‘Very disappointed’: Pittsburgh community reacts to proposed school closures, consolidations
By Megan Tomasic / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dan Veale stood in Carrick’s Phillips Park Wednesday afternoon, concern etched on his face as he considered the possibility of the neighborhood without a traditional high school.
Carrick High School, a towering structure sitting quiet just weeks before students will return for the start of classes, is one of 16 Pittsburgh Public Schools that could potentially close under proposed scenarios presented Tuesday night as officials work to right-size the district.
The scenarios, which could drastically change the footprint of the 54-school district, would also reconfigure the grade structures at 14 schools and phase out six magnet programs.
“It seems to be happening all over,” said Mr. Veale, whose 14-year-old daughter will be a freshman at Carrick when school starts this month. “We’re trying to consolidate schools to lower costs. We’re just not funding schools the way they need to be funded in the first place and we’re not spending responsibly in the first place. Of course I’m worried.”
By Wednesday morning, the dust was settling from a nearly four-hour school board education committee meeting where Massachusetts-based education consulting firm Education Resource Strategies presented the possible scenarios to school directors.
In all, Arsenal PreK-5, Fulton PreK-5, Lincoln PreK-5, Linden PreK-5, Roosevelt PreK-5, Spring Hill K-5, Weil PreK-5, Whittier PreK-5, Woolslair PreK-5, Manchester K-8, Allegheny 6-8, Schiller 6-8, South Brook 6-8, South Hills 6-8, Milliones 6-12 and Carrick would close. Some of the buildings would also shutter; others would be repurposed.
The scenarios came at the direction of the board as they grapple with declining enrollments — the district of 18,380 students has the capacity to teach 40,000 — and a growing budget deficit.
Recommendations are based on several factors including building age — PPS has an average building age of 90 years old and 37 schools currently need moderate or major renovations — as well as things such as school and program offerings, transportation and building location and amenities.
They are also based on community input collected through several public sessions over the past few months, some of which have garnered pushback from parents concerned their child’s school could close.
“I don’t understand why they would close schools,” Tekien Adhanom, who lives a few houses down from Carrick High School, said Wednesday while sitting with his son Daniel Angeson.
Daniel, 17, wouldn’t be affected by the changes if they were to go into effect. The rising senior already attends Brashear High School, which is where Carrick students would go if their school closed. Carrick would then be converted into a career and technical center, a proposal that already is raising concerns for some board members who suggested the school is not easy to get to. Others, including Director Jamie Piotrowski, added that moving students to Brashear would be difficult for families, with 25% of Carrick residents not owning a car.
Ramear Howard, 19, who graduated from Carrick last year, added that if students — many of whom now walk to school — have to take the bus, they might decide to skip school more often. And, Mr. Howard said, moving students out of Carrick “takes away from the neighborhood. There’s no school in our neighborhood for people to go to. They have to go all the way up to Brashear [in Beechview]. I don’t like that.”
In addition to Carrick, four other schools in the southern and western regions of the city would close including South Brook 6-8, South Hills 6-8, Roosevelt K-5 and Whittier K-5.
Four schools would see grade reconfigurations. Brookline PreK-8 would house K-5 students. Carmalt PreK-8 would turn into a 6-8 school and its magnet program would phase out. Langley PreK-8 would become a K-5 building and Arlington PreK-8 would turn into a 6-8 school.
In the northern region of Pittsburgh, three schools could close including Schiller 6-8, Spring Hill K-5 and Manchester PreK-8.
Manchester would be redesigned to house a new CAPA 6-8 neighborhood magnet school. Neighborhood magnet schools would operate like full magnets but would guarantee seats for neighborhood students. CAPA currently operates as a 6-12 school. Under the plan, the Downtown building would become a 9-12 facility.
But the proposal to house CAPA students at Manchester already received pushback from School Director Dwayne Barker.
“In this proposal what you’re saying is you’re not worth your building staying open for you as residents, as the students that are just standard,” Mr. Barker said Tuesday. “But your exceptional students can then come in and take your space and you have to literally get off your school bus, walk past the school you used to go to just to see people that have special talents occupy the space you just got kicked out of.
“It’s literally school gentrification at its finest.”
Additionally, King PreK-8 would become a 6-8 building and Allegheny 6-8 would be converted into a K-5 school. Morrow PreK-8 would be turned into a K-5 building.
In eastern and central parts of the city, Woolslair, Arsenal, Fulton, Lincoln and Weil K-5 schools would close, an unpopular proposal for many families.
“I'm very disappointed,” Rebecca Maclean, whose two daughters attended Fulton in Highland Park, said Wednesday. “The Fulton program is a really great program. The teachers are wonderful. The students really do well … our scores are really good. It's — across the board — a great program.”
Ms. Maclean, who lives in Highland Park and was the previous Fulton PTO president, added that the current building, located on Hampton Street, is walkable and close to public transit for students coming from areas such as East Liberty. Those students would go to Dilworth on Stanton Avenue on the Highland Park/East Liberty border. She said Dilworth is already “busting at the seams,” so she doesn’t understand the decision to add more kids to that school.
But, she wasn’t surprised Fulton made the list. The building in 2021 was one of six schools considered for closure, although the plan never came to fruition. Woolslair in Bloomfield was also on the 2021 list, causing parents to come out in droves when the district started talking about school closures again this year.
“We would be devastated if this school closed,” Vanessa Dagavarian, whose daughter attends Woolslair, said during a February public hearing.
Woolslair parent Sarah Zangle issued a statement on behalf of herself and Erin Childs, saying “We understand and agree with the need for PPS to create a path which will allow the district to provide a strong, on budget, equitable and accessible education to the students of Pittsburgh. We are obviously disappointed to see that Woolslair is on the list of school buildings to be consolidated, but our greatest concern is the possible loss of the STEAM magnet program built at Woolslair. The STEAM curriculum has been providing high quality, innovative education to our diverse student community.”
Other schools in the region would see grade reconfigurations. Sunnyside PreK-8 would become a K-5 school. Sixth through eighth graders would move to Arsenal 6-8, which would start offering an International Baccalaureate program, with students progressing into the Obama IB Diploma program. Arsenal and Obama would become neighborhood magnets.
Colfax K-8 would become a 6-8 school, Greenfield PreK-8 would turn into a K-5 building and Mifflin PreK-8 would house kindergarten through fifth graders.
Magnet programs at Liberty, Linden and Dilworth K-5 schools would be phased out. The schools would return to a neighborhood school model.
On the secondary level, Westinghouse 6-12 would turn into a 9-12, with sixth through eighth graders attending Sterrett. Westinghouse would be expanded to include full-scale entertainment technology and entrepreneurship programs. The Science and Technology Academy would also be split into a 6-8 and 9-12 program. Milliones 6-12 would turn into a 6-8 building, housing Sci Tech middle school students. Milliones ninth through 12th graders would go to Sci Tech.
As the district works through the plan, officials are considering options for utilizing unused space by creating teacher centers, or dedicated spaces for educators to learn and improve their instructional practice with model classrooms and hands-on support. The centers could be located in Mifflin, Milliones, Lincoln and Whittier.
“The status quo must change,” Angela King Smith, an Education Resource Strategies partner, said Tuesday. “People don’t want the same. They want better. For students and families in PPS, it’s just the options and how we get there is the big debate and where the tension lies.”
The district and consultants will now conduct another round of community engagement, with sessions scheduled for Aug. 27, and Sept. 3-5.
A final recommendation will be provided to the board in September.