UPMC, Tax Liens, PlanCon I, Salary Increases, Change Orders, and Credit Cards UPDATED

Normally, the School Board has two meetings per month, a construction update/discussion meeting and a business meeting. July is the exception. The School Board introduces and then passes agenda items on the same night. That night is tomorrow. Here are the highlights from the July School Board Meeting Agenda.

List of Liened Taxes: RESOLVED, That the Board approves for public display the list of liened taxes for the 2014 tax year.

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Local Services Tax (LST) Collections – The Municipal Tax Office currently processes the District’s LST collection. The cost of collection has been shared equally with the Municipality at $18,000. We are recommending a contract with Jordan Tax Service to do this collection. Jordan’s fees are 1.8% of sums collected plus a sum of 10% or 20% on collection of delinquent LTS accounts (the fee depending on how soon the tax is paid) plus half of all penalties and fines collected in litigation plus costs of going after delinquencies. We anticipate this contract would cost the District under $1,000 plus the cost to collect delinquencies. The Solicitor’s Office has reviewed the contract and recommends its approval. The Superintendent recommends approval of this contract.

Local Services Tax Collections: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the contract with Jordan Tax Services to collect Local Services Taxes at 1.8% of the collections plus additional cost to collect delinquencies in the form presented.

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Salary Increase for Assistant Superintendents – Annually, the Board is required to review the performance of the Assistant Superintendents: Dr. Ronald Davis, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education and Dr. Marybeth Irvin, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education. In accordance with statutory requirements the performance of each has been rated as satisfactory. The recommended salary increases are within the 2.8% average salary increase as previously identified as the average Act 93 administrator increase. The Superintendent recommends the salary increases for satisfactory performance for each Assistant Superintendent.

Salary Increase for Assistant Superintendents: RESOLVED, That the Board rates the performance of the Assistant Superintendents as satisfactory and approves the salary of $139,055 for Dr. Ronald Davis and $122,127 for Dr. Marybeth Irvin effective July 1, 2015.

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DonorPro Contract: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the DonorPro Merchant Services Integrated Donation Processing contract at $10 per month plus 2.89% plus $.20 per credit card transaction for donations towards the Capital Campaign. 

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Athletic Trainer Services: RESOLVED, That the Board accepts the proposal from UPMC Sports Medicine for athletic training services at their five year price of $179,000 through June 30, 2020.

The 2010-2015 Agreement is available on my website and below:

On April 19, 2010, the Mt. Lebanon Board of School Directors approved an agreement with UPMC Sports Medicine for athletic training services and physician services for the 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years at our cost of $154,000. UPMC will be needing designated parking, which is something that was never indicated by the School Board at any municipal meeting. Besides paying UPMC $154,000, MTLSD will agree to serve as a regional center for UPMC by providing auditorium, gymnasium, classroom or fields to UPMC so that they may have sports medicine and/or sports performance programs up to four times per contracted year. By the way, UPMC will have the right to charge a participation fee to attendees of these programs. We also have to display four UPMC banners throughout the year at various MTLSD sports venues.

UPMC Athletic Training and Physician Services

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PlanCon Part I Submission – PlanCon Part I is a required submission for State review of the change orders in a construction project. There are two sets of Part I submissions for Board consideration and approval as recommended by our architect. The Superintendent recommends approval of these submissions. 

PlanCon Part I Submission: RESOLVED, That the Board approves submission of PlanCon Part I in the forms presented.

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And finally:

Change Orders for High School Renovation Project –Change orders for Board approval for the month of July totaling $37,464 from the Contingency and $8,282 from the Capital Budget have been reviewed by the architect, PJ Dick and the District administration: a. GC-116-285 to Nello for $37,464 for roof, window, wall and concrete work, b. ME-34-286 to McKamish for $2,235 for panels, and c. ME 35-287 to McKamish for $8,282 for ductwork for a fume hood. The Superintendent recommends approval of these change orders. 

Change Orders for High School Project: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the following list of change orders for the High School Renovation Project: a. GC-116-285 to Nello for $37,464 for roof, window, wall and concrete work, b. ME-34-286 to McKamish for $2,235 for panels, and c. ME 35-287 to McKamish for $8,282 for ductwork for a fume hood.

Where is the $2,235 for panels coming from? They forgot to tell us.

Update July 24, 2015 6:55 PM According to the PG's Mt. Lebanon high school renovation on track to 2016 completion, the Board decided to table the vote for the credit card services.

District administrators negotiated with DonorPro, a nonprofit company that already provides software for the capital campaign, to incorporate a software addition to process credit card payments. The cost would be $10 per month, plus 2.89 percent of the amount of each transaction and an additional 20 cents for each transaction. 

After board member Dan Remely expressed concerns about security and whether the rate is optimal, the board directed administrators to seek more information about options.

PA House Bill 1901: A Game Changer?

PA House Bill 1901 was passed in 2012 and has many provisions which could be a game changer for the school board. I hope they are following it closely. Here is the entire bill. HB 1901

In it, school board directors must give superintendents a minimum 150 day notice prior to the end of their contract during a regular board meeting, or the super's contract will be automatically renewed for the similar length of time. See page 32 of HB 1901. See page 37-38 for terminating assistant superintendents.

On page 36 of HB 1901, the school board must post the superintendent's and assistant superintendents' date of evaluation and whether they met their goals on the district website.

Starting in 2013-14, teacher evaluations will change. NEW EDUCATOR EVALUATION SYSTEM in 2014-15, principals (Nonteaching Professional Employees) evaluations will no longer be based primarily on PSSA scores.

Evaluation Criteria for “Nonteaching Professional Employees.” Nonteaching professional employees will be evaluated in the 2014-15 school year with a new system that considers the following areas of performance:

1) planning and preparation; 2) educational environment; 3) delivery of service; and 4) professional development. PDE is currently working on specific rubrics for pupil services personnel that reflect
these four categories. School-wide student performance measures must comprise 20 percent of a nonteaching professional employee’s overall rating. Specific elements of this measure will be established by PDE prior to 2014-15.

PSSAs will account for 15% of principals' evaluations. See page 42 of HB 1901.

The bill also allows, in terms of school finances, a provision for reopening budgets.

There is so much more in the 95 page bill that I hope readers will enlighten us of more changes.