Details of PSO's upcoming Wilkinsburg Community Concert (Apr
23, 2014)
18 articles in a two month time period about one of the smallest districts in Allegheny County. Obviously, the Post-Gazette feels this is an important topic, or that readers are interested in what happens in Wilkinsburg, or "train wrecks" sell newspapers. We are served a steady diet of bad press, gross incompetence and doom about our schools.
Let's look at some background to these stories and what is currently going on in the school district. There is a local advocacy group in our town called Neighbors Unite Wilkinsburg.
Neighbors Unite Wilkinsburg (NUW) is a non-partisan, grassroots effort whose mission is to encourage Wilkinsburg residents’ participation in local government.NUW endorses candidates for office, either on Borough Council or the School Board, who are progressive, reform minded and want to improve Wilkinsburg in some substantial way. To their credit, NUW has helped to obtain a majority on the Borough Council that have made substantial improvements in our community regarding trash removal, fire protection and creating a community development corporation. Last November they were successful at supporting progressive candidates for school board. Four new school board members endorsed by NUW were elected and one of these new board members became the president of the board.
We are already beginning to see the results of this new board. They have done a large amount of research into the district's financial condition, its operations and its academic needs. As the articles state, they fired the current superintendent (after only one year in the district,) dismissed a consulting firm that was doing very little for a lot of money, engaged financial and program audits, worked on HR issues, agreed with the union to a new contract and put in place an academic plan that includes more higher level classes and a consolidation of the middle and high schools. One of their best moves was to hire a talented acting superintendent from the local Intermediate Unit to clean house. She was making great headway, but after just a few months she took an assistant superintendent job in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. So the good news is that they are trying to clean up this huge mess; the bad news is they don't currently have a superintendent and are only beginning to understand the depth of incompetence and dysfunction in the district.
As this is going on, the Post-Gazette is publishing articles (almost daily) about corruption in the borough. Here's another headline from this week's paper:
Wilkinsburg schools report more costly bookkeeping lapses, June 10, 2014 9:59 PM, by Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It never ends. Ok... I get it. We are a crummy little town that is used by the media to demonstrate how poor people and people of color can't get their act together. We are the poster child for everything that is wrong with the inner city, with minorities and with local government. After the 18 articles were published, this editorial was printed last Sunday in the Post-Gazette.
Lesson learned?: Positive steps in Wilkinsburg may improve schools
Teachers in the Wilkinsburg School District have swallowed a bitter pill in the form of a new contract that could be a prescription for improvement. The Wilkinsburg Education Association ratified the agreement with the district despite the fact that it means up to 18 teachers could lose their jobs. The contract permits merging the staffs of the district’s middle and high schools, which will allow more flexibility so the same teachers can provide instruction to students on both levels. In turn, that will make room for honors courses in four subjects and, in the future, some advanced placement courses. Failure to provide enough challenging material for Wilkinsburg’s best students has been just one of the many problems that plague the financially strapped district. This step in the right direction is a good one, and the union and board members are to be commended for making a difficult choice.
In recent years, the leadership of the Wilkinsburg district has too often failed to make decisions that put students first. Despite test scores that are the worst in Allegheny County and among the worst in Pennsylvania, the district’s failed oversight meant unconscionably high rates of absenteeism while money was being wasted on an extravagant staff retreat and ineffective outside contractors. A new school board majority that took over late last year has cancelled those contracts and fired the superintendent, all for the good. So, too, was finally reaching a new contract with its teachers, whose last pact expired in August 2011. The new deal and the revamped curriculum that it provides is a worthy effort, but Wilkinsburg has a long way to go before all of its problems can be healed.This editorial has pushed me over the edge.
I've lived in this borough for 34 years and now the P-G is throwing us a bone by saying that the Board produced a "worthy effort". Then, just in case we might get big-headed over this great accomplishment they alert us to the fact that "Wilkinsburg has a long way to go before all of its problems can be healed."
What a miserable, cynical and worthless bromide this editorial is. Decades of earmarking Wilkinsburg for Section 8 housing, decades of real estate redlining, decades of white slum landlords who cashed in on their parents homes and turned us into a transient, poor community with the worst school district in the state. Decades of no supermarket, no fresh food, no hardware store, no movie theater. The highest taxes (by millage) in the state and the worst school district. Try and find that story in the P-G archives.
Wilkinsburg has been the whipping boy of Allegheny County since the late 1960's when white flight occurred. Rather than address the issues brought on by white (middle class) flight, our town was used to confirm stereotypes about "the bad element"; and to provide a rationale to the middle class for why they had to leave the city; and to make a final profit off of the aging housing stock. The P-G never focused on the white power brokers, real estate agents and banks who were pulling the strings. P-G... go ahead and run your articles, but don't patronize us with your editorials. You're not willing to tell the full story. You haven't earned the right to pass judgement.
So where does that leave us in terms of educating Wilkinsburg youth. As much as I respect the efforts of the new school board president and board members, I believe they will fail at trying to "fix" the district. It is time to consider moving on. I will repeat my recommendations as to what we should do in Wilkinsburg:
The charter school law allows you to bootstrap an effort to create quality schools without the baggage that existing schools have. This has been done in New Orleans.
- Charter the entire school district and eliminate the existing schools; or
- Give each student a voucher to attend another school district or charter school; or
- Merge the district with Pittsburgh.
In New Orleans, major school district closes traditional public schools for good (Washington Post)
"But in New Orleans, under the Recovery School District, the Louisiana state agency that seized control of almost all public schools after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, the traditional system has been swept away."
The only difference between New Orleans and Wilkinsburg is that New Orleans was devastated by a natural disaster that wiped the schools off the map and Wilkinsburg's disaster was man made. You can imagine that a proposal to charter the district will inflame existing organizations that advocate for the status quo such as PASBO, PSBA, PSEA, PaFT and PASA. We know this because it happened once already in Wilkinsburg.
In 1994 the Wilkinsburg school district was in the midst of its slide into mediocrity. A number of passionate citizens successfully ran for the school board to address the issues. When they proposed redesigning Turner Elementary School, the Wilkinsburg Education Association (local teachers union), as well as the National Education Association, fought these new ideas.
Out of frustration, the district solicited organizations nationally to come in and run the school. This potential loss of teaching positions engaged the local and national union. The first event the union organized was a presentation by the head of the Nashville Education Association who was invited to speak in the district about the evils of Alternative Public Schools, Inc. (APS), a company the school board was considering. After the meeting, I went up to the Nashville speaker and asked "why doesn't the union take the lead in this? Come to Wilkinsburg and help us create a quality district that meets the needs of all of our students." He stated to me, "that is not our responsibility as a union, that is the responsibility of the school district."
When it looked like Wilkinsburg would hire the private company to run the school, the head of the National Education Association, Keith Geiger, came to Wilkinsburg to speak.
The school board went on to hire the private company. Board members received death threats, slashed tires and constant abuse. It was an ugly fight. Look at the picture above. 250 white educators (most from outside of Wilkinsburg) protesting in Wilkinsburg and listening to the national president of their union, while one black child hands out leaflets at the rally. What's wrong with this picture?
It's 20 years since Wilkinsburg's experiment in privatization. The Turner School Initiative began with a great deal of controversy and passion. Once the school board contracted with APS, it became a legal fight in the courts between the district and the union. The case worked its way up to the state supreme court and then back down again. Three years after the school opened, the courts shut it down. It was too early in the school choice movement, and too early in the quality urban education movement to succeed. In fact, it was closed by a Common Pleas Court judge when he found it to not be consistent with the 1997 charter school law that just passed in Pennsylvania. The court battle took its toll on the district. After Turner School was closed and returned to its previous status, the district slid into last place in achievement in the state.
There are very few successful models of cities or ring-suburbs that have been able to achieve a recovery to their glory days. In Pittsburgh, the list is long: Wilkinsburg, Duquesne, Clairton, McKeesport, Homestead, Braddock, Rankin, Pitcairn, Wilmerding and on and on. Wilkinsburg has a leg up on all of these areas. We have one of the best locations in the county with close proximity to downtown, excellent public transportation, outstanding housing stock at very low prices, proximity to local universities and a main street business district that gets a huge amount of traffic. Young people are beginning to locate here to take advantage of all that we have to offer. But in terms of education, we are the worst.
There are very few successful models of cities or ring-suburbs that have been able to achieve a recovery to their glory days. In Pittsburgh, the list is long: Wilkinsburg, Duquesne, Clairton, McKeesport, Homestead, Braddock, Rankin, Pitcairn, Wilmerding and on and on. Wilkinsburg has a leg up on all of these areas. We have one of the best locations in the county with close proximity to downtown, excellent public transportation, outstanding housing stock at very low prices, proximity to local universities and a main street business district that gets a huge amount of traffic. Young people are beginning to locate here to take advantage of all that we have to offer. But in terms of education, we are the worst.
Charter the district. Focus on the students. Give up on fixing the current model. It's dead. It's time to move forward and create a community whose passion is to nurture our youth. Imagine.
