James Fraasch Resigns from School Board (Updated 4)

Yesterday, James Fraasch announced his resignation from the Mt. Lebanon School Board. Writing on his new blog, Politics, Policies, Government, and Economics, he elaborated:

It's been a good run, but it is time for me to move on from the Mt. Lebanon School Board. In the past few months I have missed some meetings due mostly to travel out of the country. More often than not I find myself putting an emphasis more on my personal/work life than I am on the school board. For most of my 3 years on the Board the exact opposite was the case.

Mr. Fraasch wrote that he intends to “move on to different things,” starting with more extensive travel to South America and getting an MBA.

But also among his reasons for moving on is the sense that the school board is unwilling to consider concerns he has raised. One such concern was the solicitor’s contract, extended recently, despite the school district’s embarrassing loss of the recent zoning appeal. Mr. Fraasch wrote that he received no response when he emailed the other board members about not extending the contract.

Despite the difficulties, he was glad to have served:

One last thing. I have to say that being elected to serve on the Board was perhaps the most humbling experience in my life. I never took your votes for granted. In the end I hope those that voted for me will always be able to say that I followed through on every one of my campaign promises: fiscal responsibility, open and honest communication, and new ideas.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank James Fraasch for his service. He was willing to take difficult stands, to say things that were unpopular yet needed to be said, and to think critically about decisions and their long-term consequences. Doing these things was not easy and often earned him unkind words from those who disagreed with him. Yet James carried those burdens to serve us.

Thank you, James.

Update 2010-12-16 10:45
School Board President Josephine Posti has written briefly on her blog about Mr. Fraasch’s resignation: Board Member Resignation. She also writes that the school district is now seeking Mr. Fraasch’s replacement:

According to the school code, we must appoint someone to fill his position within 30 days. We have advertised the vacancy and ask for applicants to respond by December 24. We will then conduct interviews during a special public meeting on January 3. We will take action on an appointment at the January 10 Discussion Meeting.

Filling Mr. Fraasch’s shoes will be difficult. Let’s hope some good citizens step forward.

Update 2010-12-16 11:45, 12:20, and 16:45
Additional coverage:

• Mt. Lebanon school board member Fraasch resigns (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
• Mt. Lebanon school board member resigns (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• One of the last of the good guys (Lebo Citizens Blog)

School Board Director Fraasch's July Update: Now What?

On his blog, School Board Director James Fraasch has posted his July Update. In it, he offers a frank assessment of our community's current school situation – uncompetitively high taxes, declining student population, stalled high-school project, short-sighted policy changes by the school board – and tries to examine the question that most residents are probably asking themselves: Now what?

There aren't any easy answers. The problems Mr. Fraasch discusses are serious, but solving them won't be enough. That's because the real problem is one of leadership.

Our leaders, to be blunt, are how we got these problems. Our leaders, past and present, created these problems, grew these problems from seeds they themselves planted. Every time our leaders talked about hard decisions but failed to make hard decisions, a seed was sown. Every time our leaders spent boldly in good times but failed to cut boldly in bad times, a seed was sown. And every time our leaders "handled" the public but failed to hear the public, a seed was sown.

I'm not sure what to do about the seed-sowing – solving that problem is going to require our community to change in ways that I'm not sure it can – but I do know that the first step is to be honest with ourselves about our present situation. Read Mr. Fraasch's July update. Think about it.

Then, you tell me: Now what?

School Board Should Face The Evidence that Most Mt. Lebanon Residents Oppose the High School Plan

The school board directors who support the $113-million plan to update the high school have consistently claimed that their plan reflects what the community wants. Their plan, they claim, is the result of an open, inclusive planning process that has engaged the community extensively, providing ample opportunity for everyone to express a point of view.

The critics of the plan, however, say that the planning process was flawed. While everyone may have had an opportunity to express a point of view, it was the school board alone that decided which of those views were acted upon, and which were ignored. This discretion, the critics argue, allowed those school board directors who favored a more grandiose high school to advance their plan over the concerns of the majority of Mt. Lebanon residents.

So who is right? Does the majority of Mt. Lebanon support or oppose the $113-million plan?

In a democratic society, the only way to know for sure is to vote on it. But our community has not been given the opportunity to vote. So how can we measure support for the plan?

One way is to look at a slice of our community that is more easily measured, say only those people who sent email to the school board. If we counted each person’s emailed opinion as a vote of sorts, the counts for and against the plan might tell us something about where our community stands.

School board director James Fraasch has done just that. Reviewing the email sent to the school board about the plan since January 1, 2010, he counted email from 411 residents in total. Of them, 308 were against the $113-million plan; only 103 were for it. That’s 75 percent – three to one – against the plan.

The supporters of the plan will have a hard time explaining away this three-to-one rejection of their plan. Even recognizing that email counts are likely to be a biased representation of the community as a whole, it would take a whole lot of bias to turn the school board’s claimed majority support into the observed three-to-one rejection of their plan. So this evidence makes the notion that most residents of Mt. Lebanon support the plan harder to believe.

As further evidence of broad rejection of the plan, there is the petition movement. On April 5, 2010, petitioners submitted over 3,300 signatures to the school board. Every signature represents a Mt. Lebanon resident who supports renovating the high school but rejects the $113-million plan. Has any petition movement in Mt. Lebanon history garnered such broad support in such a short time?

Again, the plan’s supporters are going to have a hard time explaining away this evidence. If the only opposition to the plan was from a few loud dissenters, where did those 3,300 people come from?

More importantly, aren’t those 3,300 people Mt. Lebanon residents? Aren’t they deserving of representation by the school board, too? Yet what action has the board taken to acknowledge or compromise with these people? Do the school board directors who support the plan think that a growing movement of over three thousand people is just going to disappear because they pretend it doesn’t exist?

It isn’t. Sooner or later, those school board directors are going to have to start treating those people like constituents.

Let hope, for our community’s sake, that they start sooner rather than later.

Mt. Lebanon Community Gets Loud In The Blogosphere

Forget gossip over the back fence: These days in Mt. Lebanon, community bloggers are the town criers.

Commissioners Dan Miller and D. Raja have blogs. So do school members Josephine Posti and James Fraasch. The high school's technology director Christopher Stengel has his own blog, and residents Joe Polk, Tom Moertel, Kristen Linfante and Elaine Labalme also run blogs that discuss community developments and events.

Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1039995-55.stm

School Board Directors Get Their Messages Out

With the Act 34 hearing for the high-school renovation approaching, and with updated budget forecasts now available, school-board directors are trying to get their messages to the community.

On Friday, February 5, 2010, Josephine Posti updated her blog with a new article, “Bottom Line.” In the article, she discusses how the renovation will affect property taxes. Over the next few years, the project will cause taxes to increase by about 3.4 mills or 14 percent. To help residents understand how the increase works out for their own households, she links to a table of millage increases that shows the typical increase for various home assessments. For owners of homes assessed at around $200 thousand, the bill for the renovation works out to about $57 more per month ($675 per year). If the renovation comes in below the $113-million maximum, which Mrs. Posti expresses confidence that it will, the new taxes would be correspondingly lower.

On Saturday, February 6, 2010, James Fraasch posted “The Blitz Is On,” in part a response to Mrs. Posti’s article. He points out that any financial decision, while appearing sound on its own, may be unwise in light of the larger financial picture. He goes on to show that our school district’s financial picture, when considered as a whole, is concerning:

So when you see people say that the high school might mean a 14% increase in taxes ... and that’s the “Bottom Line”, it kind of misses the point entirely. The Bottom Line isn’t just a single expense. The Bottom Line is the forecast we received last Thursday. And that Bottom Line is ugly! From 2009–2010 to 2014–2015 the millage is projected/estimated to rise from 24.11 to 33.31, a 38.15% increase in taxes.

Neither of the directors’ blogs allows comments, so if you want to comment on either or both articles, feel free discuss them here on Blog-Lebo.

Guest Post: David Franklin on Talks of Censure

David Franklin, a frequent commenter on Blog-Lebo, sent us his thoughts on the rumors about censuring Mr. Fraasch for having shared his report with the community. Joe and I thought Mr. Franklin’s words deserved a spot on the front page. What follows, then, is Mr. Franklin’s essay. —Tom

I’ve heard that there have been letters submitted to the Board asking that Mr. Fraasch be removed from his Board seat or at least censured for circulating his thoughts about the high school project. Good grief, you’d think that he was arguing for something far worse than simply tighter controls on our school district’s wallet. Lest anyone contend that I am playing favorites here, I know Mr. Fraasch (I met him for the first time last month) but we’ve only talked in person once. We have exchanged emails (generally when he responds to mine to the School Board at large). I don’t agree with Mr. Fraasch on every issue, and I would concur that his comments to certain media outlets were perhaps poorly chosen and not well-suited to advance his ultimate position. I do, however, admire his courage for supporting what many believe to be an unpopular opinion. That’s a tough thing to do here in Camelot. So, please understand that I am not writing this post as his friend or even as an advocate for his position on the high school project.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let’s look at what he’s really done and said. For all intents and purposes, all that Mr. Fraasch has done to earn the ire of so many is take the finance director’s 4-year budget projections and some other readily available publicly-generated data and distribute it among the community with a message that essentially says, “Hey, take a look at these projections and figures. Some are pretty scary when read in the context of the decision to build a new high school.” I repeat, these statistics were NOT generated by Mr. Fraasch. He did not concoct these figures in an attempt to defraud or deceive. Similarly, Mr. Fraasch has NOT said that the project should stop, nor has he advocated that the high school project is a waste at any price. In fact, Mr. Fraasch HAS gone on record as stating that he would firmly support a project in the $75 million price range. Interestingly, Mr. Fraasch’s “commitment” came shortly after others on the Board also advocated for spending considerably less than $113 million. Some of his colleagues even advocated for a project cost CLOSER to Mr. Fraasch’s number than the number they ultimately approved as the maximum spend. From where I sit, Mr. Fraasch may not be on the same page as his colleagues on the Board, but he’s at least in the same chapter.

So if it wasn’t the substance of his message that was “wrong”, let’s consider the means by which he delivered it. Many residents received his “white paper” via email. Others may have read it on his blog. And still others heard or saw his comments on KDKA radio and TV. I would be concerned if Mr. Fraasch had elected to remain quiet in all prior Board meetings and then resorted to this sort of “off the record activity”; but clearly this isn’t the case. Mr. Fraasch is on record, perhaps more so than any other Board member, with regard to his thoughts and opinions on this project. Further, unsolicited emails from board members are nothing new. I’ve received them from other Board members and even the spouses and parents of elected officials. Similarly, at least one other Board member and two Commissioners currently host personal blogs on which they post updates, position statements, etc. (Ironically, I previously argued on this site that allowing our elected officials to blog on the side is a potentially dangerous and slippery slope. At that time, I was told I was nuts and that the benefits of communication far outweigh any risk of miscommunication. Hmmm). And just yesterday, Mr. Kubit used the District’s own website to post some persuasive information to support the position of the Board majority. So again, it would appear that Mr. Fraasch’s methods are not unique and, in fact, they are utilized by others in Mt. Lebanon who hold elected office.

Lastly, while Mr. Fraasch’s opinions are certainly contrary to the majority of the Board, I’m not convinced that they aren’t shared by a majority of the residents in our community. School Board members don’t take an oath to represent the School Board. They take an oath to represent the residents of Mt. Lebanon. I think we would all agree that a referendum on a $113 million price tag for the high school would fail miserably. So, in reality, aren’t his concerns and opinions more in line with those of his constituents or at least a large percentage of them? And for that he should be censured?

I’m left to conclude that those who would censure or seek the removal of Mr. Fraasch are doing so simply because they disagree with him. I can think of no other reason. Many of you will remember that following Dr. Sable’s termination there was a cry for increased transparency on the Board. “No more hiding the ball,” we cried. “We’re entitled to know,” we shouted. The School Board campaigns that followed even focused on renewed openness and an increase in candid communication with the taxpayers. After all, this is the Great State of Mt. Lebanon! For heaven’s sake, we’re certainly educated and intelligent enough to hear the good AND the bad and decide for ourselves, right?

The irony of the current situation is not lost on me... how about you? I could go on and on regarding the representative form of government, free speech, the emperor wearing no clothes, totalitarianism and a bunch of other obvious things, but instead I’ll close by encouraging those Board members who have received such requests to do the right thing. Regardless of whether you agree with Mr. Fraasch or not, please respond to those residents and explain to them that here in Mt. Lebanon we ARE prepared to accept the good with the bad. Please let them know that you appreciate that others in the community (including other elected officials) may disagree with you, but we don’t need to bury their opinions, silence their voices, or run them out of office... or out of town. After all, the next elected official advocating an unpopular or difficult position might just be you.

More on the Fraasch Report: It's Time to Do Something

[This is an op-ed piece. It represents my views, and not necessarily those of Joe or Blog-Lebo. —Tom Moertel]

To start, I want to thank James Fraasch for explaining to the public what's so troubling about the current renovation plan. His report represents a ton of work, and it's work that he did on our behalf. Thank you, Mr. Fraasch.

Now, on to the report.

First, read it. It's only a few pages, and you won't find a shorter, more informative summary of the renovation project's implications. If you can't find the time, here's a summary of Mr. Fraasch's findings:

• Our school district is already on shaky financial ground and, post renovation, Mt. Lebanon would become the 15th most-indebted school district in Pennsylvania and earn the #2 spot for debt per student.
  
• In the next few years, your school real-estate taxes are going to increase by nearly 50 percent to meet the school district's obligations.
  
• To pay for the renovation, the cash-strapped district will probably have to make cuts elsewhere – reducing programs, reducing staff, closing schools possibly.
  
• Because of the cuts, the project will have a "negative impact on the overall educational outcome for our students." In short, we're getting a better building, but trading a better education to get it.
  
• It's possible to renovate our high school for less. Neighboring districts Baldwin, Upper St. Clair, and Bethel Park have each undertaken comparable projects for tens of millions less than our planned renovation.
  
• The renovation's price tag appears to have been managed to remain just beneath the threshold that would trigger a voter referendum, denying residents their opportunity to accept or reject the plan at the voting booths.

Mr. Fraasch doesn't just assert these claims. He supports them with evidence: six pages of facts, figures, graphs, and tables. If you think the current renovation plan is going to be good for our community, you'll have a much harder time reaching that sanguine conclusion after considering Mr. Fraasch's evidence. And if you're a vocal supporter of the current plan, please consider the evidence.

To end his report, Mr. Fraasch pleads with readers, asking them to take this last, best opportunity to throw the brakes on what he likens to a runaway train. He asks readers to do something now: call, email, or write a letter to the school board. (Call or email if you want your voice heard before Monday's Act-34 vote.)

By releasing his report, Mr. Fraasch has offered our community a clear argument, supported by evidence, that we cannot afford a renovation project this expensive. I have argued that even if we could afford it, it would be a poor way to spend our educational dollars. A less-expensive renovation solves both of these problems.

Therefore, if you care about the financial health of our community or of our school district, or if you care about the standard of education we can offer to future students, you must do something now: ask for a less-expensive renovation. If you don't contact the school board now and tell them you want a less-expensive renovation, you are going to get the current plan – and its consequences.

Your School, Your Taxes, Your Community and Your Child's Education

The title of this blog post is also the title of a 7 page document that I received today from School Board member James Fraasch. In it, he discusses the high school renovation project and the upcoming Act 34 (which sets the maximum project cost) vote on Monday, January 18.

In his document, James discusses the projected real estate tax increase of up to 50% in the next five years if the project proceeds as it currently stands. He also reviews our millage rate and overall project costs to comparable schools in our area.

The full document can be viewed at: www.scribd.com/doc/25233272/MTLSDWhitePaperV3.

UPDATE 2010-01-14 18:30 (by Tom): For those readers who have trouble with Scribd-hosted documents, I have placed another copy of Mr. Fraasch's report on Google Documents: "Your School, Your Taxes, Your Community and Your Child's Education".

Proposal Calls For Delaying Major Work

Mt. Lebanon School Director James Fraasch last night formally presented to the rest of the school board a proposal that calls for delaying the significant renovation or new construction of the high school and doing only minimal maintenance work over the next several years.

Mr. Fraasch outlined his plan at the board's discussion meeting. The proposal, originally posted on his personal blog last month, calls for delaying a major project at the high school until 2017 or 2018, but raising taxes by one-half mill for each of the next three years and using the revenue generated by the tax hike to perform $10 million to $15 million in repairs.

Link: www.postgazette.com/pg/09013/941438-100.stm