School Board Meeting update UPDATED

I have uploaded the podcasts from last night's Construction Update and the Combined School Board meeting. For the purpose of discussion here, I am only going to share some highlights. Please listen or watch the meetings for further information.

The 2013 Liened Properties list was approved for public viewing last night. Bill Cooper asked where the lists are published. President Cappucci said that in the past, the media would publish portions of the list, but that hasn't happened in quite a while. She failed to mention that I have been publishing the lists here. I filed a RTK for the list last Friday.

The Board knows that we are going to run out of the contingency fund. They have moved funds around to allow for flexibility.

The trophy case bid was approved last night for a total of $52,000 after much deliberation. The case is to be 74' long x 8' high x 16"-24" in depth. Larry Lebowitz said that we NEED a trophy case. Dan Remely pointed out many inconsistencies in the bid, yet the Board voted it through with Bill Moorhead and Dan Remely voting NO. It is sad that the bulk of the discussions at any board meeting are about construction. Aren't these people charged with the education of our children?

The artificial turf maintenance agreement was approved. Timmy said that the school district maintains Middle and Wildcat Fields by spreading infill and lining the fields. District costs are currently $129.37 in labor weekly for 30 weeks and infield mix and field dry runs about $1400 for a total for $5731. The School District uses those fields for Baseball. The labor cost for the turf would be $4331. Remely was the only one who voted NO.

The pool railing was brought up again by a resident. 24" is the current height of the railing. It meets all codes. Because of community request, it will be raised to 46" and will be completed before the beginning of the school year.

Update July 22, 2014 9:19 PM Mt. Lebanon School District to maintain turf fields

Timmy recommends approval of turf maintenance agreement UPDATED

Instead of a Board Discussion meeting and a separate Board Regular meeting, the school board has only one meeting in July. This Monday, July 21, the school board will be holding the combined meeting. The agenda has been posted here.

It appears to me that the school district is also guilty of overtaxing us. According to the agenda:

Designation of Fund Balance – Board Policy sets the year end fund balance at 6% of the expenditure budget and designates the remaining fund balance to the Capital Projects Fund, the Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) Reserve or to other purposes as determined by the Board. The 2014-15 Budget utilizes $750,000 of the fund balance to mitigate the need for a tax increase. Beyond that, there remains approximately $4.3 million to be designated. One proposal would be to transfer $3 million to the Capital Projects Fund and $1 million to the OPEB reserve leaving $300,000 to be determined at a later point once the audit of the 2013-14 Fiscal Year is complete and any additional funds to be transferred can be finalized. The superintendent recommends approval of this action.

Designation of Fund Balance – RESOLVED, That the Board approves the transfer of $3 million from the designated General Fund - Fund Balance to the Capital Projects Fund and $1 million to the OPEB reserve.

This month, the school board will be awarding the contract for the $74,000 trophy case to Olan Wood Products in the amount of $52,000 as the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications.

What we have all been waiting for is the discussion of the Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement between the Municipality and the School District.

Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement – The Municipality is requesting that the work we do to help maintain their current fields now be changed to help maintain their new turf field since we already own the equipment to do the maintenance. Since this is no additional cost to the District and we will continue to be able to use their fields at no cost, I am recommending approval of this agreement.

Artificial Turf Maintenance Agreement: RESOLVED, That the Board approves the agreement with the Municipality for maintenance of their turf field and authorizes the Superintendent to sign the agreement.

I am curious as to how this is going to work with the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA does not recognize Municipal Fields as approved work sites. According to the Zipper Clause, the Association has to agree to any changes with the District.

Finally, the change orders for July total $242,696 bringing the total to $3,658,409.65.

Change Orders for High School Renovation Project – Change orders for Board approval for the month of July totaling $242,696 have been reviewed by the architect, PJ Dick and the District administration:
a. GC-103-235 to Nello for $158,947 for masonry, doors, steel, beams, window blocking, fire rating, building dimensional discrepancy, stairs, handrails, cooling towers and slab changes,
b. PL-32-236 to Vrabel for $34,531 for storm and sanitary changes and credits for drains and piping,
c. EL-63-237 to Farfield for $42,132 for lighting modifications, cabling, sound system devices, speaker clusters in auditorium, heat detectors and power changes, and
d. ME-25-238 to McKamish for $11,086 for return grills and duct modifications. 

Update July 18, 2014  6:17 PM Further clarification concerning School District field maintenance of Municipal fields per Timmy's recommendation.

From: Tom Kelley [mailto:tkelley@mtlebanon.org]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 3:15 PM
To: Nick M.
Subject: Re: fields 

No at this time we do all the work on our fields and the school district maintains their own. Once the synthetic turf is placed at the Wildcat and Middle field area then the school district will maintain the field surface (clean and groom the synthetic turf). We will continue to maintain all of our grass fields with no help from the school district.

On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 2:50 PM, Nick M. wrote:

Hi Tom, 

Can you please clarify something for me. 

Is the school district currently doing any maintenance work on any municipal fields? 

The reason I ask is because in the school board agenda for next Monday it states, 

“The Municipality is requesting that the work we do to help maintain their current fields now be changed to help maintain their new turf field since we already own the equipment to do the maintenance.” 

What work is the school district already doing to help maintain their (municipal) current fields. 

Can you please clarify this for me. 

Thank you Tom, 

Nick M.

MTLSD Capital Projects to be approved on Monday

2014-2018 Capital Projects includes the capital projects list to be considered by the School Board according to Monday's Agenda. Only the 2014-15 project list is up for Board consideration, the balance is informational at this point.

The capital project list is on the last 2 pages of the document. It appears only items 1 - 67 are recommended for approval. 

Up to this point, I had not been able to complete the list of capital projects for the high school located on the sidebar of this blog. 

High school capital projects adding up to $916,000 include: 

• $400,000 Install antenna and repeaters to improve cell phone coverage
• $265,000 Auditorium sound system
• $74,000 Trophy Case for Hall of Champions
• $82,000 for 60 cafeteria tables and 600 chairs (document shows $102,000)
• $55,000 Auditorium stage curtains
• $40,000 replace broken and worn out furniture

Update February 25, 2014 11:40 AM At 1:51:32 of the podcast from last night's school board meeting shows an attempt from Dan Remely to amend the Capital Projects list by removing the $74,000 Trophy Case item. The vote went as followed:

Yes (To Remove Trophy Case from list)              No (Keep as is)

Bill Cooper                                                            Mary Birks

Scott Goldman                                                       Ed Kubit

Bill Moorhead                                                       Larry Lebowitz

Dan Remely                                                          Mike Riemer

                                                                              Elaine Cappucci

Amendment failed.

                                               

Can you hear me now?

The school board is considering spending $400,000 for better cell phone coverage at the high school. The spent quite a bit of time at the school board meeting on Monday night justifying this expense under Capital Projects. The question was posed at the 20:34 minute mark of the discussion session.

It seems as though there are land line telephones in every classroom, but cell phone coverage is poor inside the high school. While construction is being done at the high school, the school board feels that this is the time to install cell phone repeaters. Since we rely on our cell phones in emergency situations, the school board directors consider this as a safety issue.

The $400,000 cost is item number 43 on the capital projects list totaling $1.6 million, not totaled on the agenda.  The Almanac covers the capital projects list in more detail here, Lebo schools to use $1.6 million for capital projects.

Ye Old Trophy Case is on this list. Dan Remely reminded the board that budget cuts are getting more and more difficult every year. Why is $75,000 being considered since it serves no safety, general maintenance, or educational purposes? The answer is that the capital fund is over $5.6 million. The school board is still considering how the trophy case will be paid.

If anyone is looking to file a Right To Know, the list of Capital Projects, including the top 67 items, would be a good start. This year's list is $500,000 more than usual.

I missed this one about the trophy case

The Almanac ran this opinion piece last month, Districts need to set fiscal priorities. (saved in Google Docs)

First, on top of its multi-million dollar high school renovation, Mt. Lebanon is actually considering spending nearly $74,000 on a trophy case for the athletic building. To put that into perspective, the district recently approved a contract with Kristen Friedrich Schaffner for psychological services on an as-needed basis. Mt. Lebanon assistant superintendent Dr. Deborah Allen noted that she didn’t expect the cost of said services to exceed $15,000 – and should that expenditure increase, it will be brought to the board’s attention.

We ask you this – what is more important, a trophy case or the mental well being of students? 

...thankfully, at the board’s Jan. 20 meeting, it was decided to delay the vote on the bid. The board is now trying to decide if they will fund the trophy case with funds from the district’s capital campaign or as a capital project.

I wonder if Ms. DeLuca is telling potential donors that their donation is not going toward education, but to a $74,000 trophy case. Another little factoid that was posted on a previous thread concerning the ONLY bidder:

"Low bidder" for trophy case, Viking Woodworking is owned by the father of the author of the Devil's Advocate article entitled "You and I are not equal."
January 31, 2014 at 10:26 PM 

Comments on comments?

Last night's school board meeting was very interesting, as far as citizens' comments go. Topics included:

• Financial advisor 
• MTLSD does not take the preliminary budget seriously. We are the only school district that refers to it as a "fake budget."
• Trophy case
• Zamagias TIF
• Pool railing
• Pool locker room floor is slippery
• Meeting was not available for viewing last week.
• Agendas are not publicized before meetings
• Trouble with teacher at Howe School

Without naming names, I would like to hear more about the situation at Howe School. The mother was cut off at the knees by the president and solicitor when she was speaking. 

As far as the TIF goes, while one commissioner was removing her blog over the weekend, another commissioner posted this: Washington Park, corner of Bower Hill and Washington Road In December, Zamagias defaulted on their TIF loan. Mt. Lebanon has the opportunity to buy it back out of the Parking Fund, I believe. Please contact our commissioners, Senator Matt Smith's office, or Representative Dan Miller's office and share your opinion on this topic.

I would love to hear from Lebo Citizen readers about all these topics which were raised at last night's meeting. 

To listen to the meeting please visit Lebo Citizens podcast from MTLSD's January 20, 2014 meeting

Well, well, well

Thanks to the School District website, I see that January is School Board Recognition Month.

             

School Board Directors sans Scott

January is School Board Recognition month, giving us an opportunity to thank our Board members Elaine Cappucci-President, Lawrence Lebowitz- Vice-President, Mary Birks, William Cooper, Scott Goldman, Edward Kubit, William Moorhead, Daniel Remely, and Michael Riemer, who volunteer so much of their time to provide strong public schools for our community. For more than 175 years, communities in Pennsylvania have had a voice in the operation of their schools through a locally elected board of school directors consisting of individuals from their community. These people are our neighbors, friends, community leaders, and parents– all with one common goal – making sure students are properly educated in preparation for life. 

Our School Board enables us to have local control of our public schools, meaning that decisions on school programs are made by local, elected representatives who understand the community’s unique challenges, values, culture and circumstances. With the advice and counsel of the educational professionals they hire, our school board has a bearing on virtually every aspect of our schools. It’s a huge responsibility and we are thankful to our board members for their dedication, hard work, and commitment to providing the best education possible for our students and a strong school system that benefits our community.

Yep, there they are, all except Scott Goldman. Not even a cardboard cutout of the lone wolf, or is it coyote? Scott Goldman is the only one who says what he feels and votes according to his conscience. For that, he doesn't make the photo, I guess.

This is the group that will be approving a $74,000 trophy case tonight, a number that is listed as the low responsible bid. What it really represents is the ONLY responsible bid. I missed a golden opportunity. I should have subcontracted a cabinet maker and submitted a bid for $70,000 and make a tidy profit.  Boy, did I screw up.

We are thankful for this group of dedicated volunteers who brought us TERC Investigations, Go Zones, $2.6+ million in change orders, student parking fees, activity fees, lucrative salary deals for administrators, and for hitting a new low in rudeness to stakeholders and parents.

Yes, we are thankful. Happy School Board Recognition Month!