Duquesne school district to close the end of the school year

Wow.

Duquesne school district to close the end of the school year: Duquesne school district to close the end of the school year.

Perhaps we can say too little and too late.

This is big news. And, it is a big impact to everyone in the region.

Allegheny County and the overall region is just too small to have such a failure in such epic amounts. Those kids are neighbors. Those students are getting screwed and have been put in jeopardy for decades.

The drag of Duquesne City's School District is an anchor that we all must lift and correct.

Back in the day I spoke at a PPS public hearing to the PPS board and took some heat from a person in the audience who was another citizen. She told me in no uncertain terms in a private conversation that she didn't want to hear me, a guy from the South Side who was seeking public office in the city, talking about Duquesne Schools. To her, that was out of bounds. She wanted me to rant about things within our neighborhood, our district.

I felt I had an important message to deliver and it was spot on for PPS to worry about. For a while, PPS had a consulting or management contract with the Duquesne School District for something. That didn't seem to pan out, I guess.

But my worry then and at the microphone that night was about the closing of schools in the 'right size plan' that were in Hazelwood and to the far east and south of the city. That is the part of the city that needed capacity because the Duquesne students might come flocking into the city some day as that district crumbles.

Well, it has happened. My prediction has come true, sadly.

And, the PPS is without the school buildings and without the capacity in the system to do something positive there.

It is a stretch, but not impossible, to get the kids from Duquesne into the city for school, even in the K-8 stages.

Oh well.