Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Charter a charter
Josephine Posti had a thread on her Center Court blog, Stand Up For Public Education. She ran article after article about how charter schools are terrible for public education. Fast forward to Monday's school board meeting. How do we balance the budget? Number 68 on Dr. Tim's list of suggestions was to close an elementary school. Dan Remely remarked that by renting Mellon to Peters Township, as opposed to selling it, saved us in the end. He wondered if we could turn one into a charter school. No, we couldn't. Dr. Tim suggested we could charter a charter school. I wish I could have seen Josephine's reaction. That would have been priceless.
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14 comments:
It seems one hand has no idea what the other is doing.
President Posti and Birks seem to be towing the PSEA line that charter schools and vouchers are the evil nemesis of public education.
While on the other hand Dr. Steinhauer is willing to bend with the whispering wind of more money fluttering into the district's shrinking bank account.
Seems we are on the "unicorn" horn of a delema.
Dick Bachman
That's dilemma - Not delema. No idea what a delema is!
Dick
I would highly recommend Tom Moertel's post, What can Mt. Lebanon learn from school superintendents in Connecticut? over on Blog Lebo. If public school superintendents in a left-leaning State such as Connecticut can "Allow students and their parents to choose from a menu of options, including magnet schools, charter schools, and vocational-technical schools as well as different schedules and curriculums, all within the jurisdiction of the local district," there is little excuse for our local, happy band of commissars.
If the Board is really standing up for public education then I don't understand why the Board Members would accept $1,000,000 from the Municipality to turf and light Mellon or Jefferson or any field when the Board doesn't have enough money or Act 1 millage increase limit to pay the TEACHERS the 4.4% increase in the last year of their contract.
Remember the teachers contract id one-half of the school budget so a 4.4$ increase will cost 2.2% in budget increase and can't be met on a 1.7% Act 1 millage increase
If the teachers contract can't be paid on a 1.7% Act 1 index limit, how can any of the other contract for the other employees be honored either?
Why is the Board willing to accept a free turfing and lighting of their fields from the Municipality and use $1,000,000 for fields when they can't pay any of the school employees their negotiated contracts amounts first?
John
Stand Up For Education is 100% sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
Why would the state teacher's union not want charter schools? Oh yeah, less union dues money.
Why would Posti stand with the PSEA when everyone knows that charter schools are a good choice for kids in any number of situations? That I can't figure out.
Albert Brennaman
Albert,
Something else I can't figure out is if the District can't pay the operating salaries of any employee group in an upcoming year because the Teachers' Contract is too expensive, how will we give the Superintendent or any other Administrator their raise?
It seems to me the Administrators have lost control of their School Board and are willing to sacrifice young teachers' jobs to turf and light a District field for the satisfaction of a dishonest special interest group?
Good young teachers are the future of our District. The turfed field will need replaced in 8-10 years and we will still have Act 1 to deal with.
What are the Directors thinking? They certainly aren't standing up for education if they are building new fields at the expense of our young teachers' jobs.
John
If the Directors were really serious about standing up for public education they would kick the Youth Football Association off the District fields and stick up for the future of our young teachers instead of bowing to Chip Dalesandro.
John
Let's see over Posti's Center Court she writes March is a busy month and they're focused on the budget.
So, let's review.
1. She wants the commissioners to turf a school field for $1 million.
2. She wants PK to find $30 million from donors
3. She's thinking about raising fees and ticket prices.
Notice a pattern here, notice the assumption that everyone has a perpetually full bank account just waiting for the district to ask for more money!
Giffen Good
Wait... I forgot the BIG ONE!
#4. More $$$$s from Gov. Corbett and Harrisburg.
Know what all these budget solving suggestions have in common. You. Whether its a donation from your company or the one you work for, or new fees, higher ticket prices or money from Harrisburg or the Commissioners, it comes from your pocketbook
Giffen Good
The use of Municipal funds to turf and light a District field instead of using that money to pay negotiated employee contracts makes me question what will happen to the $30,000,000 the District wants to raise.
If they will divert Municipal funds for Chip Dalesandro's special interest group, can the Board be trusted to use the P/K money in the manner the Donors intend or divert the funds to another special interest group?
John
I wonder how much money would be donated if we could get certain people to resign.
Elaine
Are Parents and Teachers willing to accept increased class size because Directors want to bow to football King Chip?
John
Mr. Ewing, perhaps we need to re-examine our priorities.
Let's look at the subject of the replacement for Coach Haering. One candidate is from Manheim Township SD. LancasterOnline reports:
"Melnyk's coaching stipend was reduced this year from $8,841 to $4,421 as part of a cost-cutting measure that cut by half the stipends of all district coaches, music directors, club advisers and other extracurricular positions.
Mt. Lebanon's previous coach, Chris Haering, earned a stipend of $9,412 as head coach, along with a stipend of $7,670 as middle school athletic coordinator and $1,500 as football coordinator."
Melnyk's leaving because they cut his stipend in half from $8,841. My god, we were paying Haering $18,000. No wonder he wants to come here!
Lets dig a little deeper, Wiki on Manheim.
"Manheim Township School District is a suburban, public school district of over 5,000 students... The district is well known in the Lancaster County region for its academic achievement, popular quiz bowl team, and performing arts group. The district draws students from a single eponymous township of approximately 23 square miles (60 km2), with over 13,400 residential dwellings, and about 31,300 residents as of 2006. The district's public school population of over 5,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grades is distributed over nine school buildings: there are six elementary schools (grades K-5), a single 6th-grade building, one middle school (grades 7 & 8), and one high school (grades 9-12). The district's high school is currently undergoing new construction. [Imagine a district undergoing new construction in a down economy!] The district budget in 2005 was over $57,000,000."
Manheim could be Lebo's twin. So similar they to have a budget deficit in 2012-13 of $3.5 million.
Think our board will make the hard cuts Manheim has.
"Manheim Township parents fret about possible cuts
"Intelligencer Journal 2/13/12
By BRIAN WALLACE Staff Writer
Dave Neslund fears the handwriting is on the wall.
Manheim Township School District cut about $5 million from its current budget and is facing a $3.5million deficit for 2012-13.
Neslund is concerned that the district, which reduced stipends for coaches and advisers by 50 percent this school year, will trim sports and other extracurricular programs to cut expenses next year.
To minimize that possibility, he wants the school board to establish a committee of board members, administrators and parents to propose cost-saving measures to preserve district programs.
Neslund, president of Manheim Township Blue Streaks Booster Club, made his case Thursday before the board, which agreed to move ahead with the proposal.
"Manheim Township is a desirable place to live because of its exceptional schools, and our schools need the sports, music and arts programs to remain exceptional," he said."
May be its time to re-examine our education priorities in Mt. Lebanon, Manheim and Pennsylvania in general."
Dick Bachman
"Mr. Steinhauer said some options in the concept list, which is not available to the public, were "not always well thought out." Well, if that doesn't sum up the school board, nothing does...Not thought out and hidden, the two primary characteristics of the board.
Now we have Posti talking about closing a school? HAHAHA...wow, if I were a teacher or in the PTA, I'd feel pretty darn foolish. You people did her dirty work and now she's hanging you out to dry. YOU WERE USED!! Of course, I don't blame her entirely. She's just getting away with as much as the community has allowed. Our illustrious community magazine has been so busy covering garden parties for the last 25 years they chose to ignore the problem of runaway government. So one of the big selling points for Lebo--elementary schools within walking distance--will be eliminated. Strikes one and two go to Posti and Morgans.
Then we have the media, who have collectively chosen to treat what's going on in Lebo as a mere curiosity or space filler instead of a glaring example of government corruption and abuse of power. Posti has resorted to discussing school board matters over the phone?? Is this the mafia? The type of person who chooses to not put things in writing is the type of person who is hiding something and not trustworthy. But of course, nobody would ever know because our intrepid young reporters opt to just lazily throw together filler material and not ask hard questions of the school board and demand answers (the fact Molly born writes that Steinhauers list isn't available to the public but routinely chooses to not ask any questions makes her an accomplice). So for employing zero accountability and really letting the journalism vocation slip into obscurity, strike three goes to the media.
Let's not forget the voters. A year ago, Cannon ran a campaign that, while not high profile and poorly organized, did start to bring to light the problems with the school board. I know he shared with many residents his concern that the high school project was not affordable (prophetic, huh?), the board would resort to closing schools and laying off teachers (wow, he was so wrong, huh?), pointed out how the slow descent into mediocrity would result in harm to property values (look around), the board was being secretive and egregiously abusing what authority they did have (see above), and he warned that if the composition of the board didn't change from progressives to just regular adults, there would be an unhealthy melding of the school board and commission (Mellon field?). For all of that, he and those around him were personally attacked. Yes, personally instead of on the issues. And Posti used the teachers, the PTA and both political parties to push the message that Cannon wasnt qualified to be on the school board. Yeah, Posti, because you've demonstrated such a high caliber of class and professionalism, haven't you...Despite his warnings, the community chose to elect sheep who would go along with Posti and Birks. Well, the PG story is the result. So strike four goes to the community. Hey, Lebo, when you start to complain about taxes, look in the mirror. You've elected socialists with a disgusting, anti-american agenda who will increase class sizes, close schools, degrade your property value and then ask to get re-elected. Think it over in 2013 when you're paying more for less here in South Dormont.
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