I attended the Berkshire School Board meeting last week at the high school library. Here's what we learned below. I will state the facts and issues of the meeting and then comment afterwards.

1.  $500 was received from resident/parent/area business owner David Ronyak to help fund the Sixth Grade Camp.

2.  The annual budget for the Berkshire School District will exceed $12 million this year.

3.  The new state-of-the-art $74,000 Mercedes powered school bus will be delivered shortly. A bus traded in on this purchase yielded only a $2500 credit.

4. Three public school districts - Berkshire/Newbury/Cardinal - are attempting to consolidate with Kent State University and offer "O" period Advanced Placement courses such as AP World History, AP Choir, AP Government, etc. At KSU the three school districts' top students would join together BEFORE their regular school day starts (7am-7:45am) and use such up-to-date/high-tech learning tools such as "Visual" basics, white boards, etc. This could start in the second semester of next school year. It is only in the meeting stage at this point.  Newbury did not show up to the last meeting.

5.  Berkshire School Board reps were present at the latest meeting of the Berkshire Planning Commission this month. You may recall that this organization worked for over ten years on zoning and "what is best" for Geauga County's "future". They are at the end of their usefulness, but have decided not to disband at this time.

6. Pseudo "board member" Jerry "Airplane" leaped up from the front table and said that the Main Street merchants had made him their representative at the meeting to proclaim that "the horrible cussing on Main Street by Berkshire students" can no longer to tolerated and that the School Board must do something about it!

7.  School district insurance for the next school year will be provided by Ohio Casualty and will exceed $30,000.

8.  Vocational representative Roger Miller of the board reported that Auburn Career Center will "go into the red" in 2014. He said that the new superintendent is running some very inventive workshops for the staff and that she has cut expenses considerably.

 9.  Dr. Gina Symsek presented an overview of a new program called "Family and Civic Engagement (FCE) Team" which, among other things, tracks kids who are truant from school. Dr. Symsek said that some students by the time they are in the 6th grade have MISSED the equivalent of 1 1/2 years of school! The attempt would be made to involve the parents more...

10.  Football coach fired after Driving Under Influence and resisting arrest charges from Geauga County Sheriff's Office. 

     And now some comments on the above:  I very quickly raised my hand when it was time to "hear from the public" and said, "That $12 million figure is the highest I have ever seen in 20 years of living here. Why is that?" The treasurer spoke up and said that it actually is LESS than last year's, but I've never seen $12 million before. I asked when we would hit "red" at the current rate of spending. She said "2013". Hmmm... That is right around the corner! 
     I ask this: WHY would school districts like Aburn Career Center and Berkshire just keep SPENDING AT THE SAME RATE EXPECTING to "hit red"? That just does not make sense to me. Sorry. Does not compute. I mean, WHY would a dinky school district with declining enrollment and "expecting" red-ink buy a $74,000 school bus and be talking about adding classes that COST MONEY? I don't get it. I'm a business man and if I KNEW I was over-spending my budget, I WOULD NOT SPEND AS MUCH.  I WOULD MAKE CUTS. I WOULD HUNKER DOWN.  I WOULD NOT BE WANTING TO GROW MY BUDGET EVERY YEAR. Right? This is reasonable thinking. 
     Now let's look at the proposed new "O" period Advanced Placement courses that the three area school districts would be forming with KSU. I very quickly asked this question as well: WHY would more AP courses need to be formed when a student could just walk across the road to KSU or drive down the road to Lakeland College and take their courses there for FREE (the public school district has to PAY for these courses!  THEY ARE FREE TO ANY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WHO CAN ATTEND AND PASS THEM AND THE KIDS GET A FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION! Yes, it's true! 
     So, let's say our kid is in ninth grade at Berkshire and gifted in, say English. Your kid reads every assigned book in two hours, aces every test, writes way, way over grade level and is generally bored to tears in any Berkshire English class. Then your kid is allowed to just go over to KSU or Lakeland or any college in the area and START TAKING ENGLISH CLASSES. And the Berkshire School District must PAY FOR THIS INSTRUCTION. 
     Is a bell starting to go off in your head? Gee, instead of paying $50,000 to $100,000 for four years of college for your kid, YOU CAN GET IT FREE WHILE THEY ARE IN HIGH SCHOOL TAKING COLLEGE COURSES! So why in the bloody hell would the Berkshire School Board be paying money for new AP courses that would require a student to get up at 5 am in the morning and study all night? It's crazy! They're crazy! 
     Think this isn't real? I have a gun customer who has THREE of kids in Lakeland (the kids go to West G) RIGHT NOW! Next year the senior will graduate from West G AND HAVE THREE YEARS OF COLLEGE COMPLETED!!!!! West G paid for three years of college! Folks, that's over $30,000++++ worth of instruction FREE! His oldest son will graduate from college when he's 19! His other son started Lakeland in the 10th grade and his daughter is so brilliant she is going as a freshmen! 
     I've talked to some of the college professors over here at KSU who have our kids from high school and they say THESE KIDS ARE THE BEST PERFORMERS IN THE CLASS AND CARE MORE THAN THE KIDS WHO ARE 20 YEARS OLD+++!!!  Of course... These professors welcome the high schoolers! 
     Why isn't Berkshire promoting this instead of these new AP classes? Who knows? It's insane to think kids could get up at 5 am or whenever to make a 7 am class. Damn sure no household of mine is going to get disrupted at that hour! No way! Think about it: The mother has to get up to serve breakfast, chores have to be done, someone has to drive them to the college for the class, EVERYONE gets knocked out of bed with the commotion. What a mess. Just let the kids go on to college! Simple... 
     I can't believe that some of the school board members think that the highly bogus "Berkshire Planning Commission" (what a joke!) should not disband... The same dopes who are "running" that scam were some of the same liars and swindlers who were once on the Berkshire School Board - yes the same jokers who said that if we sold Troy and Claridon that miraculously our school finances would be wonderful and instruction would go up... And some of the same swindlers who are pushing the BPC are LAND OWNERS WHO STAND TO GAIN IF THE "PLANS" EVER GO THROUGH. Too bad the politics of Obama stopped all of the development plans... No big housing developments now. There's a goddamn housing glut, folks! WHO WOULD BUY ALL OF THOSE HOUSES AND WHO WOULD INVEST IN NEW COMMERICAL PROPERTY? Hey, hello? Anyone home? The real estate bubble burst years ago... Planning Commission, my ass. Bunch of liars whose plans failed miserably... Good riddance... 
     In regard to Auburn Career Center: I don't believe a goddamn word our "rep" Roger Miller has "reported" for years about the joint. It's a HUGE money pit that keeps wanting more and more dollars... Isn't it absolutely INSANE that all of a sudden a super is hired who makes some damn cuts and they herald her as the "Second Coming"? Ha! When they hit red, we will NEVER pass levy, so they better keep cutting!

     In regard to this "new" civic group that is supposed to keep kids in class:  I held up my hand and said, "Hey folks, when I taught school we had a truant officer.  Don't you have one in this county?  They MADE SURE the kid went to school!"  They said, "Yes, we have one."  Oh boy...  Why have some bleeding heart group - just sic the truant officer on the kid and his family!  Case closed!

     In regard to fired football coach:  See my July posting devoted to that issue.