With big changes on the horizon, Pittsburgh Public Schools is hosting several town halls this summer to gather community input and answer questions about the district’s future.
Administrators are weighing changes to school feeder patterns, grade structure and possible school closures. That could result in returning some schools to a traditional middle school model — one of a dozen potential strategies district leaders put on the table earlier this year.
More than a dozen schools across the district currently serve both elementary and middle school students, known as K-8 schools, or students in grades 6 through 12.
When asked about the future of those buildings at a town hall in Carrick on Tuesday, consultants hired by the district to examine its footprint said that no decisions have been made.
“However, [administrators] have asked us to look at K-8s and all the grade configurations across the board to see what would be the best continuity in terms of services and support,” said Angela King Smith, a partner at Education Resource Strategies.
King Smith said her Boston-based firm is also reviewing several other factors, including the distance students travel to school and admissions policies for magnet programs, as well as school amenities and access to community resources.
Consultants are expected to issue their recommendations for the district’s future configuration in August. Pittsburgh Public will then be required to hold public hearings on any proposed school closures before board members can vote to finalize the changes.
Additional town halls will be held next week in the Hill District and in Brighton Heights, along with a virtual option on Thursday, July 18.
Most PPS facilities require more than minor renovations
Enrollment in the district has declined by more than 20,000 students since 1987. King Smith said the drop, coupled with recent changes to feeder patterns and demographic shifts across the city, has shrunk local schools and limited the resources available to them.
“For those little tiny schools, they have less to work with, which means that it can be challenging to be able to provide all the supports you want to be able to do for those respective locations,” King Smith said.
That often forces leaders at small schools to make trade-offs, cut arts programming and rely on part-time teachers, she continued.
According to data presented at the town hall meetings, only six of Pittsburgh Public’s 54 schools meet the district’s target for building conditions. As of 2021, more than half of school buildings required moderate to major renovations, including air conditioning installations and other system upgrades.
Pittsburgh Public Schools switched students in schools without air conditioning to remote learning at least five times during the 2023-2024 school year due to extreme heat or ventilation issues. Parents said that often left them scrambling to find child care or miss work.
The age of school buildings has made air conditioning challenging to install, chief operations officer Michael McNamara said in response to one parent’s concerns at a town hall in Brookline.
He added that it took three years to install air conditioning at West Liberty Elementary, where families gathered Wednesday.
“A lot of times in the bigger buildings, like Allderdice, it's going to be a seven-year project to get air conditioning in [there],” McNamara said. “It has a lot of challenges, being an old building, and trying to get all that infrastructure into the building while kids are still trying to go to school during the school year.”
Community members at Wednesday’s town hall also raised concerns about what would happen to any buildings closed as a result of the district’s reconfiguration.
School board president Gene Walker said it’s a topic of ongoing conversations with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and other city leaders.
“Hopefully, there will be some partnerships, if that comes into play, where the city and the school district can work together to make those spaces useful for the community again and not turn into eyesores,” Walker said.
Safety, discipline are top priorities for staff and students
Parents and teachers also brought up questions of safety inside local high schools during the town halls.
Kim Daelhousen, a teacher at Brashear High School in Beechview, told administrators Wednesday that she now keeps her classroom door locked during the school day.
“We all want our kids to be safe and we all want them to learn,” Daelhousen said. “As a staff member, it has felt incredibly unsafe at Brashear during the last four years.”
Many students, meanwhile, say they want more resources within their schools. Pavel Marin, a recent Allderdice graduate, visited schools across the district to speak with students as part of an effort to solicit student feedback for the facilities utilization plan.
“A lot of our schools don't have social workers or vice principals. They're low in faculty and support,” Marin said.
Other students WESA spoke with said they wanted to see changes in how schools and teachers handle discipline and disruptive classroom behavior.
“Because while, yes, the students of this age are very rowdy and lack discipline, the teachers also need to understand how to handle these situations and how to more appropriately confront the student,” said TreVon Goggins, a freshman at Obama Academy in East Liberty.
Students also cited a need for better food, cleaner facilities and more consistent staffing. According to the town hall presentation, many students expressed concerns about a lack of class availability, often due to insufficient staffing.
Westinghouse Academy ninth grader Victor Paul said more language courses should be offered, as well as a “financial class and a deeper dive into history.”
The audio for this story was produced by Susan Scott Peterson.
