By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

HOWARD, Ohio – Kelly Kohls remembers feeling a bit of culture shock when she first joined the Springboro Community City school board back in early 2010.

She didn’t understand how a cash-starved school district could keep dedicating large portions of its budget to annual pay raises and contractual goodies for school employees while at the same time eliminating programs and services for kids.

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When she attended an Ohio School Boards Association training session, Kohls was surprised to hear that same “adults first” philosophy being espoused by OSBA leaders. She realized the organization was more concerned about training school boards members to fit into the failing education system than with showing them how to transform it.

She decided that a different kind of group was needed, one that promotes a public education system that’s student-centered, taxpayer-friendly, and open to the community at large.

Kohls’ vision became a reality last August when the Ohio School Board Leadership Council held its inaugural meeting. The event was attended by about 60 individuals, nearly a dozen of which were current school board members.

Many other attendees were aspiring school board members and everyday taxpayers who are interested in the group’s message of disciplined school spending and education reform designed to improve student achievement.

Jon Lewallen, OSBLC’s communications director, says the turnout was impressive, considering that the meeting came together on such short notice – and in the middle of an intense political environment filled with various rallies and events. He notes that several participants drove for long distances to attend, an indication of the high level of interest that exists for the group’s conservative message.

“People are so relieved to discover that there are other people throughout the state of Ohio who think like they do,” Lewallen tells EAGnews.

The group’s next all-day meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair in Columbus.

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Lewallen expects attendance to triple or better, as word gets out.

Part strategy session, part support group

Matt Mayer, president of the free-market think tank Opportunity Ohio, spoke at the group’s kickoff event and was impressed by what he saw.

Mayer says school leaders seldom are held accountable for how they spend the taxpayers’ money.

And when a district runs out of money, Mayer says officials resort to scare tactics – threats of larger class sizes, teacher layoffs and program cuts – to pressure community members into passing new school levies.

“Most Ohioans only hear the emotional blackmail. They never get presented with alternatives,” Mayer tells EAGnews.

Since fiscal conservatives are often in the minority on local school boards, they typically have no resources for combating the big-spending mindset that dominates K-12 education.

“It’s like you’re out on this island,” Mayer says.

He hopes the Ohio School Leadership Council will succeed in helping get reform-minded individuals elected to school boards all across the state. That’s the only way to “buck the trend,” Mayer says.

OSBLC leaders agree, and are committed to preparing individuals for a school board run. That means helping candidates understand their local district’s financial background and guiding them in the ways of waging a campaign.

But the work of remaking the local public school extends beyond the school board, cautions Kohls.

“We need to have community members who are informed so they can help school board members make decisions,” Kohls says.

For example, Kohls points to a situation in her district in which community members told the board about a health care consortium. The board looked into their suggestion and decided to join the consortium. That move has led to nearly $6 million in health care savings for the district, according to Kohls.

And then there was the local landscaping professional who told board members the money being spent to clear away 20 dead trees could have been avoided with better watering practices.

The district now has a system in which student volunteers help take care of the district’s landscaping in return for a reduction of their pay-to-play fees. The money lost in pay-to-play revenue is offset by reduced landscaping costs, and students are learning valuable skills in the process, Kohls says.

Community members have an interest in overseeing their tax dollars, watching wasteful spending and giving advice on how to save millions of dollars, she notes.

“Leadership can come from a variety of areas,” Kohls notes. “School board members don’t have all the answers, and community members have lots of information.”

Kohls likes to describe the council as the “conservative alternative to the Ohio School Board Association,” and is quick to point out the groups’ differences.

“The school board association appears to be protecting the status quo,” she says. “That system doesn’t work. We say, ‘Stop pretending, stop protecting the old system and start talking about the real issues.’”