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Re: a charter school in Homewood- so funds are coming from somewhere to prepare and maintain facilities for a new school of up to 1008 students, while Westinghouse, a beautiful and recently renovated building, sits underutilized and would become even less utilized. What a waste of educational resources.
Also, there is a request to use the sci tech curriculum but almost half of the students who started ninth grade at sci tech did not finish the four year program (again resulting in many empty seats).
Oh and nothing is being said about single gender for the proposed charter in Homewood, even though Derrick Lopez was the biggest proponent for single gender at Westinghouse.
If this charter drains from Westinghouse, can you imagine the fight over a near empty building? It will be bigger and badder than Schenley! What are the numbers as opposed to capacity now? Didn't the taxpayers recently spend 20 million on renovations?
Four years ago when PPS citing enrollment decline as a reason to close schools Pure Reform pointed out that the city's population decline had leveled off and the enrollment decline was due mainly to charter enrollment; it was pointed out that if the district truly believed projections it should develop a logical plan to coordinate charter and traditional schools. The students would not be disappearing- they would need school buildings. There is no indication that any real coordination or planning has taken place, leading to the collision course we seem to be on in Homewood.
To 8:51, I'm not sure that state laws allow for coordination between public and charters. And frankly, I'm guessing the charters are not interested in that path. Do you see the future for Westinghouse?
What state law would prevent public schools from planning with charters to prevent all the schools from being clustered in one area, while other areas have nothing? Even if there was a state law prohibiting planning together, the district could refrain from selling school buildings that may reasonably needed by all the students the district is projecting (in the 500k facilities study) will be entering charters. There needs to be a future for Westinghouse, because the proposed charter is unlikely to work for all students; unless they can be sent to Allderdice, Obama or U Prep (and U Prep has not wanted a lot of students from other neighborhoods). Plus Westinghouse was recently renovated.
When we had major school closings/ sales in the past we left one school in each direction in case it was needed. Two that come to mind are Roosevelt and Regent Sq. ( now environmental) It was a workable plan thought out for the future.
9 comments:
Re: a charter school in Homewood- so funds are coming from somewhere to prepare and maintain facilities for a new school of up to 1008 students, while Westinghouse, a beautiful and recently renovated building, sits underutilized and would become even less utilized. What a waste of educational resources.
Also, there is a request to use the sci tech curriculum but almost half of the students who started ninth grade at sci tech did not finish the four year program (again resulting in many empty seats).
Oh and nothing is being said about single gender for the proposed charter in Homewood, even though Derrick Lopez was the biggest proponent for single gender at Westinghouse.
Maybe they should just make Westinghouse the charter school and take it off of PPS's plate. The students may benefit.
If this charter drains from Westinghouse, can you imagine the fight over a near empty building? It will be bigger and badder than Schenley! What are the numbers as opposed to capacity now? Didn't the taxpayers recently spend 20 million on renovations?
Four years ago when PPS citing enrollment decline as a reason to close schools Pure Reform pointed out that the city's population decline had leveled off and the enrollment decline was due mainly to charter enrollment; it was pointed out that if the district truly believed projections it should develop a logical plan to coordinate charter and traditional schools. The students would not be disappearing- they would need school buildings. There is no indication that any real coordination or planning has taken place, leading to the collision course we seem to be on in Homewood.
The Pittsburgh Public Schools leaders deserve everything they get; they are inept,brow-beating, yet at the same time, weak.
To 8:51, I'm not sure that state laws allow for coordination between public and charters. And frankly, I'm guessing the charters are not interested in that path. Do you see the future for Westinghouse?
What state law would prevent public schools from planning with charters to prevent all the schools from being clustered in one area, while other areas have nothing? Even if there was a state law prohibiting planning together, the district could refrain from selling school buildings that may reasonably needed by all the students the district is projecting (in the 500k facilities study) will be entering charters. There needs to be a future for Westinghouse, because the proposed charter is unlikely to work for all students; unless they can be sent to Allderdice, Obama or U Prep (and U Prep has not wanted a lot of students from other neighborhoods). Plus Westinghouse was recently renovated.
When we had major school closings/ sales in the past we left one school in each direction in case it was needed. Two that come to mind are Roosevelt and Regent Sq. ( now environmental) It was a workable plan thought out for the future.
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