School Tax Issues - Middletown Schools Land Dispute with Franklin

We are writing in response to the recent article about the land dispute between Middletown City Schools and the Franklin City Schools. From the positions we sat in years ago when this began we found the struggle intriguing; one school system wanting land that had never been theirs, willing to go to court to take it from another. Now that we are no longer Superintendent’s of neighboring districts but actually in the positions of the Superintendent and Business Manager of the Franklin City Schools we feel compelled to comment. Franklin City Schools stands to lose millions of dollars in tax revenue if Middletown prevails. This lost revenue would most certainly be shifted onto the already over- burdened property owners in Franklin. Fortunately, for Franklin, the State Board of Education has decided in their favor. Likewise, the Franklin County court has upheld the decision of the State board of Education. In the words of one member of the State Board, “this is clearly a tax grab by the Middletown Board.”

The argument offered up by Middletown is that if land is in a city, children living in that area should attend the city school district regardless of long established school district boundaries. The reality is that many school districts across the state have boundary lines that don’t follow municipal borders. There are several local examples; there are areas in Trenton that residents attend Madison Schools rather than Edgewood. Hamilton residents attend Talawanda. There are areas of Monroe that attend Lakota. The list goes on. Cities grow, municipal lines change with that growth.

In the recent article in the Middletown Journal there was a quote from Dr. Price saying that he believed it to be the right thing to do to fight for those students who live in the disputed area to attend the Middletown City Schools. We want the readers to know that Middletown accepts open enrollment students from neighboring districts and if those students wanted to attend Middletown they could enroll as open enrollment students. Middletown would then get all state funding for those students. There are approximately 29 students in the disputed area. On the other hand, there are about 55 Middletown students who choose to attend Madison through the Open-Enrollment Option, and about 123 Middletown students who choose to attend Monroe and about 38 Middletown students who choose to attend Franklin. Approximately 225 students choose to attend those three school districts and take with them about $1.3 million in State funding. It makes us wonder why these students choose to attend neighboring schools rather than their home district. Additionally it would appear that if protecting a student’s right to attend Middletown City Schools is the mission, the nearly $300,000 in legal fees spent by the Middletown Board would be better invested in trying to keep the kids already there.

This entire case is a sad commentary not only on The Middletown Schools and their leadership but also on the plight of public schools in Ohio. Schools have been struggling for nearly 30 years to keep afloat without the need to go to voters repeatedly. We have tried to work together as districts though out the state to accomplish this. How credible is our effort to the observer when a district with much more in resources takes a “predator approach” to take away from another? The Franklin City Schools have struggled financially and remain in a tenuous position for much needed dollars. Yet with these struggles Franklin City Schools achieved the distinction of “EXCELLENT” on the State Report Card for the first time this year. During a time of economic hardship for everyone, the effort by Middletown Schools is simply disappointing .

Arnol Elam, Superintendent Franklin City Schools

Tom York Business Manager, Franklin City Schools

Marcia Andrew: Middletown wants fair solution to land dispute

By Marcia Andrew

Sunday, November 02, 2008

It is misleading for the Franklin City School District to continually paint itself as the victim in the dispute over Middletown City School District's request to redraw the school district boundaries to include the land around the Atrium Medical Center. Ask yourself:

• When one city expands into vacant land of another city, spurring economic development subsidized by the taxpayers of the first city, who should reap the benefits of the expanded tax base? Middletown taxpayers contributed millions of dollars to allow the building of the new hospital, and the city's economic development efforts — also funded by Middletown taxpayers — have focused on this area by the interstate. Before the land was annexed to the city of Middletown, it was an empty field full of buried tires. Is Franklin entitled to a windfall from Middletown's investment?

• Is it reasonable to spend $156,647 to secure potential future revenues in the tens of millions? The amount spent, spread over three years, although large, is still a tiny fraction of our $70 million annual budget. Student learning was not impacted. Plus, the old adage is true — you have to spend money to make money.

As new businesses locate near the hospital, and existing businesses migrate there from downtown, the tax value of the land will increase dramatically. Over the next several decades, tens of millions of dollars of new tax revenue is at stake. From this perspective, it would be irresponsible for Middletown not to pursue the land transfer.

• Did the Middletown school board follow a reasonable process in making its decisions? From the initial decision in 2005 to file the petition for the land transfer, through the most recent decision to appeal the denial of the transfer to the Court of Appeals, a total of 10 different school board members have been briefed on the matter. Board members asked hard questions of the superintendent, treasurer and legal counsel.

At every stage, each of the then-current board members agreed that it was in the best interests of the Middletown School District and Middletown taxpayers to attempt to redraw the school district boundaries to match the city boundaries. The right to appeal is a basic part of the judicial system, providing a means to correct the errors of lower courts. Is Middletown wrong for refusing to concede the game before the fourth quarter has been played?

• Why does the law require an all-or-nothing outcome? The way the law is written, one district or the other will receive 100 percent of the tax revenues from the disputed area. From the beginning, Middletown has preferred a compromise in which Franklin would keep all of the tax revenue from the existing taxable value of the land, and the new tax revenue generated by the expected increase in land values would be shared fairly between the two districts.

Middletown has repeatedly tried to reach a win-win solution, but Franklin apparently prefers to gamble on grabbing all of the tax windfall for itself.

Marcia Andrew is a member of the Middletown Board of Education.