Public Hearing - May 26, 2026

001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the May 26, 2026 public hearing for the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors. I'm Gene Walker, president of the board. Uh we welcome you all here tonight. Uh just as we get started um a couple of keyyn notes. One uh we do have quite a few speakers tonight so it will be a fairly long evening. Uh normally we take kind of organized breaks but tonight I'm just going to recommend that if you need to step out for a bio break uh or just to stretch your legs uh just do that so that we could uh we can minimize how much time we're here. Um, also, uh, because of the number of speakers, uh, for our inerson speakers, I will ask that if you choose to stay after

002your testimony that you return back downstairs to the overflow room so that there's room for the upcoming speakers to sit here in the gallery. Um, and that will keep it kind of nice and early. Um, we got a magical duo here tonight helping us. Uh, Miss Lenel Reid, uh, geez. and I just Why did your Erica Gandandy holy cow just like right out of my head um are going to be moderating our meeting tonight? Um they will take care of you. And as a reminder, all speakers uh had to register in advance. Every speaker gets three minutes. Uh you cannot share your time with anyone else and you cannot give your time to anyone else. Uh if you as your time is running down uh for our inerson speakers, the microphone uh that you'll be

003using will start to blink. Uh that will let you know there are 30 seconds left. As we transition to our online speakers, uh we will give you the hand raised signal to let you know that your time is running down. Uh order of testimonies will be our inerson speakers uh first followed by our online uh virtual speakers following them. Uh as we always do, uh if you miss your turn for whatever reason, uh we will come back to you at the end to give you an opportunity whether you are in person uh or virtual. And all of our written uh all of our testimonies uh both this recording and those that were submitted uh in writing uh will be uploaded to the district web page uh sometime tomorrow for you to view. And for our

004stakeholders who would like to view the public hearing uh live, you can go to the district web page and click on the link uh at the top of the page. And I think that is all for the housekeeping. Uh and so with that, we will get started and I will turn it over to Miss Reed to get us going. >> Thank you. Our first speaker this evening is Michelle Bole. >> My name is Michelle Bole, homeowner. um nurse and union member. I urge you to vote no. Two years ago, we are told that this is about funding for the schools. Two years ago, money was federal money was available for green renovations of our schools. This has never been mentioned in regards to funding our schools, nor was it pursued. Last year, the state expanded

005its solar for schools and to have it be more money at the statewide level. We know the federal is a mess right now. So, at the statewide level, there is funding for schools and improving the future for our children by preserving the climate. in November, right as this was voted on and turned down, it was they were pushing it through when the state senate had not yet voted on a a law that ended up turning millions of dollars over to the Pittsburgh public schools with a law change. And here we are again today where all that we are saying, the only answer that Dr. Walters has come up with is we need to close more schools. We need to close our children's home, our children's second home. And yet numerous missed opportunities. Our current environment

006includes a CDC that has been slashed in funding and in staff. We have ICE taking children off of our streets and their families. It is unsafe and unethical to be forcing more children into a classroom and into schools that are are already full. We don't know when the next pandemic is coming, but when you slash the CDC, you can know that it will be coming. It is unsafe. The parental groups have stepped up. They are picking up children from school to help the parents that are worried about ICE. I cannot stress enough how much we love our children. How much I my children are no longer in school. Proud graduates of Pittsburgh public schools. Fulton. Thank you. And Obama and they are succeeding wildly. I urge you to vote no. Thank you for your testimony.

007Speaker number two, Nicole Kaparanis. Hello. Um, members of the board, you have been put in an impossible position by the district. Our financial outlook was the catalyst for this plan two years ago. We were promised this plan would make us financially sustainable. Per the CFO, it does not. This plan will have us in the red within two years. $40 million is what we currently pay annually to service our current debt. This plan is asking taxpayers to take on another extra $12 million a year in debt payments. Over hund00 million in extra debt. That would be $50 million annually in debt payments on a $730 million budget. 150 million is 500 teachers salaries. Instead of paying off our debt, this plan has us issuing hundreds of millions of more debt to fund this plan once the

008existing debt rolls off. As board members, you have a fiduciary duty to taxpayers in our community to ensure we are on a sustainable path for our future. What the district has presented is a bestcase scenario based on 2% inflation and 4% interest rates on 20-year bonds per assigned affidavit by our CFO as obtained by a right to know request. The numbers are not sustainable under those conditions, and we're in a worse environment for interest rates and inflation, meaning it will likely cost us millions of dollars more to service this debt. No third party was hired to validate the models or stress test the numbers and the district refused to release the financial models despite a right to know request. Some people say we have to do something. I would argue we need to do the

009right thing and not something that further drowns us and our future generations in debt. The district had two years to get it right and they did not give us a plan. They gave us an unsustainable pipe dream. The right thing to do is to vote no and not sign us and our children up for decades of unsustainable debt. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your testimony. [applause] Speaker number three, Brian Maloney. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh my name is Brian Maloney and I'm the proud parent of three boys who attend PPS schools. Uh my son Paul is a fifth grader, Evan is a third grader and Adam is a kinder all at Pittsburgh Monasuri. I'm also the newly elected president of the Pittsburgh Monasuri PTA. However, I want to be

010clear that my comments this evening are in my capacity as a PPS parent and not as a representative of the Monasuri PTA. Some who are opposed to the plan do so on the basis that the plan involves significant changes yet includes no information regarding phasing the implementation of the changes to make them more achievable. Although I agree my personal feeling is that the worst part about the future ready plan is that it will shut down many successful magnet programs and will also shut down the gifted program including the very successful and beloved greenway program. The gifted program and the magnet programs quite simply are the best thing about Pittsburgh public schools. To me, it is simply shocking that anyone would even consider shutting down these magnet programs or shutting down Greenway. I share the PPS

011board's concerns regarding equity within the PPS system, but taking things away from people is never a way to achieve equity. It is mind-boggling to me that this is being proposed in an effort to quote level the playing field by reallocating resources. As you probably know, the reason the magnet program was created in the first place was due to concerns about equity. The whole point of magnet programs, in my understanding, is to ensure that disadvantaged kids won't be stuck in underperforming local neighborhood schools. There's a humility in that decision. There's a recognition that you can't fix all the schools all at once. So the program, the magnet program was created to give kids a chance to shift to better schools while staying within the PPS system. I note that PPS has chosen to keep Kappa and

012keep Monasuri due to the unique services that they provide, the unique qualifications necessary for teachers and the unique materials required in the classrooms. These same criteria apply to the Greenway gifted program which should also be maintained. It's a specialized program that is not possible to replicate elsewhere. The students and teachers use specialized materials in the classrooms that cannot be replicated in each student's home school. The administration has said that gifted services would be brought into the home school. However, resources that they have at Greenway are not of the nature that they can be spread throughout many other schools. they're able to offer unique programming that is only possible because it's in one location. And so as I come to the end of my time, um I'll note that I have significantly longer testimony that for

013any of you who are excited to >> Thank you for your Thank you for your testimony. Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you. Speaker number four, Michael Cumins. Let's talk about container gardening while we're on the subject. Imagine a large garden with 54 tables, each with hundreds of potted, precious little plants on them. The head gardener, we're going to call him Super, is working with a $732 a year budget to keep the operation going. But money is tight. Some of the tables are sparsely occupied. Many plants are not getting adequate light and water and fertilizer based on how they're arranged and money and staffing challenges. Super determines that some fertilizer has fallen between the cracks of the tables. So using less tables will save money and a different way to organize the plants

014will be more efficient. Not a bad set of ideas. Rather than carefully planning to make transition smooth and effective, Super flips over nine tables, scattering the plants all over the ground. Staffers frantically try to pick them up, salvage their lost soil and their leaves, and place them half-hazardly onto other tables while simultaneously rearranging the main remaining tables to group similar age plants together. Super manages to find $8, that's 1% in savings and the fertilizer lost between the cracks. Well, about 30% of the plants have been drastically affected. While flipping tables, other tables suffered impact damages. plants knocked [snorts] over, crowding, abrupt separation from different demographic companions. The end result is a much more homogeneous table of plants, resegregating much of the wonderful biodiversity of some tables. In the face of mass opposition, rather than fixing

015the problems, Super creates a self propaganda video. As opposition swells, even more organizations unite their voices. Super waste even more of our money making that video track the sun so that all the plants can't escape looking at it. If Super had taken the time to carefully plan each move, ensure each plant got its appropriate spot on the correct table that could support its needs. No plant was shaded by another outside water spray patterns or on a table that gets minimal fertilizer when it is a high fertilizer needing plant. Imagine if excuse [clears throat] me imagine if other garden needs outside of fertilizer such as biodiversity and community collaboration were emphasized in restructuring. Imagine if the caretakers who entrust their parents to the district felt heard and supported rather than dismissed so they could work with

016super in making this transition effective instead of everyone wasting all this time fighting about a bad plan. Imagine how many would help rather than decide a different garden might better meet their needs. Now imagine a governing body who are responsible to hold super accountable. If you were a caregiver of one of those plants and voted these people into their positions, what would you want them to do? Any good plant lover would demand the super to be held to a much higher standard or start looking for a new super. Vote no to the table flipping plan. Our little plants can't afford this recklessness. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number five, Rachel Sloer. I am here tonight because this plan asks the Pittsburgh public school community to accept an enormous disruption with very little confidence,

017very little clarity, and very little trust. Closing buildings and reconfiguring others is not a minor adjustment. This plan would uproot and relocate nearly a third of our district's students, families, and staff. It's not strategic finetuning. It's a fundamental reshaping of the city's public school system. And yet none of the board members and none of the presentations from administration can clearly answer a basic question. What problem does this plan actually solve? We're told the plan is efficient. We're told the plan is equity. But the public has not been shown convincing evidence that these closures will improve academic outcomes, strengthen neighborhood schools, or create meaningful long-term financial stability. Without substantial savings and no clearly demonstrated academic benefit, why are we asking thousands of children to lose their schools, their routines, their teachers, and their sense of community?

018Schools aren't just buildings, they're anchors. They're where children feel safe, where families build relationships, where communities gather, and where trust is formed over years and generations. And right now, trust is what's missing. Too many families do not trust the administration or the board to responsibly execute a transition of this scale. Distrust is does not appear overnight. It's come from inconsistent communication, shifting explanations, and a process that we have experienced as something being done to us rather than with us. Successful change requires more than just flowery catchphrases and colorful PowerPoint presentations. It requires operational credibility. And let's be real honest about the toll this plan would impose. Students are going to endure disruption and chaos. Families will lose neighborhood schools and access to community resources. Staff relationships could be strained. And the communities already carrying the

019burden of instability will be asked to absorb even more of it. Those are real costs, even if they do not appear neatly on a spreadsheet. I urge the board tonight, vote no. Rebuild public trust before demanding public sacrifice. Provide clear evidence, measurable goals, transparent accountability. show our community not just what is being closed, but what could truly be gained because right now many families only see the loss, disruption, and uncertainty. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number eight, Margot Hinton. >> Hello, school board. My name is Margot Hinton, PPS graduate, South Hills High School, class of 1985. our gra and our school was closed unfortunately in 1986. I'm also a Pittsburgh resident and a 33-year veteran teacher of North Alageney School District. So, I've I've had the the advantage of being in

020a predominately white school district as well as being in a Gver school district like the Pittsburgh public schools. Today, the first thing I want to do, and I'm speaking fast because I know I don't want to run out of time, is honor my mother with the words of Audrey Lord, who taught me to always, my mother taught me to always use my voice and to never let fear interrupt my purpose. A litany for survival by Audrey Lord. And when the sun rises, we are afraid it might not remain. When the sun sets, we are afraid it might not rise in the morning. When our stomachs are full, we are afraid of indigestion. When our stomachs are empty, we are afraid we may never eat again. When we are loved, we are afraid love will vanish.

021When we are alone, we are afraid love will never return. And when we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it's better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive. Those words written by Audrey Lord are the opening to my chapter one of my dissertation on educational leadership. And they also speak to the call that you have as educational leaders to be the voice of the people. I'm going to repeat that. The voice of the people. You represent the students, the educators, and the community members, not just within your district, but within the entire ecosystem of the Pittsburgh public schools. That's an enormous responsibility that requires care and conviction. And what stands out to me in this moment is

022that the community has unequivocally demonstrated those principles. Community activists across multitude of organizations have come together, settling their differences, petitioning you to vote no on a plan that they believe will do more harm than good. This is a bold demonstration of collective care and unified conviction that cannot be ignored by those charged with the responsibility of educating our children. A no to this plan is a yes to the future where elected officials care less about line items and more about voices and the value and the lived realities of the people they are called to serve. Thank you for your time and shout out to Devin. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number eight, Andrew Wowski. Speaker number seven, I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Hello. Uh good evening. I'm a parent of a Dworth magnet uh

023kindergarten child and he loves his school. I urge you to vote no on the future ready plan because uh throughout the public comment process when asking specific questions on implementation such as transportation staffing, how the schools will change with their new status um and with their merging. We kept hearing answers like trust the leadership, trust the process, we'll figure this out while implementing the plan. This will be up to teachers and parents to decide together. This is after years of planning and with major changes scheduled to be implemented on a short time frame. We also kept hearing how this plan is led by equity. uh yet I have to mention that out of all the magnet schools the only one that is scheduled that is planned to be open still is the majority white magnet

024school Montasauri that is not to say that it should be also closed by no means but that other magnet schools should be extended the same consideration for example the school that I know most about Dworth is the only other school in addition to Montasauri that consistently has a weight and full enrollment. It is a it is a majority black school that is frequently cited as a role model, including by the school officials during the public comments on this very plan. Yet, it is being demoted from a majority black magnet school to a neighborhood school for a relatively affluent uh majority white area, Highland Park. This will also lead uh all of this, in my opinion, will lead not to resourced parents integrating into public schools and creating more equitable distribution of resources, but to them

025choosing private schools, continuing the downward spiral of students and funding loss. I urge you to vote no. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number eight, Jayla Rucker. Good evening, board. Could I ask you for three minutes of your time and your attent undivided attention, please? I think it's just really uncoofed that I've noticed a few of y'all are just scrolling in your phones and on your laptops and iPads, and we're all here tonight to give our public comment because we care about our children's future. I am a proud Manchester Tiger since 2001. I have five children whom all attended Manchester Elementary School for over 20 plus years. Our school is not merely a building. It is the heart of our community. For decades, it has served a safe, walkable center

026where our children receive quality education and our neighbors meet. Closing Manchester would mean breaking the bonds that are that hold our neighborhood together. Research shows that schools closures disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations and do not necessarily offer the significant savings predicted. When we lose our local school, we lose our community's identity. It becomes harder for parents to be involved in PTA sports school activities which ultimately harms student achievement. Furthermore, our property values and neighborhood desiraability are directly tied to the presence of this school. We need to invest in our neighborhood public schools, not destroy them. I ask that the board look beyond the numbers and to consider the social, economic, and human cost of this decision. We must recognize that a school's closures accelerates the decay of a neighborhood. I implore you to take a community

027first approach and choose to invest in our children by keeping our schools open. This proposed plan means that my son would have to cross three major traffic streets for his commute to Alagany, which lacks crossing guards. So, vote no on the future ready plan. And as board members, please direct Dr. Walters, your employee, to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better plan than serial school closures. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number nine, Erica Gidley. [snorts] Hi, good evening. My name is Erica Gidley. I'm a parent and community member of Arsenal PreK through 5 and I urge the board of directors to vote no on agenda item 1701 to adopt the future ready plan. This plan goes beyond the resolution's listed intent of closing school buildings and will fundamentally disrupt

028every program Pittsburgh public schools currently offers. The future ready plan discusses how much the district will save by closing the facilities but not the programs themselves. Closing Arsenal PreK through 5 will not save the district money. The district is proposing a $5 million capital investment in a building that they estimate will be 20% utilized after the reconfiguration while still displacing roughly 289 elementary students from an established program that has room to grow. At best, this is a naive take on giving 6 to 8th graders growing space from elementary learners. At its worst, it opens the opportunity to claim future underutilization as a reason to sell a school building in one of the most desirable residential areas of Pittsburgh 5 to 10 years down the line. Closing Arsenal PreK through 5 disrupts a working program that

029already addresses supports for students facing challenges. The resolution lists those students as a African-American, b economically disadvantaged, c special education, and d English language learner. Arsenal PreK through 5 has had the same principle for over a decade, has twice the district average share of teachers of color, and provides robust services for students with IEPs and or ELLL. The future ready plan intentionally shuffles ELLL students out of an established ELLL program to this school or that and then maybe again in three years when Northview opens. Arsenal PreK through 5 already supports these students and has room for more elementary students and additional programming all while still offering the IBY magnet school. This is irresponsible to close Arsenal PreK through 5. Now take all these points and multiply them by 12 school closures, nine facility closures, and

030a major grade configuration reconfiguration. There are too many questions to vote on the future ready plan as it stands today. There are parts of the future ready plan that can be implemented without the disruption, but that is not on the agenda. It is all or nothing. voting on the same plan with very few um answered questions is making changes for changes sake and I urge directors Pernell ter I knew I was going to do that I had it I urge all the directors I'm sorry um to vote no on the future ready plan >> thank you for your testimony speaker number 10 Martha Ree Six months ago, the PPS board voted no to the future ready plan. What has changed since that time and since that vote? By my count, there's only three notable changes.

031We do have three new school board members. Two, we have a delayed implementation timeline which might come with improved communications. And three, I noticed that one advocacy group, A+ Schools, has flipped from opposing the plan, which they opposed this fall and co-signed some letters opposing, and are now supporting it today, as I noticed on the list of speakers. So, why are we here trying with the same failed to pass future ready plan on the table? I truly do not understand. Have we gone back in time and gathered meaningful input? No. Have we addressed the school deserts, the transportation's concerns that are arising from these consolidations and proposed closures? No. Has accurate and authentic capacity data been analyzed to ensure the consolidation plans do not result in overcrowded schools? No. have professional demographers, geographers, and analysts

032provide a database guidance and recommendations that will guide what the plan does before we start having conversations [clears throat] and decisions about which specific properties should be closed. No. The board has asked about the goals of the plan, such as if it's based on a financial target for savings or student outcomes. Has this been answered and clearly defined? No. Have evidence-based benchmarks for schools and students been defined? No. Have we looked to how other cities to envision how our magnet program, our award-winning magnet program, could be revised and revamped to have a broader reach and support equitable access and experience for all? No. Has anyone looked seriously at how our early childhood education students are going to fit into any of this? No. Have we solved the racial and social economic in inequities that permeate

033our district? No. and experts in the field are telling you that this plan will make them worse. It makes no sense to move forward with this plan. No matter how many times you say you'll discuss these concerns later and figure it out as you go, the number of organizations who do not support this plan is unprecedented. 412 Justice, Black Women for a Better Education, the NAACP, the Education Right Networks, and many others are united against this plan. I've sat in this room many times. I've listened to the same testimony you have and I've attended comment sessions throughout the city. Nearly all of the speakers express serious valid concerns about the future ready plan. We have asked you to stop, step back, and start over. Parents and community members speak at these hearings because we care

034about the future of Pittsburgh public schools. We want to see amazing, thriving communities. Do we need change to make that happen? Yes. >> Thank you very much for your testimony. Speaker number 11, Neil Pegasus >> Pis. Thank you. Everybody put their phones away now. I'm up on the board now. One person knows me in here, Mr. Walters. You know all the schools and I was in one of your schools. Now you you know me. I wouldn't be here today. All y'all all these people right here. Y'all should know the schools right from left, right? I don't want my kids coming home crying saying, "Oh, I got a wrote up slip." I don't want that no more. Put pens and papers down when I'm talking. Pen down. When I'm talking, there should be no pens writing.

035Right or wrong? H. Anybody want to ask me a question while I'm here today for my kids? My kids are at home crying about their schools. I don't want Alagany to be closed or Manchester. If I hear one word a close in Manchester, I'll be back up here, Mr. Walters. And you know, Mr. G, I'll see you at Central if it's closed. So, I better not see my schools closed. Case closed. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 12, Abby Folds. Hello. Thank you for listening to us. I'm optimistic that you will all do the right right thing and vote no on this plan. So, you know, I was thinking we're all aware of how hopeless we're all feeling right now with our federal government. It seems the president, Congress, nobody's listening to the people

036speak about what they want. We're very clear about what we want, many of us anyway. And everyone says act locally. You have some control locally. And so even it's really upsetting that even now at our ultra local level, the city school board, that we're feel like we're still not being heard. We've told you before, we don't want this plan as it is. Please vote no. I went to Pittsburgh public schools and all four of the different schools I went to have been closed. My kids now go to Phillips on the south side and the other day Dr. Walters came to our school for the take your uh father/VIP day to our school. It was a great day. One of the teachers who I went to Shenley with organized Rashard Mendal to come and speak to

037the kids. It was wonderful event. But you know what? If this plan passes, my kids would not be able to go to that school because we would be forced to go to our neighborhood school, which is also a lovely school. But there would be no choice to be able to go to Phillips. And that is also one of the problems with this plan is that uh the there's been very little attention put on the uh neighborhood magnet programs being closed to kids who are not at the um who are not able to who don't live there and can't go to the magnet because it's unclear what would happen for my kids. So I'm in this limbo state which is not fun. Um, so, um, all of the people here are here today because we all

038care so much. And there's lots of different reasons why everyone thinks that this plan is bad, but we're all here today, almost all of us, because we all think different aspects of this plan are bad, but you know, there it's not all terrible. There's lots of things that are good about it. But as it currently is, we all know this. We all know that it's not good enough as it is, but it's not voting no today is not a failure tomorrow. It's not a failure. So, please just do it. We can. You don't have to throw everything away and blow up the whole PPS system, okay? Let's just go back to the drawing board, take the pieces that matter, that work, talk to the people, listen to the people, and please just keep working at

039it. You're all volunteers. You're on the school board because you care. We believe in your goodwill. And please have the courage and vote no. and you don't want to be the one to go down in history as helping to basically dismantle Pittsburgh public schools because that's what this plan would do and you all know that that's true. You mean well, but this plan is not the answer. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 13, Naomi Chambers. Um, just a little tired. Sorry y'all. Um, the current plan is unjust and harmful. The school year ends in about two weeks. My children are signed up for a week's worth of summer soccer camp at Shinley Park, which was approximately $300. After this week of soccer camp, they will attend their school's summer camp in the

040historic hill district. The theme this year is the World Cup. This fourweek camp was at no cost to me. It will be run by adults and the community members that they know and love. Tomorrow is their camp orientation held at Miller in our neighborhood. We will be able to walk there and save on gas. This is one reason why I'm grateful to be a Miller family. Will their new school have programming Miller families need that fill in the gaps? Tomorrow is also Miller's spring music and arts showcase. The showcase is a variety of singing, playing instruments, cultural dance performance, and student art displays. My daughter is singing Three Little Birds, Don't worry about a thing. But Miller also teaches coogi chocoly, self-determination, and so we're here. The auditorium will be full as it always is

041with proud parents ready to witness the hard work of their children come to life. We will take our children home wondering if this will be the last time we watch our children perform there. I welcome you to see the youth perform tomorrow. I welcome you to imagine the weird feeling we felt for two and a half years as we stood on the chopping block. Our children's education dangling in uncertainty and lack. This is not a critique of the men and women that spend time with our children every day and provide them with the best they can. I've seen them show up Monday through Friday and every season for our children and it hurts that I've seen our children, educators and staff receive less and less from the district, less information, less concern, and less care.

042This process does not feel good. It's the same people being made to feel this way, and it's even more sad to see it done to our children. It's been two and a half years since 412 Justice stood outside Miller with flyers informing us of our school possibly closing. I feel like we've been in a limbo that no other school simply, unless they're going through this, does not always have to feel. It's a grinding stress on us. The children feel it and it's not okay. I've had moments when I questioned if I was being neglectful by leaving my children in Miller, knowing the district has largely turned its back. I'm taking this personal because I'm not sure how else to take it. The things facing our community are due to a history of violent policies enacted

043by our city, state, and federal governments. I can call it out when it isn't happening to everyone. You say it's the low attendance numbers, but sometimes people stop coming to the table when the subpar offerings. Drastic ills happen to the people living there. When you are going to going to be going through radical aid to reverse the harm instead of continuing to press the same neighborhoods. Why is the status quo for black schools and black neighborhoods to be underresourced? This is a secondass citizenship and Miller families and children deserve better. Please give us more time so that as a community we can help come up with solutions that work for all of our children. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 14, Ann Ferris. Thank you. Speaker number 15, Casey Brown. Hello,

044my name is Casey with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I am here to speak out against more school closures which are happening in the community because we all know what happened when Shenley High School closed. PPS evaluated the amount of asbestos to be removed in the building at $20 million, but when Pit bought the building, it was a mere $2 million. Today, Shinley High School is a luxury apartment sitting on the crosshair on the corner between North Oakland and the upper hill, gentrifying the area. Gentrification for the non pro for the profit of the nonprofits and the big developers at the expense of the beautiful communities constructed by the black working class is pushing people to the fringes. Children are being displaced from the hill and to the southside or deep into the northshore.

045They have to apply for increasingly scarce section 8 housing each time they move. These school closures are spearheaded by the same nonprofits and developers who ruined Shenley and the surrounding areas. This will only make the gentrification worse. This is far from the only attack, by the way, that we're seeing on the children right now. Under the backdrop of increasing childhood poverty, food insecurity, and homelessness, Cory O' Conor's police chief imposed a curfew in Market Square. The police are collaborating with private security to stalk, criminalize, and incarcerate young people. At the same time, ICE increases its presence all over the city. And the criminalization does not confide itself to outside the classroom. We have police who stalk the hallways and arrest and cuff children for minor infractions. It's absurd what is happening. The level of criminalization.

046I want to be very clear about what closing these schools will mean cuz it is not happening in a vacuum. The whole community feels it. That's why everybody came out today. These closing these schools, particularly the student achievement center, will mean children will be have their lives completely uprooted. They'll be displaced by gentrification. They'll be put to the margins of the school system by criminalization inside and outside of school. They will be pushed out of the school system entirely by losing the student achievement center lifeline. And then they'll be locked up by Cory O' Conor's racist administration. But this outcome is not inevitable. A better future is possible if we unite and fight together. And I urge you because we are united and we thank you very much for your testimony. Speaker number 16, Sarah

047Zangel. Hi, my name is Sarah. I'm a PPS parent and the lead coordinator of the community proposal which was offered as another option to the future ready plan. I have a bunch of third graders here from Wolf Slayer. Um they are here so that you can see their faces, hear their names, and know that your vote has consequences. I'm going to list what the next three years for each of them is going to look like. So we have Charlie Wolf Slayer for fourth, Sunnyside fifth, Arsenal 6th, Serenity, Wolf Slayer, Grand View, Arlington, Advent, Wolf Slayer, Liberty, Arsenal, Dean, Wolf Slayer, Alageney at King, Schiller at Alagany, Ella, Wolf Slayer, Whittier Classical, Langston, Wolf Slayer, Langley Classical, Nina Louise, Wolf Slayer, West Liberty, Carmal, These kids are amazing. They'll do whatever you ask of them and

048they will do it with their best ef effort and their positive attitude. They need you to be certain that the choices tomorrow that you make are going to make things more equitable, more financially sustainable, safer, and better for them. If you have any doubts, please consider other options. Dr. Walters, this isn't about you. It's about them. And I resent the fact that Dr. Walters and others are insinuating that the community rejecting this plan is racially motivated. The community response to this plan is robust because we have been here before. We have done this before. Even ERS said that they had never had a community response like this. Trick me once, shame on you. Tricks, trick me twice, shame on me. Trick me five times, you better believe we come out and we come out hard

049and we rally. We are savvy because unfortunately we have generations of Pittsburgh kids that have been failed before. We literally have community groups built out of a response of how badly PPS has failed underprivileged and underrepresented children in the past. The community knows what it needs. It's not this. Vote no. Create a plan that truly puts equity first. Keep these kids at the center of decisions and we'll go in a positive direction. We all need these kids to achieve their highest potential. Vote no tomorrow. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 17, Katie Rank Lev. Hi. You've heard from me before about this plan, and I don't have anything new to say, but some of you are new, so I'm going to reiterate. This plan is not supported by the community. You've

050read by now the letters from the NAACP, 412 Justice, Black Women for a Better Education, and a number of lawmakers and interfaith-based leadership groups throughout the city. We all agree the plan is not complete or sound and overlooks really important impactful details. My small example of this is that the plan you are voting on fails to mention that Starret is a classical academy magnet. Maybe that feels insignificant to you. Starret is not an afterthought for my family, though. It's a hugely meaningful piece of our community. There are hundreds of families whose children attend my school. It feels really awful to stand here month after month and ask about my child's school and see it overlooked in the plan. One stated goal of the plan is to create continuity and build community with the children. In

051the plan before you, Starret children and parents are left to guess whether our magnet program will end or continue. In the plan before you, Starret will draw children from various neighborhoods in sixth grade, blend them with the Wilkinsburg students in seventh grade, and then shuffle students to multiple high schools. Where is the continuity and community building for the Cougars? How can I trust the administration to handle the big details of such an important task when no one even seems to know the details of my kids' school? Please listen to the community voices and vote no. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 18, Talia Newman. Hi everyone. My name is Talia. Um I'm here with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Um but I'm also here as a community member and an

052individual. Um I'm not originally from Pittsburgh. I'm from Philly. Please don't hate me. Um, but what drew me to this event is related to what's happening in Philly and in school districts all over the country. Um, which is a disinvestment in public education and in the students that constitute our future. I attended public high school in Philly. Um, after a round of 30 school closures in uh 2012 to 2013, uh, my high school was massively overcrowded and underfunded. The school closures had funneled more students into the school than the teachers um or the building itself could support. Uh resulting in classrooms of 35 to 40 students per teacher, stressed out teachers, stressed out parents um and no individual attention given to students. Um in fact, a 2019 study from the University of Pennsylvania found that

053following these closures, displaced students received more suspensions and were absent more compared to their peers. This is a national problem, not just a Pittsburgh problem. And it's a problem that seems to keep reoccurring. This isn't the first time that the board has closed tons of schools in Pittsburgh. And if we don't stop this round of closures, it probably won't be the last. Uh if the solution to the school district's lack of funds is to close schools, then why do the school closures keep happening? Um it's almost like it doesn't help. Um, what helps is investing in education, not taking away money and resources from students and teachers. Even though I didn't grow up here, I love Pittsburgh and I don't want the students coming up now to share my poor experience in public schools. I

054love living in Pittsburgh and I'd like to raise a family here one day. Um, what I don't want is to raise a family in a city that seems like it doesn't care about or invest in public education or its children. Thank you. Please vote no. >> Talia, thank you very much for your testimony. Speaker number 19, Dr. Elise Pinchback. At this point, you have heard thousands of reasons why the future ready plan should or should not be passed. My stance against this plan is clear, as evidenced through my public testimony, multiple letters, and conversations with many of you. Therefore, I will utilize my time to ask each board member a question that I hope you will spend some time, some quiet time reflecting on before you vote tomorrow. I'm trying to find you, but you'll

055just have to listen. Oh, there you are. Director Cook Pernell, as a highly effective career educator and administrator, can you definitively say that this plan and its implementation reflects what you know to be good practice? Director Talifero, as someone who has been opposed to the plan from the beginning, what are you doing to productively build support for your position amongst your board colleagues? Director Grayson, you've said publicly that you would vote no on a plan that was the same as the plan that failed in November. Will you keep your word? Director Silk, your requests for additional information have been met with resistance and incomplete responses. Do you feel like that behavior is indicative of a district administration that can implement a plan and of this magnitude? Director Reid, as an education scholar and practitioner who

056understands what good leadership, teaching, and learning looks like, are you willing to endorse a plan that has not met the mark in any of these areas? Director Yord, you've asked for a level of specificity and detail about the plan that you did not receive. Do you think it's appropriate to move forward with a yes vote without that information? Director Diodati, as someone who works directly with our students, are you confident that this plan will provide the muchneeded academic and non-academic support they deserve? Director Barker, as a longtime parent and community advocate who has witnessed the district providing lip service to black students and families for decades, how is this plan any different? Director Walker, are you willing to put aside ego to consider legitimate fact-based criticisms to the plan and district administration? Happy reflecting. >>

057Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 20, Lucy Thompson. My name is Lucy. I'm seven and I've been going to this school since I was four. In this new school, will there be any space for a garden, laptop, playground, and grass? Those are the recess places that we rotate around. Coming back to the garden, what's so special about it? Well, there's a compost and a few trees. Not enough. We also have a little sitting area outside the garden with stumps and benches. Still not enough. There's flowers in the sitting place and a bunny rabbit in the garden that I couldn't imagine leaving. They're really cute. Well, we have a nice big room for specials. And speaking on behalf of the children's house, the youngest students, they probably don't know that right now you are planning

058to move our school. Will there be and will they be comfortable suddenly moving schools? Vote no. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 21 is Carrie Thompson. Good evening. Like others who have spoken and I've been here for two years coming to these hearings, it's kind of hard to know what to say tonight because we've been speaking against this plan for so long. I went with good faith effort and read the new FAQ that you put out about the plan to see if maybe some important questions would be answered and there were pieces of information there that hadn't been there before. And I appreciate that and maybe if we had started at that place 2 years ago, we would be in a different place now. But that's not where we started. Instead, what we

059did get from you uh last fall was information on your own uh enrollment numbers and the the loss of students over the last 10 years. And it said that the greatest attrition is after 8th grade. And yet what we have before us is a plan that mostly impacts preK to8 schools. The schools that are most utilized and beloved by the community that barely addresses the needs of the high school students, some of whom came and spoke very eloquently a couple of hearings ago about some of the important extracurriculars they wish they had in their schools. Where is the attention to those high schools if you actually want to bring families back to the district? This same press release acknowledged the growth in charter schools and sizable growing portion of the district's budget going to charter

060schools. You acknowledge that there needs to be school choice and yet what you're doing here is removing school choices which is just going to drive more families out of the district into these charter schools. So whose pockets are getting lined here? It's the owners of those charter schools and it's not to benefit our children, the students of Pittsburgh. They are not at the center of this plan as much as we'd like them to be. So, while the district has started to acknowledge many of the questions and problems that families have raised in this process, we're still not there. And a public education is still one of the most important foundations of a democratic society. And that's why it's important that we get this right. That we don't close schools and then never have the ability

061to reopen them. That we don't lose more students out of our district and have further problems with our budget because that's how we'll really fix our budget problems is by bringing families back. So do what you said in that press release and reach out to some of those families that have left. Let's see it. Let's see what could happen. What could we learn? Why didn't you do that last summer? Right? uh we know there are families that left because of the confusion over this plan. So, how can we work together to do some of the things that you've acknowledged to make our schools better because we all want that. >> Thank you so much for your testimony this evening. Speaker number 22, Jenna Berdett. >> Hi, good evening. Um, I am a mother of two,

062a second grader at KFax and a rising kindergartener who is super excited to join him next year at PPS. Um, I just want to thank the members of the board who have taken some time to meet with the community and hear our questions and concerns and weigh them carefully. But honestly, I'm here tonight as a tired parent. My experience with this plan has been district leadership reviewing a single way forward and avoiding answering as many questions as possible in the time since. Um, I want to share my concerns that this administration is urging our communities to adopt a plan without holding itself to the standard it holds our children to. For example, this year my second grader was taught to solve arithmetic problems using multiple different methods. He wasn't permitted to use only his favorite

063method. He had to learn every option, demonstrate an understanding of each, and then use them in turn as the problem requires. When he submits his homework, he is required to show his thinking because writing an answer on the page isn't the end. We have to know how he got there. He's presented his work out loud, received public feedback from his classmates on the things he did well. Yeah. But also the ways to improve and he's inspected to use that feedback not as a reason to dig in his heels, but as a tool to improve his work. Consider multiple options. Show your work. Take the feedback and improve what you submit. These are the standards we're setting for our students with a goal to build flexible thinkers and strong problem solvers. Over the last two years,

064families have been asking so many questions. And instead of answers, we're told we've got to do something. We the community, we're not foolish. We know we need to do something. We're asking why this plan is the something we need to do. When the district declines to consider multiple options, show their work, take their feedback and improve what they submit, public trust is eroded. Our family, I know many others have considered leaving the district not because we want to or we might have to go to a new building or we are emotional, but because we are losing trust. If leadership will not hold itself to the standard it holds our students to, what is the future that we are getting ready for? I am asking you please to vote no tomorrow. Yes, we need to do

065something, but your community doesn't understand the answer to the question without holding the district to its own very wise standards. We cannot assume that this answer is the right one. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 23, Charlie Bratannic. My name is Charlie and I'm here to say all you need to do is vote no today. Why would you close such a beautiful school? I think some people are toad fools. Friendship building has lots of freckling space. Lynon has hills and concrete all over the place. Is that not the only bad thing I got to say? Because you fools are going to close greenway, which means no kids are going to have the knowledge grow and it won't have a chance to fly like a crow. And if you think this is a

066good plan for facilities, you need to go back to kindergs. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 24, Carara Bratannic. I'm not sure how I'm going to follow that, but here we go. I'm here again tonight to ask you once again to vote no on the future ready plan. You already voted it down in November, and there have been no changes to it. So, how did it miraculously become better? During the April presentation, where the district responded to the board's questions, they did not provide any more details for recurring concerns such as staffing plans or transportation. Director Walker wants us to believe that trust can be built in implementation. But how is that possible when so much trust has been lost during planning? Maybe if there were a track record of successful implementation, that would

067be true. But let's take the recent launch of the family math site as an example. Dr. Wal Walters announced this resource in the May 12th progress monitoring meeting. Since then, there's been no district-wide communication about this new resource. No social media posts, no emails or talking points messages, no peach jar fires, and this is for an actual educational resource that is said to be a strategy. In that same amount of time, I've received three emails and one peach jar fire about the parent ambassador program. So, if the family math site is so important that it's considered a strategy, why has there been zero communication about it? If the district can't successfully implement this relatively simple strategy, how can we trust them to implement a plan that is exponentially more complex? Let's take another example from

068the plan itself. Early childhood classrooms have barely been considered with only vague answers given within the schools that are proposed to close. There are 10 ECE classrooms plus two at Lynen. The plan and FK FAQs merely say preK classrooms will move with the K to5 buildings and that the number of classrooms must remain the same due to grant funding. So what about these 10 classrooms and buildings that are proposed to close? Where will they go? Will they remain in the same regions of the city? Do you have proposed locations for them? What about the two at Lynden? Will those stay at Lynden? Since the building stays open, if they if so, will they be integrated into Monasuri or be separate? If they're integrated, then two other ECE classrooms would need to open elsewhere. Where would

069those go? If they remain at Lynden but separate, how will Monasuri fit at Lynen? If two classrooms are already being used for preK classrooms, these are the type of details that are consistently missing from all aspects of the implementation plan that the community and some members of the board have been asking for the last two years. and the district consistently fails to bring forward those details. Yes, they're detailed questions, but they're questions that need to be answered before you vote to move forward with the plan, not after. If they can't address this during planning, then I do not trust that they will get their act together for a smooth implementation. Just look at what's happening with your counterparts in Philly. Despite intense push back, they approved a plan that has scarce details and requires immense

070funding that they don't currently have. And now that the plan is passed, they realize they may have to scale it back. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? No funding has been identified by the district to renovate Northview and the details in the future ready plan remain vague. Don't be like Philadelphia. We have an opportunity to pause, update data, listen to the community, and really consider their feedback and create a detailed plan that can garner more widespread support, but we can only do this if you vote no on Wednesday. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 25, Aaron Childs. Hi, my name is Aaron Childs. I have three kids in PPS and they are all in middle school at this point. They were not. They were at Wool's Lair when this all started. The first

071time I came here to testify was in February of 2024. That's 27 months ago. And I told you that I thought that a long-term solution for our district would require careful planning, accurate data, and inclusion of all stakeholders, including the consideration of the effects on current students, future students, teachers, and the community PPS serves. All that is still true. Mr. Walker, put your phone down. [snorts] Can I reclaim my time while this happens? Since then, I've come and talked about a variety of things. a pervasive error I found in the data that's still being used for building capacity. The drawbacks of taking magnet style choice away from families entering our district with their youngest learners. Why a plan that started off focusing on facilities is never going to be able to actually center our kids

072and their education. And finally, I pointed out that Dr. Walter seems to currently be just ignoring the intentions of what you ask him to do and manipulating the direction the conversations go. But it's not just me. Month after month, other parents show up to talk to you about what's closest to their hearts. Shannon shows up to tell you about IEPs and kids with special needs, talking about the law and about her personal journey. Emily shows up to tell all of us how equity can really look. Val shows up to give you the perspective of a parent who's been walking this road for more than 13 years, literally walking the neighborhood and knocking on doors while pregnant, trying and succeeding to save her son's school. Jasine shows up with all four of her kids and makes

073it clear that the district needs to earn back the trust this process has eroded. And Sarah shows up with more optimism for meaningful engagement than I can even imagine after doing this for two years. And those aren't the only ones. Hundreds of parents and community members have spoken out about these topics and more over the past two years. And we are all tired. The parents are tired. You members are tired. And we're all tired of talking and hearing about the same things over and over. We know you are. We know we are. The thing is, we wouldn't do this month after month if we didn't think it mattered. We wouldn't do it if we felt heard or that our concerns seem to be actually taken into account in this process. And right now, this is

074the only place we get this kind of engagement even a little bit. The administration's engagement with the school communities and honestly with the board related to this plan has been entirely centered on providing information to us. We get updates about the plan. We can ask clarifying questions about the plan. That's not that's having an audience. It's not having a conversation. Meaningful engagement doesn't look like that. It looks like a district that meets people where they're at. It looks like administrators coming to school activities like concerts or take a father to school day to advertise what's going on and telling the community how to get involved. It means using talking points and robocalls as aggressively for obtaining community input as for advertising a shoe drive. Please understand, we all want what's best for our kids. You

075>> Thank you for your testimony. Thank you. Speaker number 26, June Weren. >> Thank you for listening to me tonight. After coming to these hearings for two years now, I've been so impressed at the level of knowledge, care, and experience that students and parents have brought to this issue, and disappointed at some members of the school board's continual refusal to draw upon this resource to make Pittsburgh public schools the best district possible for the students, parents, teachers, and communities it serves. What you are voting on can be called the Future Ready's facilities plan, but it's clear that there is no plan, and it is not ready for the future. when we don't have answers to questions as basic as how are all the children going to get to school and will there be the same

076level of support for students with special education needs ESL learners or that need community based services as well as how do we keep the things that work from each school like Wilsair's steam program in Miller's African- centered curriculum in fact the only predictable outcome of this plan is that it is going to lead to more families fleeing the school district and going to private suburban or charter schools which will mean less resources uh for the district and continuing this cycle of disinvestment. So, we have to show up again in another decade or two to protect our city from another round of closures. The hardworking people of the city are already dealing with nonprofits like UPMC making tens of millions of dollars a year without contributing to ascent in taxes, with real estate developers pricing people

077out of their neighborhoods. the increasing criminalization of young people, especially black teenagers, in a national administration that is conducting an all-out assault to bring us back to the time before the civil rights movement transformed this country for the better. The question every member of the school board has to ask themselves is, do they want to be on the side of those trying to turn this city into a playground of for the rich and the powerful or on the side of the people who are fighting to protect the dignity and rights of our communities? Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 27 is Emily Sawyer. I cannot begin to communicate the hurt and anger in the Manchester community after the CBS report that used Manchester as a pawn in the administration's game

078to justify school closures. You should be ashamed of yourself if you had anything to do with this story. I have never been more disappointed in people that I have tried to believe the best in. Someone I respect and consider a friend told me, "It's hard to hear the truth." But I'm not upset about the facts presented. I'm furious that you would find it acceptable to create a narrative that the students, staff, and community somehow deserve this when they have made none of the decisions that got us there. Truly, how dare you? In the story, the reporter said the northside neighborhood once filled Pittsburgh Manchester with students. And Dr. Walters called Manchester a textbook example of an underutilized building. But the story failed to mention how the district just moved multiple regional classrooms out of our

079building two years ago. The story failed to mention that principles have been rotating in and out of our building like they're on a conveyor belt. A conveyor belt the district controls. The story failed to mention that the district is removing our full-time social studies teacher position. And you'll say, "We just don't have enough enrollment to support a full-time social studies teacher." But I call shenanigans because at other schools, we make exceptions and carve out space in the CBA for adjuncts. And don't worry about how small class sizes are. 75% of fine arts classes in the PPS course catalog are only offered at Kappa. I wonder how many students take OBO 4 or how many students have gotten free private instrument lessons for credit at school. And we can't have a social studies teacher. The story

080failed to mention the impacts of deferred maintenance and disinvestment on the building. For example, we haven't been able to lo use our library all year. Unsurprisingly, the story failed to mention anything about the conditions created, not by the staff and students at the school, not by the families or the members of the community, but by the people in this room or those who have held your positions in the past. No one in that building or community made the decisions that have left us where we are. How dare you use us as propaganda to justify doing the least radical, least challenging, least imaginative thing a school district ever does when facing what we are facing? It seems to me the future ready plan is just a euphemism for balancing your budget on the backs of people

081the furthest from power, but the closest to the consequences of your decisions. In the story, Dr. Walters stated, "This plan will provide us some savings to really implement quality education. And yet we still have no indication of why this time will be any different than prior occasions. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, well you know the rest. And we're on how many rounds of closures in PPS over the last few decades? And you want support with no details. You probably have a bridge to sell us, too. I wasn't going to come up here and lambash you. I had a whole comment written about needing to create a system that doesn't require producing winners and losers. But then you insulted children, families, and people who work harder than I have ever seen anyone

082work. Don't you dare blame this on them. Don't you dare spin a narrative that schools like Manchester deserve to be closed. Please make no mistake. I am asking you to feel shame you should be feeling. Thank you very much for your testimony this evening. Speaker number 28, Silus Sawyer. Good evening board members. Dr. Walters. Thank you. My name is Silus Sawyer and I'm a student at Perry High School as well as a resident on the north side. It's easy to see the vote on the future ready plan as a choice between progress and stagnation between securing a brighter future for us students and the regression of the district as a whole. Now, which is which depends on where you live, what you do, and who you are. And in that way, no plan, no road

083map, no plot, and no scheme could ever live up to the multitudes of identity represented by each one of you in front of me. After all, a good compromise just leaves everyone unhappy. So, the question we should be all be asking ourselves is not whether or not to close schools, but whether the plan to close schools is any good at all. Can we place the well-being of our communities, the education of our children, the success of the next generation, and the future of the city at large on this plan? I cannot in good conscience say yes. I cannot say that this district has impressed upon me in my time a feeling of trust. I have never seen it. I came from a middle school Manchester K to8 where we had art classes once a month.

084My music teacher drove from Columbus, Ohio every day to teach in the city. My library was a spare classroom and we still couldn't fill all the shelves. When I started attending Perraditional Academy as a freshman, we had no musical programs, no theater to speak of, minimal community outreach, and English again as elective [clears throat] choices. Now, they tell me that this is an issue of resources. And they tell me that closing schools, rebuilding the community model from the ground up will solve it. What have they done to inspire this confidence in me? They could not build a school then, and I see no reason to believe they could build one now. The concept of reallocating resources, centralizing the process of learning, these things aren't new. The district is not asking to close schools. In effect,

085they are asking for a second chance at allocating resources to the people that need them the most. A task at which they have failed in the past. What we have more than a crisis of resources is a crisis of strategic thinking. I suggest then that the future ready plan be postponed indefinitely. Show us a plan, not an intention. Give us something to work with, to build on, to collaborate, and to hope for. I cannot be exported to support anything less. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 29, Lauren Apt. Good evening. You'll have to excuse my voice. In the fall, I all four of my kids will be PPS students. Three of them will be in Manchester. Last week, KDKA aired a segment featuring Dr. Walters and Director Walker in which my children's

086school served as a backdrop for the leadership's talking points. I had seen the news camera setting up outside and was later surprised to see the piece, which can only be described as the district using our school community to fit their talking points. Manchester could and should be a school with more children in it. However, the way the school was represented and depicted in the segment was disrespectful and damaging. No one ever seems to ask why the Manchester's enrollment might be so low. Could it be that despite incredibly dedicated and longtime staff, the school's leadership has been undercut by both unpre unpreventable personal situations and district level decisions, resulting in five principles in seven years? Could it be that while our neighboring feeder zones are very large, Manchester's feeder zone remains incredibly small compared to its

087neighbor catchments and boxed in geographically? Could it be that families in the neighborhood chose choose district magnets or charters without ever stepping foot in our school because of narratives reinforced by the news segment that no one goes there? Could it be that families are preemptively choosing to pull their kids because of constant threat of impending closure, not because of lack of confidence in or dissatisfaction with the school itself? What does this segment crafted by the district and pariting leadership talking points say about our school? Did our school leadership and staff have any say in it spotlighting our school? It certainly does not reflect the pride, love, and investment of Manchester staff, parents, and community. Imagine how our teachers feel when they see the superintendent and board president use the school that they pour their energy

088and time into as a reason to close it and others. It feels as though the district has given up on Manchester, but staff, parents, and students have not. It's an insult to use images of our school, our students, and images of empty classrooms to illustrate the negligence and malpractice of the district without any acknowledgement or thanks to the parents, teachers, and community members who devoted their time and energy to make the school what it is. Please stop using our school community to fuel your narrative that it's a place to close, not a place to invest. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 30, Sylvia Wilson. Good evening everyone. It is not a strange thing that I have given years of attention, years of my life to all to and for all PPS

089schools and for the education that all students deserve. Therefore, I ask that the elected representatives for our children vote yes on 17.01. This is a time for both fiscal responsibility and a time to be sensibly responsible for the future educational planning to be provided for our students now and in the future. In regard to the specific programming that have been heatedly presented to hinder the planning, much of this programming seriously should be available for all students across the district and not in segmented areas of PPS and not exclusive as some of our schools are. Now I cannot understand why the reality of providing excellent opportunities for all students is not being recognized. I stress that facing the overall financial and educational challenges must be considered. We can't wait for that disastrous situation that surely would

090occur. One that would put this school district, the education of our students in serious jeopardy. A situation that will place our city, our future in a tenuous situation. It is critical for a yes vote on item 17.01 on the agenda. A yes vote is imperative to avoid an in inevitable disaster. Yes, it is not strange at all that I still care about the education of all of all PPS students now and in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony, Miss Wilson. Speaker number 31, David Apt. >> Hello, my name is David David Apt. I'm in ninth grade and I go to Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy. I understand that a lot of people are upset by the idea of school closures and to an extent an extent I am as well. However,

091I don't quite have the technical knowledge to speak on speak on that in what I believe would be a meaningful way. So, I'm going to touch on something I have a little more experience and understanding of. From my understanding, what is currently Alagany Traditional Academy will become Schiller or North Side Middle School. My problem becomes when we start to talk about how the current Schiller administration is supposed to be moved to this new facility. This news rubbed me the wrong way. And to elaborate on that, I went to Schiller for seventh and eighth grade. During that time, I learned a lot about their leadership. Of all my time at Schiller, many useless and practically illegal rules. For example, no water bottles without a doctor's note and saying consistently that going to the bathroom was a

092distraction and telling teachers to prevent students from doing so. When I fought for the rule about water bottles to be removed and the administration did not tell teachers when Devon got involved, the principal Paul Heinesman lied and said no such rule existed to prevent the water to prevent the water bottles from coming out in class. When the superintendent got involved, Hinesman, Principal Heinesman doubled down, saying that the rule did not exist. Is this the kind of administration we want for the middle for the in the middle school of all of our north side children? This is the kind of administration we Is this the kind of administration we want in any school? The kind that lies. The kind that will blatantly allowed bullying. The kind I was forced to endure after being called a slur.

093Do we want our counselor to have been under investigation for racial discrimination? Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> [applause] >> Speaker number 32, Camille Renine. Good evening. I'm the parent of a kindergartener at Dworth. And when my family moved to Pittsburgh a few years ago, we were excited to learn about this beloved magnet school that had such high engagement from families and also had a diverse majority black student body. We were disappointed to then learn about the plan to end the magnet program. I find it shocking that the district would disrupt a school like Dworth, which is widely considered to be one of the more successful schools in the district, while leaving Pittsburgh, Monazou's magnet program in place, which is, according to my research, the only majority white K- through5 magnet school,

094one of the few majority white schools in the entire public school system. I understand that change is necessary and I want to invest in changes and solutions that will help more than just my family. This plan is meant to create equity in our schools, but it's unclear just exactly how that equity would be realized. The plan would not address economic and racial segregation in our schools. In fact, by ending magnet programs, this plan seems more likely to exacerbate those issues, restricting families to their neighborhood schools and limiting their options within the public school system. So much of this plan feels unsteady and uncertain. Many questions from parents about implementation, staffing, busing, curriculum, class size, and benchmarks have been met with vague responses. We've been told to trust in this plan. We've heard that we'll figure

095it out as we go along. We've been told that we as parents need to build the schools we want in our neighborhoods. But what resources will be available to parents and communities to do this work, especially those who are un already underresourced? We have no answer to that either. I think we owe it to our students to arrive at answers to these questions before deciding on a plan of action. This plan feels rushed, reckless, and chaotic without any option for phasing changes in, disrupting our children's educational routines, shifting them inflexibly into new schools, which has been shown to have negative effects on educational outcomes and social development. I fear that the continual threat of this plan's implementation and the uncertainty around how it will affect our children's education will cause and already likely has caused

096engaged parents to leave the Pittsburgh public school system altogether and further joining the district of resources it needs to succeed. I was relieved when the school board voted this plan down a year ago. I hope that they would take into account the numerous concerns expressed by the community and go back to the drawing board coming up with new ideas for addressing the school systems inequities. Instead, I am dismayed that we are discussing the same plan unchanged to the same and the same questions and serious concerns are still lingering unressed. I urge the ver board to vote no on the future ready plan. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 33, Santi Turner. >> Good evening. My name is Sante Turner and I serve as the government relations liaison for the housing authority of

097the city of Pittsburgh. I'm here with Reginald Morfield, the president of the Bedford Dwellings Tenant Council. I come to you tonight uh to discuss the impact of the future ready plan and specifically the proposed closure of Miller School in the Hill District. The elimination of the only African-entered school in the district would be a devastating blow to the hard work put into the ongoing redevelopment of Bedford Avenue, the Middle Hill, and the Greater Hill District. More importantly, it would be particularly harmful to the Hill District families whom our agencies collectively serve. These families see Miller as a safe space, a neighborhood anchor, and a source of stability in a community that has already experienced generations of displacement and disinvestment. As a community partner, the district would be wise to consider investing into the hill rather

098than taking away from this val taking away this valuable resource. Our children deserve accessible education, safe environments, and schools like Miller that strengthen the community. The families who live on and around the Bedford corridor for years have faced challenges with transportation, child care, and access access to resources. With this in mind, the housing authority has invested over $500 million into revitalizing development that offers affordable housing for families who choose to call the Hill District their home. The over 800 units of affordable housing have built a critical stability into this neighborhood and economic growth for our city. In 2023, the housing authority sought and was awarded a $50 million choice neighborhood grant. part of the application process explicitly discussed providing residents with early childhood education supports, K through2 academic mentorship and adult skill building along with

099the authorities 24-hour child care center, our resident support services program and choice grant team. Miller school was cited as contributing those academic supports and mentorship. We recognize that by having a neighborhood school nearby, parents have peace of mind and children have consistency, support, and a sense of belonging. It is also part of what makes a community a community. If Miller is closed, our students will be forced to travel farther from home, away from teachers and vital support services, extracurricular activities, and the community they trust and know. This disruption would affect attendance, academic performance, as well as their emotional well-being. Closing Miller will not benefit the Hill District. The housing authority is committed to the Hill District and demonstrates this by continuing to build. We are equally committed to our light our long-standing partnership with the

100district and the constituencies we both serve. We respectfully Thank you very much for your testimony this evening. Speaker number 34, Alli Patonic. Good evening, board directors. My name is Ally Patonic. The future ready implementation plan, the revised plan by any name is still reckless. Vote no and we'll see you're over with ignoring the coaching and intervention of the public, the collective wisdom of parents, students, and coalitions who see your non-plan as repeating past mistakes. Let's review where we've been. Under the last board, you revised the name. You paid for expensive but impractical data from Massachusetts. You advertised on Facebook for community engagement sessions, but never fully utilized your communications apparatus to communicate to families, students, teachers, and staff. So, after moving the goalpost several times, seeking help from administration to change the rubric or rebake

101some numbers, you approached your November due date. You buckled down, held another public hearing right before Thanksgiving, and moved a policy to restrict the public from clapping in between speeches, restricting the freedom of speech again. Why are we here? The prevailing side voted the FU plan down in November, we realized with a number of motivations. Looking straight into the oven on this halfbaked plan and confronting the school families and students from your districts, a majority of the board rightly decided the non-plan couldn't be fully baked. That the approach of trust me, this turkey of a plan is ready for our families would not pass the grade. And you use your voting power to insist on better because this isn't something you can just heat up in the microwave and serve. These decisions are in your

102hands now. You'll use your voting power again for who's good. Whose side are you on? Your students, families, communities, and a public at large or a district leadership who is to take their direction from you or moneyed foundation interests. After thorough coaching, teaching input, and wellresearched and a wellressearched study guide in the form of a community report from 412 Justice, your chosen deadline is here. We see the play, though. You're attempting to turn in the same assignment for a passing grade. The administration took part in a brief media tour, deciding that any media at all was good media. You've revised the title, and the people who are casting the votes have changed. But not the substance, not the engagement, not much more. It's still a failed FU plan, and the communications cared more about throwing

103some carrots to KDKU radio than the public's concerns. Families have heard more about the shoe drive than the substance of this plan. Vote no. Do a real equity audit that quantifies the effects of closing schools. Prepare a plan that preserves and expands community schools, not one that sends at least 1,600 students away from wraparound services. Prioritize the delivery of education of black and brown students. The power is in your hands. Collectively, we've done our best. Move forward with families, students, teachers, staff. Vote no. >> Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 35 is Mora Kida. Good evening. Um so tonight I just want to talk to you about public institutions. Public institutions are designed to be just that public. Public education has long been seen as one of the last public goods that

104is not fully succumb to the efforts of privatization, though not without a constant battle. [snorts] When governments or political forces weaken our public infrastructure, a door opens to allow doubt, desperation, and privatization to take hold. Look no further than the reign of Superintendent Mark Roosevelt and the closing of 22 schools 20 years ago. Governor Corbett slashed funding. Charter schools were expanding under President Obama's race to the top, and the narrative of failing public schools was alive and well. Top that off with various threats from city government and local philanthropy, and we can see the instability that allowed deep division to thrive and public education to splinter. Sounds familiar, right? It's also not lost on me that tonight I'm standing up here and it was 19 years ago that I stood here for the first time

105as a seventh grader before this board fighting charter schools that were coming in. And we're still here having the same conversation [sighs and gasps] as economic. Sorry, I'm like, okay, Pittsburgh cannot let this happen again. Dr. Walters, do you you're not here, but if when you see this, do you really want your legacy to be that of Mark Roosevelt 2.0? As economic threats and instability shake our country, we must show that our public schools are the stability that we value for our communities. In my role as national director of the alliance to reclaim our schools, I have the privilege of working with school districts, community organizations, and unions across the country, I know [snorts] it's possible. It's possible to work with the community, with local government, and academic researchers, practitioners, and experts to not only

106find a way to increase revenue, but to also create the transformative schools that all children deserve. And that is something that this plan doesn't deliver. I continue to offer these connections, resources to the board. Another path is possible. The board can do innovative and hard things. We've done it before in not collaborating with critical district adjacent community organizations such as the LTF and equity advisory panel. You fa failed to hear the needs of students with disabilities and black and brown children who have consistently been left behind in this district by not coordinating with city and state leaders. You have failed to secure additional revenue sources and missed huge opportunities like solar to schools and other grant programs. Sorely lacking from this district plan is any method to explore increasing revenue beyond standard property tax increases.

107Instead of relying on solely on homeowners, you have failed to recommend progressive and possible pathways that the district can increase the flow of capital. and by bringing in the council of great city schools in an unresarched and >> thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you very much for your testimony. Speaker number 36, Vanessa Dougarian. Okay, this is not only an embarrassingly incompetent, fiscally nonsensical plan, but is also classist and discriminatory. The plan hasn't changed. It was voted down and it's been kicked down the road for too long. What a huge waste of time and resources. This plan is brazen in its disregard of the under represented populations. Look at the blatantly elitist plan to move Monastery to Lyndon, allowing one school to retain their magnet status to close another that serves a predominantly

108lower income and more racially diverse student population. I find it interesting that James Fogerty of A+ schools supports this plan when his children attend one of the one school that stays a magnet. Not choosing your neighborhood school, that sounds like a conflict of interest to me. This plan has always been a gift to the charters who can cherrypick who attends their schools while often being poor forprofit entities who devastate the public school funds without being held to the same standards. This is a bad plan. The community response to the FU plan is strong because this playbook is all too familiar. Just trusting the professionals is not the job of elected officials. It is the job of the board to hold the administration accountable. Dr. Walters, this isn't about you. It's about the plan. The plan

109that you put forth isn't right and it won't work. And even if it was right and it would work, I don't believe you can pull it off given your recent track record. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 37 is Nina Louise DGavarian. My name is Nina Louise. I'm a student at Wolsler. I have a concern that some kids miss field trips because of permission slips come home in English, but some some kids need to bring home papers in their parents' language. Also, some kids can't go on field trips or fun dances or field day because they're because of being late or sick. Those kids can't always help being late. I think everyone should have the same opportunities. Speaking of opportunities, if our school closes, the neighbors kids won't have a school to walk

110to, and the kids who ride the bus won't have a chance to go to a steam public school. Kids who have already have a hard time will have an even much harder time in a large classroom. I get distracted easy. Large classrooms seem scary. Please don't close my school. If you do have to close schools, be really, really, really, really, really, really sure it's the right thing for everyone. Let's bring kids back to our public schools. People need to be excited, not scared. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Speaker number 38, Miss Shirley Anne Hill. >> That's a hard act to follow. I am appalled that the student achievement center is on the chopping block. This school offers our kids so much that credit recovery can come close to while at Carrick

111I can say credit recovery was dismal. The students log on and they are basically on their own. Um this also goes on at other schools. I have followed the public hearings regarding the unfair treatment of former monastery teacher Miss Stephanie Lein by principal Kelly Meyer throughout my 41-year career with PPS. I too was subjected to toxic principles like her. In December 2023, Miss Stephanie Lein was removed from her classroom by Kelly Meyer. She was cleared in February 2024, but was conveniently transferred to another school that does not have a monastery program. Why is Cali Meer not being held accountable for her unfair treatment of Miss Stephanie Lein, the only lead black teacher at that time? Some monastery teachers have filed grievances and still nothing has been done. Toxic principles like Kelly Meyer put fear in

112teachers who speak up by sabotaging their teacher evaluations. Pretending there are no problems at Monasur definitely creates an unsettling work environment. Teachers should not have to adapt to this leadership style to keep their jobs. Some principles are good for conveniently cutting positions when you speak up. I question how students are first when toxic principles are not held accountable. Carrick High School has a very small percentage of black teachers. Leon Smith was named 2026 national teacher of the year. He is a black history teacher at her high school in her haterford town, Pennsylvania. I quote what he said. I think one thing that we can agree on is that we want all of our students to be successful. Student achievement is driving all of our work in education. The research is clear that educators of color

113not only benefit students of color, but they benefit all students. And that's what we want. We want all of our students to be successful. End quote. From Leon Smith, National Teacher of the Year. Black Students at Carrick Matter. I'm done. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 39, Jasine Worthy. Good evening, PPS families, community members, and stakeholders. In preparation for the much um anticipated vote, I want to use the three minutes I have to speak directly to every student, parent, teacher, and community member who will be impacted. If this board chooses to move forward with a plan that the majority of us clearly and consistently opposed, I want us to leave here tonight understanding something important. Regardless of how this vote goes, the unity amongst those who are affected will remain stronger than ever.

114The time we invested may reveal that our faith was misplaced, and that's okay. We believe these board members will fulfill the responsibility to protect our children, listen to the community, and lead with transparency and integrity. Instead, many of us have watched our concerns minimalized, our voices dismissed, and predetermined decisions pushed forward despite overwhelming opposition. I read the names of 91 people signed up to speak. Less than 10 want our board members to move forward with a vote. So if this plan moves forward with the testimonies on this evening alone, we call it what it is, failure. Period. Not a misunderstanding, not a communication issue, a failure in leadership, a failure in community partnership, and a failure to prioritize the best interest of our children and our families. But failure does not mean defeat. We will

115see it clearly, acknowledge it honestly, and move forward together. We will continue organizing, advocating, showing up, speaking out, and demanding leadership that reflects the values and priorities of our community. And if they refuse to do that, then we will place the dis we will replace the disgraced and impede the incompetent. My children, our children deserve better than photo ops and performative listening. They deserve decisions rooted in stability, equity, transparency, and genuine community collaboration. And whether this board chooses to stand with us by voting no or not, this community will be ready. Don't mistake a respectful community for a power powerless one. Again, let me repeat that. Let me run that again. Don't mistake a respectful community for a powerless one. Vote no. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 40, David Hayden. >> Good

116evening. My name is David and I am a fifth grade grader at Wooer. a student, a school, both of which will be affected by the decision you make. I want to speak today, not just as a student, but a child who cares deeply about my school, my education, and my future. Woo! Slayer is not just a building to me. It is where I learn to read and write, maneuver through wrong and right. And right now, moving forward with this plan is wrong. If I lack the imagination, nothing would be possible. If I if I lacked the ability to speak, what would you know? And yet the only thing I am finding myself in need of is my school board members to listen to us and our families before you decide what our future look like

117looks like before because when decisions are made without real agreements from the people they affect it does it doesn't feel like partnership it feels like we are being moved around without being heard and I want to be clear Students like me notice that 11 is old enough to understand when something is when something important is happening and when I am not being included included in a conversation. As a student in this district, I am asking that you make sure any plan moving forward is not just written for us but with us and our families in bind. Because if a decision affects our classrooms, our teacher and our future, then our voices should not be optional in that process. We are not invisible in this. We are here. We are listening and we are asking you

118to do the same by voting no on this plan. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. Speaker number 41, Elijah Mitchell. Good evening. My name is Elijah and I am a second grader at Wool Slayer. I am here this evening because there is a discussion about closing my school and others wait and other schools like mine. And I am one of the students who would be affected. [snorts] When people talk about closing a school, it is often described as a plan or a change. But for us it's not just a plan. It the wait it is the whole wait [snorts] it is the place where we learn every day build relationships and develop our education. My school is not just a building that can be moved or replaced without impact. It is my teachers

119my routines safety and stapility. If the goal is to improve education, then it matters to look closely at what is actually happening to the students in our schools, not just numbers or buildings on a list. Because removing a school does not remove the students, it moves them and it changes their experience in ways that cannot be ignored. So the real question is not just what is being closed, but what is being lost and who carries that cost, students like me. So any decision about closing schools like mine should be made with clear responsibility for what we lose and not just what is being saved. Vote now. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Speaker number 42, Andy Cubis. Speaker number 43, Heather Page. Good evening. My name is Heather Paige. I am a

120Woolsler parent and an academic librarian serving Penn State researchers across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is how I know that bad research made this plan. Both my children attend Woolsair PreK to 5. My daughter here has attendance since preK. My son has an IEP and receives care from his teachers that I never imagined possible. Woolsair, like all of our community schools, is worth saving. So, I came to tell you to reject the future ready closure plan. A truly future ready plan would prioritize small, hands-on classes that support students success as Woolsair does. Nothing in this closure plan reflects what studies show a datadriven student- centered school district should do. It does not demonstrate financial savings, a better bus plan, community focus, or continued employment for our amazing teachers. Frankly, I am stunned that anyone who

121considers themselves a professional educator could support this plan. I am here not only as a parent who loves their children's school, but also as an employee at one of the campuses Penn State will close in 2027. Their board of trustees voted yes to another plan that did not demonstrate substantive financial savings and barreled ahead with no plan for how it would be carried out or how it would impact students or staff. I am living that impact every day. I cannot begin to fully describe what it feels like to go in to work every day and be directed to dismantle what decades of love and devotion built in my community. Penn State's campuses were given two years to close. This plan offers only one year to fully revamp Pittsburgh public schools entire system on top of

122closing schools. That is not feasible. You have the opportunity today to vote against the future ready plan and spare Pittsburgh families and teachers from the same horrific outcome that Penn State is inflicting on its Commonwealth campuses and their communities. Reject this plan and demand something better. A truly future ready vision that puts our children first. My daughter also wanted to add something. Save our schools. >> Save our schools and happy day. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Speaker number 44, Alexis Stevenson. Speaker number 45, Barnabas Vaughn. >> Hello. I am here to tell you to vote no on the future ready plan. The Constitution of Pennsylvania states, "The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the

123needs of the Commonwealth." This plan falls far short of that legal obligation. PPS faces real budget constraints and hard choices must be made. It's difficult to be told your child's school must be closed because of lack of funds by someone who gets chauffeered around by a police officer and is the highest paid public official in the city. Tough choices must be made. Yet, your plan requires all the sacrifice be on the part of the Pittsburgh working parent. Start by cutting administration cards costs. Start by cutting charters. Charters suck up public funds but do not fulfill their legal obligation and cost more per student than neighborhood schools. But no mention of reform graces the plan. Charter schools are business that do not fulfill the obligation of the right of education in the constitution of the state

124of Pennsylvania. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Harvey Holtz. time of year >> getting old. >> Okay. Good evening. I am Dr. Harvey Holtz residing in East Liberty and it's [snorts] fortuitous that the hockey game doesn't begin until 9 tonight. I speak to the board, but I speak for the people in the cafeteria, online, and the beautiful people in the community. It's been six months since the community overwhelmingly opposed the educational resource strategies FU plan and the school board voted it down. While revisions have been made, the plan remains fundamentally the same. The ERS proposal is not raceneutral. They bring a history of consistently closing black neighborhood schools. Their proposal would add to a long history of school closures in Pittsburgh's black neighborhoods. ERS does not propose creative

125alternative solutions that solve our problems and that reflect student and community needs and values. So I make some suggestions just to be creative, but I will certainly defer to 412 Justice and the rest of the community to create a plan. So you could view the underutilized school buildings as income generating assets that create alternative uses. You could lease unused wings of these buildings. Tenants might include child care services, community health centers, and allied nonprofit organizations and businesses. In addition, you could close the privatized profit-driven charter schools, bringing up to 4,400 black students back to the neighborhood schools and freeing at least 108 million dollars for students and schools. Unfortunately, 80% of chart students and uh unfortunately 80% of charter students are blacks and they fled poor neighbor poor neighborhood schools. You can't bring these students

126back until you repair their education. Please note that will you support the destructive FU revised plan that still leaves schools open in majority white neighborhoods and closes schools in black neighborhoods. As agents of the state, a yes vote would make you racial oppressors. Not unlike Clarence Thomas who votes to end school desegregation. You are agents of the state and JUST LIKE HIM, BLACK OR WHITE, you would be oppressors. Do you have the humanity not to oppress black people that have been oppressed for 400 years? Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker this evening is Kevin Reed. Good evening. Tonight you have heard or will hear numerous appeals regarding whether the board should move forward with voting on school closures. parents, students, former board members, and community organizations have all voiced

127their perspectives. Some remarks have been based solely on passion and emotion. Others have repeatedly emphasized the concern for community schools despite the district already having a comprehensive plan to partner with organizations in in support of all schools. There have been there all have also been campaigns arguing that closing schools with fewer than 100 students isn't necessary. Former board members have even gone so far to suggest that Dr. Walter's contract should not be renewed when his term concludes. We've seen this movie before. The district hosted more than 20 community meetings and consistently communicated with families throughout this process. Others have expressed that Dr. Walters did not adopt their proposed plan. Some presented misinformation while criticizing promotional efforts that show our district in a positive light while portions of the community continue to challenge a plan that

128many have not fully reviewed. or in some cases allow personal grievances against the superintendent to shape their opposition. There are several facts that must be acknowledged. Dr. Walters, a former teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, overseeing professional development, interim superintendent, and now superintendent, brings more than 30 years of experience making decisions in the best interests of students. I've witnessed that. Dr. Nino Sacko, assistant superintendent, more than 20 years of experience serving the Pittsburgh public schools. Dr. McNeel 20 years, Dr. Perelman 20 years, Dr. Cruz 20 years, Dr. Lamar 20 years, each with more than 20 years of educational leadership in PPS. This is an executive leadership team with well more than 100 years of combined educational experience. And that does not even account for the full breadth of expertise represented within this administration. Unlike many claims circulating

129publicly, these are verifiable facts. Trust those who've demonstrated a firm commitment to the district. What this board must decide is >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Greg Lachley. and we'll move on. Our next speaker is Holly Williams. Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Walters. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I am here in support of the district's facilities plan and in support of Superintendent Walters as he works through one of the most difficult challenges facing Pittsburgh public schools. These are not easy decisions. Schools represent memories, traditions, and community pride. But leadership is not about avoiding difficult conversations. Leadership is about making decisions based on what is best for students and the future of the district. The reality is simple. Pittsburgh public schools has fewer students than it

130did years ago. Yet, we continue operating too many buildings, including schools that are s significantly underutilized. Maintaining half empty facilities cost millions of dollars that could instead support academics, staffing, student services, and opportunities for children across the district. The reality cannot be ignored. What is also troubling is how quickly the conversation has turned personal instead of focusing on solutions. Too much of the discussion has been driven by misinformation, fear, and attacks on leadership, and now there are conversations about Superintendent Walter's contract while he is actively doing the difficult work many others avoided. We should remember the district's history. Former Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, who is white, a business background, no stakes in Pittsburgh, closed more than 20 20 schools, including our beloved Shinley High School. Yet, the level of hostility and outrage we see today did

131not exist at this level. Later, African-American superintendants John, excuse me, Dr. John Thompson and Dr. Anthony Hamlet also faced intense criticism during conversations about restructuring and school closures. Now, Superintendent Walters is facing the same. So was should we honestly ask ourselves why these reactions become louder, more personal, and more aggressive during the leadership of African-American superintendent trying to make difficult district decisions. That is a conversation this should city should be willing to have. Honestly, Dr. Walters is not an outsider unfamiliar with Pittsburgh public schools. He has dedicated more than 20 years to this district as a teacher, principal, administrator, and now superintendent. He can show up. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Stacy Turner. >> Good evening, board members and Dr. Walters. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. The

132conversation about school consolidation has been emotional and that is understandable. School represents memories, neighbor neighborhoods and community identity, but emotion alone cannot determine decisions that affect the future of this district. We have fewer students when than we did last year than we did years ago. Yet, we continue operating more buildings than our enrollment can support. That reality has financial consequences. Money spent maintaining underused faculty is money that can go directly towards themies, student support service and other opportunities for students. That is the reality we cannot ignore. I have listened to discussions at meetings and online. Some concerns are thoughtful and important. Others represent claims that are incomplete or inaccurate. Even though information and updated answers are publicly available through the district, fear spreads quickly when fear when facts are ignored. We also need to be

133honest about something different. Many people support change until that change affects them personally. It is easy to talk about e econ excuse me in theory but it's harder when economies requires restrict restriction and difficult choices. If we truly believe every student deserve access to quality opportunity then the conversation can only be about protecting specific buildings or preserving things exactly as they are. This D district has gone through major changes before yet response now feels especially personal intense. We should honestly ask ourself why. Dr. Walters is not new to this district. He has spent years serving Pixburg public schools and understands its challenge. So it is fair to ask whether every criticism becomes directly at him is truly about the plan itself or whether other frustrations are shaping this debate. Questions are accountable or important but

134facts matter too. We cannot say we are acting in the best interest of the student when refusing to face reality that has ex existed for years simply because the solutions are difficult. That moment is not about what feels comfortable. It's about whether we are willing to make decisions based on the long-term need of the students and the future of this district. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your testimony. >> And our next speaker is Damian Manley. >> Good evening, board members and members of the community. My name is Damian Manley and I'm a proud member of Manchester on the north side where Manchester Elementary School is located. Let the record reflect that I'm against any school closings at all. But I come before you tonight as not only a resident of Pittsburgh, but

135as an African-American male. And tonight, I want to speak about something larger than one plan, one vote or one moment. I want to speak about a pattern that many people in this city are unwilling to acknowledge honestly. The consistent lack of support given to black superintendent in Pittsburgh public schools. We want when we say we want equality, we say we want transformative leadership. We say we want change for black children. But history shows that when black leadership arrives with difficult decisions, expectations suddenly become different. Black superintendent are often expected to fix decades of systematic problems immediately while receiving half the grace, half the patience, and twice the scrutiny. When schools are underperforming, when enrollment declines, when budgets collapse, everyone demands bold leadership. But the moment bold leaderships are actually proposed, the backlash begins. Not just

136disagreement, personal attacks, organized resistant, public undermining, and constant questioning of competence. The pattern matters. No superintendent, black or otherwise, should be above criticism. Accountability is necessary, but accountability should be consistent. We cannot continue doing is creating impossible standards for black leaders by denying them the institutional trust needed to succeed. Pittsburgh public schools did not become financially strained overnight. Buildings did not deteriorate overnight. Enrollment did not decline overnight. These are generational challenges that somehow when black leadership steps into the role, the expectation becomes immediate perfection. And when they attempt reconstructuring, consolidation, and modernization, people suddenly act as though the difficult decision is cruelty instead of governance. Leadership is not about maintaining comfort. Leadership is about sustainability. We cannot keep demanding innovation while punishing the people willing to make hard choices. I also believe some and I

137also believe some in this conversation have confused disagreement with obstruction. Every propose will not make everyone happy. School closers are emotional. Reconfiguration is painful. Communities feel lost deeply, but leadership cannot function solely through public emotion or political pressure. At some point, we must ask ourselves, do we truly support black leadership or do we only support black leadership when it avoids difficult decisions? Because support is not tested. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker this evening is Diamond Kite. And we'll move on to our next speaker, Holly Mson. Hi, I'm Holly. I'm a parent of a seventh grader at Schiller. Um, we just heard some testimonies implying that the community's objections to Dr. Walters or this plan are personal or racist. And we have plenty of racism in this city and in this

138country, which as a rando white woman, I don't know firsthand, but know um know that it's real. Um, and board members, I hope that these accusations of racism don't lead you to give this plan um, the opportunity to harm our children because that is what you've heard from so many people that it would do. Um, this plan has been framed as a way to improve equity. And one thing I would like to raise up to you today is a powerful statement that was released by the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP. Um, and it will it reads in quote, "We are proud to stand alongside two organizations whose work on this issue has been indispensable. 412 Justice and Black Women for a Better Education." Um, unquote. I have been personally involved with uh 412 Justice and

139I am so grateful and in awe of the um the strength and the power of the the people who are in this group and the way that they elevate and educate and empower anyone they come into contact with. Um and I I have learned so much um and they have helped uh lift up so many voices. Um, I have not personally been involved with black women for a better education, but I would also love to raise up what um, Alise Pinchbback Johnson shared earlier and her uh, calls for each of you board members and and wish to happy reflecting. Um, I think each of her her calls for reflection were so so powerful and wise. Um, and so I want to raise up these groups. Um, and to quote again from the statement from NAACP,

140um, that quote, "NACP understands that Pittsburgh public schools faces real pressures. Um, but skipping over a few sentences, uh, we call on the board of directors to vote no on item 17.01, 1 direct the superintendent to develop a revised plan um and commit to a process that treats black families and black neighborhoods and the organizations that serve them as partners not obstacles. Um so I just wanted to raise that up and I think again uh if this plan is being packaged as equity uh it's one thing to listen to a black superintendent of course we want black we want more black leaders we want more black teachers. uh that that's so powerful, but we should also listen to the black mothers and grandmothers that you've heard from today and for two years and that are

141leading these amazing community grassroots organizations. Um, and it also doesn't seem right that we're prioritizing one or two black men over the wisdom and power of these black women. Um, and I realize I'm a white lady, so, you know, take that with a grain of salt. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Kenneth Colida. Good evening. As someone who's been here over the years to to criticize others such as Louise Brennan and Mark Roosevelt, I want to deal first before I get to my remarks about this red herring that's being thrown out there that somehow this is about the superintendent being African-American. That has nothing to do with the with the objections that people have in the community to this. So, I just want to just put that. That's a bunch of

142crap. You know, we're paying $298,000 for a superintendent. We expect more than a rewarm bucket of spit for a plan. Are are we here tonight to speak on a plan that has been rejected by our communities and a previous board on two different occasions? Is this the local version of the top we know better than you emanating from Washington? Is this a plan like you've never seen before? Why would you injure the communities that you serve by subjecting them to this unnecessary stress? Again, if you are considering enrolling your student in Pittsburgh public schools, can you really trust the system that doesn't trust you? How would you know that this isn't just step one with another hammer awaiting? Are there developers waiting for these properties? You have to ask yourself, why are black students over

143represented by the impact of these proposed changes? Does that seem right to you? Why hasn't the Pittsburgh public schools aggressively campaign and organized to take back the earned income tax held hostage by the city? What are you afraid of? You know, it's organized to get that back. Most people familiar with Pittsburgh public schools know that there are fiscal measures such as in purchasing where huge savings await if some of the sweetheart deals are done away with. Are you not concerned with the additional walkers created by this plan without any consideration for their safety? I don't get this. You have so many students, parents, and grandparents like myself who care deeply about the Pittsburgh public schools. I don't understand why you don't respect their input. Please vote no on this plan so we can stop the

144loss of trust in the Pittsburgh public schools. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Precious. Good evening. This is what this fight is really about. When former superintendent John Thompson and Anthony Hamlet proposed closing schools, Pixsburg erupted. Auditoriums overflowed. Emotions boiled over. People said they were fighting for children and defending communities. Today we are back in the same moment again and only now the outrage is aimed at Superintendent Walters. But let's stop pretending this conversation is only about the buildings. What we are hearing in many of these meetings is not always truth. It is fear. It's politics. It is selective outrage. And in some cases, it is outright misinformation designed to inflame communities instead of informing them. Because the reality is simple. Pixsburg public schools cannot continue operating like the district

145is the same now as it was 30 years ago. This city's population has declined. Enrollment has declined. Yet, we continue maintaining buildings built for hundreds of students that now serve fewer than 200. We are spending millions to operate half empty schools while students across the district still lack the resources they deserve. That is not sustainable. And pretending otherwise is not advocacy. It is denial. Too often beneath those speeches, the real messages becomes clear. Leave our pro leave our programs alone. Leave our Montasauri schools alone. Leave STEM alone. Do not touch science and technology academy. This is not equity. This is protecting opportunity for some communities while expecting others to settle for less. This is not integration. That is separation. And now we need to confront a truth that makes people uncomfortable. When Mark Roosevelt came

146into this district and closed 22 schools in five years, including Shinley High School, once nationally recognized as a model of integration and achievement, there was this level. Where was this level of outrage? Where were the packed rooms? Where was the non-stop public condemnation? It did not exist at this level. So, we should ask oursel honestly, what changed? Because when Dr. Thompson, Dr. Hamlet, and now Dr. Walton's proposed restructuring plans, the response suddenly becomes louder, more hostile, and far more personal. And whether people want to admit it or not, race and politics cannot be ignored in that conversation. That should disturb every person in this city who claims to care about fairness. And let's remember exactly who Superintendent Walters is. This is not an out. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Miss

147Plet Foster. I didn't jip the line. I understood the process. >> So, good evening to everyone. My name is Miss Plet Foster. And if you don't agree, vote no. [snorts] Since December 13th, 2023, grassroots organizations have been in the process fighting against school closure. And contrary to some of you all who feel that we don't understand the process, we do. Some of the people who came up to this process has shared information with your um your people who you had here with your ES with your ERS uh people to even give them information that you all didn't give them. So when you say they don't that we shouldn't that you all shouldn't close schools, we we give you that information with true actual facts. school board directors. I'm not going to repeat everything that was

148been said because a lot of people have shared great information and there's no need me to repeat it, but I'm going to share this with you all. When you all agreed to the process of the student outcome focused governance, SOFG, you gave up the power to question, discuss, and deliberate on important issues and hand over all their power, your power to the superintendent. Now, mine's going to be short. you have an opportunity to make some changes for your constituents and their children which are the stakeholders of this plan for the future of our students. If you do not fully understand the process, if you don't understand what needs to be done, if you're not sure that you want to make sure this is the plan that you want that you if you are not sure

149that the plan that is being asked of you to vote on, then do a several things. Don't drink the great Kool-Aid. Don't be bullied. If your conscience is telling you to vote no, then do that. As we have as 412 Justice, we have collected over 600 plus signatures in a petition against school closures. I would like to present this to the board of directors and to remind you, you have a voice. Do not allow someone else to dictate you to you all what you need to do. Understand your role as their as your constituents voice. Thank you. Can someone take this please? Thank you for your testimony. >> Thank you. >> And our next speaker is Holly Cox. Hi, I'm Holly Cox, a proud PPS parent and a member of PIN. Pin's position on the

150facilities plan is that it does not adequately address the future role of community schools in the district. So, we are asking the board to vote no on the plan for the new November 2025 facilities plan update. I quote, "For too long, some schools have had fewer resources and grading facility needs. Maintaining the status quo, including keeping students in underresourced and underenrolled schools, has a real and measurable racial impact. In action is not neutral. It preserves inequities that generations of families have experienced and spoken out against." And also quote, "Every child deserves excellent instruction, caring adults, and well-resourced schools because they are entitled to strong learning conditions on their own. Quality must not be delivered by neighborhood or by proximity to diversity or affluence." Great statements, complete agreement. PIN completely agrees with those statements, which is

151why there is concern for the 1300 students who are being moved from their current community schools to schools who do not have full community school services. The facilities plan does not address whether or not these students and their families will continue to get these services. Is there a plan in place to get these services to the students new schools? And if there isn't, then how will needs for health, well-being, and family engagement be met? Someone just a couple of people back mentioned that um the community schools concerns do not uh recognize that in the plan there it is mentioned that there will be partnerships at the schools and I fully recognize that. I've seen that and I'm pleased to see and other people in pin are pleased to see that partnerships at schools will be

152maintained or added. But it's just not clear when we're talking about when we're talking about the actual community schools, the full services, the mental health and the physical health and the community and family engagement. That is what is not been clear, not specifics in that part of the plan. So, I'm going to skip a paragraph that I wrote. [laughter and gasps] In this past year in Pittsburgh, for a variety of reasons, there has been a rise in the demand from families for food assistance and homelessness services. The Department of Human Services in Pittsburgh has seen a large increase in requests for help with basic goods, inhome support, and behavioral health programs for youth. These are gaps that community schools help to fill. Services that the 1300 students and their families have come to rely on

153that without a ready plan may not be available at their new schools. As a member of PIN and a parent in PPS, I'm asking the board to make sure a plan is in place to continue these services for the students and their families who have come to rely on them. And really, it's worth considering expanding these services to more schools in the district. as we've heard earlier a couple of times tonight about Miller and the community there seems to have created their own wraparound services for their school. Um it would be a shame for them to lose those if Miller is closed. Uh >> thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, we'll move over to our virtual speakers. And our next speaker is Lucas Aner Neil again. Lucas Aner Neil. We'll go to

154the next speaker. We'll hold for one second. All right, we will move over to our virtual speakers and our next speaker is Lucas Anri Neil. again, Lucas Anri Neil. And we'll keep moving. Our next speaker is Jesse Gordon. We'll move to our next speaker, Ashley Ruth. >> We'll keep moving. >> Is it working? Is it Hello? >> Yes. >> Okay, perfect. Um, good evening. Um, I want to start by recognizing that everyone in this room ultimately wants what is best for our students and for the future of this district. Um, preparing students for a changing world is important and uh, but true preparation requires more than a vision or a slogan. It requires structure, transparency, planning, and proof that the system being proposed are fully ready to support our children. At this point, many clear

155uh critical details surrounding the plan still remain unclear. Families, educators, and students continue to ask valid questions about implementation, academic continuality, transportation, staff, and curriculum structure, and a long-term outcomes. Those questions deserve clear answers before major decisions are made. Moving forward without that clarity does not create stability. It creates uncertainty for the very students we are responsible for protecting. We have to also heard and acknowledge that our city remains deeply segregated in many ways. Magnet programs have long served for a long time as meaningful bridges for our students for different backgrounds to continue to share in those educational spaces. That matters. Diversity is not outdated. Exposure to these cultures, communities, and perspective is a part of what prepares students for the rural world. If we reduce or eliminate programs and close schools that intentionally create

156those opportunities, we have to ask ourselves where will our students experience those connections instead. This decision continues to deserve your patience, continued evaluation, community trust, and there is nothing irresponsible about showing down in order to get it right. In fact, that is your responsibility as leadership. I ask that you vote no. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Kristen Filman. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Amazing. My name is Kristen. I grader at Alagini Traditional Academy. >> Kristen, you're going out. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you now. >> I did not write about We can't hear you again. >> Hello. >> Now we should hear you. >> Okay. I apologize. I don't know why that's

157happening. I don't think it's on my end. I am just here as a parent who since I bought a house on the north side um 12 years ago have been asked repeatedly by neighbors why I would buy a house here if I intended to have children. Why would I buy a house in Pittsburgh if I intended to have children? I needed to move to the suburbs. I've watched all of my neighbors have children and moved to the suburbs. Um I am very very happy with my child's magnet school. I cannot understand why um closing magnet schools would be part of the program. As a parent, this plan does not have the community's support. It is clear from nowhere else but tonight that it does not have the community's support. You cannot move forward with a

158plan that no one supports. Everybody here has been incredibly articulate. I can't do better. I want to say I support everything that they have said and also please vote no on this. You're going to chase more of my neighbors to the suburbs and to charter schools. Thanks very much. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, James Fogerty. >> Good evening. Um last month I spoke to you about the challenges of the current status quo that create an urgent need for change. as a parent with children in magnet schools, but also as a uh executive director of A+ schools where we work with students and families across this district. I see the stark differences in services that are provided to children across this district. Stark differences in services that this plan is trying

159to address. Your vote will create a generational realignment, a real chance for communities to invest in the elementary school nearby and to build pathways that better serve every student. In some places, that will mean schools that are more socio-economically diverse. In others, it will look like additional investment in staffing and resources in schools that reflect their neighborhoods. Schools where now we see absences of teachers on a regular basis, where programs cannot be provided and where other teachers have to cover. We have a staffing problem and a staffing shortage, especially in our neighborhood schools, especially in schools that serve our our students with the greatest needs. That cannot be fixed in the current alignment of our system. And so I ask you when you look at voting for this plan, create the conditions that are needed

160for our kids to succeed. We know we need air conditioning in every building. We know we need community school supports. Community school school supports that we've been supporting in schools. And I would like to say that the the thought that we have full service community schools is not true. We just don't have them yet. We're working on them. But I think one of the things we have to do as a community is recognize the journey that we're on. And so I would urge this board to understand that what they're starting tonight is the beginning of a journey, not the end. Um that this alignment plan is not going to be perfect. It's not going to give everyone what they want. But last year we had 745 of our 1333 third graders did not meet state

161standards on the ELA PSSA. Of the students who started in PPS in 2015, 1275 had not completed college or trade school by 2025. And 66% of our students attend a school of choice rather than neighborhood school. If we want a Pittsburgh that thrives, we have to have investment in our neighborhoods. And we need neighborhood schools that can see succeed by our kids. We already have proof this works. When we invest in neighborhood schools, their leaders, teachers, families, and students, enrollment grows like we've seen at Perry and Arlington. Opportunities can expand like we see with the JSI program at Perry, and community pride grows alongside them. At Arlington this year, fights are down over 90% and dibble scores are up. The future ready plan takes what's working in pockets of this district and makes it standard

162for every neighborhood. One of your colleagues on the board gave me this sound advice when I came into this role. The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, but the second best time is right now. Change will not come in perfect conditions. We were not powerless to change the conditions that lead to a more perfect outcome. We know that where schools work for communities, communities can work with the schools. By voting to begin this journey of transformation, you can start the process of getting this entire city and those who care about its children to show up for them in ways big and small at a scale that can make a real difference for all students. We have everything we need to succeed by students. Let's get to work. >> Thank you for

163your testimony. And our next speaker, Shannon Striner. >> Good evening. I thought long and hard about what to say tonight. What could I possibly say that hasn't already been said? But we have three new directors and I don't know if they really know the history of this. So when this first began, the community pushed back. The consultants ERS were hired to come in and make recommendations using facility data provided by the district. From the beginning, I believed the district already knew which schools it wanted to close. Fulton was on that list. Fulton is not just a building on a spreadsheet. It's a powerhouse of staff and teachers that know how to support children with very different needs under one roof. My daughter Sienna is nonverbal. She processes the world differently. And yet at Fulton, she

164is known. She is loved. She is included. Her classmates fight over who gets to help her. These children are a beautiful community. Dr. Walters recently highlighted Fulton publicly as an academic success story during math night. At the same time, the district has spent years signaling our school won't survive. Had you been on the 412 justice call, you would know families literally move into Highland Park because of Fulton's reputation for supporting vulnerable students. You refuse to acknowledge how special that is, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. There is still no clear plan to preserve relationships and keep many of these very young children together. That could have been prioritized. It still can. But PPS treats relationships as secondary details instead of recognizing that for vulnerable students, those relationships are the support

165system. This plan failed in November for good reasons. The directors who voted no were not uninformed. They sat through this process. They listened. They heard concerns from families and communities. Jaime knew project management and implementation planning and she openly questioned whether this could responsibly be done in one year and she was right to ask those questions. So when you are told that community concern is the obstacle that you are never going to make everyone happy, I would urge you to look more critically at the real obstacle. The district still has not completed the foundational work that the experts said needed to happen before implementation. ERS recommended a phased multi-year implementation with detailed transition planning, attendance zones, transportation analysis, staffing plans, student support planning, implementation teams, and yet here we are in 2026 still being told

166these questions cannot really be answered until after a yes vote. Please think about that. The district picked up where ERS left off in October 2024. That's a long time and it's long enough to have done the actual work. Since the board voted no in November, what meaningful engagement has actually >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Elizabeth Cummings. >> Good evening. Um, there have been a lot of great speakers tonight and I really just want to echo what the majority of them have said along with the many community groups standing together on this issue. What we've heard is not a real plan, more like a concept of a plan. It does not have enough detail, transparency, or community support to justify decisions that would permanently change our schools and neighborhoods. It's

167also not equitable. Once again, the biggest impact falls on students, families, and communities that have already managed years of instability and lack of of investment. Equity cannot just be a word used in presentations while communities are expected to accept school closures, displacement, and uncertainty without real partnership or clear proof that outcomes will improve. This board has already voted this proposal down because the concerns were serious and unresolved. Bringing back almost the exact same plan with very few changes does not fix those concerns and it does not show that the community has really been heard. And without real community buyin, even a perfect plan will fail. People support what they help build. Families, students, educators, and advocates are not against change at all. We are asking for a process built on collaboration, clear information, equity, and

168real community engagement, not a rushed consolidation effort that already feels decided. The message from the community has been clear and consistent. Please vote no on 1701. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Trey Cumins. Hello, my name is Trey Cumins and I really like Steam. I really like my steam program at Woolair Elementary. So, I suggest that you vote no so then kids with steam and without steam can um can have a better time learning. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Amber Cummings. >> Hi, my name is Amber Cummings and I'm in kindergarten at Woo Slayer. I love my teachers. Please vote no to this plan. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Renee Wilson. Again, our next speaker is

169Renee Wilson. And we'll move to the next speaker, Jason Bul. >> Hello. What's going on? Sorry, I uh didn't know if I had to unmute or it would happen for me. Good evening. Thank you so much for your time. Uh it's been a it's been a long one and so much has already been said. Uh my name is Jason. I'm an English teacher at Pittsburgh Perry. I am fortunate enough to hang out with those great kids every day. I live on the north side of Pittsburgh. Um my daughters go to school at at uh North Side Middle and elementary schools, both of which will be affected next year. um and they have gone to um both magnet and uh community neighborhood schools in in in their time uh about half and half. Um, and I

170think like it's important to say, this isn't in my notes, but um, my daughter even told me tonight as we were talking about this, like she was like, she was like, I mean, I have so many more opportunities at the Magnet School. Like there's so much more that I can do. And that's the reason why I'm saying, guys, we have to vote yes um because every student needs um opportunities. Otherwise, we're not a public good. And I recognize what I'm saying is uh not what the majority of folks have have said today, but um so I'm here to voice my support. Um there are people I love I'm going to try to read a little bit now who respect I love and respect who see this differently. But for me, a novite vote asks our

171students, especially our students who've always accepted this to continue accepting schools uh that are not as good as they deserve. Um I understand it's more complicated than that. But when I've worked through this again and again, honestly, for the last decade or more, I keep coming to the same conclusion. We know exactly what we have now, and it is simply not good enough. Um, and like that's the the simplest way I can put it. A no vote feels like a continuation of what we already know, which is budget challenges, unfilled positions, declining morale, and communities growing more discouraged. We've lived that reality. But um I want to focus a little bit on what the plan currently says about North Side Middle Schools. Um of course that's close to my heart. I teach at the North

172Side High School. I want a great North Side Middle School. But um but I want to focus by saying um that uh the plan right now is to move or consolidate or whatever five existing middle schools into one north side middle school. And I know that like when I think about this I feel intimidated. I feel nervous. I feel scared. It's a lot of work to do that. Well, anyone who's ever tried to reform or change or help schools get better for kids, they know that that is a lot of work. It's the kind of stuff that keeps you up at night. Um, but I just want to say like what if what if we imagined something here? And I'm not doing this necessarily to charge anybody, but to say like starting with the district,

173what if we really did reallocate some of our best people around a north side middle school? We put some of the best people that we are currently paying and essentially said for the next 24 months, you have a different job than what you have had up to this point and it is to get this thing off the ground really hit the pavement to start talking to people to start interacting. If we do nothing for the next 15 months or if we do nothing meaningful, >> thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Mima Maliance. Good evening. My name is Mima Malions, president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corporation. I'm speaking on behalf of Hill District Education stakeholders and as a passionate and civically engaged Pittsburgger and Pittsburgh public schools alum. I

174want to begin by acknowledging that there are positive elements of the future ready plan. The community supports investment in science and technology programming in the Hill District, and we recognize the district's stated goal of improving outcomes for Pittsburgh's children. But a plan that gets some things right while getting critical items wrong is not a plan we can support. Specifically, closing Miller African-Centered Academy is the wrong decision at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. The Hill District is not a neighborhood in decline. It is a neighborhood that has positioned itself for growth. Within the next three years, the choice neighborhoods redevelopment will deliver over 800 units of housing, approximately 400 of which are new. The Golden Triangle within WOW's new feeder pattern is receiving over mill is receiving millions in investment and is opening new

175residential buildings in rapid succession. PPS itself signed an intergovernmental agreement with the city and the county to accelerate the reuse of vacant housing and parcels and the Hill District holds one of the highest concentrations of those parcels in the city. The enrollment projections underlying this closure of Miller African Center Academy do not reflect any of this. They are already obsolete. While while elementary school cannot absorb Miller's uh students today without strain, it certainly cannot absorb the additional children this neighborhood will generate over the next three to five years. A capacity shortage created by this decision will cost far more to correct than it will ever save. And then there is the question of what we are closing. Miller African Center Academy is the only school in the entire PPS portfolio of its kind. Research is

176unambiguous. Culturally grounded instruction produces higher academic performance, stronger engagement, and lower dropout rates for black children. These are outcomes every family in Pittsburgh should be able to access, especially in the black community. I sent this board a detailed memo in November of 2025 outlining these concerns. We never received a response. The community deserves one before any vote is cast. We are not asking the board to abandon reform. We are asking you to get it right. Please delay this vote. Work with us. We are asking you to give this school and this community the investment in time required to meet the goals that I have stated. Thank you. >> Emily Pancha. again Emily Provancha. We'll keep moving. Next speaker is Jody Kaine. Again, Jodie Kang We'll keep moving. Our next speaker, Valerie Webb Almond again. Valerie

177Web. Amen. I don't know if I should Valerie, can you hear us? You're muted. She's switching devices. Valerie, we will come back to you. And our next speaker is Lily Almond. and and we'll keep moving. We'll go to Annette Hall. >> Good evening, PPS board. Many of you already know me and know my two daughters, Meline from Wolair and Abigail from Schiller, two of the schools that are slated to be closed in this reckless plan. Well, here we meet again. Honestly, I'm hoping I'm not wasting my time and my breath, but my girls at this point, they truly believe none of you are listening and that this is just a waste of time. No child should ever feel this way. You all claim that you're listening to the community, but here we are talking about

178the same things over again. Here we are with a vote for an unchanged plan that was already voted down. Maybe you should put down your phones, close your computers, and listen to everyone. Maybe us you're act maybe show us you're actually listening. From my point of view, any one of the you board members who vote yes to this clearly flawed plan have not listened to the community members, parents, teachers, and students who affect the most. Tonight, we have heard so many stories to why you should vote no. Now it's my turn to tell my daughter's story of why you should vote no. As some of you know or have seen in the Post Gazette, don't worry if you have it. It'll be in your email soon. My daughter, who has a primary immun deficiency, was

179part of a frontline story about her immunity in schools the past six months. They said the post studied data from schools, including PPS. What was found was scary. Honestly, many of PPS schools have dropped well below vac 95% vaccine rates. her immunity is 95% or above. As I've stated before in my testimonies, this could be fatal. Meline is one of those students could be fatal for. Declining vaccine rates and this plan to close schools will make classes larger and will only add to failing her immunity in schools. Now, take a look at this photo. I'm going to pull it up and show you. This is my child. So, I know it's hard to see, but you can see my child, and it's in the post cazette as well. This is her face in pain, in

180fear when she has gotten one of her first infusions. She's doing a lot better with them now. This is her weekly infusion. Combined with smaller classes, the teachers who can take the time to understand her condition is what helps keep her in schools. Maline's immune system doesn't work and she relies on her immunity as I said before and smaller classes like wool slayer to stay to succeed. I truly hope you understand my point here tonight when I say reckless votes could kill students futures but not only harm by not only harming their education but their health. Maline's not the only student this reckless vote will hurt. So tonight I tell her story and stand for all students with health issues like her that are being forgotten about in this reckless plan. So maybe instead of

181making plans to close schools which harm students, let's actually all work together to make a plan that works to bring students back to PPS instead of pushing them away. Let's make a plan that truly is about all students and not what Dr. Walters and his board thinks might work. Vote no on this plan. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Kathleen Melotti. Again, is Kathleen Melotti. I think your computer is frozen. Turn your camera off and then try to speak. We will come back to you. We'll just keep moving. Our next speaker is Pam Harbin. Hello. Previous school closures in Pittsburgh have shown us that school closures don't make schools better. In fact, national research shows student outcomes can be worse. That's why I was shocked when the resolution was

182posted on the agenda last week. It contained nothing to hold the district accountable for student outcomes. Then in the final hours before the vote, almost as an afterthought, a board director pro proposed quarterly imple implementation updates from the superintendent. Even that modest request faced resistance from President Walker. But let's be honest, quarterly updates are not accountability and will not protect students from the harm of school closures. If this passes tomorrow, Dr. Walters will report what he did, not whether students benefited. Updates tell us what happened. Accountability tells us whether it worked. If updates were accountability, we could eliminate student report cards tomorrow. Imagine a student saying, "I didn't take the math test, but I attended class most days, completed some assignments, and faced a few challenges this quarter. Would that earn a passing grade? Of

183course not." Or imagine a teacher saying, "Here's my update. I taught lessons, held parent conferences, and experienced some implementation challenges. No observations, no measures of student growth, no other performance measures. Would anyone call that accountability? Of course not. Yet, an implementation update is all Dr. Walters will be required to provide for a plan that closes and consolidates schools, moves more than onethird of district students, eliminates staff positions, and affects thousands of children. If this passes, Dr. Walters will have no measurable goals for attendance, for achievement, for suspension rates, for enrollment loss, for overcrowded classrooms and schools. No measurable goals for black students, English learners, students with unstable housing, or students with disabilities, the very students most likely to be harmed if this plan fails. For two years, 412 Justice members have asked for a baseline

184analysis of current programs, existing inequities, and how this plan would improve student outcomes. We haven't seen it and there hasn't even been an acknowledgment that some students may be negatively impacted by this plan. That's the definition of deliberate indifference. So what exactly will you be measuring success against? Hope, good intentions, a quarterly PowerPoint presentation. This is the largest district reorganization in decades. You should have and could have demanded more than quarterly implementation updates before you vote. The question isn't whether the plan was implemented. The question is whether students are better off because of it. Please vote no tomorrow. A better plan is possible. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Amy Williams. Again, Amy Williams. We'll move to our next speaker, Angel Gober. Good evening. Can you hear me? >>

185Yes, we can hear you. >> Oh, good. Okay. Um, good evening everybody. Um, my name is Angel Gober. I'm with 412 Justice. I agree with what Pam just said and all of the speakers that are um urging the board to vote no tomorrow. Um, I know we're exhausted from this process. I'm sure many of you are as well. However, exhaustion is important, especially when we're trying to get something right. So, this plan is not it. Um, we hosted there was some feedback from some board members that, you know, only white parents would be impacted and affected. Um, and we've only heard from them. So, we did our due diligence to really find impacted black families um that would be harmed by this plan. And we hosted five listening sessions. I sent all of you a

186report. Um, we did it pretty quickly because we knew we didn't have that much time. Had we had more time, we would have had more families um, voices be a part of the conversation. Everybody was saying the same thing. Transportation plan like we don't even do transportation right now. So, how are we going to do transportation? We have a really hard time filling um filling um crossing gore positions. We've already talked to the city about that. The city said that they have not had a conversation with PPS about crossing gourds. That's problematic. So, um we heard about class sizes. We heard about staff layoffs. We heard about uh families not having the right supports when they moved to a different building. So, all these are major major concerns. So, the district needs to redo the

187plan. I know it's hard and I know it's exhausting, but we got to keep doing it till it's right. There also needs to be more partnership. We need to work with the city. We need to work with direct service agencies. We need to work with community- based organizations. Like, you know, nobody knows what to do. Dr. Walters and this board have never closed schools before, right? Like, how do we learn from our mistakes in the past? So, if you don't know how to do something, you ask for help. And that's true leadership. So, this board needs a vote no tomorrow. Um, go back to the drawing board and work with community members, parents, students, and staff to come up with a better plan. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker,

188Isabella Kang. >> She she's not going to be able to join right now, but she will come back at the end. >> Thank you. Actually, I'm here. I'm here. Hi. >> Hi. >> Sorry about that. >> You can hear me? Okay. >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, yeah, I'm here tonight as a parent and community member, like so many others tonight, to urge you all on the board to vote no on this school closure plan 17.01, 101 which will close our neighborhood school Fulton and so many others. Uh we plans to send our two young children to Fulton soon as they begin their education journey um aging into kindergarten next year. Joining so many families in our community who love the school and have been fighting to keep it

189open. Our children, like all children, deserve to learn and grow in great schools with great teachers, and your job is to make sure that they have what they need to keep doing that. We hear only such wonderful things about Fulton and have been so excited to be a part of PPS and this school closure plan causes disruption for so many families across the district. And we just do demand reiterating so many others just um to vote no and go back to the drawing board just as Angel just said. Um also just to say thank you so much to their organization Forward to Justice and so many others who have been so helpful to me and my family and to people in our community to help us understand what all of this closure plan has uh

190meant and would mean and what has been lacking in it. and just being able to have them as a buffer to be more informative uh that information has been lacking details of the plan from you all. Um, just to say that. So, you know, in and overall just uh as an educator myself and just having worked in public school systems and seeing the risk our public school system is in right now in this country in this moment. Um, closing more schools does not feel like the right answer. Even if I don't have all of the details, we we we would love to see what you know comes forward in the future when you hopefully do vote no on this. We want all of the schools, all the students to have what they need. This does

191not feel like that answer. This does not achieve that goal. Please vote no. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker, Rachel Canning again. Our next speaker is Rachel Canny. We'll keep moving. Our next speaker, Brian Ruth. Again, Brian Roose. We'll keep moving. Our next speaker, Lauren Stupers. We'll keep going. Our next speaker, Marissa F. Hello everybody. Um, sorry, what was the nervous one? Okay. Earlier today, I was at my child's first spring intervention interventional concert and the room was filled with growing minds, music, joy, and community. When you walk into Fulton, you feel strength, courage, peace, and importantly, you see what the what as I ful kids feel heard. Kids feel safe. Kids feel empowered. They're excited to learn, excited to grow, and excited to walk through these doors every day.

192And yes, they are kids. So some mornings it's 50/50, but they still show up ready to conquer contour the world the day because they know they are supported. We keep hearing from the P PBS board about what our schools and manage do for example our strongly created multi-purpose space earlier today but I ask you to look at the students look at their growth look at their confidence and their willingness to to learn together as one community students and their families show up teachers show up at Fulton there are there is diversity acceptance acceptance and genuine care and the passion for education. There is no judgment bias just students learning and growing together. Many schools on the on this closure list should not be there and folk and magnet program are one of those. Please take

193please do not take that away from the students especially right now. Look around. Students, parents and teachers and community members old and new, nearby neighborhoods and beyond are paying attention. People are asking serious questions. Is it truly about providing the best education for all students? And some and others are asking is it about development and money in these now called prime areas locations of these particular schools. We are asking you to slow down, listen fully, spend real time in these schools on a daily basis and decisions and do that will impact many children, students, families and teachers and communities. Please vote no on these closures. Walk through the schools, listen to the students, talk to the students, the students. And when you clearly see what these schools truly mean to communities, especially Fulton, and to

194their students futures, futures, because when it comes to schools, education and growth, the students are the community, too. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is April Casora. Good evening. I am of the same mind as those who have said we can afford more time to improve education delivery with an approach that doesn't just set us up for more scarcity like the current plan might very well do. The sidebyside financial pro projections show that the plan doesn't buy us much time. It just takes a chip out of the deficit. What if we worked with a local think tank like Urban Kind Institute? Why not take just a couple more years and try to avoid closing some of these schools? It's painful to hear that the district's plan for the empty

195buildings is to find community groups and nonprofits to utilize them because that's exactly what PPS families hoped would happen with the buildings to support them staying open. This would be particularly helpful because other PPS goals include providing more comprehensive mental and physical care and social emotional learning support and increased implementation of restorative practices in school discipline. Community and medical organizations and community-minded professionals as tenants in our buildings could certainly help with all of that. With the student achievement center, I don't believe the district is making the right calculus. 1.2 million saved per year is not a whole lot in the great scheme of the budget. And returning students to credit recovery models in their feeder pattern school is unlikely to serve them well because these are students who are often a couple of years older

196than their classmates and would likely benefit from being with more peers that are experiencing the same challenges and in an environment that treats them as partners and trying to achieve a specific goal. A student who my husband was a mentor for all but dropped out of his high school because of a personal conflict with a key teacher over his gender identity. Attending SACE was the solution. Please don't take this option away from some of the most vulnerable students. I worry about administrator toteer ratios in a newly created very large school like Alageney at King which would have five to seven classrooms for each grade. And then once North View opens, still four to five. We need to ensure building administrators have the training and ideally the experience to handle a large-scale school. Also, the district

197asks us to trust in its track record, pointing to the example of combining Perry and Oliver High School. With all respect to the district administrators that uh were there and worked on that challenge, we can't just put that in the footnotes as a success. We need to point to lessons learned. If you talk to any former student, parent or bus driver that I have spoken to about that time of transition, it was very difficult. There were fights and even on occasion bullets. The students that we are asking to merge together in this current plan may be in middle school, but we have middle school students. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Kathleen O'Brien. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you now. >> Hi. Um, I'm not going

198to go with my whole letter because it was fairly long, I think. And I also want to acknowledge that PPS does need to change how it's doing stuff. Um, what I do want to state is that the plan as it is right now isn't a plan. Um, what we've gotten is a bunch of catchphrases. We're told to imagine the future. We're told um that we're planting a seed, but we're not told what that seed is going to grow. We're told to trust us, but we have seen bad things as well as good things. And if we are not careful about how we go about closing schools and implementing a plan or even coming up with a plan, we risk losing everything good PPS has to offer. And there's a lot of good things. I mean,

199there's a lot of frustrating things. There's a lot of inequity, but we risk making it significantly worse. And what we in the community need is to see the plan. How will you make it so that kids are not just segregated to a community school? That kids are actually all getting a good education. Like, we need to see that. We need to be told how it's going to happen. We need to not be told, "Trust us, we're professionals." because most of us have been let down by professionals. So, we need something tangible. Additionally, if this plan goes wrong, we risk hurting the most vulnerable students in our community. Parents who are too scared to come and talk at these meetings. That's not something as a community member I want to see happen. I don't want to

200see any other kids fall through the cracks. I don't want to see any kids not have their needs met. I also don't want to see buildings just empty in communities. I don't want to see parents having to fight or give up because those resources aren't there. I just really wish and believe that we need to vote no on this right now because the plan isn't there. Right now, we're going off feelings. Feelings that it's all going to collapse. Feelings that we are in crisis. We need a plan. And the plan, the future ready plan, isn't a plan yet. It's an idea. It's a feeling. It's an analogy of a tree growing. And it's about imagination. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Lacha Anthony. Again, Lacha Anthony. We'll move on to the

201next speaker, Ashley Zapon. >> Hi, good evening. Um, I don't know if I can speak as eloquently as those before me, but I come to you as a parent of one of the students at Manchester. My son Aiden has level three autism and other developmental delays. Because of this, it can be difficult for him in the classroom room stud setting. Man, Manchester and its teachers, in particular Miss Larrow, have been an absolute godsend for us, especially since we were skeptical of putting him in a public school in the first place due to the amount of care and attention he needs. His class size, although small, has been exactly what he needs, and he has grown by leaps and bounds since the beginning of his work with Miss Larrow. Potentially increasing this class size by consolidating

202schools would be nothing but detrimental to him and to the other students in his class. Changing where he goes to school and disrupting the routine that Miss Laro and the other members of his IEP have developed would be nothing but detrimental to him and nothing but detrimental to other students with IEPs. Not to mention that those these closures would disrupt the the lives of every student and employee at Manchester and the other schools like Marorrow. I understand needing to utilize buildings as best you can and I have had numerous concerns about the facilities available in these schools, but there simply isn't enough information on what comes next to comfort my anxiety, let alone the anxiety of other parents, students, and the teachers employees impacted by this closing. Listening to other testimonies, it seems like the

203general consens consensus of those of us fighting to keep it open is that we need a plan that is fully realized, not the same regurgitated plan from last year. So, I implore you, take some time, figure this out further, and listen to those that are better informed than I on how this can be done. Listen in particular to the students who have testified because they, not you, will be directly impacted by this. They have to go to these schools. They have have to commute further because of closure closing these schools. And that's not necessarily easy. And for the record, I was against the very first wave of closures that included Shley and Morningside. Coming the budget by school closures not only hurts the communities that rely on them and the communities where these closures will

204occur have been hurt enough. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Jackie Matthews. Again, Jackie Matthews. We'll move on to the next speaker, Rita Porterfield. So, we want to ensure that everyone had a chance to speak. So, I will go through the list. >> I apologize. I'm so sorry, ma'am. Um, this is Rita Porterfield. >> Okay. Go ahead. You can speak. Can you hear me? We can't hear you. So, I will continue to go through the list and I will come back to her if she can get back back on. So, we'll start with Ann Ferris. Ann Ferris. The next speaker, Andy Cubis, Alexis Stevens, I'm sorry, Alexis Stevenson, Greg Lachley, Diamond Kite, Jesse Gord, Lucas Anak Neil, Renee Wilson, Lori Lman. >> This is Renee Wilson. >> Go ahead.

205You can testify. >> Yes. I um My name is Renee Wilson. and I live in the Hill District and I'm very very concerned about Miller School closing Miller school. Miller School is the only school in Pittsburgh >> that has a um you know a African um a centric um teaching which is very especially in the today's world what we're going through now it's a very very important curriculum to keep in in place and I wish that the school board would really really focus more on education every time we're coming to this meeting it's about finances and things like that our community is growing and we still want to close schools. I mean, like what is that going to look like when all the apartments that are being built, the people are in them? And you

206do you really think that's like the best thing to do for the school district? It might be the easiest thing that they cut the budget, but there's other ways. I just want y'all to just give time if y'all need suggestions. We have some that um that that just to think about this. This is about the children. So we should we should really really be careful when we make these decisions and I hope that the vote is no do not close Miller do not close the schools. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. So we'll continue to go through the list of people who have not testified. Our next name is again I'm going to repeat Lori Lman Emily Pancha >> Jodie Kang >> yes I am here and available. Hi everyone, my name is Joti

207Kang. Um I'm going to go a little off topic here than what I had planned to speak about. There were a few speakers, a couple of them in the first half of the uh speaker uh section that talked about how the outrage from the public uh maybe because it is uh raci based on racism and that there weren't similar outrages before when Shanley Height closed. I'm not a Pittsburgh native. I've been living in Pittsburgh for about 5 years. What I can tell you is, you know, uh, family members who've lived here, folks who I know who were here during Shanley closure, nobody talks about it as a fond thing. Nobody talks about it as if that was the right decision to be made. And everybody talks about how those that building was converted into luxury

208condo. So, if a developer could turn it around, you know, why couldn't a school district do it? So, I want to bring this issue up because I don't want some board members, any board members to discount all of the testimonies uh from everyone who's been in uh support of keeping these schools open or been in support of going back to the drawing board and coming up with a more sound plan. because this decision is not people who've spoken today, they're not speaking because they're racist and because they were quite, you know, last time around when Shenley closed. Uh, a lot and somebody asked what has changed since then and now. And it seems they were implying that the only thing that's changed is that the superintendent and the boards are a lot more black representation

209now. Well, what's changed since then is BLM, um, Wall Street Occupy movement. A lot has changed. We are a much more aware and involved and active and a proactive uh generation. It's a much more activistminded generation than we've had in decades. So the amount of people that you've seen speak here and the passion that they've spoken with, I don't believe for one bit it's coming from a place of, you know, racial hatred or anything like that. It's because we generally care about this community. We're part of this community. We live here. We run into each other, other parents, uh future parents who want to send their kids to these schools and we talk about these topics and race doesn't come into uh the decision- making or those conversations at once. This country has a has

210a massive race problem, but this decision does not feel like, you know, parents outpouring of support uh for reconsidering uh the plans to close these schools is coming from that. Enough said about race. This wasn't supposed to be uh about race and it is not. Um the I would echo a lot of the other sentiments uh from a lot of the other parents who've spoken before me. These schools should not close because this is not a sound plan. We voted for your testimony. >> And I will continue calling the speakers. Valerie Web Alman. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Um, sorry. My name was called like 30 seconds ago, but uh, no one could hear me. Can you hear me now? So, we will come back to you. We're going to go we're

211going through the list of names and so we're going we're on Valerie Web Almond and then we'll get to your name. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Closing these nine schools cuts too deep. Community groups, legislators, PFT, NAACP, families, and more all agree that cutting these nine schools is first is a bad idea. We all agree that we need to look at our footprint, make major changes to the district, and build trust. But starting with cutting these schools and forcing a plan to fit into the remaining footprint, even without addressing the underlining financial attrition and student outcomes issues, is the wrong way to do it. Two years of work to try to force a plan into a footprint created without fundamental data has left us with a slow quality plan. Frankly, I'm

212sick of arguing about standards I can stub my toes on. It's time to tell a superintendent to stop dragging his feet and do better. Declining population isn't the reason why we need to close schools. Pittsburgh's population has remained fairly stable since the last round of closures in 2012. The reason why PPS lost nearly 28% of its enrollment since then is because of closure processes developed without community buyin. The district hasn't found ways to build and retain trust with families and PPS hasn't been an attractive option. Instead of finding solutions to those root issues, the administration continues to proposing managing decline. We have over 13,000 school-aged children in Pittsburgh that don't attend PPS. That's nearly 40% of the kids in Pittsburgh. Over the last decade, charter school enrollment has increased nearly 50%. There will be more

213if this plan is passed without community trust. You cannot build trust during implementation when you have already proven that you're willing to ignore concerns, break multiple policies, and force people into a plan they believe will only do harm. This plan relies heavily on families leaving the district so that you can close nine buildings. However, this plan still leaves us without the funding to even implement it properly. It doesn't account for the lawsuits the district will face. It doesn't budget for the increased transportation and tuition costs for families that leave PPS. and doesn't even have the funding to reopen North View or to do all the renovations that are necessary at the remaining schools. If you pass this plan, you're dooming us to repeat what happened over the last 25 years. Students will suffer. We'll have

214to return to school closures to save money in a few years and more trust will be eroded. We have watched this play out before and outcomes have always been the same. Do something different. We aren't asking you to kick the can down the road. We're begging you to have the backbone to do something innovative, to build something with the community, and ensure that PPS is the most attractive option in our district. We want to make sure that whatever plan we put in place is centered on putting students first, not the ego of a few, not of money or footprint, the students. This plan doesn't do that. So, don't cave to a plan that hurts everyone. The majority of parents that I've spoken to that want you to vote yes don't even send their kids to

215PPS. They send their kids to charter or private schools and think they're spending too many tax dollars on PPS. But when I ask them if closing these schools and implementing the plan will re let them reconsider PPS, they say no. Under this plan, declining enrollment and its financial impact remains. Fix the root issues, bring families back, don't gamble the future PPS on the same approach that has led us back to the same place times after time. Thank you. >> Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Lily Amed. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Pittsburgh is a city that has a lot of old bridges and could use a look at how our footprint could improve our quality of life. Imagine we hired an architect that

216spent two years building a plan which resulted in concerns from community members, legislators, city planners, and more. When he presented his plan, there were major holes in the blueprints. It would disrupt at risk communities the most. It was over budget with no plan on how to finish the plan or where we get or where to get the funding. And it would make commuting and service for a third of the population uncertain at best. When these major concerns were brought up, the community that were racing alarms were villainized for being vocal. And everyone was told that told that trust could be built after we closed down access to nearly a quarter of our bridges and while they were fixing the other ones even though there wasn't funding in the budget or a full plan to guarantee

217the other bridges would be fixed either. When the board said this plan was too risky to approve and needed the missing information, the architect decided that he wasn't going to change or improve anything. He claimed that he couldn't create a better plan until after his original plan was approved. After waiting several more months, the underlying issues were still there. So now the board is considering the same incomplete plan because they feel the timing is even more urgent. The worst part is that a couple of different architects before had creative similar plans and it resulted in worse outcomes and costs more than it saved saved. Now imagine that there were also private businesses that were already that already had established toll bridges that would still serve most of the communities that would face disruption. In fact,

218nearly 40% of the city was already using these bridges. The best part, most or all of the toll was already being paid by tax dollars. Most people wouldn't have to pay an additional dime, and there seemed to be more certainty that these bridges wouldn't be closed or disrupted. What do you think most community members would choose to do? Fall behind a plan where their concerns were brushed aside just to do just some to just do something without trust or certainty or just use the toll bridges? These analogies represent the way the community feels. We have tried to talk to you about the problems within this district, yet we get brushed aside as if we were a mild inconvenience. Why should we trust you to help the students if you won't even listen to us? If

219you want us to trust you, act like it. If you want our trust, vote no. It's not about the buildings, it's about what you're building. >> Thank you for your testimony. We will continue to go through speakers who have not spoken yet. Kathleen Melotti again. Kathleen Melotti. We'll keep going. Amy Williams. Rachel Canning again. Rachel Canning. Sorry, we're having some issues. [laughter] I'm here. Hold on. Okay, let's see. Good evening. Uh, Pittsburgh Public Schools Board. Um, I'm Rachel. This is Emma. It's past her bedtime. >> Okay. >> Am I I'm on, right? Um, so good evening. My name is Rachel Canning. I'm a Pittsburgh Public Schools parent, a North Side resident. Sorry, I lost my window. Okay. Um, a North Side resident, a Pittsburgh Public Schools alumni, um, who started my academic career at Manchester

220Elementary um, over four decades ago, and parent of a child who's finishing kindergarten at Maro Elementary this year. Um, and I'm definitely still mad about Shenley and still mad at Mark Roosevelt. Um, I'm asking you to vote no on the future ready plan. Uh, there's been so much moving testimony tonight, um, especially from the Hill and from Manchester. And I just want to be in solidarity with the many other, um, members of the community who are asking to vote no. And here are some of the reasons why. Families in the city have lived through decades of closures, restructurings, and promises that the next plan will finally stabilize the district. And yet, every round of closures leads to another round of closures. Every right sizing becomes justification for more disinvestment. Every law school pushes more families

221out. The flavor of reform changes, the superintendent changes, but the underlying goal, it seems, to shrink, fragment, and ultimately privatize Pittsburgh's public school system stays the same. In the early 2000s with Roosevelt, it was teacher effectiveness and the introduction of this portfolio management concept and school choice was has been pushed. School choice expanded, they said. And now many of those same voices are telling us to reduce choice. >> Um and now we're focused on absenteeism, utilization rates, um and still portfolio management. Um but all of these are driving families toward options outside the district. >> Um let's see. I also want to say that you know in our community um year after year we are messaged to about our schools in extremely negative ways um through reports rankings that celebrate only the high test scores

222schools and lead with failure. Um you know that families internalize these messages these messages, children internalize it, whole communities internalize it. Um and um through >> sorry uh so I want to talk a little bit more about what the pattern looks like on the north side. I'm sure I'm going to get cut off. I will send you guys my testimony. Um uh because I I'm I fear that this plan is engineering Marorrow's decline in the same way that the district engineered Manchester's decline. Um so my daughter goes to John Marorrow. It's a true one neighborhood school, an anomaly in this district. You do not go to Manchester. um a single neighborhood school and a neighborhood where families have historically um opted out of it and chosen either private schools or charters and magnets. >> Um

223>> so this plan is vetting our survival on on the family >> for your testimony. And our next speaker, Brian Ruth. We'll go to the next. Lauren Stubus. Lauren Stubus. Laya Anthony. Laya Anthony. Next speaker, Jackie Matthews. Jackie Matthews. Next speaker, Rita Porterfield. Give me just one moment as I join, please. I'm having some uh technical difficulty here and I apologize. [snorts] >> Okay. >> All right. Dear school board members, to keep it brief, please vote no in the facilities utilization plan. We're in a rush to make poor decisions slowly by repeating the same slash and burn habits of 20 years. We absolutely need to address long-term financial considerations and we need to address in innovative ways. Closing schools where charter seem to blossom, continuing to pay charters and using the little that's left to

224make it work with the families that are stealed in their resolve to stay isn't working. I will reiterate that I share the concerns expressed by 412 Justice and Pittsburgh's branch, the NAACP. Lastly, I ask that you consider a model that expands Monasuri methods in a way to expand both access and appeal to our students across learning levels and across neighborhoods. And because I heard that my Italian is in high demand, as poor as a heritage speaker that I may be, I will leave you with this. move forward together. It's the unity that makes us strong. >> Thank you very much. Good evening. Thank you for your testimony. And our next speaker is Emily Proancha. Hi everybody, my name's Emily Provancha. Thank you for letting me speak today. I am a parent who has recently moved

225to Pittsburgh and I'm just very concerned that this is a copy and paste of the plan that was voted no last fall. I agree with so many of the speakers already here. I think the board needs to vote no. I urge you to take another look at this plan. Provide a little bit more details. kind of hit it with a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer on a lot of these schools that you're proposing just to close. I think you've heard a lot of testimony today about why this is not the right plan and this is not ready for prime time in Pittsburgh. I am very concerned about this being just kind of uh like everybody else said, the plan that leads to more closures in the future. I'm concerned that this is not creating a

226lot of confidence in parents to move to Pittsburgh to keep their kids in the system. I feel very strongly to put my kids through the public school system the way that I did. I I was really excited to move to Pittsburgh. I just feel that kids deserve so much better than this and more and more it's just easier for families to leave the city or take their kids to charter schools. And I would just hate to see the continued decline of what should be public a public good and a public service that should be getting better and better for all the kids that live here in Pittsburgh. That's really all I wanted to say, but I ple I urge everyone on the board to please vote no on this plan and take a closer look

227at the details of this plan. Thank you for your testimony. And so we're going to have one last speaker that I'm going to call again and it's Brian Ruth. >> Do you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you now. >> Good evening. My name is Brian Ruth. I'm a parent of Zion Ruth, a current fourth grader at Dale Worth Magnet School. I was lately upset when I learned of the district's plans to remove all magnet students and send them to their home schools. If I felt like my home school could provide a quality education for my child, I wouldn't be standing here today. In order to thrive and flourish, for anything to thrive and flourish, it first needs the right external conditions. I'll use a flower for example. If the soil is fertile and

228has the right balance of nutrients, the flower germinates, takes roots, and grows out to its maximum potential. On the other hand, if the soil is toxic or lacks the necessary ingredients, the seed remains dormant and never reaches full potential. Like a flower, our students are flourishing in their current learning communities based on the rich culture provided there. We're devastated to think that the district wants to uproot our children and place them in subpar learning conditions. I challenge all of you when you are making decision not to think of dollars and cents, but to think of your students. Would you want your children or grandchildren to suffer this type of displacement in the middle of their learning journey? I don't think so. I'm asking the board to develop a way to phase out magnet school programs

229that will not detrimentally affect the current students who are enrolled. We trusted you. We had no idea we'd be facing a bait and switch dilemma. We parents should not have to seek out alternative cyber or charter schools when we want our children to continue at their current locations. We believe this is our right. Please do what is best for our students and let them stay. Vote no. Thank you for listening and do the right thing. >> Thank you for your testimony. And that will conclude our testimonies for this evening. And I will now turn this back into the hands of Mr. Walker. >> Thank you, Miss Gandandy. Uh and as always, thank you to everyone uh who took time out of their evening uh to submit their testimony. Uh we really do appreciate your engagement.

230It has been a long evening and so I won't drag this out any longer. Uh this meeting is adjourned. Everyone have a safe night and we'll see you all tomorrow.