Huttinger for Buckeye School Board

Teacher Retires! Buckeye-1 Staff-0 (I'm sure Buckeye really has more than 1 win.)

Here's some perspective

Every child’s journey of growth is as natural and profound as the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. When we rush this process, we risk missing the essential stages that build strength, resilience, and understanding. Just like a butterfly cannot skip the chrysalis phase, children need time to explore, stumble, and learn at their own pace—to develop wings that are truly ready to soar.

This image invites us to reflect deeply on the pressures we sometimes place on young minds to accelerate learning and achievement. It calls into question the pace of education systems and societal expectations that prioritize speed over depth. Are we fostering genuine growth, or are we rushing a process, risking the fragile beauty of authentic development?

In embracing the slow, sometimes messy evolution of childhood, we honor the vast potential of every learner. The true wings of knowledge and wisdom come not from haste but from patience, nurturing, and trust in the journey. How can we, as educators and caregivers, better protect this sacred timeline and support growth that is whole and lasting? Share your thoughts and experiences with us—let’s explore this vital balance together. 🦋🌱

Credit: Dr. Brad Johnson

For a teacher who has spent years and years in education, years at Buckeye, and almost the entire year with a classroom of students and to not even get recognized as such at the graduation of those students at the ceremony was my last straw. A dedicated teacher just erased and ignored for an unproven, unsupported, uninvestigated, and unreported "incident". Let's not act like this is all a big secret and I broke the news, I'm just the one with enough experience and guts to report it out loud. Buckeye staff treatment is less than respectable and also ILLEGAL. More to follow in the future. If you know Mr. Piehl, please let him know about this post. If you support Mr. Piehl, please email Board Members directly: bgunkelman, dpiovarchy, skujat, rsalazar, and kcecelich .org

For something 65% of voters said "no" to.

Buckeye has secured their COPS loan

$23,000,000.00
$1,826,292.95 First Year Payment
20 YEAR LOAN

$14,435,018.33 IN INTEREST
$14 MILLION

$37,435,018.33 TOTAL LOAN
($23 Million)
Can you think of a worse time to go out and try to sell a bond loan?
An extra $25k a year in extra interest - simply because the economy sucks but you need the money today!
$500,000 extra lifetime
But keep driving that train
Don’t let any RED FLAGS 🚩 slow you down

No matter what funds it comes from
$1.8 MILLION A YEAR
Taken away from Buckeye total funds
On top of the
$40 PLUS MILLION already transferred

So now your $65 million school becomes
$77,435,018.33

BUCKEYE SELF FUNDED SCHOOL
Your tax dollars at work
BUT YOU DIDN’T GET A VOTE
$77 Million and NO VOTE
Kind of sounds exactly what we
VOTED DOWN 3 TIMES

ALL FACTS SETH ALL FACTS !!

$42-$48,000. is an employee's salary, maybe even 1.5 bus drivers salaries. Instead, they are renovating a space for a program that is supposed to give students flexibility for work/jobs and off campus studying. They are spending that much on space for 25 or so students which do not need to be on campus. They will not have a library/media center for the incoming JH students and will have to create ANTOHER space for the one they are removing for more money again. How is this space being staffed? Did you know teachers qualified at Buckeye to teach college courses have a mandatory payrate determined by the college? I'm guessing it's more since it's college level teaching. We not only offer the privilege's of college courses, now we are making space for them when for years and years it wasn't necessary until the Board voted to do so! I thought I heard that our Treasurer, Mr. Donnelly, stated that we are making cuts. This seems the complete opposite of cuts and another huge waste of money and resources for Mr. Kujat's, and the rest of the Board's, want to keep students on campus when they don't have to be. More poor long-term planning and waste of taxpayer money by our Administration. Honestly, it's one fly by the seat of your pants decision after another!

Buckeye to turn media center into space for Tri-C program The Buckeye Board of Education approved turning the media center into a lab during its meeting Tuesday.

Let the misleading begin. Actually it began a long time ago. After reading a recent Gazette article from 5-14-26, I wanted to remind everyone what the Capital Improvement project really is.

Although they are presenting the job to the public in bits and pieces, here is what's really to come over the next 5 years.

That may be why the board approved a 5 year contract with our Superintendent 10 months before his current one expired and with a pay raise skipping pay scale steps and other perks. He is certainly earning his keep with the Board by getting this ENORMOUS project through while the public isn't any the wiser.

We failed this project 3 times at the ballot box by 65% yet what the Board heard was; yes we love this idea! Clean out your ears Board, drop the egos and start representing your community!!!

I hope you read the full attachment. It will be exactly the same playbook for Buckeye! Buckeye has predicted a deficit for quite some time now and has been speaking about it publicly since August 2025. How about getting rid of the 5 new (4 which are admin/office) positions created over the past couple years.......declining enrollment certainly doesn't support more office staff. How about retracting the 14% increase in retirement benefits to all administrative staff which was awarded when deficit spending was known? Oh, I know, how about using all the brand new vehicles we bought as snow plow vehicles and stop paying a company $6000.00 a month (don't quote me on the cost, but I know it's close) during winter for the chance we need them? How about stop hiring consultant firms and PR campaign people to advertise ourselves to ourselves? How about not hiring consultants to consult supervisors that keep getting contract renewals? If someone can't do their job, they don't get the job. How about not hiring inexperienced admins with pay scale increases and jumping steps......oh, that would get rid of 3 right off the bat. According to some, what do I know about budgeting anyways? All the suggestion I made are based on decisions made by our current board members who voted for NEW spending with deficit forecasting (and enrollment decline). When Barb Gunkelman, Denise Piovarchy, Seth Kujat and Roy Salazar vote to get rid of teaching staff and bus routes, and increase student fees, you can contact them with the other suggestions I made here.

After the levy failed last week, Rose Ioppolo, Mentor Board of Education brought forward a simple proposal at last night’s meeting: reduce the 28% taxpayer funded retirement contribution for administrators down to 14%, the same percentage teachers receive. Administrators would pay their own 14% and taxpayers would match it.

The state mandates that we pay the first 10 percent. The ask was for the admin to pay their fair half (14 percent ) instead of taxpayers funding all 28 percent.

That ONE change could have saved taxpayers an estimated $600K to $700K.

The vote? FAILED 1 to 4.

Maggie Cook, Dan Hardesty, Bob Haag, and Lauren Marchaza all voted AGAINST reducing the benefit.

Instead of debating the actual numbers, Dan resorted to personal attacks against Rose, claiming she lacked “business experience.” Maggie called it “insulting” that the proposal was even suggested.

What’s actually insulting?

Protecting bloated administrative retirement while increasing costs on students and families.

Instead of making even a partial reduction to excessive administrative retirement benefits, the district will be:
• Increasing 6th grade camp fees
• Increasing pay to play fees
• Increasing preschool fees
• Charging students a paper consumable fee

All for an estimated savings of roughly $250K.

The board majority refused to reduce a 28% taxpayer funded administrative retirement benefit, even by a smaller amount than 14%, which could have covered those savings without touching student fees at all.

Instead, the burden once again gets shifted onto families.

Meanwhile administrators continue receiving:
• Average salaries around $120K- some of the highest around
• 28% fully taxpayer funded retirement contributions averaging another $34K annually PER administrator (over 1.4 million yearly spent from our budget)
• Employee health benefit costs below the SERB average
• Growth in administration since 2018 while student enrollment has dropped by nearly 1,000 students

Would this one change solve every financial issue? No.

Would it show the community that leadership is willing to cut from the top before impacting students and families? Absolutely.

Rose said it best last night: this board majority seems tone deaf to the demands of the community. Even with the cuts the CFO mentioned last night (some I agree with), they will need to cut more. Well, this would be a great area to look into without directly impacting students and still maintaining the competitive edge with their high salaries and great benefits.

And according to discussion at the meeting, another levy attempt is likely headed for the November ballot, making this their THIRD attempt after the previous two failed.

Off year school board elections have consequences, and last night’s vote showed exactly why they matter.

Link to the full meeting below where you can see all the potential cuts. I will add that some cuts are wise decisions, but the vote last night against reducing the bloated admin retirement, is not.

YAY, emergency over! We must not need that Emergency Levy we still pay on that brings in $3 million a year. Will the Board be dropping that Levy early since we don't need it anymore?? Kim, can you propose the levy drop? All we need is a Board Resolution to drop it and the County Auditor and County Treasurer will do the rest.

March 16, 2026

“Because our expenses are expected to rise as revenues decrease, we are concerned that a 2.5 million rollback at this stage would inadvertently move the district toward “Fiscal Emergency” status within 2 years. Our goal is to maintain the long-term financial health of our schools to avoid such a crisis.”

This was the requested voluntary payback to Buckeye property taxpayers

May 12, 2026 - 57 days later
Transferring
$3 million from General Fund
where the $2.5 million would have come from
PLUS:
$1,750,000
$890,000
Total-
$5,640,000

Wonder how this will work with our
“long term financial health” and
a crisis

Housing went from 15% of income to 50%. Childcare went from free to $2,000 a month. And somehow we're supposed to pretend this is just inflation.

In 1970 the formula for a normal family life was straightforward.

Dad works full time. Mom stays home. One car owned outright. A three bedroom house on a mortgage that costs about 15% of the household income. Childcare handled at home.

One income. A full life.

Here's the 2026 version of that same formula.

Both parents work full time. Two cars, both financed. Housing costs 50% of household income for a smaller home than the one their parents owned.

And childcare runs $1,200 to $2,000 every single month just so both parents can go to work and earn the income needed to pay for everything else.

Two incomes. Survival.

The math didn't shift gradually. It got completely rewritten.

Childcare alone is now the second largest household expense for families with young children behind only housing.

In most major metro areas a full-time daycare slot costs more annually than in-state college tuition. Parents are paying college prices to go to work.

Housing went from a manageable 15% of income to consuming half of what most families bring home. Not because people are buying bigger homes. Because the homes that existed in 1970 now cost what they cost in 2026.

The women who entered the workforce over the past 50 years didn't just gain economic independence. They also became economically necessary.

The second income that was once optional is now the difference between making rent and not.

This isn't a political statement. It's arithmetic.

One income used to buy a life. Two incomes now buys survival. And for a lot of families, survival is still a stretch.