John Heller, Post-Gazette
The Rev. Samuel Chambers, pastor of Payne Chapel A.M.E Church, asks to "give us one more year" at the meeting before the vote to "curtail" the high school in Duquesne last night.
Despite overwhelming opposition from residents, the state board of control governing the Duquesne City School District voted last night to "curtail" the district's high school program.
The vote was met with a mixture of rage and sadness by Duquesne residents who packed the education center's auditorium and begged the board to allow the high school to exist for one more year. The residents were furious that their high school was closed but no plans have been announced about where the 200 to 250 students will attend school in the fall.
Another 14 high school teachers are expected to lose their jobs, along with some support staff.
"You did us so wrong," parent Lina Washington said to board of control Chairman Shawn Farr and board member Stanley Denton, who voted to end the high school program. Board member Marlene Gary Hogan was absent from the meeting because of recent back surgery.
"What plan do you have? There should be a plan in place," Ms. Washington said, choking back tears.
Student Tiffany Holman, who will be a junior next year, told the board "you have put a bull's eye on our back." She said Duquesne students know that they will not be accepted by any of the neighboring districts.
The board's vote was in response to a request from state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, who last week met with the Duquesne community and announced that he would ask the board of control to dissolve the high school program so that he can reassign the students to high schools in other districts.
Dr. Zahorchak said the Duquesne high school program was failing its students because it didn't offer advanced placement and honors courses, had very few athletic opportunities and no nonathletic extracurricular activities.
Dr. Zahorchak said he intends to ask the state Legislature for the authority to make the reassignments. He has not identified the districts to which he plans to reassign Duquesne students other than to say he planned to send them to "multiple" districts.
Last night, Dr. Denton said that "extensive preparations have been made and continue to be made" for the Duquesne students.
He said he couldn't name districts but that plans currently call for sending Duquesne students to a "small number" -- maybe one or two -- districts rather than dividing them over a larger number of districts.
He told residents that there will be another meeting before the end of June at which more details will be given and their comments taken.
Dr. Denton also said that some state legislators gave them false hope in recent days when they visited the community and urged them to fight the closing of the high school.
He said those legislators wanted residents to stop the school's closing so that they didn't have to go back to Harrisburg and deal with the issue of sending Duquesne students to other high schools. Dr. Denton declined to identify the legislators.
His explanations did little to quell the unrest in the crowd, which booed and jeered the vote.
The Rev. Sam Chambers accused the board of ignoring the wishes of the community and he urged the crowd of more than 100 who attended the meeting to vote all of their state representatives out of office.
"This board will smile in your face and stab you in the back," Mr. Chambers said. "If this was an all-white district this wouldn't happen. This is a predominantly African-American district and that's why you disregard Duquesne."
Some members of the audience said they expected Dr. Denton and Vernon Tipton, executive director of the Duquesne schools, because they are black, to fight harder to keep the school open.
Dr. Denton, who is an assistant professor of education at Point Park University, said his decision was based on what alternative offered the best resources for Duquesne students who weren't offered honors or AP classes or extracurricular activities at their high school.
Dr. Tipton said he worked hard to make sure this year's class of 30 seniors graduated. He noted that although the auditorium was filled last night, there were many board meetings during the past year that weren't well-attended even though he said he made a point of telling citizens they should get involved in the process.
"You can't wait until the last minute when people have their minds made up," he said.
Dr. Tipton told the residents that the ball is now in their court.
"The board of directors had a decision to make. If you say you have no options, you are wrong," Dr. Tipton told the crowd. "You can support them or you can not support them."
