Now that Upper Arlington's School Levy (Issue 43) passed with 54% of the votes, Pencilstorm reached out to Upper Arlington Superintendent Paul Imhoff and Treasurer/Chief Finance Officer Andy Geistfeld with five questions about what will happen next. Their unedited answers are posted below.

Now that the levy has passed, what are the next steps?
It’s important to remember that none of the projects has been designed yet. The next step is launching a community-based design phase for the six schools that are to be renovated or rebuilt.

Community involvement was the key to the success of our master planning process, and we believe that will be true with the design phase, too. We’re sticking with the theme “your voice matters,” and we’ll be holding community meetings and asking for volunteers to be on building design teams and a district-wide green team.

The design phase will last about 12 to 15 months, and only then, once we have community-developed design plans for each of the six buildings, will we break ground — tentatively in early 2019.

In terms of timeline, which buildings will be worked on first? Do you have an estimate on when each will be finished? In addition, when will all day kindergarten start?
Tentatively, in early 2019, we’ll break ground first on a renovated Barrington and Tremont elementary school; a new Greensview and Wickliffe Progressive elementary school; and a new high school. The exception there is Windermere. We won’t be able to break ground on Windermere until the fall of 2020. And that’s because we’ll build a new Windermere on the footprint of the old building.

A renovated Barrington and Tremont and a new Greensview and Wickliffe will open to students tentatively in the fall of 2020. While the new Windermere is being built, students from that school will be educated in the old Wickliffe building. Then, a new Windermere and high school will tentatively open the next fall, in 2021. All construction on the high school site will be finished by the fall of 2022, with the athletic fields and support spaces completed and the old building demolished.

The plan is to add enough space at the elementary schools through these projects to accommodate both our enrollment growth and a future all-day kindergarten program.

How can the community get involved in the next stages of planning?
We’ll be having community-wide meetings to launch the design phase in December, and we’ll be setting the date for that in the coming days. We’ll offer both a morning and an evening option as we did during the master planning process. Community members can watch their mailboxes and our website, www.uaschools.org/facilities, for more information.

We will also be reaching out to community members about more opportunities to get involved, including building design teams and a “green team” that will explore environmental best practices for the new or renovated buildings. Neighbors living in close proximity to the buildings can also join a neighbor committee to share feedback and offer guidance throughout the design phase and construction process.

Which high school sports will be impacted by the construction and at what point will they need to be moved to a temporary facility?
Our goal is to minimize the impact the construction will have on our extracurricular activities. The new turf field, baseball field and softball field to be built on the land behind Tremont Elementary School will definitely help with that. However, we do anticipate that baseball, softball, tennis, and track and field will have to be temporarily relocated during construction.

Andrew Geisfeld, Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer

Let’s talk money. How will you look for savings and if there’s any extra money, what will you do with it? (Answer from Andy and Paul)
We will look for savings during each step of the community design process.

If funds remain after the projects are completed, those funds would be used to reduce the amount collected from residents to pay annual debt amount.

Pencilstorm would like to thank Paul and Andy for taking the time to answer our questions. For more information about the construction visit: www.uaschools.org/facilities.

Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee.

I recently attended a Q & A house party with new Upper Arlington School superintendent Paul Imhoff and I came away very impressed. Paul took tough questions and provided solid answers for over an hour in a sometimes heated exchange of ideas over Issue 52. The fact that he has been willing to get out on the front lines of this issue and attend over SIXTY of these type meetings tells me he is passionate about his new job and what he believes is best for the U.A. school system. I trust his opinion and am now convinced, without a doubt, that failing to pass Issue 52 would do damage to both our kids and the overall well being of Upper Arlington.

Standing behind the counter of Colin's Coffee I have heard numerous arguments from intelligent well-meaning people on both sides of the issue and I have noticed that the biggest issue brought up, by far, is teachers' salaries. This was the dominant theme at the house party as well. Here is what I learned and would like to share.

* Voting no on Issue 52 does not have an effect on the collective bargaining agreement with the teacher's union. Is this clear? Your vote "no" does not impact collective bargaining, it will not affect teacher salaries. It just slashes funds for the schools.

* Arlington teacher salaries are in line with other comparable districts (New Albany, Bexley, Dublin). Our average salary is higher overall because as a land-locked district, we add very few new teachers, unlike Dublin which adds thirty new teachers a year, at the lowest starting salary, which drags down their overall average.

* Once again, the teachers salary structure is a collectively bargained "step & ladder" type pay scale. I am not going to bore you with the numbers, but basically, whether Issue 52 passes or not, it has zero effect on the system currently in place statewide. On a related note, you get what you pay for. Very few successful companies proudly announce they are seeking the cheapest CEO and/or labor available.

* Superintendent Imhoff, though not allowed by law to comment on contract negotiations, said he has heard the concerns of the voters and will work to meet their goals. He assured us that he will continue to be frugal and provided numerous examples of the steps already being taken. The man knows his stuff.

Speaking of numbers, it's easy to get lost in the numbers provided by both sides. I think it is important to remember that there are kids behind these numbers. Just for fun, let's say Issue 52 fails and all the taxpayers save $200 a year. The trade-off is that UA eliminates counseling services for elementary students to balance the books. (Like Olentangy recently did.). Let's say five kids really suffer due to the lack of these services and eventually end up in trouble and with poor grades. These kids could have become productive citizens with a little help at an early stage but never reached their potential due to the elimination of this program. Is a $200 saving worth the lives of five kids? I don't have the answer. Maybe yes or maybe no. You can decide. I'm just trying to reframe the argument so we remember there is a human element to all these statistics both sides are so fond of stuffing in your mailbox.

Basically, it is up to the voters to decide if education is a priority or if it isn't. My wife and I moved to Upper Arlington for the schools and so far we haven't been disappointed. Our son Owen is in the 4th grade at Wickliffe and if I could give the school a grade it would be A+++.

In closing, I think failing the school levy last year sent a message that the voters wanted more accountability from the school system and I think they have responded. It is my opinion that Superintendent Imhoff is the right person to meet these challenges. I would like to give him an opportunity to see what he can do with our support and not see him hamstrung right out of the gate. No matter how you vote on Nov 5th, it is important to remember that in the history of the world, no community ever benefits in the long run by repeatedly de-funding education. It always ends up poorly for the kids, the property values and in the end, everybody loses. Always. How close do we want to cut it? Is it worth the risk? I'm cool with one school levy failing but not two in a row. That isn't the Upper Arlington I know and love.

I am voting for Issue 52 on November 5th and I hope you will join me.

Colin Gawel wrote this at Colin's Coffee. He plays in the band Watershed and edits the website Pencilstorm. His lives in Upper Arlington with his wife Erin McHam and son Owen who is in the 4th grade at Wickliffe Progressive.

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