We're making some progress! The TWO page campaign financial report YTD ending 1/31/18 has been posted on the school district website here.
https://www.mtlsd.org/uploaded/District/Century_of_Excllence/Capital_Campaign_Financial_Rpt_013118.pdf
Thank you, Mike Riemer! One less Right To Know to file every month.
Elaine..the Campaign DID NOT hit the $1 million mark as Mrs. Posti had announced at the Jan. School Board Meeting.
ReplyDeleteYou caught that too, 5:23. Wonder why the co-chair can’t see that?
ReplyDeleteAlso note YTD ending 1/31/18 expenses and disbursements exceed revenues, so the fundraiser is still bleeding red ink.
I feel like we are caught in a time loop, like in the movie, "Groundhog Day." How many times are we going to celebrate passing a million dollars in fundraising?
ReplyDeleteElaine
Elaine, they’ll make the claim as long as they can get away with it.
ReplyDeleteThe PG, Trib and Almanac won’t question the numbers and Lebomag thinks the campaign started in 2014.
One can only imagine the claims being made in the private reset conversations.
Posti erroneously tells the.board that the Campaign reaches the million dollar mark as if reaching 1/6th of their 5 year is cause for celebration.
ReplyDeleteI think we’ve seen one of the big problems with the Century of Excellence Campaign.
I finished watching last night's school board meeting and want to thank Jen Curran for her comments on the Century of Excellence campaign. No answers were given, but I do appreciate that she tried to get some answers. That would have been the perfect time to make some announcements, but unfortunately, nothing was said.
ReplyDeleteI guess we can kiss that seed money goodbye. The very same people who were "excited" about the campaign were the same people who had concerns about forking over $300,000 to the municipality for the rifle range.
Elaine
Still thinking about last night's meeting. Talk about an emotional roller coaster! I don't know whether to cry or get angry. For YEARS, I had been going to school board meetings, blogging, and writing to the school board members about why the campaign was senseless. It was a waste of money. Having a fundraiser for private schools is one thing, but not for a public school. For that I was ridiculed, publicly humiliated, prayed for* (not that it's a bad thing), was told that I hate kids, had hate in my heart, and was told to move out of Mt. Lebanon.
ReplyDeleteBut after all these years, it is finally coming to light that yes, the feasibility study was a waste of money, hiring a professional fundraiser was a waste of money, and when that one didn't work out, the next professional fundraiser was a waste of money, and when that one didn't work out, the next professional fundraiser was a waste of money. Now, with evidence showing that the third professional fundraiser is history, we STILL can't get any answers. Timmy was still his arrogant self telling a resident and taxpayer that the money taken out of the general fund was approved by the school board and that there is no obligation that it is to be given back. Yet, I have posted here that Jan Klein insisted that it had to be paid back. https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2017/09/we-hit-pay-dirt.html
We pointed out discrepancies, violations of the school code, and nobody would flinch. https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2017/10/who-is-in-charge-of-capital-campaign.html
I know that a public apology from the cabinet is in order but will never happen. I could just cry that almost a million dollars was taken away from the kids, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. We were treated like we were crazy. We were manipulated. We were lied to.
And none of it ever made the news. Kiss that money goodbye. By the way, our taxes are going up. Sinful. Just sinful.
Elaine
*https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2012/02/apology-to-josephine-posti.html
Just want to sure I’m following this right.
ReplyDeleteA previous board which included Lebowitz (candidate soon for re-election) and Cappucci (recently re-elected) created a fundraising entity which initially was to raise $6,000,000. In 5 years seeded with $910,000+ (in early accounting it was over $923,000) which Jan Klein originally labeled “a loan.”
Am I correct?
To date this fundraiser has barely managed to raise $750,000 in actual cash. Even with pledges it hasn’t reached 1/6 of its original goal.
Correct?
Over the 6 years, the fundraiser has managed to spend and disburse over $1,000,000. About $400,000 of those expenditure were spent on things directed by a very, very small group of people. Taxpayers that ponied up the bulk of the money in the fundraiser had/have no say on where the money is going.
Correct?
Tell you what. If all the above is correct you can be sure I’ll won’t be voting anytime soon for the people that are in positions to put a stop to this, i.e, the governor, a state rep and senator, and especially the three members of the Riemer, Strotmeyer and Diamond Team should they decide to run again.
Hopefully the PA Dept. of Education will deny the board’s request for Act 1 exemptions and exclusions to raise the tax rate.
Is Mr. Lebowitz out of his friggin’ mind.
ReplyDeleteFrom 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.”
Yes, you’re right Larry, $300,000 is hard to come by.
$910,930.02 is even harder to come by and you, mister, took that amount - that taxpayers worked hard to put into the district - out and sunk it into a money losing fundraiser.
Now, Steinhauer claims that $910,930.02 doesn’t need to be paid back and you Larry, and Steinhauer want taxpayers to come up with even more money for you to fritter away.
The PA Department of Education only rubber stamps school districts' requests. How about this post from January 1, 2011? https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2011/01/2010-highlights.html
ReplyDeleteRemember Snowmageddon 2010? I was one of several people trudging through snow gathering signatures to send to the PDE. It made no difference.
You are correct with everything you pointed out, 9:19 AM, except for one thing. The Riemer, Strotmeyer, Diamond Team has only been in office since January 1. They appear to be taking steps to stop this. The problem is the Administration. Jan Klein and Timmy have been lying to us for years. Look back at what Jan said about YSA payments (search this blog for all those posts), "loan" vs. "investment", the promises that Timmy has made about the Quiet Phase, multiple announcements of hitting a million dollars in fundraising made by Katie Caste, Timmy, and Jo Posti, the bullying tactics used by Jo Posti, Elaine Cappucci, Larry Lebowitz, Mary Birks, Dan Remely, Ed Kubit, Beth Evans, Kristen Linfante, Elaine LaBalme, Rob Gardener, Rob Papke, and other PTA members. There is where the problem is, not someone who has been in office for two months.
Elaine
OK, Elaine I’ll give you that the Riemer, Strotmeyer, Diamond Team has only been in place for a few months, though Riemer and Strotmeyer has been there longer than that. I hope you are correct that they are trying to stop this nonsense, but a couple of questions.
ReplyDeleteWhy did they sit quietly and vote for pursuing Act 1 exclusions? Why no mention during the discussion session of getting back the $910,930.20 “loan” to the fundraiser before hitting up taxpayers? They went along with option. If they’re trying to stop the madness, stop it before it continues.
Larry claims it’s hard to come up with $300,000 in a newspaper article. That’s true, it’s taken the fundraiser 6 years to raise just a little over $4000,000. So why are RST going along with plans to spend $1.5 million on the Rock Pile? An improvement that will add $8000,000 to $1,000,000 in turf replacement to the district budget every 8 to 10 years?
I hope you are correct Elaine, but so far I’m only hearing crickets from the RST team. Plus the status quo made big efforts to embarrass Riemer from the get go. That’s what they did to Silhol, Hart, Fraasch, Goldman, Sable. The people that want ever more spending are hard ballers.
As school board President, Riemer would be entirely justified if he petitioned the PA Auditor General to get involved in the Century of Excellence fundraiser.
ReplyDeleteHARRISBURG (May 10, 2017) – Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said today his department created an informational video titled, “School Audits 101” to help school board members, administrators, taxpayers and reporters better understand how school audits work and what accountability the public should expect from school officials.
“Educating Pennsylvania’s children is an incredibly important job,” DePasquale said. “But making sure children are educated well while staying within a budget and within the law is, to be sure, a complex, difficult task.
“To help school officials — including school board members and administrators — better understand what my team looks for when they audit each school every few years, we created this 25-minute video,” he said, noting, “The goal of every school audit is to help the organization function at its highest level.”
DePasquale added that the video can also help residents gain a greater understanding of what to expect from their school officials, particularly school board members.
Topics in the “School Audits 101” video include:
• How governance affects an entire educational institution
• Audit vocabulary
• How a performance audit works
• Common audit findings
• How to manage employment contracts and third-party vendors
• Resources to learn more about school governance
The “School Audits 101” video is available online at: www.PaAuditor.gov.
Since the board president speaks for the board couldn’t they contact the Almanac and various newspapers to get out the facts about the fundraiser if they were serious about putting an end to this fiasco?
ReplyDeleteLebowitz is quoted in the Almanac about the proposed tax hike. Marciano and Steinhauer are too, but not Board President Riemer! 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
ReplyDeleteElaine, the group you mentioned at 10:14 are very skilled at manipulating public opinion and the media.
ReplyDeleteJust look at how they trash you and how Posti deflected attention away from the campaign and onto Beal in her board comments. Oh and isn’t Lebowitz a saint for understanding how hard it is to come up with $300,000!
Have you ever seen Larry show that concern when dispensing 6% pay hikes, $20,000 bonuses and excited about turfing 3 fields for over $3 million?
Funny thing though Larry isn’t worried about $910,000 disappearing into the fundraiser.
It is time to fight fire with fire. Riemer, Strotmeyer and Diamond should take their efforts to the press and the streets.
Remember the big deal the same group made and went nuts because James Fraasch spoke to the media? They wanted to censure him! Remember how Jo Posti freaked out when she, the board president, was not interviewed. Remember how Cissy Bowman was the only one permitted to speak to the media? Funny how things change when it suits them.
ReplyDeleteElaine
Diamond is a wall flower. Don’t count on her to take anything to the press and the streets. She is totally incompetent.
ReplyDelete3:44, I wouldn’t give up on Diamond just yet. As Elaine injects she has only been on the job for two months.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice though to see how the RSD Team is going to live up to their campaign pledge “This slate is composed of fresh thinkers who respect tradition, embrace accountability and innovation.“
Getting all the pages of the fundraiser available to the public is a very good first step at embracing accountability. Although in my opinion sitting quietly as the Century of Excellence Campaign Chairwoman proposes a surreptitious reset of the fundraiser is not.
Hiding from the public eye is exactly what has been wrong with the fundraiser, and with a number of other district endeavors, since its inception.
So, again Diamond and her team mates appear to be a group of intelligent people just a brief two months on the job and should be given time to make their mark.
On the other hand, if they want public support they need to respect tradition, EMBRACE ACCOUNTABILITY, and innovate!
Otherwise, their constituents will begin to question why they have them their vote.
9:00 AM, all signs seem to be pointing to the elimination of the Director of Advancement position. That is a HUUGE step to embracing accountability. I'm guessing since it is a personnel matter, that nothing is being said. We'll see what the personnel report shows after the next school board meeting. Of course, that requires filing another Right To Know.
ReplyDeleteElaine
I don't want to sound like the RSD cheerleader, but here are two more major accomplishments that we shouldn't discount.
ReplyDeletehttps://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2017/12/yes-timmy-has-new-goals.html
I have pointed this out before, but this was Number 10, under Timmy's goals.
The Superintendent will develop and submit a succession plan for replacement of key finance staff by February 1, 2018. I was hoping that was referring to Jan Klein's retirement, but it may be in reference to the director of advancement position. I'm still hoping that it is Jan's retirement. Maybe Jan is waiting for her next salary bump before she retires. And we wonder why PSERS is such an issue.
Last month, Timmy reviewed the status of some of his goals. Maybe he will bring up this subject of goals in his next report.
Elaine
Good points Elaine, but two others.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the board is still onboard with a $1.2 to 1.5 million update of the Rock Pile and unless there is something we haven’t been told... a reset of the fundraising campaign.
Two big ticket items- one committing the district to at least half million dollar turf replacements every 8-10 years and $910,000 being tied up in the fundraiser.
All at a time when the district can’t stay within budget restrictions, necessitating a large tax hike. Plus every hired staffer, every 6% raise and every $20,000 bonus impacts the district’s pension obligations which they proclaim interferes with providing the best educational experience we are used too.
Oh no. Not another turf comment. It took over the last post, $467,275.74+ later...
ReplyDeleteElaine
Ooops, sorry that turf comment was suppose to appear in $476,275.74+ later.
ReplyDeleteDelete it here please.
No I take the 11:21 apology back. It WAS for this conversation and it wasn’t only about turf. If that is all one wants to see I don’t know what to say.
ReplyDeleteDuring James Fraasch’s tenure as a board director and Audit & Finance committee chair he asked Jan Klein during one meeting if the district proceeds with the HS renovation will it impact the district’s ability to stay within the Act 1 taxing limits. I believe he might have also related rising pensions and salary obligations to the conversation as well.
Klien’s response was that it definitely would and then she added we always have exemptions and exclusions to the Act 1 tax limits.
So, the point in the comment at 10:24 is— if the board is going to do things like (but not limited too) dumping almost $1 million of taxpayer into a money-losing fundraiser, hand out 6% raises and generous bonuses, hire non-essential personnel (and not evaluate their performance), air condition buildings (remember being green and energy efficient was a big selling point for the HS project), and yes... turfing practice fields that were previously grass and have been out of use for 6 years then we are going to face ever-increasing Act 1 busting tax hikes on a regular basis.
If that is the goal of this blog to support ever-increasing taxes, I’m in the wrong place. As you said in another post Elaine, “I appreciate your tenacity, but nothing is going to change people's minds. You saw it with the high school renovation. Same group of people, 10:05 AM.”
I know you dislike quotes, but I’ll remind you of just one more that appeared on your blog a number of years ago.
““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.”
I’m all for maintaining AND funding the excellent education standards and facilities we residents expect and demand. Also, all in for providing the greatest number of experiences and opportunities for the students... that we can afford.
Take for instance the rifle range. I think the rifle team is a good sport and its one the district has traditionally offered. Can we afford the $300,000 expense to build MTL’s own range, I’m not sure. Larry says $300,000 is hard to come by and he’s right... it is. So maybe we keep the team using the same facility it has used for the past 6 years. The team was competitive was it not?
If anyone was watching the Olympics, a young Asian-American girl won a gold medal in skiing. Her father quit his job as an engineer to devote 6 hour trips almost daily to drive her to training facilities. She wanted her shot at winning and he provided it. Did he think she was entitled to a ski slope at her school district? Doubt it.
I think the marching band and student athletes will continue to perform quite well as they always have whether we turf the Rock Pile or not. Just as rifle team will shoot just as accurately whether MTL builds a range or not, if they want it badly enough.
People have been asking for change. I blogged about the elimination of the Director of Advancement position and the paid position for the MLFE, and thought it would have generated some positive comments. The positions cost taxpayers about a half a million dollars. And for that, the conversation was hijacked over turf. Now I know how this works. It will go down one of a couple of ways. I will hear how the elimination of those positions is directly related to the topic of turf or I will get a "I will not post any more comments on this blog ever again."
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I welcome comments, but for goodness sakes, when I post something as big as the elimination of the Director of Advancement, the board is entitled to a little credit, don't you think? That would never have happened under Mary Birks, Larry Lebowitz, Elaine Cappucci, or Jo Posti's leadership. I said that the board has a new majority. Look at what they have accomplished so far. Can we celebrate a little good news?
Elaine
Call me dumbfounded.
ReplyDeleteWhen did a MLFE position become a part of nearly half a million dollars in two salaries positions? Was the half million split equally between the Director of Development and paid MLFE position?
Always thought the MLFE did things like sell MTLSD blankets, run Taste of Lebo and pursue grants. Then used the money raised to fund “innovative projects spanning the entire curriculum at all 10 Mt. Lebanon Schools.”
Like Mr. Lebowitz said, raising $300,000 is hard. Meeting two salaries for approx. $500,000 is harder still.
Gotta sell a helluva lot of blankets, pizza, tacos and beer before you have any money to dispense to innovative projects.
So yes absolutely the RSD Team should be commended for their attention to the two position.If
@Dumbfounded - Elaine explained it quite succinctly in her post while you were ranting about turf. The MLFE salary wasn't included in her numbers.
ReplyDelete7:44, Elaine wrote: “I blogged about the elimination of the Director of Advancement position and the paid position for the MLFE, and thought it would have generated some positive comments. The positions cost taxpayers about a half a million dollars.”
ReplyDeleteYou’ve now confused me totally. She reported two position were eliminated 1. Director of Advancement and 2. the paid position for the MLFE and those positions costs taxpayers about half a million. Now 7:44 you’re saying salary wasn’t included in her figures.
So the Director of Advancement was making half a million?! Holy smokes 🙀that’s good money! What was the MLFE salaried person making?
@Dumb - Elaine explained it. Use your turf researching skills & search *MLFE* on Elaine's blog.
ReplyDelete8:27 PM, two RTKs were filed for that information. My friend Nick had an outstanding RTK filed concerning the MLFE when he passed away. I had to refile ANOTHER RTK and the clock started all over again.
ReplyDeleteI have all the data from the financial reports outlined in the post $467,276.74+. I have been posting the MLFE 990's too.
Elaine
Did Pennsylvania state taxpayers somehow help subsidize this fiasco?!?
ReplyDeleteThe confusion at least for me is that when talking about eliminating a salaried position I think in terms of what does that elimination do for the bottom line. The half million dollars was spent to date on the Director and salaried MLFE positions over 5 years and won’t be coming back to the district.
ReplyDeleteThat half million dollar horse has left the barn sort of speak. It’s great the RSD Team finally closed the door so another horse doesn’t escape.
But there are other doors and other horses to keep in the barn.
Over 9 years the board has voted to use exemptions to exceeded the Act 1 taxing limit 4 times. It is time to take a hard look at what’s inflating the budget.
10:35, in this taxpayers opinion yes they did.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, somebody from the administration or board should explain where the “loan” (according to Klein in early accounting) of over $910,000 come from.
Steinhauer claims it doesn’t have to be paid back. OK, if that is the case who “donated” almost $1 million at the beginning. Ask yourself who paid DeLuca’s salary and health benefits before donations started to roll in.
10:35, your suspicions are correct. Tens of thousands of State of Pennsylvania education tax dollars went to fund the pensions of Astorino and the other Capital Campaign Coordinators. These public tax dollars are NOT included in the costs seen associated with the Campaign but obviously should be. Slick accounting by the District!
ReplyDelete