Our kids are dying

Recently during Citizen Comments, I made an observation about Commission meetings.  Month after month, I sit through discussions about turf and deer. People have come up to the podium and would exclaim, "Our kids have no place to play toddler soccer.  We must have turf." or "Will it take a death to get you people to do something about these deer?" How many deaths does it take for Mt. Lebanon to do something about the drug problem here?

Mt. Lebanon has a heroin problem. We live in a community where all the fundraisers for Outreach revolve around alcohol. We had discussions here about how some parents think it is perfectly acceptable to bring alcohol to ball games. Parents encourage their children to go to Under 21 Clubs instead of supporting the School District's decision to enforce Snowball guidelines. We have Blaise's infamous "21 Club."  In the Municipal budget, $12,000 has been set aside to count deer, yet how much has been allocated to drug enforcement?

One "anonymous" commenter here announced that we need to eradicate the deer. Every single one. I believe we need to eradicate the drug dealers. They have moved into Mt. Lebanon and our kids are dying. Yes, folks, drug dealers are right here in this Norman Rockwell painting.

Upon news of recent drug overdoses, I called my children just to hear their voices. When I told my son about the bad heroin that has hit Mt. Lebanon, he said that there is no such thing as good heroin. It is heroin.  My daughter reminded me of classmates who died from drug overdoses.  This has been going on for years.

I continued at the podium to say that the commissioners have ongoing discussions about Sports Advisory Boards and Joint Maintenance Agreements. I asked them when they were going to take off their blinders and look around. When will we have a Drug Advisory Board? I asked if we could take Kristen Linfante's $12,000 budgeted deer survey and put it towards drug enforcement.

Whatever Mt. Lebanon has been doing, it isn't working. Our kids are dying. Thankfully, Kelly Fraasch has stepped up (again) to take on this mission. As the newly appointed school board liaison, Kelly met with Josephine Posti, the commission liaison, to discuss the drug problem in Mt. Lebanon. In her latest post, The concerns about drug use in Mt. Lebanon, Kelly shares how the Municipality and School District will join forces to form a drug task force to "send a message to the street that Mt. Lebanon is no longer open for business" as Josephine mentioned in her report last night to the school board.

I want to thank Kelly for taking on this serious issue and bringing it to the School District.  Finally, the discussion is getting away from sports, turf, and deer. I also want to thank the School District for working with the Commission.  In my mind, this is the number one issue in Mt. Lebanon.

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

Who is spineless?

I am sure it is too late to make a difference, just a few hours before the School Board passes another raise for our superintendent. I thought it would be interesting for the community to see an article that was in the Sept. 28, 2012 High School newspaper. In summary, the Devil's Advocate editorial talks about consequences and how school policies are not enforced.

As high school students, we understand that consequences are sometimes deserved and a natural part of growing up. But we also know the difference between a strict policy and an empty threat.

The night before graduation last June, a number of high school seniors were cited for drinking or drugs when the police broke up a party. Almost every student was able to walk at graduation.

Why do we have a Policy Committee? Why do we have policies which aren't enforced? There aren't consequences. I pointed that out at a policy committee meeting on more than one occasion. We have a District website that is not updated, complete with spelling errors. We have a school board president who doesn't cite her sources [plagiarism for anyone else.]

The School Board is a disgrace. Giving out salary increases while charging students to park, cutting staff, not meeting AYP, while their "What did you do today to improve the life of a child?" mantra is a joke.  Who is really spineless in Mt. Lebanon? Sorry, School Board Directors, but the kids are on to you.