Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Impact of the Taylor Report on Lebo's High School Renovation

I am told that a meeting between Dirk Taylor, author of the Taylor Report, and the project architects for the Mt. Lebanon High School renovation, was scheduled to take place yesterday (Monday, August 17).

Can anyone report on whether that meeting took place, and on its outcome?

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4 Comments:

Anonymous john Ewing said...

It would be nice if the Superintendent and the Board President would answer your question.

But you just pay the bills for parents so who wants to listen to you (or me).

Keep asking the questions, Mike, there are $20,000,000 in design changes that can give us all more for our money.

Something is seriously wrong here!

Where are the parents on this issue? I guess as long as they get someone else to pay for their goodies they don't care about their kids education.

August 18, 2009 11:23 PM  
Anonymous Bill Lewis said...

I'm hearing indications also that a private meeting was held. The Board of School Directors should hold a special public meeting structured as a debate or forum on this matter....this Board has pledged "transparency", etc. throughout this entire, painfully long HS process UNTIL NOW, and *the silence has become deafening*, as they say.

There is an election coming up very soon.

August 19, 2009 9:11 AM  
Anonymous Dave Franklin said...

I realize that ours is potentially a much larger project, but has anyone else noticed that every time you pick up the newspaper there's another story about a local school board that has approved a plan for renovating or constructing their schools. Today it was Pine Richland. And usually these decisions come with far less fanfare, dissention and wrangling. Again, I acknowledge that these other projects are smaller than ours, but the decision for those school districts to invest 10s of millions of dollars is presumably no less critical to their long term goals. And the task of raising funds (and taxes) for such projects no less difficult.

I predicted over a year ago that by August 2009 we'd be no closer to a solution of the high school problem. Unfortunately, that prediction has come true. In fact, one could honestly argue that we may have even gone backwards.

Is there an end in sight? Is there a game plan that any of us can follow? Regardless of what proposal you favor, can anyone tell me how we plan to advance the ball any time in the near future?

August 19, 2009 10:09 AM  
Anonymous Bob Reich, Jr. said...

Pine Richland = growing and arguably more "stable" population. Interpret the word "stable" however you like.

Same goes for Upper St. Clair.

Mt. Lebanon has a population whose demographics suggest a declining enrollment in the years to come with not a square foot of undeveloped land to sell in the hopes of generating new real estate taxes.

Oh, wait! There is that parcel across from our church that the town (and me) had big hopes for. That didn't really pan out so well, though....

I agree with you wholeheartedly that it would great to see an endgame, but I don't think that will happen unless there is a community referendum on which way to proceed. There is no way that the typical Mt. Lebanon household is going to sign on to a 45% hike in their real estate tax bill. (Cue in the George Bush impersonator on SNL, "Not gonna happen.")

August 19, 2009 11:14 AM  

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