MASD Board Upset, Surprised By Rental Fees

School district, city officials at odds over use of facilities

By Adam Reinherz
The Tube City Almanac
April 11, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

* Correction: Due to an editing error, this story was corrected after publication.

(City of McKeesport photo)

McKeesport Area school board members expressed surprise on Thursday that the district is being charged a permit fee for the use of athletic fields at Renziehausen Park.

At this week’s board meeting, School Director Jason Pavlecic reported the district “recently received a bill from the city charging us a few thousand dollars to rent the fields.”

The bill, according to Pavlecic, included a $500 cost to use Jimmy Long Field, a $500 cost to use Filotei Field and a $1,000 fee to use Helen Richey Field.

“And that is to increase next year,” Pavlecic said. “To my knowledge, as well as [MASD Athletic Director] Charley Kiss’ knowledge, this has never occurred previously.”

School Board President Mark Holtzman Sr. called the invoice “double taxation” and said the district should look at building its own athletic fields.

“How are they going to monitor whose kids are on this field?” School Director Diane Elias asked. “Is everybody's kid paying?”

But city officials said Friday they were in contact with the district before sending the invoice, and argued that the school board is mischaracterizing the expenses.

McKeesport City Administrator Thomas Maglicco said in an interview that prior to sending the invoice, he spoke with Kiss.

“Our city workers clean up the trash, we clean the porta-johns, we clean the bathrooms,” Maglicco said. “For future sustainability, we have to offset costs.”

Maglicco, a longtime volunteer at LaRosa Youth Club, said the school district bills that organization for use of school facilities, including maintenance and security fees.

“I don’t criticize them when they charge our youth programs to use the gym for tournaments — that’s what they put in place,” Maglicco said. 

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko was not at the school board meeting, but said the school district charges the non-profit LaRosa club $2,500 to hold a one-day tournament inside the high school gym.

For the school board to “accuse us of something (improper) is unbelievable to me. It's absurd. It's absolutely incredible,” he said.

Nevertheless, school directors on Thursday claimed the invoice from the city represents a departure from past practice. “Between these two government agencies, there was always a spirit of cooperation down through the years,” said School Director David Donato, who added he was surprised that the district was billed.

Holtzman said he is “1,000 percent against” paying for use of the city’s fields, and he called the invoice “absolutely ludicrous.”*

He directed Pavlecic and Scott Smith, the district’s director of buildings and grounds, to look at property near Francis McClure Elementary School and see if it was suitable for erecting additional athletic fields for school use.

“Maybe it's time that we put our own fields in. Then we don’t have any charges, and we’re not going to have to worry about being charged,” Holtzman said.

Donato agreed with Holtzman’s proposal and said, “I think they've placed us in this position, Mark. I think the board should do some long term consideration of using facilities, and look for some of these facilities that might be available throughout the community.”

Cherepko called the comments made by school directors “very disheartening.”

The proposed permit fee which the city requested from the district “won't even recoup our costs, not even close to the cost that we'll put into maintaining a field through an entire season,” the mayor said.

“If you compare what we're charging compared to what they are charging, we gave them an incredible deal, and they shouldn't be saying anything and trying to make us look bad by any means,” he said.

Cherepko accused school directors of trying to embarrass the city.

“All too often, the school board tends to put out false narratives in order to make the city look bad, when, in reality, what they're accusing the city of doing is actually what they are doing,” he said.

* Correction: Due to an editing error, this story was corrected after publication.

Adam Reinherz is a Pittsburgh-based journalist. He can be reached at adam.reinherz@gmail.com.

Originally published April 11, 2025.

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