City School Board Candidates Talk Teacher Effectiveness, Budget Cuts

Two candidates are vying for the position of City of Pittsburgh School Director representing District 6, which includes Brookline, on the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education.

On Tuesday, will appear on the ballot for the four-year term.

Here are some of the key points of their campaign platforms.

Sherry Hazuda

Democrat incumbent Sherry Hazuda has served on the board since 2007 and has been board president since December 2010. Her platform focuses on overcoming financial challenges and promoting teaching effectiveness.

One of Hazuda’s main goals is to cut unnecessary expenses and empty space out of the district so that there are no tax increases.

She said recent state budget cuts, combined with escalating costs, have put public schools in a financial crisis they haven’t been in before. Because the board vowed not to raise taxes, she said, expenses needed to be cut.

“We started out (cutting expenses) in the administrative buildings, as far away from the students as possible,” Hazuda explained. “When that wasn’t enough, we moved on to the facilities to cut back on building maintenance, still making necessary repairs but holding off on enhancements.

“Now we have to look at closing schools, which is not a good place to be in," Hazuda said. “School population has declined over the years, resulting in empty classroom space and wasted resources … That’s something that needs to be taken care of.”

Another of Hazuda’s main goals is to empower teachers with effective skills and give them the tools they need to help the district’s children.

Hazuda said the board has a very strong relationship with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers union, which enables them to work together to improve teaching in every classroom.

Teaching effectiveness is crucial in the district, she said, because every child deserves the best education possible.

“Not all children get what they need at home,” Hazuda said, “so it is vital that they have that support in the classroom.”

Hazuda said that the district has already made great strides, mentioning that the district has met Annual Yearly Progress standards in two of the last three school years.

An example of progress Hazuda gave is the Teacher Institutes at Brashear and Martin Luther King high schools, where teachers workshop together to share their knowledge, experience and expertise with each other.

According to Hazuda, the district is getting national attention because of these institutes, as they accomplish something not usually done in an urban school setting. She wants to further these and other efforts at effectiveness and continue to build the district up as a model for others.

Hazuda, 61, lives in Beechview. She graduated from Robert Morris University, where she obtained her degree when she was a 48-year-old single mother raising four children in the Pittsburgh Public School District.

Lisa Jones

Republican newcomer Lisa Jones’ platform focuses on three key points: getting the district out of the red by cutting back on administrative expenses, rather than ones that directly impact students, and promoting more responsible property sales; doing away with current school policies that hinder effective education; and reintroducing vocational, technical and trade options into the high school curriculum.

Because she believes the administration is top-heavy at this time, Jones said one of the first things she would do is cut back on administrative overload.

Noting that there are currently five administrative buildings, Jones said she would reduce the number of administrators and offices so they fit into one building. Afterward, she would sell the vacant buildings, rather than consolidate schools.

“I don’t understand why there are so many administrators in so many buildings,” Jones said, “and why we are consolidating our children’s schools rather than consolidating our administrative operations.

“When you shut down schools, you’re putting kids who come from rival neighborhoods in one building, and that can lead to serious safety concerns.”

When it comes to selling a building, be it one that houses administrators or one that houses students, Jones said she would push for more responsible selling tactics that did not include “the mistakes the current board has made … like selling prime real estate for low sums … selling property with tax abatements … or putting property on the market for rapid, arbitrary sale.”

Another touchstone of Jones’ platform is doing away with some policies she believes have a negative impact in the classroom, such as allowing cell phones in schools and the “50 percent grade policy.”

Explaining that the district currently allows cell phones in schools so long as they are turned off and not kept in the open, Jones noted that many kids try to get around this rule, which distracts them form classroom learning. Furthermore, she said, access to gossip on social networking sites can instigate fights on school grounds.

For these reasons, Jones wants to completely ban cell phones from schools.

“I went to school without a cell phone, and I came out all right,” she said.

The “50 percent grade policy,” whereby students are given a grade of at least 50 percent for merely writing their names down and doing minimal work, is another policy Jones’ would eradicate.

She said she believes students should be graded for the work they actually do, rather than be allowed to coast through classes with only minimal effort.

A third point of Jones’ platform is to reintroduce course options into the curriculum. She said students are being put into college-prep classes when not all of them want to go to college.

“We’re limiting the resources for students to be successful later in life," Jones said. "They need more options, and more practical options.”

To this end, Jones wants to reintroduce vocational, technical and trade courses into the high school curriculum.

A Beechview resident, Jones, 48, is a chemistry teacher at Carrick High School, where she has worked for the past 16 years. She is a widow who helped raise her husband’s youngest of three sons.