Friday, February 10, 2006

Right Sized School Plans -- it is getting better

The Right-Sized plans from Mr. Roosevelt are online at PghBOE.Net. Many great changes are within the new edition of the plan.

I'm glad that they are going to 'think again' about Schenley High School.

It is good that Friendship gets a school.

It is fine to get the K-5 kids out of Greenway Middle School.

I'm glad that the Rodgers Middle School move could still happen -- perhaps next year -- to a more central location. Thinking again on that school move is welcomed.

I'm sad that there isn't anything in there about the pre-k programs.

I'm sad that Knoxville is slated to close. But, perhaps that school can be a home to the Creative and Performing Arts Middle School a year from now.

I'm not happy that the school on the western edge of the city, already with a rehab, isn't going to re-open.

Bergwin is still slated to close and that is WRONG. The district needs to make a move to expand with Duquesne (not university). Bergwin is important for that flexibility. Hazelwood can make a comeback -- but without Bergwin, it will be nearly impossible. And, the numbers used to justify the closing of Bergwin were not accurate, so I hear.

The folks of Hazelwood didn't put up a big stink when Gladstone was lost, first as a high school around the time of the closing of Fifth Avenue HS. And later as a Middle School. But the conventional wisdom and promises that were give with the shut down was to spare Bergwin. That was a great compromise -- and a deal -- that just shattered. Another broken promise, I guess.

Bergwin's test scores, attendance and pre-school were making serious strides upward.

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