Cate Guilfoyle, a senior at Allderdice High School, learned of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ gifted program when she was in second grade at Colfax K-8. Many of her peers attended the district’s Gifted Center at Greenway, once a week, to participate in accelerated hands-on courses. 

Uneven Scales
As PPS contends with a difficult budget season, PublicSource explores the balance of resources and its effects on students’ futures.

“There was a huge stigma around, like, everyone that went there was super smart,” she said. 

Guilfoyle was evaluated and identified as a gifted student a few years later. Like others, she attended the Gifted Center, which she believes offered more resources than Colfax. With that, Guilfoyle said, she also saw immediate disparities in her classroom. 

On the days when she and her classmates bussed off to the Gifted Center, she said, “Greenway would look like all white kids and then all of Colfax would have only African American kids.” 

The district’s Gifted and Talented program offers unique opportunities for students who are identified as “high-achieving.” However, students of color are highly underrepresented among students who are identified for the program. 

As the district works through a strategic planning process with a focus on equity, at least some board members say the time is right to rethink approaches to gifted education. 

Of the 18,650 students enrolled in the district, 1,315 were identified as gifted in 2022-23, according to the district’s enrollment dashboard. Of the students identified as gifted, 16% were Black and 66% were white. Black students make up 51% of the district’s student population. 

Schools with a higher share of economically disadvantaged students also had a lower percentage of students identified as gifted. Of all students with a Gifted Individualized Education Plan [GIEP], only 23% were economically disadvantaged, while districtwide, 70% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Statewide, 3.3% of all students were identified as gifted, according to the 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Less than 1% of Black students were identified. Studies have shown that gifted programs do not necessarily improve student reading and math scores. 

PPS spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the district follows state guidelines when evaluating students for gifted education, but did not substantively address questions about racial disparities in the program.

State laws contribute to disparities

State regulations define gifted education as individualized and specially designed instruction, delivered under a GIEP. 

Per state law, a “mentally gifted” student must demonstrate an IQ of 130 or more or

• Test at a year or more above achievement level 
• Show a high rate of retention in learning new skills 
• Demonstrate early skill development 
• Show expertise in one or more academic areas.

Advocates say, the definition of “gifted” may be a key driver of the inequitable access to the district’s gifted program.

James Fogarty, executive director of A+ Schools, a nonprofit supporting PPS in addressing equity issues, said key measures such as IQ, which is impacted by socioeconomic factors such as poverty and structural racism, skew the pool of gifted students. 

“It seems as if the current system … developed at the state policy level, lends itself towards identifying students as gifted as those who are also not economically disadvantaged,” he said.

Many students from low-income families are underrepresented and excluded from gifted programs because they do not have opportunities for enrichment and learning experiences outside school in early childhood, said Kristen Seward, associate director of Gifted Education Resource Institute [GERI] at Purdue University.

She said if students don’t have access to enrichment opportunities in early childhood, then they will not test high by the time they get to third grade, when kids are usually tested for gifted education.

Accelerated learning for the ‘gifted,’ free day for others

All gifted students in PPS – apart from those at Dilworth and Grandview where gifted instruction is offered on-site – go to the Gifted Center at Greenway every week, where they participate in project-based, accelerated courses. 

Beatrice Kuhn was in fourth grade at Colfax when she was identified as a gifted student. Once every week, she would go to the Gifted Center, where she took classes ranging from forensic science to ceramics.

“I took various art classes and those were really fun,” she said. “It was a very different environment.”

Kuhn’s friend, Alina Weise, also got evaluated in fifth grade but was not identified as gifted. She and others stayed at Colfax while their peers went to the Gifted Center. 

“I just felt down about myself. I started to feel like I wasn’t smart enough or wasn’t as high of a level as my peers were, especially my close friends,” she said. 

On days her classmates went to the Gifted Center, those remaining at Colfax were usually given a “free day,” where they could catch up on any previously assigned work, Weise said. 

PPS did not respond to inquiries about assignments for students not identified as gifted on days their peers are at the Gifted Center.

Kipp Dawson, a retired teacher from Colfax, taught at the school from 2005 to 2018. She said delivery of instruction for students who stayed behind on gifted days varied at every school and with every principal. 

For a part of her tenure at Colfax, those students were provided an enrichment day where they brought in artists to teach classes such as poetry, writing or painting T-shirts. However, most time was dedicated for students to prepare for standardized tests. 

“That was a day in many cases of dull, rote, uninspiring work,” said Dawson. 

Allyce Pinchback-Johnson, a founding member of Black Women for a Better Education, said apart from overidentifying white students as gifted, the district also misidentifies students because of inherent biases and standardized testing. 

“It’s just a very narrow and limited definition of giftedness,” she said. “We already know what the outcomes are going to be, based on just the racial distribution of how students fare on those tests that we know that it’s not a reflection of them as students as much as it’s a reflection of the bias that exists.”

Gene Walker, district board president, said the Gifted Center creates barriers for students by sending some kids there and leaving others behind. “I think we sometimes do ourselves a disservice by creating opportunities to segregate.”

The Gifted-to-AP pipeline

At Allderdice, Guilfoyle noticed the same disparities in her honors and Advanced Placement [AP] classes that she saw between Colfax and the Greenway Center. 

“I feel like Allderdice is very segregated in many ways,” she said. “I walked in my first AP class, and there were no African American students.”

Similar to gifted education, Black students are underrepresented in AP courses. A total of 1,660 students in PPS enrolled in at least one AP class in 2023. Of those, 29% were Black and 54% were white. 

Pinchback-Johnson said the overidentification of white students as gifted sets them up for automatic consideration in high school AP and Centers for Advanced Study classes.

“I view it as just a form of segregation,” she said. 

She added that white families use their social capital to get access to the district’s magnet programs.

The district’s arts magnet, CAPA 6-12, has one of the highest rates of students identified as gifted. This year, 31.5% of the student population at CAPA was identified as gifted. Neighborhood schools, such as UPrep Milliones and Westinghouse, have less than 4% of their students identified as gifted.

Advocates seek systemic changes

Nielsen Pereira, director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute [GERI] at Purdue University, said the district could implement models like total school cluster grouping to reduce inequities that might be caused by sending students to a gifted center. The model involves training teachers to identify students and implement gifted education strategies with all students in a school. 

Under the model, every teacher would be able to provide gifted education, and gifted students would be placed alongside other students instead of visiting a separate classroom or a gifted center. 

Fogarty said the district needs to think about fostering inclusivity and creating in-house gifted education supports, such as those at Dilworth and Grandview. 

“Setting kids aside and not providing support services that allow them to be fully inclusive, is problematic, whether it’s for a student with disabilities or a student with academic gifts,” he said.  

Walker said instead of referrals from parents or teachers, the district should implement universal testing to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to be identified as gifted and eliminate any personal and systemic bias. 

The district rolled out a pilot program in 2018 to screen all second-grade students in six PPS schools for gifted identification. It’s unclear what, if anything, came of that.

Walker said he’s keen to keep the dialogue moving. 

“I think it’s going to take more than policy change,” he said. “It’s going to take attitude change, it’s going to take priority change.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Delaney Adams.

The post Inequitable enrichment: How Black and low-income students are largely left out of Pittsburgh’s gifted program  appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Updated (1/25/24): The Pittsburgh Public Schools board on Wednesday passed a motion to table a resolution for appointing student board representatives, shelving it indefinitely.

Board member Jamie Piotrowski said she supports amplifying student voices and the board should create a consistent program through the policy committee instead of passing a resolution. She added that passing a resolution to appoint two students would not represent the whole student body, including many English language learners or students with disabilities. 

“This is a resolution that then becomes very difficult to find in Board Docs and then as the board changes, this program could essentially disappear,” she said.

Board member Sala Udin, who introduced the initial resolution and voted against tabling, said he made many changes to the resolution based on recommendations from board members, adding that the board would be “sending a very negative message to the students” if they tabled the resolution. 

“We need to be lifting them up, not muzzling them,” he said. 

The board plans to have conversations in the upcoming policy committee meetings to decide a plan forward.

Reported (1/23/24):

Pittsburgh school board considers adding student seats

Pittsburgh Public Schools is expected to vote tomorrow on a proposal to add two high school student representatives to its board. 

Those in support of the resolution, proposed by board member Sala Udin, include students who say they lack input in decisions about their education.

“We must ensure that the voices of students not only have room in the superintendent’s vocal point but also the actual policymaking body of this system,” said Allderdice High School senior Pavel Marin, during a public hearing on Monday night.

The resolution, if passed, would add two students from 11th and 12th grade to serve as liaisons between the board and the student body, and they will be required to submit a monthly report. 

Students would be selected by a committee of high school principals and the superintendent would make a suggestion to the board before the start of the next school year. The students would not be given voting power or access to executive sessions in which privileged information is discussed. 

During a public board meeting last week when the resolution was introduced, board member Devon Taliaferro urged the board to examine their governing process before adding student voices. She said the board should explore other options that involve more students such as the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council [SSAC], a student-led panel that discusses school-related issues with the administration. 

School officials, while saying they support more student input, appear undecided on the proposal.

Board member Dwayne Barker said while he wants to prioritize student voices, he does not want to rush the process of adding student representatives to the board. The board could hold multiple listening sessions at schools, led by students, to increase student voice in the district, he added. 

“We know it’s long overdue,” said Barker. “Student voice is certainly important.” 

Board President Gene Walker said he supported the idea of student board members but the board should work to clearly define the students’ role to create a positive experience. 

“There’s some work that we need to do internally, from a governance standpoint, to put us in the right position to be able to do that effectively,” he said. 

In a written statement, former board member Pam Harbin said the resolution confines the district to a single method and the board should consider other ways, such as electing student representatives. She added that the board should take feedback from students to make the process meaningful and equitable. 

Last year, the PPS board gave itself a failing grade in a self-evaluation, as reported by WESA.

Za’Morrie Reeves, a junior at Allderdice, intends to apply to be a student board representative if the resolution is passed. 

Reeves, who is also part of the SSAC, said he believes student board members would involve students at policy-making and districtwide levels as opposed to SSAC’s work in individual schools. 

“I can help by just being a voice for those students who either don’t feel comfortable using their voice or don’t know where to use your voice,” he said.

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

The post Updated: PPS shelves proposal for student board appointments appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Every Friday, at 1:53 p.m., Sha’Ron Kennedy helps his classmates at Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Langley K-8 prepare bags filled with food. First, he slips in some instant noodles, and then he adds green beans, corn and tomato sauce. Sometimes he also adds breakfast oatmeal and fruit. 

Once all bags are prepared, Kennedy leads the students to different classrooms. 

At each class, they knock on the door saying, “Blessings in a backpack!” then deliver the bags to other students. 

Kennedy is a seventh-grader in Langley’s autistic support class where he volunteers to work in the school’s Blessings in a Backpack program. The program is part of Langley’s community school model, providing food for students experiencing food insecurity. 

PPS Langley is one of nine schools in the district that are designated as community schools. Unlike traditional neighborhood public schools, the community public school model focuses on providing services that support the neighborhood’s needs by involving parents and other community members. They often partner with local businesses and organizations and have an integrated focus on learning opportunities, health and fulfilling basic needs. 

The pandemic reinforced the importance of community schools, when schools needed to meet a range of needs outside the classroom. The Coalition for Community Schools estimates there are about 5,000 community schools in the country. 

Outside the city, Communities in Schools of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County [CISPAC] is helping districts build community schools across the region. Last year, they began implementing the full-service community school model across eight school districts in Allegheny County. 

Community schools across Pittsburgh serve as hubs of the neighborhoods in which they operate. Many go far beyond delivering instruction and offer resources such as food, clothing and after-school programs with a focus on mental health and reducing violence in the community. 

A spreading model with federal friends

Although the model is relatively new for Pittsburgh-area schools, community schools have, over the past two decades, reported successes in states including Texas, Florida, Ohio, California, Maryland and Minnesota.

In Cincinnati for example, all schools became community schools following a policy passed in 2001. From 2006 to 2015, research showed that the achievement gap between Black and white students in the Cincinnati school district decreased from 14.5% to 4.5%. In the Minneapolis area, the Brooklyn Center Community Schools saw district-wide behavioral references cut in half in the first five years as a community school system.

On Nov. 28, the Biden-Harris Administration announced almost $74 million in grants for full-service community schools in Idaho, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio. The next day, senators from Ohio, Maryland, New York and New Mexico introduced The Full Service Community School Expansion Act of 2023, which is a comprehensive bill aimed at helping more public schools implement the wrap-around services of a full-service community school model. 

The long-term success of community schools depends on consistent funding, according to Jennifer Kotting, communications strategist for The Partnership for the Future of Learning, a national network dedicated to supporting public education.

“It’s really ongoing [funding] that is needed to maintain a really strong set of possibilities in each community school,” Kotting said. 

Duquesne: Reducing violence through conflict resolution

CISPAC’s full-service community school approach stands on four pillars: integrated student support, expanded and enriched learning opportunities, active family and community engagement and collaborative leadership.

School districts such as Sto-Rox, Duquesne and Pittsburgh are hoping the community schools model will help students deal with trauma stemming from violence in their neighborhoods.

Duquesne has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh’s Just Discipline Project [JDP] to reduce exclusionary discipline practices in schools. Instead of resorting to suspensions, which have been linked to the school-to-prison pipeline, the project aims to offer more holistic solutions.

For a school to be selected for the Just Discipline Project, it must show high disciplinary action numbers. 

Currently, JDP is partnered with 20 schools around the Pittsburgh area, including Sto-Rox and PPS Langley. At most schools, they employ a full-time restorative practice coordinator who is available all day, much like a traditional teacher. 

At Duquesne, Molly Means, a restorative practice coordinator, leads a classroom group of middle schoolers to become leaders in training. The students learn restorative justice ideas and lead healing circles in younger classrooms. 

She said Duquesne’s desire to increase restorative practices makes it a good fit for the project. 

“It’s a unique opportunity for kids in the school districts that we’re in to get to be part of a leadership program, to get to learn about mediations, to get to learn about community building from such a young age,” said Means. 

Dae-Mere Johnson, an eighth grader at Duquesne and part of Means’ group of Leaders in Training [LIT], said the violence and shootings around the community impact his mental health and that of his peers. 

Johnson said he feels he and his fellow LITs are helping other — especially younger — students by sharing the conflict resolution skills they’ve learned.

“Sometimes they need help,” Johnson said. “I feel like when we come into the classroom, it’s helpful. It calms them down.”

Whether through leading healing circles for younger classrooms or helping students resolve conflict at lunchtime, Duquesne Superintendent Sue Mariani said, the leaders in training are helping to shift the school’s culture from a punitive approach to a restorative one. 

Bridget Clement, executive director of CISPAC, said often there is tension in schools where there is a majority of economically disadvantaged, Black and brown students and mostly white administrators.

“We have teachers that are afraid of the students and administrators that are afraid, and this comes out a lot because they don’t understand how to best engage students that are traumatized,” she said.

To avoid overidentifying Black and brown students for discipline, Duquesne teachers present data on students displaying at-risk behaviors, such as attendance or discipline issues, to a team of school counselors, teachers and administrators who work together to determine the best course of action for a student, said middle school Principal George Little.

Duquesne’s community school model emphasizes student mental health supports, through an approach known as social and emotional learning. 

“We have students who experience significant trauma,” Mariani said. To address that, educators focus on “making sure a kid feels safe, whether it’s emotionally or physically before they can even learn.” 

Duquesne has a full-time therapist from Auberle, a social service agency, available to students during the day. 

Langley: Meeting community needs, addressing burnout

Other than a Family Dollar that sells eggs, milk and some dried goods, Sheraden, where Langley is located, does not have a grocery store. 

“It’s a food desert,” said Keysha Gomez, founder of H.O.P.E. for Tomorrow, a community partner at Langley. In addition to in-house programs such as Blessings in a Backpack, community partners including H.O.P.E. and 412 Food Rescue work together to send kids home with food every day after school. 

Gomez said because public schools lack resources, it falls on standalone organizations such as H.O.P.E. to raise money through grants and fund-raising.

“Finances are a big problem,” she said. 

Mike Dean, Langley’s community school site manager, said they try to provide basic necessities not only for students but for the community outside of the school. 

“If someone wanted to come out and needed something at that moment, it is the understanding that Langley is the hub for this community,” he said. 

Outside of the food pantry and a free clothing store, Langley also offers a boxing program, a dental cleaning and hygiene camp each fall and summer, and lifestyle classes. The school has also worked with the city to install a stop light on Sheraden Boulevard. 

Nationwide, teachers have left the teaching profession and experienced higher levels of stress and lower morale after the pandemic, as reported by Chalkbeat. Former PPS teachers have said that burnout preceded the pandemic. 

Kathy Monti-Trievel, a Langley alumnus and now a teacher at the school, thinks that the shift to a community school model in 2017 has eased some of the burden. Having community partners bring in extra resources such as food and clothing — things teachers previously had to provide alone — has helped, she said. 

“I think community schools allow there to be healthy boundaries for teachers and staff to do their craft, which is to teach, deliver instruction,” said Sarah Armenti, a social worker and Langley’s family and community engagement coordinator. 

Sto-Rox: Expanding community, reducing absenteeism

Sto-Rox Superintendent Megan Marie Van Fossan said she would like to see more providers in their school buildings. She said the district is facing staffing challenges in teaching and health care services. Not having full-time nurses in the buildings also contributes to truancy issues in the schools, she said.

Fully 72.3% of students were chronically absent, missing more than two days of school a month for any reason, in the Sto-Rox Junior Senior High School in 2021-22. 

Van Fossan said the district is working on social-emotional skills and conflict resolution to solve violence issues that contribute to truancy and drop-out.

Duquesne’s Mariani said she believes the community school model has played a major role in supporting the return of eighth graders, who came back to the Mon Valley city in 2022 after almost a decade of being educated in neighboring districts. When it comes to the district’s goal to reopen the high school — closed in 2007— Mariani said she hopes to use a similar model. 

Sonya Gooden, a school board director for Duquesne and a family advocate at Duqusene’s Head Start program, said she feels the lack of a high school disrupts community bonds for older children.

“With the closing of the high school, bringing it back will again make a wholeness of the community because currently we’re split up between different cities,” Gooden said. “Once you get to 13, 14, you’re away from your friends and it takes away from the center of the community which the district represents.”

La’tresha Dean, the director of the Boys and Girls club at Duquesne and a parent in the district, said that while she believes the community school model at Duquesne is making a positive impact, its leadership and goals need to be consistent for community members to put their full trust into the school.

Building trust in the community

Many of Duquesne’s school staff are community members and alumni. Little said that established interpersonal relationships between staff and students give the district leaders a better understanding of students’ needs and help parents and families feel more comfortable confiding in staff and seeking out help.

“By having so many people from the community in the building it helps us understand what’s going on in the community … around guns, drugs, domestic issues — we hear about it,” Little said.

Clement said sometimes parents who have had bad experiences in school do not want to engage with their children’s school. CISPAC accordingly works to engage parents through their community school model. 

“We need to have more of that family infusion so that the teachers and the administrators who maybe aren’t on the ground have a better understanding of what the community is dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” she said. 

Another way Duquesne is keeping parents in the loop is through its Parents As Allies organization that focuses on supporting parent needs and engagement — both for their children and for themselves. Last year, Duquesne held a career and resource fair where parents could find mental health resources and professional development opportunities.

Through community and parent engagement, LaQuandra Bennet, Duquesne’s CISPAC site manager, says the long-term goal of the full-service community school model is to equip parents and the community with the resources to help their children on their own.

“We want to empower families when it comes to their student’s education,” Bennet said. “We want to make sure that … the things we’re bringing in are able to continue and that is going to be with the help of the families.” 

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

Tanya Babbar was an editorial intern at PublicSource and is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh.

This story was fact-checked by Erin Yudt. 

The post Going beyond instruction, community schools serve as ‘hubs in the community’ appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Student enrollment in Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] dipped by 270 during 2023  – a slower rate than previous years. And some schools clocked unexpected growth.

Despite this year’s slower decline, though, the district of 18,380 is projected to lose an additional 5,000 students by 2031. 

Resources are split unevenly in the district, leading to some schools with higher concentrations of economically disadvantaged students receiving less money per pupil, disparate student outcomes, uneven academic offerings in high schools, a lack of experienced staff in schools with a majority of Black and low-income students – and magnet schools that may accelerate some of those inequities. 

The latest data suggest, though, that some struggling schools are making progress that’s attracting new students. Of the district’s 54 schools, 18 saw increased student enrollment last year. 

Among those are Perry High and Milliones 6-12, known as UPrep — two schools characterized as under-resourced. 

Ted Dwyer, district chief of data, research, evaluation and assessments, said this is the first time since 2013 that PPS has seen any enrollment increases in K-5 schools.

James Fogarty, executive director of advocacy group A+ Schools, attributed the individual upticks – and the slower overall rate of decline – to expanded programming, community partnerships and building leadership. 

“We're seeing where schools are being responsive to community desires and needs where we're increasing opportunities and access to resources,” Fogarty said. 

Jayla Manison’s daughter, a senior, has been at UPrep since sixth grade. Manison opted to continue her daughter’s high school education at UPrep because of its diverse program offerings, resources and opportunities. Her daughter is now the class president, has completed enriching internships and has a college offer. 

“I would have never been able to find those connections had I not kept [my daughter] at Prep,” Manison said. “And I have friends with children in different schools at PPS and to me, I feel like it's the best as far as opportunities goes because they have so many programs.” 

Fogarty said schools like Perry and UPrep are slowly changing their perceptions as under-resourced schools because teachers and staff are present in the community and not just talking about programs, but delivering. 

Changing the narrative in two under-resourced schools

Perry and UPrep offer the fewest AP courses in the district. Perry enrolls 428 students, with 88% economically disadvantaged. UPrep is the smallest high school in the district, enrolling 315 students, with 87% economically disadvantaged. 

So why are they growing?

At Perry, Forgarty said, partnerships like the University of Pittsburgh’s Justice Scholars Institute [JSI] have attracted families and students to enroll. Through JSI, students can enroll in seven college and university-level preparatory courses in high school aimed at enhancing college readiness and graduation rates. 

Perry, which added about 75 students this year, also has a strong and stable staff that is engaged with the community, he added. 

Molly O’Malley-Argueta, principal at Perry, said the school has focused on creating positive experiences in the classrooms through community partners like the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Science Center. 

The school has also changed its approach toward parent engagement by holding in-person back-to-school and curriculum nights where parents informally meet staff members. The staff does separate outreach for ninth graders by going door-to-door and delivering school supplies. 

Student enrollment at UPrep increased by about 25 students this year. Fogarty said The Pittsburgh Promise coaches are heavily invested in offering academic support at UPrep. The school also has invested in counseling staff to support student academic advancement. 

Eric Graf, principal at UPrep, believes his four-year tenure at the helm has helped him develop strong ties to the community. In the coming years, Graf wants to continue investing in the school’s magnet programs, bring in more STEM and arts programming and set higher academic expectations for students in hopes of further increasing enrollment.

Inequities between schools might be contributing to enrollment dip

Jimena Salas had two children in PPS Montessori K-5. This year, as her daughter, Ada, started sixth grade, she decided to enroll her at the Environmental Charter School [ECS] instead of returning to the district. 

However, ECS was not their first choice. Salas wanted Ada to enroll at PPS arts magnet CAPA, which requires an audition, or STEM magnet Sci-Tech, which involves a lottery. Ada couldn’t get in. Their remaining options were PPS Obama (another magnet), Arsenal 6-8 (their neighborhood school), or ECS. Of the three, Salas believed ECS was a better fit for Ada as she transitioned into middle school. 

CAPA’s and Sci-Tech’s high test scores made Salas want to enroll her daughter in those schools. She said if Obama or Arsenal offered the type of programming and had high student achievement, she would have considered staying in the district. 

Obama and Arsenal were termed low-achieving schools in 2023 by the state Department of Education and did not meet its standards for proficiency levels in standardized tests. CAPA and Sci-Tech, on the other hand, had some of the highest proficiency rates in math, English and science. 

Magnet school enrollment has remained steady over the last five years but the proportion of white students admitted has increased.

In the last two years, Salas said, she knew at least 15 students who moved out of Montessori to go to private schools or ECS. Charter school enrollment has increased by 24% in the last five years. 

“It seems like the students that have the best grades, they all go to a certain school and then the other schools are kind of left at a lower level,” said Jimena. 

Housing and resource gaps are contributing factors

At other high schools, enrollment has dipped despite them offering more programming and community involvement. Westinghouse, Allderdice and Brashear saw enrollment dips of around 70 students this year. 

Westinghouse, one of three schools participating in the JSI program, has seen a high turnover in leadership, with four principals leaving in the last five years, including one at the beginning of this school year.

Dwyer said the number of students in kindergarten and first grade has increased after the dip during COVID-19. Around half of children born in the city end up starting kindergarten in the district. 

“We are a microcosm of what's going on in the city and what's going on in the county. So we're very concerned about it,” Dwyer said.

Fogarty said housing affordability is another major factor that pushes families out of the district. 

“We're not building a lot of new family housing,” he said. “It's just not happening at the pace where a family is looking at, ‘Do I stay here or do I move into Wilkinsburg where there's bigger housing for less money that I can rent or Penn Hills?’”

Dwyer agreed, saying housing is an issue because PPS serves a largely low-income population. 

“If a family doesn't have a stable income, or if someone who's renting a house increases the rent by some astronomical amount, families aren't gonna be able to afford that,” he said.

For families like Salas’, that choose to move out of the district during the transitioning years of sixth or ninth grades, the district needs to change the perception around schools and engage them to retain those students, Fogarty said. 

Fogarty said outside of districtwide marketing and communications, PPS should focus on community presence and experiences within the schools. 

District spokesperson Ebony Pugh said PPS is working to change the negative narratives around certain schools by investing in marketing and telling positive stories. The district has hired a new director charged, in part, with “narrative transformation,” and is working on empowering schools to tell their stories and share strategies for increasing enrollment.

A need for socioeconomic integration

The district is developing a strategic plan to address inequities in different schools and may consider school closures to improve student outcomes and reduce costs. 

PPS is operating at 54% of its building capacity and has an excess of 17,000 classroom seats. Only two schools in PPS, Colfax and Allderdice, are entirely full. Dwyer said this has led to some extremely small schools with less flexibility and higher costs.

“We're going to have to have a conversation about what exactly it is that we need, what the design principles are and design the district around that, based on community input and the board,” he said. 

Fogarty said PPS needs to have bigger and socioeconomically integrated schools instead of smaller, neighborhood schools with high concentrations of Black and economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. He added PPS should consider creating schools that, like magnets, can attract families across neighborhood lines. 

“If we keep the current footprint and current funding structure of the system, we know that this system is fundamentally racist at its core,” said Fogarty. “We know that the system is fundamentally broken and the status quo creates disparate outcomes for kids, predominantly based on their socioeconomic status but also based on race.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Elizabeth Szeto.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism helped to fund this project.

The post While Pittsburgh’s district bleeds students, a few schools grow appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] board tonight passed a general fund budget of $719 million – a $34 million increase from last year that reflects mounting education costs.

Total revenues stand at $687 million in the 2023-24 spending plan. To cover the gap, the district will need to draw $30 million from its fund balance, dropping it below the minimum requirement outlined in school policy. 

Following weeks of hearings and committee meetings, the board said little about the budget tonight before passing it unanimously.

PPS officials have expressed concern over the growing mandatory expenditures such as charter school costs and debt-service payments, that will likely contribute to a growing operating deficit in subsequent years. Since 2020, the district has relied on the federally granted COVID-19 relief funds to cover its deficit, but with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief [ESSER] funds expiring next year, the district may cut programming and close buildings.

During a public hearing two days before the budget’s passage, parents and education advocates told board members they feared possible cuts could impact student outcomes.

Lynda Wrenn, a community member, said if the district does not acknowledge the enrollment decline, it will exacerbate inequalities and the district’s ability to deliver programming equitably. 

“Unfortunately, funding issues at under-enrolled schools often perpetuate disparities,” Wrenn said during the Dec. 18 hearing. 

As students and families seek opportunities outside the district, payments to charter and cyber systems are claiming a growing share of the PPS budget. The district expects to pay $146 million to charter schools in 2024.

Salaries and benefits, at $339.6 million, accounted for the highest expenditures, even as overall staffing in the district has decreased. In elementary and high schools, PPS has reduced 42  full-time-equivalent employees during the 2023-24 school year. 

Student enrollment likewise continues to shrink. PPS enrolled about 270 fewer students in 2023 than last year. The district is currently operating at 54% of its building capacity. Mounting overhead costs have sparked conversations about school closures. 

While funds, staff and students dwindle, advocates emphasize the district’s responsibility to those that remain in the district’s 54 schools.

James Fogarty, executive director of advocacy group A+ Schools, said during the hearing that the district needs to radically rethink its current school assignments, configurations and magnet processes. 

“The key thing that is within your control as a school board is the type of school offerings and opportunities that you provide students through the budget and the policies that you enact,” he said. 

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

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On a recent Saturday morning, the stately Anderson Manor mansion in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood was abuzz with the animated chatter of around 30 kids. 

Beechview Points of Pride
PublicSource maps and chronicles the strengths of diverse communities

On the ground floor, around a dozen students stood around the kitchen as chef Jolando Hinton gave instructions on how to prepare the day’s culinary masterpiece: chicken alfredo. A week before, the students had prepared loaded potatoes and chili. 

“Let me cook!” a student said, grabbing the spatula from Hinton’s hands and taking over the alfredo sauce. Other students were engrossed in their own duties, chopping parsley, or keeping an eye on the chicken. 

Upstairs, other groups occupied three rooms, each a space for a different course: playwriting, visual arts and video production. 

The students were part of the Cross-Culture Program, a joint initiative by Beechview-based Casa San José and Manchester’s Iota Phi Foundation. The program, now in its second year, is an effort to bring together the African American and Latino communities that the organizations each predominantly serve. This year’s cohort comprises groups of 20 Latino and 20 African American students aged 12 to 17 years. 

The programs run for 8 to 12 weeks during the fall. Students immerse themselves in a hands-on learning experience within their chosen course for the initial weeks. 

Most importantly, they get to know each other in ways that might not otherwise occur. 

“Some of our kids immigrated from a different country. Some of them were born here to immigrant parents,” said Lizbeth Garcia, lead youth coordinator at Casa San José. “So part of that is what we want to achieve is for them to understand their own culture and how they are implementing it living here in America.” 

Building bridges between communities

Tyanne Torbert, a 15-year-old who goes to Montour High School, joined the program as a volunteer, and initially didn’t know anyone. Once there, she met Nia Hart, another volunteer who attends Plum Senior High School. Torbert and Hart became best friends and hope to remain in touch long after the program ends. 

“I just think it’s really fun. You make a lot of friends, you learn a lot of new stuff,” Torbert said.  

Rahmon Hart, CEO of the Iota Phi Foundation, conceptualized the program with Monica Ruiz, the executive director of Casa San José, as a way to bridge gaps between the two communities. 

“​​It’s well documented that the City of Pittsburgh isn’t the most diverse city in the country,” said Hart. “​​Our young people don’t necessarily have a lot of natural ways to meet different people and to safely explore otherness or difference.”

Students gather at Anderson Manor every other weekend for their instructional classes. The sessions begin with a round of icebreakers and group activities aimed at exploring the commonalities and differences between the two communities. 

Hinton’s goal is to bring his students together through different foods. He teaches them how cultures unite by having different names for the same types of food. 

“Food is a very sacred ritual,” Hinton said. “You always want to break bread with your friend.” 

In the kitchen, Hinton said, students come feeling hesitant. Once they start preparing their food, students bond over their likes and dislikes and start to relax. 

Jos Johnson, 17, has been involved with the Iota Phi Foundation for about three years. This year, he joined the program as a volunteer. When the program started, he said he noticed, “a clear division between the two cultures.” 

As students began participating in activities, he said, the line that divided them began blurring and the two groups started socializing — and creating. 

Discovering similarities, breaking stereotypes

Emma Ibarra-Romano, a 15-year-old Dormont resident, is in the program’s playwriting class. Over four sessions, her group developed a play in which two celebrities, one African American and one Latino, crossed paths.

While brainstorming ideas for their play, Ibarra-Romano said she learned more about African American culture and how welcoming the people in that community are. She feels the same sentiment is echoed in her own culture. 

“Hispanics, they’re really like welcoming people. We love talking to people,” she said. 

Ibarra-Romano feels that her community is misjudged and labeled as “mean. … I feel like that’s not fair. Especially when the person doesn’t know about their culture or anything,” she said. 

Dayron Cohetero, 13, has often heard the people in his community being stereotyped as “border-hoppers,” and hopes that people could have a better understanding of their culture.

The program has helped Torbert break some stereotypes about her Latino peers. “I’m sure there’s a deep stereotype that they might have about us that was just broken whenever we all just came together and just spent time with each other,” said Torbert. 

Johnson’s favorite part about his culture is the kindness he sees in people. But often, he said, people think that African American people cannot succeed on their own.

Johnson hopes to break that stereotype and believes that learning about other people’s way of life is the way to achieve that. 

“In order to understand other people, you need to understand how they live and what their life is like,” said Johnson. “It helps you feel for them. You feel empathy for them.” 

Going forward

As the last instructional day drew to an end, students gathered around the common room with chicken alfredo piled up on their plates. That day, they were also served tamales. Later, students took turns sharing anecdotes about Thanksgiving traditions at their homes. 

In the second phase of the program, students will visit Chicago and tour the National Museum of Mexican Art and the DuSable Black History Museum. 

Garcia said they hope to expand the program by involving the city’s Nepalese community in the next year. 

Hart hopes that students will leave the program as future community leaders who can champion being comfortable in exploring and learning about different people. 

“We want people to judge and treat people based on the relationships they have with people, not with preconceived notions of them being different,” said Hart.

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia. 

Translation by Zulma Michaca, a bilingual professional living in Riverside County, Calif., with family ties in Pittsburgh. She can be reached at z.michaca123@gmail.com.

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En una mañana reciente de un sábado, la majestuosa mansión Anderson Manor en el vecindario Manchester de Pittsburgh estaba enardecida con el animado charloteo de alrededor de 30 niños.

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En el piso bajo, alrededor de una docena de estudiantes estaban en la cocina mientras el chef Jolando Hinton daba instrucciones de cómo preparar la obra maestra culinaria del día: pollo alfredo. Una semana antes, los estudiantes habían preparado papas rellenas y chili.

“Déjeme cocinar!” dijo un estudiante, al tomar una espátula de las manos de Hinton y hacerse cargo de la salsa alfredo. Otros estudiantes estaban ocupados con sus propios deberes, picando perejil, o echándole un vistazo al pollo.

En el piso de arriba, otros grupos ocupaban tres cuartos, cada uno un espacio para diferentes talleres: dramaturgia, artes visuales y producción de vídeos. 

Los estudiantes forman parte del Programa Intercultural (Cross-Culture Program), un colectivo formado por Casa San José basada en Beechview y la Fundación Iota Phi (Iota Phi Foundation) de Manchester. El programa, que ahora está en su segundo año, es un esfuerzo para unir a las comunidades Afroamericanas y Latinas las cuales cada organización principalmente ayuda. Los compañeros de este año se forman de un grupo de 20 estudiantes Latinos y 20 estudiantes Afroamericanos entre las edades de 12 a 17 años.

El programa en curso corre por 8 a 12 semanas durante el otoño. Los estudiantes se sumergen en una experiencia de aprendizaje práctico en el taller de su elección por las primeras semanas.

Sobre todo, se llegan a conocer en maneras que tal vez no ocurriría de otra forma.

“Algunos de nuestros niños emigraron de un país diferente. Algunos son nacidos aquí de padres inmigrantes,” dijo Lizbeth Garcia, la coordinadora principal de jóvenes en Casa San José. “Así que parte de eso es lo que queremos lograr es que ellos entiendan su cultura y cómo la implementan viviendo en América.”

Creando puentes entre comunidades

Tyanne Torbert, de 15 años quien atiende a Montour High School, se unió al programa como voluntaria, e inicialmente no conocía a nadie. Una vez ahí, conoció a Nia Hart, otra voluntaria que atiende a Plum Senior High School. Torbert y Hart se hicieron mejores amigas y esperan mantenerse en comunicación mucho después de que termine el programa. 

“Pienso que es muy divertido. Formas varias amistades, y aprendes muchas cosas,” dijo Torbert.

Rahmon Hart, presidente ejecutivo de la Fundación Iota Phi (Iota Phi Foundation,) conceptualizó el programa con Monica Ruiz, la directora ejecutiva de Casa San José, como una manera de construir puentes entre las dos comunidades.

“Está bien documentado que la ciudad de Pittsburgh no es la más diversa en el país,” dijo Hart. “Nuestra juventud no necesariamente tiene muchas maneras naturales de conocer gente diferente y explorar ajenidad o diferencias de manera segura.”

Los estudiantes se reúnen en Anderson Manor cada otro fin de semana para sus clases instruccionales. Las sesiones empiezan con una ronda de charlas para romper el hielo y actividades en grupo que pretenden explorar las diferencias y cosas que tienen en común las dos comunidades.

La meta de Hinton es unificar a sus estudiantes a través de comidas diferentes. Les enseña cómo las culturas se conectan al tener diferentes nombres para los mismos tipos de comida.

“La comida es un ritual sagrado,” comenta Hinton. “Siempre quieres compartir el pan con tu amigo.”

Dentro de la cocina, cuenta Hinton, los estudiantes llegan sintiéndose inseguros. Una vez que empiezan a preparar su comida, los estudiantes crean vínculos sobre sus gustos y desagrados y empiezan a relajarse.

Jos Johnson, de 17 años, ha estado involucrado con la Fundación Iota Phi (Iota Phi Foundation) desde hace casi tres años. Este año se unió al programa como voluntario. Cuando el programa comenzó, dijo que notó “una clara división entre las dos culturas.”

Al comenzar a participar en actividades, dice él, la línea que los dividía empezó a borrarse y los dos grupos empezaron a socializar—y a crear.

Descubriendo similaridades, rompiendo estereotipos

Emma Ibarra-Romano, una residente de Dormont de 15 años, está en la clase de dramaturgia del programa. Durante cuatro sesiones, su grupo desarrolló una obra de teatro en la cual dos celebridades, una Afroamericana y otra Latina, se cruzan trayectos.

Durante la tormenta de ideas para la obra, Ibarra-Romano dice haber aprendido más acerca de la cultura Afroamericana y de cuán acogedora es la gente de esa comunidad. Ella piensa que el mismo sentimiento se repite en su propia cultura.

“Los hispanos realmente son personas muy acogedoras. Nos encanta hablar con la gente,” ella dijo.

Ibarra-Romano siente que su comunidad es mal juzgada y etiquetada como “malvada. … siento que eso no es justo. En especial cuando la persona no conoce sobre su cultura ni nada,” ella dijo.

Dayron Cohetero, de 13 años, muchas veces ha escuchado a varia gente referirse a su comunidad con el estereotipo de “brinca bardas,” y desea que la gente pudiera tener un mejor entendimiento de su cultura. 

El programa ha ayudado a Torbert a romper algunos estereotipos sobre sus compañeros Latinos. “Estoy segura de que hay un estereotipo profundo que ellos pueden tener sobre nosotros que fue roto cuando nos juntamos y pasamos tiempo juntos,” dijo Torbert.

La parte favorita de Johnson acerca de su cultura es la bondad que él ve en la gente. Pero muy a menudo, él dice, la gente piensa que las personas Afroamericanas no pueden triunfar por sí mismas.

Johnson espera romper ese estereotipo y cree que aprender sobre el estilo de vida de otra gente es la manera de lograr eso.

“Para entender a otra gente, necesitas entender cómo viven y cómo es su vida,” dijo Johnson. “Te ayuda a compadecerte por ellos. Sientes empatía hacia ellos.”

Moviéndose hacia adelante

Al acercarse el último día de clases, los estudiantes se reunieron en el área común con pollo alfredo copeteado en sus platos. Ese día, también les sirvieron tamales. Después, los estudiantes se tomaron turnos compartiendo anécdotas acerca de las tradiciones del Día de Acción de Gracias que se celebran en sus casas.

En la segunda fase del programa, los estudiantes visitarán Chicago y tomarán un recorrido del Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicana (National Museum of Mexican Art) y el Museo DuSable de Historia Negra. (DuSable Black History Museum)

Garcia dice que esperan expandir el programa al involucrar a la comunidad Nepalesa de la ciudad el año que viene.

Hart desea que los estudiantes salgan del programa como futuros líderes de la comunidad que pueden estar cómodos explorando y aprendiendo sobre diferentes personas.

“Queremos que la gente juzgue y trate a la gente basado en las relaciones que tienen con los demás y no con nociones preconcebidas de que son diferentes,” dijo Hart.

Lajja Mistry es la reportera de educación K-12 en FuentePública (PublicSource). Puede ser contactada en lajja@publicsource.org. 

Los hechos de esta historia fueron revisados por Ladimir Garcia. 

Traducción de Zulma Michaca, profesional bilingüe experta viviendo en el Condado de Riverside, Calif., con familia en Pittsburgh. Para contactarla: z.michaca123@gmail.com.

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Pittsburgh Public Schools may need to close schools to improve student outcomes and save costs, a developing strategic plan suggests.

Martha Greenway, an education strategy consultant who is steering the plan, last night told PPS board members under-enrolled schools are driving inequities and tying up resources that could otherwise boost education and other programming.

“None of the how [of school closings] has been predetermined, but the current configuration of schools is not allowing you to offer the programs and services in an equitable fashion,” said Greenway. “And that’s the problem to be solved.”

Greenway stressed the district would not approve any closures without public input, and the plan, as it stands, does not propose any specific recommendations.

Greenway said student input gathered during the process shows many are aware of the uneven experiences offered at the district’s schools. 

“They see the inequitable access to academic and non-academic programs, and the unequal financial investment in magnet schools, as things that get in the way of their success,” Greenway said.

The strategic plan, commissioned in April at a cost of $110,000, will continue to evolve in the coming months. The plan is intended to solve a range of longstanding issues at PPS, where Greenway noted test scores skew low, racial disparities are rampant, and many students report feeling unsafe in and around their school communities.

The next stage involves soliciting broader public input before locking in details on implementation – such as which, if any, schools should shutter – resulting in a plan that’s ready to mobilize in 2024.

The plan has so far sought input from a range of stakeholders – including student and parent focus groups – but Greenway said it won’t move forward without broader community buy-in.

“We will need to hear the voices of the entire community on our draft framework to get it right,” she said.

Consolidating schools is just one part of the strategy that also seeks to improve instruction and programming, cultivate a more inclusive culture, and strengthen ties between the district and the community.

Over the years, PPS has gone through four rounds of school closures, going from 93 to the 54 schools it has today. With that, the district has also consistently lost students. 

In the last five years, PPS enrollment has dropped by more than 3,000 students. By 2031, the state Department of Education predicts, the district will lose another 5,000 students. 

The last round of school closures happened in 2011 when the district closed seven school buildings and opened Langley as a K-8 school. 

In October, the district leadership and board resumed talks about another round of school closures, citing increasing instruction costs, overhead costs for aging building facilities, surplus capacity in their buildings and declining enrollment. 

During a public hearing on the 2024 budget earlier this week, parents expressed concerns school closures might arise as the district grapples with withering revenue streams. Defenders of one school with fewer than 200 students gave the board a sense of the reaction they may get to school closing proposals.

Annette Hall, a parent with two children at PPS Woolslair K-5, said her kids love their school and are “petrified” that it might get shut down.  

“Woolslair, in my opinion, is doing a great job at including everybody and getting a quality education,” said Sarah Zangle, a parent and vice-president of the Woolslair PTO. 

The district’s pending budget proposal projects an operating deficit of $29 million during 2023-2024. The district, which currently enrolls 18,380 students, is operating at 54% of its building utilization capacity and has an excess seating capacity of nearly 17,000 students.

As the district continues to lose students, pandemic relief funds expire and mandatory expenditures such as charter school and debt service payments rise, its financial difficulties will increase. 

In February 2021, the district proposed closing six school buildings — Morrow,  Fulton, Woolslair, Montessori, Miller and Manchester over two years, as reported by WESA. Nearly three years on, these schools remain open.

Linda Lane, the district superintendent when PPS closed schools in 2011, thinks it might be the right time to consider more closures. 

“When there’s been a significant enrollment decline, you have to look at it,” she said. “And when a building gets below a certain level of enrollment based on its size, it’s eating up resources that could be used for teachers and teaching and materials for kids that you prefer to spend it on.”

School closures might happen nationwide. More than a million students did not return to public schools after the pandemic, according to the Hechinger Report. However, closing school buildings has disproportionately affected Black and Brown students in the past and if PPS decides to close schools it might further exacerbate the inequities in the district. 

Research from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University showed that school closures are generally targeted at low-achieving schools with a majority of Black and Hispanic students and less than half of those students displaced landed in better schools. 

Lane said community engagement and input will be crucial if PPS is planning to close schools. She added PPS should assess the impact of closures based on racial equity for students and staff and on schools located in low-income areas of the city. 

Greenway said decisions will ultimately rest with the community.

“We are not coming to this with an agenda to close any schools,” she said. “…Those are things that we need to hear from the community regarding.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

Jamie Wiggan is the deputy editor at PublicSource. He can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism helped to fund this project.

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As Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] expenditures rise and revenue streams dwindle, community members are left frustrated over the lack of public input and transparency in the budgeting process. 

Noel Webb of advocacy group 412 Justice said during a Dec. 4 public hearing that the district needs to adopt a transparent budgeting process that can guide it toward better, more equitable and innovative solutions. 

“PPS budget should be a people’s budget and the budget isn’t accounting of how you’re going to spend our tax dollars equitably,” she said. “PPS district’s current budget process effectively freezes out the community.”

The PPS board last week introduced a preliminary general fund budget for 2024 of $714 million, a 4.2% increase from the $685 million budget adopted last year. 

The budget shows a projected operating deficit of $29.6 million and to fund this without a tax increase the district will drop its fund balance below the 5% minimum prescribed by policy.  Based on projections, the district’s unassigned fund balance stands at 3.2%. The district will need $21 million to comply with the fund balance policy.

During Monday’s town hall, participants expressed concerns about a perceived rushed budget process, lack of detail in the preliminary budget and potential school closures as PPS prepares for a difficult financial season. 

Emily Sawyer, a parent with five kids in the district, said the budget lacks important information and precludes true public input. She added PPS should have a participatory budgeting process where budget workshops are held at the beginning of the year. 

Per PPS’ current budget timeline, the board has less than six weeks to vote on the budget once it is released. 

Board member Gene Walker acknowledged some of the concerns, telling PublicSource that the budget process needs significant changes including budget workshops to take place periodically. 

“As a board member, it’s frustrating and hard to really figure out what’s happening and provide input with six to eight weeks to figure it out,” he said. 

Incoming board member Dwayne Barker told PublicSource that the district needs to work on building trust in the community and become as transparent as possible. 

“We don’t want the public to feel like we are trying to keep things from [them] because ultimately, they should know what we’re working on,” he said. 

Sandra Woolley, a member of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, said the budget lacks a visionary plan to address the issues of a growing deficit. She said the district should implement more community school models and work with the city to create safe spaces and offer more programs. 

PPS projects growing deficit as pandemic funding set to expire

Chief Financial Officer Ron Joseph said during a Nov. 28 workshop the district’s financial difficulties have been a long time coming, noting the district has no control over mandatory costs like charter school costs or debt service payments. 

“We weren’t in a good position in previous years, and we’re not in a good position this year,” said Joseph.

PPS has received $100.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief [ESSER] funds since 2020. The district was expected to use 20% of the funds to address learning loss suffered from pandemic-related disruptions. As of November, the district has used 50% of the funds.

PPS has also used ESSER funds for one-time investments such as construction, improvements to facilities and stabilizing school staff. The district anticipates losing some programs when the funds expire in September and is currently evaluating the effectiveness of those programs. 

“The budget does not adhere to the 5% board [fund balance policy], which means that going forward, looking at 2026, that we can’t rely on our fund balance to balance the budget,” Joseph said. “So we will have to seriously work toward having a close-to, if not balanced, budget in the years leading up to that including 2025 and 2026.”

With the federally granted pandemic relief ESSER funds ending next September and continued declining student enrollment, the budget reinforces the financial difficulties that PPS will face in the coming years.

PPS is currently operating at 54% of its building capacity. The district has enrolled 18,380 students for the school year 2023-23, about 270 fewer than the previous year. PPS is projected to lose over 6,000 students by 2031. 

For some, this has sparked concerns about potential school closures in coming years that they feel could disproportionately impact Black and Brown students. 

Valerie Webb-Allman, a district parent, said closing schools will compound the trauma for families who will have to relocate their children and for students with disabilities.

“We can't expect people to have faith in the public education system when the public education system keeps failing the communities,” she said during the town hall. “So closing schools does not work.”

District’s future could rest on the courts

The 2024 budget revenues stand at $684 million, with $391 million or 57% of the district’s revenues coming from local taxes. 

District solicitor Ira Weiss said the district can expect to see reduced earnings from the real estate tax unless there is a countywide reassessment. 

Revenue from earned income tax is expected to increase by $7.5 million. The district has budgeted about $167 million in earned income tax of which $23.8 million is diverted back to the city under state law. 

From state sources, PPS will receive about $178 million in basic education funding. The current funding is distributed partially through a weighted student enrollment formula. PPS comes under the state’s hold harmless provision, which guarantees the district at least as much basic education funding as it received before 2014-15, with slight increases to adjust for inflation, thus protecting the district from the fiscal effects of declining student enrollment. 

In February, the state’s funding formula was deemed unconstitutional by the Commonwealth Court. The Basic Education Funding Commission is expected to complete its report on school funding in January. If changes are made to the funding formula and PPS loses its hold harmless provision, it could stand to lose $83 million in funding, said Joseph. 

'A challenging budget year ahead of us'

A majority of the budget — $339 million — is allocated to salaries and benefits. Salary expenses have increased by nearly $10 million from last year. Transportation and special education costs have also slightly increased this year.

About $145 million goes toward charter school payments, a 19.7% increase from the previous year. During the last budget year, PPS paid subsidies of $19,400 for each charter student enrolled in general education and $46,515 for those in special education programs.

Joseph said the charter school costs have gone up because of increases in tuition rates and student enrollment in those schools. 

“We have a challenging budget year ahead of us,” said Walker. 

Joseph said the district needs to have a collaborative budgeting process in the upcoming years, look at major cost areas and have discussions about designing a district that looks at its footprint. 

“We can't be blind to the fact that we have had declining enrollment and we have the same basically footprint of buildings that we've had,” he said. “Not saying that school closure is the end all, be all, but we have to look at ways that we can make sure that we're adjusting our operations to the size of the population.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Jamie Wiggan.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism helped to fund this project.

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Dejsha Demus is a 12th grader at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts [CAPA 6-12], a Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] magnet, studying musical theater. As a student, she loves her school and believes that she receives leadership opportunities and support that she wouldn’t get elsewhere in the district. 

Uneven Scales
As PPS contends with a difficult budget season, PublicSource explores the balance of resources and its effects on students’ futures.

Demus is one of the many students who chose to attend a magnet school, in her case to pursue her passion for singing. Had she not decided to enroll at CAPA, Demus would have been assigned to Perry High School on the Northside, her neighborhood school. 

Demus was concerned about safety issues at Perry and felt the school did not have enough resources or opportunities for her. 

“I think that if they did have those kinds of opportunities, then it would be more appealing to go to my home school,” she said. 

Demus’ decision has been good for her. But the flow of high-performing students to magnets is driving some of the inequities in the district by concentrating students with economic disadvantages and special needs in neighborhood schools, education advocates believe. The process by which the district rescinds magnet admissions, meanwhile, tends to send many more Black students back to neighborhood schools, worsening racial tilts.

How students get into — and can be booted out of — PPS magnets

Students in PPS are assigned to neighborhood schools based on where they live, but those who seek more ambitious programming can apply to magnet schools or magnet programs within schools. 

Magnets, which allow students to pursue special interests or career goals, are not specific to any neighborhood and students who reside anywhere in the district can apply. All magnets, except CAPA, enroll students based on a lottery system. Additional weight is given to students who fulfill criteria based on where they live, family income, attendance and suspensions. 

Currently, there are 13 magnet schools and seven neighborhood schools with magnet programs in PPS. 

To enroll at CAPA, students must undergo an audition process or provide a portfolio. Other high school magnet admissions require students to have at least 90% attendance in the prior year, a 2.5 GPA and score at least basic on their most recent Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams. 

Admission to the district’s magnet program does not guarantee a permanent spot. Students’ magnet admissions can be rescinded if they fail to meet one or more of these criteria:

• Failure to maintain 90% or higher attendance 
• Failure to maintain a 2.0 GPA
• Receiving more than one suspension of four days or longer, or being suspended for a cumulative total of more than six days.

Once a student is determined to be at risk of removal from a magnet program, they are notified and issued a contract with a plan for improvement for the next semester. If the student does not meet the contract goals, their magnet admission is rescinded and they are reassigned to their neighborhood school. A student whose magnet admission has been rescinded cannot reapply to the same magnet school or program. 

Data requested by PublicSource show that PPS rescinded 213 magnet admissions between 2018 and 2023. No admissions were rescinded during the school year 2019-20 because of the pandemic. 

Efforts to change policy have seen little results

Harbin, co-chair of the board’s Policy Committee, said the committee has been trying to change the magnet admission and rescission policy to make it more equitable and inclusive, but the administration has been “actively blocking any efforts to have a meaningful discussion for the last three years.” 

“There are students that are being denied entry into and being kicked out of magnets just based on our current criteria of our magnet policy,” said Harbin.

Jamie Piotrowski, board member and chair of the Policy Committee, said such policies are difficult to change because they come under administrative regulation, which the board does not vote on.  

In September, PPS released its first equity audit that suggested that using attendance as a key weight for magnet admission could entrench cycles of poverty and create a system of inequity. 

The committee has been having conversations about the necessity of rescissions and ways to expand and retain students in magnet programs. 

Christine Cray, director of student services reforms at PPS, said the district’s magnet office has had multiple conversations about changes to the administrative regulations and the policy, through a lens of equity, and made data-based recommendations to the administration. 

How is it discriminatory?

Harbin said the district policy effectively excludes students with limited English proficiency, students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness and students with physical and intellectual disabilities from entering magnet programs.

Among all high schools in PPS, CAPA students are least likely to be Black, come from economically disadvantaged households or have Individualized Education Plans [IEPs]. Of the 845 students enrolled at CAPA, less than 10% have IEPs. By contrast, in schools like UPrep Milliones and Westinghouse Academy, 30% of students have IEPs.

“Magnets are, in effect, existing to provide schools and programs for the most privileged, most advantaged and least disabled,” said Harbin. 

The district’s arts magnet CAPA 6-12 and the STEAM magnet Sci-Tech 6-12 have been criticized for excluding students who do not have access to resources at the elementary level. 

Piotrowski said many elementary schools have lost music and art programs because of a lack of funding. Some students cannot afford private art and music lessons outside of school to make up for that and thus are unable to audition for the arts magnet. 

“It's almost like a two-fold kind of problem — my neighborhood doesn't have the resource or I simply don't have the money and my school also doesn't have that resource,” said Piotrowski.

The rescission process, too, includes “a combination of unlawful practice and practice that is discriminatory,” Harbin said.

She said the policy rescinds student admissions if they have been suspended for more than six days, effectively discriminating against students with disabilities.

Cray said schools identify at-risk students early in the year to ensure parents are not blindsided and that they receive appropriate notifications and meaningful support. 

Students in the district with disabilities who have been suspended for more than eight days get a process called a manifestation hearing to determine whether their behavior is actually a result of their disability or the result of their IEP not being followed. However, according to the magnet school policy, students can be removed if they have been suspended only for six days. This gap means some students have their magnet admissions rescinded without meeting the threshold for a hearing that could vindicate them.

Cray said the administration consults with the English language learners and special education departments to ensure that students get the support they need before being removed. 

She said even when students are identified for removal, most ultimately improve their performance and their general engagement to remain in the magnet program. 

The district has adopted strategies such as attendance programs, family meetings and tutoring programs, along with asking schools to provide additional data to minimize the number of student removals from magnets.

Lower expectations, fewer resources

Means thinks that the district’s magnet policy makes neighborhood schools subservient. He added the system builds a narrative that certain magnet schools have higher expectations, leading the most financially secure parents to enroll their kids there.

“I just think it creates a caste system within our district,” said Means.

When Carrick High School senior Paris Seidner walked into CAPA’s Downtown building for an event in November, she was shocked. “It looks very beautiful. It looks clean, well maintained and there’s care being done,” she said. Compared to that, she said, Carrick’s building appeared neglected.

“There's a lot of things broken …  and a lot of things that need to be fixed. It's a pretty basic kind of depressing-looking high school,” said Seidner. 

Seidner added her school had a reputation for violence and its students don’t focus because they think their school doesn’t offer them opportunities. Students in other neighborhood schools have voiced similar sentiments about a lack of high-quality infrastructure. 

Ironically, the magnet schools that now seem to contribute to inequity were created to desegregate schools by attracting white and affluent students to Black and low-income neighborhoods with offers of special programming. 

CAPA’s first building was in Homewood, a predominantly low-income and Black neighborhood. In 2003, the school moved Downtown as an arts-centric magnet. Today, only 27% of CAPA’s student population is Black, while 51% of the district’s overall student population is Black. 

Rachel Lamb, a research assistant at the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C., emphasized the need to make changes in both housing and education to make magnet schools more effective. She added the district should eliminate transportation barriers and invest in schools predominantly serving students of color.  

Gregory Kelly, a senior at CAPA, believes that his school gets more resources than any other school in the district. 

“I just think not having the access to resources that magnet schools have can have a detrimental effect on the rest of your life,” he said. 

Seidner thinks the district should support her school in a way that students can be as successful as their peers in magnet programs. 

“We also are going to be growing [into] adults, working,” said Seidner. “Just because we're not in a magnet does not mean that we will not be doing something very important in the community someday.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org. 

This story was fact-checked by Elizabeth Szeto.

The post How magnet schools attract some, repel others, and contribute to Pittsburgh’s polarized education system appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.