Decision Coming on the Lebo High School

There is a meeting tonight of the Mt. Lebanon School Board (7:30 pm in the High School Library), and there will be a vote on the direction of the renovation project. Read the updates at the High School Renovation blog. Much ado was made earlier this month with the formation of the "Build Our School Now" group. The Board is also hearing from residents opposed to a large-scale project. One of them is former School Director Gracelyn Ratay, who sent the following message to the current Board president Alan Silhol. She copied me and gave me permission to post it.

I'm putting this up not because I agree with all of it (I agree with some points, don't agree with some points, and don't have enough information with respect to some others), but because for some time I've urged people privately to speak up in public if they have an opinion about the matter. (Some people have spoken publicly, and thanks to them. But we could use more comments from folks we haven't heard from yet, at least not in public.) Public statements promote other public statements, and eventually, I hope, we keep a good public dialogue going. Not every statement goes in a post; many go into comments. We need a mix of both to keep people engaged.

Here is her message:

Dear Mr. Silhol:

As a former school director, I don’t spend much time watching school board meetings on TV. I did have an opportunity to see part of the meeting that was broadcast last week, especially your comments.

I really want to thank you for being realistic and level headed. You have done a good job of trying to communicate the realities of the high school renovation project in combination with the truth about the economic picture in our community. Many people who live in Mt. Lebanon as you know, live here with a false sense of security.

Another school director commented along the lines of school directors roles in ‘managing a business’ – the ‘business of education’. I have been hearing that line for a few years now and quite frankly, it is creepy. Perhaps a review of the oath of
office each school director took would be a good beginning to the meeting this
evening.

It seems that the pending referendum decision is a referendum on two fronts: first, of course on the financial implications of the high school project; but second, a referendum on senior citizens. There are older people in our community who have always generously supported the direction of the school district and paid higher tax rates. Most people in Mt. Lebanon have always supported the schools without question. It occurred to me that perhaps some school directors don’t realize that many of our older citizens who have always loyally paid taxes are now suffering. Many senior citizens fund their retirements through monthly income from stocks and bonds. Do the school directors you serve with realize that those people have suffered catastrophic losses to their retirement income streams?

It would appear that tonight’s decision is also a referendum on forcing senior citizens, loyal unquestioning taxpayers, out of their homes. I don’t think they will like it and it smacks of elitism.

Meanwhile, as the school board has been wrapped up in the high school building issues, my husband and I believe there have been serious errors made in the direction of the science and math curriculum at the middle school and high school. So much so that we have sent our fourth child to Central Catholic High School.

Tonight I wonder if anyone will be thinking of the decision in terms of the tools selected to measure progress in Mt. Lebanon Schools as it relates to the enormity of the financial implications before the board. Does it even occur to any board members that the basic measures of student success are common assessments and the PSSA? How is Mt. Lebanon now any better than other school districts? It certainly paves the way for Governor Rendell’s plan for consolidation of school districts! We will have a green building that is energy efficient? Has anyone thought of calculating how much carbon dioxide will be released into the environment through de-construction? How many years will it take the environment to recover from de-construction?

We won’t be better, we’ll just be different because we’ll have so much
debt.

Thank you for your time and the sincerity in which you embrace your role as board president.