VOTE411 Voter Guide

Allegheny County faces a public transportation crisis, but it must be intentional about working with PPS. Reliable, efficient transit is essential for students to attend school safely and on time, and it's essential for a the region's transit riders. Longer bus rides are challenging for students.

PPS already fills gaps where public transit falls short, but further cuts will strain yellow bus service, which has faced driver shortages since COVID. As a school board director, I’ll advocate for strong collaboration with the county and ensure proposed transit changes or cuts are fully considered in any school closure or consolidation plans.

In its April 7, 2025 budget presentation, PPS projected a $2.8M shortfall in state funding, $15M in ESSER reimbursement at risk (Elementary & Secondary School Emergency Relief), and $56M in federal grants supporting 362 staff.

To increase revenue, there’s a lawsuit to force a countywide property tax reassessment and another against the city over diverted income tax revenue. While I support those efforts, board members must also increase budget transparency and adopt participatory governance that empowers the public to offer ideas and solutions. Some board directors say the school closure plan would cut costs, but their plan has no budget.

1)The Board must learn from past closures and acknowledge their disproportionate impact on Black, brown, and disabled students—and pledge not to repeat the harm of mass closures. 2)Disinvestment drives families away. If all they do is manage decline, the district will lose more students. Equity must be intentional and be represented in the operating budget, transportation plan, feeder patterns, etc. 3)The district must guarantee that every school has a core set of essential resources and then engage in collaborative problem-solving—on staffing, scheduling, leadership, and more—to ensure all students have high-quality learning environments.

The recent proposed changes by PRT create some uncertainty for our middle and high school students who rely on PRT to get to school. As a Board Director, I will work closely with the Superintendent to review and approve a transportation plan that ensures no disruption in our obligation to get students safely to school. Since PPS is responsible for transportation for all school age students in the city, we are prepared to use all available options including increasing our reliance on yellow buses. I am confident that PPS will continue to transport our students to and from school.

The anticipated budget shortfalls are one of the most important issues for the Board to address. The solutions are multifaceted and will take some time to fully rectify. The first step is to fully implement the district's consolidation plan. Reducing the size of our footprint will give the district the ability to address the efficiency of our spending and reduce some of our facilities costs. Next we need to continue the push for a countrywide property reassessment to create a more equitable and predictable revenue base. Finally we must continue the push for a legislative remedy for the tax deferment that takes $26 million out of education.

The district's consolidation plan has several anticipated outcomes. The first and most important is creating the ability to properly resource our schools to provide quality and equitable educational options for all students. The reduction in the district's footprint may also ease transportation responsibilities by keeping students closer to home and less reliant on buses. Finally the plan seeks to address the disparities in academic achievement, by creating designated teacher academy's, we seek to ramp up our teacher training. By investing in the development of our teaching professionals, our students will reap the benefits.