First, it was a cuppa Jo. Now you can meet with Elaine Cappucci, Bill Cooper, and Mary Birks this Wednesday morning, from 7 am to 9 am at Orbis Coffee on Washington Road. Have a cappuccino with the school board directors and talk about school issues important to you.
Yeah, because that's convenient for people who work. Just wondering but what is it they want to discuss there that they can't discuss in a PUBLIC meeting?
ReplyDeleteIt's good PR Cliff. It appears that they are out an about and whenever any important board decision comes up they can claim they had their hands on the pulse of the community.
ReplyDeleteThey could of course, take and answer questions here in the open, or create their own blog open to questions, but sitting at a table drinking coffee for two hours makes for a better photo op.
Giffen Good
More from the Commonwealth Foundation about school expenses out of control:
ReplyDeleteEaston Area School District Chief Operating Officer Mike Simonetta said the district was weighed down by debt and personnel contracts it can't afford. Sounds like a familiar refrain.
The response from the left? Typical: Blame Corbett and fairytale "budget cuts" last year instead of the union's decades-long practice of gouging taxpayers and districts for pay and benefits few districts can afford and fewer in the private sector enjoy.
A final budget won't be approved until May 22 and the district could still find ways to alter the budget, Chief Operating Officer Mike Simonetta said.
The vote came after parents, teachers and community members urged the school board and administration to find another way to balance the budget. Some parents brought their children to stand at the podium with them, and a fifth-grade student read a speech about the importance of music.
Deanne Lohman, a fourth-grade teacher at Paxinosa Elementary, said the district has lacked respect, loyalty and trust from top to bottom.
"Easton Area School District is not a poor district," Lohman said. "It's a district of poor choices."
School board President Bob Fehnel said the board has struggled with the budget decision and is not taking the cuts lightly. Six of Easton's nine school board members are new, and Fehnel stressed that the budget crisis was inherited, not created, by the board.
The budget was passed in a 6-2 vote with School Directors Bob Moskaitis and Kerri Leonard-Ellison opposed. Both said they favored no tax increase, which could have cut more than 100 positions. Moskaitis said the biggest thing he heard from residents when he ran for school board was that they didn't want a tax increase.
The school district's finances are weighed down by debt, personnel contracts it can't afford and dwindling state funding. Easton Area's spending practices have also contributed to the budget shortfall, Simonetta said.
Easton cut 72 teaching positions two years ago and renegotiated with the teachers union last year to save about $29 million in contracted salaries and benefits over four years. The union said it would not open the contract again this year.
The district faced an $8.8 million deficit if it didn't cut spending, raise taxes or dip into its surplus. In addition to the cuts and tax increase, the school decided to use $1.5 million from its $13 million in assigned reserves.
Varsity and junior varsity lacrosse for boys and girls and indoor track were originally considered for cuts. But Athletic Director Jim Pokrivsak presented about $76,000 in budget amendments he says will save the programs.
How will Lebo balance the budget? Stay tuned!
John Ewing
To date, I have received no answers to my questions from weeks ago. I previously asked the Mt. Lebanon Board of School Directors:
ReplyDelete“Relative to your decision to spend $41,000 on a fundraising feasibility study, Mrs. Posti was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 20 stating “…a donor pledges $10,000 toward the study's cost once tax and legal issues get worked out this week." and the article states "She said the donor should be revealed in the next few days.”
Will you please tell me what your investigation of the tax and legal issues around this has revealed and also who the donor is?”
I don’t believe that cup of cappuccino will tell me what I need, so maybe an RTK will. You know, it’s really a matter of understanding how OUR tax dollars intended for the education of our students are being spent.
-Charlotte Stephenson
Why does it always have to come down to filing a RTK?
ReplyDeleteElaine
They are having it in the AM because their focus group is those without children in school, which they consider to be the elderly, who they assume are not working.
ReplyDeleteClaire Huxtable
Claire,
ReplyDeleteBeeba hoppa dee bo fribba chee humly pudding pop...The school board is arrogant beyond belief. They're like school in the summertime--no class.
So, Charlotte, maybe you need to show up outside their amateur PR stunt with copies of the letter you sent them and just hand it to people as they walk in. I hope everyone reading this blog understands nothing will happen without publicly shaming those people. If you're not ready for a fight then none of you are ready for reform. Asking nicely won't fix it.
Reviewing the Orbis website and knowing quite a few seniors, I'm not sure I'd agree the target audience is the elderly without kids.
ReplyDeleteI don't see many seniors sipping cappuccinos between 7 & 9 in the morning. A scone or muffin, tea or coffee at Panera's maybe.
Godfrey Hardy
I understand that five people showed up this time to discuss afternoon recess.
ReplyDeleteAnyone care to give more details?
Elaine
I hope one of the five was Dave Franklin and he had a camera with him.
ReplyDeleteI really want to see the reaction on the faces of Cappucci, Birks and Cooper when he ask them to spend $83,000/year turfing Mellon Field!
Dick Saunders