There's some diligent work going on here!

Update August 5, 2011 Presentations from one of the review teams will be made at the August 15, 2011 School Board meeting. Final presentations will be made this fall.

From the School District website:

In the Summer of 2010, the Mt. Lebanon School Board adopted a multi-year plan to review and analyze District programs and operations in response to potential budget challenges facing Mt. Lebanon over the next several years. These challenges include rising pension and health care costs, decreased state and federal subsidies, and moderating earned income taxes. Taking a proactive approach, the Board formed teams of administration staff, board members, and community members to study and make recommendations to the School Board that would result in cost savings to the District, and/or provide revenue generating opportunities.  The plan centers on the formation of Program and Operations Review Teams that will convene over the coming years focusing in on specific areas of the District budget. Four teams were formed in the fall of 2010 and more will be formed in the coming year.

At the end of Year One, all teams have nothing to report. There are some interesting names on this list - some running for School Board or Commission.

Program Review Team	Team Members	Team Description and Reports	Contact the Team
Revenue Generating	Co-Chairs: Kirsten Fudeman Jan Klein Board Liason: Mary Birks Marc Field Shannon Johnson Scott Kerr Scott Ritenour Tim Steinhauer	This team was tasked with finding new revenue sources which could be a recurring source of income for the District. (A report for this team is not yet available)	Contact the Team
Operations Review Teams
Capital Projects	Co-Chairs: Rick Marciniak Gerald Ingram Board Liason: Ed Kubit Kim Abel Mark Ackerman Al Frioni J. P. Morgan Daniel Pinho	The area of focus for this team is to maintain or reduce recurring capital project expenditures consistent with the District’s Strategic Plan. The specific task of the Capital Projects Operations Committee was to review the capital program processes and projects; identify improved operational processes and procedures; identify revenue generating opportunities; identify improvements and efficiency gains while maintaining or reducing expenses and identify operations no longer serving the District’s needs. (A report for this team is not yet available)	Contact the Team
Staff Planning	Co-Chairs: Steve Scheurer Dr. Deb Allen Board Liason: Dale Ostergaard Kelly Bareford Brian Foster Rob Gardner Judy Kramer Jim Schreiber	The long range goal of the staff planning team is to provide feedback and recommendations to the Board regarding opportunities for improvements and efficiencies as they relate to the deployment of our human resources. The team is assessing staff levels across all  functional areas of the school district as well as enrollment trends and projections. (A report for this team is not yet available)	Contact the Team
Utility Operations	Co-Chairs: Gerald Ingram Steve Vennare Board Liason: Elaine Cappucci Scott Goldman Kathy Hrabovsky Tammy Janero Kristen Linfante	The Utility Operations Review Team was formed to identify potential cost cutting ideas to present to the District Board for information and possible implementation. The team has reviewed past and present energy trends, how the District utilizes its buildings, the current energy policy, along with innovative ideas for current and future consideration. (A report for this team is not yet available)	Contact the Team

 Mt. Lebanon School District Review Teams

After our Taj Mahal is completed...

Will our teachers be in the same position as the Bethel Park teachers? Yes, we can keep raising taxes to pay for the high school sports complex and someday fix those windows, but when their contract is up, will we have any money to pay the teachers? Bethel Park will have a nice, new high school, but if the teachers aren't happy, then what good is it? Now that the Commissioners want to take out a recreation bond, our municipal taxes will be going up.  Substantially.
I am reprinting Allegheny Institute for Public Policy Brief Volume 11, Number 40.

Pennsylvania Becomes a Teacher Strike Dinosaur

(August 2, 2011)--The Commonwealth endured three teacher strikes this past school year, with Allegheny County serving as the epicenter of activity.  Walkouts in the Allegheny Valley, Moon, and Bethel Park School Districts inconvenienced students and families and continued the trajectory of Pennsylvania seeing a teacher strike somewhere in the state every year since the 1976-77 school year. News concerning the state of affairs in the Bethel Park School District brings the issue of teacher strikes back into focus. After enduring a six week strike last year, the Bethel Park schools are once again facing a possible teacher walkout after the board and the teachers’ union rejected an arbitration proposal. Why? Because teachers want more money and continued control over work rules. If Bethel Park teachers are the first to walk off the job in the 2011-12 school year, they will be doing it in quite a different environment, at least at the national level.  As we have pointed out many times, Pennsylvania is in a very small group of states that permit teachers to strike.  This past spring Ohio and Wisconsin passed legislation that diminished the size of that fraternity by eliminating the dreadful practice.  Both states reported no strikes by teachers in the school year just concluded. Too bad Pennsylvania is so late to the teacher strike elimination derby. Pennsylvania stands with Vermont as the only state in the Northeast as allowing strikes. None of its neighboring states allow strikes. So why is it that Pennsylvania’s legislators cannot get this albatross off the backs of children and taxpayers? Two bills—one that would amend the Constitution to prohibit strikes and one that would impose penalties for striking—have been in committee since June.  Another bill that would have allowed layoffs to occur because of economic reasons (adding that to enrollment decline, cessation of a program, or school consolidation as permissible reasons for layoffs) is similarly languishing in committee. It is hard to imagine a situation more insulting to management and taxpayers. Not only are teachers permitted to be strike, but they cannot be laid off when school districts face economic and financial hardships. Taxpayers must still cough up more money. Only when a district eliminates a program can a teacher be dismissed. Pennsylvania should assist Bethel Park and other districts facing a strike by quickly passing a law containing the provisions of Wisconsin’s Act 10 passed earlier this year. Indeed, under the Wisconsin statute, not only would they be forbidden from striking, they would not be allowed to bargain for anything other than base wages. Benefits, work rules, etc., would be left to management to decide upon. Moreover, the school district would not be permitted to withhold union dues from employees and remit them to the union bosses. And finally, the union would have to hold a recertification vote every year with a requirement that 51 percent of all bargaining unit members vote in the affirmative for the union to continue as the representative of the employees. Or Pennsylvania could look to Ohio.  That state’s changes to their collective bargaining law prohibits strikes by public employees, including teachers, and imposes penalties of two days’ pay for every one day out on a strike.  It also restricts bargaining to wages and some working conditions, but not pensions, health care, or sick time.  There is to be a statewide referendum in November to determine whether or not that law will continue to have force. Bethel Park would certainly benefit from a dose of Wisconsin’s or Ohio’s treatment of union abuse of taxpayers and the public. Justifications for permitting teacher strikes ring very hollow and reflect no values or principles that actually promote education quality or efficient and effective delivery of education to Pennsylvania’s students.  Jake Haulk, Ph.D., President Eric Montarti, Senior Policy Analyst   For more on this topic click here Link to Allegheny Institute Website

Mt. Lebanon Capital Improvement Program 2012-2016

I just got a Lebo Alert:

The 2012-2016 Capital Improvement Plan is available online. View under Government/Official Documents.

Here is the direct link. 2012-2016 Capital Improvement Program

A couple of significant projects (listed in gross costs) for 2012 include:

• Fields to be built at McNeilly Park  $3,520,700
• Renovations at the swimming pool $4,590,600
• Street reconstruction $2,100,000
• Sanitary sewer work required by the consent decree $3,424,630

Back to the Planning Board?

Before the School District rebids the High School Renovation in September, shouldn't they go back to the Planning Board? The June 2010 Planning Board minutes show that the School District has made some significant changes since then. No more LEED certification and changing the loading dock are just a few redesigns.
Is this another example of the School District getting special treatment, such as getting a 20% discount on the stormwater fee for adding water quality to their curriculum or trying to get lower inspection fees?

We will never see this on the Center Court blog.

It seems the Wisconsin governor was right.  Governor Scott's bill to curtail collective bargaining of some public employees is working.  In fact, people are calling it a godsend.

"In the collective bargaining agreement, high school teachers only had to teach five periods a day, out of seven," says Arnoldussen. "Now, they're going to teach six." In addition, the collective bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37 1/2 hours a week. Now, it will be 40 hours.
The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes -- from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining.
Teachers' salaries will stay "relatively the same," Arnoldussen says, except for higher pension and health care payments. (The top salary is around $80,000 per year, with about $35,000 in additional benefits, for 184 days of work per year -- summers off.) Finally, the money saved will be used to hire a few more teachers and institute merit pay.

It is a long article, but an excellent one.  Read more:  Union curbs rescue a Wisconsin school district.

Drumroll, please for the 3 Allegheny County teacher of the year finalists...

Sorry, nobody from Mt. Lebanon.

Three teachers from Allegheny County are among 12 finalists to become the state's teacher of the year.

The state Department of Education today said the local nominees are Christopher Jack, Bethel Park School District; Carin Liberati, Pine-Richland School District; and Steven Vayanos, Cornell School District.

The winner will be named in October.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11209/1163597-100.stm#ixzz1TRu513Xt

Buildings B and C: Collaborative Partners

Dan Rothschild has a great post on his new blog, lebodesign.net.  In his post, Buildings B and C: Collaborative Partners , Dan writes how the CAC was inspired by Dr. Davis' 45 minute lecture where he said that by arranging departments side-by-side, the opportunity for interdepartmental collaboration increases.

The CAC was energized by this talk, and how it meshed with earlier discussions by high school staff, that a great amount of learning in high school happens outside of the classroom.  Using this information, the CAC proposed a paradigm shift in the design that suggested moving the classrooms located in the new Building G to the existing Building C.  This not only placed all of the academic departments side-by-side, as discussed in Dr. Davis’ talk, but allowed the development of a collaborative zone in between the two buildings in the bridges that currently connect Building B to Building C twice on each floor.

It is unfortunate that the School Board will not revisit Building C. Larry Lebowitz was quoted as saying, "We need to obtain as much public input as we can." Dan Rothschild wants to revisit Building C.  The CAC wanted to keep Building C. We have talked about it here on Lebo Citizens. Keeping Building C has been discussed on Blog-Lebo. We have pleaded at School Board meetings to keep Building C. Are you getting enough public input, Mr. Lebowitz, or are you on public input overload? What WILL the School Board do with all this public input? We all know the answer to that question. 

Single vs. Multiple Prime Poll

Anybody have any idea what happened to the poll?  Last time I checked, there were seven votes supporting the seven SB members' votes and thirty-one votes going to single-prime. Now it is showing sixteen for single-prime and three supporting the SB's decision.

Update July 28, 2011 12:20 am The poll is now closed. The final count is:

What is your opinion about single-prime contracts vs. multiple-prime contracts?
Using a single-prime contractor is the only way to go.	34 (79%)
I support the School Board's decision to go with multiple-prime contracts.	9 (20%)

Total votes:  43
Poll closed

Tabled until August 9

The Commission had made some amendments to the storm water fee Ordinance including additional credits to homeowners, but were not attached to the online Ordinance.  Since it was not available to the public, the Commissioners tabled the vote until August 9. Thank you, Bill Lewis, for catching that. And thanks, Dan Miller, for verifying that on your laptop during the meeting.
Because of that action, the consideration of a three-year contract (at a cost of 2% of gross collections, with an adjustment for any future postage increases) with Jordan Tax Service for billing and collection of the storm water fee was also tabled until August 9.

Update 11:28 a.m. The Municipality has updated their website to include the amendments to the Ordinance.  They may also be viewed here. This is a 23 page document and takes time to open.

Fees, fees, and more fees

Tonight, the Commissioners will be voting to enact the ordinance for a storm water fee beginning September 1. Thanks to a resident, I was directed to the long list of fees that are being charged already in Mt. Lebanon. 2011 Comprehensive Fee Schedule Notice how there are no fees for using ball fields. Why is that?
After tonight's meeting, the Commissioners will be discussing, in a public session, the possibility of a recreation bond.  (I can't remember if it is a $7 or $9 million bond.) How about fixing up what we have?  Why are tax increases related to sports in this town? The Mt. Lebanon Municipal server was down over the weekend. Updating the website was voted down last year. The roads are a mess. We have to be charged a fee to fix our storm sewers.  What is going on here?

Rover ate my homework.

The following letter from Bill Matthews was sent to Dr. Steinhauer and the School Board today.  Thanks for sharing this, Bill.

Bill Matthew's 7 24 11 Letter to Dr. Steinhauer

This is pretty interesting.

Josephine Posti writes about the Pocono Mountain School District on her blog, Center Court: Governor Corbett is Blowing Smoke, Say Pocono School Officials .  What she fails to include is this article: Pocono Mountain school board plans for 118 lay offs  dated February 17, 2011, months before Corbett's budget passed.

The Pocono Mountain School District*, which is looking to plug an $8.7 million budget deficit, has seen a 13 percent decrease in the number of students attending its schools over the past four years.

In addition to the 87 teaching positions, another 25 staff support and six administrative positions are also slated for the chopping block.

In addition, here is the Auditor General's report dated December 2010.

http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/School/schPoconoMountainSD121310.pdf

On  page 7 of the audit: 

 

The current down-turn in the U.S Economy has had a direct impact upon the School District's local revenue stream. Two major revenue items have decreased significantly and caused an additional burden on the District's financial resources. With an economic decline, lagging payments in property taxes and lower earned income tax collections due to job losses has also added to the negative impact on local revenue sources.

Remember, this audit was performed in December 2010 while Rendell was still governor.

So why blame Gov. Corbett?

*Spans 305 square miles and serves a population of approximately 55,000 within seven municipalities and one borough in Monroe County including the Borough of Mount Pocono, and the Townships of Barrett, Coolbaugh, Jackson, Paradise, Pocono, Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock.

Want to cut the grass just once a month?

Did you hear about the sustainable grass seed movement? I found an article about some great grass seed at this blog. Sustainable grass seed  It is low maintenance. It requires less watering and fertilizing and you only cut it once a month.  Sounds too good to be true.  Anyone use

"But to put an exact number on it is a hard thing to do."

I am reprinting this article in its entirety since the Almanac does not archive their articles.  It's a keeper.

ML will rebid high school project to multiple contractors

By Nick Lewandowski For The Almanac writer@thealmanac.net

Mt. Lebanon school board meeting July 18 was largely a tale of two bid structures, with discussion of whether the district's high school renovation should be rebid to a single general or multiple prime contractors. The project--for which bids came in some $15 million over budget in April--was previously bid to general prime contractors. Construction manager PJ Dick and architecture firm Celli-Flynn Brennan recommended the district make the switch to cut costs.
"The advantage with multiple primes is that the subcontracting community will generally give a school district a lower bid than they will a general prime contractor," said PJ Dick's John Taormina. "One reason is that dealing with a district they're closer to the money. They know they're going to get paid every 30 days."
PJ Dick estimated the district could save $1 million by shifting to multiple prime contractors. Celli-Flynn's estimate is even higher--architect Bill Brennan said some subcontractors mark their bids up as much as 3 to 5 percent when bidding to a single general contractor.

"But to put an exact number on it is a hard thing to do," Taormina emphasized.
Board member Elaine Cappucci questioned why the possibility of such significant savings had not been brought to the board's attention before the project initially went out to bid. "With everything we've been through on the project cost savings has come up every other sentence. Why do you suddenly recommend switching?" she asked. "The project was on budget then," Brennan replied.
Using multiple prime contractors may provide cost savings, but also presents risks in terms of coordination and scheduling, officials said. Board members were quick to recall the pain associated with managing the district's elementary school renovations, which were bid to multiple prime contractors. Under multiple primes the onus would be on the district and PJ Dick to manage the project. In the words of board member Dan Remely, there would be no "single neck to choke."
"Multiple primes is going to give us a lot of headaches," said board member Susan Rose, participating by phone. "But I'm willing to handle these to help save taxpayer money."
Ultimately the majority of the board adopted Rose's position, with the exceptions of Dale Ostergaard and Faith Stipanovich. Both Ostergaard and Stipanovich expressed concerns that the risks outweighed the potential savings. "I am not convinced there is a savings that makes me want to jump on with multiple primes," Stipanovich said.

1 comments Rebid? : 7/20/2011
There is no need to rebid anything. All the school board needs to do is put the question of whether or not to build what they want on the ballot. It's called a "referendum". Something that most states require and allows the community to decide. Local school boards do not want you to know this because they think they know better than you. I think it's because they are power hungry.
Charles Hanson Jr.

John Taormina said it is a hard thing to do? How did Baldwin do it? Baldwin-Whitehall Cost Comparison

http://www.thealmanac.net/alm/story10/07-20-2011-ML-school-project

Trib correction in order?

This appears on the District website:

Trib Article Reports Inaccurate Information About High School Project
In a July 21, 2011 article in the Tribune Review written by Matthew Santoni, it was inaccurately reported that the School Board had approved the removal of the auxiliary gym and tennis courts from the High School plans. The incorrect quote reads, “So far, the board has given Celli the go-ahead to…remove an auxiliary gym and tennis courts…” The correct information is that the auxiliary gym and tennis courts remain in the plans for the High School project. A correction will appear in the Trib.

Aren't the tennis courts supposed to be gone for four or five years? The Mt. Lebanon athletic director asked Scott Township to use their tennis courts for 3-5 years in this letter.  (We got turned down.) This is a perfect example as to why Dan Rothschild and many others have asked to see "The List."  If the School District would publish "The List," corrections in the newspaper would not be necessary