Pittsburgh Public Schools officials admit that a proposed charter high school scheduled to open in the fall might provide some bona fide competition.
City Charter High School would focus on training students for careers in high-tech fields and would give students the opportunity to take classes at Carnegie Mellon and Robert Morris universities, Point Park College and Pittsburgh Technical Institute. The school is founded by two school district employees.
Among the school's innovative features is that students would be assigned to the same group of teachers for all four years of high school. Students would go to school for eight hours a day — about 90 minutes longer than other city schools. The traditional school year is 180 days, but students at City Charter High School would go to school for 190, with a year-round calendar punctuated by four-week breaks.
The school would have a maximum of about 600 students. The size and structure of the school appeal to some district officials, who said they would like to see its concepts incorporated into city schools.
"The more and more I dwell into the research, the more and more I like smaller high schools that are structured like elementary schools, where you spend time with the same teachers," said Johnson Martin, director of career development for Pittsburgh Public Schools.
The school's founders, though, said they like the autonomy that a charter school provides.
"School districts don't get at massive change. What I think we need to do is have schools reflect the modern workplace," said Richard Wertheimer, a co-founder of the charter school and also coordinator of instructional technology for the city schools.
The Pittsburgh school board is scheduled to vote Feb. 27 on whether to approve the charter school's application. Charter schools are public schools that are free from many state regulations, but they must receive permission to operate from the school district in which they are located. A district committee has recommended the board give its approval.
If approved by the school board, the charter school would open in September at the Clark Building on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.
Wertheimer and his partner, Mario Zinga, took a leave of absence from the district last year to plan the school. If the charter school wins approval, Wertheimer said he likely would leave his district job to become the charter school's educational manager; in that position, he would oversee instruction and assessment. Zinga said he would supervise staff development and the charter school's cultural-literacy curriculum.
Zinga, 53, has worked for the city schools for 25 years and oversees staff development for the office of technology. Wertheimer, 48, has worked for the city schools for more than 20 years.
Wertheimer said public schools have been too slow to adapt to the needs of the economy.
"The job market has changed mightily. And our need to get students ready for a different set of skills, based on the technology revolution that's out there, has been at the forefront of my thinking for quite some time," he said.
Juniors and seniors at the charter school would get job internships. Starting in their junior year, students would focus on one of four technology-related areas: computer programming and database management; computer repair and systems administration; computer-aided and Web design; or wiring and network management.
Martin, who has been charged with designing a plan to jump-start Pittsburgh Public Schools' moribund vocational programs, said the charter school seems to be similar to the career academies that he has proposed be opened at existing city high schools. Martin said he worries that the charter school would lure some of the district's best students.
"What I would like to determine is whether or not this fits into the career-development plan as presented by Dr. Martin and if there isn't a way we could fit this into the school system," Pittsburgh school board member Bill Isler said.
The city schools, however, cannot readily copy the extended academic year and 190-day calendar of the proposed charter school — two factors that the co-founders say are crucial to the mission of City Charter High School.
Pat Crawford, spokeswoman for the city schools, said the district's contract with its teachers' union prevents the school system from experimenting with some of the charter school's ideas.
"We could actually learn by their experience," Crawford said.
| Charter schools |
Four charter schools now operate in Pittsburgh:
