Ohio to Have Fewer Than 88 Counties??

• se-alum

  

  Personally, I think it makes sense.
  
  http://www.sanduskyregister.com/columbus/news/2011/may/19/state-auditor-wants-fewer-ohio-counties
• j_crazy

  

  excellent idea.
• LJ

  

  Interesting idea.... It would definitley be a balancing act between area and population.
• Bigdogg

  Why stop there? Lets look at consolidating city's and county's like they do in Indiana also. County counsels of government. The concept has been around a long time. Local control has always been the problem.
• LJ

  

  I think consolidating school districts is a great idea that needs to happen as well. There is no reason to have 4 supers over 4 districts with a total of 1500 kids.
• Skyhook79

  

  They should consolidate Brown,Adams and Highland County together. Would only be about 150,000 population wise.
• Apple

  

  Skyhook79;773936 wrote:They should consolidate Brown,Adams and Highland County together. Would only be about 150,000 population wise.

  Bradland County?
• Tobias Fünke

  

  I would be down for consolidating Ottawa and Sandusky counties. There is a already a school district shared between the two, Woodmore.
  
  You could probably merge Genoa and Woodmore, Port Clinton and Danbury, etc. Danbury doesn't have enough kids to field many sports teams, but they aren't poor as a district because of the real estate value of the cottages for people who only live up here in the summer (and don't send kids to the school, so they have more money per pupil).
  
  Ottawa is 40,000 and Sandusky is 60,000.
• WebFire

  LJ;773924 wrote:I think consolidating school districts is a great idea that needs to happen as well. There is no reason to have 4 supers over 4 districts with a total of 1500 kids.

  
  Agree 100%.
• ts1227

  

  LJ;773924 wrote:I think consolidating school districts is a great idea that needs to happen as well. There is no reason to have 4 supers over 4 districts with a total of 1500 kids.

  
  This. My county has 11 districts (plus 2 in other counties that spill over) and we only have 100,000 people in the county. All but 3 of the districts are d5 or smaller, in football terms ( the other 3 are d3) Needs to come down to like 4-5. It has been mentioned but everyone is too afraid to rock the boat.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  ts1227;773977 wrote:This. My county has 11 districts (plus 2 in other counties that spill over) and we only have 100,000 people in the county. All but 3 of the districts are d5 or smaller, in football terms ( the other 3 are d3) Needs to come down to like 4-5. It has been mentioned but everyone is too afraid to rock the boat.

  
  Go no further than Putnam County to find schools that need to be consolidated! Also Darke/Mercer. Fort Loramie, New Bremen, Minster... all those schools are nearly right on top of each other.
  
  One major thing that will get brought up though (besides community support and tradition) is cost of bussing.
• ts1227

  

  ernest_t_bass;773990 wrote:Go no further than Putnam County to find schools that need to be consolidated! Also Darke/Mercer. Fort Loramie, New Bremen, Minster... all those schools are nearly right on top of each other.
  
  One major thing that will get brought up though (besides community support and tradition) is cost of bussing.

  
  One way to avoid that is to leave the school structuring (nearly) the same and consolidate administrations.
• wkfan

  Awesome!!!
  
  Are we giving Toledo back to Michigan??????
• ernest_t_bass

  

  ts1227;773993 wrote:One way to avoid that is to leave the school structuring (nearly) the same and consolidate administrations.

  
  A good idea! At least at the district level (Supers). What would you do at the building level (Principals?)
• WebFire

  ernest_t_bass;774071 wrote:A good idea! At least at the district level (Supers). What would you do at the building level (Principals?)

  
  I would imagine each would have to have a building principal. But one super, one treasurer, one transportation director, one Tech Coordinator (with a staff depending on district size), one school board, etc. What else could be consolidated?
• LJ

  

  ernest_t_bass;774071 wrote:A good idea! At least at the district level (Supers). What would you do at the building level (Principals?)

  
  District level would have 1 employee for each position but then your school level would be the same. It would save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Al Bundy

  WebFire;774080 wrote:I would imagine each would have to have a building principal. But one super, one treasurer, one transportation director, one Tech Coordinator (with a staff depending on district size), one school board, etc. What else could be consolidated?

  
  Depending upon how many schools are consolidated, you could have a full time athletic director who handles the administrative end of the job and site managers who are on campus for athletic events that are hosted. The site managers would be part time supplements.
• Sonofanump

  Ohio missed the boat on this big time a few years ago. I asked then why they did not force school and government consolidation when they had all this excess tobacco settlement money they “had” to spend on buildings. Instead they selected a district here and a district there to build a new building for leaving a fine building with cause. SMH.
  
  I for see libraries being next. One library for the small counties (if they still exist)
  
  Question? Courthouses are designed to handle a certain caseload, are we going to assign new county seats with a new courthouse or would they just select one of the courthouses and add on (if possible, most are landlocked) to that courthouse?
• majorspark

  

  You would not be limited to combining counties and keeping their current borders. You could eliminate a county and split it between neighboring counties. This would help with the geographical and population issues.
• Cat Food Flambe'

  

  Weren't counties originally sized to allow everyone to travel to the county seat and back in one day in a buggy?
  
  Skyhook - you'd be pushing to get much past 100,000 in a combined Adams/Brown/Highland. We could call it Deliverance County!!!
• gerb131

  

  LJ;773924 wrote:I think consolidating school districts is a great idea that needs to happen as well. There is no reason to have 4 supers over 4 districts with a total of 1500 kids.

  
  Xactly
• bigkahuna

  ernest_t_bass;773990 wrote:Go no further than Putnam County to find schools that need to be consolidated! Also Darke/Mercer. Fort Loramie, New Bremen, Minster... all those schools are nearly right on top of each other.
  
  One major thing that will get brought up though (besides community support and tradition) is cost of bussing.

  
  How about New Knoxville? I'd say probably 400 kids in K-12 (I think the average class size is 30-40). That could easily be distributed into St. Marys, New Bremen...
  
  There are several of these 1 building for K-12 with the similar amount of students. If they'd consolidate, it'd save them money. I have a buddy that teaches for Arcadia, and he said there's always a rumor of Arcadia merging with Vanlue/and/or Fostoria.and/or Findlay
• Little Danny

  

  Sonofanump;774229 wrote:Ohio missed the boat on this big time a few years ago. I asked then why they did not force school and government consolidation when they had all this excess tobacco settlement money they “had” to spend on buildings. Instead they selected a district here and a district there to build a new building for leaving a fine building with cause. SMH.
  
  I for see libraries being next. One library for the small counties (if they still exist)
  
  Question? Courthouses are designed to handle a certain caseload, are we going to assign new county seats with a new courthouse or would they just select one of the courthouses and add on (if possible, most are landlocked) to that courthouse?

  I have been to every court house in the state of Ohio. Ohio could easily do what Indiana and many other states do and adopt circuit courts. The circuit covers a multi county region. Here in Ohio, we have some Common Pleas judges who are literally sitting around twiddling their thumbs. There was a particular judge I came across a few weeks ago that has been presiding on the bench for nearly two years and has yet to preside over one civil trial. Alternatively, we have judges in other venues whose dockets are so back logged they can't even get to all of the cases. They are just trying to keep their head above water. Circuit Courts would spread the case loads around to ensure matters are being heard in a timely and just manner. What's more, it is much more efficient use of tax payer dollars and just the right thing to do.
• GOONx19

  

  ts1227;773977 wrote:This. My county has 11 districts (plus 2 in other counties that spill over) and we only have 100,000 people in the county. All but 3 of the districts are d5 or smaller, in football terms ( the other 3 are d3) Needs to come down to like 4-5. It has been mentioned but everyone is too afraid to rock the boat.

  
  My county has 24 public schools with an average enrollment of 537 students. Only 4 have more than 700 kids.
• se-alum

  

  Ross County could logisitcally consolidate from 6 county schools to 3. Then you would still have the city school by itself.