The Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg school boards will hold a joint meeting Tuesday to review the partnership between the districts that sends the borough’s seventh through 12th grade students to city schools.
The original six-year agreement will end after the 2021-22 school year, and the boards are expected to vote in June to extend the partnership through 2026-27.
Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg school officials praised the partnership at a virtual press conference Friday afternoon.
“The one word that I would say to summarize everything about the partnership is ‘opportunity,’ because that’s what it gave to our kids,” said Ed Donovan, Wilkinsburg’s school board president. “Opportunity for things that we simply could not provide in athletics, academics, honors, the Pittsburgh Promise for heaven’s sake. And our kids are succeeding.”
“I knew it was going to be a success, and it has been,” said Sylvia Wilson, the city’s school board president. “I know that the kids from Wilkinsburg have been taking advantage about every single thing they possibly can at our schools. The success of working with everyone — Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh together — is exactly what I had anticipated, so I’m really pleased that we’re going to continue.”
In the first year of the partnership, Wilkinsburg students in grades seven and up went to Westinghouse 6-12 in the neighboring Pittsburgh community of Homewood. Since then, the partnership expanded to allow Wilkinsburg students to attend city schools with magnet programming, such as CAPA 6-12 and the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy.
In addition to providing more opportunities, Mr. Donovan said Wilkinsburg student GPAs are about a point higher than they were before the partnership.
But officials in both districts agree that they want to make the partnership better.
Officials said the new agreement will strengthen monthly communications between the districts regarding enrollment, student progress, extracurricular reports, announcements and more. It will also bolster transition supports for students and improve the data sharing and enrollment process, they said.
The districts also hired a new project manager to support the partnership.
More details about the plan are expected to be released during the joint board meeting Tuesday.
About 250 Wilkinsburg students are enrolled in city schools this year, and about 760 have attended the Pittsburgh Public Schools at some point during the partnership.
The Pittsburgh Public Schools adjusts the tuition rates each year for Wilkinsburg students to ensure that it is fair to city taxpayers. The Wilkinsburg School District provides transportation for its students.
Pittsburgh Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said the children who come from Wilkinsburg are treated like any other student in the district.
“I don’t consider them Wilkinsburg students — They’re PPS students,” he said. “We know they come from Wilkinsburg. We support [them] as if they’re our own as well.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: May 7, 2021, 9:45 p.m.
