PITTSBURGH — Members of the Pittsburgh Board of Education voted 7-2 Wednesday evening to approve a plan to partner with the Wilkinsburg School District.
The Wilkinsburg school board voted 9-0 Tuesday evening in favor of the plan, which will send the district’s seventh- through 12th-grade students to Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Westinghouse High School in Homewood next year.
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“Our effort is to make sure this is tax-neutral for Pittsburgh. This is not Pittsburgh subsidizing Wilkinsburg students,” Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Linda Lane said.
Wilkinsburg's financial distress forced school officials there to reshape their education system. While some have called the plan “dramatic,” Pittsburgh school officials described the move as “a positive.”
“We are opening up our doors to embrace somebody else's child,” Pittsburgh Board of Education member Dr. Regina Holley said.
Pittsburgh Board of Education member Mark Brentley, one of the seven who voted to partner, was critical of what he described "holding Wilkinsburg students hostage" at Westinghouse, telling the public they should have identical opportunities like Pittsburgh students.
“Why are we holding students away from full access for one year?” Brentley said. “It’s discriminatory.We don't do that to any other population.”
The districts now have nine months to make sure the transition goes smoothly.
"The next nine months will be used to develop and execute a transition plan," said Lane. "As we plan, we will provide regular reports to the Board publicly."
For some, the news of the impending closure was hard to digest.
Michael Evans has been teaching in the district for 40 years and also serves as the representative to the teachers union there.
He told Channel 11 that at least 30 teachers will be furloughed after the closure.
“There’s nothing in place for them at this time so they’ll probably be going to unemployment,” he said about his fellow teachers.
Also impacted by the closure is Wilkinsburg’s high school football team, which could play its last game ever on Saturday.
“Adversity is going to always be there,” said coach Chris Taylor. “It’s going to be hard for them but they just want to finish out the right way.”
Taylor, a first-year coach at the school, said he is heartbroken over the merger but added he will continue to work with the students to prepare them for next year.