Mt. Lebanon school year looks to start Aug. 29

The 2016-17 academic year in Mt. Lebanon School District is likely to start Aug. 29.
During Monday’s discussion session, school board members announced a consensus for a calendar that wraps up the year June 9, 2017, and schedules four days for spring break. A vote is expected at the board’s regular meeting on Jan. 18.
A proposal discussed last month called for the school year to begin Aug. 23, primarily related to the issue of most of the district’s buildings lacking air conditioning.
Teachers recommended the earlier date because students tend to be more productive in hot classrooms at the start of the year compared with extending it further into June, Mary Beth Irvin, assistant superintendent for elementary education, told the board.
After hearing from the community, though, the board decided on bringing students back to class the last Monday in August.
“I think we’re still ending it at a reasonable time,” Lawrence Lebowitz, board president, said.
The new version of the calendar adds a day to spring break, which starts Wednesday, April 12, and wraps up the Monday after Easter.
The board received a substantial amount of comment about the calendar.
“The input came on all sides of this issue,” Lebowitz said. “All of the opinions were heard and considered.”
Board member William Moorhead said he was impressed with the way in which members of the community expressed their opinions.
“The all seemed to be very civil and accepting of other viewpoints,” he said. “I thought that was a really great exercise.”
In other business at the discussion session:
• The board announced plans to vote Jan. 18 on a preliminary 2016-17 budget, to be submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education so that the district would be able to request exceptions to the index set for Mt. Lebanon regarding how much it can raise taxes.
“This gives the board all the latitude to make good decisions as more information becomes available,” Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer explained.
All numbers are speculative until a final budget is adopted, which the board expects to do in May.
In the meantime, the preliminary budget lists total estimated expenditures and other financing uses at $94.7 million, and the tax rate at 24.35 mills, representing a .8-mill increase.
• In his monthly update on the high school renovation project, Tom Berkebile of construction management firm P.J. Dick Inc. said that work is progressing “one bay at a time” in the demolition of Building C, which has proved to be a strong piece of architecture.
He told the board that the demolition, including crushing of concrete and removal of debris, should be completed by the end of March.
Inside the high school, two new inspirational sayings have been inscribed on the walls, with the words of Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson joining those of Maya Angelou and Nelson Mandela.