Pittsburgh Public Schools students return to class Monday

PITTSBURGH — It’s the first day of classes on Monday for Pittsburgh Public Schools for grades one to 12.

Mayor Ed Gainey was outside Brashear High School welcoming kids back to school.

The district’s new superintendent Dr. Wayne Walters was also there greeting students. Channel 11 asked him what the district plans to focus on this school year.

“Health and safety is paramount. Of course, students’ outcomes, we are a school district, that’s our core function but we have a variety of areas we want to focus on, our students’ social and emotional health.”

Some school leaders said they are looking forward to Walters’ new leadership.

“There’s a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm surrounding Dr. Walters. Everyone in the district knows he’s been a career-long servant in this district, has served in a number of different capacities. He’s an extremely good communicator and he’s articulating a vision we can all get behind,” said Pittsburgh Milliones Principal Eric Graf.

We saw a security presence as kids were walking into school.

Target 11 learned Pittsburgh Public Schools is down police officers and security guards right now in a district that saw an uptick in violence last year. The district has 66 guards now and 12 officers, instead of 24.

“We will keep our recruiting efforts going we are no different than the rest of the country and staffing shortages,” said Walters.

At this time, masks are recommended and not required for PPS students, since Allegheny County is at medium community levels of COVID-19 transmission. If the county is at low levels, masks are optional. If transmission levels are high, masks are required.

However, district policy says employees have to mask up at medium and high levels.

Kindergarten students start school on Thursday.

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