Strotmeyer wants Frioni.
Beal wants Frioni.
Larry wants Moorhead.
Olbrich wants Frioni.
Cooper wants Moorhead.
Diamond wants Wood.
Riemer wants Frioni.
Discussion.
They voted again.
And Al Frioni is the newly appointed school board director.
Update December 20, 2017 5:37 AM The District has chosen not to air the meeting, or at least at this point, the video has not been uploaded. Thanks to David Huston, the meeting was recorded. Here is a link.
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30 comments:
Of course, the winner is the guy who brought his whole family to the meeting. Go figure.
Kindly take notice that the two female candidates were summarily dismissed.
He brought his family to the meeting? That's strange.
Is being a supportive family strange to you?
Elaine
Not really.
No, but taking the family to what is effectively a job interview is strange to me. Unless of course, you knew beforehand that it was going to turn into a coronation.
The board already has 3 women. More would be fine, but do not forget the 3 that currently serve. There were too many lawyers in the candidate group.
Bill Moorhead's loss marks the end of an era. Seeing their power base shrinking, Elaine Cappucci and Larry Lebowitz convinced Bill to apply. Clearly, Bill had no desire to stay on the board, or else he would have run with the Timmy Ticket.
The bullies are now outnumbered. I am looking forward to watching the meeting today.
Elaine
Oh, that makes sense. The fix was in for Frioni. I guess it was a waste of time for the other candidates. Typical.
11:57. Yes, I know that three women sit on the school board. With last night's appointment, the board now consists of three women and six men. A bit lopsided, wouldn't you say?
Isn't Frioni a lawyer?
9:05 I find it interesting that the only trait that you can site in support of the female candidates is that they are female. What is the optimal ratio of male to female membership that the school board must attain? Do ethnicities, people with disabilities, ages, religions also require a precise level of representation? Please share that your wisdom, but I think we're going to need a larger board.
Anyone know why the video is not available online?
Elaine
It's not? When do they usually post them?Not this late at night. Hmmmm. Maybe Cissy Bowman didn't like what she saw on it.
Nope. I just checked again. It is usually uploaded by afternoon of the next day.
http://multimedia.mtlsd.org/channel/SchoolBoard/
Elaine
I just finished listening to the podcast of Monday night's special school board meeting, thanks to David Huston recording it for the community. Good thing he did because as of 7:57 AM, the meeting video has NOT been uploaded to the MTLSD website. I listened to the first interview, just to hear what sort of questions would be asked, fast forwarded to Bill Moorhead's interview, and finally listened to the remainder of the meeting starting with Al Frioni's interview. I think it is a big mistake not to air this meeting, if that is the final decision of the district.
What I learned from listening to this meeting is that Bill Moorhead brought an interesting perspective to the interviews. I especially appreciated his views concerning the teachers' contract and how the school board should stay clear and let the negotiator take the lead. Al Frioni has a handle on the real issues which are facing the district, namely PSERS. I did not realize that Frioni was involved with the hiring of several superintendents. I think that is a big plus. Finally, the comments from David Huston, Jean Thomas, Paula Bongiorno, and even Beth Evans should be heard by the community. I have never agreed with anything that Beth Evans has said, but I have to agree with her when she observed Dr. Diamond's reading her prepared statement of changing her vote. I think it was totally inappropriate of her to refer to the reorg. meeting as a "shit show." David raised some excellent points and Larry Lebowitz and Bill Cooper have no business attacking a resident and taxpayer. It is our right to free speech. When David said that Elaine Cappucci was voting on her own replacement, it was an accurate assessment of the situation. For Elaine Cappucci to deny that the board is fractured is laughable. Jean addressed the issue at Mellon, which nobody seems to want to discuss. Paula hit the nail on the head with her comments.
I hope the District airs this very important special meeting. In the name of transparency, it is the right thing to do.
Elaine
What is the situation at Mellon?
Jean Thomas explained it very well during her comments.
Elaine
Mr. Frioni suggested that the District must learn to live within its means, at least for the next few years, but he is not willing to advocate for the Capital Campaign. This means (I guess) that Mr. Frioni doesn’t see the benefit of a fundraising campaign designed to fund items critical to the District that might not otherwise be available in the budget. It also means that the majority of the Board just appointed a new Board member that won’t advocate for an initiative that most of it created and approved.
Dr. Diamond read a prepared statement when she put her support behind Mr. Wood. 30 minutes later she read a prepared statement when she changed her support to vote for Mr. Frioni. What the heck? Who prepares a written statement to CHANGE their vote.....that is read AFTER discussion? Did Dr. Diamond take one for the team? Did Dr. Diamond not have the stomach to just vote (the first time) for the candidate that she wanted, or did she not have the stomach to stick to her guns and vote for Mr. Wood. It was like a bad Hallmark movie script. Contrived beyond belief, and frankly an unfortunate preview of things to come . . . . .
Mr. Frioni brought his whole family AND his own bible. Nah no fix there. Puh-lease. How, in good conscience, can this "board" vote in a member that cannot vote upon or promote one of the district's primary initiatives, i.e. Capital Campaign??
Re. Mr. Huston, so, as a resident and taxpayer, he should be allowed to attack board members with ridiculous and wrong accusations? And to waste everyone's time because he ranted for way more than his allotted four minutes, x2.
Re. PSERS, Mr. Frioni's overuse of this term that simply speaks to ONE aspect of a much larger complicated aspect of the teacher's contract and budget is in no way a glowing testament to his appropriateness for this position. His use of an acronym that most people are not familiar with tells me he was calculated and arrogant in his "interview."
Lastly, I know now why i never visited this site. Clearly just a venue for some lopsided and distorted perspectives.
I spoke with someone today from the district asking WHY this video took so long to upload. From what I understand, this time of year is really busy for the film crew, or whatever they are called, with all the special holiday events throughout the district. I was afraid that the meeting was not going to be televised, but I was assured that was not the case.
I have been watching the meeting, and see that 9:11 PM's comment was at the same time that Tom Peterson was explaining how they were going to proceed with Al Frioni receiving the most votes. I have not come to the point when Beth Evans said that the reorg. meeting was a "shit show." I hope the district didn't edit that part out. All the high school students watching the meeting who are going on to be political science majors, should see how a PTA mom has a potty mouth at school board meetings.
Elaine
5:21 PM, I don't know where you have been, but PSERS has been discussed many times. It stands for Public School Employees’ Retirement System. We have brought up PSERS many times at school board meetings. I don't think it was a calculated move by Al Frioni. It is a huge problem. Timmy will be getting a SIX PERCENT increase this year. Increases like that are part of the problem.
Did you know that Al Frioni brought his family every time he applied for the vacant seat? I don't see how that means that it was fixed. I watched the meeting after hearing the podcast.
As far as Frioni not voting upon the Capital Campaign, may I remind you that Larry didn't vote one time when he had contributed to the campaign? Mr. Frioni is free to donate, just cannot advocate. May I also remind you that Mt. Lebanon's time waster, David Huston was absolutely right about the capital campaign. Not one cent was raised. NOT ONE CENT. David was right about a lot of things, but Larry likes to push his buttons and encourages others to do the same. Larry has been quite disrespectful to David through the years. A person can just take so much. And Beth, residents and taxpayers are permitted four minutes to speak about action items, but five minutes at the end of the meeting. If he did go over his time, it was because he was allowed to finish. Also, Mr. Cooper took potshots at David through the years. He told David not to roll his eyes. Again, a person can take so much. But the beauty of what Larry and Bill did, was that they aimed at David when David couldn't defend himself. Beth, I think you ambushed David as well.
I do want to thank the district for not editing the meeting video.
Elaine
If I'm not mistaken, not all current board members are in total support of the capital campaign anyway. Didn't Beal abstain pending the need for more financial transparency?
Yes, 12:25 AM. That's right.
Another thing I have noticed about Larry. He is the board cheerleader, as Paula once called him. He is either excited about something, or he is offended. Any time he hears a negative comment, he asks to say something and then goes into attack mode, claiming that he is offended. Elaine does it too. She did it to Stephen at Monday's meeting.
Elaine
12:13 (aka Beth Evans) If the Capital Campaign were critical to the district's success we would be beyond screwed. Fortunately it's not and the only thing left for the board to do is figure out a way to balance the two goals of shutting it down and respecting the wishes of those who generously gave for specific purposes.
The Capital Campaign is a reminder that hopes and wishes are no match for the staggering incompetence of a few. An idea with limited (but, yes, some) potential, executed with zero skill and even less finesse.
Sorry, not Beth.
Elaine, the comments you posted from anonymous are not from me. I have never commented on your blog before, ever. But if I do, I will sign my name to my statement, like I am doing right now. Beth Evans
sure....I believe you. #itsreallybeth
So the board spent a million dollars on a consultant for fund raising and now some candidates want to elect a board member that won't support the campaign. We have stupid board members who should resign. Don't they remember the mess at the Parking Authority?
The board did not spend a million dollars on a consultant. The costs went into salaries, health benefits, retirement (PSERS - remember that acronym?) for the executive directors that we have had and expenses. The capital campaign office did not have to pay rent, utilities, office supplies, etc. The board needs to shut that campaign down since it has not raised one cent. The money originally came from the general fund of almost a million dollars.
Elaine
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