3. Capital Campaign Disbursement - As part of our Capital Campaign, we evaluated the needs of the District and considered the wishes of our donors to identify a number of uses for campaign funds. The equipment list to be funded has been reviewed and approved by the committee overseeing Campaign allocations. The Board is being asked to approve the Capital Campaign disbursement of $25,000 for Middle School Auditorium and Music Classrooms Sound Equipment. Once the budget is approved, we will proceed with purchasing the equipment in accordance with any applicable bidding requirements, State Law and Board Policy.
4. Options for High School Practice Field Playing Surface – The Board will review options for the playing field surface at the high school practice field. (And there it is. Turf for the practice field.)Dan Remely and Elaine Cappucci, both running for re-election were co-chairs of the high school
renovation project and successfully kept the practice field option (as well as other amenities) out of the renovation to trick the taxpayers.
And then there is the Capital Campaign. Nick Meduho wrote to the school board with the following questions:
Can someone please explain the following:
From http://www.mtlsd.org/uploaded/District/MLFE/Images/CURRENT_one-pager_0217.pdf, it states:
If $6 million is the goal and 25% has been raised, like it states, where’s the rest of the money?
25% of 6 million is 1.5 million but only $621, 473 has been raised. I’d like to add too, the document was last modified in February 2017 so the $621,473 is high, around $21,000 higher.
Thank you,
Nicholas Meduho
Mt. Lebanon, PA
Here is the response by President Mary Birks, under investigation by the PA Ethics Commission, and also running for re-election.
From: Mary Birks <mbirks@mtlsd.net>
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2017 at 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: capital campaign
To: Bill Cooper <wcooper@mtlsd.net>, Bill Moorhead <wmoorhead@mtlsd.net>, Dan Remely <dremely@mtlsd.net>, Hugh Beal <hbeal@mtlsd.net>, Larry Lebowitz <llebowitz@mtlsd.net>, Mike Riemer <mriemer@mtlsd.net>, Nicholas Meduho Jr, Sarah Olbrich <solbrich@mtlsd.net>, Stephen Strotmeyer <sstrotmeyer@mtlsd.net>
Cc: Tim Steinhauer <tsteinhauer@mtlsd.net>
Dear Mr. Meduho,
The Capital Campaign will be discussed at length at our next board discussion meeting, September 11th.
For the Board,
Mary D. Birks
Katie Caste, candidate running on the Timmy Ticket, claims that $1.2 million dollars has been raised. Wow! She hasn't been elected yet and she is giving us false numbers. Double wow!
Bottom line is that Monday's meeting at 7:30 PM should be attended by every member of the media. It will be interesting how these candidates spin this $6 million capital campaign where zero dollars have been spent on education.
What a great response from Birks! You will get nothing unless you forfeit your Monday evening to sit through a long meeting that will cover a hole host of topics that you're not interested in and, likely, still learn nothing responsive to your questions. This is what controlling the message looks like; the exact opposite of leadership.
ReplyDeleteREALLY! We're going to let them perpetuate this farce?
ReplyDeleteSure they raised $624,000+, but they spent $756,00+ to do it!!!
Why don't we just pile up bushels of greenbacks on the practice field and have a weenie roast before they spend another million dollars on plastic turf. At least we'd have a fun evening! Although I suppose we'd have to make it a lever to get a big turnout.
Correction @ 12:06... make it a kegger to get a big turnout.
ReplyDeleteLet the contractor restore the practice field to the condition it was in before the start of the high school project. It served us well back then and it'll do so again and it's restoration should have been part of the original contract.
Coverage would happen by the media if the media were not afraid of the MTL government and their minions.
ReplyDeleteMost of the media either IS part of the oligarchy, or bows down to it.
Before I get into my comments, for those who have looked at the "Capital Campaign Financial Records" PDF be advised that the columns headed "YTD ending 7/31/2017" is the fiscal Year To Date; i.e., July of 2017, since the District's fiscal year ends on 30 June. A minor point, granted, but since the other columns are headed with "Fiscal Year ending...." one might jump to the conclusion that the YTD column goes back to January first. It does not.
ReplyDeleteNow, as to why the District would state that they've raised 25% of their $6 million goal; my guess is that they are throwing in the $923,530.02 LOAN FROM THE GENERAL FUND along with the $621,473.37 raised over a four year period, to the end of July, to come up with a total of $1,545,003.39. I will ignore Katie Caste's numbers for obvious reasons.
Here's the real kicker! - the Capital Campaign raised $621,473.37 and incurred "Fundraising Expenditures" of $756,791.06, for a loss of $135,317.69. During this time the District disbursed $267,022.53 for equipment. This means that, so far anyway, the Capital Campaign loss and the cost of the equipment has come out of the loan! The taxpayer would have been better off if the District had forgot about the Capital Campaign from the beginning and simply expensed the equipment out of the General Fund, because as it is it has cost us $135,317.69 to spend $267,022.53 on said equipment.
Note to the District: How's that "Donations from Alumni" thing working out for ya?
Hahaha. Wow. Elaine, weren't you and a couple of other people painted as conspiratorial nuts for claiming the practice field was part of the long-term strategy by the jock straps, uh, I mean, athletic supporters?
ReplyDeleteAnd weren't you and a couple of others lambasted as kooks for claiming the school board was a corrupt little Mafia-like secret club?
My my, what a tangled web. I am still surprised nobody has gone to prison yet. Speaks volumes about the "ethics" in our state.
Precisely, Mr. Gideon!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we pissed away hundreds of thousands of dollars on Pursuant Ketchum, DeLuca, campaign managers and tracking software that would've been better spent paying down construction debt or pension obligations.
But no, the school board presidents (past and present) whined about how they need more local and state taxpayer money to run the school district.
Somebody please tell me if they're so broke, where did they find $923,000 to loan to the Capital Campaign?
Seems to me these fools that can pass out $20,000 bonuses and 6% salary increases have more than enough of our money.
This would be so funny if it didn't make the Superintendent and school board look like idiots.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Lebomag, Washington fifth-grader netted more money in his fundraiser for the National Aviary ($1,000) than allour high priced experts did on the Capital Campaign.
Maybe the student should be teaching the adults!
Way to go Jack!
Superintendent Steinhauer should invite young Mr. Hartman to one of his infamous pizza lunches and ask him how one runs a profitable fundraising campaign. He might learn something.
ReplyDelete