Josephine Posti's e-mail tells friends: "This year, give the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving. Like the Mt. Lebanon school board." A link goes to a Web site where she's selling T-shirts meant to give a "shout out" to the school board.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Jim Menegazzi, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is planning to ask the courts to stop payments to the departed superintendent pending an investigation. Click photo for larger image.

"I paid $490,000 for a superintendent but all I got was this lousy t-shirt," the clothing proclaims.

It's Posti's way of expressing her rage. Resident Jim Menegazzi, on the other hand, plans to take the matter to court.

Either way, two weeks after the Mt. Lebanon school board announced it had parted ways with Superintendent Margery Sable after only a year and a half, the town is awash in rumor, anger and confusion over the more than $500,000 in cash and benefits the board gave her.

One thing that's not in dispute is that Sable, a self-described agent of change, often spoke bluntly. She frequently said if the board didn't like what she was doing it could buy her out, which is just what happened.

She resigned Nov. 1, with the reasons sealed because of a confidentiality clause in the settlement agreement. The parties will only say they had "differences of opinion with respect to the administration of the school district."

Since then, people have vented through e-mails and in hair salons, nail parlors and bars, quoting so-called reliable sources with the so-called real story.

Posti's offerings on www.cafepress.com/posti are garnering chuckles. A mug says: "Real estate taxes: 31.79 mills. School renovations: $5 million over budget. Superintendent buy-out: $490,000. Living in Mt. Lebanon: Priceless."

She designed the items "to try to add some humor to something everyone I've talked to has been upset about." She's only sold a couple so far.

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Former Mt. Lebanon Superintendent Margery Sable in a 2003 photo. Click photo for larger image.

Posti grew up in Mt. Lebanon, moved away and returned a year and a half ago. She believes the payout is fiscally irresponsible. Still, she's not sorry she returned.

"We came back for the schools," she said. "I am one of Mt. Lebanon's biggest fans."

Menegazzi, a University of Pittsburgh professor of emergency medicine who has lived in Mt. Lebanon for 17 years, plans to file a motion in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court or Commonwealth Court asking for an injunction to stop payments to Sable until an investigation can be conducted. He also plans a complaint to the state Department of Education claiming the board violated the portion of the state school code that governs school finances.

He will ask that payments to Sable stop until the department can investigate whether the board is guilty of fiscal malfeasance and misfeasance, he said. He is circulating a petition to gain residents' support of both filings.

"I find the attitude of the board to be arrogant and aloof and that doesn't help," he said. "I don't trust these people. Why are we paying this lady to do nothing?"

Menegazzi has organized an informational, organizational and planning meeting to explore legal options. It will be held in Room B of the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center and Ice Rink from 7:30 to 9:30 tonight.

Whether residents liked Sable or not, they are furious about the huge payout and the secrecy behind it. In addition to the more than $500,000 in salary she gets regardless of whether she finds another job, Sable will receive five years of health insurance unless she gets a job with such benefits. She will be paid for accrued vacation and legal fees up to $5,000.

"I believe that I am in the healthy majority when I say that there aren't too many differences of opinion that are worth the buyout that the school board approved last night, particularly when the community's first notice of the issue came after the damage had already been done," wrote resident David Franklin in an e-mail.

"As a lifelong resident of Mt. Lebanon and a Mt. Lebanon graduate, I can assure you that our school district is no longer head and shoulders above the rest."

Neither side will confirm who initiated the separation, although the public believes the board wanted her out. The agreement said it was "mutual." The separation document includes lengthy paragraphs in which Sable, 60, the district's first female superintendent, agreed not to sue for discrimination.

While the district looks for a replacement, Assistant Superintendent George Wilson is handling operations.

The district sent 94 percent of its graduates to college last year and is well-represented among Ivy League schools, according to the administration. It has won three blue ribbons as a National School of Excellence from the U.S. Department of Education. Newsweek put the high school in the top 500 in the country in 2000 and Redbook placed it in the top 50 in 1996.

Wilson said the district's high level of parent involvement is part of the reason for the district's success.

The prestige and demands of the Mt. Lebanon superintendent position lead to an above-average salary. Sable's $140,000 pay was higher than the state's average salary of $107,657 for 2003-04, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Only 9 percent of Pennsylvania superintendents made $140,000 or more. The board did not give Sable a raise this year but declined to say why.

When Superintendent Glenn Smartschan announced he would retire in 2003, the school board began what it called a rigorous search process. Board members said they picked Sable for her willingness to push the district past the "next level."

But many of the changes she proposed were met with resistance or heavily edited before gaining board approval.

Sable pushed for a new attendance policy but the board tabled it after realizing parents were unaware of it. The proposal called for denying credit to students who missed 10 periods or more unless they participated in a hearing to have the credit reinstated. Once parents saw the proposed policy, they became irate, saying it was too strict. The board passed a revised version several months later.

Under Sable's leadership, the district reinstituted the Writer's Workshop to raise state achievement test scores. Students were to add an hour of reading and composition to each day.

She was known for answering every parent's e-mails and helping parents of children with special needs negotiate challenges.

Some parents loved her initiatives, but others found fault with them.

Parent Carol Baicker-McKee was concerned with Sable's emphasis on standardized testing, including the Pennsylvania achievement tests. It bothered Baicker-McKee that Sable seemed to be looking into too many types of education reform at once.

"I was worried she was going to push us toward reforms that are not good," she said.

Disagreements divided parents. Former PTA Council officer Franci Eberz said she and another member were voted out of office when they complained the group was spending too much time criticizing Sable and playing politics when their mission was supposed to be helping children.

Sable battled the teachers union when a new computer system, called Dashboard, was implemented.

The program required teachers to enter homework assignments, attendance data and other information so parents and students could manage their schedules by computer. The Mt. Lebanon Education Association filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on Sept. 10. Teachers claimed their new duties should have been negotiated. The union lost the case and the system is being used.

When Sable spoke her mind, her comments often morphed into what she called "Sable's Fables," tall tales that caused panic. An offhand remark led to the rumor that the district's mascot, the Blue Devil, did not please her and that she planned to change it to the Blue Doves or the Green Leaves. Other rumors included that because she once lived in Vermont, she didn't believe in canceling school due to snow.

The rumors flew so far and so fast that the district put Sable on its Web site to debunk the myths. The segment has been removed.