School consolidations could return to the table in the near future if Pittsburgh Public Schools board members vote next week to bring the topic back up for discussion.
The school board is slated to entertain a motion to reconsider the November resolution that would have authorized the district to close nine school buildings and reconfigure more than a dozen others.
Approving the motion would allow the board to discuss the plan at future public meetings, but would not authorize any immediate school closures.
Pittsburgh Public Schools board members voted down the district’s Future-Ready Plan on Tuesday night. The plan would have set in motion the permanent closure of nine school buildings at the end of this school year.
Last year, district leaders proposed closing nine school buildings over two years: Manchester K-8, Schiller 6-8, Friendship PreK-5 (Montessori), Fulton PreK-5, Miller African-Centered Academy, Woolslair PreK-5, the Student Achievement Center, Spring Hill K-5, and part of Morrow K-8.
The plan would have also authorized $29 million in renovations necessary to reopen Northview Heights K-5, phased out nearly all elementary-level magnet programs, and expanded arts and foreign language offerings at remaining schools.
While school board president Gene Walker said he doesn’t expect the district’s proposal to change, he does hope to see administrators hire a deputy superintendent to oversee implementation.
“I think there’s going to be some project management work that needs to happen,” Walker said. “And hopefully, if approved, we will have six to seven more months than we would’ve [had] the last time to give us that room to make sure things are done well.”
In November, education watchdogs with the nonprofits Black Women for a Better Education and A+ Schools co-authored a letter urging the district to hire a deputy superintendent, recruit high-quality teachers to work at reconfigured schools, and provide evidence of how this plan would address the requirements laid out in the district’s ongoing agreement with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Other stakeholders, including PPS parents and students, asked the district to pause to rebuild community trust and gather more evidence that changes would improve students’ experience districtwide.
Walker said that if the motion to reconsider the plan is approved, board members could vote on it before the end of this school year. Closures, he added, are unlikely to occur until fall 2027.
“I just hope our families will be patient with us because, ultimately, we’re trying to do the right thing by the school district and by the families that we serve — to put ourselves in a position to be able to offer the type of education that they tell us they want for their kids,” Walker said.