Mark
Rauterkus, of
Historic
South Side to
the PPS Board & Administrators on December 8, 2025, budget
hearing.
I’m
a swim coach working with the International Swim Coaches Association,
a parent of PPS graduates, long-time program leader with Summer
Dreamers for 10+ years and other afterschool efforts.
My
podcast, Heavy Or Not, The OG Swim Guide, episode #04, spoke to some
issues of aquatics in episode.
https://sites.libsyn.com/492626/site/brain-dump-for-new-pps-admin-for-pe-at-pgh-public-schools-04-heavy-or-not-jump-cut
Raising
taxes at this time gets a be “NO” from me at this time as we are
about to get punished by the City of Pittsburgh with a big tax bill.
Of
course, I support the prior speaker who was critical of the corporate
welfare and Tax Breaks for the developers. No TIFs.
I
read the written plan that was advanced and voted down by the board.
That plan was a terrible mish-mash of jumbled mess. FUD (fear,
uncertainty and doubt) flowed from every page and paragraph.
It
would be great if someone there might try ChatGPT to edit the
document and streamline the thinking and its presentation.
My
advice is to break up the actions into tiny, bite-sized steps.
Remove
grades 6, 7, 8 from Westinghouse. That's one vote.
Remove
grades 6, 7 8 from Obama. That's one vote.
Remove
grades 6, 7, 8 from Sci Tech. That's one vote.
Think
again about middle-school CAPA in the Downtown location. I think we
can support two creative and performing arts middle schools on
different parts of the city and allow for expansion of High School
CAPA so more in grades 9 to 12 can have that experience. Replicate
and expand what is working.
Put
Arsenal as a 6, 7, 8 building, removing the K-5 -- another vote.
Many
of us were strongly against the formation of the schools that
included grades 6 to 12 when that all happened. Take them apart
again. That’s a great part of the plan. But, do it school by
school.
I
would be 100-percent behind no 6-12 schools.
Keep
the Gifted Center as it is. The Gifted program insures hundreds of
families stay in the city. Putting the Gifted into Home Schools is
going to fail. This will boil down to some additional worksheets and
little else. Everyone in the home school wins when the gifted kids
depart one day a week because more attention can be focused on those
present.
I
also wonder about Oliver High School on the Northside and how it is
absent in the failed plan. What’s up with that? Why build a new
school in Northview Heights and ignore the asset that is present.
Inexcusable.
Another
plea is to re-launch the Athletic Reform Task Force. I'll be happy to
lead those efforts for $0.
The
core of this testimony is to use experienced Pittsburgh people to fix
Pittsburgh issues.
Beware
of Brandon McGinley, a
Post-Gazette editorial writer who is floating the ideas that the PPS
Board should be taken over.
QUOTE: "Low-turnout
primaries have consistently delivered frivolous people to positions
of enormous responsibility for which they are radically unfit."
That
nonesense is sure to hit the fan in future days and weeks. We need to
push back for the sake of democracy. But we also need to have the
board do its job. Passing things back to the administration is sure
to result in more fumbling.
I feel that the fumbling is
not on the field but in the coverage. The media has to own a great
deal of the blame.
If
not a drop of ink nor a blip on the TV was devoted to the Pens,
Pirates or Steelers, would anyone care? The Steelers fan base would
look like the crowds that go to CMU games.
So,
welcome the spotlight, the transparency, the citizens input and the
board motions.
When
did the P-G ever hold a debate among candidates seeking election to
the school board? How many features, get-to-know you articles ran in
the newspaper before the elections, as candidate announced?
NEVER!
The
4th Estate is in a deep slumber. That's part of the democratic
process.
The
P-G helped get us into this pickle of public policy because the watch
dogs are absent.
On
Grant Street, the City of Pittsburgh is in the same boat. The
citizens are screwed. What always puzzles me is why does city council
and even the school board send things back to be fixed? Just fix it
and vote on it.
Make
up a series of small steps to shepherd a plan and pass it,
one-by-one.
Don’t
expect the Administration to do the heavy lifting as it has already
run to consultants to do the thinking and homework for the
administration. They outsourced things that got us into this mess.
The
mayor is a lame duck. He is good for sabotage and nothing else except
keeping the Oliver Bath House CLOSED. Council has to step up. The
school board members need to step up. Past councils had to operate
with overlords. They are waiting like vultures to descend to the
schools next.
Once
upon a time there was a school board that did a kitchen table budget
and the media was full of ridicule. Ms Jean Fink was a hero for doing
the work. But that was frowned upon by the power brokers and media.
Get
it done because those that should have fumbled greatly.
Who
knows about Doctor Walters. The average tenure of an urban
superintendent is three years.
Prior
statements from June 23, 2025
Good
evening. Board members, administrators, and citizens, my name is Mark
Rauterkus. We reside in the Historic South Side and currently working
with the International Swim Coaches Association. And I do have a
podcast called Heavy or Not.
But
my roots run deep here in Pittsburgh Public Schools. My kids came
through PPS. I coached swimming for years, including under Dr.
Walters' leadership. He was my son's principals for a decade.
Most
of the time I was his varsity swim coach. Hey, I'm coming. I saw the
flag footballs on the agenda, and that's a win, you know, especially
for the girls. You know, flag football is an emerging Olympic sport,
and again, it brings up some old questions we still need answered.
You
know, years ago I launched co-ed water polo at Schenley, We played
games and tournaments and even went out of state. We use PPS pools,
and there are many of them and we swam our summer program with 200
participants when swimming and water polo ran the Liberty Mile built
tech schools, but which certainly we had a little bit of support at
Obama, not so much, but there's a bigger systematic issue called
athletic reform. We saw that movement during Mark Roosevelt's time
and earlier with Dr. John Thompson, you know, he committed to pulling
sports coaches out from under the teacher's contract.
So,
hey, will flag football coaches be under the union contract or are we
setting that up to fail? You know, I'm, Happy that a lot of mistakes
made with the right sizing are getting fixed by ending the six
through 12 schools. But in those times, we also suggested a phase out
of the schools rather than a hard close and letting the kids finish
PPS rather than just rumor the school to its closure and death like
we did at South Vo Tech. I thought magnets worked and if we could
even spread the things that work, that would be great.
Our
youngest, played water polo, went to, just recently graduated from
Tulane Medical School. And I think if you take away the magnets, and
I agree it has to be equitable, but you'll see more families leave
the city. And the same for the gifted program. You know,
repositioning the gifted program is going to flop.
You
know, the gifted program is an asset for the city. And I still don't
see anything in clarity with Oliver High School on the facility list.
What's going to happen to that? Finally, you know, if the board's
willing, I'd be honored to serve or chair again on the Citywide
Athletic Reform Task Force.
That's
one that Dr. Lane shut down, and that was a mistake. I think sports
teach us how to be nimble. We need more of that. And sports teach us
how to play well with others.
And
we certainly need more of that, too. Good luck with your decisions.
Statement
from Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Gifted
Center shut down threat: Letter to PPS Board and Superintendent from
Catherine Palmer, Ph.D. & mom. Catherine and Mark Rauterkus have
been married since 1990.
108
South 12th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Superintendent
Mark Roosevelt School Board, Pittsburgh Public Schools
Dear
Madams and Sirs:
I
write to you as a parent of two elementary school children in the
Pittsburgh Public Schools and a fellow educator. I am an associate
professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of
Communication Science and Disorders. I have an undergraduate degree
in elementary education, my PhD is in Audiology, I conduct research,
and see patients who have communication problems due to hearing loss.
I believe I am sensitive to educational needs, budget constraints,
and making decision based on data due to these various roles.
My
sons came home from the Gifted Center last Thursday (their favorite
day of the school week) and told me that the superintendent was going
to close the Gifted Center. In fact, they both produced a handout
from the Gifted Center that summarized the news thus far (frequently
asked questions: buses cost money, the board is voting 12/21, gifted
education is mandated by law, how to be at the hearing, etc.). And
then they both asked me how I could let this happen. So, out of my
responsibility to my two boys, I decided to compose a letter so at
least I won't have to say that I didn't even ask the important
questions. I have taken several days to think about this because I
have admired the process thus far in the Pittsburgh Public Schools to
try to make data driven decisions rather than emotional ones. Just
because I love my boys going to the Gifted Center and they love
going, isn't actually a reason to keep it open. Yet, what is the
reason for closing it? I will try to suggest a data driven way to
approach this.
Thus
far, the major decisions related to the "right-sizing” of
schools in Pittsburgh have been data driven even if the formulas
weren't readily available. And these data were based on educational
performance. These are hard to argue with.
What
is the formula for considering closing the Gifted Center?
It
can't be performance based because these children clearly are
performing. So, is it solely financially based?
The
only information that we have received states that this “... is not
an educational decision, but a needed financial decision. By closing
the building and sending all students back to their home schools the
district will save $394,449 the first year and possibly $986,000
thereafter.” But these aren't adequate data. First, it is
disheartening, although honest, to be told decisions related to your
school children are not educational.
All
the right-sizing” thus far has emphasized that these were
educationally based decisions, but now when it comes to some of our
most gifted students, decisions are no longer educational? That seems
peculiar.
I
would respectfully request that no action is taken until data can be
collected as it has been for all of the other decisions. These data
would include the actual costs of integrating gifted programs into
each and every home school for the same grades that currently receive
services. In doing this, the administration also needs to be honest
in how they will do this and maintain the standard that the Gifted
Center has set.
I
can save you some time here, because you can't possibly maintain this
standard. Anyone who has studied Gifted Education and seen it
implemented in the Pittsburgh Public Schools knows that it is a
culture that is created. It is not something that can be recreated in
a room set aside at a home school. You cannot replicate the
interactions between the students from different parts of the city,
the freedom to explore subjects with amazing resources (both things
and teachers), the independent learning that is created in this
environment, and the forthcoming leadership skills that are born and
nourished. This is not likely to be recreated in a room that most
likely will be shared with other programs at home schools. And
perhaps even more importantly, whatever is created in the home
schools will be wildly different between schools and you will see
some schools witÅ™ terrific gifted resources and others with very
little. This is not equitable or just for the gifted children of
Pittsburgh who come from different neighborhoods. Most likely the
best we will be able to hope for is some accelerated work in these
home school "gifted programs" and no one should be fooled
into thinking that this is adequate gifted education. Regardless, the
responsible way of looking at this would be to calculate the true
costs of implementing adequate and equal gifted programs in each and
every school (materials, rooms, teachers, etc.) including all grades
that currently use the gifted center and then comparing it to what is
spent now on the Gifted Center and the transportation to the program.
As
we interact with our friends and relatives who live in the suburbs
with children the same ages as our own, there are two things they
always mention and envy about the city schools – the fact that we
have language magnets that start language immersion in Kindergarten
and the fact that we have the Gifted Center - a place where gifted
education truly takes place in an ideal atmosphere. Why would we
close the Gifted. Center, why wouldn't we make it a model for others
to follow? Why wouldn't we use it as a source to approach foundations
who might want to encourage the best and the brightest in our city
schools? These two programs that are the envy of suburban friends are
also part of what keeps people who choose to send their children to
the city schools doing just that. Without these outstanding
resources, the reasons to be in the city schools may not outnumber
some of the costs and we may find ourselves yet again needing to
“right size”. As superintendent and the school board, you must
look at all of your constituents and part of that constituency
consists of individuals who make a conscious choice to have their
children in the city schools and have other options available. We
want a diverse group of children in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and
we want people who have consciously chosen to be here.
I
respectfully request that you postpone any decision related to the
Gifted Center until you have collected and shared the data that would
reasonably compare the current cost of the gifted center and the cost
to duplicate this program in each and every home school. This would
be a responsible way to make a decision related to gifted education
in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Sincerely,
Catherine
V. Palmer
Handwritten
notes by Mark:
-
Local principals won't stand up for the Gifted Center.
-
Could suggest to end transportation to the Gifted Center and let
families handle that cost. Without the buses, it could be a longer
school day at The Gifted Center. At the least, PPS should phase out,
not just terminate, the Gifted Center.
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