Pittsburgh Public Schools may be forced to make tough financial decisions soon

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Public Schools has a $39 million problem on its hands, and this budget deficit is a major reason why it wants to close seven schools.

A dozen schools are currently operating under half capacity, and 40 schools are between 50% and 80% capacity.

“[We’re] looking at how we’re allocating resources at our schools to see if there’s any way we can try to trim down without sacrificing programming to kids,” said PPS Chief Financial Officer Ronald Joseph.

District officials said the City of Pittsburgh will likely start seeing a rising number of property tax assessment appeals, especially for commercial real estate. That would reduce tax revenue and further dig into the budget.

The city is also a target for changes to state and local funding. Twenty-four percent of the district’s budget comes from the state, but the district is facing a $93 million decrease in state funding.

Parents said they are getting increasingly frustrated. Their kids are failing during online learning and now they’re hearing about more changes that could be coming.

Hamlet: Reopening still a go

Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet said the plans to reopen schools on April 6 are still on track.

“We are set in stone. We are highly optimistic. We are in ongoing conversations. I have a regular one-on-one with the PFT president Nina Visgitis and she understands the plan. And we are hearing great things right now. We are not hearing that teachers are not going to report or employees are not going to report,” Hamlet said.

He told Channel 11 teachers will begin getting the vaccine next week. While the final details still need to be worked out, he said the first vaccination clinic will likely be held sometime late next week. K through fifth grade teachers, special education teachers and bus drivers will get the first doses.

The first group of about 4,700 students to return to in-person learning will be mostly younger students and those who have had trouble with online learning. The second group will go back on April 26 and will be about 5,200 students.

The district has 4,600 employees, but they will only receive about 1,400 doses next week. It’s not clear when they will get more doses.

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