Thursday, October 11, 2012
B-W Board members table the item on Wednesday night. More details here.
The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board decided not to spend roughly $84,000 to improve Baldwin High School's auditorium stage rigging system ... not yet, anyway. After a lengthy discussion over how the old the current system is, how safe it is and what a new system could do, the board's members voted, 8-0, on Wednesday night to table (delay) a vote on the rigging system until it reconvenes on Nov. 7. (Board member Kevin J. Fischer was absent.) B-W School District solicitor Ed Lawrence confirmed with Paul D. Svirbel, district facilities director, that Baldwin-Whitehall would still be in compliance with the rigging's bidding process should it vote on it on Nov. 7. Some board members were dissatisfied during an Oct. 3 meeting when limited details…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Baldwin High School
4653 Clairton Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Thursday, October 4, 2012
Also discussed at Wednesday night's school board meeting, a Baldwin High junior wants a Pre-Med Club.
No More Adult Education Classes? As early as this fall, the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board, as a cost-savings measure, could cancel adult education classes in B-W School District buildings. "We don't cover expenses with (registration fees for) these courses," B-W Superintendent Dr. Randal A. Lutz said at a school board meeting on Wednesday night. "Bascially, the fees cover about half of the cost." Lutz said that the school board could direct district administration to continue to offer adult classes status quo as a "service to the community" or adjust the level of service that the district offers, even if that means no service at all. "The way it stands now, it would not be administration's recommendation to go into this and not cover cost…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Wednesday, October 3, 2012
The stage is part of the Baldwin High School auditorium.
If it's not broke, it could still be better. The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board is considering an approximately $80,000 improvement to Baldwin High School's auditorium stage rigging system. The system—a collection of pulleys, ropes, chains, weights and similar items used prominently during theater productions—has passed safety inspections, B-W School District Superintendent Dr. Randal A. Lutz said at a school board meeting on Wednesday night, but it has a "reduced capacity," Lutz said, compared to a newer rigging system. Board member George L. Pry, who has some knowledge of the new equipment, mentioned an $80,000 cost estimate. Pry said that he is not in favor of buying the equipment, as good it may be, given the school district's current …
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4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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40.355533
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Baldwin High School
4653 Clairton Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA
/articles/b-w-school-board-debates-80-000-stage-rigging-system
1836730
/locations/7998368
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Also, Virginia Deasy will receive benefits, and more leftovers from Wednesday's school board meeting.
How Should Student Board Reps Earn Their Spots? Picking up on conversations from previous school board meetings, members of the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board, members of the audience and the board's student representatives each weighed in during a Wednesday night board meeting on what the process should be for selecting student board reps. Baldwin High School seniors Jaclyn Sirc and Joseph Doyle, junior Victoria Schmotzer and sophomore Jennifer Yanko are the district's current student board reps. Each of them was nominated for their positions by district administrators before being approved the board. Board member Kevin J. Fischer has said that he would prefer that students elect their own student board reps, while folks like state Rep. …
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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/locations/7841100
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The school district falls to the state's 'Warning' level.
A year after seeing each of its tested schools achieve adequate yearly progress (AYP) levels, the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board absorbed the sobering news on Wednesday night that only half of those schools made AYP this year. Assistant Superintendent Denise Sedlacek made the announcement to the school board at its September agenda meeting, revealing that Whitehall Elementary and Baldwin High schools failed to make AYP and that the B-W School District itself has been saddled with a "Warning" tag by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). Specifically, Whitehall Elementary hit 17 out of its 19 AYP targets, while Baldwin High hit 12 out of its 15. The B-W schools that made AYP were W.R. Paynter Elementary (13 out of 13 targets) and J…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Thursday, August 2, 2012
And plenty more from Wednesday night's school board meeting.
Extracurricular Activities Eligibility Confusion over what makes students eligible to participate in extracurricular activities in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District should come to an end next week. At least, that's the plan. New Superintendent Dr. Randal A. Lutz told the B-W School Board at a meeting on Wednesday night that he will submit a revised extracurricular participation policy for the board to vote on next week. That revised policy is expected to enforce a uniform standard for not only student-athletes in grades 7-12 but also for any student in those grades who wishes to participate in other activities, such as German Club, student newspaper, et al. During the 2011-12 school year, district officials attempted to enforce a …
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Also, premium lunches could be eliminated to avoid seeing a 'class system in the cafeteria.'
Dr. Randal A. Lutz recommended a 10-cent price increase for school lunches at both the elementary and secondary levels as one of the first official recommendations that he's made as the new superintendent of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District. Lutz suggested the increase on Wednesday night at the first B-W School Board meeting of the 2012-13 academic year. Included in his recommendation is a call for the elimination of premium lunches in district cafeterias. Lutz explained that the moves stem from budgetary concerns as outlined by the district's Food Service Director Tammy Caponi and from higher-level restrictions being placed on free/reduced lunch programs. Caponi's research was made available to school board members but not to the …
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
Some teaching and other staff positions will be eliminated for 2012-13.
The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board rejected a proposal by B-W School District administrators at a meeting on Wednesday night to raise district taxes, opting instead for no tax increase. But proposal rejections by the school board were still rare on Wednesday, as the board also approved the elimination of several teaching and other staff positions in Baldwin-Whitehall in order to balance its 2012-13 budget. Gone for 2012-13 are the positions of director of pupil services, assistant transportation manager and technology department technician. And the employees assigned to those positions—Virginia Deasy, David Sparrow and Paul Huwalt, respectively—have each been furloughed. Also eliminated were one English, science and social studies teacher …
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
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1833949
/locations/7208754
'I'm willing to bite it this year.' - school board member Kevin Fischer
In an unexpected move, the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board shot down a recommendation by B-W School District administrators to raise the district's tax rate by 0.5 mills. Instead, a new 2012-13 budget plan adopted by the school board at its meeting on Wednesday night keeps Baldwin-Whitehall's taxes at a rate of 23.40 mills for at least another fiscal year. And while votes on both budget plans were split—7-2 against raising taxes and 6-3 in favor of no increase—board members were unofficially unanimous in asserting that the district will eventually see its first tax increase since 2006-07. And that increase could be a large one sometime soon. "We either do it today, or we do it tomorrow (next year or the year after)," said board member Kevin…
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Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
/articles/surprise-baldwin-whitehall-maintains-tax-line
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/locations/8302586
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Also, the district's preliminary 2012-13 budget is released to the public, an AP test costs decision and other leftovers from a May 9 school board meeting.
Refinancing Leads to Big Savings An Internet bond auction on Wednesday morning has led to big savings for the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, according to Jamie Doyle, of Public Financial Management—the district's financial adviser regarding debt. Doyle spoke at Wednesday night's B-W School Board meeting to reveal that Bank of New York Mellon Capital Markets had won that morning's auction to refinance a general obligation bond that the school board issued in 2005. BNY Mellon's winning interest rate bid was approximately 1.54 percent on $4,945,000, with no bond insurance required due to Baldwin-Whitehall's, as Doyle puts it, "excellent credit rating." Moody's Investors Service has assigned B-W an Aa3 credit rating, which Doyle said is …
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-79.992891
Baldwin-Whitehall School District Office
4900 Curry Rd, Pittsburgh, PA
/articles/over-339-000-in-savings-for-b-w-school-district
1833949
/locations/6988658
Jon Wain
4:02 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012
no ten grains of salt more ›