Open notice to the Community!
MEETING AT PEEBLES FIRE Station ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9th at 8pm.(Located 1391 Duncan Avenue)
This meeting will address how the closure of Peebles Elementary will impact the rest of the district (elementary and middle schools), how to best express your concerns to school board members, and how to get the message out to other members of the community.
This meeting will also address the board’s next action in scheduling a public hearing for January 30th. We need the community to unite in a stance against the closure of a top performing elementary school in the heart of the North Allegheny school district that will negatively impact all of the district’s remaining elementary schools.
Questions? Email us at saveNAschools@gmail.com
save NA schools 
The primary issue at NA is the free spending that has been going on for years. The School District has a $120 Million debt on top of being the highest per pupil cost school system at $15,381 in suburban Allegheny County. The salaries and benefits at NA account for about $95 Million of the budget. Unless the School Board opens the Union Contracts with Professionals and Para-Professionals, these costs will continue to skyrocket. This is not a one year phenomenon.
Let us see if we can focus on reducing overall costs in the whole school system. Closing Peebles will not solve the problem because next year it will be something else to pay for the ever increasing salaries and benefits and the $60 Million that the Board wants to spend on renovations at Marshall Elementary and Marshall Middle School.
In 2009, salaries and benefit costs were $83 Million and now they have gone up by $12 Million to $95 Million while NA has reduced staff by 90 people and Wage Freeze has saved $1 Million according to the letter I received from NA on Dec 4, 2012. Yet, the District is facing a $10 Million shortfall next year, mostly because of salaries and benefit costs skyrocketing
http://www.usa.com/school-district-4217010.htm
It has been suggested to me that this closing is simply the first step in a larger agenda. A referendum to raise school district taxes being the ultimate goal. After Peebles closes the superintendant comes back the following year with a…. well that didn’t fix the problem so we will have to raise taxes or close another school. Since we residents will have gone through the pain once and won’t want do that to our kids again we will be more likely to pay.
Joe, great comment….do you think (Nov. 9, 2011)
Click to access 11-9-11%20Good%20to%20Great.pdf
Page 20
NA has already raised taxes every year, the last 3 years: In 2010, 2011 and again on July 1, 2012 our NA School Taxes went up. Currently our NA Tax is 20.923 mils compared to 18.99 mils on June 30, 2010. Next year, the School District is short $10 Million: http://www.northallegheny.org/Page/9011 (Read the Superintendent’s comments carefully)
and since it is such a large tax increase, there will likely be a Referendum on the ballot during the May, 2013 Primary. We will get to vote on whether we want our taxes to go up or not. Closing Peebles and raising our taxes will be going hand in hand next year.
There are 31+ students in several classrooms across the district. Closing a school makes no sense to alleviate this unfavorable student to teacher ratio.
An excellent school district = excellent property values.