Parents, organizers decry Pittsburgh Public Schools’ ‘Swiss cheese’ plan to close facilities in the district

Nina Louise Dagavarian, age 7, spent the latter portion of Monday afternoon sitting on a concrete sidewalk that had baked in the day’s 90-degree heat. In her hands she clutched an oversized picture of her school, Woolslair Elementary, considered a gem when it first opened in the Bloomfield neighborhood 126 years ago. 

About 40 adults stood around Nina. Some held signs – “Fight for our children,” read one, and “Closing schools is not brave or courageous. It’s lazy.” These were messages directed at members of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board, which was scheduled to meet shortly in the building directly behind these folks rallying on South Bellefield Avenue in Oakland.

Nina finished her second grade year in a school building that was considered a necessary addition to a rapidly growing district struggling with crowded classrooms when it opened in 1899. The Pittsburgh Press gushed over Woolslair, writing that it was “unique in its arrangement of classrooms, its acoustics, its sanitary arrangements, as also in its manner of lighting and heating.”

None of that matters much these days. The board is considering a proposal that would close nine buildings and 12 schools. Woolslair is on that list. The district claims the moves are necessary because of budgetary woes and declining enrollment. The district says the plan will save more than $10 million in the years ahead.

Those gathered in Oakland weren’t buying those arguments. The city is actually growing, and so is enrollment, said Valerie Allman, a parent and member of 412 Justice, the organization that staged the Monday rally.

“This whole plan started and ended with a lack of community engagement, with a lack of appropriate data,” Allman said.

Several parents stepped up and used a megaphone to call out to board members. “We want to be involved in the planning,” said Paulette Foster of 412 Justice. “We want to be involved in the development. And we want to be able to fly this plane.” 

Through it all, Nina sat with her picture of Woolslair and listened. When her time arrived, she rose, walked to the front of the crowd, faced the television cameras and delivered an admonishment to the board.

“I always do my homework, and the people who want to close schools should do theirs,” she said.

Then she described what the school meant to her. It had little to do with acoustics and sanitary arrangements: “We are more than just numbers. We are friends and classmates.”

Organizers expressed concern the board will vote Wednesday to begin public hearings on the possible closure of several schools, including Woolslair. Those at Monday’s rally asked the board to vote “no” on the proposal.

“We aren’t necessarily opposed to changing the system here at Pittsburgh Public,” said Allman. “We would love to build a whole educational system that will actually be revitalized and engage all of our communities and all of our students and be everything they need. But the way that they’re doing this now is actually a detriment. It’s the opposite.”

Here are a few more comments from the rally:

“My nephew and my daughter in particular are being greatly affected by this transition. It’s not a transition at all. It is a deportation, a displacement, an upheaval of my children. They will be forced to move for their fifth grade year, and then additionally for their sixth grade year. What is feasible about that plan? Who is it feasible for? Because it’s not feasible for me and mine.”

— Ashley Rooths-McClain of Homewood

“When you choose to make a difference in the district, they say that you are someone who is disrupting the norm. Well, guess what? We are norm disruptors.

“Stop pushing us out. Stop thinking we’re going to shrink back because we will not do what? We won’t do it.”

— Paulette Foster of 412 Justice