School Board
School board directors to make closure decisions before summer.
On Feb. 17, the school board agreed to decide before summer whether to close nine school buildings. The board rejected the closure plan in November, then voted in January to reconsider it. Directors asked for more information on staffing and on the buildings if they close. Then, at a Feb. 23 hearing, parents opposed the closures, and one said many questions remain unanswered.
Written by Annabelle Chipps
The Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) Board of Directors agreed to make a decision before the end of the year about closing the nine school buildings according to the recommendations of the controversial Future-Ready Facilities Plan.
The agreement was made during a three-hour discussion about the plan on Feb. 17 when President Gene Walker of Brighton Heights asked board directors if they would commit to making a decision before summer.
The plan was initially voted down 6-3 in November, but the discussion of the plan started again after directors voted 8-0 to reconsider the proposal during the January legislative meeting.
The initial version called for the following schools to close by the end of this year:
- Friendship School PreK-5
- Fulton PreK-5
- Woolslair PreK-5
- Morrow Primary
- Baxter Student Achievement Center
- Schiller 6-8
- Spring Hill K-5
- Miller African-Centered Academy
If those schools are closed, according to the report from the consultants, Education Resource Strategies, 4,233 seats would be eliminated in the schools, far short of the excess capacity of 18,000 seats that the district currently has by the 2024-2025 enrollment figures.
Parents opposed the closures and warned against making hasty decisions during a public hearing on Feb. 23.
Emily Sawyer, a PPS parent and substitute teacher, said she does not understand why directors are still making a decision when they already voted “no” to closing schools in November.
“There are dozens, if not hundreds of unanswered questions,” Sawyer said, calling the plan underdeveloped.
Parents said there has been no meaningful change made to the plan’s original version and that details such as individualized education programs for students with specific learning needs are not being considered.
Parent Kara Britanik called enrollment data flawed and inaccurate. She said the exclusion of pre-K student numbers with the inclusion of early childhood classrooms artificially lowers the utilization rate.
Directors said during the Feb. 17 discussion they would like more transparency and communication and asked for additional information about staffing and the buildings themselves if they close.
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