Let's play Lebo Whack a Mole

Remember this game? We would always play it when we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. A mole pops up.  You whack it and then another one pops up somewhere else. Whack a Mole.

With all this talk about artificial turf, getting the "facts" from Jan Klein about YSA's contributions, and sign ordinance amendments, the school board directors have been getting a break.  Monday, the school board agenda includes these items popping up:


More discussion about the final budget with the final vote being May 21. The school board is about to go down in flames on its latest budget. It'll be nasty and I think there may be a surprise or two waiting for us (things that haven't been discussed yet.) It may be the first budget in a few years that gets a few "Nays" which will be refreshing.  I hope the community doesn't sit back on this issue.

The school board will be approving John Ferguson as tax collector and delinquent tax collector, at the rate of $10,000 a year.  This one confuses me. Is he still needed???

Some new appointments are in the works.  They will appoint Jan Klein as Treasurer and Cissy Bowman as Board Secretary.  OMG.  Can she spell OMG?

A potential change order for the high school project will be presented and reviewed by the Board. Nello Change Order HS2012-1  This is for the general contractor who was 20% lower than the next responsible bidder.  The $8 million difference saved the project from referendum. 

And finally, the Board will be approving "Shame of the Nation" as a textbook for next year.

So while we have been discussing lawsuits, signs, turf, and all the other stuff, the School Board has been quietly gearing up for big changes. I wonder what they are going to pop up with next.  Remember, everyone has the power to make a difference. 

Sold for gain and the proposed final budget

From a blog reader:

I went to Zillow (the real estate web site) to have a look at some Mt. Lebanon statistics. I'm impressed with what you can find on that site. One extremely interesting eye-opener is a metric called "sold for gain" - click HERE to have a look. The chart starts at May 1, 2002, and ends on February 1, 2012 - so far, anyway. People are selling homes in Lebo all right - but the number who are selling for no gain or at a loss has increased dramatically.

Also, I didn't want anyone to miss the 2012-13 Proposed Final Budget. http://www.mtlsd.org/district/budget/stuff/2012.13_proposed_budget_4.16.12.pdf