People generally reflect, while preparing for the new year. At least I do. 2014 was a record year for this blog. Thanks to Mt. Lebanon's own Genius Bar, the School District and Municipality, Lebo Citizens readership is at an all-time high. New readers often tell me that they need a lesson in Who's Who so that they can follow along. While the Municipal website calls Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania "A Community With Character," I thought that I would provide a quick tutorial of Mt. Lebanon, A Community With Characters.
Starting with the Mt. Lebanon School District, here is a brief synopsis of each character, starting at the top.
Dr. Timothy Steinhauer a.k.a. Timmy, Super Tim, or super Super, is Mt. Lebanon's superintendent. He is fixated on construction, pizza lunches, tweeting photos of covers of concert and play programs, bathrooms, and shiny water fountains.
Janice Klein is the financial director for Mt. Lebanon School District. Jan Klein is famous for her fake budgets, double counting, manipulation of change order amounts, an advocate for keeping the same outside auditing firm for over twenty five years and winner of the prestigious Association of School Business Officials International's Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for the thirtieth year. This award costs taxpayers around $900. We pay for this award. As long as all the parts of the report are submitted, you win the award. Table of contents? Check. Meet the criteria and you win! So double counting and fake budgets are permitted.
Tom Peterson, an attorney with Tucker Arensberg, is our school district solicitor. Enough said.
Jeanine Szalinski is Timmy's administrative assistant and the Open Records Officer who handles Right To Know Requests. Jeanine works hard at making Timmy look good. The school board directors would make her job so much easier if they were more transparent with the community. I feel sorry for Jeanine.
Our school board consists of nine school board directors. Each one brings a uniqueness to the board.
Larry Lebowitz is our new school board president. Larry is our in-house cheerleader. He is always excited about something. Whether it is about our fundraising efforts, excited about Tom Celli being excited during a Construction Update, Pay for Participation fees online, or excited to be the new president, we can count on Larry being excited. Larry's expertise is in outsourcing and how to skirt the law. He was a youtube phenomenon. Almost 500,000 hits on YouTube! Larry's term ends in 2015, but will most likely seek re-election.
Mary Birks is our newly elected school board vice-president. Mary has been known to roll her eyes at residents and make snarky remarks during public comment. It will be interesting to see if Mary continues to blame Harrisburg for everything, now that Tom Wolf is our newly elected governor. Mary, our resident Harrisburg aficionado blamed Corbett for everything. Mary's term ends in 2017.
Elaine Cappucci just completed her second term as school board president. As co-chair of the high school renovation project, Elaine would answer any questions about the renovation by snarling at residents. An excellent time keeper, Elaine would watch the clock instead of listening to constituents speak. Elaine's term ends in 2015, and will probably run again.
Ed Kubit was president of the school board during the high school turf project. (See John Ewing.) Ed had a nervous habit of looking at his watch during school board meetings when his critics spoke during residents' comments. He also gave me the gavel when private citizen Kristen Linfante was heckling me during the residents' comments portion of the April 2010 school board meeting. It was fun to agitate Ed and watch him ramble. Ed's term ends in 2015, and it is doubtful that he will run again.
Dan Remely's campaign promise was to bring in the high school project under $95 million. As co-chair of the high school renovation project, Dan did vote against the $74,000 trophy case, which was moved to Capital Projects. Dan also ran against Dan Miller in the State Representative race. Dan's term ends in 2017.
Bill Cooper made his mark on the school board when he advocated for the full proposed .54 mill increase, comparing it to “two large pizzas” on a $100,000 house. Bill's term is up in 2015 and it is doubtful that he will run again. Bill was one of Timmy's initial Key Communicators:
Andy Rhodes
Betsy Dillon
Bill Cooper
Blaise Larotonda
Corey Polena
Dan Goff
Dave Reese
Deb Smit
Diane Wainwright
Elaine LaBalme
Elizabeth Glantz
Frank Baker
Frank Hines
Gail Sieg
Hugh Beal
Joe Polk
John Schrott
Kim Ressler
Kristen Linfante
Larry Lebowitz
Mary Ellen Schmidt
Rob Gardner
Rob Papke
Ruth Foltz
Sheldon Campbell
Sue Fretterd
Sue Simmons
Tom Moertel
Scott Goldman, last of the good guys, always voted with a conscience. Not a popular guy on the board, I believe he was set up one summer evening, but that's not a tale for discussion. Scott's term ends in 2015. I hope he considers running again, but it is doubtful.
I have never met Bill Moorhead. I stopped going to school board meetings before he took office. Bill doesn't appear be a yes man by voting for everything that comes along. Bill's term ends in 2017.
I remember Mike Riemer as "Officer Riemer" who would visit the kids at school. I'm not a fan of Mike's since he claims that my blog is trash. Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but he allegedly has never read Lebo Citizens. Mike's term ends in 2017.
There are others in the School District's cast of characters.
Cissy Bowman is the District's Public Information Officer, Director of Communication. Cissy has a cake job. Timmy is her photographer and the Mt. Lebanon Public Information Office writes all her stuff for mtl Magazine.
Tom Celli, architect from Celli-Flynn Brennan, and Tom Berkabile, construction manager from P.J. Dick, are usually seen at the high school construction updates. I'm too tired to write about these guys. Do a search here and you will learn more about these cast members.
David Huston brought transparency to the school district with his trusty recorder. David has been recording all the school board meetings for five years now. He taught me everything I know about Right To Knows. Thanks, David for your dedication.
John Ewing's claim to fame is his classic line about artificial turf to Ed Kubit, "You didn't look at it, Ed." John also coined the phrase "Deadbeat Athletic Supporter." Don't dare criticize Timmy or say anything negative about fundraising. It will set him off. If you want to get on John's good side, start bad mouthing the teachers' union. They're to blame for everything.
A blast from the past includes:
Josephine Posti, former school board president, was the plagiarism expert and authority on bending school board policies. Jo was a carrier of School Board Disease. Symptoms of School Board Disease include, but not limited to:
- • Disrespect of public thought
• Listening only to those who agree with you
• Illegal executive sessions protected by lawsuits against moms
• Rejection of other board members’ viewpoints
• Groupthink
• Unity Voting – the most deadly symptom
James Fraasch was definitely last of the good guys. He was head of the Audit and Finance Committee and was the most level headed school board directors that I knew. James was always a threat to the other school board directors. They circled their wagons and attacked James at every opportunity. James ended up resigning and was replaced by Larry "I'm excited" Lebowitz.
John Allison was superintendent prior to Timmy's arrival. I didn't know Mr. Allison, even though I have a photo of him handing a diploma to my son. Mr. Allison's parting gift to the school board was a stern warning about going overboard with the high school renovation. Needless to say, we would have been better off had the school board listened. Mr. Allison went on to bigger and better things in Wichita, Kansas.
I hope Part 1 of the Mt. Lebanon School District's Who's Who guide is helpful. Part 2 includes the characters from the Municipality.
13 comments:
It's funny to read these two posts. The Lebo Public Info office makes nauseous. Not quite sure why Ms. Morgans is so mean. I've had two interactions with her and was thoroughly unimpressed.
That said, I like that you ended with James Fraasch and Dr. Allison. I can honestly say that I disagreed with James the vast majority of times. However, I always appreciated his fact based analysis and his ability to rationally and thoughtfully present his position. A functional community has differing opinions, discusses them respectfully, and then makes a decision. I truly admire the man and his work.
Dr. Allison was a rock star. I was on the "community input committee" for the last two searches. Dr. Allison was so clearly a man who was going places. It is sad that he felt the need to move on; but you can't have staff and community treat someone that way and expect them to stay. He's done great things for Wichita; he is deeply missed by our household. When the committee was presented with finalists for the most recent search, it was clear that the Board wanted someone local. The two finalists were completely underwhelming and in the end Dr. Steinhauer had better experience than the other candidate. I wish the Board had done a better job on that search.
What are key communicators and what is the selection process or qualifications to serve in that position?
1:57, John Rule Allison never received a doctorate degree.
Allison obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas and his Masters of Science from Emporia State University. He has completed doctoral course work in Education Leadership at St. Louis University.
2:22 PM The majority of the group were and remain active members of the political party that now controls Mt. Lebanon, were/are avid supporters of the high school project, were/are PTA trolls and are generally suck-ups to Timmy and school board members. In other words losers. The few remaining are stand-up folks who I believe are sorry they accepted the spying assignment. Don't think think Timmy has called a meeting of the group in months ? Everything seems to be going his way.
Please tell us you just moved here a few months ago.
In the end Mt. Lebanon got exactly what it deserved - a Ph.D. trombone player with a pizza fetish who can't read more than two lines of text in public without stumbling over a word, and without the slightest conception of economics. The school district would have been better served hiring Elton John.
Good catch: Mr. Allison. But I stand by my comments. He is a remarkable Superintendent.
I’m not sure whether I’m considered one of the “losers” or one of the “stand-up folks” who somehow “accepted a spying assignment,” but a few years ago I was asked to come to the Key Communicator meetings and I did attend several of them. My suspicion at the time was that it was a PR effort to amplify the school district’s message about controversial topics while trying to win over critics by surrounding them with vocal supporters of the school-district status quo. Since I was almost certainly considered one of the critics, I expected the meetings to be lively, as I would be outnumbered ten-to-one by people who vocally disagreed with me about then-controversial school issues.
The reality turned out to be much less exciting. It mostly boiled down to light-and-fluffy chats about school issues of concern to parents. I do not recall my beliefs having been changed about any substantive issue, including the excesses and poor management of high-school project or the decline in recent years of higher-end academic performance, which mostly goes unreported to the public.
I find it amusing that some people imagine the Key Communicator meetings as a spy ring or a place where important decisions get made by some clandestine organization. If you’re interested in knowing more about what the meetings were really like, you can read what I wrote about them when the topic came up earlier on LeboCitizens.
Elaine - you are adding to the narratives of both pieces. Interesting add ons.
Whether folks disagree with what is going on in MTL, it's not helpful to call people names. Take a deep breathe and remove yourself from the keyboard until you cool off.
I didn't follow the school renovation until the past 12-18 months. Thanks for the info on the meetings. I don't appreciate being admonished for asking a question that may highlight a problem within the community: how do these groups develop and is everyone in the community provided with the opportunity to apply or request involvement? It seems to me that mt Lebanon is such an exclusive network of who's who that the community is missing out on welcoming potentially great contributors.
Just because Mr. Allison did not have his doctorate doesn't mean he wasn't competent or effective. There are lots of people out in the world with " a doctorate degree", in every profession, who are highly incompetent and a
make poor decisions. Sometimes a piece of paper doesn't mean anything. It's all about having vision of the future and getting the job done in a professional, honest, transparent, and ethical manner.
Nobody is saying that Mr. Allison wasn't competent, 9:36 PM. And you're right, there are people out in the world with "a doctorate degree" and are highly incompetent. There is a perfect example right here in Mt. Lebanon.
I believe 4:01 PM was just clarifying something that 1:57 PM said.
Don't worry, Tom, you're one of the stand-up people.
8:35 PM, ask all the questions you want. That's how you learn. I don't know too much about Timmy's group. I don't know if the group still exists.
Elaine
Yes, there are some definite cliques here in Mt. Lebanon. And a tendency toward collective narcissism. If you aren't part of the in group, then you don't deserve to live here.
Starting next month, people interested in running for commissioner or school board director will be circulating and filing nomination petitions. This is the time when we can break up those cliques. I have heard of some names being tossed around by the Democrats, but not one name of a Republican.
If anyone is interested in running, here is a good place to start learning about running for office. Unfortunately, this is only geared toward registered R's and D's.
Elaine
Elaine from 9:36 PM: It was not my intention in any way to imply that Mr. Allison was incompetent. I thought he was a great Superintendent. I apologize if I gave the wrong impression. Just stating a fact that sometimes a piece of paper doesn't mean anything.
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