For now, Josephine Posti's Center Court blog is still available on Blogger. You can read it here. If she does delete it, I have it archived here. Also from 2013 is my blog post [6.9%] 7.46% increase for Timmy
Picture this: a school board sitting in executive session making very, very difficult decisions.The picture I painted above was before the school board directors okayed a transfer from the General Fund in the amount of $923,520.02 IT ALREADY HAD. Josephine Posti and Elaine Cappucci, both on the capital campaign cabinet, were telling us that they were going to cut librarians, charge students to park at the high school, RAISE student parking fees, charge activity fees, cut guidance counselors, blame Corbett for everything, eliminate the rifle range, nix repairing Mellon Field, trimmed the fat and now cutting into muscle, while extending Timmy's contract - against the recommendation of the auditor general and give him lucrative annual raises.
Where do we cut? We've already trimmed the fat; now we're cutting muscle. How do we pay for the remainder of the high school renovation? Do we wait for a green light from Pursuant Ketchum? Should we cut librarians? Guidance counselors? Custodians? Do we eliminate the community service coordinator? Should we charge students to park? What about increasing student parking fees? Oh, this is so hard! Shall we charge an activity fee? We need to make cuts as far away from the student as possible. How about a $30 million fundraising campaign? No...a $15 million campaign! Uh...$6 million fundraising campaign? Yes! That's it! But we still have to figure out how we are going to pay for the rest of the project. We can't have a referendum. Let's float a bond! We'll wrap it. Use capitalized interest. Don't use any money from the General Fund. It will only be $18 a month more. No, that's not right. We'll say that it is like no increase at all. No...We'll say it will be like two large pizzas. Wait a minute. There is a grievance that we need to address. If we ignore that, maybe it will go away. For sure, we won't budget for it. Uh oh, there is something else. PSERS. Darn that Corbett! It is all his fault. What to do, what to do? Let's come up with an early bird contract for our superintendent! Let's give him the same lame goals as he had in 2012-13 and 2013-14! Even better - let's give him a6.9%7.46% increase to kick off the 2014 contract. Perfect! But we have to do this quietly, because it will never fly if it gets out. Now what about the rifle range, the weight room, tennis courts, and Mellon Field? It should add up. We have TERC Investigations.
Here it is, Folks. Dr. Timothy J. Steinhauer's 2014-2019 Contract
Josephine Posti has the audacity to question a $700 donation to a political campaign made by an individual who also supports the MLFE and donates his time to the community - both municipality and school district. Read the crap that the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign "Co"chair has been writing about for years. The same woman who was praying for me. The same woman who is angry that her friend Mary Birks, pulled the reset presentation before the election like it is the fault of Riemer, Strotmeyer, and Diamond. Josephine Posti wanted to make cuts as far away from the student as possible, while wasting almost a million dollars from the General Fund - and she is the one who is angry. Unbelievable.
9 comments:
Thanks Elaine for the look back. Yes, turf seems to always pop up in the discussion probably because there always seems to be pressure from a certain segment to turf more fields in Mt. Lebanon. As you so well point out there is little or no conversation about 6% raises, $20,000 bonuses, fundraising expenditures, nor on the really important topics like special education initiatives or classroom sizes.
The board and pals will get their Act 1 exclusions and exemptions, raises, and bonuses while very little attention will be paid to the students, their parents and taxpayers. We will though have bright and always artificial, at least for another eight years or so.
I can't help but ask why. Why does she continue to pursue the fundraising? There is no legal obligation. The campaign has been an embarrassimg failure. Were it me, I would do a big old mea culpa, move on, lick my wounds and go do something productive.
I'm not assigning any explanation (though I have a theory). But again, why continue? She's off the board, her buddies are being eliminated one by one, so what's the deal?
We talk about turf, because there aren’t any big dollar proposals to enhance special ed or create smaller class sizes!
The big question that everyone should be asking, in the 100 plus year history of the MTLSD have taxpayers ever gone cheap of providing students with a very good education?
The answer is no, but now a certain group thinks that if they can dream it we must have it. We are entitled be it through hook or fundraiser.
Elaine, you should’ve provided a link to this Lebocitizens blast from February 9, 2011.
“Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Repeat after me: "It's going to be great for our community."
That was Dr. Steinhauer’s great thought after last night’s meeting. It didn’t matter that they had to lie, fool with the numbers, raise our taxes astronomically, focus on construction and litigation rather than education, and ignore what the majority of citizens of Mt. Lebanon wanted. I looked around in that meeting room that holds eighty people and saw the smiling faces of the proponents of the High School renovation. I thought to myself, "These are the people who wanted it. They’re all in this small room."
“Matt Kluck quoted “The Mt.Lebanon Comprehensive Plan” which can be found at http://pa-mtlebanon.civicplus.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=13 . He reminded his peers of the community development objectives that were identified as the vision for the Comprehensive Plan as printed on page 1-3. This Plan also identifies “Rising school taxes” as the number two threat to Mt. Lebanon.”
Oh boy! This Almanac news will raise your stress levels just a bit.
“The Mt. Lebanon School Board approved a preliminary 2018-19 budget during its Feb. 12 meeting that would include a sizeable tax hike.
The $99 million budget proposes a 0.73 mill increase, increasing from 23.93 to 24.66 mills. Since the district’s allotted Act. 1 Index is 2.4 percent, or 0.57 of a mill, the board will have to apply for exceptions to increase taxes above the index, which the board approved the district to apply for last month.”
By all means, let’s artificially turf every Lebo middle school field. Larry will be excited.
This would be funny if it weren’t so ludicrous!
From the Almanac article on the proposed SD tax hike.
““Ultimately it’s going to come down to a budget issue,” Lebowitz said. “$300,000 is hard to come by when we’re sitting here in April. I don’t think we can make any decisions until we know what the dollars are going to be in April.”
$300,000 hard to come by Larry? The fundraiser LOST more than that and I think I remember you being in favor of spending $3 million to Turf several of the district’s athletic fields.
““Presented by Director of Facilities Rick Marciniak, the board examined the 60-item, $920,123 budget, which doesn’t include large projects like new turf and lights on the upper practice field or a new press box at the football stadium. “This list is our chance to be proactive as opposed to reactive,” Marciniak said.
The budget, Steinhauer said, is about what the average capital projects fund budget has been over the last 10 years.”
Yeah, sure average Dr. Steinhauer if you exclude the large projects like turfing and lighting the Rock Pile.
Let’s take stock.
The school district wants to raise your property taxes by $73 per $100,000 value. The municipality will most likely follow suit since they have to pay for those improvements at Public Works/Rifle Range and deer culling.
Not to mention future fees for on-street parking and PAYT garbage collection.
Gotta love those democrats, eh!
According to Zillow the mean MTL home value is $260,900.
So if the school district raises their millage rate as projected that average MTL homeowner is going to have to pony up approximately $190.45 more on their school district property taxes.
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