Consultants recommend closing 14 Pittsburgh Public Schools

Consultants recommend closing 14 Pittsburgh Public Schools

A long-awaited recommendation for Pittsburgh Public Schools to close or consolidate more than a dozen schools was presented to the school board Tuesday night.

Updated: 6:27 PM EDT Oct 16, 2024

A long-awaited recommendation for Pittsburgh Public Schools to close or consolidate more than a dozen schools was presented to the school board Tuesday night.The initial plan, which families got the chance to weigh in on in August and September, proposed closing 16 schools. The consultants with Education Resource Strategies opted for extra time to reach their final recommendation, before sharing it publicly on Tuesday.The reworked recommendation suggests closing 14 schools and opening 3 new schools, as well as reconfiguring several others.“There’s a lot of information that we were promised that we were going to get tonight, that we were told that the district now has to develop on their own,” Valerie Webb-Allman said.Valerie Webb-Allman said she was left with lingering questions about the restructuring recommendations.“We’ve absolutely listened to the perspectives of others, district leadership, and staff, parents, students, community members, you name it, and we’ve gotten some really good ideas from them, as you’ll see, but the corpus of what we’re sharing tonight is ours and ours alone,” a consultant said.The consultants suggest taking the number of school facilities from 54 to 42. Under their recommendations, 14 schools, which fill 10 buildings would be closed. Twelve would be reconfigured.For example, five full magnet schools and two partial magnet schools would be transitioned into to neighborhood schools. CAPA would remain intact, and Montessori would be expanded.“Moving it to the Linden building would allow it to grow and add seats,” a consultant said.Three new schools would open. One would be located on the east side of I-279, where two other schools would be closed. Carrick High School would remain open.The district initially sought out this “Facilities Utilization Plan” due to decades of declining enrollment. Board President Gene Walker said the goal is to make schools more equitable.“I think we’re moving in the right direction and getting much closer to something that we can put into place and that will benefit our kids,” Walker said.Webb-Allman said parents should have had more direct involvement.“If he was really interested, if it was really important, he’d find a way to get parents engaged in this process rather than just giving us 3 minutes a month to speak on it, because that really isn’t parent engagement,” Webb-Allman said.A group of parents has created their own plan, which they will release later this month.Pittsburgh Public Schools provided a detailed breakdown of the plan:“ERS’s recommendation incorporates community feedback by proposing to keep Pittsburgh Carrick High School, Pittsburgh Lincoln PreK-5, and Pittsburgh Whittier open, despite their initial identification for closure. The recommendation also outlines adjustments for the District’s Special Schools and supports maintaining the Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 program at its current location due to significant investments in the facility and strong student performance.The proposed plan streamlines the District’s structure from 54 to 42 schools, involving the closure of 14 schools and 10 facilities, as well as 12 school reconfigurations. It further relocates three special schools and one center program, and transitions five full magnet schools and two partial magnet schools into neighborhood schools while opening three new schools:Pittsburgh Sci-Tech (6-8)Pittsburgh Northview (PreK-5)Pittsburgh Manchester (6-8)South/West Region:Closures: South Brook 6-8, South Hills 6-8, and Roosevelt K-5.Pittsburgh Carrick High School will remain open, ensuring two high schools continue serving the region.The Roosevelt facility will house both the Student Achievement Center and the Pittsburgh Online Academy drop-in site.Brookline becomes a K-5 school, with students in grades 6-8 moving to a newly consolidated Carmalt 6-8.Langley will transition from a K-8 to a K-5 school, with students in grades 6-8 moving to Pittsburgh Classical 6-8.Carmalt K-5 students will transition to Brookline K-5 or West Liberty K-5.Pittsburgh Arlington will become a full 6-8 school, with its PreK-5 students moving to feeder schools.The Spanish magnet program at Pittsburgh Phillips will be phased out.North Region:Closures: Pittsburgh Allegheny 6-8, Manchester PreK-8, Schiller 6-8, Spring Hill K-5, and King PreK-8Renovated facilities: Pittsburgh Manchester will reopen as a 6-8 program. Northview Heights will reopen as a PreK-5 program, serving Spring Hill and Northview students. Both Manchester and Northview will also become English Language Development (ELD) sites.Pittsburgh Allegheny PreK-5 will transition to a neighborhood school.A new 6-8 STEM neighborhood school will provide a pathway to STEM programming at Pittsburgh Perry High School.King K-5 students will move to an expanded Pittsburgh Allegheny K-5, with King serving as a swing school during renovations.East/Central Region:Closures: Pittsburgh Arsenal PreK-5, Fulton PreK, Linden PreK-5, Milliones 6-12, Miller PreK-5, and Woolslair PreK-5.Pittsburgh Dilworth and Liberty will transition into neighborhood schools, and Sunnyside will shift from PreK-8 to PreK-5.Pittsburgh Linden will become the new home for Pittsburgh Montessori PreK-5, becoming the District’s sole K-5 magnet school.Colfax will become a 6-8 school, with Greenfield and Mifflinshifting to PreK-5.Milliones will house the new SciTech Academy 6-8 neighborhood magnet, with the current SciTech 6-12 in Oakland consolidating into a 9-12 neighborhood magnet.Arsenal 6-8 will expand to become an IB (Middle Years Programme) neighborhood magnet, and Pittsburgh Obama will transition to a 9-12 IB neighborhood magnet.Westinghouse will shift to a 9-12 model and add a Neighborhood Magnet, with its 6-8 students moving to Pittsburgh Sterrett 6-8.Changes to the Hill District Plan:In a revision to the Hill District plan, ERS now recommends closing Pittsburgh Miller PreK-5 instead of Pittsburgh Weil, citing factors such as location and renovation requirements.Special Schools and Programs:As part of its expanded final recommendations, ERS has proposed changes to the District’s special schools and programs to align with its goal of creating more equitable and efficient educational pathways. Key recommendations include:Pittsburgh Conroy will relocate to the vacant South Brook 6-8 facility.The Pittsburgh Online Academy drop-in site will move to the vacant Roosevelt Intermediate facility.The Student Achievement Center, currently located in Homewood, will also transition to the Roosevelt facility.Gifted education services will be integrated into individual schools across the District, resulting in the closure of the Gifted Center.Pittsburgh Clayton will remain at its current location.ERS did not provide specific recommendations for Oliver Citywide Academy, leaving those decisions to District officials to address as part of ongoing planning efforts.Creation of Teacher Centers:Overwhelming support for teacher centers continues ERS to recommend the opening of three teachers centers across the District to create dedicated spaces for teachers to learn and improve their practice.”