In recent years I believe Bowling Green City School district has spent too much time comparing itself to other local schools and in the process has misplaced our priorities and lost sight of what is most important in educating our students. We have a large number of challenges that I think should be addressed first which may be more important than a new school building.
According to the Ohio Department of Education website:
1. Bowling Green ranks in the bottom 20% of all 609 districts in the State in average taxpayer reported income on their tax returns. The reported average income was just over $44,000.
2. Some claim a new building will improve student performance. Reported test scores from before the new Middle School was built and after its completion do not show that. Test scores remained about the same during a 4-year period examined.
3. Recently released test scores gave BGCS a rating of 3. Historically scores were reported as a percent so I assume that a C grade would be between 70-80% in previous years. The state’s website shows earlier years BGCS scored in the low 70’s.
Our District is considered an affluent district and as such BGCS has received far less per student from the state funding resources. There are millions of dollars at stake if that designation was not attached to our district. This loss of funding would easily build a new building without new taxes if a way was found to remove this designation from our district.
I have no doubt the buildings are in average to poor condition, and I place the blame on previous district leadership because maintenance was not made as much a priority as was the desire for new buildings. Why were those in these schools not more vocal about getting repairs completed in a timely manner?
This is not a $75 million dollar capital project, this capital building program will total at least $200 million over the next 10 years as cost overruns for the High School are included, a new Elementary building or buildings are included as well as what will surely be repairs to the existing Middle School building.
I am against building a new high school at this time because I believe we need first recognize that many students come into our schools unprepared and at times under fed and our district has about 10 years to impact these students to prepare them for the next 50 years. This is the bigger picture, acknowledging the abilities of our students and preparing them the best we can for their future.
We can’t look out the window of what other neighboring districts are doing. We need 100% focus on the students in our district and how best to prepare them with the existing resources we have. And those resources need to include our existing school facilities.
Marc Schaller
Bowling Green
