Lajja Mistry

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Articles

Joining Los Angeles protesters and others, Pittsburgh union members and officials rail against ICE actions

2 weeks ago | publicsource.org | Stephanie Strasburg |Lajja Mistry

Protesters in Downtown Pittsburgh joined a national wave of demonstrations Monday, demanding the release of union leader David Huerta, who was arrested last week in Los Angeles while protesting against federal immigration raids. A crowd of 80 to 100 people, including Mayor Ed Gainey, began the protest on the corner of Grant and Liberty by chanting, “Pittsburgh is a union town.
PPS proposes its 2025 budget, a 5% increase from 2024

Dec 9, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry

Parents speaking at a public hearing Monday said they feel in the dark about the proposed 2025 PPS budget and want to know why the district can’t allocate more to special education and a resumption of the Summer B.O.O.S.T program. Pittsburgh Public Schools proposed a $752.3 million general fund budget for 2025, with a projected operating deficit of $28 million, and reflecting a 5% overall increase from the board’s adopted 2024 budget.
Chronic absenteeism in PPS has been gradually decreasing

Dec 3, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry

An annual community report released by the nonprofit A+ Schools highlighted ongoing disparities in Pittsburgh Public Schools while noting progress in reducing chronic absenteeism. Recently, A+ Schools has shifted its focus to reducing chronic absenteeism by supporting workarounds to the obstacles that drive down attendance.
Teaching math in English to a student fresh from Ukraine? There’s no app for that.

Nov 27, 2024 | penncapital-star.com | Lajja Mistry

Allderdice High School teacher Megan Sommers began her class by pulling up an image of a message in a bottle floating in the ocean. “Looking at this picture, what would you do if you found this bottle?” she asked her class of about 20 students on a Thursday morning in November. On another screen, Sommers opened Google Translate and proceeded to translate her question into Spanish, Russian, French, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai and Turkish, one after the other.
PPS struggles to find staff for growing ELL student body

Nov 21, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry

Allderdice High School teacher Megan Sommers began her class by pulling up an image of a message in a bottle floating in the ocean. “Looking at this picture, what would you do if you found this bottle?” she asked her class of about 20 students on a Thursday morning in November. On another screen, Sommers opened Google Translate and proceeded to translate her question into Spanish, Russian, French, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai and Turkish, one after the other.
Parents offer an alternative to PPS’ school closure proposal

Oct 22, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry

As Pittsburgh Public Schools weighs potential closures and consolidations, some parents have presented their own community-driven proposal in response. The community proposal, presented Tuesday night at a press event on Smithfield Street, Downtown, is based on regional schools with an element of choice.
PPS closures, consolidations remain, per facilities final proposal

Oct 15, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry |Jillian Forstadt

Despite fierce resistance from parents, Pittsburgh Public Schools remains poised for multiple school closures if the school board approves the final proposal for reconfiguring the district’s footprint. Representatives of Education Resource Strategies [ERS], the Boston-based firm hired to lead a months-long effort to overhaul the district, presented their latest proposal to PPS school board members Tuesday night.
Pittsburgh-area schools teach media literacy amid Election 2024

Oct 8, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry

Democracy & DoubtPittsburgh navigates trust and choice in the 2024 election seasonBaldwin High School teacher Adam Foote pulled up an online article claiming an FBI agent implicated in the Hillary Clinton email leaks was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. What did his students think of the article, he asked, encouraging them to dissect it and check for false information.
Past PPS closures haunt Pittsburgh’s West Side families

Oct 7, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry |Jillian Forstadt

Pittsburgh Public Schools’ last round of school consolidations hit the West Side hard, with three of the seven total closures taking place in Sheraden, Crafton Heights and Elliott in 2012. PPS’ Path ForwardInvestigating the development and implications of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ plans to reshape the district. Parents like Shayla Penn, of Sheraden, endured those closures just over a decade ago.
Pittsburgh Schools plans to close Manchester and move CAPA 6-8

Sep 9, 2024 | publicsource.org | Lajja Mistry |Jillian Forstadt

Seth Small still remembers, a decade later, feeling that his classmates at Manchester PreK-8 were behind. PPS’ Path ForwardInvestigating the development and implications of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ plans to reshape the district. Small, 19, moved to Pittsburgh’s North Side with his brother Micah and their grandma Norma Small from the Hill District, where he attended another Pittsburgh public school, A. Leo Weil PreK-5. “Stuff I was learning at A.