Timmy blocked me on Twitter. UPDATED 2X

Update September 8, 2013 9:01 AM  Tucker Arensberg is the School District's solicitor. This is from Google Analytics, showing the visits Tucker Arensberg has made to my blog during and after Timmy's Twittering Travels.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Update September 8, 2013 11:58 AM Tucker Arensberg's opinion about Timmy and Twitter can be found here.

What else should a superintendent be doing?



Mt. Lebanon School District Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer shows the construction that is going on at the school on Monday, October 22, 2012. Justin Merriman | Tribune-Review

 Matt Santoni, from the Trib, reported that we will be reimbursed for nearly $400,000 in repairs because of the electrical line that was hit by a contractor. That is great news.  What is even better news is that Tim Steinhauer is working hard on meeting his goals. Goal number 2 is:

2. High School Project – The Superintendent will continue the District’s efforts to build/renovate the High School.

Insurer to reimburse Mt. Lebanon after contractor hit electrical line

Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 8:57 p.m.

The Mt. Lebanon School District is waiting for its insurer to reimburse it for nearly $400,000 worth of repairs necessitated when a contractor on the high school renovation project struck an underground electrical line in August.

Finance director Jan Klein said the total bill should come to slightly over $390,000, and the district’s insurance policy should reimburse it for all but a $5,000 deductible. That should eventually be reimbursed by the subcontractor that had been doing the digging, Superintendent Tim Steinhauer said. Although that agreement has yet to be finalized, the contractor has given no indication it would challenge the district, he said.

The board last week approved a final $5,866 payment to Fairfield Electric for its work, bringing its total to about $279,000.

A few other bills, like money to Verizon for the phone system repair, may go before the board later, Steinhauer said.

The district’s cash-flow for the ongoing $109 million renovation should not be affected, since the repair money can be temporarily taken from the project’s contingency fund, officials said.

The electric problems occurred when subcontractors digging near the school’s loading dock along Cochran Road hit the buried 5-kilovolt line on Aug. 13, causing sparks, smoke and damage to the building’s phone systems and more. Three trailer-sized portable generators powered most of the school for the first three weeks of classes until the electrical line could be repaired

In a tour of the construction site on Monday, Steinhauer showed off progress on the athletic wing, which is going up between the main high school building and the stadium. Concrete supports are beginning to define the swimming pool, while masonry walls have gone up for the locker rooms and athletic offices along the building’s lower floors.

Steel girders have risen for the academic wing, and a canopy is taking shape where a new entrance will eventually pass through where the main gym is now. Steinhauer said that space will become into a central space for students once new gyms are completed.

The Fine Arts theater has been gutted for refurbishment, while the sixth floor of the old B Building, which fronts Cochran Road, has had many of its interior walls knocked down, opening up vast spaces that will be re-divided into larger classrooms.*

The project is scheduled to wrap up in 2015.

This week, subcontractors again had to dig for an electric line, but the work proceeded without incident.

* Old B Building has been gutted for refurbishment, but the 1972 C Building couldn't. Our school board is a train wreck. They are spending millions on the high school project. The superintendent is seen more times in photos wearing a hard hat than with students in a learning environment. We are paying him to be a project manager.

But where is the school board's priorities? Photo ops for Timmy, the high school renovation, turf and grinding.  As someone wrote on another blog about Lebo's grinding,

Teens have died from excessive drinking.
Nobody's ever died from grinding.

Shame on all of you, School Board. Your priorities are all wrong.
I almost forgot. While you gave Timmy his raise and charged students for parking, Number 26 on your cost reduction list:

Reduce use of contracted security at District events $ 5,000

Tonight's Town Hall Meeting

The Revenue Generating Team for the Mt. Lebanon School District held their town hall meeting tonight at the Mt. Lebanon High School Library.  The audience consisted of a man, a woman who came in late, and a Boy Scout.  The only School Board member in attendance was Mary Birks.  Dr. Steinhauer was present, but did not speak.  Jan Klein revealed that the Revenue Generating Team has been having meetings since May 2010.  The meeting lasted eleven minutes and 29 seconds and has been posted on lebocitizens.com.  No TV cameras were in use this evening.  The Team had nothing to offer.  Sounds like it was a success.

Update 10:50 P.M. Please listen to the 11 minute meeting, if you can.  You will hear how the School District dropped the ball with the Mt. Lebanon Foundation of Education.  The comment was made that there was little effort from the School District because no one "felt any pain." This was the only comment made at the meeting.  I think there was a message tonight.  It was advertised on the Municipal website, the School District website, Lebo Citizens' blog, and Lebo Citizens' website.  One woman, one man with a recorder, and a Boy Scout.

Update March 10, 2011 12:48 P.M. Kaitlynn Riely's article, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11069/1130905-55.stm, failed to mention that Jackie Foor, the one attendee with a comment, is the Executive Director for Mt. Lebanon Foundation for Education. Is that a paid position?

Repeat after me: "It's going to be great for our community."

Repeat after me:  "It's going to be great for our community."

That was Dr. Steinhauer’s great thought after last night’s meeting.  It didn’t matter that they had to lie, fool with the numbers, raise our taxes astronomically, focus on construction and litigation rather than education, and ignore what the majority of citizens of Mt. Lebanon wanted.  I looked around in that meeting room that holds eighty people and saw the smiling faces of the proponents of the High School renovation.  I thought to myself, "These are the people who wanted it.  They’re all in this small room."  

Repeat after me:  "It's going to be great for our community."

I went downtown yesterday and paid my county taxes.  I had to wait for the man in front of me to remove his shoes before going through the metal detector.  That gave me time to take off my coat and place it and my purse on the belt.  I felt sorry for him.  The County taxes are the “easy” ones to pay. 

Repeat after me:  "It's going to be great for our community."

Dan Miller was trying to cap the amount of parking spaces in the Discussion session.  His point was that you can’t put ten pounds of potatoes in a five pound bag.  It didn’t matter if they were Russets or sweet potatoes (or students or faculty.)  It was a basic concept, which couldn’t be grasped by Raja, Dave, or Joe.

Repeat after me:  "It's going to be great for our community."

Matt Kluck quoted “The Mt.Lebanon Comprehensive Plan” which can be found at http://pa-mtlebanon.civicplus.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=13 . He reminded his peers of the community development objectives that were identified as the vision for the Comprehensive Plan as printed on page 1-3.   This Plan also identifies “Rising school taxes” as the number two threat to Mt. Lebanon.

Repeat after me:  "It's going to be great for our community."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_722033.html