Bill Matthews was chewed out again. Larry Lebowitz questioned Bill's numbers. After all, Jan Klein won that damn award.
The Mt. Lebanon School District received the Association of School Business Officials International’s Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting award for having met or exceeded the program’s high standards for financial reporting and accountability for the 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. This is the 29th year the District has been honored with this prestigious award.A little background on this. We pay for this award. As long as all the parts of the report are submitted, you win the award. Table of contents? Check. Meet the criteria and you win! So double counting is permitted.
Of course, Elaine Cappucci said that they were so fiscally responsible that they eliminated the Assistant Superintendent for the Primary Schools. Then it was announced that Dr. Marybeth Irvin, the new principal at Lincoln who had coffee with Dr. Steinhauer according to Timmy's Traveling Twitter Tweets on the first day of school, was appointed as the new Assistant Superintendent for the Primary Schools.
Oh, big news! "The Grievance" was settled. It only cost the District $60,000! They have agreed to hire permanent subs at the appropriate step.
The podcast to tonight's meeting is available here.
Update May 20, 2014 9:07 AM From Bill Matthews:
Last night I provided the Board with the above chart, demonstrating that in eight of the last nine years the budget has been under budget on the expenditure side by almost $1,000,000 per year, on average. And once again, the Board “baked in” these surpluses from days of yore, raising taxes to cover these ghost expenses, ultimately resulting in an unnecessary and unwarranted tax increase.
Three things (at least) are at play that makes it difficult to work with the Board on budget issues:
1) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.
2) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.
3) Their obsequiousness to the Administration’s financial information.
While the budget information available to the public is quite limited, albeit often “award” winning, it is far from error free. Please see these pages from the recent annual budget books, where over three years the revenue and expenditure information is repeated, repeated and repeated, as if to make a point.
69 comments:
Get out your wallets, LEBO! It's time to pony up again for our reckless school board.
Have you finally learned your lesson? Find candidates, support them and vote!
Are people ready to DEMAND an outside audit yet?
It's a shame this school district divides families from the administrative process. Could there have been a parent satisfaction survey before the Lincoln principal was made assistant superintendent?
For example, Bellevue School District, outside of Seattle, has some of the nation's top schools and includes 27 schools. Yet, they manage to have a yearly parent satisfaction survey. So, in sum, instead of refusing to respond to parent emails with concerns, they actually reach out to parents to ensure they are doing a decent job.
Results of a recent Bellevue School District parent survey:
http://www.bsd405.org/Portals/0/Parent-Survey/BSD-Elementary-Schools-ONLY-At-A-Glance.pdf
A survey may have identified important topics for discussion with Dr. Irvin and among the board before she was promoted. Likewise, if parents had known she was under consideration, they could have provided their impressions/experiences to the school board.
The board is less interested in your impressions/experiences than they are you financial support. In a nutshell, You have to pay to stay so the children can play. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
From the Trib:
"The school district, pressured by rising health care costs and retirement obligations, cut about $353,000 in spending by replacing retirees with cheaper, new hires and by reducing overtime as well as the supply and technology budgets. The district expects $160,000 in new revenue by opening the district up to more tuition-paying foreign students on one-year educational visas."
First they saved $353,000, like the board had anything to do with this! People retired and ina few years those new hires will be right back up in salary. Look at Steinhauer, when he was a new hire how long did it take to surpass his more experienced predecessors salary and benefits level.
Then its all for the kids, right? Less expeienced teachers, fewer staff staying late, few supplies and less technology!!!
No give backs, no hardships on the teachers union.
Just wait until we elect our democrat in the governor's race. They're all pledging to send more money to the schools.
Where does the state get its money from--- you got it, higher taxes.
Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal in a 12/17/2013 opinion piece wrote:
"It all looks so lax, so loosey-goosey. In the place of the energy and focus that would go into running of things, the administering and managing of them, we have the preoccupation with spin, with how things look rather as opposed to how they are."
Now of course, Ms. Noonan is writing about Obama's White House, and not Mt. Lebanon's school board or commission. But, doesn't her observation apply here as well?
What was the school board preoccupied with pre-high school renovation? Ed Kubit asked us to imagine the football team emerging from the vomitorium like some Big 10 powerhouse!
Never mind that according to PDE studies almost 1/4 of MTLSD graduates entering state universities need remedial math or english courses.
Its just as bad at the municipal government offices. What was the big selling point for turfing MWC? It'll be a "crown jewel," that realtors can drive prospective home buyers past.
Don't mention that high millage rates scare away more home buyers and businesses than they attract!
Don't mention that homeowners get flooded and lose hundreds of dollars in property in almost every torrential downpour.
Don't mention deteriorating streets, crummy field maintenance, rising payroll and pension costs. The commissioners act like a $2 million plot of land purchased on McNeilly sitting vacant doesn't exist and is like an anchor holding real recreation enhancements motionless.
None of it is important, its all about appearances and spin, and taking the easy route.
Remely voted for another tax increase? You don't say. I'm sure the Republican Party of Mt Lebanon will give him it's top rating!
Let me put it in language Cooper would understand Dan. I won't be buying pizzas from Pub and Pizza because your hand is in my pocket.
--Tom the Tinker
11:43pm? They don't care what you or any other parents think. They'll send you polite email replies. They'll act concerned, worrying only that they appear to be addressing your concerns. But they don't care what you think. They'll sit and listen to you while you speak for your allotted 4 minutes, but they don't care. Their minds are made up. And you annoy them with your opinions. You annoy them with your concerns and questions. You annoy them with your dissatisfaction. I love the idea with parent satisfaction surveys. I love the idea of involving parents in the process. I love the idea of utilizing the experience and expertise of the people of this community. You know. They people they were elected to represent? Yeah. No. They don't care.
I think it is a huge mistake to open our district to ANY NON RESIDENT. I understand that parents want their children to have a sound education, but LEBO you are making a huge mistake. If you compare private school fees to what Lebo is charging LEBO is a bargain.Keep LEBO residents only.
Nothing was said about the windfall from the newcomers tax, was there?
Elaine
"Hurrah for Tom the Tinker!"
I learn something every day from this blog. Thank you!
Elaine
Yes, Elaine, the Newcomer's Tax was mentioned in public comments, but the reference was received with blank stares and silence. The SB behaves as if all they have to do is tell you how "necessary" their overspending is and presto!, all of your concerns are wiped away. The are like a board of Stepford Wives.
As for Mr. Remely, he just sits there mostly saying "nothing to report" when called upon, and voting with the solid Democrats to increase taxes in the face of years and years of taxed surpluses (indeed, planned surpluses). Cappucci and the superintendent simply recite the magic incantation, "we are not allowed to overspend our budget" as if that were a cure for their uncontrolled overspending and overtaxing.
Mr. Kubit, who routinely misses these votes so he doesn't have to be put in the quandry of voting for or against the taxes, is simply a coward. Only Mr. Goldman had the courage to vote "no" in the face of the juggernaut.
Oversimplification and callous disregard of the complex needs of the community are not the way to win the support of thinking voters who actually think about the budget in terms of its consequences to the schools and the taxpayers. Time for a change of the guard.
Remely is the weakest person. He stands for nothing, he blows in the wind with whatever the majority wants, and he is incapable of original thought or standing on conviction. Even when Mr. Goldman took a principled stand, Remely could not bring himself to stand against the majority of tax-drunk school directors. He should resign from the Republican Committee. His lame friend Kubit should do the same--the time when his voice and vote were most needed is the time he disappeared (though I am sure he has a very good excuse, as always).
The Educatdion Elite pass out awards to one another as if their own back-slapping meant anything. It is like the SB giving the superintendent another raise: merit has nothing to do with it. When do we get down to the facts and put the "we are above reproach" arrogance aside for honest discussion?
I am getting tired of Mike Riemer's lies, when he says the state is cutting funding:
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/docLib/20140516_PPBudget2014.pdf
"Governor Corbett’s budget proposal calls for $10.4 billion in funding for public schools and support services,
the highest level in state history."
when you live in the "bubble" you don't have to worry about the truth, you only have to worry about whether you are on the Party line.....
Scott will finish out his term and calm it quits. Lone reasonable voices don't last long on Mt Lebanon commissions and school boards.
So what has happened with the extra $8.9MM over the last 9 years? Presumably there has to be a record of what it has been used for - or was it applied to the High School renovations?
what we need is 8 more votes for fiscal sustainability, or call it tax justice....
http://www.mtlsd.org/bsc/stuff/mt.%20lebanon%20harris%20exec%20summ2007.pdf
11:43, the district did send out surveys at least in 2007 and 2010, I think. See link above for the executive summary of the 2007 survey.
Best I can remember-- the administration always gave the public "a summary" of the survey results. That is the spun the results.
But I can't believe you are really under the impression that a survey will have any more effect than a 4,000 signature petition or Matthews standing at the podium and questioning their numbers.
Yeah I can see the results now.
Steinhauer reports to the board....
'of the 33,000 surveys we sent out the return rate hovered at around 11%.'
Of those 11%, 6% think we're doing a stupendous job! The majority of the community are entirely satisfied with us!'
Of course the above is fictional, but no more so than Ed Kubit's 4,000 and one people (that beat the 4,000 signature petition against the renovation) that wanted the $113 million renovation.
Do you really think
1. a survey will deliver the results you hope for in a community where 70% of registered voters can't get off their duffs and vote!
And
2. Even if residents did find the time and moxie to fill out a survey honestly, that the board would follow any of the findings?
I think the last Harris Survey cost the district something like $12,000. Do we need to burn any more cash just for the hell of saying "we did something."
Nothing in the budget process will change this year. At 10:45 my wife and I were Republican voters number five and six in our voting district. Had we been Democratic voters we would have been number 21 and 22. Other districts had similar numbers of voters for each Party but no new folks were coming to vote.
I saw only one other voter coming out of the polls and he told us we would be Republican voters eight and nine in his district.There were no poll workers or candidates present at the school where we voted and only three candidates had placed signs on the bulletin boards inside the school.
The board is in complete control with a voter turnout this low.
.
Another thing on how a survey would be a waste of time.
You have board directors like Mary that announce prior to a public hearing mandated by state law on the renovation that she is voting for the renovation.
If that is the case, why hold a hearing. Her mind was made up.
Is the school board president's father getting a raise?
I wouldn't eat at the Pub and Pizza.
Just sitting at the traffic light and smelling the cooking oil fumes being vented out into the intersection makes me lose my appetite.
Thank god for this board! We had years of a board who was afraid to do anything. The school deteriorated because of lack of maintenance. This board is doing the best that they can. We have the best school district. Real estate friends have told me that they can't find enough houses to put on the market, and when they do, the houses are snapped up.
If you are aware of today's world, you know that prices are rising on everything. We cannot stay stagnant.
if they can't overspend their budget and they have surpluses essentially every year, that money should be visible somewhere --- where is the 8.9 mil?
the school directors should ask Kristen Linfante how the tax raise is helping to sell her house...ask if she is disclosing to prospective buyers that while she pays only $9,000 in property tax, her buyer, at the asking price, will have to pay over $16,000...at some point none of us will be able to sell our houses, say when interest rates return to a typical 7 -9 %.....the school board and the municipal commission are taxing us into a place that no one will want to buy into---maybe not today or next year, but keep raising taxes and watch it happen.....hope you plan to stay for a long time...
you see, "it's for the kids" also applies to the explanations they offer the taxpayers as if we were naive and needed simple but firm "guidance" -- such disrespect for the voters and the taxpayers....the school board cares nothing for seniors and young families starting out...how much do they think these small mt. lebanon houses with no closets can take before it all collapses? fantasyland
Yes, they don't care about surveys but that doesn't mean that a normal, high functioning school district doesn't benefit from providing and analyzing survey results nor does it mean that residents cannot continue to examine the determinants of effective districts.
The truth is that this town is dysfunctional because of nepotism and conflict of interests run wild. The bylaws, home charter rule, etc. all reflect an extremely outdated, population of 25 mentality.
Wa
3:09, they couldn't perform even simple maintenance with the highest millage rates in the region?
Leaky windows, don't weatherstrip or caulk, tape 'em with packing tape!
Yep, that's how we do it in the bubble.
Cambridge and Oxford Universities, UK hold classes and maintains offices in buildings that go back to the days of Sir Issac Newton, but in Leboland we can make one last 50 years.
I don't want to sit and watch this happen anymore. Please email me with any information about having an independent audit.
Elaine
EGillen476@aol.com
Yep 3:09, houses here are moving like hotcakes.
http://www.zillow.com/mount-lebanon-pa/foreclosures/
Perhaps we should ask our state reps that are chomping on the bite to send even more money to our district how we get an audit.
Logic would dictate that before you decide to throw money at something it would wise to see how the money they're already getting is being spent! Especially considering the lack of results.
Something like 23% of Lebo grads need remedial english and/or math instruction as state university freshman.
But hey, we will have a beautiful, expensive trophy case and that is important. Yep, cut back supplies and technology... gotta tout those sports trophies.
Yes, 4:05, houses here are moving like hotcakes. But for how long? Do you think such tax and spend policies are sustainable? Just because the view on the way down is great does not mean it is a good idea to jump from that bridge.
3:09 has her head in a bubble. Consider the consequences as we project forward the financial impact all this has on young families and seniors. Some may not consider seniors significant in setting tax policy, but they are homeowners and taxpayers and voters here, too. Some 30% of our population are seniors - what consideration is being given to their needs? Perhaps you think Grandma should sacrifice her home so the school board can give bonuses to the superintendent, so go ahead, throw Grandma over the cliff (because that is what your "wonderful" school board is doing).
Hey, 3:09pm you do NOT have the "best school district." My home town does, and it's called the Dallas Independent School District.
Forclosures do not equal sales. Apples and oranges 4:05
4:18 the link at 4:05 are foreclosures or pre-foreclosure listings.
4:37- see 4:23's comment. No we aren't talking apples to oranges. We're talking about people, their homes and the ability to keep a roof over their head.
The administrators, board and union don't care as long as they're getting theirs. IMO
2:32, I went to my polling location and was #13 around 1pm. All I can say is "PATHETIC"!
3:09 says "we cannot stay stagnant."
But, test scores can.
My seventy something mother lives alone in her lebo home, she believes that the school renovations are a benefit to the community as a whole. She is not "sacrificing her home".
3:09, check out the trend in PA spending vs SAT performance.
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/state-education-trends#/PA
Can we get back on topic about the budget being passed? We have a board who approved a budget that is bogus. The proof was presented to the board and they will not listen.
This isn't about a seventy something woman believing that the school renovation is benefitting the community. This isn't about test scores. This is about how our pockets are being picked. We are being taxed to death! The finance director is double counting and squirreling away money. The board tells us how frugal they are and then turn around and spend more. This is criminal!!
Elaine
You consider yourself a "Republican" in Mt Lebanon? Let's see what they have to offer.
Kubit, Birks, Remely, Raja and his stormwater fee.
Every single one of them a looter. They can't even field a candidate to take out a very weak Dave Brumfield. Here's their website. What candidates were they running?
http://www.lebogop.com/
I didn't see anything. Did you?
You still consider yourself a "Republican" in Mt Lebanon? How's that working out for you?
--Tom the Tinker
Audit. Audit. Audit.
Exactly, it is about money. Constantly rising SD taxes, state taxes for education yet performance basically remains flat.
Speaking of bogus numbers, how do the Capital Fundraising monies figure in, in all this? Remember we were promised $6 million over 5-6 years and we hired an $85,000+ campaign chair to run it.
If we have $800,000 to $1,000,000 comining in for Capital Improvements, do we still need the tax hike?
6:38, their fundraising strategy is to raise taxes. There's no mythical source of money that's going to rain $6M on them. You'd be better thinking unicorns are real.
And 5:45, keep dreaming. They'll come for their house as well as soon as the Grandma's pension dries up and social security goes belly up. Buddying up to the looters won't buy you an exception.
--Tom the Tinker
So 5:45 as long as your mother is OK, we should be OK too---- right?
6:55, in the mean time over 6 years of the campaign if the keep the Campaign Chairman on staff they'll have blown through well over $600,000 in pay, employer taxes, and perks.
That we are overtaxing and unwisely spending is not a matter of opinion, it is a fact that will be demonstrated over time....judgement should allow us to understand the problem before we destroy the viability of this community
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/taxpayerHotline/
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Department/Info/School/
How many students are living in the foreclosed homes?
The democrats will NEVER allow an independent outside audit! Their hands are so dirty. What happened when the famous parking ticket money was found missing?? Oh it was Brumfield... Hurry up and move on! Of course Dave's little buddies Miller and Smith won't do or say anything.
The foreclosures have nothing to do with the level of taxation here, right? Wrong!
Does anyone know how much our retiring Asst Superintendent of Elementary Education made compared to what our newly appointed Assist Superintendent of Elementary Education will be making?
It should interesting to see just how much an inexperienced Assist. Saves us over a seasoned, experienced one!
http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/21/6-shifts-in-education-driven-by-technology.aspx?m=1
The subject in the above link is center on how technology is changing education.
What is our district doing with technogy--
From the Trib:
""The school district, pressured by rising health care costs and retirement obligations, cut about $353,000 in spending by replacing retirees with cheaper, new hires and by reducing overtime as well as the supply and technology budgets. The district expects $160,000 in new revenue by opening the district up to more tuition-paying foreign students on one-year educational visas."
Catch that reducing the supply and technology budgets! We won't buy cheaper trophy cases, cut out pizza lunches. No we will cut technology budgets in a day and age where technology drives almost everything.
No.. They purchased cheap Google computers that were designed to be sold in third-world countries. Upper St Clair, Peters, South Fayette use iPads and Apple products.
Elaine can you legally hold your property taxes in a separate account till an outside audit is done? I've been hearing rumors that the High School disaster is running out of funds and that emergency measures are going to have to be put in place. The School Board will tell everyone that they can't leave the school unfinished and what's another $1500 anyway. On the last page will include turfing the rock pile and enclosing it.
Yep, MTLSD is so 21st century, even in its fundraising.
"So students began publicizing their plight. Program alumni — many of whom went on to careers in science-related fields — stepped up with a crowdfunding website and the creation of an advisory board."
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/students-blast-off-space-program-saved-23837793
In an article in the Trib on the cost of higher education and its ramification it reads: "Buffeted by increasing costs, shrinking public subsidies, soaring student debt and growing public skepticism, American colleges are approaching a tipping point.
More than 4,000 colleges and universities are scattered across the country, and experts agree that — with the exception of elite, well-endowed research universities — few will remain unchanged in 30 years. Some will close, others might merge, and leaner models likely will emerge to meet public demand."
http://triblive.com/mobile/6035965-96/online-governors-percent
Here in Mt. Lebanon, for some reason our K-12 educators display incredible bravado that they are immune to the realities of economics. Despite falling enrollments and unbearable pension debt, they'll continue year-after-year to take 3.5% and higher raises, pay miniscule ccontributions to their healthcare and handout bonuses.
They'll raise expenditures by a yearly average of $2,000,000, then turn around and blame the governor for their fiscal problems. 'You can't possibly be right Mr. Matthews, we're doing exactly what we've always done. It's the damn Governor's fault that we have to raise school taxes... like we did last year, and the year before that...,
and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...,and the year before that...
Like a broken record...,and before that...,and before that....,and Klein receives the annual award for "excellence" in budgeting for 27 years ? ? ? ?
9:25 AM, This is the first school board to blame the Governor and the school board member who is leading that chorus used to be a staff accountant for a well-known accounting firm - too bad she never learned to read a state budget.
I don't see it on Linkedin, 8:27 PM. Are you sure about that?
Elaine
Sorry, to disagree 8:27, but I believe I heard cries from board's under Walton, Rodella, Kubit, Posti also crying about the lack of money coming from Harrisburg.
Elaine,
If you don't like the comment you can remove it. If Linked in is more to your liking, you can get your information from there.
While MTLSD earmarks $400,000 for cellphone repeaters in the HS school, a Conneticut District tries to figure out how to deal with them.
"Cellphones a distraction in class"
http://m.ctpost.com/local/article/Cellphones-a-distraction-in-class-5504098.php
Has our district established a cell phone policy or will distractions reign supreme over the task of educating kids?
I can see it now... text messages spreading like wildfire through every students' cellphone: "Guess who I got stuck having a pizza lunch with?"
Gotta love that technology!
The $73,828 Trophy Case is out to bid:
http://classifieds.triblive.com/viewlisting.php?view=856096
Description:
Invitation to Bid Mt. Lebanon School District Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC COMPLEX TROPHY CASE Sealed bids will be received by the Mt. Lebanon School District, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until the 4th day of June 2014, at 9:30 a.m., local time. Contract work involves design/build of a 74 ft. long trophy case in the hall of champions located in the new high school athletic complex. The Display case shall be as described in the scope of services. Bids should be addressed to Mt. Lebanon School District, 7 Horsman Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15228. The bid envelope should be clearly marked "Sealed Bids for "High School Athletic Complex Trophy Case"-DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 9:30 AM, JUNE 4, 2014. Bidders wishing to view the project area should schedule a meeting with the Project Manager, Rick Marciniak, 412-344-2092. The school is located at 7 Horsman Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15228. cashier's check or a bid bond in an amount equal to ten (10) percent of the bid payable to Mt. Lebanon School Board, Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, shall be submitted with the bid to guarantee the bidder's entrance into a contract if given the award. No bid may be waived or returned because the bidder has failed to, or cannot comply with any requirements as set forth herein. No bid may be withdrawn for a period of sixty (60) days after the time of opening the bids as provided by the Act of December 12, 1994 (P.L. 1042, No. 142). Bidders must comply with all State anti-bid rigging regulations pertaining to work and will be required to submit an executed non-collusion affidavit with the bid. Project manual and scope of services may be obtained from the facilitie4s department, Mt. Lebanon School District, 7 Horsman Drive, Mt. Lebanon, PA 15228, 412-344-2191 at no cost or deposit. As this is a design-build project, no plans or specifications are available. Cecile D. Bowman, Secretary, Board of School Directors 5837635(5-15,22,29-14)
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