Frustration with PPS mounts as remote schooling continues
Parents: District had time to make better plan
Parents and community members expressed frustration toward the Pittsburgh Public Schools administration and board of education after in-person instruction was postponed until the spring for all students in the district.
The school board Wednesday approved a measure that extended remote learning until April 6, meaning that the vast majority of district students will go more than a calendar year without seeing the inside of a classroom. Students were slated to begin returning on Feb. 8.
Board members who voted to continue with the remote instruction model cited a number of factors for their decision, including lack of clarity about preparedness to return amid the pandemic, transportation woes and a strong pushback from the teachers union that led to fears of staff shortages.
But parents said school officials should have better anticipated those problems, some of which have existed since the beginning of the school year.
“We are frustrated and losing confidence in the district’s ability to lead and support our schools and our students,” said Libby Hilf, a parent of three children in the district. “If we continue to hear the same excuses about the same problems and no progress is being made to address those issues and those problems, it makes it very difficult to have confidence in their ability to serve our students and serve the families.”
Superintendent Anthony Hamlet has insisted that the district is
ready to reopen when the board decides to bring back students, saying that the school system has the necessary personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and protocols in place.
The district worked with hundreds of stakeholders over the summer to create a plan in which all students could receive at least some in-person instruction if they wanted it. The plan has been sidelined for most of the year, however, as the number of COVID-19 cases and percent positivity rates in Allegheny County have been higher than what the state recommended for schools to reopen.
The district briefly attempted to bring back students in early November but ended its plan in less than a week after the caseload began to spike in the county and a substantial number of staff members asked for leaves of absence. The district is one of only three in Allegheny County that have not consistently returned to at least some in-person learning.
City students found themselves facing a number of issues as schools remained closed, from the inability to access their classes online to a lack of interest from sitting in front of a computer for hours a day. Parents have concerns about the mental well-being of their children as well as the quality of education they are receiving.
Parents who work outside of the home and have younger children have an added burden because they need to worry about child care.
Ms. Hilf, who has two daughters at CAPA 6-12 and a 6-year-old son at Phillips K5, said she feels lucky because she is able to work from home and supervise her children. But even with her help, she said her youngest child has struggled.
“We would love for him to be independent, but the reality is the way that the schoolwork is structured, the expectations that they have for these children to log on, follow links, click through the different activities — it’s not feasible,” she said.
Ms. Hilf said she can see many of the other students in her son’s class who appear as though they are not getting the same support at home as she is able to provide for her son.
“Many students look very overwhelmed, stressed and sad,” she said. “Many students look as if they are on their own.”
The state has more recently given schools some leeway regarding virus levels, recommending that even if caseloads remain high, elementary-age students can return to the classroom because they are less likely to experience severe symptoms from the virus. The case numbers in the region still remain substantial but have been trending downward over the past few weeks.
Health organizations and medical groups, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Allegheny County Health Department and the Journal of the American Medical Association have said schools can reopen safely if the proper protocols are followed. Despite that information, parents said the district has been unclear about what conditions are needed for inperson learning to start.
“The district and board have no agreed-upon benchmarks or metrics for a return to school,” said David A. Morris, the parent of two students at Dilworth PreK-5 in East Liberty. “Nine board members, each with their own metric. Even with [the Journal of the American Medical Association’s] new research on the safety of opening schools, the board pays no mind. The sad thing is the negative outcome falls on the children.”
James Fogarty, executive director of the education equity group A+ Schools, said he would like to have seen a more creative approach that would have gotten at least some students — whether they be elementary students or children who are the most vulnerable — into the classroom.
He noted that 24 learning hubs with 64 locations around the city and county have served about 700 Pittsburgh students this year and wondered if the district could use that model to get students some time with a trained educator — even if it was not their own teacher.
Mr. Fogarty said he believed the district could have worked with the teachers union to find a way to staff some buildings, noting that some school faculty did express a willingness to return.
“You’ve got a group of teachers, you’ve got 57 buildings distributed across the city,” Mr. Fogarty said. “What’s a flexible plan where, at least in the interim, students who have the need can get to buildings and be taught in person and be delivered services?”
The executive board of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers last week unanimously adopted a resolution urging the superintendent and the board to delay the start of in-person learning until school staff can receive both doses of the COVID19 vaccine.
PFT President Nina Esposito-Visgitis said Thursday there were some staff members who would have been willing to return before they got the vaccine if the board had reopened schools, but she could not provide specific numbers.
Even if there would have been enough staff to open some buildings, Ms. Esposito-Visgitis said the district did not approach the union to seek options for reopening.
“We were never asked anything,” she said. “I didn’t think it was our place to go to them and say, ‘Hey, do you want to do something innovative?’”
Ms. Esposito-Visgitis said the district and board members were “hiding behind” the union by saying that teacher shortages would threaten the ability to hold in-person instruction. She said transportation problems posed a major problem that the district had not addressed, and she blamed the school system for a lack of communication on its reopening plans.
Several board members mentioned the transportation issues Wednesday, saying that they did not know if the district could find enough bus drivers and noting that Port Authority buses — which many students take — follow strict capacity guidelines that may cause difficulties.
Some board members said the size of the district made it harder to deal with those problems than it has for smaller suburban schools. Mr. Fogarty, though, said parents don’t like to hear those excuses.
“I don’t care that your logistics are harder, especially if my child is suffering, and I’m trying to go to work and I know I have to leave them during the day for them to do the work on their own,” said Mr. Fogarty, who is himself a district parent. “It’s hard for me to sympathize with that argument when you’ve had since March of last year to work on those logistics.”