Dozens of parents and community members Monday implored the Pittsburgh Public Schools not to close some schools and restructure others, as the district has proposed in a move to modernize its physical footprint.
Critics of the plan blamed the district for a lack of transparency and said the proposals would hurt areas where the district already faces problems, such as the achievement gap between Black and white students and a deep budget deficit.
“The resolution presented to the board on Feb. 1 regarding school closures was not a plan that would address these challenges,” said Martha Riecks, parent of a Sterrett 6-8 student, at a school board public hearing. “It was a plan that would bring about massive chaos — amidst the chaos due to the pandemic — with no clear and long-term strategies for success.”
The proposal is on hold after the school board earlier this month tabled a vote to hold community conversations on the plan. District administrators must meet with community groups and receive board approval before any changes can be made.
The effort to modernize the district’s footprint came after years of enrollment decline and amid a projection that the school system will run out of money in 2022 if it does not cut expenses or increase revenue.
Schools that would close under the proposal include: Miller PreK-5 in the Hill District; Fulton PreK-5 in Highland Park; Woolslair PreK-5 in Lawrenceville; Manchester PreK-8 in Manchester; Allegheny 6-8 on the North Side; and Arsenal 6-8 in Lawrenceville.
Other parts of the proposal include making Minadeo PreK-5 in Squirrel Hill a middle school, Colfax K-8 in Squirrel Hill a K-5 school and Sterrett 6-8 in Point Breeze an elementary school.
Lara Stunkel, parent of a student at Morrow PreK-8, whose elementary cohort would move to a different building under the plan, said the district made a “grave mistake” by not including parents and others in the process before announcing the proposal.
“Families would have been upset about school closings no matter what, but any hopes of getting families on board with this proposal were dashed by the manner of its presentation,” Ms. Stunkel said. “I not only fault the announcement of the proposal, I fault its development as well. Where was the community involvement? Where was the family involvement?”
The district said the criteria used to decide which schools would be closed or restructured included the desire to promote socioeconomic, racial and educational equity and maximize capital spending by investing in buildings better suited for the current learning environment.
Some parents, however, said the proposal only accounted for building operations and not the needs of students and communities.
Rebecca MacLean, a parent of students at Fulton PreK-5 and Obama 6-12, said the district’s plan covered the structural issues with the Fulton building but ignored the many positive aspects of the school.
“We heard no data points about the strength of our magnet feeder programs, how successful our teachers are at keeping our racial achievement gap one of the smallest in the city, how easy it is for walkers to access our school without needing their family to have access to a car during a bus driver shortage,” she said. “Fulton’s program should be one that the district wants to keep intact, not split up.”
Sherilyn Saporito, the parent of a student at Montessori PreK-5 in Friendship, whose student cohort would move to the Sterrett building under the plan, said the district has a record of causing damage by closing schools.
“PPS needs to learn from its own past when it previously closed schools, saw an exodus of students leave for charters, saw expenses increase as they paid for charter school student tuition — many of which are in the same buildings that they closed — saw the remaining schools lose their sense of community as students need to travel outside of their neighborhoods to attend their new feeder schools, and watched beloved and historic schools like Schenley turn into upscale condos that most of the neighborhood can’t afford to buy,” she said.
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: February 23, 2021, 3:05 a.m.