What’s Wrong at Riverside School District?…

By Contributing Writer on February 27, 2024

February 27, 2024

By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall, Riverside School District Taxpayer

This video is an excerpt of the Riverside School Board meeting held on February 22, 2024. Mr. Gary Platko, our very competent Chief Financial Officer, shows the change in the school district’s financial district from 2017 when he first started. To be clear, we do not hold Mr. Platko accountable for the dramatic rise in cash balances. He is merely reporting the facts for the citizens in the district.

However, we hold school board members Belinda Grassi, Jennifer Harden, and Lori Krenisky accountable for having cash, but refusing to make the critical repairs and improvements to save our school buildings. Their goal is to build all new schools, regardless of the financial impact on the seniors living in the school district.

School Board members: [Right to left: Belinda Grassi (with Rainbow t-shirt), Jennifer Harden (with Rainbow t-shirt), Lori Krenisky, Denise Brewster, Scott Fishel]

How long have Jennifer Harden and Belinda Grassi been on the Riverside School Board?

Vice President

belinda.grassi@riversideschools.net

(440) 487-1599

Belinda Grassi was elected to the board in the November 2009 election and re-elected to a second, third and fourth term in 2013, 2017 and 2021.

Member

Jennifer.Harden@riversideschools.net

(440) 759-7983
Jennifer was elected to the board in November 2013 and re-elected to a second term in 2017 and a third term in 2021.

They have been on the school board for over 10 years and have continually ignored the fact that the roof has been leaking, and the children never felt safe and had a lack of privacy in the bathrooms for all that time. However, they can replace the outdoor track, and make sure that any changes to the gym floor does not impact the height of the basketball rim. Sports are paramount at Riverside. When you couple this with the undeniable facts that proficiency scores throughout the district are less than 70%, and have been for many years, the overburdened taxpayers are saying we are not going to take it anymore. They have presided over a less than stellar school system and allowed our school buildings to deteriorate This is an unacceptable performance.

Lori Krenisky has tarnished her reputation as a school board member when she blurted out to school board member Scott Fishel an untruth. Grassi, Superintendent Chris Rateno and Curriculum Director Melissa Mlakar all knew the truth, but did not correct Ms. Krenisky. Is truth a fleeting utopian ideal at Riverside?

Here is the Schedule A from the Lake County Auditor’s office. It lists the Riverside School District assessed values for Class 1, 2, and 3 properties, the inside and outside millage and the annual revenues generated from each levy assuming a 94% collection rate. The estimated $3.2 million annually, without a vote of the taxpayers, is equivalent to approximately a 2.3 mill levy.

So how is a Riverside taxpayer’s opinion accepted at Riverside School Board meetings? Here is Belinda Grassi’s response to my concerns about the sexennial revaluation in 2024 that will increase the Riverside School District’s property values by an estimated 30%, and cause the property taxes to increase more than 10% for each homeowner without a vote of the taxpayers. Taxpayers will pay approximately $210 per $100,000 of their home market value, and the School District will receive approximately $3.2 million annually without a vote of the taxpayers. This is in addition to the additional taxes to the paid to the County ($11 per $100K) and to Concord Township ($32 per $100K).

Ms. Grassi adamantly says that the School Board has no control over property taxes. We do not agree. The following is a memo from Mr. Charles Walder, Auditor for Geauga County, providing an updated status of the Inside Millage windfall mitigation.

The West Geauga. and Berkshire school districts will be forgoing over $5 million of UNVOTED 20 mill floor property tax increases.

So, Ms. Grassi, we do not agree with your assessment that the School Board has no control over property taxes.

We are requesting that a significant portion of the property taxes to be collected in 2025 due to the 20 mill floor legislation not be accepted by the Riverside School Board because the taxpayers are used and abused by, what I believe, is unconstitutional legislation. The 20 mill floor creates a de facto inside millage. contrary to the Ohio Constitution’s maximum 10 mill limit. When voting for outside millage the taxpayers had no clue what the ramifications of the 20 mill floor were.

Ms. Krenisky, Ms. Grassi, and Ms. Harden, if you believe that taxpayers will just sit back and watch you price us out of our homes that we have worked all our lives to achieve, you are sadly mistaken.

You have not taken the necessary steps to keep up with the necessary repairs on our school buildings.
You spent “a little more than $100,000” with a consultant to determine what repairs need to be made on the building, You will not heed the recommendations of the experts on what needs to be fixed on the buildings.
You want to hire another consultant so that in about another 8 months you will decide what direction you want to take the schools.
You placed the largest property tax levy on the ballot to build a new Riverside Campus, but the voters defeated it by a vote of 76% – 24%. However, you believe that the voters were not saying that they did not want to pay for a new school.
You now want to step back and have the “community” decide the direction that the school district should take. Sorry, but you were elected by the community to make decisions that are in the best interests of the community. Our system of government works through elected representation..
You will spend endless amount of money on sports, but for the ten plus years on the board you failed to make the children feel safe in the bathrooms. The Bible passage Matthew 18:6 talks about those that cause little ones to stumble.
Sadly, you have not improved tests scores, but focused on social emotional learning, and the almighty sports programs.

This is quite a legacy that the three of you have created for yourselves. Do not be surprised if taxpayers take their concerns about your actions and performances to a legal level, or homeschooling replaces the public education model.

We keep wondering if we were better off with the one room schoolhouse.