2004 Mt Lebanon Voter Breakdown

With the election just a day away I thought I would post a Mt Lebanon Ward Map showing how we voted for Bush/Kerry in 2004.

In 2004 there were a total of 20611 votes cast for the Presidential election. 10727 (52%) were cast for Kerry/Edwards and 9753 (47%) were cast for Bush/Cheney. 1% went to other candidates.



I also thought I would link to a ridiculously detailed spreadsheet of voter registration patterns across Pennsylvania. They break down the numbers by County so you can look up Allegheny and see what has been happening at that level. Two thing about this spreadsheet. First, it is supposed to be accurate as of October 31, 2008. Not sure how the state can do anything that quickly, but ok. Second, it breaks down registration by age, new registrations, changed registration, active/inactive, new voter party, etc, etc, etc.

I am posting here on Google's site because its easier to share and forward to your friends. The original full featured spreadsheet can be found on the Department of State website here.

Hope you found this interesting.

James

Article Roundup

Part of the job of being a School Director is keeping up to date with the topics that are gaining attention in the education community. Outside of reading a couple of books, I try to keep up to date by reading many of the journals, magazines, and digests that come my way. It seems that once you are a school board member you get on a special mailing list.

Here is a partial list of articles I have been reading that I found interesting:

-From the, "Hey, things could be a whole lot worse" department- at least we are not going the route of the Belmont High School in Los Angeles. The nation's most expensive high school was just built and they are talking about tearing it down. Ouch! $350 million of taxpayer money will be spent. Check out the story here. Built on an old oil field and right next to an earthquake fault, costs have skyrocketed for this project.

- The American School Board Journal ran an article in its November issue outlining the plans both Obama and McCain have for education. The article started by pointing out the fact that education seems to be on the back burner for BOTH candidates. With a war going on and an economy in free fall it has been much easier for them to put education on the second tier of issues that concern voters. The ASBJ broke down the platform for the candidates as follows:



School Choice seems to be a major difference. Additionally, Obama does have a greater focus on early childhood education. The article lists the cost of Obama's plans to be in the neighborhood of $18 billion, $10 billion of which would go to early childhood learning. The article does not list any costs for McCain as he intends to redirect existing funds to pay for his plans.

- Two Western PA School Districts have merged. The Center Area and the Monaca School Districts, just northwest of Pittsburgh, have decided to merge their two districts. This merger was not forced by the State but instead was taken on independently by the districts. See the article here. Excerpt from the article below:

With local school boards facing spiraling prices for fuel, employee health insurance and other operating costs -- and opposition to increases in property taxes that largely pay for them -- the idea of consolidating to save money is becoming an increasingly common discussion topic.

-There is a another report that hails the benefits of full-day Kindergarten. I have written before that there will be a move towards mandated full-day kindergarten in this state. Please see this article detailing a report by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children that outlines the benefits of full-day kindergarten. Excerpt below:

Schools with students attending full-day kindergarten in 2004-05 improved their third-grade reading scores on the 2007-08 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests twice as much as schools where students did not attend full-day programs, according to the report.

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading.

James

Post Gazette GCA Link

The Post-Gazette had a story that I missed. Please check out the link for more information about the status of the Graduation Competency Assessments.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08294/921253-52.stm

The article and quotes from politicians form the argument against the GCAs as not being good for the already troubled state budget. There is one paragraph in there that gets to the root of the issue and that is local control. Here is that excerpt:

The cost isn't the only concern about the proposed GCAs. Some school districts fear the state may be intruding on local officials' curriculum authority and their power to decide if seniors have learned enough to graduate.

That is what it really boils down to.

Please click on the link here to watch a video about how the GCA might impact our students.


Thanks.

James

Two video links

First, here is a video from the Tredyffrin Easttown School District explaining how statewide Graduate Competency Assessments would effect some of their students. This video is about 12 minutes long. It is very detailed in what our administrators deal with everyday so drink a cup of a coffee, sit down, and then reward yourself with the following inspirational video.

At the PSBA conference last week, our introductory breakfast was kicked off with this video of 10 year old Dalton Sherman. He gave the keynote address to the audience for the kick-off of the Dallas school year. Wow!

James

October Meeting Update

EDIT: The Construction Manager contract is now available on the District website here.

We had a busy and productive schedule in October.

On October 2nd we awarded the construction management contract to PJ Dick. I posted about that here. There were some questions from the public about the contract and why it was not available to the public. While we did agree to the terms (financial and otherwise), there were some minor details in the language of the contract that needed to get worked out. We also had to wait for our attorneys to talk to their attorneys to talk back to our attorneys. From the update we received at last nights meeting, I believe we can expect the contract to be made public sometime today.

While I understand the concern expressed about the lag time between approving the contract and making it public, it was simply not feasible from a legal perspective to make the contract public without it being signed. I am not sure if the competing contract from URS will be made public so that the public can compare the two. If someone asks to see it then I can make that request and see where it goes. PJ Dick was slightly cheaper over the projected project length and it is my belief that their knowledge of the local market will help us save even more money on the full cost of whatever project we do.

Last night we had our regular Board meeting. We kicked it off with a new tradition of having students from one of our schools leading us in the Pledge of Allegience and then we heard the same students speak a little bit about a character education trait they are learning in school. Last nights character education trait was "Respect". Many thanks to the following Lincoln Elementary students for setting a high standard which all future students will try to match: Jake Posti, Noah Donald, Ally Hatton, Elena Rose, and Megan Gibbons, and Teacher, Carol Berklich

A couple of other items of interest that took place last night:
1) The Board President's report focused on the state of this economy and the need for ALL people to vote in the November elections. Regardless of party, this most basic democratic right should not be taken for granted and all people of appropriate age should excercise their right to be included in the democratic process.
2) Audit & Finance Committee has continued to meet to set the tone for future budget discussions. Last Thursday the committee received a list of all revenue for the District. The next meeting in Novemeber is scheduled to be about expenses.
3) The Facilities Committee reported that the PJ Dick contract should be made available today on the District website. Additionally, it is the expectation of the committee that PJ Dick have some information about each of the high school project options to the Board sometime in mid to late Novemeber.
4) The Board approved the establishment of the OPEB (Retiree Healthcare) Trustfund. I have posted about this here , here, and here. During last weeks discussion meeting it was revealed that we expect to have the actuarial study completed for our OPEB liabilities late this month or next month. While I had suggested that the Board fund a full three years of the fund with our $2.7 million 2007-2008 surplus, it was decided to fund only 1 year worth of expenses ($525,000) until this actuarial study is released. My expectation is that once the full liability is known, the Board will fund more of the OPEB Trust Fund than the one year. Once we get that number, I will report it here.
5) The Board approved an expense not to exceed $5,000 for improvements at the Jefferson Softball Field. State Representative Matt Smith had secured a $10,000 grant for this project and there was an additional $5,000 put into the pot by the Mt Lebanon Baseball Association (I believe it was them. If not, someone correct me). This means that of the total $19,629 cost, the District will be responsible for approximately $5,000. While this project was NOT part of our original capital projects list for this year and the process to get to this point was much different than normal, I felt that we should not penalize the hard work of the people who had secured the two grants for the field improvements. In the future we would like all projects like this to be discussed with the Board or the Administration as early as possible so that we do not get blindsided by an unexpected expense. That being said, I would like to thank the parents involved in securing the funding for more than 75% of the cost of this improvement. Good work.
6) I spoke for a moment about Governor Rendell's office and the Pennsylvania Department of Education pursuing statewide graduation competency exams. These exams would replace local school board graduation requirements. There was a press release from the Governor's office just yesterday touting his proposal. While the State Senate voted 48-2 to require the Governor to get legislative approval of any new statewide graduation requirement, the PDE and the Governor continue to move forward with plans to implement this program as early as next school year. Please take a moment to review this video put together by the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District.

Upcoming Board Meetings are as follows:

November 10, 2008 – 6:30 p.m. Architect Updates
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

November 10, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Discussion Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

November 12, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Policy Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

November 13, 2008 – 7:00 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Meeting
Conference Room B, Mt. Lebanon High School

November 17, 2008 – 7:30 p.m. Regular Meeting
Mt. Lebanon High School Library

Thanks for reading.

James