Pittsburgh Public Schools to create list of school closures

The new Pittsburgh Public Schools plan to reduce facilities does not list any schools to close. Instead, it presents a broad framework for community engagement, facilities needs and a timeline to create a list of school closures.

One specific recommendation is to have dedicated elementary, middle and high schools. That will allow the district to get away from the mix of schools it has now in which some buildings run from kindergarten through eighth grade and some high schools also house middle school students.

“Middle school is probably the worst time of life for any child, and they need their own space,” Pittsburgh School Superintendent Wayne Walters said at a meeting on Wednesday. “They need their own space and time with professionals who are dedicated to them.”

Those combined middle and high schools currently include some of the more popular magnet schools, such as the Science and Technology Academy, the Creative and Performing Arts School and Obama Academy, which teaches the International baccalaureate program.

Walters said breaking those grades apart will allow for expanded access to programs for middle school students.

Hundreds of people watched the much-anticipated meeting online as Walters was clear “there is no magic list” of schools that are going to close.

But the Pittsburgh Public School District has more empty desks than it has children enrolled in its 54 schools.

The functional capacity of buildings has been documented after a Right to Know Act request was filed by the advocacy group 412 Justice, which released those reports. 

Michael MacNamara, the district’s chief operations officer, said the facilities team has also reviewed the buildings and developed a “facilities condition index” in which the team determined how much schools needed in terms of maintenance and remediation, and an “education adequacy index” in which each building was scored for the types of spaces it has, such as full gyms and swimming pools, libraries and dedicated rooms for art and music.

Ebony Pugh, the district’s public relations director, said the scores will be released to the public to help inform the conversation on school closings.

The district has released a request for proposals to hire a consulting firm to help with the public engagement process.

Merecedes Williams, the district’s director of communications and stakeholder engagement, said the district will involve the community before any plan is created through traditional means – such as focus groups, surveys and workshops – but also in other ways, such as having pop-up tents where members of the community gather, such as near Dana’s Bakery in Homewood or on Carson Street on the South Side.

The plan is on an aggressive timeline.

Pugh said the consultants should be hired this month and make their recommendations on school realignments by August. She expects another round of community engagement and a series of public hearings on the closures in September and October. The final board vote on the plan is expected to be in December.

That timeline also means that the magnet school process, during which parents apply to have their children placed in magnet programs, will be delayed until January with the magnet lottery held in March.

The full proposal for the school facilities plan is online.