The Mt. Lebanon School Board Directors voted 6-3 to approve the 2013-2014 Budget. Three school board members voted against the budget; Goldman, Ostergaard, and Remely.
From the District website:
School Board Approves Final Budget At the May 20,2013 School Board meeting, the Board Approved the 2013-14 Budget. Here is the budget resolution from the Board agenda:
2013-2014 Final Budget Resolution: RESOLVED, That the Board approves, and attaches to the minutes, the formal Budget Resolution which establishes the Final Budget for the 2013-2014 School Year in the amount of $83,164,503.
The Resolution calls for the continuation of the Real Estate Transfer Tax, the Earned Income Tax, and the Emergency and Municipal Services Tax, all of which are collected by the
Municipality, Tax Collection Agency or the County, and a portion of which is allocated to the School District.
The real estate millage is set at 22.61 mills, or $2.261 on each $100 of assessed valuation. Of this amount, 13.61 mills is allocated to salaries and increments of staff, 3.98 mills is allocated to debt service, and 5.02 mills is allocated to general purposes. A homestead exemption for eligible property owners in the amount of $8,081 per home is included in this action.
The Budget Resolution again permits installment payments, payable as follows: 50% on or before September 30, 25% on or before December 31 and the balance of 25% due on or before February 15. The penalty for late payment continues to be 10%, plus interest thereafter.
16 comments:
Mrs. Birks makes an interesting statement in PSBA report. She accurately claims that Pennsylvania ranks near the bottom in K-12 state funding, but what she doesn't say is how the states that spend more manage that education.
Pennsylvania chooses to allow local school board to run their own affairs. The board pretty much decides how far they want to go beyond the basic requirements, in curriculum, ectracurricular activities and facilities.
Now one might suppose we could keep Mary happy and have the state send 100% of the money needed to run the district.
But, someone needs to remind her that there is no free lunch. If Harrisburg pays for her school district, they're going to want to run her school district.
The state could eliminateproperty taxes and increase sales taxes to pay for K-12 education. All the money would go to Harrisburg then Harrisburg would decide... MTL you get this much, Duquesne you get this, Pittsburgh you get this.
Hope this isn't what she's is suggesting.
Bet she wants more $$$ with no strings attached!
Looking forward to hearing more about the dissents. Should be very informative for the Community.
Goldman, Ostergard, Remely voting against. Where was fellow republican, Kubit?
Guess we can expect him to follow Birks over to the free-spreading, union-backing democratic party?
Wasn't he the guy that sent out the glitzy FAQ mailer that said the HS project would come in under $100 million?
Hey Ed , your crystal ball has a huge crack in it!
Remely voted against a budget that he forced the district into.
For years, the man has increased the spending, voted for teachers contracts, construction projects, administrator raises, the list goes on.
After 10+ years of this he finally sees a budget he doesn't like? He never voted against a thing that increased spending in the past.
What has changed?
Oh yeah, he is running on a low-tax Republican platform for State Rep.
Glad you finally found your fiscal funny bone, Mr. Remely. Too bad you are about a decade too late.
I honestly hope he gets zero votes today. Especially after his hypocrisy last night, he doesn't deserve a single one.
Remely for those with short memories first got on the board claiming his experience in property management would halt school renovations cost skyrocketing due to change orders and litigation disputing them.
Ha, ha, ha... Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
I just uploaded the podcast to last night's meeting. You can hear Birk's PSBA report, as well as Remely approving the change orders, with reservations, of course. If he truly felt that way, he should voted no. It still would have been approved because there were enough votes to carry it.
Polls were VERY light when I voted this morning. I was the only one from my district. Come on folks, it is a beautiful day. Independents, you know you can vote today in the special election.
Elaine
An update to my 12:55 PM comment. It appears that some poll workers were unaware of the special election.
Turnout light and problems few after Pennsylvania polls open for primary election
"And in Mt. Lebanon, poll workers said an independent voter was turned away this morning, told the races were primaries for voters affiliated with political parties.
Another person almost had a similar result, but the poll workers allowed him to vote after someone alerted them to a yellow notice about the special election."
Elaine
Lehigh County students can now get eBooks through school libraries
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/index.ssf/2013/05/lehigh_county_students_can_now.html
While our "innovative, forward-thinking, we're #2" district muddles thru teacher grievances, dubious change orders and PK fund raising, some Pennsylvania districts are offering their students more 21st century technology and book access... and offering it for free.
I'd say that is "for the kids!"
Sorry 3:35, free is for the parents. How many kids do you know that pay school taxes?
Q) If teachers won't live up to the deal they made, why give to the PK fund raiser?
A) to subsidize teachers incomes.
3:59 did you read the article? There are no late book fines, no whoop charges.
Do you buy everything for your kids? Have they never gone to iTunes, Barnes & noble, Half Price Books, Amazon and used their babysitting or birthday money from the grandparents to buy a book for themself?
As far as free for the parents, you're wrong. The participating districts had to chip in collectively about $30,000. That money came from taxpayers/parents.
But all that is a minor point. Any thing that promotes reading and makes books accessible is "for the kids!"
To Anonymous 6:23...What do you mean by "Q) If teachers won't live up to the deal they made, why give to the PK fund raiser?"
8:49 endowments often support salaries. I'm not interested in giving to a group of cry-baby teachers who milk the district for all they can get. If they don't like the deal the union agreed to four times nobody is forcing them to stay here.
I'll bet some of these 58,000 teachers laid off in 2010 would happily take a full time offer from MTLSD.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2010/10/08/states-lay-off-58000-teac_n_755965.html
Education Secretary Ron Tomalis is leaving, as Mary birks reported on Monday. He makes $149,804 a year. Gee, he would make more money being a Mt. Lebanon superintendent. If he doesn't have the experience of being a super,it really doesn't matter. Timmy didn't either.
Elaine
That figure comes from:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/gov-corbetts-education-secretary-tomalis-is-leaving-687148/
Elaine
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