Analysis of possible school district mergers in Pittsburgh... (Philadelphia, Oliver: home, live)

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Anyway, I am quite sure there is a decent amount of that going on in the East End. And there is really very little you can do about attracting those specific kids back into the public school system (even something like Promise just changes the "price" of the luxury a bit). Your target instead is the households for whom private school tuition would be much more of a burden, as opposed to just a preferred luxury.

True enough. I think the target should ultimately be parents who have the means, but not the desire, to move to the suburbs, but lack either the means or the desire to enroll in private school. Basically people who'd love living in the city except for the uncertainty involved in getting into a school with a good reputation here, but feel that they're left with no other choice than to move to the suburbs if they cannot get a free alternative within (or paid by) PPS.

[eschaton]

Just bumping this for a second...

One of my coworkers lives in Edgewood, and he was really intrigued when I showed him the numbers which suggested Edgewood taxes would fall so much if it went into the city. He's unsure if Edgewood alone could leave Woodland Hills for the PPS (they may still be under court supervision, and although the demographics of PPS and Woodland Hills aren't too different, Edgewood leaving Woodland Hills would make that district less integrated, hence perhaps be illegal).

Still, he has a lot of well-connected friends and neighbors within the borough, and he's going to start talking with them about what can be done - if switching to PPS is feasible, and if not, how they can start moving Woodland Hills towards a merger.

Everything has to start somewhere.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by eschaton

He's unsure if Edgewood alone could leave Woodland Hills for the PPS

I did once pursue this question; my recollection is shaky now, and my notes from that era are boxed and inaccessible, so this is at best an uninformed opinion. But for what it's worth, I believe that since school district boundaries are set by state legislation, and since there is no provision for secession or annexation as there is for municipalities in PA law, only an act of the Gen Ass could remove part (or all) of a district and add it to another. It doesn't matter whether that part is coterminous with a municipality or not, and there is no provision for a referendum as with municipal boundary changes. And of course this is entirely apart from any question of federal court supervision or issue sub judice.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by squarian

I did once pursue this question; my recollection is shaky now, and my notes from that era are boxed and inaccessible, so this is at best an uninformed opinion. But for what it's worth, I believe that since school district boundaries are set by state legislation, and since there is no provision for secession or annexation as there is for municipalities in PA law, only an act of the Gen Ass could remove part (or all) of a district and add it to another. It doesn't matter whether that part is coterminous with a municipality or not, and there is no provision for a referendum as with municipal boundary changes. And of course this is entirely apart from any question of federal court supervision or issue sub judice.

Woodland Hills might be different but recently Rosyln Farms hasn't had much luck seceeding from Carylnton. Rosyln Farm's request is still before the Board of Education as far as I can tell.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

Rosyln Farm's request is still before the Board of Education as far as I can tell.

Right - that makes a good recent instance. Do you know if the BoE is authorized to change district boundaries on its own?

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by squarian

I did once pursue this question; my recollection is shaky now, and my notes from that era are boxed and inaccessible, so this is at best an uninformed opinion. But for what it's worth, I believe that since school district boundaries are set by state legislation, and since there is no provision for secession or annexation as there is for municipalities in PA law, only an act of the Gen Ass could remove part (or all) of a district and add it to another. It doesn't matter whether that part is coterminous with a municipality or not, and there is no provision for a referendum as with municipal boundary changes. And of course this is entirely apart from any question of federal court supervision or issue sub judice.

The Armstrong County school district currently has a group from South Bend Twp. that is looking to secede and join the Apollo-Ridge SD. Both districts have agreed to the secession. At last night's Armstrong school board meeting it was reported that a parent group has collected enough signatures to seek a court hearing regarding secession. The issue seems to be the debt that would be transferred.

» School Negotiations Regarding South Bend Imminent

Armstrong School District targets South Bend | TribLIVE

This would not be the first secession for the Armstrong County SD. In the summer of 1992, East Brady broke away from the Armstrong School District and joined the Karns City Area School District.

[squarian]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

The Armstrong County school district currently has a group from South Bend Twp. that is looking to secede and join the Apollo-Ridge SD....This would not be the first secession for the Armstrong County SD. In the summer of 1992, East Brady broke away from the Armstrong School District and joined the Karns City Area School District.

Interesting. The two articles don't provide much info on the mechanics, but that's to be expected.

[eschaton]

Here's a timeline of the Center-Monaca merger. There were apparently some ups and downs along the way, but it seems clear that if the school boards vote to merge, districts can voluntarily consolidate.

Of course, as the example shows, nothing would be harder than getting the school board to vote itself out of existence.

[villageidiot1]

Here is a Post-Gazette article on the procedure for school district transfer.

How a school district can transfer - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[squarian]

Readers of this thread might find this post at Keystone Politics of interest:

Why Not Put the Intermediate Units in Charge of Schools? - Keystone Politics

If you look at the list of services Intermediate Units already provide, it seems clear that it would not be a big stretch for them to simply absorb the policy and budgetary authority currently held by elected volunteer school board members.

I've made this point, or something very similar to it, here myself in the past; one result of PA's superfluity of school districts is that they are often too small to have the sorts of resources and services school districts are expected to have. The obvious solution would simply be to merge districts until they are large enough, but instead PA created super-districts called Intermediate Units to do the things districts usually do elsewhere but can't here because many districts are too small.

Well, why not just end the silliness and make the IUs the primary administrative level of public education?