It has been my honor...

It's been a good run but it is time for me to move on from the Mt. Lebanon School Board. In the past few months I have missed some meetings due mostly to travel out of the country. More often than not I find myself putting an emphasis more on my personal/work life than I am on the school board. For most of my 3 years on the Board the exact opposite was the case.

I wrote the following letter to School Board President Josephine Posti Wednesday morning:

Mrs. Posti,

It has been my greatest honor to serve the community of Mt. Lebanon in my capacity as a school director. However, it has become clear over these last few months that I will no longer be able to serve in this role going forward and I must resign my position on the Mt. Lebanon School Board effective immediately.

My time on the Board has been well spent and I am hopeful that many of the fiscally responsible messages that I have spoken about over the years will begin to take root.

Mt. Lebanon is a terrific place. The Mt. Lebanon School District is a proud one. It will take leadership and vision to maintain what has taken so long to build.

I wish you and the rest of the Board of Directors only the best.

Sincerely,


James Fraasch

So with that, it is time to move on to different things. I fully expect in the new year to do some more extensive travel to South America. In addition to that I will start my Master's Degree program at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. So between learning Portuguese, getting my MBA, traveling to different hemispheres, raising the two best kids in the whole world, and being married to a very forgiving/understanding/patient wife, I think I will have a very full plate.

Understand that these are all choices that I have made over the last month or so. I could have delayed school or travel for some time but in the end it didn't really make sense to do so. The latest evidence of this came at the reorganization meeting (which I could not attend due to a death in my family). I was adamant about not extending our solicitor's contract due to what I believe was subpar representation during the school district's lawsuit against the Zoning Hearing Board. Via email I urged each Board member to review the work of every one of the attorneys in the case and determine if they thought our attorney provided service that was in any way comparable to either the Zoning Hearing Board attorney or that of the private citizens that joined the lawsuit. Taking time to review those documents would have proved my point. We received inadequate representation and lost the case. I received no response to the email and the vote went off in favor of the contract 8-0. That was just one example in a long line of them that I won't revisit here.

One last thing. I have to say that being elected to serve on the Board was perhaps the most humbling experience in my life. I never took your votes for granted. In the end I hope those that voted for me will always be able to say that I followed through on every one of my campaign promises; fiscal responsibility, open and honest communication, and new ideas.

Thanks for reading.

James Fraasch