Lebo High School Construction Update

Some important notes on the state of planning for the Mt. Lebanon High School renovation process:

1. Over at his blog, School Director James Fraasch continues to post his thoughts about the economics of the project. One thing that seems clear is that whatever form the anticipated federal stimulus package takes, it's not going to generate much money for Mt. Lebanon.

2. Meanwhile, and probably recognizing the political reality that the Board faces, Directors Remely and Silhol have assembled a $90 million plan. (At the one public meeting that I attended, a project of this scale was vociferously opposed by all but a handful of residents who attended.) That plan should get specified in more detail so that the public can scrutinize it, though time is short.

3. As Bill Matthews points out in an important comment to this post,

It turns out, this financing proposal adopts the cowardly and fiscally irresponsible scheme of minimizing millage, while MAXIMIZING interest expense -- by “wrapping” the bonds.

Bond Wrapping pushes substantial principal payments into the future when expiring debt service on older bond issues is freed up to satisfy the new debt. Despite the fact this heaps a generous helping of interest onto the project; the contention is that this method is desirable because the funds do not “all” come from a tax “increase” -- the Community is already paying it. In Eveready Bunny style - we just keep paying, and paying, and paying.

Besides, if the district did not wrap the bonds, when the old debt expired we would face the conundrum of using the funds for education or (say it softly) lowering taxes.

The financial folks’ proposal has about $10,000,000 of superfluous interest in the plan compared to financing the issue with simple, more traditional bonds.

Obviously, there are other means to finance the issue, however when you are singularly focused on minimizing millage, you do dumb things. As an alternative, one additional latte a month on a $200,000 property, could wipe out this $10,000,000 waste of interest expense.

4. My private polling of neighbors and Blog-Lebo readers continues to run heavily against undertaking a major renovation right now, when the economy is tanking. Email from Blog-Lebo readership may well display selection bias. My general response to these folks, however, is speak out! Supporters of a large-scale project have no problem getting air time at the public fora that the Board hosted. If you're skeptical, then sending messages to me doesn't do a thing. Maybe there will be a referendum, and residents will speak then, in private, with their votes. But the Board may be looking for ways to move forward without a vote of the taxpayers.

When I say "speak out," I again hear what I've heard in other contexts: If I'm a critic, then other people will be mean to me, and teachers will be mean to my kids.

If that's really true, then the Mt. Lebanon School District has problems that are far, far worse than a crumbling high school building. It has teachers inflicting their personal agendas on kids, rather than teaching; it has principals looking the other way. In my years in the District, that hasn't been my experience. Has it been yours?

As the saying goes, you pay for what you get.