Members of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors were given a survey this year that asked dozens of questions about how effective they thought they were in governing the second-largest school district in Pennsylvania.
And the member’s answers, shared with the full board in March, were categorical: Not very effective at all.
The survey results — obtained by WESA — come during a moment when a third of its students don’t show up to school regularly, test scores have yet to recover from pandemic-era lows, and a budget deficit means the district’s reserve fund will drop below 5% of its overall budget, a minimum threshold set by its own policies as a means of ensuring responsible financial stewardship.
The board’s self evaluation was administered by the Pennsylvania School Board Association. It asked the board members to rate themselves on 50 different skills, in seven categories on a scale of 1-4, where one is “ineffective” and four is “highly effective.” A two is considered “developing” and a three is “effective.”
The PPS board’s average score was less than two — between ineffective and developing — for six out of the seven categories. Those categories included planning thoughtfully, governing effectively, leading responsibly, advocating earnestly, communicating clearly and evaluating continually. Not a single board member rated the board effective or highly effective in a third of the performance areas they were asked about.
A copy of the survey results was provided to WESA but the survey has not previously been published. A representative of the school board association said it doesn’t comment on individual school board surveys.
The survey results from March reflect only six of the nine current board members’ beliefs, as well as three members who left the board this month. Pittsburgh voters elected three new board members in November, and the newly constituted board voted on December 4 to elect Gene Walker as its new president, replacing Sala Udin.
Nearly every board member at the time said the board was ineffective at key tasks such as:
- “The board allocates finances and resources based on the district’s vision, goals and priorities for student learning” (Score: 1.4)
- “The board develops a facilities plan that provides for the safe, efficient, and effective housing of the programs and services offered by the district.” (Score: 1.1)
- The board assesses the effectiveness of district plans to narrow and close achievement and opportunity gaps for every student. (Score: 1.4)
Udin, who led the board during the time of the survey and still serves on the board, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Walker said he thinks that the board’s struggles stemmed from two main sources: a lack of communication — due in part to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions that prevented the board from meeting in person for a time — and a lack of focus. Although Walker said he thinks the board should retain an option for board members to attend meetings remotely, he said he expects board members will attend public board and committee meetings in person during his tenure.
“If you're communicating properly and have a focus on what you're trying to accomplish, then all of the other things that seem to be broken tend to start to fix themselves,” Walker said. “I'm not suggesting that we will be the world's greatest, most efficient board in the world, but I think we have the opportunity because we understand some of our bigger challenges, that we can start to redirect our energy towards solving some of those issues.”
What is the board’s proper relationship to the superintendent?
In addition to giving itself low grades, a number of specific comments from board members on the survey underscored several themes about what they believe is hindering the board’s work. The comments from the survey were published anonymously, so it’s unclear which board members wrote them.
Sometimes the board members’ ideas about problem areas were in conflict. Some board members said Superintendent Wayne Walters was not providing the board with enough information, while other members felt the board’s requests were getting in the way of Walters ability to do his job. ‘
- “The administration finds pathways and excuses to circumvent the board on key decisions and evade questions when asked on the record,” one board member wrote. “They often come without answers or responses”
- “We tend to spend time on issues and topics better left to the educational experts,” another board member wrote. “Our Superintendent is often hampered [by] indecision and requests for data that isn't necessary.”
A spokesperson for the district, Ebony Pugh, referred questions about the board’s relationship to Walters back to the board itself. “Since this is a survey of the board it would be most appropriate for you to talk to Board Members about the results,” Pugh wrote in an email.
Pam Harbin, who served on the board for the last four years but didn’t seek reelection this year, said she thinks members were often asked by the superintendent to vote on action items and policies that they don’t have enough information to understand. Harbin said that when she would ask for additional information, other board members opposed her efforts.
“Do you hire the superintendent and then you just rubber stamp everything? Or do you hire the superintendent, then hold him accountable for what you hired him to do?” Harbin said. “And I was in the faction that thinks that you hold the superintendent accountable. You get information and you ask questions. You get community concerns and you bring those to meetings.”
Walker said he is on the other side of the debate: “For us to come in and try to tell the superintendent how he should be doing his job, I think is a little naive,” Walker said. “At the end of the day, he's paid to run the school district. It's our job to evaluate his performance on that, not throw roadblocks in the way to make it harder.”
Kevin Carter, who served on the school board for the last eight years but didn’t seek reelection this year, said one source of the board’s recent struggles is a lack of experience: The past few superintendents have been serving as superintendent for the first time in their careers, he said.
“They may understand education or academics or school buildings — they don't necessarily understand working with a board, governance or executive kind of management,” Carter said.
Walker doesn’t think the blame lies solely with previous board presidents or superintendents but was due instead to an accretion of bad habits over time. For example, he said, some community members have complained that the board asks for community feedback on its budget in the middle of the day on a Monday, which is inconvenient for many people. But the board has continued to do this because it’s what was done in the past.
Walker “thinks it’s possible” that the board’s self-described ineffectiveness had a negative impact on the kids in the district because it meant the district was “going in a million different directions.” He thinks the board needs to set a few priorities this year and stick to them.
“If we see the report that absenteeism is on the rise, then we immediately want to run to try to fix that problem,” Walker said. “And if you put all of your energy into that, then you're not focusing on another area. And then something else comes out that says math scores are down. And so now we have to run and go fix math scores.”
While the board may not have done everything it could have, Harbin thinks the board did set goals for Walters focused on graduation rates, suspension rates and academic achievement. It is Walters’ job, she said, just like any superintendent, to focus on student achievement..
“If somebody says to you the superintendent couldn't do his job, because the board was ineffective, that is b - - - - - - -,” she said. “The superintendent knows what their job is.”
Consensus and concerns
Some board members said in its self-assessment survey that some members didn’t adequately understand their role or follow proper district procedures, while others thought that strict adherence to rules and process was getting in the way of actual progress.
“The Board gets off task very easily,” one member wrote. “Discussion is dominated by individuals.”
This board’s ineffectiveness is leading to real consequences, according to some board members. “Our budget has been in a deficit for many years and the Board has not required any significant changes,” one member wrote. “We lack the leadership required to set goals and have effective meetings.”
Board members also described problems with the way they receive feedback from the community. Several said that the process right now isn’t comprehensive and often is just whoever takes initiative to reach out to them directly or whoever is able to show up for the board’s listening sessions.
“We don't have staff or structures in place to facilitate community engagement for anything more than public hearings,” one board member wrote. “The district has student and parent/guardian advisory committees, but the board is not involved. The feedback from these committees is rarely shared with the board.”
Some board members also said there wasn’t a clear plan for how to improve as a board and that, traditionally, it was up to individual members to seek out professional development on their own. Harbin said the board did participate in a two-day retreat led by a consultant that was geared toward developing ways to give the board more focus, but she ultimately ended up opposing adopting the model that was proposed.
Walker hopes there is more room for consensus with the new board. For the first time a majority of the school board members will have been endorsed by the group Black Women for a Better Education. The group initially came to prominence in 2020 in response to district policies set forth by the previous superintendent, Anthony Hamlet. Walker, who is one of the five board members who has been endorsed by the group, thinks “there’s an opportunity for there to be a bit more consensus” but he doesn’t think the board’s process should be driven by political affiliation.
“We need five votes to get anything done. But I don't think we should stop just because we get five votes,” he said. “I think we should really be pushing to get as much consensus as possible without people compromising what they truly believe in.”
Jillian Forstadt, WESA's education reporter, contributed reporting to this story.
