Why is it always the wrong one resigning from the School Board?

Another good guy has submitted his resignation to the Mt. Lebanon Board of School Directors. According to the March 9, 2015 School Board Agenda,  the Board will accept the resignation of school director Scott D. Goldman.

Scott, I want to thank you for your years of service on the school board. You were fiscally responsible and didn't cave in to the pressures of an out-of-control school board. Thank you for your hard work, honesty and transparency.

You will be missed, Scott. Good luck.

We still don't know the winning bid UPDATED 2X

Last night, Mt. Lebanon School Board Directors approved the second bond issue for the high school renovation. It brought $32,950,000 in proceeds. It will have for the first year, a .2 mill tax increase, a  .19 mill tax increase for the second year, and a .2 mill tax increase for the third year. We sold $35,090,000 bonds for proceeds of $32,950,000. The expenses appear to be over $2 million.  Scott Goldman was the only director who voted against it. Level funding cost $7,890,000 less than wrapping bonds and borrowing the interest over the life of the bonds, assuming the bonds are not refinanced.

What we don't know is what the net interest cost or the true interest cost of the winning bid. We were told that the winning bid and the cover bid were within .01% of each other. The board did not reveal either cost last night.

In 2009, we were quoted a 3.59% Arbitrage Yield, but in the Act 34 document, it was revealed that the True Interest cost was 4.10%.

Moody's report is here. The podcast to last night's meeting is here.

Update August 20, 2013 12:11 PM Taxpayers file lawsuit to block Woonsocket tax.

Update August 20, 2013 5:53 PM The MTLSD website is down, but I understand this was posted today. Also, residents have called Jan Klein today, asking for the winning bid and was told to file a RTK. Any stockbroker could have answered that question, but you won't get it from the School District .

School Board Votes to Issue Bonds to Complete Financing for High School Project August 20, 2013 At the August 19, 2013 School Board meeting, the Board voted to authorize the issuance of General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2013 in the aggregate principal amount of $34,745,000 to provide funds  for the completion of the renovations to the high school. The bidding was favorable with the District being the only competitive bond sale scheduled in Pennsylvania this week, and the second largest and second highest rated sale of only 11 competitive sales across the country on Monday, August 19, 2013. There were a number of bids, and the bids were very close.  The winning bidder was Mesirow Financial of New York City.  Mesirow is generally not an active bidder on Pennsylvania school district bonds, but said they were enticed to bid due to the strong Aa1 credit of the District and the belief that their investor base would be excited to own these bonds.  With this sale, the District will continue to finance the construction of the high school until its completion in 2015. On  August 12, the Board gave direction to the financial advisor and bond counsel to proceed to bid on an anticipated $33 million debt issue to fund the remaining costs of the high school renovation project. The bonds were directed to be wrapped around existing debt so the millage cost to the community will be minimized with the debt payments implemented over a three year period. It is anticipated that the increase in millage will be below .2 mills each of the next three years to complete this financing.

It's a wrap!

The school board has decided to use a wraparound structure for the second bond issue vs. level payment. With the cushion, a.k.a over taxing, that the school board has established, the board has decided to use capitalized interest. The cushion could be used for OPEB, the grievance, the rifle range, etc.

Tim Frenz, again did not have a presentation for the public. He resorted to pointing to his papers, rather than sharing the information on the screen to his left. In all my years of making sales presentations for my $5 million territory, I would have been fired for being so unprofessional. Josephine Posti said it in a nutshell. The public does not have the figures that the board has to see, to know that they are making a good decision. Why not, Josephine? She went after Scott Goldman when he voted in favor of level funding. He calculated that level funding will cost the district $5.6 million LESS. By wrapping this bond, we will be paying 19% MORE. She said that it will cost us more in millage. Scott tried to explain that we have the option to refinance a level bond issuance, as well, while saving taxpayers $5.6 million dollars. Cappucci, Birks, and Posti all pounced on him.

The good news is that Moody's has given Mt. Lebanon an AA1 rating.

I am not pretending that I am an expert on this topic. It is complicated to me, so please listen to the podcast for a better explanation. It is available here.

Act 93 Administrative Agreement removed from agenda

Thanks to David Huston, the podcasts to tonight's meetings are now available. Josephine Posti announced that an agenda item was removed -

Act 93 Administrative Agreement – The Board will be asked to consider an Act 93 agreement with the District’s administrators.
Act 93 Administrative Agreement: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the Act 93 Administrative Pay for Performance Plan as presented effective July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2017.

Does that mean that there is no agreement for Jan Klein? Steve Scheurer?

The following action item was only an adjustment to Mrs. Klein's annual salary, or a technical amendment or revision as explained by Scott Goldman:

Revision to 2012-2013 Administrative Salaries – The Board will be asked to approve a revised list of salary adjustments for administrators previously approved by the Board.
Revision to 2012-2013 Administrative Salaries: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the revised 2012-2013 list of annual salary adjustments for administrators effective July 1, 2012.

At the last meeting, Scott Goldman had not voted to approve the administrative raises, but since tonight was a technical amendment, the vote was unanimous. I wish the Board would have just come out to explain what the technical amendment was.

Let's hear it for Directors Ostergaard and Goldman!

Last night, the school board directors voted and approved raises for head custodians, administrative assistants, supervisors, specialists, custodial/maintenance employees and administrators (3%). June 18, 2012 School Board Meeting Agenda  Scott Goldman explained why he was going to vote no. Dale Ostergaard also explained why he was voting no. Watch the meeting or listen to the podcast and hear Josephine Posti publicly scold Dale for his reasons. Larry Lebowitz also chimed in and supported Josephine. We knew it was going to go that way since Josephine included in her monthly report how Dr. Steinhauer deserved his raise. Here is the best part. Scott Goldman asked Tom Peterson if the vote was 9-0 against the raises, would the staff still get the raises.  Peterson said, "Yes." Then Goldman asked why even vote if it is guaranteed. Peterson said that's the way it's always been done.
It's on the podcast.
Remember what USC's superintendent did? Is Steinhauer in this for the money? Evidently.

Only two showed up for a cuppa Jo?

Updated the Google Doc link

In an article written by Deana Carpenter For The Almanac, there were only two community members who met with Josephine Posti, Scott Goldman, and Dale Ostergaard. Mt. Lebanon seeks community input (Updated copy to include priceless comments saved in Google Docs) I received zero feedback for this blog about the first meeting where Posti and company made an attempt to reach out to the community.  I thought people were just being shy, but it was a situation where the board members outnumbered the community members. Two mothers of children who attend Lincoln Elementary School, attended the coffee and raised the same concerns that were raised here on Lebo Citizens. As discussed in the article, one of their concerns included the MLEA grievance, a subject that the Board refuses to include in next year's budget and could be an issue for the next twenty years. That fact is only brought up by Dale Ostergaard, time and time again. Posti always seems to forget that part.

Another topic for discussion was the unanimous vote for the feasibility study. Funny thing about the feasibility study.  The money was taken out of this year's budget because it was available. But in "The List" versions 1.0 and 2.0, $40,000 is listed Above The Line (ATL) to reduce consulting fees. Were consulting fees ever listed in the budget previously? And again, no mention of our secret admirer willing to pay for 25% of that study.  Sounds to me like they backed out, don't you?

Finally, the community members were concerned about cuts that were on the table affecting the elementary schools, specifically Lincoln.  Is this when 4,000 people, including former school board directors, say, "I told you" to the school board?

The kicker was this quote in The Almanac:

Posti said that in a short period of time she has heard a lot of positive feedback from members of the community. "There are a lot of exciting things happening in the district that we see people are enthusiastic about."

Enthusiastic? Where were your supporters, Josephine? A commissioner was booked solid at her coffee at Orbis Café. Are you getting the message that we are pretty disgusted with the Board's actions?