The Mt. Lebanon school board heard from several parents and residents last night who criticized the superintendant's handling of President Obama's Sept. 8 national speech to students.

Edward Modaro, a member of the Mt. Lebanon Democratic Committee, requested that Mt. Lebanon show the speech in its schools, advising parents in advance that it would be shown and allowing them to opt out. He called the decision not to show the speech to all students during school hours "politically motivated."

Superintendent Dr. Timothy Steinhauer said teachers were given the option of showing the speech to their class and that some teachers did so.

"I have the utmost respect for the office of President of the United States and want to reiterate that we neither censored nor banned the showing of President Obama's speech in our schools," he said in a prepared statement. "I want to make sure that President Obama's message challenging students to work hard, set education goals and take responsibility for their learning is not being lost in this controversy."

Four days before the president's scheduled speech, Dr. Steinhauer said, he sent an e-mail to the district's building principals that informed teachers of students in grades 6-12 that they have the option to watch the speech live "if the topic is relevant to a specific curricular goal or objective," he said.

The speech was given during lunchtime for elementary school students, so Dr. Steinhauer said he decided not to change the scheduled lunchtime in order to avoid disruption for parents and students.

Teachers still have the opportunity to show the Sept. 8 speech or any presidential speech they believe is relevant to the class, he said.

Most of the hour devoted to resident comments at the end of last night's meeting consisted of comments about the September speech.

The school board also discussed the creation of an architect review panel made up of members of the community. The panel's purpose will be to review the designs for the planned high school renovation and offer advice to the school board. Dr. Steinhauer will begin the process of seeking applicants for the positions.

First Published: October 13, 2009, 10:00 a.m.