Pittsburgh School District Considers Closing More Schools

Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Linda Lane has outlined the process to determine recommendations for school closings and realignment for the 2012-13 school year.

Lane told the Board of Education's Budget Committee that as enrollment continues to fall the district cannot afford to pay for empty seats in school buildings....

"Every dollar we spend on underutilized bricks and mortar is one less dollar we have available to spend towards improving the life prospects of our students.”

Lane says they will now use the 2009 DeJong facilities report along with an academic performance assessment and budgetary analysis to develop a plan for further downsizing.
“Our commitment is to have an open dialogue with the community about the need to close schools.”

The superintendent said to determine schools to be recommended for closure, they've begun an internal review process of all schools based upon four equally weighted measures:

1) Student Achievement- AYP; Student Growth
2) Student Enrollment- Enrollment vs. Capacity
3) Facility Condition- DeJong study rating
4) Operations Costs- Utilities, custodial, etc.

In 2009,the national consulting firm DeJong developed a long-term facilities plan for the district. In 2006, the district closed 22 under-utilized and low-achieving schools and in the last 4 years another 5 schools were shut down.

Lane says recommendations will be brought forward later this year and then there will be a public input period.

Student enrollment is 25,046 with an estimated 11,165 seats of excess capacity.

PPS Board Nets "B-" Average Grade

The Pittsburgh Public School Board has received an overall grade of B- on the latest “report card” issued by education nonprofit A+ Schools.

The Board performed best in the areas of transparency and conduct, and worst in terms of role clarity. It received middling grades for focus and competency.

A+ Schools Executive Director Carey Harris says this means while the Board is open and doesn’t argue much, it could be using its time more wisely.

“They sometimes tend to get into questions about these transactions, like, ‘Well, who is this person? What is their qualification? How many students will participate in this? What time of day is it,’ those sorts of details, which are sort of administrative task details, not necessarily policymaking discussions,” says Harris. “Our vision is really that this is a board that’s focused on the big picture.”

Harris says her group suggests the Board take a training course for policymakers to learn new ways of governing.

A+ Schools also recommends reforming some Board meeting procedures.

Harris says this report card can’t be compared to previous ones, because A+ Schools used a new reporting method for this evaluation. Harris says the new format was made in collaboration with both volunteers and the School Board itself, and imposes a higher expectation of the Board.

Harris says the next report card will probably be issued in September. More information on the report cards can be found at A+ Schools’ website.

A+ Wants You to Vote

Felicia Davis is a mother of three who says she has been voting in every election for the last 15 years but until she started to serve on the board of her local Head Start program she did not even know how the school board was formed. “I didn’t know that there was an election that everyone in the city gets to vote for it,” says Davis, “I didn’t know how many people, I knew nothing else. I didn’t even know the [school] district was separated into [board] districts.”

The person Davis used to be is the target of a new initiative launched by A+ Schools and the person she is now is the type of person they want to enlist to help. Pittsburgh Public School Board districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 are up or election this year with a primary set for May. A+ Executive Director Carey Harris says the last time those districts were up for election, only 14 to 26 percent of the voters bothered to cast votes. The new effort launched today has a goal of increasing voter turn out by 6,000 voters or 26 percent.

The School Board watchdog group hopes to accomplish those goals through a multi-pronged effort. Harris says it starts with education about how the board members are elected. “If you are not sure if you have a race this year go to our website and we’ll help you figure it out,” says Harris. The site includes a map of the 9 districts and a list of neighborhoods in each district. A+ will also be sending out flyers to people in the districts up for election and sending out doorknockers just to make sure the message is heard.

Petitions to run for school board are due Tuesday so it is still unclear who is running. Harris says once the names are known her organization will be posting candidate profiles on the web and will be calling on residents like Davis to host candidate forums and spread the word in any way they can. Davis says in all her life she has not seen an ad for a school board candidate. “With the voter turnout being so low they don’t have to,” says Davis, ”They probably know, ’well I only need to get this many people on my team so I don’t have to work too hard if I want to get in.’”

At a campaign launch event this morning Harris told the group gathered, “We are asking you to do this because you want to show the board that you’re watching and because we want to show our kids that we care enough about our education to do this single easiest thing.” “26,000 kids are counting on you to cast your vote,” says Harris “A vote for school board is a vote for progress.”

Urban Pathways Charter Okayed

The Pittsburgh Board of Education voted last night to approve 1 of 4 applications to operate charter schools in the city of Pittsburgh. Board members gave "qualified approval" to the Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter School. That "qualified approval" means that it will be re-evaluated before the start of the school year. The district is requesting that Urban Pathways produce a professional development plan that provides on-going training on implementation of the school's core knowledge curriculum. Urban Pathways already operates a 6-12 charter school.
“The District supports quality options for families that spur student achievement,” said Superintendent Linda Lane.

The Board rejected charter applications for Propel Charter School – Northside, Three Rivers Charter School for Public Service and Leadership Academy for Math and Science Charter.
The Board did acknowledge the success of existing charter schools operated by Propel in other locations but the Charter Review Team did not recommend approval saying this application lacked a comprehensive curriculum for all grade levels and comprehensive long range goals for students.

The Board voted against the Three Rivers Charter School for Public Service application saying it failed to provide a complete curriculum plan and didn't provide parents with choices that aren't already offered by the school district.

According to the review team, the Leadership Academy for Math and Science Charter School application lacked current community support and a proposed location.
The rejected applicants can appeal the decision.

Pittsburgh Org. to Report on School District Equity

A Pittsburgh Public Schools watchdog group, A+ Schools, has begun another effort to gauge and report on consistency in the city’s middle schools and high schools. Executive Director Carey Harris unveiled "School Works" today, a program that Harris says will address inequities across the schools of the district.

Harris says it’s undeniable that different schools in the district have varying successes and failures, and the question is why. A+ Schools is asking for volunteers to take a one-hour training session before interviewing various principals on the conditions at their schools. Harris says interview questions will be based on local and national research and haven’t yet been determined.

Harris says the idea is not to compare schools. “Information will be reported on a system-wide level, not by individual schools. So, for example, we might say x percent of high schools reported y, not Langley said this and Allderdice said this. Individual schools or groups of schools will not be graded, so this is not that kind of evaluation,” says Harris.

Harris says the immediate goal is to get into schools and start interviewing principals by mid-October. She says from the information they receive, they will organize public meetings and advocacy groups by January of 2010. Harris says from there, she would like to branch out and begin to ask teachers, parents, and students the same questions posed to the administrators.

Pittsburgh Schools Make the Grade

Pittsburgh Public School District has become the first-ever urban district to make AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, as delineated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The standardized achievement measure gauges schools on attendance, graduation rates, and academic progress in reading and math.

Superintendent Mark Roosevelt says the minimum requirements for making AYP grow more difficult every year, so he’s proud that after seven years of quiet from urban districts, his schools finally broke the silence. Roosevelt says the district met 86 of 98 standards because of its superior workforce.

“We need to think about exploring ways of attracting, developing, retaining, and rewarding talent at all levels. That’s what it’s about. If you come to work for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, you’ve got to be better than average. You’ve got to be excellent,” says Roosevelt.

Roosevelt says its important that everyone involved in Pittsburgh’s public schools continues to look in the same direction. He says if it doesn’t help students, we must move on; if it does, then we should embrace it.

Arnet Resigns From School Board

Heather Arnet is resigning from the Pittsburgh School Board effective Tuesday after just a year and a half at that post. Arnet informed Board President Theresa Colaizzi of her decision through a letter. Arnet, who is executive director of the Women and Girls Foundation, says the economic downturn has hurt the foundation's revenues and she needs to spend more time at that job.
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will appoint a replacement to serve out the remaining 2 and a half years on Arnet's term on the board.

School Board Improves Grade

A community initiative tracking public education gave the city school board its second report card today. A+ Schools rated the board a little higher than last time, giving them a B- average. Executive Director Carey Harris says the grade rose in the transparency category, but fell in the areas of conduct and role clarity.

“We’re talking about how well the board handled differences of opinion and whether or not their comments were solution-oriented rather versus sarcastic or accusatory. And when we’re talking about role clarity, we’re talking about, ‘Is the board exhibiting a policy-making role? Are they talking about strategies and district goals?’” says Harris.

A+ Schools has also made several recommendations, including removing “routine administrative items” from the school board agenda. Harris says these things should be done by school administrators. “It just ends up in the board packet for the board to vote on. So we’re recommending that they figure out a way to either put that in some consent agenda or just hand that off to the staff,” says Harris.

However, Pennsylvania school code requires that the board vote on these items. Harris says she hopes this can be changed soon. She says her organization recommends the school board support legislation to change the code, if only in terms of Pittsburgh.

Report cards will be given every time students receive a report card, says Harris.

A-Plus Schools Expands Focus

A-Plus Schools is expanding its watchdog roll for classroom and student performance to monitoring the Pittsburgh Public School Board itself. It has launched “board watch” which it bills as a “good governance program.” Trained volunteers will go to all Legislative and Agenda Review meetings and fill out forms that A-Plus executive Director Carey Harris says will evaluate the board’s actions in 5 areas: Focus on mission, transparency, conduct (Including conflict resolution), roll clarity (Is the board doing its job and not the job of the Superintendent?) and competency. A-Plus will gather the forms and publish periodic reports. Harris says the school district can only be as good as the board demands it to be and the board will only be as good as the public demands. She says one of the goals is to get the community more engaged in the actions of the board. A-Plus will grade the board but not individual board members. If the program is successful the program may be expanded to include budget and business and finance meetings.

URA Details Selling of School Buildings

Community activists learned more about efforts underway to sell off 18 closed Pittsburgh Public school buildings. The Pittsburgh public school district is spending about $2 million a year maintaining the closed buildings so there is some pressure to sell quickly but the board wants to make sure the properties are put to thee best use not just awarded to the highest bidder. The District has teamed up with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh to figure out how to best move the land onto the tax rolls. URA Director of Real Estate Kyra Straussman says the highest use may not be the best use. She says if a developer wants to divide the school into 400-thousand dollar lofts in a neighborhood that can only support $50 thousand homes the URA may try to look for another option. Straussman says while some of the buildings are very marketable others will be hard to sell. Part of the URA’s evaluation process is not only making sure a buyer has the cash to make the purchase but also has the ability to sustain the property. Straussman says that is why it may be hard for non-profits to open community centers. Requests for proposals will be written with community groups in mind to make sure a building is used in both a sustainable and community friendly manner. A school official says the board is for the most part against the reuse of the buildings as charter schools and would like to see the buildings put onto the tax rolls rather than used by a non-taxable organization.

Grable Foundation Pledges $5 Million to Pittsburgh Promise

The Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship program for public school graduates, will receive 5 million dollars over the next five years from the Grable Foundation, and maybe more thereafter. Since UPMC's major commitment last year, the Buhl Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Heinz Endowments have also pledged millions.

Grable Foundation Executive Director Greg Behr says the gift is a vote of confidence in the superintendent, the school board, and the students.

Behr hopes others will step forward to support the Pittsburgh Promise.

Manchester Students Mark Anti-Violence Week

An annual staff-student basketball game at Pittsburgh Manchester PreK-8 has turned into a week of anti-violence activities. Curriculum Coach Angela Taylor says recent violence in the neighborhood prompted this week's schedule of activities ranging from anti-violence decorations on classroom doors, to a Random Acts of Kindness competition, to a community meeting. The usual basketball game will still take place Friday night. Teachers are also incorporating an anti-violence message into their lesson plans.