Renovation Redux

The following email exchange comes from Mt. Lebanon resident, Steve Diaz and was sent to the School Board on May 5, 2011 at 8:22 a.m.

Members of the School Board:  Even with the benefit of hindsight, your chosen consultants give the appearance of being confused and ineffective (see, for example, yesterday's edition of The Almanac).  Mr. Celli, who vaguely and without much specification suggests that there are scores of "deducts" that the board should consider while he ponders the scope, necessity and even the desirability of many elements of the plan he designed and recommended to you.  Such responses to your inquiries as to why the project bids were so out of line with expectation, in themselves, however, strongly suggest either that the thoroughness and care needed to make the recommendations in the first place may not have been taken, or that saying "yes" to whatever he perceived the customer - you - wanted, was more important than any other value, simply to get and keep the work (that is, the fee).  This is not helpful to anyone, no matter what one's views may be on the general scope of the project or the tax situation.  In this case the problem may truly be with the choice of consultant.  In two meetings now, Mr. Celli seems not to have provided clear and convincing answers to reasonable questions to anyone's satisfaction.  What gives you confidence he can remedy a situation as to which he played such a large role in creating?  How much confidence to you have in the manner in which he has conducted his responsibilities as your consultant and advisor?  I would suggest that the most important thing now is not avoiding a public vote, as several members of the board have publicly acknowledged that there is NO support in this community for the scale of costs which are clearly associated with the present iteration of the project.  The board now has a duty to heed the urgent request of the 4,000 petitioners and change course by seeking a proper, and appropriately limited, renovation rather than a disguised construction of an essentially new high school.  The board also serves both the public and itself best by acting on the evident collapse of confidence in Mr. Celli.

Respectfully.  Steve Diaz

Josephine Posti's response to Mr. Diaz, May 5, 2011 11:29 a.m.

Mr. Diaz,

I'd be happy to talk to you about this.  Freel free to call any time.

 

For the Board,

Josephine Posti
President
Mt. Lebanon School Board
412.667.1479

Mission: To provide the best education possible for each and every student

To which Mr. Diaz responded with on May 6, 2011 at 8:47 a.m.:

Ms. Posti:  Thank you for your reply, although I am not sure what purpose my calling you might serve.  I am not interested in a "he said, she said" "conversation." I am interested in an honest reprise of the stewardship of the renovation process, from the picking of advisers forward.  Those in opposition to the manner in which the school board has proceeded are uniformly, falsely, and unfairly painted by the board and its few supporters as against a variety of generally positive things:  we are putatively and variously alleged to be against the athletics program (you do realize that my son is a stalwart both of our highly successful LaCrosse team and our Varsity Football Team); against fine arts and music programming (an accusation that comes out of thin air based on nothing); "the children" (a general all-purpose allegation of misanthropy, indicating the nastiness of the project proponents); and other such make-weight inventions offered as a substitute for any response on the serious questions that now, after bidding, even the board (which, as you will recall, on several occasions publicly ridiculed those who have questioned your process--we all remember Mr. Remely and his paper napkin fumbling with an overhead projector to snidely criticize the notion that the financial analysis of the board could be in any doubt, joined that night by several others--see the tape) acknowledges.  None of this addresses the additional abuses the board committed in the Act 34 process.  You yourself have been nasty to me personally, even to the point of reporting an "I don't know this person" when I extended to you a professional connection on LinkedIn.  Frankly, "private discussions" or phone consultations with you are not to be trusted to result in anything other than a "set up."  I also remind you how, against formal school board policy, my emails to you (those before I started copying "outsiders" to protect myself) were leaked by board members and used to incite unlawful invasions of my property, including the photographing of my license plates), while, in response to my complaint, every member of the board denied being the source of the "leak" (therefore, some member or members did not tell the truth).  I find your credibility to be dubious and your methods to be odious.  I am amazed that you have the cheek to start any communication to me without an acknowledgement, let alone an apology, of the seriously unnecessary past rudeness and abuse I have experienced from the school board and its supporters.

If you are serious about changing tone and now reaching out to those who have been merely critical of policies now demonstrated to be flawed, then you will have to show some good faith.  I suggest a face-to-face meeting, not alone, but with a small delegation (perhaps me and two or three others on my side), and including the superintendent, as well as any willing member of the town council (with whom you have no compunctions of meeting in private out of public view), on neutral ground (perhaps the Mt. Lebanon Library), would be a first step on the road to redemption and reconciliation.  If you are truly extending an opening to move past the uncivil situation the school board has created and nurtured, I will sit down with you and seek to explore such community-based reforms as my like-minded fellow citizens and I believe would be efficacious and beneficial.  No one would be more pleased, or more surprised, to have your affirmative response to this offer.

Respectfully.  Steve Diaz