\u2019s foreseeable needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So deal with the inevitable. It\u2019s going to raise property taxes. No one wants that. But we can\u2019t put our kids in the clothes they wore a decade ago \u2013 they don\u2019t fit. And our schools are already bulging at the seams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n