For as long as many can remember, the Talawanda school system has been in dire need of more funding. Some concerned citizens think that the quality of education and the facilities are in poor shape, and their frustrations run high. This belief has led many citizens of Oxford, as well as those associated with Miami University, to join either the “Citizens for Talawanda Schools” or “Miamians for Talawanda,” both of which support the local school district.
According to Doug Troy, a Miami professor of computer science for 20 years, Citizens for Talawanda Schools began trying to promote the passage of levies and bond issues proposed by the schools. Troy, whose three children went through the system, served as a co-chair for the last bond issue that went up for vote and down in defeat in February. Basically, the group runs a "political campaign" for the schools to contact citizens who voted "yes" on past school issues and urge them to get out and vote.
But in recent years, the group has found it harder and harder to pass levies and bond issues. The last bond issue was passed back in 1988, and only a few operating levies have been put through since then. The problem with the last campaign, according to Troy, is that it was relatively quiet due to a lack of funding to adequately promote the issue.
Residents of the Oxford school district also have issues with the consolidation that occurred back in the 1950's. Levies and bond issues were historically passing in the outlying areas of Milford, Hanover and Riley until those districts merged with the city of Oxford and Oxford Township. Once the consolidation took place and all students in the outlying areas were bussed to the Oxford local schools, the levies began failing.
Troy thinks that those in the outlying areas may not want to support “Oxford's” school district, as they view it. Therefore, Troy and a school reorganization committee believe that a split may be beneficial to the school system, because levies are more likely to be passed in all the individual districts.
Because Citizens for Talawanda is informally organized, they don’t have a constant presence in Oxford; they only meet when levies are proposed.
However, Troy believes that should not be the case. "The district could benefit from a more constant presence [of the Citizens for Talawanda],” said Troy. Because of this belief, a board is trying to form that would make it more of a constant presence.
Like many professors, Troy believes in a high quality of education. His department, as well as others on campus, has had a hard time recruiting new faculty to Miami due to the area’s school system. Troy believes that quality professors are turned off by Talawanda's reputation, which is part of the reason Miami students have a vested interest in voting for the school levies.
He also believes that there is a misconception by many Oxford residents that students vastly influence voting in Oxford, and that not as many students vote as people think. At the last levy vote in February, only seven students voted at the Shriver Center during a seven-hour period.
Due in part to the politics of student voting, and the negative perceptions of student voting by Oxford residents, a separate group called the Miamians for Talawanda was founded in Nov. ‘02, during the presidential election campaign.
Because they collect money to support Talawanda schools, the Miamians formed a PAC (political action committee), with Phil Best, a psychology professor at Miami for the last 12 years, serving as treasurer. According to Best, the Miamians did not actually split from the Citizens for Talawanda, and the groups overlap in many ways. However, they formed as a separate group for two reasons. One was the "concern about political fallout of getting students to vote." The second was because they wanted to concentrate on Miami University and its interest in promoting the levies and bonds.
The Miamians, composed of faculty, staff and students, worked diligently promoting student voting at the first election. They handed out pamphlets, asked for assistance from student organizations, visited fraternities, and helped students register.
But they have been quiet for the last year and a half. He said this was primarily because there was no time to get word out to students. For the most recent bond issue, some professors did try to register their students, but according to Best it was a "very feeble effort," and they were not encouraged to do so.
He believes that the school system did not want to recruit students to vote because they wanted the community to support the schools, and they would rather win without the students because of negative reactions about student voting. For this reason, all the Miamians did was put an ad in the Miami Student, which Best did virtually on his own, by contacting those who had signed a previous petition showing support for the schools through e-mail.
For Best, the issue is a very important one. Best moved to Oxford in 1990 with two small children. Because he believes strongly in public education, he sent his children to the Talawanda schools when they were in grade school. Now, he is thankful that his children have graduated and are out of the system.
"I had another offer at another university [in 1990]," said Best. "If I knew how bad the schools were, I would have taken another offer."
But Best does not think that Talawanda is void of any good qualities. While he thinks that the high school facilities are "far from adequate," he also believes that there are some wonderful teachers there. Best questions why they stay in a community that does not provide them with the support they need. The lack of support in the community also affects the teachers the schools can recruit, causing many of the best candidates to take positions elsewhere.
However, this difficulty in recruitment due to the local educational system also translates to Miami University, as Troy already said.
"The quality of the local school system does impact the university… especially in terms of whom they hire and where they will live," Best said, adding that this is part of the reason that students at Miami have a vested interest the school system.
According to Best, Miami currently has a fine reputation, but it could have a better one. It is losing possible faculty who are offered positions but don't take them because of the schools, or do take them but choose not to live in Oxford. He cites his own department as an example, with half of its faculty living outside of Oxford. When recruiting, Best often finds himself attempting to downplay the condition of the schools.
"It is embarrassing to be at an institution where you can't brag about the elementary schools," said Best. "There should be superior schools because of the university."
One problem school officials commonly face is the fact that as time goes on, even if levies are passed every few years, the amount of money the school receives each year does not keep up with inflation. Even though Oxford has the lowest property taxes in all of Butler County, Best believes that many residents do not think high-quality education and facilities are important enough to pay for them.
But as Best points out, the state Supreme Court ruled that the way Ohio relies on property taxes to support schools is illegal because it does not provide equal protection under the law. He thinks people are just fed up with the property taxes, as he thinks they should be because it is an unfair tax. In Best's view, the state legislature should be responsive to the Supreme Court findings and provide support for the schools.
Until that happens, if it ever does, as far as Best and the Miamians for Talawanda are concerned, the only way to solve the school's problems is to raise more property tax money for the schools. In his opinion, there are only two realistic ways to go about raising money and passing levies, and both are unhappy solutions.
The first would be to get students to vote, which would cause political problems for many in Oxford.
The other option would be to split the district, so one would cover Oxford and Oxford Township, and another would educate children from Milford, Hanover and Riley. This would cause problems of its own because of those in the outlying districts that support the levies, about 15 percent, and do not want this to happen. To alleviate their fears, the Oxford district would possibly institute open enrollment so that anyone who wanted to attend would be able to do so.
Best believes that the only way to fix the Talawanda school system is to give it more "money to provide top-rate schools and an adequate operating budget."
"The school’s facilities are far from adequate…," said Best. "I apologize to my children that they had to go through the Talawanda school district."
He believes that it is time to act, and that the students and teachers at Talawanda deserve more than they get. "It is broken, and we should fix it."
Read a story by Valerie about Talawanda schools
Read a story by Valerie about Oxford resident Carol Schunk
To join "Miamians for Talawanda," contact Dr. Phil
Best at bestpj@muohio.edu.