Consequences

With every plan there comes consequences. A prime example was presented to the OASD Board by Tim Hess tonight. He stated that some of his students have developed a website that you can type in your address and see how much your property value would decrease if this 10 year plan includes all of the closures and K-3 4-8 restructuring.

Feel free to visit the site and see how far your value will plummet when the plan is put in place.

He also stated and I believe that it should be highlighted, that the area west of Oakwood, north of 20th Street and south of 9th Ave. will lose approximately $7million in property value. I will repeat... $7MILLION!!!

Translated-- increased property taxes to compensate the drop in value. And as the property rebounds (which it eventually will) taxes will reach an unbelievable high.

Just food for thought. (as a side note, my property will only decrease about $1700 since only the elementary school will change.)

UPDATE: Since I have received some comments regarding "disclaimers", I will add that I didn't feel the need to put one on my site because it is plain enough on the site I linked. Next, it was said that property value is based on assessed value. Although this is true, you need to realize that part of the assessment value is derived from the market value and appraisal data. This is what is effected by the CLOSURE of schools. My value change is minimal because K-3 is moving to Oakwood from Traeger. The true value will be effected in the neighborhoods that lose schools to closure.

This is a tool to get an idea of the effects of massive changes made in a school district. Another effect on value will be the state of the economy. If you think that these changes are what is best for the district, then all of us that think the referendum is too much will be in the minority and it will pass. If not, we will have wasted a ton of time with this process without a contingency plan for nothing.

While I am at it, the site in question was developed based on a "study" of property sales and research done by students of Dr. Hess. It is amazing that a "study" is good enough to support SAGE and reconfiguration but it is not good enough for this purpose.

Your thoughts?