Pittsburgh councilman moves to declare 'state of educational emergency' in the city - TribLIVE

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A Pittsburgh councilman is moving forward with an effort to address what he terms “a state of emergency” in the public school system.

“We need to have a joint response to react to this emergency,” Councilman Ricky Burgess of North Point Breeze said Tuesday. “It’s going to take all of us working collaboratively to help the kids.”

Burgess and Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle introduced a resolution declaring a “state of educational emergency in Pittsburgh” that council will be taking up at future meetings.

Mayor Bill Peduto’s office is reviewing the measure, spokesman Tim McNulty said.

Pittsburgh Public Schools is not the only school district facing the emergency wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, school board President Sylvia Wilson said.

“If we are in a state of emergency, then every school district in the country is,” Wilson said.

She has not talked with Burgess and hadn’t reviewed a copy of the resolution, she said.

Last week, Burgess was accused by Pittsburgh Public Schools board member Kevin Carter of “grandstanding” after Burgess initiated a discussion about the school district and its response to the covid-19 pandemic during a Jan. 27 council committee meeting.

“It is time for us as a council to jointly begin conversation with the schools in a very public way,” Burgess said during that meeting.

It was rebuffed by Carter, who in an interview with the Tribune-Review said he was “sickened” by council inserting itself into the school district’s business.

Relations between the school district and city officials are nonexistent until there’s an issue, Carter said.

The situation has devolved from Mayor Bill Peduto’s first term, when the city convened a 21-member Education Task force that released a report in February 2015 to find ways for the city and school district to work together.

But that task force has been inactive for a few years, something lamented last week by council President Theresa Kail-Smith, who said she supported Burgess’ efforts, but also wanted all city leaders to become more involved with the school system.

The Pittsburgh city government and city school district are legally separate entities, with their own funding and governance. The school system’s most recent annual budget is $673 million, while the city’s is $564 million.

In recent decades, a number of U.S. cities have taken control of their school systems, including New York and Chicago, to force reform. State governments have also stepped in to exert control over failing school systems. In Philadelphia, control of the school board was returned to the mayor in 2018 after nearly two decades of state governance.

On Tuesday, Burgess introduced legislation to formally declare a “state of educational emergency” in the city because of the covid pandemic and systemic racism.

The resolution calls for the school district to reinstitute in-person instruction, starting with elementary students, as soon as possible.

The school board last week voted to delay return to in-person learning until April 6 because of coronavirus concerns, but Burgess has cited studies that show students have fallen behind in their studies while learning remotely.

“The kids were behind before the pandemic. Now they’re further behind,” Burgess said.

It also calls for the school district to consider lengthening the school day and school year to allow for students to catch up, along with providing more support for students and developing programs to address inequities faced by Black students and other minorities.

The school district in January announced the formation of a task force to address the racial inequities in the district.

A series of community meetings are being planned by Burgess, he said.

City council members and any other people with concerns are welcome to participate in school board meetings, Wilson said.

“It isn’t like information-sharing hasn’t occurred,” Wilson said, noting the meetings are streamed on the district’s website and archived for review if people want watch the process the school board is using to make its decisions.

“We’ve been having meetings all along,” she said.

Although Wilson and Burgess haven’t talked, Burgess said he’d discussed issues at the school with “a variety of stakeholders” who have been supportive of the city’s efforts.

He termed it an “existential crisis” that requires everyone to work together.

“We hope to have both public and private meetings this month,” Burgess said.

Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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