Middle school students at the Environmental Charter School will continue to ride to school on yellow buses next fall rather than take public transit.

The reversal of a plan announced earlier this month came to light during a well-attended public hearing Monday in which many parents of Environmental Charter School students had intended to express their dissatisfaction about sending their children to the Garfield campus on Port Authority buses.

Pittsburgh Public Schools said a school bus driver shortage had prompted the district to consider using Port Authority buses to transport the students.

“My son would have to ride 52 minutes through 87 stops, transfer in Oakland, which requires him to cross busy intersections, and then walk several blocks to his school,” said Shuhuei Lee, parent of an 11-year-old student.

The district will reduce the number of buses for the middle schoolers from 15 to 11 and will stagger pickup times so drivers can make multiple trips, said school district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh.

“They will have longer bus rides,” up to about 90 minutes, she said, adding that a long-term solution to the driver shortage is still needed, both at Environmental Charter and across the district.

She said the district reconsidered the proposal to use Port Authority buses after recognizing that many of the students would have been required to transfer from one bus to another, something administrators try to avoid.

About 150 students will be affected, Ms. Pugh said. Across the city, about 3,500 of the district’s 23,000 students go to school on public buses.

“In light of the decision that has been made, I wanted to come tonight and thank you for prioritizing student safety in transporting our students next year,” parent Jeanne McHale told the board.

Eighty-two people signed up to speak on a variety of issues at Monday’s public hearing. About 15 speakers addressed a board proposal to transfer all middle school students at Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12, University Preparatory School, to Arsenal Middle School in Lawrenceville in the upcoming school year.

The board is expected to vote on the move Wednesday.

While middle school students at U Prep have long struggled academically — with none of them scoring proficient on the PSSA test in math last year — Arsenal students have far outperformed their counterparts at other predominately black middle schools in both English language arts and math. District administrators have advocated that the reconfiguration would provide a better education for the sixth to eighth graders and allow U Prep to invest its resources in high school students in its college preparatory magnet program.

James Fogarty, executive director of the nonprofit organization A+ Schools, said the district had “failed the students who attend” U Prep. Sean Farr and James Cowart, community schools site managers at, respectively, U Prep and Arsenal, also emphasized that Arsenal is prepared to welcome U Prep students in the upcoming school year.

But if the school board approves the plan to move U Prep students to Arsenal, Hill District residents will no longer have a public middle school of their own.

“Every time there is a move to be made, a school to be closed, it’s always on the Hill,” said Hill District resident Shirley Edwell, arguing that the district should instead invest in improving U Prep.

“If you can do it in one school, you can do it in another school,” she said. “If you want to.“

Leslie Home, a Hill District resident and a former elementary teacher in the district, emphasized that underperformance at U Prep should be attributed to inadequate planning and lack of prioritization from the board. She urged the school board to further study the reconfiguration, which was only announced at the end of the current school year.

“This quick fix — moving middle school students to Arsenal — is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Ms. Home said. “Care deeply about the education of the U Prep students and pull out all the stops, just do it.”

Shelly Bradbury: 412-263-1999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow @ShellyBradbury on Twitter. Serena Cho: 412-263-1283, scho@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @Serenaymcho. 

First Published: June 18, 2019, 12:44 a.m.