Public comment to PPS School Board

A Three-Minute Address to the School Board and Administration of the Pittsburgh Public Schools

Who: Facts

My Name is Mark Rauterkus. My family and I live at 108 South 12th Street, on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you tonight.

Contact Information:

My phone number, home and office: 412-481-2540.

My email address is, Mark@SportSurf.Net.

The WWW site for the things I'm going to address tonight is: http://SportSurf.Net/backyard

Open Invitation for Feedback to All

I am very interested in hearing from any one, (board member or otherwise) regarding these issues. Do not hesitate to call, ask questions, raise objections. By better filtering and refining the ideas, we sharpen our perspectives and knowledge base. That insures a victory.

Goals for Tonight's Presentation:

In the 3-minutes of time I'd like to:

• introduce myself and
• present a "commercial" of sorts.

First the Commercial.

The commercial is to hype a position paper that is being released on the internet. IMHO, the School Board and the educational community is going to fall in love with the ideas presented within this position paper.

You are going to enjoy the position paper for all of the right reasons.

1. From what I can tell from my vantage point -- on the outside looking in, some of the ideas raised by the position paper make for a perfect match to the district's mission. I do, by all means, need your assistance here. I want to not only dovetail this plan upon your plan, but we want to make a complete overlap.

   I want to bond our ideas together. I want to forge later drafts of this position paper with your help so we all can work from a position of strength. This benefits the kids and the community and the district.

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   The ideas within the position paper can be made to surround and fully-support the mission of the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

   
   

   Issues of Overlap with School Board and the position paper:

   1. The ideas make great financial sense.
      • Let's address a $50M burden looming large in our future.

   2. Let's champion community and school interactions.

   3. Let's leverage some inter-governmental cooperation with some the school district, some identified matching state grants, some capital investments and discussion brewing with Pittsburgh City Council and our Citiparks Department.

   4. Finally, let's get everyone on the same page and for the same reasons -- and then let's deliver a package to UPMC, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt -- that is just too good to refuse.

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2. A wide-open window of opportunity exists, and we need to greatly accelerate some of these discussions. I need some high-priority attention from the board and some of the key administrators.

   You'll see that time is a critical factor. And, we need to have some high-level conversations and meetings within the week. I have had the chance to chat with the AD, the principal at South High, the AD at South High, some others in the district and with a school board member tonight. Furthermore, the Business Manager, Mr. Fellers came to a South Side meeting at my request, so he has this on his radar screen, so to speak. But these are more casual conversations. Now we need to get very serious.

   The citizens of Pittsburgh have put in a call to City Council for a Public Hearing on these matters. That meeting should be scheduled this week and held in a month's time. In short order, I'm going to be asking each of you to begin to network with your counterparts on City Council and to attend the Public Hearing. That would be a great show of brilliance for you all to be there, with the citizens and with City Council.

3. The dirty parts --- there is no one-page executive summary.

   The position paper is hundreds of pages in length. There are many concept maps. Large sub-sections of philosophy are tied within the points and justifications. To absorb these plans, each of you will have to apply about 6-8 hours of study. And, each of you are going to have to interact with chunks of this plan. Your want to raise objections, questions and offer refinements to various positions and elements of the vision.

   You're going to have to get to the internet, or, pickup a 3-ring binder, and slot a full-day of time to examine these issues -- in the very near future.

   Can the district make copies of this position paper available to its staff and board members once I deliver a Master edition, please? The photo-copy assistance is greatly appreciated.

   To spend a day of your time on issues I bring before you at short order is a tall request, granted. Please do it, because it is your duty.

   Do it for duty, and do it because we are talking about tens of millions of dollars.

   Do What?

   Before peeking at the WHAT, let's get to a big question you all have the right to ask. It is fair to wonder, "Who in the heck am I to ask for such big favors."

   What is in this for me?

   Often in this world, sad to say, it is not what you say, but who you are when you say it. An introduction is in order.

   Pittsburgher -- and Passionate about Education

   Presently, I'm a stay at home dad. My sons are age 4 and 1. My wife and I met while she was getting her Ph.D. at Northwestern. We moved her from Chicago. She is a professor and director at a medical setting.

   My blood has been boiling about this cause since November. I've been working on this every day since then. I'm fortunate as I've got some flexibility, time, and experiences to pound the pavement on this.

   We live on the South Side, just 2 blocks from South High School. Our kids are going to go to school some day soon.

   I'm the son of a long-time Pittsburgh Public School teacher. My dad is Leo M. Rauterkus -- he retired a few years ago. My sister, my cousin, and my uncle also taught in this district.

   I've been blessed to have two different careers throughout my life -- both on hold while I attend to my kids. I've been a swim coach in six different states, and I've been a sports publisher.

   Coaching

   I've been lucky to coach at:
   • Harvard with Olympians on the team in 1980.

   • New Trier School District, on the North Shore of Chicago -- rated by Town and Country Magazine as the best public high school in America.
   • Ohio University, Bradley University and the Peoria Park District.
   • Plum High School -- where one athlete set a PIAA record as the fastest 200 IM swimmer in the state.
   • Baylor University in Texas. I was a grad student in Education.

   Texas Past

   I hitch-hiked from Pittsburgh to Waco, Texas to begin my year as a graduate student at Baylor. Short story if time permits.

   Publisher of 100+ Sports Books and Multi-Media Titles

   Books on Volleyball, Competitive Swimming, Water Polo, Triathlons, Sports Psychology, Weightlifting, a Flexibility Video, a book on sports inclusion for Hearing Impaired Athletes, Pull Your Own Weight -- self-esteem and body weight exercises.

   The Treasure Within --- handout cover. The philosophy. A companion work by Kevin DeForrest to Sports, Spirit and Soul.

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   What is Happening?

   City Council's Control

   Some City Council-people are looking for ways to do things for the little-folks in this city. With "Plan B" everything seems to break in the favor of the corporate folks in development issues, at the expense of the citizens.

   The Jim Ferlo tax on ballplayers is to generate $1M per year, some for a city-parks trust fund. In today's paper read a great idea championed by Dan Onorato who wants to auction parts of the old Three Rivers Stadium, to raise $10M.

   Petition Has Been Filed

   The Citizens of Pittsburgh (49 names were gathered) -- filed a petition to the City Clerk's office last week to call for a Public Hearing on the topic of the URA's sale of land to UPMC on the South Side for a Sports Performance compound to be used by the Pitt Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

   UPMC wants to spend $30M to develop this prime river-front site -- and it isn't going to fit. There are lots and lots of problems with the UPMC plans. The position paper uncovers hundreds of issues about this bogus plan.

4. One tiny example: The NCAA won't allow its college athletes to share the same facility at the same time with professional athletes.

   I feel that UPMC is trying to hoodwink the URA and the citizens on this terrible deal. Once this plan is understood by some additional people, everyone can see it doesn't make sense. The facility isn't going to happen if we take the time to look at it. Graders and bulldozers have been working at the site since mid-Feb, yet the deal for the land can't occur.

   Slogan: In a hurricane, even turkeys can fly!

   There is so much happening at this time with our city, we need to take a deep breath and be certain that the right projects get done for the right reasons.

   The position paper takes some long-hard looks at the global development picture. We dismantle the bogus plans, and then we must re-construct a better vision. Enter PPS officials.

   The Steelers Need a Practice Facility -- next year even.

   Let's get on the same page -- and put the Steelers into a spiffed up, bubbled, shared with city-kids, South Stadium at South High. There is much, much more to come in the vision as to what is needed, what can be done, and so on. We can expand the Market House concept to include a dynamic place for schools and community to interact.

   We can build a win-win-win solution -- if we have your help.

   Next Stop -- Arm and Arm with City Council

   I'd like to see you all begin to wrestle with these concepts. And, I'd like to have you all come to some positions, that benefit the kids and the district -- by this month. Then we can all go into the Public Hearing with City Council on this with some clear cooperation and much better solutions.

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