Superintendent Hamlet and credibility
Superintendent Anthony Hamlet: Are you listening? If you are — if you really are tuned in to the parents who protested Wednesday night over plans to delay the start of the new school year — you will understand that there is a fundamental lack of trust between you and your constituents.
You must fix this. Now.
The parents who gathered outside the administrative headquarters for Pittsburgh Public Schools days ago were not an especially large group. But, they surely represent a bigger pool of people who share the same concerns. And those concerns are not just about the immediate crisis at hand— which is a shortage of buses to transport students to their school buildings come the start of the new term.
The real issue is your credibility. More accurately: a perceived lack of credibility.
The school district has said it is considering pushing the start of the new school year by two weeks to accommodate training of new bus drivers who are needed to man the transportation system.
Those who protested Wednesday — and those who are likely to show up at a public hearing Monday — aren’t just peeved about a delay in the ringing of the school bells.
They are worried that another plan could be in the works: a plan for remote learning or hybrid education.
The district hasn’t said anything of the sort is in the works. Officials have said they want to delay the start of the year due to a shortage of some 6,000 bus seats for students and that adding the needed bus drivers to the roster will be best accommodated by moving the resumption of school from Aug. 25 to Sept. 8. This idea has yet to be approvedby the elected school board.
At the heart of it all, though, is parents’ lack of confidence in what they’re hearing from school leaders.
Abbie Campsie of Squirrel Hill, a protest organizer, put it succinctly: “I’m very concerned that our kids are not going to go to school ... I speak for many who have lost confidence
with the superintendent.”
Mr. Hamlet must address this lack of confidence, this fear. And he must be unequivocal. If the delay in the start of the 2021-2022 school year really is just a delay, he must give his solemn assurance that that is so.
Students have left PPS in recent months and in significant numbers. Teachers (with the threat of furloughs hanging over their heads) have gone door-to-door in an effort to get them to return. But teachers can do only so much.
Mayor Bill Peduto weighed in on Twitter with his thoughts that the school delay is unacceptable. He snidely observed that “transit management systems are not unique to the city of Pittsburgh ... You cannot blame COVID. It is an administrative function, and we have had more than enough time to prepare for it.”
Well, there is a national shortage of bus drivers. It has been exacerbated by COVID. And Pittsburgh Public Schools have been working for months to reduce the shortage of bus seats and the efforts have narrowed the gap. Could more have been done? Perhaps.
But, that is not the core issue. It is trust.
PPS school board will host a public meeting Monday. Parents can submit testimony. So, too, should Mr. Hamlet. He should level with the public about the plans, the certainty of those plans, and his thoughts for the coming school year and all it will entail. Trust and confidence must be rebuilt.