Ed Donovan, Wilkinsburg School Board President, spoke on behalf of the district. Mr. Donovan made it clear that we are in the beginning phase of the Wilkinsburg-Pittsburgh Partnership. There is much work to be done. The District has not constructed a financial model as to how this partnership will effect local revenues, expenditures and property taxes. We are not sure how the actual move of the students will work. Mr. Donovan was not able to provide details to the community on the curriculum, or support services or transportation. He asked the community to work with the board to make this happen, but he has little to offer in the form of details. "We're just in the planning phase."
After 50 years of mismanagement, poor leadership and, at times, outright crime, we are being asked to trust the school board; to believe in and support its efforts as the district sends our children to another district to get educated.
Trust is a hard commodity to come by in Wilkinsburg.
Last week the Washington Post published an article on the plight of Wilkinsburg schools.
"In a disadvantaged district, a parable of contemporary American schooling"
"In a disadvantaged district, a parable of contemporary American schooling"
The author of the article, Emma Brown, visited Pittsburgh for a few days and took a deep dive into both Wilkinsburg and Westinghouse high schools. Unlike the local media, Ms. Brown spent many hours learning about this situation from all perspectives.
Imagine... a reporter visited both schools and spoke with the people who are deeply invested in this Wilkinsburg/Pittsburgh Partnership. Ms. Brown attended the parent/student meeting at Westinghouse. She talked with students. She talked with parents. She talked with teachers. She talked with both districts' principals and superintendents. And she talked to the President of the Wilkinsburg School Board. Her article speaks volumes about our current situation.
There is a deep sadness in the article that taps into the soul of Wilkinsburg... and into the soul of Westinghouse High School. Ms. Brown points out that there still remains a pride of days gone by in both schools. The current students are tired of being told they're no good. They know their schools were once at the top of the heap. The students are begging for a better education, and they fear that this will be another plan the adults put into place that doesn't work.
To their credit, members of both school boards have visited the schools, attended each other's board meetings and are trying as hard as they can to address the current problems.
Here are a few telling quotes from the Washington Post article.
“We’re doing our duty to get the best education that we can possibly afford for them,” (Board President) Donovan said. “This is the right thing for us to do. This is the only thing for us to do.”
“We think we can build something special for kids,” Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Linda Lane said in an interview.
Zwieryznski (Westinghouse Principal) who is relentlessly optimistic about prospects for the merged school, nevertheless shares the concern about disrupting fragile progress at Westinghouse. “Do I think it’s the best-case scenario? Absolutely not. I can’t lie. We didn’t stabilize Westinghouse yet; we’re still stabilizing it,” she said.
“If you were to ask everyone honestly if this is the best academic solution for kids, they would tell you no,” said state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny), whose district includes much of Pittsburgh.
“I just want to know that they’ve got real books here, because you all don’t,” said Benetta Blackwell, the mother of two Wilkinsburg students. “And do they get homework? Because you all don’t.”"This is the only thing for us to do." That is what the Wilkinsburg School Board has come to believe.
I attended Wilkinsburg's school board meetings this month. The media was shocked at how few citizens actually participated in these meetings. Where were all the disgruntled families? Where were the parents, the leaders, the students? The fact that they weren't at the meeting spoke volumes. They have given up. They trust no one. They expect the worst. And that is what they get.
I have blogged on the fate of Wilkinsburg for a number of years. My stream of consciousness often grapples with what the underlying strategy is, the hidden agenda. Why is Pittsburgh doing this, especially for the below market rate of $8,000 per student. Is this a step towards a merger? Is the district looking for more students and revenue to help mitigate the ever decreasing student population?
After reading the Post article, talking with folks at the board meetings and reading the local newspapers, I think the answer is rather simple. This Partnership comes out of the best intentions of both school boards. The Pittsburgh Board and senior leadership are trying to help Wilkinsburg and its students out. And the Wilkinsburg Board and senior leadership is out of money and ideas as to what to do and are seeking another district's help. Pittsburgh is doing what they have experience doing... trying to help kids. I believe that everyone's hopes, desires and intentions are sincere and caring. But hopes, desires and intention are not enough to create success in such a complex endeavor. Sadly, Pittsburgh has demonstrated little or no success with populations as needy, at risk and abused as the children living in Homewood and Wilkinsburg.
Concepts such as a district or borough merger, or a charter school or a Project XQ school, are far beyond the imagination or expertise of the existing leaders. Any of these options would entail accepting our failures and looking for an entirely new paradigm. It would mean that both districts would have to step outside of the traditional Western Pennsylvania mentality, step out of their comfort zone and look at others who have been successful in this situation.
So they are doing what they can do. I respect them for their sincerity. I believe they want to help our students. But this is too little, too late and far too naive.
Before I end this blogpost, I want to look at one other aspect of the Washington Post article. At the end of the article in the Washington Post there were two comments from readers.
Comment One: This is an issue of structure - not funding. If Pennsylvania school districts were county-based rather than having over a dozen districts within a single county, the cost per pupil would be significantly lower and you would have less disparity between high and low income neighborhoods.This first comment points out the inequities of funding based on Pennsylvania's local school district model versus Maryland's county model. Clearly county control of schools creates both economies of scale and gets closer to funding in a more equitable fashion. Although the comment is correct regarding funding, this would not solve the problems we are having in Wilkinsburg... or Westinghouse. If money was the sole problem, Wilkinsburg and Westinghouse would have solved the problem 40 years ago. Frankly, they both spend much more money per student than the average high school in Pennsylvania.
Comment Two: To paraphrase James Carville and Bill Clinton, "It's the students, stupid"! There is obviously something about the students who attend these two schools that are causing the low test scores and the chaotic classes. It's not the teachers, the curriculum, the facilities, or the support services -- at least, there's no evidence that the teachers, curriculum, facilities, or support services at these two schools are significantly inferior to the teachers, curriculum, facilities, or support services at the mostly-white, higher-test-scoring nearby Pittsburgh school.What is the writer of this comment saying? He's blaming the students. He blames our children for being born black and poor. And he assumes that these two attributes have everything to do with why they are not learning. The hatred and stupidity of this comment is blinding. But it is an important comment to reckon with. Because it gets to the deep racism and lack of concern about the poor underclass in this country. It sends a message to all that, in America, you are on your own. And if you are one of the unfortunate children to have been born into a difficult life, a life filled with poverty and violence, you should quit complaining and get your life together.
As I've stated before in this blog, "We are a simple minded, mean-spirited people."
Here is the comment I would add to the article in the Washington Post.
Pittsburgh leads the nation in segregation, black poverty, black unemployment and black healthcare. We don't care about black people. We don't care about poor people. And we will not change to meet their needs; even if those needs were created by centuries of abuse, hatred, violence and death.
There are exemplary schools across the nation that succeed with students in situations similar to Wilkinsburg and Westinghouse. The fact that neither Pittsburgh nor Wilkinsburg school leaders are willing to tap into these exemplary schools or their models is a testimony to ignorance, obstinance and a state of denial that can only be attributed to the deepest neuroses and pathology.
Trust is a hard commodity to find in Wilkinsburg.
It doesn't come easy to families who live in poverty. It is not something to build on when you don't have a job, don't have healthcare and move from rental unit to rental unit. It does not exist in a town where nearly everyone lives on a street with condemned homes. It is not a word in the vocabulary of people who live far from grocery stores, bakeries, movie theaters and restaurants. Who could we possibly trust? Not our leaders, not the police, not the educators, no one. We are left to our own fate.
There are many people in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg who are committed to making this partnership a success by strengthening, not abandoning, the institution of democratically controlled public education. Will you join them?
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