Peeling and falling asbestos-containing plaster. Emergency patching. Air-quality monitoring.

Those were issues at Pittsburgh Schenley High School before the venerable Oakland building was closed in June, and they're issues at other school buildings still used by the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Parents opposed to the Schenley closing have been studying officials' handling of asbestos districtwide, and they plan to attend the school board's monthly public hearing tonight to ask: If the other buildings are safe to use, why not Schenley?

"I'd like to just say we're concerned it might have been treated differently," said Annette Werner of Shadyside.

Ms. Werner said she will be one of at least three speakers from Pure Reform, a group that evolved from the Schenley fight and now monitors district operations.

Officials have called student safety their top concern, and district environmental specialist Bob Kennedy last week said Schenley's asbestos problems were more serious than those at other buildings. He said the Schenley building had mechanical issues as well.

In all, Ms. Werner has reviewed what she described as records of more than 40 asbestos remediation projects at McKelvy School since 1989, about 12 at Vann School since 2000 and about 10 at the Woolslair building since 1998. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewed some records at the McKelvy and Vann buildings.

As at Schenley, the problems included damaged or fallen plaster in classrooms, corridors and stairwells, district records showed.

Amid some of those problems, instead of closing McKelvy, the district moved the Miller elementary school into the building as part of Superintendent Mark Roosevelt's 2006 district restructuring plan.

Plaster was damaged and fell, said a May 2006 record of an emergency cleanup of a room at McKelvy, on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District.

Two months later, records showed, workers performed spot removal of wall plaster in 11 rooms and a corridor; removed floor tile in one room; and removed pipe insulation in three rooms, all part of a renovation project to prepare the building for Miller, which was expanding to take in middle-grade students.

Workers also remediated asbestos at Vann, on Watt Street in the Hill District, as that elementary school expanded to take in middle-grade students under Mr. Roosevelt's restructuring plan.

In June and August 2006, workers removed wall and ceiling plaster and floor tiles from numerous rooms as part of the expansion project.

In addition, emergency cleanup of damaged plaster in a stairwell took place that Aug. 14, and cleanup of damaged plaster in two rooms occurred three months into the 2006-07 school year, with a record noting, "Plaster had become wet and was beginning to peel."

Ms. Werner isn't suggesting that McKelvy, Vann and Woolslair, home to Pittsburgh Woolslair K-5 on 40th Street in Bloomfield, are unsafe.

Rather, she said, she wants to know the standard for determining a building's safety and find out why Schenley had to close when other buildings with similar problems remained open.

"There appear to be some inconsistencies," she said.

Mr. Kennedy, the district environmental specialist, said the problems weren't as similar as they might appear.

He said the other three buildings' mechanical systems are in good condition, while Schenley's were not. Repairing Schenley's systems, he said, would require extensive, costly asbestos abatement.

Mr. Kennedy said there is more asbestos in Schenley than in the other buildings. Also troubling, he said, was that the cause of some of Schenley's plaster deterioration could not be determined.

In 2007, the district relocated Schenley's summer-school classes after a section of asbestos-containing plaster collapsed in a stairwell. The district then spent $750,000 to repair 10,000 worn areas of plaster throughout the building.

The school board closed the Schenley building last summer, after Mr. Roosevelt said the district couldn't afford $80 million to remediate asbestos and address other maintenance problems. Most remaining students were relocated to the Reizenstein building in Shadyside this school year; the relocated school accepted no freshmen for 2008-09.

Schenley supporters disputed the renovation estimate, said the asbestos problem wasn't as serious as the district portrayed and hinted that the financially strapped district wanted to empty the building and sell it.