Thursday, February 2, 2012

Oliver and Perry merger "worries everyone but the district"

On another post (actually a post relevant to the topic) Anonymous wrote:

"NEW TOPIC-
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/pittsburgh/on-north-side-a-proposed-high-school-merger-worries-everyone-except-the-school-district/Content?oid=1487474

On North Side, a proposed high school merger worries everyone except the school district

" while Lane admits "I am not pleased or proud of the Westinghouse transition," she adds "there is also a record of being able to do [school transitions] well."
Yes, but that record wasnt YOURS! It was during a time when the meetings of faculties of the two schools met and discussed STUDENTS and FAMILIES and how to best bring people together- none of this happened during "right-sizing" (one transitional night wasnt exactly enough! and we all know it didnt happen for Westinghouse. This district spent time getting people together for these transitions. But, oh , yes, you dont want to hear about what worked."

6 comments:

Questioner said...

Still wondering- what happens if the President's proposal for mandatory school until age 18 is passed- are schools separated out again? It is something the projections did not account for, and Perry will already be filled to the gills (640 + 350 in a bulding designed to house 990?).

Questioner said...

When Randall Taylor suggested moving Schenley to the Peabody building MR saod ot was impossible, the Schenley students (1148 on 12/1/07) would not fit into the building (which has a capacity now listed as 1100).

Of course if they had just moved robotics directly to Allderdice (instead of making the $3M detour to Peabody) there would have been plenty of space.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like a minor issue, but as a parent who has been a visitor to all the high schools, what is the plan for parking with mergers? Is there even enough staff parking at some of these locations? I should not even mention this here, somebody could look at the concern as another reason to make cuts to staff. Snarky comment, I know.

Anonymous said...

Apparently the reason for no movement on mergin is thatcwithvthe furloughs etc coming, no one knows who will be teaching or administrating in these buildings. It is hard to build confidence in students when no one has any idea of what is happening. Also this article states thatcthe students will return to Oliver for culinary arts and another program. I accept good use of facilities, but since they arent closing the building, this isnt the big savings they werectalking about. It sounds like the combining is yet another way to manipulate data for the state.

Questioner said...

Will the shuffling will allow PPS to close another building, ie the building that students moving into Oliver are now using?

Randall Taylor said...

It was funny to hear Dr. Lane say the District has managed mergers well. I disagree Milliones has been a quiet tragedy that is worse than Westinghouse because it started small and still brought horrible academic outcomes. Does anyone rememebr the Crescent situation. Of course, high school is more difficult that is why I believe that there should be a 18-24 month planning period between vote and merger. Particularly so that promises made like the partnership with PITT School of ED. and better quality of teachers at Westinghouse can be kept and not broken.