No PlanCon $ for Lebo UPDATED

The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that Bethel Park will receive $2.5 million in reimbursement through the PlanCon process. State hands out construction reimbursements to local school projects. No mention of Mt. Lebanon receiving any State funding for the high school renovation.

When the cost of the project came back too high, our school board elected to cut corners by considering 197 potential project cost saving reductions. The list represented approximately $14 million in potential savings. How much of this has come back to haunt us? Back on August 8, 2011, I noticed that the school board agreed to eliminate the storm water detention tanks (#17). The rain garden was nixed as well. This had a direct impact on the stormwater situation on Cedar Blvd.  After Cedar Blvd. flooded on August 3, 2014, and then again nine days later, I asked Gateway's Dan Deiseroth if the high school renovation was contributing to the flooding on Cedar. His answer was, "No." I asked Dan if he OK'ed the high school renovation plans. His answer was, "Yes." Gateway approved this cut! This is the same person who said that the fields don't flood; it is merely standing water.

Another item cut was #23 Eliminate need for pyrite remediation based on geotechnical report. We know how that ended up.

A third critical decision made by the school board was #40 Change glass rail at swimming pool to stainless steel airplane cable rail. As we know, that produced a change order. But look how it was handled.

Will we need another change order for the change order? Will we get the nuts and bolts in the next change order?

Lebo Citizens, please review the 197 potential project cost saving reductions and see if more questionable choices resulted in change orders.

Finally, readers have been wondering about the status of the Pursuant Ketchum fundraiser. We are still in the quiet phase, two years later. The September 14, 2014 Personnel Report shows that the full time director of the capital campaign will be on a leave of absence and an interim director has been hired at a daily rate of $300. The interim director's employment is late September 2014 through early January 2015. The present campaign director will be on leave starting October 8, 2014 through the beginning of January 2015.  Is the overlap in employment and buying additional fundraising software really necessary? We invested in a Feasibility Study. Or will we be chalking this up to more contentious decisions made by our school board?

Get the railing fixed!!!! It was first reported November 19, 2013!

Update September 30, 2014 9:44 AM Read the snarky reply from Dr. Steinhauer concerning the pool railing.

From: TSteinhauer@mtlsd.net
To: David Huston
Subject: RE: Missing hardware on new pool balcony railing
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 12:17:21 +0000

Dear Mr. Huston,

Thank you for contacting the Board with your concerns. Installation of the revised pool railing is not complete. The lack of 2 bolts presents no structural or physical safety issue and will be installed when the project is completed. If this makes you uncomfortable, please stay away from this railing section until it is complete.

We are aware of no safety issues with construction.  

Timothy J. Steinhauer, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Mt. Lebanon School District

412-344-2076

What did you do today to improve the life of a child?

Why are residents and taxpayers being treated so poorly in Mt. Lebanon? The superintendent, the school board directors, the commission, and the Public Information Office seem to think we work for them. Mt. Lebanon is a disgrace.

Where the H is H?

On Monday's school board agenda, the board will approve a resolution urging increased State funding for school construction and renovation projects in the form presented.

The PG reports:

Meanwhile, the board plans to approve a resolution next week as a formal objection to not receiving state reimbursement for a portion of the ongoing high school renovation project.

Participation in a long-standing process called Planning and Construction Workbook, or PlanCon, entitles school districts to be compensated for embarking on capital improvement projects.

According to Mr. Steinhauer, Mt. Lebanon is owed about $450,000 per year, eventually totaling $11 million, but the state budget has not provided for any reimbursements to school districts the past two years. Some 125 districts are being affected, and many have drafted similar resolutions.

The documents are being sent to the offices of Gov. Tom Corbett and Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, as well as to state senators and representatives. Many of them are unaware of the lack of reimbursements, Director Mary Birks said.

"We are bringing it to their attention so that they know what the issue is," she said.

How can the State reimburse Mt. Lebanon when we're behind in filing the proper documents for the PlanCon process? Part H (PDF), Project Financing addresses the financing used for a project. Calculation of the temporary reimbursable percent for a project's financing occurs at PlanCon Part H. Once PlanCon Part H is approved, reimbursement on a project commences.  Have we done this?

The High School Renovation Process (saved in Google Docs) illustrates how behind the board is in the process. It shows that PlanCon Part F was the last submission approved. However, the February 20, 2012 agenda indicates "That the Board approves submission of PlanCon Part H to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in substantially the form presented."  This is the last item I can find pertaining to PlanCon Part H.  Was it ever approved by the PDE? Did the board approve it after that - approve the approval? 

I have been told that even after PlanCon H is submitted, approved by the state,
and the state's approval is accepted by the District, that an application for state subsidy must be submitted for each scheduled payment.  Has that been done?

Reimbursement is not reflected in the budget. Once approved, the budget cannot be reopened, unlike the Municipality.  Just as the Covenant tax money was never shown in a budget, this PlanCon money will disappear as well. How could the State provide reimbursement in the past two years when the paperwork was allegedly submitted last February?

The Lebo Shell Game lives on. As a reader commented previously,

"Jan Klein has and will continue to plug the state reimbursement hole with our tax dollars to balance the budget - read that extra millage - and that extra millage will not be reduced when the state payments are finally paid !"

Overbuilding the high school and money

Schools and money

Regarding the Nov. 21 Forum piece "Start Cutting Here, Gov. Corbett": Thomas Hylton rightly takes aim at the Pennsylvania Department of Education's PlanCon process. In addition to potentially over-building the commonwealth with overdone facilities, the department's management of the program deserves a failing grade when putting into practice regulations designed to protect residents and taxpayers.

Looking at our experience in Mt. Lebanon, regulations require the Department of Education to consider the "annual cost of amortization" of a project when evaluating a community's local effort and affordability. For no good reason, the state education department used an annual amortization cost of zero in its PlanCon review of our $100 million-plus high school renovation.

Presumably because the department did it and approved it, school superintendent Timothy Steinhauer and our school board majority took no issue with the analysis, despite indications that the proper application of the regulations could call into question the community's ability to pay for the high school, let alone other cost increases to come.

We are very much in need of Gov.-elect Tom Corbett's refined moral compass, all across Pennsylvania.

BILL MATTHEWS
Mt. Lebanon

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10339/1108105-110.stm#ixzz17FyzqXfs

Pennsylvania's PlanCon program encourages school districts to overbuild

"In theory, PlanCon encourages school districts to build and maintain top-quality facilities. In practice, PlanCon rewards districts for abandoning or demolishing perfectly good buildings and replacing them with lavish facilities that do little to improve learning but take decades to pay off."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10325/1104596-109.stm#ixzz16lhDU0hW