HARRISBURG -- Changes will be made for students in Duquesne High School by fall because failure to do so "is not morally acceptable nor is it financially acceptable," the state education secretary said yesterday.

Gerald Zahorchak emerged from a closed-door meeting with Allegheny County legislators yesterday and said the group agreed that "the status quo cannot continue."

		Graphic: Comparison of Duquesne and surrounding districts

Dr. Zahorchak said he shared with the legislators information that his department has gathered on the district and the performance of the students. He said no decision has been made yet on what will happen; he said he would meet with residents from the Duquesne City School District on Tuesday.

Although Duquesne's tax rate is second-highest in Allegheny County, the district's test scores have been at or near the bottom of the state for years. The district has just one school building, and enrollment, which has been steadily dropping, is now 726.

The financially and academically troubled district is being managed this school year by the Pittsburgh Public Schools through an agreement between the Education Department, Pittsburgh and Duquesne.

Dr. Zahorchak explained that the state would have to provide an additional $4.5 million to $5 million to Duquesne for the 2007-08 school year to maintain a school system that doesn't provide any advanced placement courses, no fourth level of a foreign language, no music classes and no extra curricular activities aside from football and basketball teams.

Among the group of legislators attending the session were state Sen. Sean Logan, D- Monroeville, and state Rep. Marc Gergely, D-White Oak. Neither Mr. Logan, Mr. Gergely nor any of the other legislators leaving the session would comment on what was discussed.

Dr. Zahorchak said the legislators agreed it made no sense to allocate extra money to a school system that can't even offer its students a National Honor Society or student activity clubs.

He shared a handout that was given to legislators that compared the offerings of Duquesne's high school to those of the neighboring districts of McKeesport Area, East Allegheny, Woodland Hills and West Mifflin Area.

While Duquesne offers no AP courses, the other four districts do. In foreign language, Duquesne offers the first three levels of Spanish, while the other four districts offer four levels in Spanish, French and German, according to the handout.

Duquesne has no music classes or band program. The other districts each offered various band and choir classes. Duquesne offers high school students one art class. The neighboring districts offer a variety of art classes including ceramics, drawing, painting and photography.

The offerings of extra-curricular activities showed Duquesne with just high school basketball and football teams. All four of the other districts have baseball, cheerleading, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball and wrestling teams in addition to football and basketball.

Dr. Zahorchak said his department has a commitment to offer Duquesne students the same education as the neighboring districts and to make sure that all students succeed and graduate.

But, he said, the department has not decided how it will do that and is in the process of discussing various ideas while it continues to study information about the district.

The lack of information about the plans for Duquesne prompted state Board of Control Member Stanley Denton to accuse the Education Department of racism last month. He suggested that information was being withheld from Duquesne residents because they are poor and black.

Those comments came after it was revealed that Pittsburgh school officials had presented the Education Department with three ideas for Duquesne for 2007-08. Neither Pittsburgh nor state officials have disclosed the details of those ideas.

Dr. Zahorchak will meet with residents Tuesday during the state board of control meeting, which will start at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Duquesne Education Center.

But Dr. Zahorchak said he doesn't expect to have a specific announcement about plans for the coming school year. Rather, he wants to hear what the community thinks.

He said his department is not trying to keep information from the public but that he wants to come up with "viable options" before they are presented to the public. "Right now we are not ready to say what is viable," he said.

Dr. Zahorchak said he would rather be "slow and meticulous" with the process than "work in haste" and that there was no particular timetable for deciding when plans for 2007-08 would be finalized.