School bond: Next time, show your work

It is Wednesday, March 12, 2003, and we know that the bond to remodel the high school did fail. I can’t help but believe that part of the reason it failed was due to the misinformation supplied by both Scott Hornung and Bill Burnett over the past few months in this very area of your paper.

It saddens me, being a lifelong resident of Oak Harbor, that a MINORITY of voters once again has put their own selfish interests over the youth of this town. I have attended the schools here in Oak Harbor and am currently a teacher/coach at the high school and know the tremendous amount of work put in by the faculty and students of this great school, along with Lynn Goebel and Kathy Chalfant.

The question that I have for Mr. Burnett is this: What exactly does he want? Does he think the high school is in need of “extensive renovations” as he stated in November 2000 on his very own Web site, when he was arguing against the M&O levy? Or does he believe that the high school is just fine and needs no remodeling? On his Web site he said, “Property owners will likely be asked to contribute around $.40 per thousand dollars of assessed property value for their share of this important project. Of course, this amount could be more, especially if I-728 (as many predict) depletes the fund for state-matching school construction dollars.” So even two years ago he realized that this was a major undertaking by the board and Oak Harbor School District.

I ask anyone who doubts this information to visit the following site: http://home.earthlink.net/

~billburnett/, and begin to ask yourself who is really giving misinformation to the public: Dr. Schulte and the school board who are elected officials, or two fellows who can give all the information they want with no basis in fact to back up their arguments? I ask the voters of Oak Harbor to please remember this the next time the remodel of OHHS comes to the voters and these same people begin to spout information but never back it up with facts or actually show their work. Mr. Burnett and Mr. Hornung you can always bring your work to the high school; I am sure we have plenty of math teachers here who will check your work for you.

Mike Fisher

OHHS Social Studies Teacher/Football Coach

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