Author: hpcceditor

Help Keep Fulton Off the School Closure List

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By Rebecca Maclean, Fulton PTA President, and Nancy Gohring, HPCC Newsletter Editor

The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors recently passed a resolution directing Superintendent Walters to develop a facilities utilization plan and provide recommendations to the Board by March 15th. Many community members and activists view this as a call to action because this plan will likely recommend school closures, and the timing may be fast enough to meet the state’s requirements to close schools for the upcoming school year. This is concerning for the district as a whole, and also for Highland Park, because Pittsburgh Fulton PreK-5 was on a potential school closure list a few years ago. The community, led by the Fulton PTA, worked with District 2 Board member Devon Taliaferro to convince the board to table that hastily put together plan. If Fulton ends up on a new closure list, community members expect to go to bat for Fulton once again.

Closing Fulton would mean the loss of a safe, welcoming community space where all kids can be successful. Students either attend Fulton from their neighborhood feeder pattern or through the citywide French magnet program. For many years, Fulton’s test scores have been some of the highest in the city, including for African American students; PPS has overall struggled with racial equity, with black students overall underperforming all other racial groups across the district, according to a recent audit. In A Plus Schools’ 2023 Report to the Community, 100% of Fulton’s teachers think it’s a good place to work and learn, and it has a 96% student stability rate.

Whether or not you have kids who attend or have attended Fulton, consider how a closure might impact you and your neighborhood. Highland Park becomes a less desirable place to live for families without a school in the heart of the neighborhood.

Plus, the specter of an empty school anywhere and especially a block away from the main business district has potential negative implications. Other empty school buildings in the city quickly fall into disrepair, where they become unsightly and attract vandalism.

Former school buildings have the potential to be turned into apartments or community centers – projects that could bring value to the neighborhood but are in no way guaranteed to happen and that typically take many years to develop, during which time the building could decay and drag down the neighborhood.

Problematic data

Data about school utilization referenced by Board President Gene Walker (and reported on by WESA) is being noted as a primary metric for closures, but it appears to be inaccurate for Fulton and many other schools. A group of education activists have examined some of the data, as released by WESA, and found some discrepancies. For instance, the report apparently showed 665 empty seats at Obama, while the PPS website shows Obama with just one empty seat and a waiting list. The activists have launched a campaign asking PPS to share detailed information about how it determined utilization for each school (you can read more and add your name on their campaign website).

Plus, school utilization should be only one of many factors – which should include impact on the community — in the decision-making process. 

While the district may need to make some hard decisions about balancing the budget given declining enrollment and ballooning charter school payments, the district must undertake a thorough, deliberate process that includes meaningful community input.

What you can do to help

Everyone can help! The Fulton PTA is planning ways to make sure the voices supporting Fulton and strong public education in general are heard. Right now, the PTA recommends emailing your board member and Dr. Walters to share your thoughts, speaking at the February 26th public hearing, and spreading the word about how our community and city need to step up and support public schools. 

If you live in Highland Park, Devon Taliaferro (dtaliaferro1@pghschools.org) is your board member. You can email Dr. Walters, the Superintendent, at wwalters1@pghschools.org.

The next opportunity for the full board to hear public comment is on Monday, Feb. 26th at 6 p.m. If you are interested in speaking, registration for the public hearing will start on Monday, February 19th and can be accessed on the PPS website. Recent meetings have been a hybrid of zoom and in person speakers, so you should be able to speak at the board meeting in person in Oakland or participate via zoom. Speakers are limited to three minutes (which works out to about 300 words, depending on how fast you speak).

Please also consider attending Fulton’s February PTA meeting on Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. (entrance through the cafeteria on the right hand set of double doors as you face the school from Hampton St). A Plus Schools will be presenting about its Report to the Community, and the school community will be brainstorming about more ways to have their voices heard in the facilities utilization plan process.

If you’re not a Highland Park resident, but want to reach out to your own board member, you can find the maps and lists of neighborhoods each director represents on the PPS website. Note: when you click on the director’s photo, a pop up appears that may just look like a big gray blob. It’s actually the director’s photo that just needs to be resized, so if you scroll down on the pop up, the information about neighborhoods etc. is below the giant photo. 

We also recommend cc:ing Devon Taliaferro if you don’t live in her district since she is the primary board rep for Fulton, and feel free to cc: the PTA at pghfultonpto@gmail.com since the PTA is interested to get a sense for how the broader neighborhood is advocating for the school. 

What’s up at St. Andrews

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Neighbors who live near St. Andrews may have noticed some work happening on the building and a sign on the corner of Hampton and Euclid from the Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation. We caught up with Matt Walsh, the junior warden with the church, to find out more about what’s going on.  

Passing by the front of the church on Hampton St., you may have stopped to read the plaque noting that the building was constructed around 115 years ago. Since the bulk of the homes in the neighborhood were built in that time frame, many of you will know the challenges with living in an old building – now multiply that several times to imagine maintaining the church.  

The two side roofs that are currently being repaired have been leaking for some time and were just getting worse, moving their repair to the top of the to-do list, Walsh said. No one affiliated with the church knows for sure if the roofs were original but long-time church members believe they’d been in place at least 50 years, maybe more.  

For now, the new roofs are shiny copper but over time they’ll oxidize and patina to a similar green hue that we’re used to seeing. “We deliberated whether to use shingles because it’s more cost effective in the short term to use shingles, but we decided to go with copper to preserve the character of the structure. The more aesthetic modifications we make, the harder it is to maintain historic designation,” Walsh said.  

The building currently doesn’t have an official historic designation. But church leaders are considering pursuing one so that they can qualify for certain grants that are restricted to historic structures.

That will be key for two major projects that are now at the top of the to-do list: replacing the rest of the roof and maintaining and preserving the organ, both of which will require significant funding.  

The current replacement of the two smaller roofs was funded through a variety of sources including the Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation, the Rust Foundation and private donations from members of the church.  

St. Andrews invited a few different companies to consider completing the project and settled on Rick John which Walsh said is well known for work on historic buildings.  

Walsh noted that while the church is where the congregation gathers to worship, “we aspire for the campus and facility to be something that all of Highland Park can use.”  

Pick up your HPCC calendar!

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Grab an inaugural HPCC calendar from Bryant St. Market while supplies last! They turned out great and feature some really beautiful photos taken by neighbors.

Calendars cost $15, with proceeds going toward supporting HPCC programs, including the Hullabaloo, yard sale, Light Up Night and more.

Bryant St. Market has kindly agreed to sell the calendars. Next time you pop into the shop, feel free to ask to check one out — they are on display behind the register.

We had 29 people send in more than 130 photos and it was tough to whittle those down to the limited number we could print in the calendar. Thanks again to all the neighbors who submitted photos!

Interested in food composting? Here’s what to know about curbside services

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By Nancy Gohring

A couple of years ago, my husband and I decided to set up our own DIY food composting system in the back yard. We moved here five years ago from Seattle which has compulsory curbside food composting (if the garbage people spot food in your trash, they can theoretically fine you) and it killed us to throw away our food scraps. Also, we’re gardeners and love the idea of making our own compost to feed our plants. And we know that composting food scraps has a significant impact on the environment, since it retains the nutrients from food scraps, feeding it back into the soil, rather than wasting it in a landfill.

Despite all the blog posts we read and YouTube videos we watched that described how easy it is to compost food, we failed at it. We never were able to get most of the food to break down enough into a recognizable form of compost that we’d want to scatter in our gardens.

Then we took notice of the buckets that many neighbors set out with names of composting services on them.

While curbside city compost pickup isn’t just a west coast thing — New York City started rolling it out last year and will introduce it across the city this year — Pittsburgh doesn’t offer it. However, Highland Park is a great place to live if you’re interested in signing up for a service that will compost your food: we currently have five companies serving our neighborhood. Apparently we are an environmentally conscious bunch if we have attracted so many composting businesses!

I plan to sign up for a service this year and did some digging into each of them. The prices are relatively similar but they have somewhat different policies that might be important to you. I pulled together what I found out into a spreadsheet in hopes of giving other folks in the neighborhood a leg up. Please do double check everything with the companies: I compiled this information from their websites and also via email (not everyone replied to my questions).

Happy composting!

(Note that if you scroll to the bottom of the table, you can scroll to the right, if your browser doesn’t display the entire table. This post is probably best viewed on a monitor rather than a cell phone.)

ServiceCostPickupOther feesMeat/dairyCompost returnOut of town policyOther
Carbon Compost$19.50/mo or $214/yearEvery other week$15 signing feeAccepts meat and dairyTwo bags of compost in the spring and fall, 20-40 lb bagsWill pause and restart but only if you’re on the month to month planWebsite says they “provide additional” compostable liners as needed after the initial 12 run out. Unclear whether there’s a charge for additional bags.
Shadyside Worms$25/mo, scales up for additional binsWeekly$10 signup feeCooked meats and dairy accepted20 lb of compost in the spring, option for additional in summer or fall. They donate your share if you don’t want it. Very flexible: will adjust invoice when out of town or offer credit for future invoices. Service can be paused any time.
Zero Waste Wrangler$22/mo or $264 a year. Drop off plan available instead. Weekly$15, includes 25 liners. Additional roll of 25 liners costs $3.11Meats, bones, cheese acceptedYearly plan comes with 10 gallon bag of compost.$2 “skip credit” for each skipped pickup. For longer periods away, service can be paused, with subscription extended. Instead of curbside pickup, for $10 every four weeks, you can drop off your compost at a few locations, including one near Trader Joe’s and one in Bloomfield.
Compost People$22 mo/$264 a yearWeekly$15 includes eight bin bags, after which you purchase more. Starter fee is waived for yearly subscribers. Meat and dairy accepted, as well as food soiled paper products, BPI compostable bags, coffee grounds, coffee filters, tea bags minus the staples, non chlorine bleached napkins and BPI Certified Compostable service ware1 cubic foot of compost yearly
Worm Return$30/$40. Check website: they have many different pricing plans. Every other week or weeklyNo extra charge for bin linersSome amount of worm tea available for freeDashboard available that shows how your level of composting impacts the environment.

Have you spotted any rats recently?

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Rats are sometimes depicted as cute or entertaining. Think Ratatouille or Templeton, the rat in Charlotte’s Web. But in real life they can be disease-carrying and destructive: Ask pretty much anyone who has lived in New York City, including the big apple’s recently appointed rat czar. 

Unfortunately, rats are a way of life in Pittsburgh, too. With the increase in infrastructure work in our neighborhood, some have been displaced and have made new homes. Rats are generally nocturnal and if you start seeing them in broad daylight looking for food, it is likely that the population has shifted or grown. Take for example when one Highland Park resident found a rat resting in her dogwood tree (yes, they can climb)!

There are measures we can all take to help keep the population down. Primarily, this involves reducing food sources and shelter. 

Birds (and that includes you, chickens!)

Many of us like to feed the birds. However, accessible feeders and bird food that drops on the ground make for easy pickings for rats. If you do feed the birds, keep the amount of seed to only a quantity that will be consumed in one day and keep the ground below the feeder clean. Any feeder accessible to a squirrel is also accessible to a rat. If an infestation becomes severe, it may be necessary to temporarily stop feeding birds to help break the reproductive cycle.

Chickens are birds… so these tips also apply to backyard chickens. Chicken feed and chicken feces attract rats. Keep unused quantities of feed stored securely in rodent-proof containers and keep the ground clean and free of extra food. Rats are not good for household chickens, which should offer strong incentive for chicken owners to do the work required to keep them at bay. A number of online resources are available to chicken owners looking to control rodents near their coops.

Compost  

Composting can provide a nice home for rodents for obvious reasons: a compost pile can provide both food and shelter for rats. However, many composters find that restricting food composting to sealed compost containers and omitting meat and dairy waste from their compost piles prevents rodents from becoming a problem. But even if you have a plastic bin-type composter, there should be fine mesh chicken wire (holes less than ½”) underneath to keep rats from burrowing into the container. 

Again, there are plenty of online resources for how to keep your compost rodent-free. One important incentive for rodent-proofing your compost pile is that any compost that has been invaded by rats should not be used on food crops.

Other ideas

Is your garbage stored securely? Do you regularly remove dog feces from your yard? Are there other locations in your yard that would make excellent housing for rats, such as piles of scrap, branches, twigs or other yard waste? Stacks of firewood? All of the above can provide nice homes for rats; keep your yard clean and you shouldn’t have a problem.

Once established, rat populations can quickly grow and may need professional intervention. The City of Pittsburgh has a Rodent Baiting Program that can be used by calling 311. Sometimes, when an infestation is particularly severe and is not being addressed by a resident, the Health Department is called upon to assist (see A Resident’s Guide to Rat Control on Private Property).