Directors approve consultant contract for facilities plan

PITTSBURGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Pittsburgh Public School directors voted Wednesday to contract with a Massachusetts-based education consulting firm to work on the district’s facilities utilization plan, a blueprint that could lead to the closure and consolidation of some school buildings.

Directors voted, 7-2, to contract with Education Resource Strategies to conduct a comprehensive analysis, engage with the community and provide recommendations based on a proposed framework for the facilities utilization plan. The contract would not exceed $248,270. Directors Emma Yourd and Devon Taliaferro voted against the motion.

“This is of all of the things that we have done and will do as board members, this will likely be the hardest of all of them, this process,” board President Gene Walker said. “Hard not just because no one really wants to do it but understanding that if nothing changes nothing changes. I want to implore all of us, the nine of us, to be as engaged in this process as we can be. … I know that challenges our time and our families, but this is just too important for us to sit on the sidelines and hope that it’s being done a certain way. We have to just be a part of that process.”

Officials with Education Resource Strategies will begin work in May. The contract runs through Sept. 30.

The vote came months after district officials in October first said they were considering closing some schools based on a growing budget deficit that is expected to reach $23 million this year and declining enrollments that have caused the district to educate 18,380 students when it has the capacity to house 40,000.

In response, district officials this month presented the proposed framework for the facilities utilization plan. The framework, which did not have a list of schools that could be closed or consolidated, featured 12 possible recommendations including the creation of a class structure that streamlines students into PreK-5 and 6-8 rather than having some students in PreK-8 and 6-12 schools. The recommendations were based on factors such as current building utilization, facility conditions, educational adequacy, teacher shortages, transportation challenges and student support services.

At the time, officials said they would collect requests for proposals for a consultant that would lead the utilization plan moving forward.

In all, Pittsburgh Public received four proposals, the most expensive of which cost $491,625, Superintendent Wayne Walters said. The lowest proposal came from Education Resource Strategies. Once proposals were received, district officials used a rubric to evaluate the pitches through experience of the firms, quality and feasibility of the proposed approach, qualifications of the project team, cost effectiveness of the plans and the ability to meet timelines.

Education Resource Strategies was chosen for several reasons, including the “track record” or working with other urban school districts similar to Pittsburgh Public, meaning “they bring some expertise, some analytic capabilities and really on-the-ground experience in districts facing similar challenges,” Mr. Walters said.

Education Resource Strategies has worked with more than 100 school systems in several states since 2004, many of which are facing shrinking populations like Pittsburgh Public, the organization’s website reads. Because of that, Education Resource Strategies works to optimize “small schools through intentional design,” according to the website, by doing things such as grouping students and educators more flexibly; leveraging technology and outside partnerships; prioritizing, integrating and standardizing course offerings; and engaging the community.

But several school directors still expressed concerns about hiring another consultant when they have had several in recent years, including one to help create a strategic plan.

“I just have some deep concerns. … I don’t know what they’re going to be able to provide us that’s different from where we’ve already been,” school Director Devon Taliaferro said. “In light of current contracts with consulting firms, I’m just not as hopeful that this is going to yield the results that we’re looking for.”

She suggested the board “should probably put on our big-girl and boy and other pants and do the work ourselves if we feel that is the direction we want to go in.”

Director Emma Yourd agreed, adding that work laid out the proposal from Education Resource Strategies could be “done by our wonderful administration here” or is work that the administration team has already completed. She noted that the board has hired several consultants recently that have produced results they “have not been happy with.”

“I understand the steps that are in front of us in terms of re-evaluating our school district footprint and potential school consolidations that’s outlined in the strategic plan,” Ms. Yourd said. “I’m not veering away from the hard decisions and conversations that I know we as a school board and a school administration have to make; I just have faith that with the strategic plan that we already have and the staff and board directors around this table, that we can do this work in house. I don’t think that Education Resource Strategies has much to offer us.”

But Mr. Walters said an outside firm can bring “objectivity” to a difficult process. Doing the process inhouse, Mr. Walters said, would also strain an already short-staffed administration.

“I fear that if we do it inhouse it will appear to the community that we’re simply just signing off on what we believe,” Mr. Walters said. “I think a second set of eyes, an objective process and just some additional analytics as well as their engagement in the community in some intentional ways will be able to advance the recommendations that we’ve made to see if they can be tested and to come up with a solution and a recommendation to the board that we feel that represents more of a national perspective than just a sort of in-house perspective.”

Director Sylvia Wilson agreed with Mr. Walters, adding that she has “been through this process before” where the district was considering closing school buildings, something that has taken up to a year or longer to complete.

“The amount of work that has to be done is tremendous,” Ms. Wilson said. “And May to September, it’s not going to get any attention whatsoever if we rely just on ourselves to do it.”

The contract with Education Resource Strategies begins Wednesday.