More reasons not to vote for Cappucci

There is that little thing about her son being hired as a social studies teacher at Jefferson Middle School and no trace of why the job posting was altered nine months after Elaine Cappucci's son was hired. Keep in mind that Elaine had to resign from the school board because of the nepotism policy and is now running to replace herself, as well as seeking another four year term.

Please listen to Paula's comments on nepotism, as well as Elaine's "rebuttal" from Monday's school board meeting. The school board meeting video is available here. Paula begins at 1:30:57. Elaine begins at 1:38:33. The clip can be viewed here.

Besides her belligerent demeanor during Comments or Questions from Residents or Taxpayers at the October 9, 2017 school board meeting, I wanted to share a little more background on Elaine Cappucci's bio from the CCRB campaign website.

I was part of the team that negotiated the current Act 93 agreement for our District administrators.

That is not something I would be proud of, especially with what has been revealed with Jan Klein's creative accounting in recent days. The Act 93 Agreement can be found here. You can read about Jan Klein's salary adjustment here. Twenty MTLSD administrators received salary increases Please take the time to read the comments in that 2012 post. We were complaining about Jan's sloppy bookkeeping five years ago!

Elaine Cappucci is part of the Million Dollar Heist also known as the Century of Excellence Campaign Committee. Mary Birks likes to refer to it as a 100 year plan. Since Timmy doesn't have an original thought, Elaine has a major role as Timmy's key Key Communicator.

You vote for Elaine Cappucci, it is job security for Janice Klein and Timothy Steinhauer!

Bad News/Good News UPDATED 10/11/17

The PA Department of Education released the Keystone Exams scores. The bad news is that Mt. Lebanon High School can't compete with Upper St. Clair High School.

How local high schools fared on this year's Keystone Exams

By Ethan Lott / The Business Times ranked schools based on scores just released by the state Department of Education. 

Top 5 High Schools

The good new is that Mt. Lebanon School District is considering a $1,347,000 investment for a competitive size artificial turf field on the Rock Pile. Always being fiscally responsible, by throwing in the replacement of the high school stadium artificial turf, the school district can save 10% for a total of $1.7 million. Where will the money come from? Well, Jan Klein claims this month, that there is about $5 million available in the capital projects funds. Next month may be a different story.

At last night's school board meeting, the Draft Rock Pile Presentation was made with all the different options explained. Miraculously, the presentation was posted on the school district website last night. Of course, we're still waiting for Mary and Timmy to release the timeline promised last month. But when it comes to sports in this town, people move in warp speed. A suggestion was made for money to come from THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN, since it could benefit the community. People would WANT to give, for sure. Cheerleader Larry Lebowitz said that this is a "golden opportunity" and he is excited! By adding lights, we could certainly get even more use.

Still waiting for the day when education is discussed at a school board meeting, instead of construction. Tonight, the municipality held a public hearing on the CIP which includes $5.5 million for Muni Field Improvements in 2022.

So even though we can't compete scholastically with Upper St. Clair, we can have some awesome fields! The band is excited. The soccer coaches are excited. The track coaches are excited. Larry is excited. Several 2016-2017 Key Communicators are excited. Go Lebo!

Update October 11, 2017 7:39 AM Here is how Mt. Lebanon Magazine spins it.

Timmy's Sampling of Community Opinion UPDATED 7:50 PM

Timmy's Key Communicators group has always intrigued me. Do a search on Lebo Citizens to get some background. Timmy likes to refer to it as a "sampling of community opinion." It helps him understand and proactively manage issues. Through a Right To Know, an updated list of members of Timmy's Super Secret Task Force is available here.

2016-2017 Key Communicators

Elaine Cappucci is back to help Timmy "understand" and "manage issues." Now I understand the Aviva Diamond Smear Campaign.

Update October 5, 2017 7:50 PM Timmy just retweeted:

Still waiting for Timmy's Timeline, which he and Mary Birks promised to put on the Capital Campaign website weeks ago. Yesterday, I ended up filing a RTK for it. 

Survey says...

 I am taking down the latest poll, but have recapped the results below.

Do you think the School Board Directors will answer our questions concerning the renovation?

Yes. They have been open and honest throughout the process.  We will get nine responses. 5 (10%)

Yes. We will get one generic response "For the Board."  5 (10%)

No.  40 (80%)

Total votes: 50

Eighty percent of you were correct.  I had no response from ANY of the school board directors.  I don’t believe they were addressed at the Architect’s Update.  To refresh everyone’s memory, here are the questions. 

We have questions.  We were ignored. We had a petition. We were ignored. Now, we expect it. Eighty percent got it right.  How sad.

When Dan Rothschild started his blog, the school board was thrilled to get input. Dr. Steinhauer formed his Key Communicator group, again for input. Now he has a student key communicator group. The Key Communicators started out with these members listed in alphabetical order by first name:

Al Frioni

Andy Rhodes

Betsy Dillon

Bill Cooper

Blaise Larotonda

Corey Polena

Dan Goff

Dave Reese

Deb Smit

Diane Wainwright

Elaine LaBalme

Elizabeth Glantz

Frank Baker

Frank Hines

Gail Sieg

Hugh Beal

Joe Polk

John Schrott

Kim Ressler

Kristen Linfante

Larry Lebowitz

Mary Ellen Schmidt

Rob Gardner

Rob Papke

Ruth Foltz

Sheldon Campbell

Sue Fretterd

Sue Simmons

Tom Moertel

That is quite a list. We have two bloggers, athletic supporters, two running for school board, one running for commissioner along with her campaign manager and her sidekick, one running the courtroom, writers for the Mt. Lebanon Magazine, and only two signed the petition to cap the renovation to $75 million.  He sure has his bases covered, doesn’t he?

The school board wants input, but they ignore our emails if we don’t agree with them. If we don’t go with the program, there is retribution. That is not very nice.

A disconnect between the school board and taxpayers?

I have been following House Bill 1326 and see that it is up for second consideration on Monday, June 13, 2011. House Calendar  In the article, Amid budget cuts, Pa. public school districts also may see their taxing authority curtailed, I had to laugh.

Dave Davare, director of research services for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said boards are usually reluctant to raise taxes. He argues they have become the focus of the debate because schools get about 70 percent of property taxes, with counties and local municipalities splitting the rest.
"We can put out information, districts have websites, but to what extent are people looking at it, using it and understanding it?" Davare said. "You go to a lot of school board meetings, and you'll find a lot of times very few people in attendance, unless you're talking about hiring a new football coach or firing a football coach."

The School Board majority had no problem raising our taxes 10.5% last year, and turn around and say that they are holding the line this year. Could it mean that they took too much from us last year? Or is it because it is an election year?  Or is it that it is the calm before the storm waiting for that second bond? 

I had to laugh because a director for the PSBA was quoted as saying that school districts put out information on their websites, but are people looking at it and using it?  It is pretty clear to me that Kindergarten parents, thankfully, weren't reading it yesterday.  Dismissal was uneventful.

The representative from the PSBA also went on to say that few people attend school board meetings unless it is about hiring or firing football coaches. Where are all those people now when they were insisiting that we "absolutely" must have the sports complex? I find that happening right here on this blog.  I have been asking for candidates or "Key Communicators"  to record public meetings that would not be public otherwise, and I get no response except from one KC who was asked to record a meeting.  We are still in search for someone to record the architect's update.  It is sad that only three people have come forward admitting that they are on the superintendent's task force to communicate.  Two of the three mention it on their campaign websites.  We don't know who belongs to the committee, never hear anything from them, and only two from last year's list signed the infamous petition to cap the high school project.  We get the link to the Harris survey indirectly from the School District.  We have Policy meetings scheduled at inopportune times, forecasts disappear, and audit and finance committees vanish. Is that how the District is putting out information as the PSBA claims?

Governor Corbett's education secretary, Ron Tomalis said that,

if the exceptions are eliminated, he expects tax increase referendums to become far more common. And if they continue to fail, he said, that would reflect a disconnect between the school board and taxpayers.
"Would it mean more work on the part of school district officials? Yes, but that work would entail, first and foremost, controlling costs, and second, communication with the citizens of the district about exactly where the money is going, what it's being used for," Tomalis said.

A disconnect between the school board and taxpayers?  Here? Communication with the citizens of the district about our tax dollars?  I hope these bills pass, for our sakes. 

Progress with the bid review process

The Mt. Lebanon School District's home page reports that there "will be an Architect Update on Monday, June 13, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in the High School Library prior to the School Board meeting. The architects from Celli-Flynn Brennan and the construction managers from P.J. Dick Corp. will report to the School Board on their progress with the bid review process."   Again, I am asking for a volunteer to record the meeting. Presently, 37 countries have visited Lebo Citizens. There is definitely a need for these meetings to be available online, instead of just the cable channels. I have reached out to School Board candidates with no luck, and now I am asking the Key Communicators for help.  Unfortunately, my list of Key Communicators is over a year old (not well communicated), so maybe one of these people would volunteer.

Al Frioni

Andy Rhodes

Betsy Dillon

Bill Cooper

Blaise Larotonda

Corey Polena

Dan Goff

Dave Reese

Deb Smit

Diane Wainwright

Elaine LaBalme

Elizabeth Glantz

Frank Baker

Frank Hines

Gail Sieg

Hugh Beal

Joe Polk

John Schrott

Kim Ressler

Kristen Linfante

Larry Lebowitz

Mary Ellen Schmidt

Rob Gardner

Rob Papke

Ruth Foltz

Sheldon Campbell

Sue Fretterd

Sue Simmons

Tom Moertel

If you are willing to help, please contact me at EGillen476@aol.com, and I will make arrangements to get a recorder to and from you.  Thanks in advance!

Update 9:54 am It occurred to me that there may be some readers who are not aware of the Key Communicator group.  Through a Google search, I found this explanation on the Plano Independent School District website. http://www.pisd.edu/about.us/key.communicators/index.shtml I also found references to Dr. Steinhauer's group at a local level. http://voteccl.com/about_bill , http://jposti.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-board-member-appointed.html and http://votelinfante.com/content/candidate-profile-kristen-linfante.