The Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh school districts are moving forward with plans to extend a partnership that involves sending the borough’s seventh through 12th grade students to some city schools.
The districts held a joint school board meeting Tuesday evening in which the partnership that began during the 2016-17 school year was roundly applauded for providing Wilkinsburg students access to programming and extracurricular activities that they would not have had otherwise.
“Our approaching Pittsburgh was not about the money,” said Ed Donovan, Wilkinsburg’s school board president. “It was about quality and trying to give our kids opportunity, and that’s exactly what they got — more opportunity than we ever could have provided. I think in some cases more opportunity than we were even hopeful that they would get.”
Officials from each district have worked in several committees over the past few months to create a new agreement that will last through the 2026-27 school year. The school boards for each district must vote to approve the deal, which they are expected to do in June.
Although officials called the partnership a success, they also said they wanted to improve it.
The new agreement will bolster transition supports and improve enrollment practices for Wilkinsburg students, officials said. It also allows Wilkinsburg students to apply for magnet programs in sixth grade so that they can immediately enter them when they enter a city school in seventh grade.
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.
Most Wilkinsburg students transition to Westinghouse 6-12 when they move over to Pittsburgh, but they are able to attend any of the city’s magnet schools.
“Pittsburgh Public Schools were so happy to be able to bring the Wilkinsburg students in to be able to provide them with the opportunities that they were not having,” said Sylvia Wilson, Pittsburgh’s school board president. “I’m just very pleased to say that things have gone very well, and we continue to expect the same as we move forward though these next years of our partnership.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: May 12, 2021, 1:07 a.m.