Pittsburg, PA
As Pittsburgh Public Schools closure vote nears, board members aim for more transparency
It was pure déjà vu at the Pittsburgh Public Schools board meeting on Wednesday night.
District leaders are again deciding whether to close nine school buildings and reconfigure many more — a plan administrators failed to get board support for last fall. PPS board members are slated to take up another vote on the plan next week.
“We’ve had some conversations, we’ve had some decisions, but the plan that we’re voting on next week looks much like the same plan that we voted on in November,” said District 2 director Devon Taliaferro. “That still sits as a concern with me.”
If passed, the plan would permanently close seven buildings at the end of the 2026-2027 school year: Manchester K-8, Schiller 6-8, Friendship PreK-5 (Montessori), Fulton PreK-5, Miller African-Centered Academy, Woolslair PreK-5 and the Student Achievement Center.
Two more buildings, Spring Hill K-5 and the primary school at Morrow K-8, would close at the end of the 2028-2029 school year once renovations to reopen Northview PreK-5 in Northview Heights are complete.
Morrow’s K-5 program would remain intact, and the district plans to move Schiller’s STEAM-focused, middle school programming to Allegheny Traditional Academy, also on the city’s North Side. Officials also want to relocate the Montessori program to Linden PreK-5 in Point Breeze.
The rest of the schools on the closure list, however, would be dissolved, setting in motion a cascading series of school mergers, feeder pattern shifts and programmatic changes.
If passed, the plan would set in motion the permanent closing of nine aging buildings for the 2027-2028 school year.
With many moving pieces and calls for more transparency, board vice president Yael Silk suggested that PPS hold quarterly updates as administrators implement the plan.
“There have been lots of questions, both from board members and also from community members, and the answer has often been [that] those answers will come once we’re in the implementation phase,” Silk said. “So I also see this as a clear promise to the community that, should this resolution pass, that we as a board will have a process in place for regular updates.”
Director Emma Yourd echoed those concerns, calling for the establishment of a temporary committee tasked with scheduling and communicating these updates.
Taliaferro said that while those amendments to the closure resolution would be helpful, they may not be significant enough changes to sway her vote.
She also urged the district to be more transparent about how it plans to utilize the buildings slated for closure. Five of the nine buildings on the closure list are located in Taliaferro’s district.
“And what I don’t want to see is that the buildings just sit there,” she said. “Although we have to still maintain those spaces at the bare minimum, they still become eyesores in [the] community.”
Taliaferro also raised concerns that selling the buildings without caution could leave room for new charter schools to sprout up in their place.
Several PPS buildings closed in the past two decades now house charter schools. On the North Side, Propel operates a K-8 school out of the former PPS Columbus Middle School. In Hazelwood, the charter network has taken over the former Burgwin Elementary School.
Kids at Environmental Charter School walk through the same halls that Regent Square Elementary School and Rogers Middle School students walked before their buildings closed in 2004 and 2009, respectively.
“My concern is that that can hit us later on down the road, should a charter school end up in one of those buildings, and now we are, um, paying for charter tuition in a building that we closed because we put no thought into what happens with those spaces,” Taliaferro said.
Board members will vote next Wednesday on whether to move forward with the closures.
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The Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates had a classic game end in controversy on Saturday night.
Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy started the game with an inside-the-park leadoff home run off Pirates star Paul Skenes to start the game. Colorado made out with a 2-1 win, but the Pirates thought they had tied the game in the top of the ninth inning.
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Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly argues with umpire Todd Tichenor after a force out ended the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies in Denver on June 20, 2026. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Pirates batter Jake Mangum hit a grounder to Rockies third baseman Kyle Karros. The infielder charged the ball and met baserunner Billy Cook simultaneously. The umpires called everyone safe on the field, which would have led to a tie game. Karros was in disbelief as he signaled to his manager to challenge the call.
After the umpires met, Cook was called out for baserunner interference. Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly was irate.
“The runner failed to avoid the defender in the act of fielding the baseball; therefore, he’s called out. It’s very simple,” crew chief Todd Tichenor told a pool reporter after the game, via MLB.com.
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Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes pitches against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of a baseball game in Denver on June 20, 2026. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Karros said Cook’s cleat “kind of clipped my glove” during the play.
Kelly said he agreed that Cook hit Karros’ glove when he was running to third base. However, he didn’t understand why the umpires had to huddle to get the call correct.
Cook added that he didn’t think he made contact until he saw the replay.
“Just unfortunate how that played out,” he continued.
Pirates first baseman Spencer Horwitz hit a home run in the first inning – it accounted for Pittsburgh’s only run in the loss.
T.J. Rumfield had the other RBI for Colorado. He scored McCarthy.
Colorado Rockies’ Jake McCarthy returns to the dugout after hitting an inside-the-park home run off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes in the first inning of a baseball game in Denver on June 20, 2026. (David Zalubowski/AP)
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Colorado improved to 30-47 on the year. Pittsburgh fell to 38-39.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Pittsburgh’s South Side Street Fest is officially underway, aiming to create a safer and welcoming South Side.
The South Side has developed a reputation for chaotic weekends during the summer. That was not the case on Saturday night.
Most people who spoke with KDKA-TV offered largely glowing reviews of the event, adding that they feel safe, and that is the hope. Leaders hope that this event goes a long way to change the behavior and perception of the area.
The South Side Street Fest aims to fill East Carson Street on Friday and Saturday nights this summer from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. between 12th and 18th streets. Of note, the event is only for those ages 21 and up, and IDs will be regularly checked.
At the entrance, metal detectors were in use, like those at PNC Park or Acrisure Stadium. There were some lengthy lines to get into the festival, and like a sporting event, you can’t bring in guns, oversized bags, or outside alcohol.
Festivalgoers can, however, buy alcohol inside the permitted area, such as a bar, but they are not permitted to openly bring alcohol in the street. There are specific places on the street where you can buy alcohol and walk around with it.
Multiple vendors were also out for the late-night festivities.
“It’s been great. Very peaceful, very relaxing. Got a little bit of sugar, so sweet,” Beth Burton said.
“This is definitely a bigger turnout than I expected, but this is just great. Vibes are great out here,” Joey Fitzhenry said.
Justin McCord, however, was one of the few who said he wasn’t the biggest fan of the event layout.
“It’s chaos, but it’s controlled chaos. Like, there’s no fighting. But I don’t know. We are kind of barricaded in. It’s a little awkward, you know?” McCord said.
McCord added that the long lines and repeated need to show IDs were two things he took issue with. If those could be rectified, he said, he might return to a future edition of the festival.
Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which has won court victories against identical digital identification laws in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia. The trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies said the Ohio decision went against “clear national consensus” and that it intended to keep fighting.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” said Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
Netchoice brought suit against Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that “a statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.”
Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023.
The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children’s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, said at the time that social media was “intentionally addictive” and harmful to kids.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines, so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Thursday’s ruling “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
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