From the District website:
High School Project Bid Opening Moved to Dec. 14
November 28, 2011
The bid opening for the high school project has been moved from December 7 to December 14, 2011. The Mt. Lebanon School District will receive sealed bids from bidders for the Mt. Lebanon High School Additions and Renovations Project until 1:30 p.m., prevailing time, on December 14, 2011, at the Mt. Lebanon School District Administrative Offices, 7 Horsman Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15228. Bids will be opened publicly and read aloud.
I was looking for a countdown clock for the blog, but was unable to find one that applied to a bid opening. No worries. Go here for the countdown clock. It is no secret that I am hoping for the bids to come back too high. If they do, may I suggest the Board review this letter from Dirk Taylor. Our newest Board members (Cooper, Goldman, and Lebowitz) may have missed this in their mentoring sessions. Gentlemen, we do have options. Don't let them tell you otherwise. 2-18-10 Letter to the Board
9 comments:
Teacher paid their union dues to be protected. Now they should read the Staffing Report to see their future.
John Ewing
This past week (12/08/11) the Bond Buyer Index, (general obligation, 20 years to maturity, mixed quality, source: Federal Reserve Board) stood at 3.93 compared to 3.94 on 10/01/09 when the District issued the first bonds for the High School project.
Granted we had no @#$%& idea it would have been exactly 3.94 then or 3.93 now, but about 60% of the time it has been at or below the index on 09/03/09 (4.37) when we were getting serious about floating bonds. BTW - exactly (more or less) what James Fraasch anticipated.
And never mind we did not even have a final project design in 2009 or cost estimates worth the printer ink used to distribute the ballpark figures.
In the end, all we could say was we had $75,000,000 (+/-) in the cooler waiting for someone to get something right, or at least schedule a groundbreaking ceremony.
About 11% of the time, the index has been below 3.94. In fact, had the “smarter than the rest of us” bunch waited 12 months we could have saved 10 basis points when the index stood at 3.84; and kept millions of dollars in MTL taxpayers’ wallets. (It was going to be many more months before the Architect was ready to boogie, anyway.)
It would be spring 2011, before we were ready to bid the first time. Bonds at that time were far less favorable, then again, so was the project design.
We will see this week if serendipity prevails on MTLSD yet again. There are folks all across the great state of Mt. Lebanon, with fingers crossed. (This is what one does when one has no @#$%& idea.)
All I can think at this point: Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Excellent points Bill. Could it be that the district needed a big infusion of cash and the bond never really had anything to do or at least very little to do with the high school project?
That also being why the details and design of the project aren't as important (see lebodesign.net) as meeting a number!
I'm thinking its kinda of like having a credit card. As long as you meet the minimum required payment, you can keep using the card almost forever. Although one day, it becomes impossible to meet the minimum.
Giffen Good
Get out the hip boots and shovels Lebo, we're all going to be digging a little deeper, me thinks!
Giffen Good
Bill Matthews,
We borrowed $75,000,000 on Oct 21, 2009 at a true interest cost of 4.1% . Here we are 2 years and 2 months later accepting bids on a high school Dirk Taylor showed us we could have saved more than $28,800,000 (see Dirk's letter in Elaine's post).
So the waste at the school district is well over $30,000,000 over what is needed for a 21st century education and a political PTA led by Karen Morris, Hoover PTA President, sent out an email that shot down good folks who were willing to serve on the Board as long as they didn't have to endure 6 months of PTA behavior and 6 months of Liberal Lane behavior.
Furthermore, where was the Superintendent during all this mess? Superintendent Steinhauer has presided over $30,000,000 of wasteful spending. That is 60 times the Sable Buyout. Perhaps that is why he needed to sneak more vacation days into his raise this year!
A visit by the "Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come" perhaps!
From the Trib:
"Terry Kuschner, who retired last month as assistant superintendent in the Upper St. Clair School District, had hired Steinhauer, 45, as an assistant principal at the high school there in 1995. He said it was Steinhauer's dream years ago to one day become a superintendent.
"He progressed through the ranks and touched all the bases," Kuschner said.
Steinhauer helped Upper St. Clair with its own high school renovation during the late 1990s, an experience Kuschner is sure will prove invaluable in Mt. Lebanon.
"He was on the front end of that," Kuschner said. "He was involved in the planning, so he should be familiar with the renovations. Tim is organized enough (so that) he will surround himself with the people he needs to get it done."
Read more: New Mt. Lebanon superintendent unfazed by challenge - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_637962.html#ixzz1gFvltHaR
And then we have this ominous news regarding USC's school district budget woes from the Almanac:
USC teachers facing job cuts
By Carla Valentine Myers for The Almanac writer@thealmanac.net
Even if they get exceptions to raise the tax hike ceiling, a budget proposal discussed Nov. 28 by the Upper St. Clair School Board would cut 14 teaching positions and six support staff positions.
The district's director of business and finance told the school board Nov. 28 that she expects to recommend at its final meeting of 2011 that the board propose a 2012-13 preliminary budget showing a nearly $2.8 million shortfall.
A preliminary budget is required to be proposed by Jan. 5 if the district intends to apply to the state for exceptions that would allow them to raise taxes higher than their 0.337 mill ceiling for 2012-13.
Expenditures are currently projected at $63,833,907, with revenues falling short by $2,798,428.
The district could apply for an exception of $600,000 for pension payments, and $230,000 for special education costs. The pension exception would permit the district to raise taxes another 0.352 mills and the special education exception would permit another 0.135 mills of taxes. This would bring to 0.82 the total tax hike for 2012-2013, if approved by the state.
E. Scrooge
In regard to your poll Elaine.
My concern isn't that the bid will come in too high.
I'm more concerned that they will come in just low enough for the board to start this boondoggle!
Which will then skyrocket over the limit as they make changes and additions and we pay in later years for cheapo materials.
Dick Saunders
Look at what is happening with the Public Safety Building. It was fixed, but I hear that there are still problems. This was built in 2003.
It will be a nightmare when this thing gets going, Dick. That is why I hope that the Board will be forced to look at the CAC recommendations if the bids come back too high.
Elaine
And in 10 or so years when everyone is still complaining about navagating the silly building and complain about those rusting steel panels that replaced glass.
Dick Saunders
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