No guns for Cooper

I just finished reading Mt. Lebanon school board member takes stance against guns. Bill Cooper, (yes, Buddy J., he is a registered Democrat) was the only school board director who voted against the new weapons policy, which prohibits weapons and guns on campus, with a few exceptions. If you get a chance to read the article, be sure to read the comments, as well.

Fawn Lebowitz, (related to Larry?) left a snarky comment about eliminating starter pistols, spray paint guns, and hot glue guns. Don't forget staple guns, Fawn.

I wonder how Bill Cooper feels about Timmy warning parents about keeping their kids on sidewalks while Tony DeNicola's crew is out there shooting high powered weapons to kill those ferocious deer.

Remember the Walk on Washington Road? That was widely supported by parents and students.

Where is the consistency?

Loaded for bear?

The agenda for tomorrow evening's Joint Discussion/Regular Meeting appears to be pretty innocuous. Will Larry, Elaine, and Bill show up loaded for bear, like last week, or will they be amiable and cooperative?

Last week's meeting was embarrassing. It was ironic to hear a resident make a reference to Robert's Rules of Order, when his own wife was not observing Robert's Rules. Personal attacks were made toward other board members. Speaking without being recognized by the president seems to be the norm now. This includes the superintendent! When residents or taxpayers go up to speak, they are often met with interruptions. Hostility and bullying have no place at a school board meeting.

I am extremely optimistic that good things will happen this year. I believe the school board is headed in the right direction. Even Pantone's Color of the Year is encouraging. Here is to 2018!

Meet the Candidates

On Tuesday, May 19, 2015, registered Republicans and Democrats will have the opportunity to choose up to five School Board Directors. Additionally, those voters in Wards 1, 3, and 5 will be voting for their candidates to serve as Mt. Lebanon commissioners. Four years ago, Mt. Lebanon voters had more options, with several candidates running for the same seat. The League of Women Voters held a Candidates Forum, prior to the May Primary in 2011, which gave voters an opportunity  to learn more about those running for office. For this Primary, registered R's and D's must rely on social media.

The race for School Board Directors includes six candidates for five seats. Those running for School Board have the opportunity to cross file.

Running on both tickets are:

Incumbent Elaine Cappucci
Incumbent Larry Lebowitz
Incumbent Bill Cooper
Hugh Beal
Sarah Olbrich
http://www.leboed.com/

Running on the Republican ticket only:

Matt Kluck
No website for Matt Kluck

For the Commission:

In Ward 1,

Incumbent John Bendel (D)
http://www.votebendel.com/

Dan McNichol (R)
http://votemcnichol.com/

In Ward 3,

Andy Reinhart (D)
http://www.andyreinhart.com/

Steve McLean (R)
No website for Steve McLean

In Ward 5,

Kelly Fraasch (D)
http://www.kellyfraasch.com/

William Hoon (R)
No website for William Hoon

If voters are dissatisfied with the actions of our School Board, this Primary gives registered R's and D's a chance to vote out one incumbent. The General Election in November will give all registered voters an opportunity for change in leadership (the majority) within our Municipality.

It is all about pizza these days UPDATED

Still listening to the podcast from Monday night's school board meeting, but I see that a couple of documents have been added to the District website.

Proposed Budget Reduction Concepts for 2013-14 shows that the board will gain $5000 by increasing the student parking fee from $50 to $75 per year. Still yet to be determined is the student activities fee structure, but the cost of that line item is $50,000.  Still no mention of administration concessions.

The Proposed Final Budget of April 5, 2013 shows a proposed budget increase of .54 mills.

In The Almanac article, Mt. Lebanon Schools announce savings, look for more cuts, Bill Cooper wants the full .54 mill increase.

Board member William Cooper, on the other hand, advocated for the full proposed .54 mill increase, comparing it to “two large pizzas” on a $100,000 house. He laid the blame for the pension crunch on the state and individual school districts, which held back pension contributions in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

If that is the case, may I collect Little Caesars Pizza coupons and pay the increase with those? They could be used for Timmy's monthly pizza lunches with the kids. Speaking of Tim, The Almanac reports:

If the board would like to further reduce millage, and the superintendent is unable to make headway with the union on pay concessions, the best option would be to use leftover fund balance to rein in taxes.

How are those union concessions working for you, Tim? Have you offered to personally make concessions, along with the rest of the administrators? I am betting as I do every year, that you will be getting that tidy increase, instead of a freeze or concession.

Update April12, 2013 9:30 AM Mt. Lebanon school board still working to cut tax hike

True Confession About the School Board Meeting

I have not watched or listened to the entire March 18 school board meeting.  I did catch Harry Funk's article in today's PG. Mt. Lebanon school board rejects idea of school closing Personally, I am getting a little tired of Mr. Cooper. I consider him to be an obstructionist. In the PG article,

"Board member William Cooper gave his opinion about the potential ramifications of closing a school."

Anytime a board member comes up with a cost saving idea, Bill gives his opinion about why it is a bad idea. Hey Bill, why don't you come up with some ideas to balance the budget, besides raising taxes? I know you feel as though a .55 millage increase is like no increase at all, but in reality, it is like a .55 millage increase. What did someone say?  A million dollar increase?

More suggestions made at Monday's meeting included: (as quoted in the PG article)

• Eliminate an elementary librarian's position and have six librarians share duties among the seven schools

• Re-examine the high school's Math Lab, which provides tutorial, remedial and enrichment services for students

• Increase class sizes at the secondary level

• Reduce physical education requirements in high school

• Ask teachers to take fewer in-service or personal leave days

• Cut funding for club sports

Other suggestions involve ways to increase revenue, such as raising student fees for activities and parking.

The best line in Harry's story was the last line.

"We have not gotten a lot of feedback to this point," Mrs. Cappucci said. "I hope that people will start joining the conversation."

I hope the school board will start listening. We have had quite a conversation here.

Dream Team, Change Orders, and More

I updated the change orders list (see sidebar) to reflect tabled item number 28. Dan Remely, always careful with our tax dollars, felt that the carpeting expense could be considered as a capital expense item down the road. I deducted $6,559 from the change orders running total.

We have a new Policy Committee, which one reader described as our "Dream Team." The new members consist of

• Plagiarism expert and authority on bending school board policies, Josephine Posti
• Mary Birks, our resident Harrisburg aficionado who blames Corbett for everything
• Bill Cooper, all around nice guy who never makes waves by agreeing with the status quo

Other big news, a resident expressed concern regarding the networking technology bidding and contract, and how we are implementing antiquated systems, instead of state-of-the-art technology.
I would love to hear more about this, if that resident is reading this. In fact, as always, I would like anyone "in the business" weigh in on this.

In addition, the School Board was amazed at the response to the Math Nights, drawing 650 people. Are they surprised that the community is deeply concerned about our TERC Investigations math program?

Finally, the School Board listened to the students, as Larry Lebowitz pointed out, and promoted Judith Kolko to the new activities director. Carlie McGinty is now at the USC High School as their new guidance counselor. Congrats to both women.

PA university faculty seek OK to strike

According to the PG, State System faculty union leaders approve strike authorization vote

Leadership for the union representing some 6,000 faculty and coaches in the 14 universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education today [October 20, 2012] unanimously approved a strike authorization vote.

Here is a map of those 14 universities. http://www.passhe.edu/Pages/map.aspx

This really hits home. I see that one of our school board members is a faculty member of one of those universities. http://m.calu.edu/People-Finder/?first_name=&last_name=Cooper&relationship_id=0&submit=Submit 

How about good spelling as a goal?

Got my colorful campaign door card from the Cappucci, Cooper, and Lebowitz gang.  Anyone notice the spelling error?

Hint: It is one of their goals.



Let's look at their goals.  The first one talks about constituent satisfaction.  Remember how many of us wanted some or most of the current board members to resign in an earlier poll?  Let's not forget how we were ignored when I submitted our 25 questions about the renovation.  80% of us believed that the school board would not answer our questions concerning the renovation in the latest Lebo Citizens poll. How about the 4,000 of us who signed the petition?
The second goal talks about managing our finances responsibly. Don't see that happening with our latest Taj Mahal project.
The third goal is to move our district forward with a new Strategic Plan.  Isn't that one of Dr. Steinhauer's 2011-2012 goals?
And the final goal is to..oops...there it is: POSTION our district to be a leader in 21st-century education. 
I hope spell check will be included in 21st-century education.
I don't know Mr. Cooper, but when it comes to "Caring Leadership," the leader of the high school renovation doesn't seem to care that we have unanswered questions and that we do not approve of the cost of the project.