Pittsburgh Public Schools administration proposed new changes to feeder patterns, among other changes, in a response to questions and concerns about the Future-Ready Facilities plan raised by the board in February.
During an education committee meeting April 14, district officials presented updates on the implementation of the plan, which aims to close 12 schools and nine buildings, reconfigure grade models and phase out magnet programs at the elementary level.
In February, the Pittsburgh Public Schools board committed to deciding on potential school closures before the end of this school year but asked for additional details from administrators.
Board members said more clarity was needed in several areas, including attendance zones and feeder patterns, transportation, student experience and the implementation timeline. If the plan is passed this year, school closures and consolidations could begin in the summer of 2027.
The plan was more than two years in the making before a divided PPS board voted it down in November. Talk of school closures resumed again in January after the board emphasized the need for revisions, transparency and increased community feedback.
Attendance zones and feeder patterns
In response to the board’s request for rationale around attendance zones and feeder patterns, district administration made some changes to strengthen feeder alignment, minimize transitions and balance and enrollment.
The changes address four challenges of fragmented feeder patterns, overcrowding in schools, impacts of frequent transitions and temporary enrollment pressures in schools that will see increased enrollment while a new Northview Heights elementary school is being built.
Feeder pattern changes include:
- Sending Lincoln/Belmar students in grades 6-8 to feed into Sterrett and then to Westinghouse
- Assigning all East Hills elementary students to Faison to eliminate split assignments and reduce travel times
- Relocating Hazelwood students to geographically aligned schools including Greenfield and Colfax
- Adjusting Mt. Oliver elementary assignments to create a unified pathway to Roosevelt
- Reverting West End attendance zones to maintain balanced enrollment at Langley and Westwood
- Reassigning portions of Garfield to Sunnyside to relieve pressure at Liberty
- Shifting Upper Hill students to Liberty to address both capacity and safety concerns
- Expanding Lincoln’s boundary to relieve projected overcrowding at Faison
- Establishing a temporary English Language Development Center at Morrow to relieve pressure at the King facility until the opening of Northview
- Shifting early childhood classrooms currently located at King and Allegheny and adding additional early childhood classrooms within a new Early Childhood Center at the Allegheny Annex.
Board member Emma Yourd asked how the district is planning to transition students who are in their final year at a school and might have to transition twice in consecutive years.
Walters said the administration has looked for open enrollment options where space is available, where families can apply for a slot if they want to stay at a particular school.
Equity and student supports
Board members and advocates have pointed at inequitable student experiences, which include uneven access to extracurricular activities, resource disparities across schools leading to unequal learning environments, inconsistent implementation of restorative practices which result in uneven discipline, and gaps in health and wellness staffing and services.
The board pushed hard for steps to raise the quality of learning environments and ensure students receive social and emotional supports. Strengthening school culture and student safety were also raised during the February meeting.
In response, the district said it will broaden offerings beyond traditional sports, such as an intramural club and non-competitive options, prioritizing investments and resources on buildings that will remain in use, making improvements such as upgraded classroom equipment and learning spaces, expanding professional development for staff and expanding partnerships with local health agencies and universities to increase access to services.
Implementation timeline
Board members have criticized the district’s proposed implementation timeline, which they said was too short. Under the most recent plan, the district will close and consolidate schools and add programming over the course of three years. District leaders proposed a phased approach based on readiness that ensures staffing, programming, transportation and facilities are prepared before transitions.
District spokesperson Ebony Pugh said the district will build on lessons learned from the 2012 school closures, the Westinghouse-Wilkinsburg merger and the merger of Oliver and Perry to make future transitions more seamless and supportive.
“We want to deliver early improvements for students, but we also must ensure that systems, staffing and school communities are fully prepared. Moving too quickly can create disruption, while moving too slowly delays access to better opportunities,” she said.
Some board members sought reconsideration of the magnet statuses of Pittsburgh Montessori and CAPA 6 6-12. Under the current plan, all magnet programs in elementary grades, except Montessori, will be phased out. Middle school and high school magnets, except CAPA, will be redesigned as neighborhood magnet schools.
The administration rejected the board’s requests to expand the Montessori and CAPA programs to other schools, noting Montessori requires a highly specialized and certified workforce while expanding CAPA would need substantial new construction or significant renovations, specialized equipment and ongoing operational support.
Board member Tracey Reed, who had supported expanding CAPA and Montessori programs, said she was satisfied with the board’s response about Montessori and it would be unrealistic to apply the method in all K-5 schools. However, not making CAPA a neighborhood magnet was problematic, she added.
“When we look at populations who can access CAPA, it’s a very niche, a very different population. They are typically well-off white families,” she said.
Overall, Reed said, she was satisfied with the responses the administration provided.
The district is planning to hire two project managers to oversee implementation and a deputy superintendent as part of this process.
An updated financial forecast showed the district will reduce its operating deficit in 2027 if the plan is implemented but will slightly increase by 2030.
Board member Devon Taliaferro asked the administration how they plan to solve the financial issues if the plan is unable to save them money overall.
“This was never presented as a plan that solved everything. It was kind of trying to walk the line between reducing our cost, buying ourselves some more time, and also improving student achievement,” said district CFO Ron Joseph.
New special education plan shows little improvement
PPS administrators also presented a three-year special education plan with steps to strengthen educational outcomes and offerings for students with disabilities.
Patti Camper, assistant superintendent for students with exceptionalities, said the district is monitored every three years by the Bureau of Special Education to determine whether required special education practices are being implemented consistently and in compliance with state and federal requirements.
“This is not simply a compliance checklist; it is a three-year roadmap focused on improving outcomes and reducing variability in services for students with disabilities across Pittsburgh Public Schools,” Camper said.
Over the past three years, the district reviewed several aspects of its special education programs, concluding that it needed improvements in:
- Suspension procedures
- Positive behavior supports
- Enrollment
- Placement of students in the least restrictive environment
- State assessment outcomes.
Data from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment and Keystone exams presented Tuesday showed that, in 2025, a majority of students with individualized education programs (IEPs) were less proficient in English language arts compared to 2023. In math, however, most of those students showed slight improvement over the same period. All proficiency levels are currently below state targets.
Suspension rates for Black students with disabilities slightly decreased in the school year 2024-25 from 2023-24. A Public Source investigation found that PPS schools issued nearly 3 times as many suspensions of Black male students with IEPs in 2023-24 as they did in 2018-19. Black female students with an IEP were twice as likely to be suspended in 2023-24 as in 2018-19.
Camper said the high level of Black student suspensions has placed PPS on a warning status.
The district also fell short of state benchmarks for placing students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. The state says schools should aim to include 63% of special education students in general education classes more than 80% of the time, but PPS only reached that target for 57% of those students. Meanwhile, 18% of PPS special education students spent less than 40% of their time in general education settings. That’s up from 13% the previous year, and double the state target threshold.
The plan was developed in three stages and included feedback from parents and school principals to develop strategies and interventions.
As next steps, the board will vote to approve the plan. Once approved, the district will submit the plan in June and begin implementation of strategies in schools.
The plan provides several recommendations to strengthen assessments, student supports, and least restrictive environments and behavior management. This included standardized diagnostic tools, professional learning on data and IEP use and expansion of behavioral and targeted supports in schools with high suspension rates.
Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.
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