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SaveNASchools encourages residents to attend the school board meeting on Wednesday, February 19 at 7pm in the auditorium of Ingomar Middle School. The school board will vote on the administration’s final recommended redistricting scenario.
Residents interested in registering to speak may do so by contacting School Board Secretary Rose Mary Ryan at rryan@northallegheny.org or 412-369-5437.
SaveNASchools encourages residents to attend the school board meeting on Wednesday, January 22 at 7pm. This is the last board meeting before the February 19th vote to accept the administration’s redistricting plan. Residents interested in registering to speak may do so by contacting School Board Secretary Rose Mary Ryan at rryan@northallegheny.org or 412-369-5437.
SaveNASchools encourages residents to attend the school board meeting on Wednesday, January 15 at 7pm. Administrators will propose a final recommended redistricting scenario for School Board review.
Please note that the meeting will be held in the Carson Middle School Auditorium.
SaveNASchools encourages residents to attend the school board meeting this Wednesday, May 15th at 7pm. The meeting will be held in the Central Administrative Office Board Room.
This is the last board meeting before the May 22nd proposed vote to close Peebles. It is also the last board meeting before the May 21st primary election.
Residents interested in registering to speak can do so by contacting School Board Secretary Rose Mary Ryan at rryan@northallegheny.org or 412-369-5437.
Attend the Public Hearing tomorrow, at 7pm in the Carson Middle School Auditorium, 200 Hillvue Lane, Pittsburgh
Advocate for all 3,500+ elementary students in the district by telling the school board to keep Peebles Elementary open!
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See related post– 2011: Board members express concern about enrollment projections
Today is the last day to call the school board office to register to speak at the meeting on Wednesday, December 19th. Please call 412-369-5437 and request to speak at the BEGINNING of the meeting. We need every parent to advocate for their child by standing up and asking school board members to vote against scheduling a public hearing.
The recommendation to close an elementary school moves students into non-classroom spaces for direct instruction. This is simply unacceptable. Every child in the North Allegheny school district deserves to be in a classroom to learn.
If Peebles had been closed this year, the following non-classrooms would have been used:
Under the new model, the remaining buildings are pushed so close to their Pennsylvania Department of Education gross capacities that only non-classrooms remain as “spare” classrooms.
There is no cost savings or operational efficiency benefit that can justify compromising the education of our elementary school students.
If the Administration and Board have run out of ideas, why not bring the community on board to help brainstorm ways to keep this district strong in light of trying economic times? Why not establish a community task force to review every line item in the district’s budget and determine where we need to set our priorities? Why are we in such a rush to do something as drastic and irreversible as closing a school after seeing how detrimental the impact will be on our elementary students?
“If an elementary school building is closed, current enrollment would account for 90 percent of the total available seats in the remaining buildings,” said Tara Fisher, 36, of McCandless, a member of Save NA Schools. “It limits the district’s ability to keep class sizes below district guidelines.”
The report concludes that the district has a history of underestimating enrollment and that an enrollment increase could end up costing the district more money in the long run if a school is closed. The report also concludes that the district cannot guarantee the same level of education if a school is closed.
http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/3081573-74/district-board-enrollment#axzz2EBM1tEFZ
Open notice to the Community!
MEETING AT PEEBLES FIRE Station ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9th at 8pm.(Located 1391 Duncan Avenue)
This meeting will address how the closure of Peebles Elementary will impact the rest of the district (elementary and middle schools), how to best express your concerns to school board members, and how to get the message out to other members of the community.
This meeting will also address the board’s next action in scheduling a public hearing for January 30th. We need the community to unite in a stance against the closure of a top performing elementary school in the heart of the North Allegheny school district that will negatively impact all of the district’s remaining elementary schools.
North Allegheny parents hoping to get an answer to their request for a community task force’s involvement in any potential school closing decisions were left wondering again Wednesday night. The meeting, which lasted more that three hours, ended without the issue ever being addressed by the board.
As has been the pattern since the beginning of the school year, the meeting opened with a half dozen parents making impassioned pleas againt a proposed closing of one of the district’s seven elementary schools.
A consultant has recommended closing Peebles Elementary, arguing that district has too few students, and too much elementary classroom space.
At the board’s last meeting, on Oct. 24 , Dr. Brian Miller, assistant superintendent of K-12 Education, presented a nearly one-hour demographics and feasibility study which concluded that the closing of an elementary school would not increase class size, nor impact the quality of programs now offered at North Allegheny elementary schools.
Tara Fisher, a parent, suggested Wednesday night that Miller’s assessment left no room for error.
“Current enrollment, under this proposal means each elementary school will be at 90-percent of capacity,” she said. “We do not have enough excess capacity to close an elementary school building in this district. I encourage you to consider that these students get one shot at a solid elementary education, one shot at third grade, one shot at reading, writing and arithmetic, a foundation that will last them a lifetime, and we, as a North Allegheny community need to give them our best. They deserve the best, and we can not offer them the best if we close an elementary school.”
Consultant Jon Thomas told the board, that even with a slight uptick in the birth rate, he still projects that the elementary school enrollment will continue to decline.
Roger Botti, North Allegheny’s director of transportation and operations, presented four redistricting scenarios and their impact on the entire elementary school class.
Botti’s last proposal drew a round of applause.
Before the board can vote to close a school, it must hold at least one public hearing, advertised at least 15 days in advance. The board cannot vote for at least three months after the hearing, and so far, board President Maureen Grosheider has indicated the board doesn’t have enough information to make a decision.
Parents, such as Wendy Lukish, said they would continue to fight any school closing, insisting it will lead to overcrowded classrooms.
“How are our teachers going to be able to teach? They’re not going to be good at it and our children are going to suffer,” she said. “My husband is a graduate of North Hills and when we were looking for homes, we had to decide between North Hills or North Allegheny. Not being from Pennsylvania, I didn’t know any different, and my husband said, North Allegheny is an elite school, we need to live in that district. So we moved here. So I implore you to look at these numbers, look at what these schools are going to look like, and that people are going to suffer, as will the future of this district.”
For more information on parent’s efforts to form a community task force about the proposed school closings, click www.saveNAschools.com.
Please attend the September school board meeting. We need your support at Wednesday night’s (tomorrow) school board meeting.
The meeting will be held at the Central Admin Office, located inside of Carson Middle School, at 7pm. The address is 200 Hillvue Lane.
The representation we have there tomorrow night is critical! Please tell 3 people– and have them tell 3 people. We need to be accurately represented.
Many parents have signed up to speak regarding the recommendation to close Peebles Elementary, elementary class size, and our on-going request for the school board to appoint a committee of local residents including parents, financial professionals, teachers, and local leaders to find more appropriate solutions to district’s challenges.
Your attendance will speak volumes.
save NA schools 