BUDGET REFORM for STUDENT LEARNING at lmsd.info - the lower merion school district alternative information source

Redistricting - Just How Big Are The New High Schools?

UPDATED WITH NEW LINKS...

    Rather than redistricting, the taxpayers of Lower Merion should be worrying about what we are going to do with all the wasted space we are constructing.  For years, the Lower Merion School Board has insisted that the two new high schools are each properly sized for 1,250 children.  But this is simply not true.  Based the Pennsylvania Department of Education's own standards, each school has a Rated Pupil Capacity of over 1,800.  It is well known that the way to get around the Act 34 vote trigger is to adjust the school size up.  While this sounds nonsensical, it is true.  And, this is what they did!

    In simple terms, it works this way.  The Act creates a spending limit based on the school capacity.  If you’re over the limit, you must put the plan to a voter referendum.  The School Board made sure it would avoid a vote by writing periodic Act 34 tests into the architects’ contracts.  By running the calculation early, you can adjust the design to avoid the act.  How? 

    

What Has Led To Redistricting? The New Harriton High School is Too Big and Too Expensive

You may recall this headline exclaimed repeatedly by citizens warning about the LMSD “Modernization Plan.”  Now, as the real costs of that plan tally, some portions of the community are getting angry.  With good reason; they’ve been duped!

This latest “cost” was obvious to anyone who was paying attention.  What happens when one of the two equally-sized schools is located on the border of the least densely populated side of town?  You guessed it, a long bus ride that for some will pass right by a closer school. 

But there is a simple solution to the redistricting issue.  Don’t do it!  We don’t have to because the new Lower Merion High School is big enough to take the same percentage of our high school students as it always has.  In fact, both schools are that big.

Make Your Voice Heard

The Lower Merion School District (“LMSD”) has scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 7:00 PM in the Lower Merion High School Auditorium to present its plans for the financing and construction of a completely new Lower Merion High School. The hearing is required by the PA Department of Education (“PDE”) under Pennsylvania Act 34 (the “Taj Mahal Act”) which was enacted to give voters the power to approve or disapprove expensive school construction projects via referendum. 

School Board Turns Away From State Construction Funding

As you should know by now, the Lower Merion School District is moving ahead with the construction of a New Harriton High School despite the fact that the bids came in higher than their own not-to-exceed budget.  You should also know that the District has overtaxed the citizens by $20.1 Million over the last three years so that it won't have to borrow an amount that would require voter approval.  But now we learn another new twist that has resulted in our taxes being higher than necessary.

The Real Cost of Delays

On Monday, May 21, 2007, the Lower Merion School Board intends to vote to exceed its own not-to-exceed budget for the New Harriton High School project.  Can they really be so desperate that they will risk so much?  They have received only one bid for the major portion of the work.  And the project is only $1.9M away from requiring a referendum.  What does all this mean?  If, during construction, the project experiences extra costs in excess of $1.9M, the project will stop and the District will have to go to the voters for approval to complete.  Of course they are banking on the voters being unwilling to stop a half built project.  But, imagine the delay costs associated with suspending the project. And yet, the cost of delay is the very argument they use for moving forward.  They say that if they delay construction any longer, the project will cost millions more.

But will it?  Click here to understand the true cost of delays, and here for Appendix 2. 

Please take a close look at what the School Board is doing to the future wellbeing of our schools and of our community.  Write to capitalcomments@lmsd.org and tell them what you think; tell everyone you know what is happening; and join us for this important meeting on Monday, May 21 at 8PM in the LMHS library.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE FOR HARRITON

The reason that the proposed New Harriton High School is breaking the budget is so obvious even a caveman could see it.  The LMSD Board and Administration will blame the cost on neighbors, unyielding Township officials and even Hurricane Katrina.  While these are convenient excuses, here is the truth: the proposed building is simply too big, and therefore too expensive, even for Lower Merion.

LMSD FAILS ON HIGH SCHOOL MODERNIZATION

The current Lower Merion School District (“LMSD”) Board and Administration have often stated that they were elected and hired based on their agenda of building two new high schools for the District.  Now that the bids for the new Harriton High School have come in wildly over budget, it is a good time to examine where we stand with respect to high school modernization.   

LMSD School Board Ignores The Wishes Of The Majority

To The Editor:

If you were one of the over 450 citizens who took the time to write commentary in opposition to the New Harriton High School and submit it to the school district last fall, Jamie Savedoff says that you are hardly representative of the desires of the school district.  To quote his words as closely as I can from tonight’s (2/26/07) board meeting, “With 40,000 voters in Lower Merion, 450 to 460 people opposing the new schools is hardly representative of the desires of the majority of the school district.” 

Taxation to Eliminate Representation

I would like to share with you the comments I made to the Lower Merion School Board at the February 12, 2007, board meeting, as my questions and their inability to provide answers should concern us all:

"I have carefully listened to Mr. Shafer’s explanation of the new financing plan, and I have carefully read the Superintendent’s “Win-Win” letter.  While the Superintendent’s characterization that the new financing plan is the result of patience and careful planning may be correct, I believe it is the result of lies that have been patiently proffered and deception that was, in fact, carefully planned.

Board Decides Smaller is Better (for this year)!

PA enacted a law in 2006 that for the first time in state history allows taxpayers, in 2007, to vote on excessive school district budgets.

In June 2006, our LMSD School Board authorized the single largest tax increase in LM’s history.  Weirdly, it turns out… we really haven’t hired any more teachers, we really didn’t buy any more books, we really didn’t give everyone monster raises, and we didn’t do anything known to the public that could reasonably explain such a record-setting-high estimated increase in expenses.  [Of course, any ‘officials’ are welcome to share their thoughts.]  Critics argued that it was a dishonest budget, that the “books were being cooked” and that it was an attack on Democracy.  (click here for chart)