AP
Three years after the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board banned suspending K-2 students for nonviolent offenses, members wanted data that would tell them if they should expand that ban through fifth grade.
An analysis of the ban made public Tuesday night showed that racial disparities in discipline persist even with the ban. But board directors Kevin Carter and Pam Harbin said that because the report couldn t explain why, the exercise had been a waste of time.
The report was compiled by a North Carolina-based education consultant, Prismark, and it showed that Black students are disproportionately suspended for violent and non-violent offenses. And while suspensions drastically decreased in K-2, the report found, schools were still suspending students for nonviolent offenses even after the ban was put in place.
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Parents, teacher, administrators and other Pittsburgh Public Schools leaders will advise the school board as it decides how to allocate more than $100 million in new federal coronavirus recovery money that’s coming to the district.
The school board on Wednesday approved forming a 21-member Public Stakeholder Advisory Committee to provide the recommendations about how to spend the money, which is coming from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion package President Joe Biden signed in March that includes $122 billion for schools.
“Not less” than 20% of each district’s allocation must be used to address learning loss because of the pandemic. In Pittsburgh’s case, this amounts to about $20 million.
12 vie for 5 open seats on Pittsburgh Public Schools board triblive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from triblive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
There’s a lot of money at play in the Pittsburgh Public Schools board races this year, though reporting lapses make it difficult to be certain about just how much. But reports suggest that there have been notable investments by the city’s teachers union to protect the board majority, and a $25,0000 donation to a slate of candidates who could topple it a contribution that went unreported until after a filing deadline.
The political committee Black Women For A Better Education
formed last year in response to what it called the school district’s slow and inadequate move to remote learning.
With federal funding from American Rescue Plan set to be distributed to state and local governments, the leaders of Pittsburgh’s city government and school system outlined this week the processes by which the money may be allocated. The city of Pittsburgh is set to receive about $355 million, while the