From Timmy's association

A Lebo Citizens reader sent me this very important tool kit that comes from the School Superintendents Association, AASA. Instead of taking pictures of bathrooms and water fountains, providing this toolkit for cost-effective financing for school construction and renovation might have been a better use of his time. No worries, Timmy will get his raise and probably a bonus for his valuable contributions to the high school project. http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=12676

But superintendents aren't the only ones who receive sound, financial advice from their organizations. The American School Board Journal cautions its members when making district investments. Collateral Damage, written by Charles K. Trainor, an ASBJ contributing editor, is a certified fraud examiner and certified internal auditor. His article makes me curious as to how MTLSD's available funds are invested. According to Jan Klein's July 1 document to the school board, there is

• $1.7 million in the Asbestos Fund
• $6.35 million in the General Capital Project Fund
• $3.24 million in Excess General Funds remaining form 2011, 2012, and 2013 (estimated) 

I wonder if Charles K. Trainor, president of Management Audit Consultants, Inc., would come to Mt. Lebanon since we have been using the same auditors for twenty five years. Jan Klein has quite a bit of money stashed away. I hope it has been invested wisely. For some reason, the school board directors don't want to touch it.

Please note:
It is August and the 2013-14 Final Budget has not been posted.
No word on level funding on the district website.
Next school board meeting is August 12, 2013.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire UPDATED 2X

Ohhhh boy, this is a goodie! Remember how we have a sound bite of President Cappucci giving a resident a hard time over the budget?  How she and the resident disagree on how transparent the Board has been? The lack of documents shared with the public? Well guess what I just got back from the PA Department of Education? Right To Know Response from the PDE.

Not only are Elaine Cappucci and the rest of the school board members keeping the budget from us, they are also keeping the budget away from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

From the PA School Code of 1949, Section 687(2)(b):
Within fifteen (15) days after the adoption of the budget, the board of school directors shall file a copy of the same in the office of the Department of Public Instruction.
A follow up email to the PDE has been sent:

To:	bhanft <bhanft@pa.gov>
Cc:	ra-educationsecretary <ra-educationsecretary@pa.gov>
Subject:	Mt. Lebanon School District final budget 2013
Date:	Wed, Jun 19, 2013 2:48 pm
Attachments:	PDE_RTK0001.pdf (72K), may%2020,%202013%20board%20meeting%20summary.pdf (52K)

---

Mr. Hanft,

  The Mt. Lebanon School District voted on the final budget 20-MAY-2013.

http://www.mtlsd.org/District/Budget/default.asp

See page five (5) of attached business meeting summary.

From the Pa School Code of 1949, Section 687(2)(b):

Within fifteen (15) days after the adoption of the budget, the board of school directors shall file a copy of the same in the office of the Department of Public Instruction.

Fifteen (15) calendar days from 20-MAY-2013 was 04-JUN-2013.

Today is 19-JUN-2013, an additional fifteen (15) days, making it now thirty (30) calendar days.

My RTK request response, attached, demonstrates the PDE does not have the final budget.

This is a clear violation of the Pa School Code of 1949.

What is the penalty to the Mt. Lebanon School District for this violation of law?

Update 4:15 PM Mr. Hanft responded with:

At the time PDE received your RTKL request, due to a clerical error, it was not apparent that the budget had been received.  However, Mt. Lebanon SD had timely filed its budget.  I have attached a copy and apologize for the oversight. Thank you.

 Benjamin T. Hanft | Division Chief
Division of Subsidy Data and Administration
Department of Education | Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management
333 Market Street | Hbg PA 17126
Phone: 717.787.5423 | Fax: 717.772.4106
www.education.state.pa.usDivision of Subsidy Data and AdministrationDepartment of Education | Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management333 Market Street | Hbg PA 17126Phone: 717.787.5423 | Fax: 717.772.4106www.education.state.pa.us
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONThis message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and then delete the communication from your electronic mail system.

Now we are waiting for a time stamped copy of the budget they received, not the one with today's date on it. I guess when confronted with irrefutable facts, government has to fess up lest you take the next steps and go public to expose the deceptions. Yeah, blame it on a clerical error when you're caught.

Update June 19, 2013 4:31 PM Here is the latest email from the PDE with a nine page budget sent to them.

From: bhanft@pa.gov
CC: ra-educationsecretary@pa.gov
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:17:05 -0400
Subject: RE: Mt. Lebanon School District final budget 2013-14

 Attached is the original paper copy received by the Department of Education. 

Benjamin T. Hanft, Chief
Division of Subsidy Data and AdministrationBureau of Budget and Fiscal Management

Filing a Right To Know, Part 2 (The rest of the story)

On June 5, 2013, I filed a Right To Know with the School District asking for the 2013-14 Mt. Lebanon School District Budget Resolution, approved by the Mt. Lebanon School Board on May 20, 2013, and the detailed 2013-2014 Final Budget.

The District normally has five business days to respond, which they did, unless a legal review is required, which would be 30 additional days. Here is the response I received today by Mrs. Szalinski, Open Records Officer, and Dr. Steinhauer's administrative assistant.

I acknowledged receipt of the response that had also been sent to Dr. Steinhauer, Solicitor Tom Peterson, and Jan Klein with the following:

Mrs. Szalinski,
Thank you for your timely response, but I am confused. The detailed final budget to the PDE on the link that you provided in your response is only 24 pages and can be found here. http://www.mtlsd.org/district/budget/budgetmeetingdocuments.asp

Yet, last year's budget is 205 pages. http://www.mtlsd.org/district/stuff/budget_2012-2013.pdf It can be found here: http://www.mtlsd.org/district/finance.asp

Where might I get the detailed 2013-2014 final budget?

Elaine Gillen

How can we go from 205 pages to 24 pages? I know the District has been frugal, according to Jan Klein, but saving on electrons doesn't really amount to much.

Lebo math at its finest

A reader submitted this for consideration. It appears that Jan Klein's numbers are not adding up.

Look at the Estimated value of Community Assessment in 2013 chart which was dated 8-May-13.

Assessed Value Per Tax Office (5/3/13): $ 2 ,715,449,015

The next line is interesting.

Less Historical % of Liens at Year End est at 1.6%: 43,447,184

Every year, this shows up in the budget. However, it never shows up as revenue when the liens are satisfied. They get paid eventually. Classic example is the $2.3 million windfall for the Covenant. Liens are deducted in the budget which cause the millage to go up.  We pay for the liens through our taxes and then when the District collects the liens, we never get a refund or see it budgeted.

Back to the chart. See the 22.61 mills in the orange box? That is our new millage for 2013-2014.  But Jan Klein skipped a step. The Anti Windfall Law requires that she first needed to establish the revenue neutral tax rate. That number is 21.17 mills.  How do you get the 21.17 millage? Take $54,914,220 (Budget- Real Estate Taxes at 2012-13 Millage Rate) and divide it by $2,593,675,608 (Adjusted Assessed Value) in the green box. That is the true millage neutral rate.  Jan's number is 6.8% over the revenue neutral tax rate, or a 1.44 mill increase.

Doing the Lebo math:

  22.61 (Jan's millage)
 -21.17 (millage neutral)
1.44 mill increase or 6.8% over the revenue neutral tax rate


Let's look at the "20%" reduction in millage. (Blue Box)

 27.13 mills (2012-2013)
-22.61 mills (2013-2014)
4.52 mills

That is a 16.66052340582381% reduction, not 20% reduction!  Percentage calculator

I think there is some explaining to do, School Board. It ain't adding up.

Budget passed

The Mt. Lebanon School Board Directors voted 6-3 to approve the 2013-2014 Budget. Three school board members voted against the budget; Goldman, Ostergaard, and Remely.

From the District website:

School Board Approves Final Budget At the May 20,2013 School Board meeting, the Board Approved the 2013-14 Budget. Here is the budget resolution from the Board agenda:

2013-2014 Final Budget Resolution: RESOLVED, That the Board approves, and attaches to the minutes, the formal Budget Resolution which establishes the Final Budget for the 2013-2014 School Year in the amount of $83,164,503. 

The Resolution calls for the continuation of the Real Estate Transfer Tax, the Earned Income Tax, and the Emergency and Municipal Services Tax, all of which are collected by the
Municipality, Tax Collection Agency or the County, and a portion of which is allocated to the School District. 

The real estate millage is set at 22.61 mills, or $2.261 on each $100 of assessed valuation. Of this amount, 13.61 mills is allocated to salaries and increments of staff, 3.98 mills is allocated to debt service, and 5.02 mills is allocated to general purposes. A homestead exemption for eligible property owners in the amount of $8,081 per home is included in this action. 

The Budget Resolution again permits installment payments, payable as follows: 50% on or before September 30, 25% on or before December 31 and the balance of 25% due on or before February 15. The penalty for late payment continues to be 10%, plus interest thereafter.