My anger at Superintendent Mantia of the Lakota School District is not some unwarranted diatribe incited by a simple disagreement. There is a history which is shown at the beginning and ending of this article where I gave two public presentations, one for Educate Ohio in June of 2011 and again for the West Chester Tea Party in October of 2011 shortly before the election. One of the reasons the pro levy people think my arguments are combative, vitriolic and harsh are because they typically only speak with people of their own kind. They do not associate often with the 18,000 people who voted against the tax hikes, so are ignorant as to how the other side thinks, and they make no attempt to understand. This is why both groups that I spoke to about Superintendent Mantia and my high hopes that she would get the Lakota budget under control were greater in number than those who attend the typical school board meeting. We have a lot of supporters in the No More Tax Effort. If more levies passed in this recent election it is not because people support those schools, it’s that the schools wore out the resistance, which is by design. The message the schools send is that if a levy does not pass, it will be back. So resistance yields to the oppressive tactics of union controlled public schools.
For those levy supporters who think I’m some lone wolf who simply doesn’t want to pay taxes because I can’t afford it, keep indulging in that fantasy as you stay in your little circles of pro levy supporters thinking that you are good because you don’t know how to say NO. No Lakota Levy as an organization and our supporters are deep, and active, as you can see in my public presentations over education. In my presentations I defended Mantia hoping that she would do as those of us in No Lakota Levy do routinely, and that is make hard decisions to balance our budgets. And I feel like she made me look bad for giving her the benefit of the doubt. In fact, every core member of No Lakota Levy has had to work with budgets in the millions of dollars, had to fire, hire or ask employees for wage freezes or reductions, and have had to spend many sleepless nights rolling around over those decisions. That is why we have no sympathy for Superintendent Mantia. She has turned out to be not what she sold to the community, and we are disappointed—me specifically. Residents from Pickerington warned me how Mantia was, and they were right.
I know the tricks of school superintendents. I know what they learn in Levy University in Columbus because I’ve read the same books and material they have. I got this material from my friends who are current school board members and have attended this class. My information also comes from former school board members who want to blow the whistle on the corruption that goes on in public education. The tricks are standard for every school and are designed by the Ohio School Board Association and the Ohio Education Association to extort from the public using Saul Alinsky’s methods of consensus, money if communities refuse to increase taxes on themselves. Those methods include, cutting busing to increase the burden on parents and force them to pass a levy. If that doesn’t work, schools take away liberal arts electives. If that doesn’t work they make sports pay-for-play. And if that doesn’t work they lay-off teachers at the bottom of the seniority ladder to scare parents into a declining school district and plummeting property values. These methods are used in every single school in the entire state of Ohio because they all share a connection to the OSBA in Columbus.
Another OSBA strategy is to form good relationships with realtors in a community so that home sales will be directly connected to school levy support. That’s why Joan Powell, former president of the Lakota School Board and current board member is so involved at Lakota—her full time job is that of a realtor. And one of Lakota’s biggest pro levy supporters is another realtor, Pam Perrino. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW HER INVOLVEMENT AGAINST MY GROUP. This is all by design at the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA). It’s a system designed to stack the schools and labor unions against the community. Both of those women will tell you they do what they do because it’s in their heart to do so, but they were brought into the circle of power because of their status as realtors. They may not be aware of it because they are only looking at their small piece of the pie, but they are part of the overall strategy, and they play their roles in levy advancement as expected.
And this is the reason for the disappointment in Superintendent Mantia. No Lakota Levy thought that Mantia should have proposed a wage reduction to the school employees in order to sustain the district far into the future. That way everything the public expects from the school could have still been maintained, busing, sports, electives and so on. But Mantia chose to preserve the system designed by the OSBA and imposed hardship on the residents just as the OSBA teaches at Levy University. In fact, she followed the text-book of levy passage taught at Levy University word for word. And this is simply unacceptable.
So this is the reason for the anger. We are not a stupid group of people at No Lakota Levy. In fact, we’ve seen it all, done it all, and could perform many of the decisions we are asking Mantia to make in our sleep without breaking a sweat. The solutions are so obvious and so easy that it doesn’t even require thought. But Superintendent Mantia is taking up a quarter million dollars in compensation from the district’s tax payers and she has not done the job we expected. She instead stood up for the teachers union that she started in as a teacher herself, and she knows as a double-dipper that she would never receive such a high salary with such poor performance in any other occupation but school superintendent. She is standing up for the system that has made her wealthy by employing these extortion measures taken straight out of the OSBA Levy University Class given every November the week after elections in Columbus, Ohio.
So I’m putting up the contract for Superintendent Mantia here for the residents of Ohio to see, so they can see what a juicy deal she has—a deal she would get no place else in any field of work. If Superintendent Mantia were in the private sector she would not stay employed for a single week making the level of income she currently is. I wouldn’t mind paying for a token superintendent job if it wasn’t filled with so many perks and loaded as if she were a celebrity on a Hollywood film; it deserves close scrutiny from a public that must fund her lifestyle for performance that is lackluster in only 6 months of employment. I would encourage you dear reader to watch these videos completely, especially the radio broadcast, and read this contract. If you are interested in understanding the scoop of the problem, you can at least do that much. I’m making it easy for you.
Use the tools I’ve placed before you! This is a very serious problem that is much larger than just passing a tax increase or not.
This will determine the kind of world we chose to live in for the foreseeable future.
Now, to be fair, I had several friends who attended the school board meeting on Thursday, March 9th, and below is the report from one of them to me from that event, which does involve Superintendent Mantia. Her response is one that I believe a person of her caliber should be able to handle over the position of a lawyer, because lawyers are in the pocket of the unions. With the kind of contract Mantia has, I expect her to be smarter than the lawyers. They make a lot less than she does. But here is the final word as spoken from her mouth to my friend.
At 10:50 I stood and asked why they DIDN’T DO ANY CUTTING ANYWHERE and simply lowered salaries and benefits until they were BELOW the budget?
After the four of us who stayed to ask questions at the close of the evening were finished, Karen Mantia answered my suggestion.
She took about 15 minutes and said that solution had been considered, but she was warned by the lawyers that it was illegal and therefore OFF the table.
They are going to chop the Hell out of the Lakota School District to meet the budget.
SIMPLY lowering salaries is OFF THE TABLE, when the alternate is to virtually destroy the school system in Lakota?Ms. Mantia said she and the Board DID NOT HAVE THE POWER to lower salaries and benefits.
She said WE had that power, referring to the NO Lakota Levy Group.
Rich Hoffman
https://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/ten-rules-to-live-by/
http://twitter.com/#!/overmanwarrior
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The Overmanwarrior 
OMG….no less than 30K in a 401 K? 23 vacation days when she only works 275 out of 365 days?? 15 sick days and she can transfer up to 65 days? I’m gonna cry….oh and the fully paid insurance.
I get 13 (count em) 13 days a year, sick, vacation, whatever…13.
by all means, gotta make sure she gets her retirement well funded, so lets pass that levy!!!!
Im sure she wouldnt be willing to give up 1%, much less 5%, considering she wouldnt speak out against SB5 until she was promised her raise.
ugh. sickening.
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Only in a government run school. : )
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Oh and the three personal days that are converted to sick days if not used…..wonder what her daily rate is after you take off all the time off, vacations, holidays, fully paid medical and dental…..does she make more than our president?
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No but she makes more than Governor Kasich. How about that? It’s true.
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Don’t forget, lads and laddies, that the wonderful Ms. Mantia is also receiving over $100k per year for her previously retired ass.
We heard the same argument in Pukerington. They’re all chicken-shits afraid of taking on their union buddies.
I’ve never understood why management(principals and administrators, possibly even Mantia) in the school districts continue to maintain membership in the OEA? Isn’t that a conflict of interest? You can’t serve two masters.
We call her “Cut N Run Mantia” because she has cut and run from two other school districts after destroying them. Keep your powder dry, my friends. She definitely has a scorched earth policy. And she is no friend to your children or America… she keeps trying to push her Agenda 21 bullshit on the school system.
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You guys were right. They are far more loyal to that union than they are the community. The proof is in their actions.
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Administrators aren’t in the OEA. Do your homework before making such claims. There’s absolutely no affiliation.
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Oh, I’ve done my homework. In the case of Mantia, she was a teacher and worked within the union and was promoted within, and because of that she hesitates to go against them now. Administrators use the pay rates of the teachers in the union to push up their own wages because they are managment. They have no reason to change the system because they take the spoils from it. So they are in bed together—-but you already knew that didn’t you……..
You just wanted to see if anybody knew what kind of game is being played, and believe me, they do. This is why schools can’t hire normal business people to run the schools, they have to be inbreds of the education system, because at some point in their past, they were already broken by the union, just like a nice little pony the union rides to a gravy train of unending pay increases at tax payer expense. That’s what school superintendents are in public education.
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We are having similar levy woes in our town. The tactics were done by the book and they were able to squeak the votes in and passed it on Super Tuesday. Our teachers can accrue up to 255 days and cash those babies in at the highest level achieved at retirement. That’s just one example. Ugh. It’s disgusting.
We have tossed around the idea of organzing a PAC to represent the taxpayers in all districts across the State. Kind of like an anti-union union. lol. We could also advocate for removal of Federal and State mandates. Your thoughts?
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I like your idea of forming an anti-union PAC. Sign me up! You know unions have tons of forums just like this one where they call all of us terrible names, and they have bus loads of PACs. That’s why they get their way.
It’s time to turn that all around on them.
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Sign me up as wel. Obviously, time off is a sore, sore subject for me…during all those rallies in Columbus against sb 5, all I could think was” wow, must be nice to be paid to take endless time off”
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Amazing –she makes more than our governor, who is trying to lower taxes–she is trying to raise our taxes. What kind of fresh hell is this?
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Yes she makes more than the governor. Watch that video, it’s true!!! You can’t make this stuff up!
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The board gave her a five year contract and hadn’t a clue as to her qualifications. If they have to terminate her contract she will get full pay – including the annuity. Nice!
*She has unlimited access to legal consultations and any other consultants. (So why do we need her?)
*She is allowed to spend as much time as she pleases earning income anywhere else she pleases. (So, why do we need her?)
*Salary not LESS than $165,000.00 first year. Add to that the $30,000.00 annunity.
(They pay her this way so the paper will publish her salary as $165,000.00 instead of the real salary of $195,000.000.)
*In addition to her stated salary they will give her a PERFORMANCE AWARD. They can add to her salary any amount they please.
*They pay STRS (retirement – and she is already retired) the boards share and her share. This is called the “pick-up on the pick-up.”
*In addition the taxpayers pay for her medicare/medicaid – her share and the boards share.
*Taxpayers pay the full freight for her health, dental and vision insurance.
*Life Insurance is not forgotten. We insure the dear woman for 2 1/2 times her total compensation. This would be well over $500,000.00.
*The taxpayers pay for her home hook-up for her computer and for her computer.
*To add insult to injury the Lakota district taxpayers have the pleasure of paying for 65 days (at her current salary) of her time accumulated at Pickerington.
*On top of all of this we are committed to paying for any classes she wants to take at any university in the country (or any other country, I assume).
(Just a brief synopsis of her contract. What was the reported salary and compensation to the taxpayers? Remember, all administrators have a similar contract.)
All of this for a teacher that knew how to move up the ladder. In other words, had the right connections.
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You can tell you were a former school board member, you broke that down very well. Amazing, isn’t it?
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we love our Gatekeeper!
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On top of all of that, most of them receive their Educational Doctorate without taking a single day off school. Some do it on line, while on school time. Some can take classes during school time. I knew of a Lakota principal who obtained his ED without taking one day off of school. One day he was Mr. the next Dr.
He demanded everyone call him Dr. $????. Teachers and kids were mandated to call this louse Dr. and he was a brute about his meaningless title. Of course he was paid dearly for that title and did move up the proverbial ladder. “Peter Principle” worked for him, as he has moved from district to district. I’m sure there are many like him.
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Cant be so… It’s ” all about the kids , right?” utter greed and gluttony….
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“I didn’t spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called ‘Mister’…thank you very much.”
-Dr. Evil, from “Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery”.
I couldn’t help but think of that quote. 🙂
Rich has written many times about the European concept of titles and their use in aggrandizing mediocre people. The inescapable fact is that true respect is always earned. The person with the shiny nameplate of their desk may get (usually looted) wealth and an ego boost from those letters after their names but as Tom Cruise said in “A Few Good Men”, “You don’t need to have a patch on your arm to have honor”.
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You can most always tell someone of little worth, because they expect value with a title, not the quality of their exsistance.
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Thank you Rich and Phil for your kind words. Feelings are mutual.
Wonderful to be able to converse with you. So many people are blinded
by the establishment.
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