: Following is the text of the e-mail, obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, sent among Seneca Valley School Board members last week. Please note that one message gives incorrect dates for the upcoming board meetings. The correct dates are May 24, June 7 and June 14.
The people mentioned in the messages are:
- Paul Adametz -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Dean Berkebile -- Seneca Valley School Board president
- Ken Brennan -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Eileen Conners -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Anthony Evans -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Bob Hill -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Matthew Hoffman - Seneca Valley School District solicitor
- John Mitro -- former Seneca Valley School Board member
- Gerald Malecki - Seneca Valley School superintendent
- William Paul -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Ann Reale -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Lynn Stewart -- Seneca Valley School District business manager
- Anthony Storti -- Seneca Valley School Board member
- Donald Tylinski -- Seneca Valley School Board member
The e-mail string reads from the most recent e-mail to the oldest. Readers who wish to start with the first e-mail may begin here. The e-mail addresses have been removed from the messages as a courtesy to the board members.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Adametz
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 12:33 AM
To: Bob Hill, Dean Berkebile, Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski, Lynn Stewart, Ann Reale, Anthony Evans, Anthony Storti, Eileen Conners, Ken Brennan, William Paul
Subject: RE: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Bob, Nobody is trying to establish a quorum through the public internet. What I did was throw out a collection of thoughts and questions to anyone who could provide answers. It's not likely that many of these requests could be fulfilled during a public meeting and I don't think any of you would have been too excited to receive a phone call at 3:00 a.m.
When a majority of our board agrees that, as agents of the district, they have the right to confiscate some of the wealth and earnings of residents of the district for the purpose of redistributing it to quasi-school organizations according to their need; and when the mere thought of allowing the taxpayers to choose for themselves what organizations to contribute money to causes one man to round up the troops - who then spread rumors about at least one member of our board (Storti) wanting to cut all sports and activities, before showing up at a public meeting to protect their WELFARE SUBSIDY, then I must take issue with that. If "one of our most well informed community members" wanted to be on the board, then he should have ran for re-election instead of attempting, with some success, to manipulate the actions of the board and administration.
I'm also getting tired of hearing about my children not attending SV schools. I have the same right to serve on this board as everyone else.
I live in the district, I pay taxes, and I won the election fair and square.
I even gave Walsh two chances to win and could have easily taken her our in the primary election by cross filing. I told my constituents what I stood for and I will be true to my word. I'm not on the board to play footsies and get along with everybody. History proves when everybody gets along on a governing board, the taxpayers get screwed -- big time. At least the taxpayers can rest assured that I won't be voting my wife a raise.
As for including this document into the public record in its current form, go for it. This same situation occured in Seven Fields when I was on Council. One member of the community tried to have me removed from that governing body because of a position I took. When she came to a meeting to read me the riot act, I stuffed it right back at her and she never said peep to me again. I'm not Denny's Restaurant. The residents of Seven Fields were the big winners because they still have the freedom of on-street parking.
My objective here is to prevent the situation that is now occuring in NA where older long time residents must contemplate selling their homes because of the tax burden. Seven Fields Borough has the highest per capita income of any community in Butler County; Cranberry is not far behind. If somebody wants their child to participate in an non-educational activity (please, spare me the educational value of sports speech), then pay for it. I don't think you would walk up and down your street begging your neighbors for a donation so your kids can play ball. It's morally wrong for some to expect the school board to do it for them.
Now that I got that off of my chest, I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Paul T. Adametz
From: Robert Hill
To: Dean Berkebile, Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski, Lynn Stewart, Ann Reale, Anthony Evans, Anthony Storti, Bob Hill, Eileen Conners, Ken Brennan, Paul Adametz, William Paul
Subject: RE: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 22:49:29 -0400
Board Members and Staff, I am deeply troubled by the tone and routing of this email chain. I have always believed that the process by which we nine have served our public has been an honest, open and forthright process conducted as our constituents and lawmakers would have it, in the sunshine. In this chain, I see that there are those of us who would attempt to establish a quorum through the public internet, and have debate which may alter the outcome of a vote. As I see it, this is the exact thing that the sunshine law was written to prevent. Troubling. My opinion only.
This board has also enjoyed the unique ability to conduct it's business in an honorable, respectful manner, to each other and to those we serve.
Over the past several nights, I have heard our boosters (folks who spend as much pro bono time as we do for the good of our students) referred to as welfare recipients, and have read herein that one of our most well informed community members has been called the "leader of a band of communist thugs." I sincerely hope that while we debate the merits of the 4th amendment and it's impact to our drug testing program, that we not forget the 1st amendment when it comes to those we invite to the microphone for input. Just my observation.
There is a significantly large amount of information in this document.
It has ideas that may be pertinent to those who must vote on our budget.
I suggest that it be included in the public record in it's current form, and that the thoughts and suggestions within be given their due debate in public. I'd also suggest that those who are mentioned within, are given ample opportunity to respond in kind. I'd like the Board president and the Solicitor's opinion on that thought.
RJH
-----Original Message-----
From: Dean Berkebile
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 11:10 AM
To: Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski, Lynn Stewart, Ann Reale, Anthony Evans, Anthony Storti, Bob Hill, Eileen Conners, Ken Brennan, Paul Adametz, William Paul
Subject: RE: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
I am on the committee, you are on the committee, the rest of the Board, and everyone who attended the May 10th meeting as well as those who attend the meetings on 5-24, 6-3 and 6-10. A select group of Budget Advisory Committeepersons would be problematic; which group will control the committee? Even "thugs" pay taxes and deserve representation. One man's patriot is another man's thug.
I encourage you to prepare your comments for dissemination for the entire group.
DTB
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Adametz
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 9:27 AM
To: Dean Berkebile
Subject: Re: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Not yet. I need to find out how many students are actually enrolled in the vo-tech program. Also there are some numbers that I wouldn't want to be made public. For example, I think private industry would train students in certain vocations for a lot less than $16,000. Once that number is out there, it would be hard to reduce it. Also, I would like to see the reasoning behind the additional teachers for $600,000+ and the $700,00 budget reserve. I do still question the competency of our graphic arts instructors and refuse to be intimidated by Mitro's band of communist thugs.
Who is the "we" that formed the budget advisory committee. Am I on the committee? Who are ALL of the other members of the committee? When do we meet (assuming that I haven't been excluded)? And who do I need to talk to to get the other information about outsourced printing and the Comdoc contract? You can call me at my business if it's easier to rattle off some of these answers. I don't usually have time to check my e-mail during business hours, but I fully understand the importance of this issue and will try to keep tabs on it.
Paul T. Adametz
----- Original Message -----
From: Dean Berkebile
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 8:21 AM
To: Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski, Lynn Stewart, Ann Reale, Anthony Evans, Anthony Storti, Bob Hill, Eileen Conners, Ken Brennan, Paul Adametz, William Paul
Subject: FW: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Mr. Adametz, I need to know if this is a public document. We have formed a Budget Advisory Committee, and need to know if this is part of the debate.
DTB
Paul Adametz wrote:
From: "Paul Adametz"
To: Dean Berkebile, Eileen Conners, Ken Brennan, Anthony Paul, Anthony Storti, Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski
Subject: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 08:09:38 +0000
After a couple days of intense thought and review of Monday's meeting, I think it's still possible to achieve a 0% increase budget for 04-05. On the budget scorecard, items 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, and 24 were defeated.
If items 15 and 16 are only cut 20%, 17 cut 50%, 18 cut 25% and the others cut completely, we can remove $534,744 from the budget.
Many of the other items can suffer cuts without distorting any child's educational experience. For example, the drug screening program can be cut in half and still be just as ineffective, but still offer the possibility of getting caught to the students.
There were some other major expenses listed that seemed to have room to cut.
Item 26 "Maintain Class Size" listed for $671,062 doesn't make sense. If we are projecting 100 new students (this is very debatable) and we allow a new teacher for every 15 students, then 7 new teachers at $65,000 each adds up to $455,000; leaving at least $216,062 to line out of the budget.
I think we can do without the PSBA, which was soundly defeated. Cost savings: $12,000. Why were we picking on Hockey? Why wasn't that money included in item 5 "Clubs"? I still have a huge problem with the school board demanding with a tax gun the funding of some people's leisure time activities, but the reality is that it's there and not going away, but why can't we cut it 2 or 3%? That is likely less than the amount of increase from last year.
Part of the problem of picking through the budget looking for fat is that much of it is written with terms so vague that most people who are not inside the process cannot figure out what the money is actually used for.
One overview sheet uses terms such as contracted services, other objects, and supplies, but further review doesn't reveal much in the way of useful detail. For example, in supplies, how much money is allocated for art room supplies at Rowan Elementary? There are a couple of areas that we should be taking a hard look at. In the next day or two, I will request from the administration a list of all outsourced printing in the last year. Based on my conversation with Dr. Marchi during the Committee meeting, I would suspect that we are spending money on printing that can be done in the graphic arts classes. Most likely, we have some instructors that are lazy or incompetent; or quite possibly too busy running their own commercial jobs on the machines. If the instructor cannot run carbonless paper through a machine that is used to do just that at tens of thousands of commercial shops across our nation every day, then they are probably not providing much of an education to those students electing to take those classes.
While on the subject of vocational education, we are spending $2,853,354 to send about 90 students to Vo-Tech. That's $31,703.93 per student. That's crazy. How about if we drop out of the program and contract with private industry to provide vocational education. We could save at least half.
Here's how it could work: Let's say a student is in the printing program.
Instead of sending him to Butler to watch the vo-tech instructor run his own commercial jobs through the shop (sorry, I've been in the printing business for over 20 years - this problem is widespread.) we can place the student in a commercial shop and pay that shop $16,000 to let the student get real work experience and training. I'm sure the same system could work with auto body, carpentry, masonary, and culinary programs. Potential savings: at least $1.4 million.
The Seneca Valley School District is a $70+ million operation. Can somebody please explain to me why we don't have a central printing facility? It's highly unlikely that there is a private sector business that size anywhere in the world without one. How long are we stuck with Comdoc and can the contract be altered to allow for more efficient operation? We just renewed the contract with Funyak for lawn care and snow removal.
Is it too late to cancel it? Why can't those participating in leisure time activities earn their welfare subsidy? For example, if the hockey program cannot survive without their $5,000 subsidy, how about if they are responsible for cutting the grass at Rowan Elementary? As the grass gets cut, the monies are forwarded to them. If they do a poor job or don't show up and we have to call in a commercial lawn service, then hockey loses their money. Baseball can be responsible for Haine, soccer and football can be responsible for the main campus, etc.
Finally, why does this years budget include a $700,000 reserve when it doesn't look like this was included in any of the previous years? There is plenty of room for the district to operate comfortably even at 0% increase. At this level, we're still getting $2 million in additional tax revenues; with only 100 new students. That's $20,000 per additional student- something's not right here. If you want a 9-0 vote next month, then we have to take an honest look at some of the items mentioned here and many others that I haven't touched upon. I understand that some of you may have been a little intimidated by Mitro and his band of communist thugs, but many more people are counting on you to do the right thing. The overwhelming majority of our citizens do not want Seneca Valley to turn into the tax hell that North Allegheny has become. We have a duty to honor that request. Sorry if this is rambling; it's 3:45 a.m.
Paul T. Adametz
From: Dean Berkebile
To: Eileen Conners , Paul Adametz, Ken Brennan, William Paul, Ann Reale, Anthony Storti
CC: Gerald Malecki, Donald Tylinski
Subject: Re: Line Item Vote this evening
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 08:19:06 -0700 (PDT)
Your assertion that tonight's vote is the first pass, subject to further review is absolutely correct. I expect there will be changes over the next four weeks.
Mr. Mitro's distribution list is his as a private citizen. It would be hard to characterize the other side's contacts as preferably "fair and balanced". However, based on the PG article of Sunday, I think it is fair to say that everyone has been notified that action is being taken tonight.
Everyone involved is a "special interest" group representing themselves.
DTB
Eileen Conners wrote: After reviewing the information from this Friday's packet I have the following concern.
It is not realistic to press the issue to eliminate many of these items. I do support the necessity of eliminating some; and of trimming others, some trimming more extensive than others.
My recommendation is to have an initial up/down vote for the programs to see if we have 5 votes to eliminate any items.
A "yes" vote in the first round simply means that we will have a second round of discussion which leads to across the board cuts for the remaining items, or for tailored expense review which may cut some of the remaining items more deeply than others. These adjustments can be made and the revised proposed budget can then be released to the public for their studied input.
The exercise of the Board giving direction to these expense items that are truly under local control is a good and necessary step; but the feeling I have right now is that this win/lose proposed for tonight is a political ploy and not good fiscal management.
Based on the emails I am seeing, Mr. Mitro has rounded up the troops and those who have been notified of potential losses to their special interest will be there in force. I did not see any mailing in the distribution lists to "Taxpayers who do not have kid's in school".
Please consider my thoughts. I am in my office until 3 today; then will be unavailable until about 6pm at home just prior to the meeting.
Eileen
First Published: May 17, 2004, 4:00 a.m.
