mtl -- Mt. Lebanon Magazine shared a link.
State Rep. Dan Miller invites you to attend a public hearing with between five and 10 state representatives, Tuesday, Sept. l7, from 2 to 4 in tMt. Lebanon Municipal Building. The discussion is titled "Schools, the Role of the State, Parent and the Community. " Many local people, including Dr. Tim Steinhauer, Commissioners Kristen Linfante and Kelly Fraasch, Police Chief Coileman McDonough, PTA President Julie Daubner, School Director Jo Posti and MRTSA's Todd Pritchard will testify. For detailed information, visit http://www.pahouse.com/Miller/
From Dan Miller's website:
Please join state Rep. Dan Miller and members of the House Democratic Policy Committee for an upcoming public hearing in your community.
EXPECTED TESTIFIERS/PARTICIPANTS:
Part 1: State-School Relationship
Dr. Tim Steinhauer – Superintendent, Mt. Lebanon School District
Dr. William Stropkaj – Superintendent, Keystone Oaks School District
Ms. Nancy Rose – Superintendent, Bethel Park School District
Part 2: Parent-school Relationship and the Parental Involvement Leave Act
Dr. William Stropkaj – Superintendent, Keystone Oaks School District
Ms. Nancy Rose – Superintendent, Bethel Park School District
Part 2: Parent-school Relationship and the Parental Involvement Leave Act
Julie Daubner – President, Mt. Lebanon Council PTA
Kristen Linfante – Parent and Mt. Lebanon Commissioner
Cindy Duch – Director of Parent Advising, Peal Center
Part 3: Community-School Relationship
Kristen Linfante – Parent and Mt. Lebanon Commissioner
Cindy Duch – Director of Parent Advising, Peal Center
Part 3: Community-School Relationship
Coleman McDonough – Chief of Police, Mt. Lebanon Police Dept.
Josephine Posti – Mt. Lebanon Drug Taskforce and Director, Mt. Lebanon School Board
Kelly Fraasch – Mt. Lebanon Drug Taskforce and Mt. Lebanon Commissioner
Todd Pritchard – Mt. Lebanon Drug Taskforce and Chief, Medical Rescue Team South Authority
46 comments:
I'm not sure of the Chief's political affliation or Pritchard's, but the rest appear to lean heavily toward the democratic party. Will Murphy, anyone representing Gov. Corbett, Remely or the County Commissioner be attending?
How about a public hearing titled: "Schools, the Role of the Superintendent and his responsibilities to students and taxpayers."
boring
Totally stacked Dem showpiece. What a crock. If he wanted to have an honest conversation wouldnt he have contacted everyone in his district and actually tries some balance?
The Dems apparently dont read papers or watch news. The country is wholeheartedly rejecting (finally!) the Marxist big government approach thats been shoved down our throats for five years.
Hope Miller enjoys the one term he'll have.
It is stacked because it is the House Democratic Policy Committee. Evidently, the Republicans are supposed to do the same thing, but will they?
Elaine
Forgot to say that the hearing can be on any topic of their choice.
Elaine
miller will get the PTA wish list for more state money - dollars for teacher pensions and a pay raise
Perhaps the republicans should grab their kids, create a bunch of smarmy signs and parade around out front in protest.
Trouble is their is no R party here any more.
The Republicans don't have their act together. Do you seriously think that Miller will only have one term, 11:54 PM? Who do you think could beat him? Remely? Ha! Raja unsubscribed me from his list yesterday.
When the RCML stops pushing their good ol' boys, maybe the R's will stand a chance.
You seem to be a pretty angry R, 11:54 PM. Why don't you consider running? Perhaps you will be better received than I was.
Elaine
Miller did a great job selling McNeilly Park when he was commissioner, didn't he?
Then he pushed the rec bond for grading McNeilly.
This hearing is all about blaming parents for kids' drug use.
What is Miller doing about the bloated teacher pension obligations? He'll just float more bonds to kick the can down the road.
Why are non-parent taxpayers being left out of the hearing?
Again 8:52 AM, why didn't you run for school board? Consider running for commissioner? Writing angry comments here isn't going to change things. I gave it a shot. Why don't you?
Elaine
8:52, I share your anger, disgust and frustration with the school district. I am a Republican, but I came to know Dan Miller when he was my Ward 5 commissioner.
Dan Miller is a fine man. We are lucky to have him as our state representative. If there is anything that he can do to help us, he will.
Why not attend the meeting on Tuesday night and meet him? I think that you will be surprised with what you hear.
John David Kendrick
There is nothing wrong with this 'public meeting' per se, but if the underlying message consist soely of "we need to throw more money into education", please don't waste our time.
Education in Mt. Lebanon is increasing in price by over $2 million per year. Its growing so fast that they can't raise taxes and assessments fast enough to cover all the costs and employee benefits.
Take a look at what is happening in PA's state universities today for all the lavish abd unrestricted spending. They're all in trouble, enrollments down, curriculums and teaching positons being cut.
As with anything, at some point you have to pay the piper!
For those who attend...
Ask yourselves if your hearing the visions of leaders and their view of what our community is supposed to become
-OR-
wheither you are hearing tactical, administrative and housekeeping types of matters.
For instance, these partnerships are important, but what if anything is the intended outcome? What is the strategy? What is the leadership trying to accomplish?
Then ask if they are taking us down the path that we want to travel. Chances are it isn't and that is why the Republican Party needs to be resurrected.
;)
Think this Almanac editorial will be part of the converdation?
http://www.thealmanac.net/article/20130911/OPINION01/130919971/-1/opinion#.UjFpoSd5mc0
"Peters Township is the place to go for a good education and to buy an upscale home for more money than the average Joe makes in a decade."
Does any of this sound familiar or pertinent to our school distrixt?
"It's not as if the strains now felt across the State System built up overnight. Even before the economy slumped, administrators expressed worry over rapidly escalating employee pay costs, pension obligations and other expenses. Faculty at some schools, in turn, have bemoaned the spending and debt incurred over non-classroom ventures from trendy student centers to upscale suite-style housing."
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/spending-cuts-loom-at-pennsylvanias-14-state-owned-universities-699767/
Unfortunately I see Dan starting to walk the Party line.
Sending emails out to people on his list decrying the Governor's lack of education funding (a democrat rallying cry) is just plain wrong.
Part of the State's funding for education has to go to the teacher pension. If you don't include that massive increase in state funding for teachers in your education numbers then you are just plain wrong.
Dems get upset that Corbett has either frozen or raised the basic education subsidy at 0-3% the past few years. That isn't a reduction Matt and Dan. Include the PSERS funding and the Governor has massively increased education funding the past few years.
From this symposium I have no idea what will be gained. Hopefully it won't be a massive "Tell Corbett to increase education funding" rally because the numbers say that he already has.
The hearing is from 2-4 PM. Neither David Huston or I will be attending. Unless I get a volunteer, it will not be recorded. Isn't it worth going just to compare Timmy to the other two superintendents?
Elaine
For those who have forgotten... when Governor Casey left office he told all of us in his State of the State address (1992 ? ) that these local school boards needed to start firing teachers and reducing expenditures. Casey said that the level of expenditures were not sustainable and PA would not be there to bail the school districts out.
Here we 21 years later and the problem is worse now than ever. It remains to be seen if PA or any other state will ultimately be able to live up to these horrendous and lavish gifts to a very militant and ultra left wing union.
All that said, the decisions to pay these assholes were made at the local level. That's where it started, and that's where it needs to stop.
It sounds like this is about drug use among youth. If that's true, shouldn't health professionals with knowledge of youth, prevention, and addiction medicine be involved? Making policies and plans based on impressions will lead to waste. There are solid, scientifically replicated models that could be identified and applied here to help prevent addiction.
Yes it does appear to be focused on drug use and that along with alcohol abuse seems to be a growing problem. So the meeting isn't all that bad.
The question is why is this panel is so decidely partisan? Do you think Eric Holder will joint the panel to discuss the DOJ's stance on drug legalization.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/politics/holder-marijuana-laws/index.html
"Washington (CNN) - The Justice Department said it won't challenge state laws that legalize marijuana and will focus federal enforcement on serious trafficking cases and keeping the drug away from children.
Attorney General Eric Holder, in a conference call Thursday morning, notified the governors of Colorado and Washington that the department, for now, will not seek to pre-empt those states' laws, which followed voters' approval of ballot measures that legalized recreational marijuana use."
Plus, do you think there will be any discussion on what influence community Beerfest play on kids' attitudes toward alcohol consumption?
I asked Dan that question. This is the Democratic Policy Committee. Dan has no idea which parties the guests are affiliated with. He did ask some R's (not guests) but the House is sooo partisan that no one would come. It seems as though they don't even share printers in Harrisburg!
Elaine
I like Dan Miller though I wish he didn't appear to be taking such an obviously partisan turn.
Kubit, Remely, Ostergaard are School Board Directors, shouldn't they be part of a cobversation titled "Schools, the Role of State, Parent Community"?
I omitted Kluck and Goldman because its understandable why they might be inclined to sit out a discussion such as this.
Kluck and Goldman are the only true elected Republicans left in Mount Lebanon !
A summary of the School District's annual retirement contributions to the pension program.
School Year Ending June 30,
Annual Retirement
Contribution
2010 .................................... $ 2,007,195
2011 .................................... $ 2,278,065
2012 ..................................... $ 3,579,897
2013 (Budgeted) .................. $ 5,212,585
2014 (Budgeted) ................... $ 7,232,060
The State's contribution to Mt. Lebanon pensions went up the same amount because the State pays half.
The increase in pension payments increases our debt limit without a referendum. Taxes in Mt. Lebanon will explode.
Geez, 4:25 seeing those rapidly escalating pension contributions a better panel discussion between Miller, Steinhauer and cinstituents might be better titled: "Schools-How much longer can we afford them?"
$7 million dollars out of an $82 million budgetgoing to pensions. How can that possibly be good for the kids when you couple it with the debt on a $113.2 million high school project.
4:29 - as you say, the state pays half of the pension bill.
So not only will Mt. Lebanon taxes explode, so will State Taxes. Think about it, if Lebo's pension debt and the the state's portion of Lebo's pension debt are each going up by $2 million, the same thing is happening in every district in the state.
So, where will Miller, Smith and Govs. get money to pay their half? The state is already mired in budget problems. Crumbling infrasrructure, deteriorating roads and bridges, underfunded state employee pensions, state universities mired in debt and declining enrollments.
Yeah, i need to attend a gripe session from Superintendents and politicians that I'm not giving enoigh to the system!!!!!
Nix that gripe session, it should be guilt not gripe.
5:16, The District debt plus the interest due is $260,862,286.
Aw, shucks 5:47, 'taint nuthin', we shodda gone for the $150 million new HS, the BOSN people wanted to saddle us with.
Wonder how many of them are forking over thousands of $$$$ for the weight room fund? Who was that guy accusing people of being hijackers?
BOSN people promised us an $18 per month increase.
6:15 by the time we remodel the middle schools Mr. Franklin Esquire will donate.
Ask Miller's assistent @6:15. She knows who.
Projected District Enrollment is Decreasing
2012 - 5,276 actual
2021 (1)- 4,753 estimate
(1) Source: Estimate from Pa. Dept. of Education and School District Officials
6:15 PM, wasn't that Rob Gardner?
Dan, maybe your next hearing should be about MTLSD. Invite current and former school board members. They have a lot of explaining to do.
After that, have a hearing about the Municipality. Invite Feller and staff. Invite the commissioners. They are getting as bad as the school board.
Elaine
6:37 good point - enrollment continues to tumble yet all we hear is send the schools more money, more money, more money.
This should be an interesting meeting on the roles of state, parent and commnuity.
TOTAL DISTRICT REVENUES
2012 2014 budget 2 Year Inc.
$77,839,313 $ 83,164,503 $5,325,190
INSTRUCTION COST INCREASE
2012 2014 Budget 2 Year Inc.
$41,410,927 $47,449,661 $6,038,734
It's terrible what the teachers union did to our community! The Daubners should be proud of themselves!
8:18 you'd think out of the $5,325,190 over two years someone woould've set aside $150,000 to furnish the new weight room.
What is worse, do you think anyone is even contemplating acquiring a 3D printer or even studying what the technology is all about?
It wasn't until the very end of the 20th Century that the district got out of teaching typewriting and into computer keyboarding and word processing in the middle schools.
Any TV screens allowed for distance learning?
Don't know about TV screens, but we have pretty room colors and floor tile. Oh and those shiny water fountains.
Don't they have the topic of this hearing all twisted?
Shouldn't it be "Community, The Role of School, Elected Officials and State"?
There are $1,936,757.65 in change orders but Ms. Klein indicated this is a $109 million project, not a $113.3 million project indicating we budgeted for $4.3 million in change orders. So we have over $2 million in the budget we haven't spent yet. Tell me again why we need $100,000 for weight room equipment.
I am disappointed I could not go. It is crazy in the evenings with Kids' activities, but if "parents" were in the title they did not make it possible for parents to attend.
I suppose its better that I know nothing till my kids are old enough to take care of themselves and almost all the way through the school system.
I give a lot of thought to homeschooling.
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