Education Spending: The Rest of the Story
As parents and taxpayers, Pennsylvanians should hear all the facts on education spending. The next time education unions and other special interests bully and demand more money "for the kids," remember what they aren't telling you—the rest of the story.School spending: The exemption ruse
School boards' authority must be redesigned
Time to End Tax Hike Exceptions
Lebo Takes Stage for Act 1
10 comments:
There was one bright spot in the last school board budget meeting.
Dale Ostergaard asked Mr. Marciniak (though these aren't exact words): before we decide to charge higher fees for opening school facilities, I would like to know how much does it cost us to open them? Are we making money, loosing money?
He then said he was comfortable "covering costs."
Dale should be applauded for wanting to examine just what the district needs are.
Oh by the way Marciniak's reply- "I don't know i'll have to get back to you."
How in the worlddo you propose raising fees when you're clueless to what those fees should be???
WOnder how many other budgeted items are calculated by the board's seat-of-the-pants opinions?
Dick Saunders
So once again the board has spit in the face of their constituents.
On the district site:
"School Board Continues Budget Discussions
The School Board continued discussion of the budget at the April 2, 2012 Discussion Meeting. For budget updates and to read the Budget Newsletter sent to Mt. Lebanon residents, click the link above. The final vote on the budget is set for May 21 at the Regular School Board Meeting."
Is this budget vote different than the final vote they said they'd be making on May 21st?
Also, I guess stackholder input just doesn't mean a whole lot as the current Strategic Plan Survey isn't closed until May 1st!
So taxpayers, you've just been told by the board plain as day... "we don't really give a sh*t what you think!"
Giffen Good
"Because these facts get in the way, the public school industry resorts to rickety rhetoric, citing "draconian funding cuts" over the past two years. But the truth is these cuts occurred with the end of the federal stimulus, which was always intended to be temporary aid. Excluding federal funds, Gov. Corbett's proposed budget actually represents a two percent increase in spending on K-12 education since FY 2007-08, the year before the stimulus."
The exact opposite of the crap Posti and Birks have been spewing.
Elaine
Dick,
Very few governmental fee structures are based on actual or well developed costs, direct and indirect. Almost all bodies, Districts included, claim they survey others, who have undoubtedly done likewise at a prior point, to see what they charge. Or they are based on what the users are willing to pay. Fee structures are seldom actually cost justified.
Mt. Lebanon School District did study and develop cost estimates for District facilities (i.e. meeting rooms, auditorium, theatre, gyms, the pool, stadium track & field, etc.)for evening and weekend use including Sunday's some 8 years ago. The cost/price realities were startling. For instance, the hourly charge to the Aqua Club for the heated pool was only $12/hr. while the actual cost was several times that. As a result, the SB raised the rate to $16/hr. Go figure.
I recall the cost for Sunday use of something came to some $600/hr. because 2 union custodians would be required, both on double overtime for a minimum of 4 hours even though the use was to be half that time. Plus utility and possibly even insurance costs. The sports groups involved on the *demand* side fell silent, and that was the end of it.
The point is, this has all been looked at in the recent past, costs were developed and cost models all tested. And the current hired & elected hands don't seem to have a clue about anything do they !
Veblen Good
Veblen,
Your points are well taken. However, with regards to the custodial OT, MTL is one of the few municipalities/districts that do not offer Sunday use of gym facilities. Since we have a contract with an outside contractor, why is it not stipulated that weekends are exempt from overtime. A rolling seven day schedule could be used to accommodate this at no additional time. Utilities and insurance are only incremental increases at this point.
Furthermore, additional weekend use will eliminate the time constraint as at present. More utilization reduces the need for new facilities. Although maintenance costs may rise, it pales in comparison to building new.
Chuck,
The PSBA released a Study on Pat-to-Play charges for athletics across PA. for public and private schools. The range of fees for public schools was $5 to $50. The range for private schools was $75 to $300.
These large differentials in fees says to me that school boards do not have the courage to stand up to parents and say here is what it costs if you want it. Part of that problem is the D. A. S. attitude that lies to the Board about fund raising to get what they want and then they walk away from their promises without even trying to raise the funds.
Our pool is likely to hold up to 1,000,000 gallons of water. Do you think we can heat 1,000,000 gallons of water for $16 per hour. Do you think the Board has any idea how much that costs? If the Facilities folks don't know, the Board doesn't know and the parents don't have any idea what they are asking to spend.
John
2,500,000 litres or 2.5 megalitres of water.
Olympic size pools measure: 50 metres long, 25 metres wide, and a minimum of 2 metres deep.
(25m x 50m x 2m = 2,500m3; 1L = 0.001m3 so 2,500 x 1000 = 2,500,000L)
John, according to Answer.com and average Olympic pool holds, if anyone is asking
660,430 gallons of water.
50 meters = 164.041995 feet (a)
25 meters = 82.0209975 feet (b)
2 meters = 6.5616798 feet (c)
Volume = (a) * (b) * (c) = 88,286.66721 cubic feet
88,286.66721 cubic feet = 660,430.1339 U.S. gallons
Giffen Good
Giffen,
Sorry about the math being off.
Yet the same questions apply. The same outcome is the Board doesn't know the costs and neither do the parents.
The Board didn't know the answer 15 years ago and they still haven't found out the answer. Shame on the Board.
The funny thing is they figured out the costs for Music for Mt. Lebanon to use the auditorium - $1,750 per performance.
If you put the real costs in front of the parents there is no demand. So the Board sits there and doesn't give a hoot what it costs. It is all a big farce - just like your pen name.
John
Actually John, I thought your estimate was pretty good and wanted to find out the real number.
With evaporation, and splashing runoff, and air handling and conditioning a pool is a huge expense for a district that is not mandated the PDE.
So, it's a tough problem figuring what to charge outside groups that are mostly comprised of people that paid to build it in the first place.
Similar to charging students to park in the HS lot their parents paid for, but letting everyone else park for free.
Giffen Good
John,
In many private businesses, you will find an ignorance of the total cost of operations granualated down to a specific line item. To your point, the only real way to determine the cost to heat pool water is to break out the exact expense related to this function and extrapolate an answer. Any other method or mathematical gymnastics is pure conjecture.
As far as pay to play is concerned, you fail to state that most of the youth sports programs do charge participation fees. Some of these fees are used to offset equipment purchases, field maintenance items and an allocated YSA fee that is paid out to the SD/Municipality for upkeep purposes. As the athletic facilities are part of the community, there is maintenance required, even if the asset is dormant.
At the high school level, there are no pay to play fees per se. However, as a parent of a cheerleader, I can attest that there is an annual expense of around $300 paid out for apparel and training camps. The same can be said for other sports. At a minimum, they require sport-specific footwear, underwear and various other items that are not provided by the SD. Couple the aforementioned expenses with the fund-raising endeavors and each household contributes far more than the amounts you mention.
As far as facilities go, there is much room for improvement with regards to utilization and maintenance. In my opinion, with some tweaking, we can make the current volume of facilities work, without adding capacity.
Your disdain for the athletic programs organizations border on obsession. Name calling, innuendo and belligerance are not becoming of one with your level of sophistication. Perhaps, it would be better to engage in a dialog whereby you could voice your concerns. This type of encounter would stand a much better chance of success, rather than rock throwing from the sidelines. Your past experiences are valid. However, that was then, this is now. We should all be focused on becoming more engaged, efficient and effective in our communications.
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