Reading The A-T Oct. 10 bios and comments of Seneca County commissioner candidates Holly Stacy and Paul Shoemaker was thought provoking. Ms. Stacy cites one of the "biggest issues she is to address, if elected, is to be more fiscally responsible." She touts serving five years on the Old Fort Board of Education as one of her main achievements readying her for the position of county commissioner. While Old Fort Schools did receive "excellent school" ratings academically during those five years, I would argue that their fiscal house was anything but excellent. Not since the 2006-07 fiscal year, her first on the board, has Old Fort School District's total net receipts exceeded their disbursements.
Old Fort Schools
Excess (Deficiency) of Total Revenues Over (Under) Total Expenditures by Fiscal Year*
2006-07485,125
2007-08(3,479)
2008-09(205,174)
2009-10(397,910)
2010-11(60,555)**
*auditor.state.oh.us
**FY 2011 audit not complete, information taken from actuals used to project Ohio Department of Education five-year forecast
In fact, go to the state auditor or Ohio Department of Education websites; tally the net numbers for all five years. One will see that Old Fort ranks among the worst of seven Seneca County schools and several others nearby with similar enrollments.
Ms. Stacy was president of OFBOE in October 2011 when Treasurer Tim Coffman projected the district would deplete its cash reserves before the end of fiscal year 2014. He reiterated this warning at the June 18 board meeting before resigning to take another position elsewhere.
Furthermore, Holly Stacy was serving on OFBOE when it hired current superintendent, Jude Meyers. As documented in Ed Kirchner's letter to the editor entitled "The Cost Of Incompetence" Aug. 2 this year, Mr. Meyers' antics have wasted at least $123,163.37 of taxpayers' money. If Ms. Stacy had done her homework and perhaps googled "Jude Meyers+Fostoria School District," she could have discovered what kind of an administrator he was before they hired him and saved her district a lot of embarrassment, money and grief. Mr. Meyers' baseless accusations, the independent investigative findings paid for by Fostoria's BOE, as well as the dismissed and dropped lawsuits that also cost the Fostoria taxpayers dearly are all public record and available for reading online.
When confronted, Ms. Stacy attempts to distance herself from the debacle of removing an Old Fort teacher and principal this past spring, saying she no longer was seated on the board of education then. However, the truth is Ms. Stacy was president in September-October 2011 when OFBOE first engaged Thomas Holmes of Pepple & Waggoner, attorneys, in attempting to negotiate the principal out of his contract.
Readers who tend to vote along Republican Party lines might want to think long and hard about this particular choice. If Holly Stacy hasn't proven successful leadership with a smaller school district's budget and personnel, how can she be trusted to handle the matters of our entire county as a commissioner?
Debra deVlugt,
Tiffin
