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Overbrook parents battle school closings
Tuesday, November 28, 2000 By Carmen J. Lee, Post-Gazette Education Writer
Overbrook, a neighborhood divided by different ZIP codes, police stations and a highway that runs through it, has one common public facility -- the school building.
And that building, which houses the neighborhood's elementary and middle schools, is slated to close under city school Superintendent John Thompson's preliminary 2001 budget released two weeks ago.
The Overbrook Community Council will give residents upset at the prospect of losing their two neighborhood schools the chance to discuss the superintendent's plan tonight during a 7:30 p.m. community meeting at the Overbrook Center, above the Overbrook Fire Station on Maytide Street.
School board member Jean Fink, who opposes Thompson's proposals, is scheduled to be the guest speaker.
"We're putting this out as an informational meeting for the public," said Carol Anthony, president of the Overbrook Community Council. "We're giving the parents of the community the opportunity to ask a school board member what's going to happen and to express their feelings."
Tonight's session is one of several community meetings that have been organized since Thompson unveiled his proposed $442.8 million budget on Nov. 13. Under his plan, 18 schools would close over two years, property taxes would increase 23.3 percent and other taxes would be raised to help eliminate a $36.5 million deficit that had been projected for next year.
Since the preliminary budget was released, two public hearings have been conducted. A special budget hearing is scheduled for noon Thursday, which residents can sign up for until 10 a.m. that day.
Another regular public hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 11. The board is expected to vote on the budget on Dec. 20.
In addition to those sessions, district spokeswoman Pat Crawford said she knows of about four community meetings that have taken place, primarily to discuss the school closing proposals. Another session will be at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Brashear High School in Beechview.
On occasions, residents have invited district staff members to the sessions to further explain the budget, said Crawford, who has attended a session at Arlington Middle School, which is slated for closing. She also plans to go to the meeting at Brashear.
"Arlington was a very manageable group, and they were very cordial," Crawford said, an observation in stark contrast to the two heated public hearings in which several people made personal attacks on the superintendent.
"If we can be of help in explaining and in separating fact from fiction or fact from rumor, it could go a long way in creating understanding if not acceptance," she added. "We take the ideas and any recommendations back to staff [to review] because this plan was never meant to be cast in stone at this point. It's a working document. ... There may well be some changes."
Fran Hanlon, a parent representative for Overbrook Middle School, hopes one possible change will involve keeping her neighborhood elementary and middle schools open, particularly since the middle school just opened in the fall of 1999.
Hanlon, who has two sons at the middle school and one attending the elementary school, said she and other parents are planning to start a petition drive and to speak out at upcoming public hearings.
"We pulled our children out of private school when Overbrook became a neighborhood middle school, and we've been really happy with it," she said. "That's why we're going to fight to keep it open."
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