Pittsburgh NAACP leaders and other residents last night urged the city school board to proceed cautiously with a school-closing plan to avoid hurting black students and derailing successful programs.

Speakers at the board's regular monthly public hearing warned that a consolidation could lead to unacceptably high concentrations of black and poor students in some of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. That, they said, would be tantamount to segregation.

The reassignment of students from closed schools "would be of great concern to our organization," said Johnnie L. Miott, NAACP third vice president.

He said the phasing out Schenley High School and reassigning students in its feeder pattern already has led to a predominately black university-preparatory school in the Hill District.

A consulting firm Nov. 2 unveiled a plan for closing 15 school buildings as a cost-savings measure.

DeJong Inc. based the plan on projections of falling enrollment and on the maintenance needs of about 80 district buildings. The firm wasn't asked to take into account other factors, such as the district's academic needs or a desire to save high-performing schools in deteriorating buildings.

District officials have said they'll factor in such needs and present a retooled consolidation plan for the board's consideration. No timetable has been set.

"This will be just one of the tools that we use as we consider the effective use of our facilities," board President Theresa Colaizzi said of the DeJong plan.

Before the hearing, about a dozen NAACP members and supporters held a march outside district headquarters in Oakland to protest the district's treatment of black students. The group cited the district's racial achievement gap, DeJong's proposal to close some schools in black neighborhoods and what was described as the district's neglect of career and technical programs, among other issues.

"We've just had enough," said Marilyn Barnett, chairman of the NAACP's education committee.

Dr. Barnett said the group decided to hold the march because its complaints, raised at previous public hearings, had not been addressed. She said additional marches will be held on Mondays at 5 p.m. for the next six weeks.

M. Gayle Moss, NAACP president, said some schools in black neighborhoods don't have the same amenities as those in white neighborhoods. "We treat children differently," she said.

A handful of speakers protested DeJong's proposal to close Pittsburgh Fulton PreK-5 in Highland Park and to eliminate the middle grades from Pittsburgh Montessori PreK-8 in Friendship.

"This school is delivering on its promise of excellence, and I'm proud to be a part of it," Highland Park parent Michelle Boyle said, citing healthy test scores at Fulton and success of the school's French magnet.

Parent Thistle Elias called the Montessori school's middle grades "a quiet place of concentration and enthusiastic learning."

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