Help Replace One of Ohio's Oldest Schools?

processor, that information makes it more compelling for others, including businesses, to reevaluate Middletown and costs. One can't blame John Ventruella, former Board member, for leaving their building on Breihel, knowing what was on the horizon.
  

"I also have received a call from someone very close to the BOE, many young adults with families living in Middletown, voted, using their parents address. That is alleged to be in excess of 200 votes"

Illegal votes from those living outside the district? If so, worth notifying the Board of Elections perhaps? Has the potential of changing the outcome if 200+.

Well maybe someone might want to give him a call. He might have fun unraveling the illegal and corrupt running of our city by a few who seek to control things at any cost as long as it's not their money.

Right on,V V

Aclaro,

Clarity: these are graduated college individuals now working out of state, domiciled out of state, with working careers and professions out of state, voting locally. I saw the list and recognized at least 33 now in Chicago, elsewhere.

acclaro. you, are a star!!!

Journal story...

Little organized opposition to school tax issues


A lower that expected voter turnout in Tuesday’s primary election might have helped tax issues in Butler and Warren counties win at the polls, but the lack of any organized opposition to the measures likely played a part, too, observers say.

While school bond issues in Fairfield and Middletown and an operating levy in Franklin had their fair share of anti-tax foes, the opposition in those communities never coalesced into any visible, organized campaigns against those tax issues.

Judy Abbott, who worked with the committee supporting the passage of Fairfield City Schools $61 million bond issue, said she would hear negative comments almost daily about the tax issue, everywhere from the hair salon to the grocery store. She said senior citizens and “lots of teachers” in the district were against the tax issue, which would allow the district to build three new schools, and had no qualms about voicing their opinions.

But no committee against the bond issue was ever formed and anti-tax campaign signs were nonexistent around town, she said.

“If they would have had a committee, put some funding behind it and got out there and really fought hard, I really think it would have gone under,” Abbott said of the bond issue, which passed by almost 1,900 votes. “A lot of people figured it would lose again. It lost by 30-something votes in November, and they figured it would lose by a lot more this time.”

Abbott said she’s at a loss to explain why no organized opposition emerged, but offered that finances could be one reason.

“Those signs that go out in yards are not cheap,” she said.

Ann Mort, a former Middletown council member and publicist who has worked with numerous political campaigns locally, had another explanation for the lack of organized opposition to Middletown City School’s $55 million bond issue.

“Maybe folks don’t have the time. It’s hard enough to get people to work the polls and campaign in support of something,” she said. “It’s also not socially acceptable to organize for negative things.” (YEAH, BUT IT'S A HECK OF ALOT OF FUN....AND WHEN DID YOU BECOME THE PURVEYOR OF WHAT IS SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE?

The Rev. Lamar Ferrell, pastor at Berachah Baptist Church and a member of the district’s levy campaign, agreed. He said those against a levy may want to remain anonymous because they don’t want to be vocal against “something that is helping.”

WHAT IS HELPING REVEREND? SURELY YOU ARE NOT REFERRING TO THE SCHOOLS.

Middletown schools’ bond issue, which would allow the district to build a new middle school and renovate its high school, passed by a slim margin of 18 votes, (NOT SO FAST) according to unofficial results from the Butler and Warren county boards of elections. But those results could change after 67 provisional and absentee ballots are counted.

Mort acknowledged there are “pockets” of those against levies, but rarely are they organized. She said they typically meet over coffee to discuss the issues, and they don’t make those issues public. Mort said they opponents also have other outlets such as blogs and message boards to get their opinions across.

"POCKETS" AGAINST LEVIES? ON THIS ONE MORT, THE OPPOSITION HAS AS MANY IN NUMBERS AS YOUR LITTLE PRO-LEVY GROUP DOES. NOT POCKETS. MORE LIKE HALF THE VOTER POPULATION ARE OPPOSED. AND YEAH, WE MAKE OUR OPPOSITION ISSUES PUBLIC.....RIGHT HERE.

MiddletownUSA.com, a local message board, is one such outlet. One member of the site with the username, “acclaro,” posted a message voicing his disappointment with the lack of organized opposition to tax issues in Middletown.

“In my 25 + years in Middletown, not once have I seen any organized, funded, and strategic effort to defeat an issue on a levy, school board member, or council seat,” the post reads. “While I believe the levy results will narrowly defeat the passage of the school levy by a slim margin, with several ballots being thrown out, even a degree of minor organization and funding would have easily defeated it. …for absolutely no organized voice of descent to participate in Middletown elections in greater than two generations is a disgrace and plainly ignorant.”

However, a group of Middletown residents did start a grassroots effort to defeat the bond issue — known as Issue 3 on the May 6 ballot. The anti-levy group created a Facebook page — Middletown-Ohio-Vote-No-On-Issue-3 — and put up at least one sign on the site of the former Roosevelt Elementary School on Central Avenue.

But at least for now, that doesn’t seem to have been enough to prevent the tax measure from passing.

Mark Kerns, a member of the committee supporting the passage of Issue 3, said having no organized opposition isn’t necessarily a good thing all the time.

“Sometimes it makes it difficult to know how to organize and plan out your (pro-levy) campaign,” Kerns said. “If you are in a battle and you can see the enemy, it’s much easier. Without knowing who they are, it’s much more difficult.”

Phillip Russo, Jr., a political science professor at Miami University in Oxford, said in the past local issues, particularly school levies, were very high intensity and driven to high stakes plateaus.

“To some degree there is some fatigue among voters in general that these things are so high stakes and that they require this kind of commitment,” Russo said. “We know that at the end of the day, when services start to degrade that citizens look immediately to their local governments.

“Voters recognize that their services are critical, that they consume them on a regular basis, that they are key to economic development and quality of life, and they are not free,” he said. “Sometimes that means supporting a bond issue.”


PRO-LEVY FOLKS, YOU HAVEN'T WON AS YET. WE'RE 18 DOWN BUT 67 MORE TO COUNT.

THE "ENEMY" (AS MARK KERNS STATES ABOVE) READS OUR POSTS.   

Ms. Andrew, Dr. Cowan was very active in Middletown politics, speaking at city council meetings and was given title associated with partnering with the city after the consolidation of the mass regional Dean. Sabbatical was a metaphor. She cultivated, others slept. Shame on the sleepers.

Students- clearly they are cultivated to vote, and the numbers are closer to 30%, not 28%. A professor who is an expert at SAS statistical modeling ran the numbers. Without organization, the levies will continue to pass.

There are many peculiarities associated with Middletown that do not comport with the norm.   Many.

 

Many young professionals don't even bother with changing their permanent license when moving out of state for a few years, or vote in their new home state. So, if they are registered in-state, they ask for an absentee ballot, and vote, although not domiciled in Ohio. Unless they vote twice (Ohio and new state), it would be difficult to know they are outside the state permanently.

With your group, the immediate evaluation would be newly registered voters, within past year to 2-3 months, that never voted, and were not living in Middletown. The BOE can provide this data. You'd want to determine if the voters were actually registered locally by using an aunt, uncle, or more distant address.

I had heard Chris Finney, a Cincinnati attorney had been contacted by your group. He can guide you on your journey.  Good luck.   

point of interest  /  old news ?

i heard a story of a parcel of property that was towards  the end of briel blvd , that either the city bought or was included in a past  bond / levy  funding process. the purpose at the time of acquisition was to build a new high school. After a period of time  the land was sold and a high end  residential area is located their now.  Can any one on this blog bring any information forward about this property ? if it was sold are there any records of what was done with the money ?
any specificity to the property in question would be helpful in regards to expanding the knowledge of the continued process by the BOE and the city in regards to tax moneys collected and spent.

                            and that's the rest of the story , good day ( Paul Harvey 1946)

This may be a remnant of one of the first facility plans. The idea was to build the new high school, including a stadium, on the Verity property. To do this the district needed more land. They either purchased the park around Verity school, or would need to purchase the land, (I don't recall which).

The facility plan was later modified, to keep the cost as low as possible, to rehabilitate the current high school, build the middle school on the high school site, and keep Barnitz stadium.

To my knowledge Verity has not been sold.