More on TERC Investigations

Josephine Posti has to go. Surely, she should not seek reelection with this kind of attitude towards stakeholders.  Will the Board think enough of her to elect her to a third term as President next week? 

In the emails listed, identifying information has been redacted to protect the personal privacy of individuals discussed in the letters.

From: JPosti@mtlsd.net
To:  Stakeholder, Parent 1
CC: SchoolBoardEmaillist@mtlsd.net; Parent 2
Subject: RE: TERC Investigations
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:08:02 +0000

Stakeholder,
Your email is childish, disrespectful and counterproductive in addressing the concerns of parents with children in the District. Name-calling is beneath you and not an effective method of motivating the educational professionals charged with curricular responsibility.

Parent 1 and Parent 2,
Have you discussed your concerns with your [child's] teacher or principal? An understanding of those discussions would be helpful to Dr. Allen and her team as they evaluate how Investigations is being used in each building and within specific classrooms.

For the Board,
Josephine Posti
President
Mt. Lebanon School Board
 412.667.1479
 http://jposti.blogspot.com

Mission: To provide the best education possible for each and every student
________________________________

From: Stakeholder
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 1:03 PM
To: Parent 1,
Cc: School Board Email list; Parent 2
Subject: Re: TERC Investigations

Good going.....I hope parents organize and hound the SB and staff at meetings & e-mail to get off their "high horses" and do something about this....firing Steinhauer for his behavior know-it-all attitude plus Allen for her total incompetence would be good for starters....then give 12th grade PSSA, ACT & SAT math portion tests to all math teachers forcing them to use only this current flawed math teaching protocol.  Fire all who fail the tests!
 ---------- Original Message ----------
From: Parent 1
To: <schoolboardemaillist@mtlsd.net>
Cc: Parent 2
BCC: Additional Stakeholders
Subject: TERC Investigations
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:25:51 +0000

Good afternoon Board,
Have all of you actually reviewed the Investigations books that are actually used in the classroom? If so, what have you found?
Yesterday evening, ...I asked my [child] if...Seriously folks, would this have been acceptable for your children?
I honestly don't see how the entire board can just sit there while the mother of a 6th grader says during a public meeting her son cannot do long division. The parents of the children in our school district demand more. What are you going to do about it?

Here is a link to provide you more information:
http://www.wgquirk.com/TERC2008.html
Parent 1

I have received numerous emails complaining about Dr. Deb Allen's performance. Yes, I agree with the stakeholder.  Getting rid of Posti, Steinhauer, and Allen would be a great start.  Throw in Klein's retirement and we just might get the District back on its feet again.
   

About making AYP for students with disabilities UPDATED 2x

During Monday's School Board meeting, Dr. Ron Davis and Dr. Deb Allen made a presentation concerning Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). See Tuesday's blog post, Some Children Left Behind. Since then, I received two articles that the School District should read. One is called Students With Disabilities Can Make AYP. This 117 page booklet is subtitled, "What Every School Leader Should Know."

The other article is titled, Promoting AYP for Students with Disabilities through Planning, Resources and Support. Both articles should be on the Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer's reading list since Mt. Lebanon School District has been issued a warning. In fact, it should be required reading for the assistant superintendents, as well as the school board president who feel that the legislation is ridiculous.

Update September 12, 2012 11:06 PM In today's Almanac, Avalanche of testing looms for Mt. Lebo students (saved in Google Docs)

"I think this is one of the more ridiculous pieces of legislation districts in the Commonwealth must abide by," said board president Jo Posti. "I would challenge legislators to find a district that serves these subgroups better than Mt. Lebanon."

She added that she had spoken with state Rep. Matt Smith (D-Mt. Lebanon) regarding the issue on several occasions, and urged concerned community members to contact elected officials as well.

Contact elected officials, as in elected school board officials, Josephine? Did the School District appeal? Or did they miss the deadline? Does MTLSD ever take responsibility or is it always someone else's fault in Harrisburg?

Update September 13, 2012 12:27 PM Today's PG has a great article written by Molly Born with Mary Niederberger. PSSA results come up short in Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park

Two school districts in the southern suburbs are pointing to positives after disappointing state test score results: Mt. Lebanon for its high school, which failed to make adequate yearly progress, and Bethel Park for the district as a whole, which missed the mark on graduation rates and high school math scores.

Twenty MTLSD administrators received salary increases

Remember how the school board directors agonized over the cost reductions totaling approximately $850,000? They were able to reduce costs by charging students for parking at $50 per student, eliminating six part time library clerks and one custodian, eliminating the teacher applicant software, and more.

It turns out that twenty Mt. Lebanon School District administrators received salary increases for the 2012-2013 school year averaging three percent. Here is the breakdown:

• Deb Allen, assistant superintendent and top earner, went from $133,136 to $135,693.
• Ron Davis, assistant superintendent, went from $117,853 to $121,671
• Jan Klein, finance director, went from $124,451 to $133,054

In today's PG, Molly Born was able to clarify the technicality concerning Jan Klein's salary adjustment in Mt. Lebanon school officials given raises.

"She would not have been able to achieve her 3 percent raise for meeting expectations because she was at the top of her salary scale," Ms. Posti said.

Upper St. Clair's finance director declined a payraise. We take care of our finance director here in Lebo.

The increases were based on evaluations; 1.5% increase if approaching expectations, 3% increase for those who met expectations, and 4.5% increase for those who far exceeded expectations. 1.5% for those who approached expectations??? Does that mean "Close enough?" Are we playing horseshoes?

What about Dr. Steinhauer and his increase?

The board will approve superintendent Tim Steinhauer's salary sometime in the coming months. For the 2011-12 fiscal year, he earned $151,420 -- an increase of 3.5 percent from the previous year.

Dr. Steinhauer eliminated the supervisors, but has created "Dean of Students." I don't know how much of a savings there is with this new position, but I am sure that the board will be giving Dr. Steinhauer a 4.5 percent increase since he is doing a bang up job. Remember the super Super from  USC who requested a pay freeze? Not here. We charge students for parking, so that our administrators can get their raises. Only in Mt. Lebanon.

Young Scholars visit

Dr. Deb Allen recently visited the Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School. http://yswpcs.org/?gallery=mount-lebanon-assistant-superintendent-dr-deborah-allen-visited-yswpcs

It will be interesting to read or hear a report of her visit.  It certainly looks like they tried to be friendly.

This was in yesterday's PG. Charter school in Baldwin Township offers international environment

Letter from Dr. Steinhauer

A letter was sent out to parents today.  The announcement has been made that all curriculum supervisor positions are being eliminated.  The letter goes on to announce "the reappointment of Dr. Deborah Allen in a new role as the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education and the appointment of Dr. Ronald Davis as the Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education. We will now have two senior level administrators with a clear focus and mission to improve student performance and achievement at each level." What isn't mentioned is, do these new senior level administrators get pay increases?  Dr. Steinhauer's letter to parents
Also, word on the street is that teacher furloughs are coming too.  Hmmm.  Maybe we weren't fear mongering after all.

In other districts, there is talk of mergers.

Carlynton School District has invited Keystone Oaks, Chartiers Valley and Montour to talk informally about the prospect of merging. Carlynton has 1,460 students, Keystone Oaks about 2,050 students and Montour has nearly 3,000.

So far, Keystone Oaks is leaning toward attending a meeting, Chartiers Valley has said no and Montour hasn't weighed in.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11095/1137021-298.stm#ixzz1IgzvYARP

Update: April 6, 2011 Dr. Steinhauer's letter has been posted on the School District website.  http://www.mtlsd.org/Superintendent/stuff/Lettertoparents.pdf in the "Stuff" folder. The letter isn't dated, but the document properties show that it was created on 4/5/2011 at 4:28:52 PM.

Update: April 8, 2011  Keystone Oaks has accepted Carlynton's invitation to informal talks about merging districts.