Troubled district scores a win
When school bells ring this fall, there will be a seventh grade class in the Duquesne City School District for the first time in almost a decade.
It is a reversal of a practice that had been in place since 2012 when district middle school students started attending classes in the neighboring West Mifflin Area or East Allegheny school districts. They had no choice. Roiled by financial troubles, the district could not meet its mission to educate them.
The return of a seventh grade class to the school district is no small thing. It is more than just a homecoming for some four dozen or so students who are registered to attend this September. It’s more than just a potentially shorter commute. It is a win for a school district that needed one. And perhaps it’s even a sign of a turnaround.
Duquesne City School District, located a dozen miles south of Pittsburgh on the banks of the Mon River, had been in decline for years. Once a bustling community of some 11,500 people in the early 1970s, the district — which encompasses about 2 square miles — decreased in population by more than half. And with its shrinking population so, too, was a contracting tax base.
Duquesne was declared a “distressed” city in 1991. Then the school district was certified as “financially distressed” in 2000.
The district had to close its high school and shift students in grades nine through 12 to adjacent schools in 2007. And then students in grades seven and eight were moved in 2012. (Recovery status was given by the state in November 2012.) The district was left with a student body comprising children in grades pre-K
through six.
In addition to money woes, the school district’s track record has been marred by other troubles. In 2017, there was the double whammy of a legal settlement involving abuse of a student as well as financial improprieties disclosed by a state audit.
The district’s struggles aren’t over. Money and test performance are issues. But, these continuing challenges make this latest accomplishment shine even brighter.
The district has been working and planning for three years for the return of the seventh graders. Officials of the district, with a student population of some 350, heard the desires of kids, their families and the community. They worked on a plan that ultimately passed muster with state education overseers.
Superintendent Sue Mariani touted the accomplishment in a statement: “We couldn’t be prouder at this moment to welcome these students to our school. We are bringing our kids home.” Congratulations are in order.