“Somebody has to,” he said.
Hiltman, center manager for L&W Supply Corp., DBA Building Specialties, said both of his daughters are Lakota graduates. One teaches at Freedom and one is an assistant swim coach.
Both, like him, chose to live in the Lakota community, which is growing and thriving, he said.
“For us to collectively experience the type of high-end economic development we desire and will have because of our location, we must support the schools and the level of excellence that they have created,” he said. “Without the schools maintaining the excellent ratings, we loose one of our competitive edges in recruiting businesses to our area. I am a conservative that fights for lower taxes, but schools, fire and police are the three areas I don’t believe we can compromise, as they dramatically impact our quality of life.”
Hiltman said the problem lies with the state’s broken funding system that discriminates against property owners, but said the goal should be to elect people to positions at the state who “have the vision and courage to work on this dysfunctional funding program.”
In the meantime, he said, “I don’t believe it is wise to sacrifice our children’s futures or our property values. I hate the idea of my property taxes increasing, but I shudder the think of what our communities will look like in 10 years if we don’t support our schools. We can look around the Tri-State area and see many examples of decaying communities that failed to support and demand the best from their schools.”
Co-Chair Sandy Wheatley, who said she has worked on past levy campaigns, said she and the dozens of volunteers involved in the grassroots campaign have a “huge passion for kids and for public education.”
“I have four generations of my family living in this community, and I know the importance of having a good school district and how valuable that is to every generation in the community.”
While the strategy for the campaign still is unfolding, she said, “It’s going to be communication, communication, communication. This is an absolute critical time in this community’s history, and we’ve moved forward for so many years and why would we want to take a step backward?”
Parent volunteer Pam Perrino said the Aug. 16 event was to help parents understand “what a big challenge we have ahead of us that we all need to work together to help the community understand our great need.”
“We’re going to start organizing after tonight. We hope that everyone will sign on,” she said. “We’re focused on making sure people understand how important our schools are to keeping our community strong. At the center of every great community is a great school district.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.
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