save NA schools

Save NA Schools serves an online community of 800+ residents living in the North Allegheny School District.  Save NA Schools acts as a resource to provide updates and commentary to the NA community.  The group was founded in September 2012 when the administration made the recommendation to close an elementary school.

Save NA Schools can also be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SaveNaSchools

To receive updates from Save NA Schools, please enter your email address in the column to the left (under Stay up to Date via Email).  Once you confirm your request, you will begin to receive notifications of new posts by email.  Your email address will not be made public, shared, or sold.

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SaveNASchools advocated keeping all 7 of the district’s elementary schools open based on the following 5 points:

1. The district’s elementary buildings should not operate above Pennsylvania Department of Education capacity guidelines.  The district does not have the ability to close an elementary school unless it accepts higher capacities than those established by the state.
2. Operating the remaining elementary buildings at capacities that depend on spare classrooms and increase class size will compromise the district’s ability to deliver excellence in education.  The new model will be dependent on spare classrooms the very first day, which have been identified as faculty lounges, learning support rooms and music rooms.  The remaining buildings will experience an increase in class size with respect to grades 3-5, except for Hosack (which already has classes of 30+ students) and Franklin (which is currently operating above capacity).
3. Third  grade should have a class size guideline of 25 students instead of 30 (similar to other districts).  The new model is based on 30 students for each 3rd grade class and operating six schools instead of seven does not provide the district with enough capacity to accept 25 students per class now or in the future.
4. A decision to close a school could ultimately cost the district more money than it would save because the new model cannot reasonably accommodate future growth.  The 5-year enrollment projections prepared by the Administration have consistently understated actual enrollment for the past 13 years.
5. A decision to close a school should be based upon solid, empirical evidence that such decision is in the best interest of the district as a whole.  The report that recommended closing Peebles Elementary used population data that does not tie to the 2010 U.S. Census and included a mathematical error that concludes there will be a decline in McCandless, when, in fact, the population is projected to remain stable.

In November  2012, Save NA Schools presented the North Allegheny School board with a report which summarized our concerns, observations, and evaluations in regards to the district’s ability to reasonably accommodate all elementary students in the remaining buildings without compromising the district’s successful elementary education model and curriculum.  The full text can be found in our Community Report 1.

In January 2013, Save NA Schools authored  Community Report 2, a report that established the detrimental impact on the North Allegheny School District’s remaining buildings if Peebles Elementary School was closed and highlighted the district’s failure to adhere to a best practices model in recommending the closure of Peebles Elementary.

On August  28, 2013, it was announced that Peebles Elementary School would remain open.