Just came back from Nick Meduho's house where his father and sister allowed me to copy his files from his server. Nick had backed up all the school board meetings that are being pulled from the district website for me and saved nine gigs of data when he saved the 24 meetings. I am in the process of uploading them and putting a link to them on the blog.
Sadly, Nick's 88 year old dad saw the October meeting where Mary Birks would not answer his son's questions. Mr. Meduho was pretty upset. Because of that, I told him about my ethics complaint and how Mary lost the election.
The reason why I am telling you all this is because I think I am going to bite the bullet and stick with my blog, which is available to everyone. To all of the nice folks who signed up on Facebook, thank you for sticking with me, but I have decided not go through Facebook. I want people to have access to Nick's videos and will keep Lebo Citizens on Blogger in his memory.
Sadly, Nick's 88 year old dad saw the October meeting where Mary Birks would not answer his son's questions. Mr. Meduho was pretty upset. Because of that, I told him about my ethics complaint and how Mary lost the election.
The reason why I am telling you all this is because I think I am going to bite the bullet and stick with my blog, which is available to everyone. To all of the nice folks who signed up on Facebook, thank you for sticking with me, but I have decided not go through Facebook. I want people to have access to Nick's videos and will keep Lebo Citizens on Blogger in his memory.
The links to 24 school board meetings that Nick backed up for me will be available in another thirty minutes or so. Until now, I had two gigs of data on Google Docs. With nine more gigs of data, I still have room available. Nick tried to tell me that the District was giving us a bunch of garbage and that they should have the ability to keep far more information than what they were telling us.
Thanks, Nick Meduho, Jr.
Elaine
Update January 25, 2018 7:44 PM Per 4:40 PM's suggestion, here is a link for the YTD ending 12/31/17 spreadsheet. It certainly is a mess, 4:40 PM. For the two page spreadsheet, that would require filing a Right To Know. Nick would do that every month. Perhaps an email to the new board majority will provide that information without filing a Right To Know. It would be much simpler if they would post the two pages automatically. A new spreadsheet should be available in the next week or so.
8 comments:
Nick was trying to get some straight answers about the Capital Campaign. Perhaps a link to the most recent Capital Campaign spreadsheet would be a good tribute and informative. What a mess.
It appears the Campaign spent far more than it raised. How was it able to disburse any money?
I don’t understand!
How can the state justify granting an exemption from the Act 1 cap when the district put $910,930.02 from the General Funds into the fundraiser that is losing money.
If the district has almost a million dollars laying around to loan out they don’t need more tax money from us.
Especially considering they want to spend over a million dollars enhancing and turfing a practice field that has served the community very well for decades.
Maybe our state rep or state senator can explain why the Act 1 cap should be exceeded. Wasn’t Act 1 instituted to slow down the tax increases?
For those that don’t know what Act 1 and its index is about.
PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
Special Session Act 1 of 2006, the Taxpayer Relief Act, was signed on June 27, 2006, and modified in June 2011 by Act 25 of 2011. This law eases the financial burden of home ownership by providing school districts the means to lower property taxes to homeowners, especially senior citizens, via the funding provided by gaming revenue. It is anticipated that, ultimately, gaming will generate $1 billion each year for local property tax relief.
ACT 1 INDEX
This page contains information on the Act 1 index, which is used to determine the maximum tax increases for each tax the school district levies (without PDE exception or voter approval).
The base index is calculated by averaging the percent increases in the Pennsylvania statewide average weekly wage and the Federal employment cost index for elementary/secondary schools.
As a voter have you ever had the opportunity to vote yea or nay on an increase of your SD property taxes?
Hip, Hip, Hooray we’re #11.
For all the spending for turf and Hall of Fame Mt. Lebanon comes in at #11. North Allegheny is in at #5, USC at #18 and Fox Chapel at #7.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-high-schools-for-sports/s/pennsylvania/
Wonder where we rank in SD property taxes?
What I found more disturbing is how Mt. Lebanon ranks in the safest schools categories. #13 in safest schools in Allegheny County does not warm my heart. https://www.niche.com/k12/search/safest-school-districts/c/allegheny-county-pa/ Why are we looking at overnight parking?
Elaine
“In 1973, Senator John Stauffer, (Democrat) then Joint Chairman of the Public Commission on PA Public School Buildings and co-sponsor of the precursor to ACT 34 testified "the power to approve an expensive school building should rest in the hands of those who are going to assume the long term debt." (History of Senate Bills, 1973). The purpose of the ACT 34 "Taj Mahal Act" of 1973 was to give taxpayers the opportunity to weigh in on school construction decisions.”
Boy, did the board and administration pull a fast one on the Mt. Lebanon taxpayer by avoiding a required referendum!
Just look at the list of Capital Projects on this blog. Would anyone in their right mind build a modern high school WITHOUT a auditorium sound system ($265,000), auditorium sound system piping $(49,246), auditorium stage curtains $55,000) cafeteria table and chairs ($82,000), cell phone repeaters ($400,000), and furniture transferred off the COs at ($28,804).
On top of all that we have a $1,000,000+ proposal to recover and improve a practice field that they used as a dump site during the construction process which should have been included in the original construction bid!
All this and numerous -ahem- change orders should have been included in the original project cost and that would’ve forced a voter referendum.
One other board claim Mr. Lebowitz that taxpayers would be foolish to believe... if the district is so desperate for athletic fields as you claim, how did we get by without the Rock Pile during all those years of construction?
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