Vote ‘yes’ for our children, for our community and for us all
letter to the editor
Vote ‘yes’ for our children, for our community and for us all
To the Editor:
Fellow citizens: Like me, some of you may have received an email from “Truthful Citizen,” imploring you to vote “no” in Issue 11. We know that the person behind these emails is a resident of Middleburg Heights and that he has no horse in this race, but he has decided to stick his nose in our business anyway. The crux of this email is targeted at Mr. Gurka’s salary, but there are also some numbers from cherry-picked communities to try to paint North Royalton’s teachers as being overpaid and getting more benefits than other teachers from other communities. The numbers can’t provide the context that there are only two other communities that spend less than North Royalton, per student – Garfield Heights and Maple Heights. Eighty-three percent of the per-pupil spend in North Royalton is payroll and benefits, and we’re third from the bottom in per-pupil expenditure in Cuyahoga County.
We entrust the most precious things in our lives – our children – with their teachers for most of their waking hours during the school year. We expect that their teachers will help us to prepare them for whatever comes after school; whether it’s military service, college, skilled trades or entering the work force. But the first thing that comes up, time after time, is that the school board should find the money by cutting teachers’ pay. Guess what? You could lay off all school system personnel, and it would still take more than three years to bring our physical plant into the 21st century. It would also be impossible to send our kids to school, but hey, that’s just a minor detail.
Ask yourself these questions: Is this a race to the bottom? Do we want to win that race? Do we want to see our property values tank because prospective homebuyers decide that other communities value education more than we do? Should non-residents of the community who don’t have any real facts, and who have personal and political axes to grind, have agency over the best interests of our children? I believe the answer is no.
Join me in voting “yes” on May 2 for Issue 11. For our children, for our community, for us all.
Ross Weitzner
North Royalton
To the Editor:
Fellow citizens: Like me, some of you may have received an email from “Truthful Citizen,” imploring you to vote “no” in Issue 11. We know that the person behind these emails is a resident of Middleburg Heights and that he has no horse in this race, but he has decided to stick his nose in our business anyway. The crux of this email is targeted at Mr. Gurka’s salary, but there are also some numbers from cherry-picked communities to try to paint North Royalton’s teachers as being overpaid and getting more benefits than other teachers from other communities. The numbers can’t provide the context that there are only two other communities that spend less than North Royalton, per student – Garfield Heights and Maple Heights. Eighty-three percent of the per-pupil spend in North Royalton is payroll and benefits, and we’re third from the bottom in per-pupil expenditure in Cuyahoga County.
We entrust the most precious things in our lives – our children – with their teachers for most of their waking hours during the school year. We expect that their teachers will help us to prepare them for whatever comes after school; whether it’s military service, college, skilled trades or entering the work force. But the first thing that comes up, time after time, is that the school board should find the money by cutting teachers’ pay. Guess what? You could lay off all school system personnel, and it would still take more than three years to bring our physical plant into the 21st century. It would also be impossible to send our kids to school, but hey, that’s just a minor detail.
Ask yourself these questions: Is this a race to the bottom? Do we want to win that race? Do we want to see our property values tank because prospective homebuyers decide that other communities value education more than we do? Should non-residents of the community who don’t have any real facts, and who have personal and political axes to grind, have agency over the best interests of our children? I believe the answer is no.
Join me in voting “yes” on May 2 for Issue 11. For our children, for our community, for us all.
Ross Weitzner
North Royalton
