WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2016

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISECTION B

Shaler Area broaches furloughs in email

by

TONy LaRUSSa

Furloughing teachers to
address declining enrollment
and financial challenges the
Shaler Area School District is
facing would be a last resort,
according to a letter sent to
parents Tuesday from the districts superintendent.
District officials announced
March 23 that as many as 30
full-time positions would be
eliminated to right size the
staff so it more accurately
reflects the student popula-

Board to vote May 18 if teacher layoffs needed, district says

tion, which has declined from
nearly 5,600 pupils in 2002 to
about 4,400 this year.
Shaler Areas student-toteacher ratio is 12.7 to 1. District officials say a ratio of 14
to 1 would be more in line with
those of neighboring school
districts.
This will be accomplished
through a variety of measures, including a retirement

incentive, resignations, parental/medical leaves, sabbaticals, part-time teaching opportunities and lastly furloughs,
Superintendent Sean Aiken
said in the letter emailed to
parents.
The goal from the beginning was to work diligently
to have zero teaching staff
furloughed. This goal has not
changed and we will continue

to brainstorm and problem

solve until we get to the number zero.
Aiken said teachers considering the retirement incentive
being offered have until May
9 to apply.
At that time, we will have
a better idea of our staffing
needs and we can better plan
for our future, Aiken wrote.
He added that if furloughs are

considered, the matter would

go to the school board for a
vote on May 18.
Matt Edgell, a regional
spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said the union will
monitor how the district
handles furloughs to ensure
teachers are treated fairly and
that provisions of the labor
agreement are met.

We dont hire or fire the

teachers, but if we feel the
furloughs are improper or inequitable in any way, we will
fight them to the best of our
abilities, Edgell said.
Aiken told parents he sent
the letter to counter rumors
and misinformation ... running rampant in our community.
Recent postings on social
media indicate that teachers
have been notified that they
SHALER AREA B6

Inspection
of crashed
bus focus
of defense
Port Authority drivers lawyer
questions vehicles work-life,
reputation for instability
by

PHOTOS: JUSTIN MERRIMAN | TRIBUNE REVIEW

Jessica Shelton (center), holds her 9-month-old granddaughter, Chloe, at a vigil Tuesday evening outside the Wilkinsburg home where
gunmen opened fire on March 9 and killed three of her family members in one of the worst mass shootings in Allegheny County history.

ALWAYS STRONG
Family members, friends return to site
of Wilkinsburg mass shooting for evening vigil

by

MEGaN GUZa

Jessica Shelton stood quietly

among her large family and looked
at the Wilkinsburg home where
three of her children, her niece,
her friend, and her unborn grandson were ambushed and killed last
month.
She smiled.
We were always strong, she
said of her family. Nothing is
keeping us strong. We were already strong.
On March 9, two gunmen opened
fire on her familys cookout in the
backyard of the home on Franklin
Avenue. One fired from the alley
behind the yard, fenced in on both
sides, driving the crowd toward
the back porch door as the only
possible escape. A second gunman
in a walkway alongside the house
caught them in execution-like
crossfire with an AK-47-style rifle.
Killed were Brittany Powell, 27,
who was renting the home; Cha-

walkway which was used by the

second gunman to the backyard.
There, a single bouquet of pink
and yellow flowers marked where
the six died.
Maurice Trent, with the Lighthouse Cathedral church in Pittsburghs St. Clair neighborhood,
helped organize the vigil.
He pleaded for anyone with
information about the shooting
one of the worst in Allegheny County history to come
forward.
Call. Speak out, he said. This
family needs justice.
Jessica Shelton said the children
who lost parents 11 of them
among the five adults killed
need
closure.
Jordan Walker, 2, holds a candle at a vigil.
They dont understand why
their parents are gone, she said.
netta Powell, 25, and her 8-months- ton and Powell families, Tuesday
She vowed to visit the home each
along unborn son Demetrius; Jer- evenings vigil was the first time
month until the killers are caught.
ry Shelton, 35; Tina Shelton, 37; theyd been to the home. They
Allegheny County police last
walked around the left front of
and Shada Mahone, 26.
WILKINSBURG B7
For some members of the Shel- the house and down the narrow

Mans dating scam

lands him in prison
Crook from Ghana
ordered to pay
$1.2M in restitution
to women, company
by

bRIaN bOWLING

A Ghanaian man who

stole more than $800,000
from eight trusting women
he met through online dating sites will spend two
years and one day in prison, a federal judge ruled
Tuesday.
One of the victims is a
woman in her 60s who lives
in the eastern suburbs of
Pittsburgh. Sigismond
Segbefia, 29, of Silver
Spring, Md., admitted in
December that he conned

her out of more than

$220,000 by posing as an
Australian widower and
claiming he owned a medical equipment company in
Pittsburgh.
When the womanpressed
him to meet her in person,
he invented a business trip
to England and, in a series
of emails and phone calls,
persuaded her to wire him
money to overcome various financial difficulties
he ran into while trying to
consummate the business
deal. He kept part of the
money and sent the rest to
Ghana, according to court
documents.
We see more and more
of these cases all the time,
SCAM B6

MaTTHEW SaNTONI

The Port Authority of Allegheny

County bus Juliann Maier crashed off
Interstate 279 in September 2014 was
old and had a reputation for instability,
but inspections failed to point to any
mechanical causes, officials testified
Tuesday.
Police and prosecutors say Maier,
47, of Ross was racing south on I-279
with a bus being driven by Thomas
Frauens, 57, of Brookline when she
clipped Frauens bus, lost control and
crashed over a hillside.
Both drivers are charged with reckless endangerment; Frauens faces an
additional charge of leaving the scene
of an accident. In a report entered
into evidence Tuesday, Frauens denied
there was contact between the buses
and says he didnt contact police. Both
deny racing.
In the second day of Maier and
Frauens bench trial before Common
Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, several prosecution witnesses
testified they didnt see any of the mechanical problems that Maiers defense
attorney says were the true cause of
the crash. One testified, however, there
had been problems with the bus before.
Port Authority mechanic Jeffrey
Rapp said six months before the crash,
another driver complained the bus was
swaying excessively so much so that
she later filed a workers compensation
claim over injuries she said it caused to
her neck and back.
Rapp and another mechanic agreed
that something seemed wrong with the
bus on a test drive, he said, but they
didnt find any problems other than a
loose bolt on part of the steering, which
they tightened before putting the bus
back into service.
We felt a little something we
werent sure what it was, but we felt
something, Rapp said. You know
when something just doesnt feel correct.
In response to questions from Joel
Sansone, Maiers attorney, Rapp agreed
he hadnt gotten the bus up to highway
speeds on his test drive.
Maiers bus had 334,000 miles on it,
was 13 years old at the time of the crash

BUS CRASH B6

Trump hater offers food for thought

Signs declare GOP front-runner
Hates Pierogies, Likes Hunts;
rallies planned for day of visit
by

SaLENa ZITO

While two protests are planned in response to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumps visit to Pittsburgh
on Wednesday, the one on Eric Rickins
Fox Chapel lawn is the most uniquely
Pittsburgh.
Homemade signs at his East Waldheim
Road home read Trump Likes Hunts
Ketchup, Trump Hates Pierogies, and
Trump Moved My Parking Chair.
A photo of the display posted to
Chatham Universitys Food Studies Program Facebook page went viral Tuesday.
Professor Alice Julier posted it with the
caption So Pittsburgh. So Food Studies
...
Using food as a form of protest is so
Pittsburgh because in Pittsburgh what
defines you as a person and a place is how

brings us all together and gives us that

identity, she said.
Julier explained that the Hunts reference appeared to be a jab at Trump using
something other than the Pittsburghbased Heinz brand.
Mixing local food loyalty with questioning whether a politician would support it is a cool way of bringing people
together, she said.
Rickin, who could not be reached for
comment, has a Facebook page promoting a Trump Absurd Sign Rally in
Market Square Saturday afternoon, three
days after Trumps visit.
Trump will tape a Fox News program
at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall &
Museum in Oakland at 5:30 p.m. WednesCHATHAM UNIVERSITY
day; doors open at 2:30 p.m. Afterward, he
Custom-made signs to protest
will hold a rally at the David L. Lawrence
presidential candidate Donald Trump
Convention Center, Downtown, at 7 p.m.
line Eric Rickins Fox Chapel lawn.
The events are open to the public.
A Protest Trumps visit to Pittsburgh
people feel about their food, Julier said.
Facebook page sponsored by Answer
I had pierogies growing up in New
Pittsburgh, a self-described anti-war
York, but here it is so different it is
such an emotional attachment. It is what
TRUMP B6