Special School Board meeting UPDATED

From the Mt. Lebanon School District's website:

 School Board to Hold Special Meeting to Approve Bids for JMS Vestibule Project 

The Mt. Lebanon Board of School Directors will hold a Special Meeting to approve the bid for the Jefferson Middle School Captured Vestibule project on Friday, May 29, 2015 at 7:30 a.m. in the Mt. Lebanon High School Fine Arts Theatre.

Update May 29, 2015 8:03 PM Podcast of meeting is available here.

Keeping Our Schools Safe while Mt. Lebanon gears up to kill deer

Mt. Lebanon School District and Mt. Lebanon Police are hosting a School Safety Meeting on December 3, 2014.

The Mt. Lebanon School District and the Mt. Lebanon Police Department will hold an informational meeting for parents about school safety on December 3, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. in the Mellon Middle School Auditorium. The program will focus on an introduction to ALICE, (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) a school safety program that provides a research-based, proactive approach that teaches options in response to a school intruder. This past summer the MLPD trained all District administrators and staff in ALICE. The program will be introduced to our students during the second semester. The ALICE program will be used as an enhancement to the School District's safety strategies.

A concerned parent sent me this email regarding ALICE.

They are going to train children to thwart would-be assailants and gunmen in the schools. An ex-policeman came up with this ALICE program and is claiming it is research-based and it is not. His own district, where his wife was a principal, originally intended to use the program and after seeing what the training involved, all of the other principals from the district wrote a letter vehemently against the program, and the district withdrew from using the program. Please see the mtlsd website for more information about this developmentally inappropriate, non-scientific, anxiety-inducing program. Parents will need to convince the district not to employ the program.

At the same time, Mt. Lebanon Commissioners have introduced this amended ordinance.

Introduction of Ordinance (Bill No. 21-14) amending municipal park rules. -  

A new state law will take effect in January, known as Act 192. Mt. Lebanon is modifying its recreation rules to comply with the state law. 

Recommended Action: Introduce Ordinance (Bill No. 21-14).

Towns are not taking this legislation lightly. A previous comment submitted by a Lebo Citizens reader included this:

Here's the docket and petition for the lawsuit submitted by a group of legislators and mayors of Philly, Pgh, and Lancaster re: Act 192

Docket Number: 585 MD 2014

Petition for Review Leach v Commonwealth: Suit seeking overturning of law that lets NRA sue cities.

Where are our State Representative and State Senator?

On top of all of this, Mt. Lebanon Police, Firefighters and Public Works are gearing up to begin a deer culling program in Mt. Lebanon. Mt. Lebanon staffers become hunters to attack deer problem

This is insane.

Are you frickin' kidding me? UPDATED 2X

I just checked the Mt. Lebanon School District Budget website. Weren't the school board directors talking about a .55 mill increase at the most? Nooooo! They are talking about a mill and a half increase!!!!!!!

The Board discussed using a combination of cost reductions, increased revenues and use of fund balance to balance the budget. After much discussion, the consensus of the Board was to look at the use of $500,000-$1 million in fund balance and a millage increase of approximately a mill and a half. (Saved in Google Docs)

A MLSD 1.0 mill is equivalent to about $2.6 million.  0.55 mills = about $1.43 million. 1.50 mills = about $3.9 million.

Last year at this time, the school board hosted a School District Budget Forum on April 2, 2013. You may remember that is when Elaine Cappucci was rude to Bill Matthews and me. Jo Posti called me a liar. See:

No way! UPDATED 2x
As promised, more on the budget forum Bill Matthews' presentation
I had it right, Josephine.

So while the Municipality is appealing assessments, the School District is secretly pulling a fast one while they talk about fake budgets. No school district budget forums this year. Welcome to Mt. Lebanon!

Update March 30, 2014 12:40 PM The website has been updated to read:
The Board discussed using a combination of cost reductions, increased revenues and use of fund balance to balance the budget.  After much discussion, the consensus of the Board was to look at the use of $500,000-$1 million in fund balance and a millage increase of approximately half a mill.

Oops. It was just another typo by our highly paid Director of Communications. A mill and a half vs. half a mill. What's the difference? Same same. I never heard back from any school board director.

MTLSD Personnel Report Rev. 022414

There were some questions asked by parents a few months back concerning the status of an elementary school teacher. Either Solicitor Tom Peterson or Super Timmy indicated that any personnel updates would be listed on personnel reports.

The Personnel report Rev. 022414 should provide answers to those parents' questions.