What else should a superintendent be doing?



Mt. Lebanon School District Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer shows the construction that is going on at the school on Monday, October 22, 2012. Justin Merriman | Tribune-Review

 Matt Santoni, from the Trib, reported that we will be reimbursed for nearly $400,000 in repairs because of the electrical line that was hit by a contractor. That is great news.  What is even better news is that Tim Steinhauer is working hard on meeting his goals. Goal number 2 is:

2. High School Project – The Superintendent will continue the District’s efforts to build/renovate the High School.

Insurer to reimburse Mt. Lebanon after contractor hit electrical line

Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 8:57 p.m.

The Mt. Lebanon School District is waiting for its insurer to reimburse it for nearly $400,000 worth of repairs necessitated when a contractor on the high school renovation project struck an underground electrical line in August.

Finance director Jan Klein said the total bill should come to slightly over $390,000, and the district’s insurance policy should reimburse it for all but a $5,000 deductible. That should eventually be reimbursed by the subcontractor that had been doing the digging, Superintendent Tim Steinhauer said. Although that agreement has yet to be finalized, the contractor has given no indication it would challenge the district, he said.

The board last week approved a final $5,866 payment to Fairfield Electric for its work, bringing its total to about $279,000.

A few other bills, like money to Verizon for the phone system repair, may go before the board later, Steinhauer said.

The district’s cash-flow for the ongoing $109 million renovation should not be affected, since the repair money can be temporarily taken from the project’s contingency fund, officials said.

The electric problems occurred when subcontractors digging near the school’s loading dock along Cochran Road hit the buried 5-kilovolt line on Aug. 13, causing sparks, smoke and damage to the building’s phone systems and more. Three trailer-sized portable generators powered most of the school for the first three weeks of classes until the electrical line could be repaired

In a tour of the construction site on Monday, Steinhauer showed off progress on the athletic wing, which is going up between the main high school building and the stadium. Concrete supports are beginning to define the swimming pool, while masonry walls have gone up for the locker rooms and athletic offices along the building’s lower floors.

Steel girders have risen for the academic wing, and a canopy is taking shape where a new entrance will eventually pass through where the main gym is now. Steinhauer said that space will become into a central space for students once new gyms are completed.

The Fine Arts theater has been gutted for refurbishment, while the sixth floor of the old B Building, which fronts Cochran Road, has had many of its interior walls knocked down, opening up vast spaces that will be re-divided into larger classrooms.*

The project is scheduled to wrap up in 2015.

This week, subcontractors again had to dig for an electric line, but the work proceeded without incident.

* Old B Building has been gutted for refurbishment, but the 1972 C Building couldn't. Our school board is a train wreck. They are spending millions on the high school project. The superintendent is seen more times in photos wearing a hard hat than with students in a learning environment. We are paying him to be a project manager.

But where is the school board's priorities? Photo ops for Timmy, the high school renovation, turf and grinding.  As someone wrote on another blog about Lebo's grinding,

Teens have died from excessive drinking.
Nobody's ever died from grinding.

Shame on all of you, School Board. Your priorities are all wrong.
I almost forgot. While you gave Timmy his raise and charged students for parking, Number 26 on your cost reduction list:

Reduce use of contracted security at District events $ 5,000