http://www.mtlsd.org/uploaded/District/Century_of_Excllence/Pursuant_Ketchum_Feasibility_Study_0812.pdf
Updated September 20, 2017 12:02 PM The podcast to the Sept. 17, 2012 meeting for the Special Pursuant Ketchum Feasibility Study Report is available here.
31 comments:
Please don't tell me that the school district paid for this study. There is so much wrong with it methodologically speaking, I don't even know where to begin. I have about 27 graduate students who could do a more comprehensive job as a 3-week class project.
I am going to start and stop with the most obvious - the sampling:
+ An "n" of 27 does not justify ANY sort of statistical analysis as it has no statistical power. Any referencing of %s is meaningless.
+ How were these 27 chosen? Was it a convenience sample? How were they determined to be representative of the wider community? How are we sure it is not a biased sample?
Ugh... between this, and the repeated statistically and research-based-inferior deer killing that begins again today, I wonder where are all the educated MTL residents are and when they will please take leadership positions in this community?
There are some interesting numbers in the "Public Image of Mt Lebanon School District" chart in the PK Feasibility study.
1) Out of 9 board members 6 rated the district as only "Good." 1 found the district average!
2) Out of 16 parents surveyed 9 found the district good, 3 found it to be average and 1 rated it poor.
So 14 of 16 parents rated the district as just good or below!
3) Out of the 12 alumni surveyed just 2 found the district to be excellent, leaving 6 rating it just good, 3 rating it just average and 1 giving it a poor rating.
Rather than worrying about begging for more money, perhaps the administration and board should be looking at why people that have gone through the district or have kids currently in it only rate the district as good at best.
Instead of looking for new money to spend the administration and board should be trying to figure out why they aren't rated good or better by almost everyone. Especially since those surveyed were hand picked for PK to interview.
Some more disturbing numbers from PK study.
Appraisal of (the HS) project
1) 7 parents of 16 rated it high, 6 found it reasonable and 3 rated it low.
2) 5 alumni of 12 rated it high, 4 rated it reasonable and 3 rated it low.
3) 7 board members of 9 rated it high, 1 rated it reasonable and 1 rated it low.
Item 3 suggest we had and perhaps still have a board out of step with its constituency.
The majority of parents and alumni rate the project just reasonable or below while and an overwhelming majority of the board rated the project high. Of course they would they voted for it. The taxpayers weren't so convinced and I think that might be a good sign that people are going to contribute beyond their already high taxes.
But Jason is absolutely correct. $50,000 for this joke of a survey and the the superintendent doesn't even get the numbers of participants correct.
Correction @ 2:18
That ISN't a good sign people are going to contribute beyond their high taxes.
Please check out these posts posted as early as 2012. https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/search?q=Feasibility+study
The feasibility study was $41,000 plus travel fees. Two $10,000 grants were received from MLFE and MLCE. Does that show up in the numbers? I haven't checked. We now know that the MLFE director is being paid by the district (taxpayers.) Make sure to read at least the first couple of posts that come up in the search.
Elaine
If you watch the Sept. 11 meeting, Larry, the SB cheerleader, took aim toward Mike because he was questioning the feasibility study. Lebo Citizen readers were questioning it from 2012! It didn't pass the smell test even then!
Elaine
What more can anyone expect from a group of people that thought at the beginning of this whole endeavor that they could possibly raise $30 million.
Then we have a municipal public information office that thinks this whole snafu started in 2015.
UNBELIEVABLE!
Q: is this yet a third position for Sloane besides her MTLFE and Century of Excellence ones and what does it pay?
Ms. Sloane Astorino
Director of Advancement
Back when this whole thing started the District seemed confident that it could extract big money from some of its famous alumni; e.g., Mark Cuban, Ming Na, Joe Manganiello, etc. But after five fiscal years the Capital Campaign Financial Statement shows alumni contributions total a paltry $6,021 (as of 31 July 2017); not exactly what one might expect if "A List" people had been involved. Of course, there are some big numbers in the "Pledges Not Received" row, and some of this might be from the "Big Names" - but if that's the case I would think the District would be crowing about it.
I wonder where are all the educated MTL residents are and when they will please [sic] take leadership positions in this community?
Maybe the educated MTL residents don't want to be impugned by strangers on the internet, given nicknames, or have their kids names dragged through the mud. Just a hunch.
7:09pm, like the character assassination attempts targeting anyone who questions the MTL oligarchy?
Nice excuse 7:09, keep on insisting that other people pony up for your plastic turf.
You could step up and show us all how donating is done.
Here we go again. When was turf mentioned? I think 7:09 has a legitimate concern. Don't you?
Elaine
Timmy loves to go up to vocal people at school board meetings and make some comment about their child's performance in school.
Elaine
7:09's comment can be interpreted two ways.
Are they talking about the internet (this blog) and its strangers or are they talking about the clique that stifles anyone that disagrees with their spending programs?
Also assuming that fundraising revenue will be used for turfing the rock pile.
Know how I'm sure there is a kickback/pay-to-play/sleazefest going on with the MtL school board? This comical document that somehow passed muster and cost $50,000. My God, a couple of second-year business majors could have done infinitely better. This is a joke.
Thanks for your link to old posts Elaine.
Forgot about this one including a 2012 Trib article on the launch of the PK study.
"Pursuant Ketchum first must determine if the district can create a "compelling case" for people to give. The district is discussing donations to reduce the amount it must borrow to complete the $109 million project.
The board would need to hire at least one person to help coordinate the efforts and the money, leaving some directors hesitant when the district already is facing a budget shortfall even with a potential half-mill tax increase.
Administrative costs for a fund-raising campaign would be about 7 percent of what was raised, Oshry said."
Oshry? Oshry? Isn't that the Pursuant Ketchum guy Steinhauer so highly praised in the 9/11 board meeting?
Did Dr. Steinhauer forget his recommendation that administrative costs for our fund-raising campaign should be about 7%. Why'd did Tim let it run up to well over 14%?
Some hot administrative oversight and control you have going there Dr. S!
Thank you, 5:35 AM. That is where the $30 million number originated. It was to try to eliminate the second bond issue. One of the things listed to create a "compelling case" was the condition of the roof. It turns out that the roof was OK after all. The whole thing is a very bad joke, 10:24 PM.
I want to bring to readers' attention that the financial reports have gone from two pages (July) to one page (Aug) in a larger font. Look at page two of the July report. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9r_1biKte_bbEF6cWM1OHVSUzQ/view
We paid almost $153,000 to Pursuant.
i would like to see the financial reports in the same format as the one which was sent to us in a RTK. My guess is that page two is more important than page one, since that is the one Jan Klein dropped from the public eye.
Elaine
Correction. The font size is the same in both reports. A table was created and the second page was eliminated.
Elaine
Sent this morning. Links were included.
School board directors,
Thank you for additional information that has been posted on the District website concerning the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign.
I would like some consistency in your reporting, however. Please include the second page in the monthly reports as was shown in a recent RTK document.
Capital Campaign Financial Report for 7-17
Capital Campaign Financial Report for 8-17
Elaine Gillen
www.lebocitizens.blogspot.com
The real joke is 10:24, that the school district continually moans and cry that it doesn't have enough money and Harrisburg isn't doing their job financing education.
These people can't put together a simple financial report for a lousy fund-raiser, read a feasibility and apparently can't keep track of how much money they have.
Somehow while once again this year declaring they have to raise property taxes somewhere they previously managed to scrape up $900,000+ to ha, ha, "invest" in a fund-raiser that the Super finally admits may have been a stretch.
Bottom line 10:24, the jokes on us for letting it happen here and in Harrisburg.
10:22 am--The truly offensive part of this is juxtaposing the portion of the "study" that says the community has more than enough wealth to find an extra $6 million atop the failing campaign and the cries of financial strain.
The school board is out of control. There is nobody at the wheel. Morgans can keep copying and pasting all the dumb surveys she wants about what a great district this is but that kind of fluff is in spite of, not due to, the school board.
Why does Timmy keep getting raises? Who is he protecting? What does he know?
It's sad that we have some of the better know media people living here yet they all stick their heads in the sand. Where are the guys from KDKA? Hey, "journalists": If this is all nonsense and a few wackos just complaining, then why not look into this and exonerate the Larrys and Marys in Lebo?
You are forgetting that PK is related to LEBO Larry! I think that is why we used them and that is why we over paid for this joke of a "survey"
Wait. What? What is the connection? Are you saying that Larry is voting on issues where he has a conflict of interest? Does the PA Ethics Commission know about this?
Please let me/us know what that connection is ASAP!
Elaine
11:43 AM, every news desk in Pittsburgh was told about the Capital Campaign catastrophe. Thank goodness for the PG, formerly known as the Posti Gazette. The Trib education reporter was too busy, but wanted to be notified of the results of the PA Ethics complaint. Crickets from the others.
Elaine
There was an editorial in The Almanac titled "Hidden Taxes in State’s Budget Will Hurt Consumers.”
Perhaps the Almanac should follow that up with an editorial on "What school districts do with consumers taxes really hurts."
They could use Mt. Lebanon's district pumping over $900,000 of its general revenues into a money losing fund raising effort as a prime example.
What ethics complaint? About the Campaign?
@5:30. All my Googling came up with was that Oshry and LB definitely run in the same circles. They are on countless donor boards together. Can't find a connection otherwise unless a C-G client or something.
Who is LB, 8:32 AM?
Elaine
Larry LL. Odd autocorrect default choice to LB.
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