Last night the Board held a special meeting to select a construction manager for the project. Our construction manager will be PJ Dick. You can visit their website here.
My reasoning for voting for awarding the contract to PJ Dick are as follows:
1) Very positive references from other Western Pennsylvania school districts
2) Willingness to listen to the District and be helpful in completing a project that meets a certain, specified budget number
3) Willingness to evaluate ALL options on the table with regards to the project
4) Very experienced team of local professionals that have worked on local school projects
The final companies that were up for selection were both well qualified and capable. The costs for each CM were also very similar. In the end I voted for the team that I think can bring the best value to the District.
Email questions and concerns to james.fraasch@gmail.com
James
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Special Meeting Tonight
The Board has called a special meeting for tonight at 7pm in the high school library to vote on the construction manager for the high school project.
Please see the agenda here.
I look forward to reviewing the proposals in executive session prior to the meeting.
James
Please see the agenda here.
I look forward to reviewing the proposals in executive session prior to the meeting.
James
Pennsylvania Department of Education Pre-K Findings
Pennsylvania Department of Education has released a report that shows the "Positive Impact in Children's Lives Made By Pre-K Counts". Excerpt below:
According to the report:
• 94 percent of Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts children finished the school year with age-appropriate skills and behavior or emerging age-appropriate skills and behavior.
• 95 percent of children in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts are affected by at least one risk factor for school failure; 75 percent are affected by two or more risk factors.
• 63 percent of lead teachers have obtained, or are working towards, teacher certification in early childhood education.
• Average class size of 16 children per lead teacher and teacher aides surpasses best practices in the field.
• Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is serving three- and four-year-olds in every region of the state in school- and community-based programs.
• When compared to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s benchmarks for quality early education program, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts meets or exceeds nearly every quality benchmark.
This information goes to what I said in a previous post about the strong possibility that PDE mandates full-day kindergarten for all school districts in the State. They are continually pushing this information out there in hopes of finding broad-based support for the change. I have no idea on the time-frame but I would guess it would happen before Rendell leaves office.
James
According to the report:
• 94 percent of Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts children finished the school year with age-appropriate skills and behavior or emerging age-appropriate skills and behavior.
• 95 percent of children in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts are affected by at least one risk factor for school failure; 75 percent are affected by two or more risk factors.
• 63 percent of lead teachers have obtained, or are working towards, teacher certification in early childhood education.
• Average class size of 16 children per lead teacher and teacher aides surpasses best practices in the field.
• Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is serving three- and four-year-olds in every region of the state in school- and community-based programs.
• When compared to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s benchmarks for quality early education program, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts meets or exceeds nearly every quality benchmark.
This information goes to what I said in a previous post about the strong possibility that PDE mandates full-day kindergarten for all school districts in the State. They are continually pushing this information out there in hopes of finding broad-based support for the change. I have no idea on the time-frame but I would guess it would happen before Rendell leaves office.
James
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Current Economics and PSERS
Just a quick note to say that I am sort of caught up in the historical nature of the past week. I'm trying to wrap my head around the implications of a bailout/no bailout vote for my personal, professional, and school board functions.
My personal feeling is that yesterday was panic and those that needed to make a point, did so. Whether you agree with the bailout or not, nobody can tell you that it is certain to work. Nobody can tell you that it won't work. The question on my mind is, how much do we have to give up. Not just financially, but as far as our way of life. As a nation we seem to be on the precipice of a new paradigm. One where we can't simply borrow our way to prosperity. Is the passing of a bailout our one last gasp before the eventual decline? What country out there will give us the $700 billion? Or will we just print it?
I don't pretend to be an expert on these things but I do follow it closely. For those econ nuts out there that want to see where we are and what will happen next, I urge you to read this speech by Ben Bernanke from 2002. The title is "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here". Bernanke is considered by most to be the pre-eminent scholar on the causes and effects of the Great Depression. When he uses that term to describe our current times, I am certain he does not do so lightly. The Great Depression was the greatest deflationary era in United States history. His speech outlines what he would do to avoid a deflation, and then, if we were in a deflation, what he would do to get out of it. The crazy thing is, it's not just Bernanke using this term to describe our current economic state, it's both Presidential candidates as well. Let me also point you to one of the best articles I have read that deals with this crisis. Click here.
Bernanke lists about 8 actionable ideas in his speech. From my count, he has done six of them. The last two appear to be fixing treasury yields and intervening in currency markets. I think yesterday, he may have actually intervened in the currency markets by more than doubling the cash available to banks around the world.
Current events have me concerned on a lot of fronts. I run the finances for my household, decide how to spend money for my business, and decide how to spend money for the school district. What is happening out there will have profound effects on the decisions I make in all three capacities. Think about this for a second. In 2000-2003, we had a major stock market sell-off. The PA Public School Employee Retirement System is scheduled to come collect for those stock market losses in 2012 (check out the last slide in this presentation). Yes, this is a full TEN YEARS after the fund had bad returns. Since 2002, the Fund has put more and more money into private investments such as hedge funds and real estate partnerships. Great timing, eh? Given the current crisis and its implications for a large number of hedge funds, I cannot begin to fathom what kind of losses pension funds like this are taking this year. Please see this article in the New York Times regarding hedge fund shakeups. Keep in mind that hedge funds don't have to report performance the same way that stocks and mutual funds do. I went through every hedge fund/private investment company listed in the teachers pension and I found information on maybe TWO of them out of over 50 private equity partners. Check out the roster for yourself here.
PSERS had almost $63 billion in assets on June 30, 2008. That is DOWN from $67.2 billion in June 2007. According to their website, the Fund returned -2.82 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. We have seen this movie before. It doesn't end well.
The recently passed State budget doesn't address any of these issues. Instead of slightly increasing school district and/or employee contribution rates to make up the funding shortfall from the last stock market decline, the budget LOWERED how much we must allocate to this fund. Now we are destined to have a massive increase in 2012 that will blow many school district budgets out of the water.
The current situation is fluid. As things change, I am sure my view will change. There are a lot of macro-level issues (national debt, deficit spending, tax rates, etc) happening as I type this that will wind their way down to the micro-level (household finances, school district budgets, etc.) in a very short period of time.
These are historical times- times that will be written about in the history books of my grandchildren.
Thanks for reading.
James
My personal feeling is that yesterday was panic and those that needed to make a point, did so. Whether you agree with the bailout or not, nobody can tell you that it is certain to work. Nobody can tell you that it won't work. The question on my mind is, how much do we have to give up. Not just financially, but as far as our way of life. As a nation we seem to be on the precipice of a new paradigm. One where we can't simply borrow our way to prosperity. Is the passing of a bailout our one last gasp before the eventual decline? What country out there will give us the $700 billion? Or will we just print it?
I don't pretend to be an expert on these things but I do follow it closely. For those econ nuts out there that want to see where we are and what will happen next, I urge you to read this speech by Ben Bernanke from 2002. The title is "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here". Bernanke is considered by most to be the pre-eminent scholar on the causes and effects of the Great Depression. When he uses that term to describe our current times, I am certain he does not do so lightly. The Great Depression was the greatest deflationary era in United States history. His speech outlines what he would do to avoid a deflation, and then, if we were in a deflation, what he would do to get out of it. The crazy thing is, it's not just Bernanke using this term to describe our current economic state, it's both Presidential candidates as well. Let me also point you to one of the best articles I have read that deals with this crisis. Click here.
Bernanke lists about 8 actionable ideas in his speech. From my count, he has done six of them. The last two appear to be fixing treasury yields and intervening in currency markets. I think yesterday, he may have actually intervened in the currency markets by more than doubling the cash available to banks around the world.
Current events have me concerned on a lot of fronts. I run the finances for my household, decide how to spend money for my business, and decide how to spend money for the school district. What is happening out there will have profound effects on the decisions I make in all three capacities. Think about this for a second. In 2000-2003, we had a major stock market sell-off. The PA Public School Employee Retirement System is scheduled to come collect for those stock market losses in 2012 (check out the last slide in this presentation). Yes, this is a full TEN YEARS after the fund had bad returns. Since 2002, the Fund has put more and more money into private investments such as hedge funds and real estate partnerships. Great timing, eh? Given the current crisis and its implications for a large number of hedge funds, I cannot begin to fathom what kind of losses pension funds like this are taking this year. Please see this article in the New York Times regarding hedge fund shakeups. Keep in mind that hedge funds don't have to report performance the same way that stocks and mutual funds do. I went through every hedge fund/private investment company listed in the teachers pension and I found information on maybe TWO of them out of over 50 private equity partners. Check out the roster for yourself here.
PSERS had almost $63 billion in assets on June 30, 2008. That is DOWN from $67.2 billion in June 2007. According to their website, the Fund returned -2.82 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. We have seen this movie before. It doesn't end well.
The recently passed State budget doesn't address any of these issues. Instead of slightly increasing school district and/or employee contribution rates to make up the funding shortfall from the last stock market decline, the budget LOWERED how much we must allocate to this fund. Now we are destined to have a massive increase in 2012 that will blow many school district budgets out of the water.
The current situation is fluid. As things change, I am sure my view will change. There are a lot of macro-level issues (national debt, deficit spending, tax rates, etc) happening as I type this that will wind their way down to the micro-level (household finances, school district budgets, etc.) in a very short period of time.
These are historical times- times that will be written about in the history books of my grandchildren.
Thanks for reading.
James
Friday, September 26, 2008
Pittsburgh Real Estate Update
I heard a story on NPR this morning and found the local news link here:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_590186.html
Following is an excerpt from the story:
There were 2,516 home sales last month, compared with 3,364 a year ago. The median sales price declined 4.9 percent, said RealStats, a South Side-based real estate information company. The report covers Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
It's not just California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona any more. While we will most likely not be subjected to 25-50% house price declines as some of the other higher growth areas have been, deteriorating home prices are decreasing wealth. Deflation has no friends.
Let me point you back to an article I linked to on August 9th. I point out a number of issues with the overall economy and severely reduced tax receipts by government bodies. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an update the information I quoted here. Here is a quote from the updated release:
New gaps have opened up in the budgets of at least 13 states just two months after they struggled to close the largest budget shortfalls seen since the recession of 2001. These 13 states make up a significant share of the 29 states that have already moved to cut spending, use reserves, or raise revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year, which started July 1 in most states. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance yet again.
I don't want to beat on an already beaten drum when it comes to the economy. Clearly, this week alone we are seeing a lot of news with Congress trying to pass some kind of bailout/stimulus program to make sure banks can continue to lend money. But I do want people to understand the impact that is already starting to hit home to local governments. Counties from New York to California are reeling from the fallout of the crisis on Wall Street. Much like the home price declines, I expect that Pennsylvania will not be impacted as severely as other places, but make no mistake, the crisis will eventually hit Western Pennsylvanians. It will have an effect on tax receipts to all local governments at some point. It will have an impact on the ability of some local government agencies ability to borrow. While no one can predict the exact effect it will have on us locally, we do need to keep this in mind when thinking about future budgets.
Thanks for reading.
James
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_590186.html
Following is an excerpt from the story:
There were 2,516 home sales last month, compared with 3,364 a year ago. The median sales price declined 4.9 percent, said RealStats, a South Side-based real estate information company. The report covers Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
It's not just California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona any more. While we will most likely not be subjected to 25-50% house price declines as some of the other higher growth areas have been, deteriorating home prices are decreasing wealth. Deflation has no friends.
Let me point you back to an article I linked to on August 9th. I point out a number of issues with the overall economy and severely reduced tax receipts by government bodies. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an update the information I quoted here. Here is a quote from the updated release:
New gaps have opened up in the budgets of at least 13 states just two months after they struggled to close the largest budget shortfalls seen since the recession of 2001. These 13 states make up a significant share of the 29 states that have already moved to cut spending, use reserves, or raise revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year, which started July 1 in most states. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance yet again.
I don't want to beat on an already beaten drum when it comes to the economy. Clearly, this week alone we are seeing a lot of news with Congress trying to pass some kind of bailout/stimulus program to make sure banks can continue to lend money. But I do want people to understand the impact that is already starting to hit home to local governments. Counties from New York to California are reeling from the fallout of the crisis on Wall Street. Much like the home price declines, I expect that Pennsylvania will not be impacted as severely as other places, but make no mistake, the crisis will eventually hit Western Pennsylvanians. It will have an effect on tax receipts to all local governments at some point. It will have an impact on the ability of some local government agencies ability to borrow. While no one can predict the exact effect it will have on us locally, we do need to keep this in mind when thinking about future budgets.
Thanks for reading.
James
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