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OT: WPIAL HS Sports are a mess

So what? He was just presenting scenarios. You have to dig into it deeper and make it a race issue. It’s what you guys do. What’s your reaction to him suggesting Clairton merge with TJ?
my reaction is 99.999% of TJ parents would go crazy fighting that. and i wouldnt blame them one bit.
 
And Penn hills is literally down the road from riverview .
This isn’t identity its geography .
It’s less than 6 miles between those schools .
So why are you selecting Plum instead ?
Is it because of your identity politics ?
Isn’t it better to improve education for more people ?
It's about the same distance. Hell, split the kids from Verona to Penn Hills and Oakmont to Plum.
 
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So what? He was just presenting scenarios. You have to dig into it deeper and make it a race issue. It’s what you guys do. What’s your reaction to him suggesting Clairton merge with TJ?
I didn’t dig in deeper
I presented another nearby school for riverview to merge with

owt then claimed I was using identity politics -
I corrected which of one us was
 
Had it gone through, I would have gone through the merged district for approximately my last six or seven years. I certainly would have had more educational resources available to me. Duquesne High School left me with the impression that I was smart. Perhaps I was, but when I got to college, I got the rude awakening that I was not prepared.

West Mifflin wasn't exactly the place for scholars. I did have two years worth of calculus credits to transfer to Pitt, but I was also hit with a rude awakening when I got to college. I shit you not: My 12th grade English class involved (heavy involved) subjects, predicates, nouns, and verbs. Granted, I was in the AP classes for math but opted against it for English because I heard they made you "read books and shit," which was against my very essence at the time... and still is.

But my buddy was only able to pass high school because he beat two teachers in one-on-one basketball. He used to miss like 75 days per year. Still no idea what his deal was. But he went from F's to A's because of basketball. West Mifflin was a joke, at least when I was in school.
 
So what? He was just presenting scenarios. You have to dig into it deeper and make it a race issue. It’s what you guys do. What’s your reaction to him suggesting Clairton merge with TJ?
No no no......Souf and liberals NEVER view things through the prism of race. They just see it through the eyes of others who think they do. That's what makes them superior to the rest of us. They have special racist decoder rings.
 
my reaction is 99.999% of TJ parents would go crazy fighting that. and i wouldnt blame them one bit.
The most far left progressive people I know personally, people who are very, very close to me, not those who act that way on this board, fought the Woodland Hills merger tooth and nail back in the day. Good people can be hypocrites.
 
West Mifflin wasn't exactly the place for scholars. I did have two years worth of calculus credits to transfer to Pitt, but I was also hit with a rude awakening when I got to college. I shit you not: My 12th grade English class involved (heavy involved) subjects, predicates, nouns, and verbs. Granted, I was in the AP classes for math but opted against it for English because I heard they made you "read books and shit," which was against my very essence at the time... and still is.
That is true of many schools. When I was in HS, I had calculus, Organic Chemistry, Physics, etc....but regular English where we would have friggin SPELLING TESTS! No wonder when I got to college, I struggled with Fr English the first part of the first semester.
 
The most far left progressive people I know personally, people who are very, very close to me, not those who act that way on this board, fought the Woodland Hills merger tooth and nail back in the day. Good people can be hypocrites.
I’ve encountered a few folks out in the wild who still loudly complain about the WH merger. It was 40 years ago! I wasn’t alive!
 
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That is true of many schools. When I was in HS, I had calculus, Organic Chemistry, Physics, etc....but regular English where we would have friggin SPELLING TESTS! No wonder when I got to college, I struggled with Fr English the first part of the first semester.

I honestly BS'ed my way through Pitt, so even most of that wasn't exactly on par with MENSA exams. But yeah... the first time a professor told us to read like 40 pages before the next class, I almost lost my shit. I hadn't read 40 pages in my life. My 12th grade English class consisted of a "swear jar" and my friends and I making raunchy videos for our projects. It was 4th grade all over again.
 
Of course you don't. "You dig deeper". You got a special decoder ring.
Well driving from highland park I pass Penn hills and Verona on the was to oakmont
when house shopping we checked all those areas

thats why it was present of mind

had a new grip and loft adjustment done at the oakmont golf center just a month ago
 
They obviously would. The TJ school district was born out of racism in the late 50s.

I remember them bringing garbage bags to a basketball game and chanting, "Go home, white trash" to us one time. I'm sure I was mad at the time, but I'm able to look back and realize it was probably accurate, too.
 
Why because owt is more interested in putting the riverview kids in a 88% white school district than an 80+% minority one- equidistant
And claims I’m using identity politics ironically ?!?
Or, Plum is just closer to Owt’s high school. You are really reaching on this one.
 
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I know the Pittsburgh metro is smaller so we are not going to get the same funding for infrastructure, but if there can be a high speed Harrisburg to Philly line, why can't we get a high speed Amtrak line from Altoona to Pittsburgh, or if not that then from Latrobe to Pittsburgh?

I get that it is an ultimate chicken or the egg problem, but I do think that if our region can get some projects like that, more people will be attracted to Western PA.
Better use of money would be a high speed line from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, going through Youngstown.
 
Actually, BVA will likely merge with Monessen, soon. BV and Yough would be a huge district and pretty spread out.

I think you'll see more co-ops if schools don't want to merge. That probably makes a lot of sense. It's becoming a popular option in rural areas. Get to keep your other sports separate. I think it makes sense. They've even gone so far as to alternate where the home games are played. Those arrangements seem to be working.
IMO, that only happens if the state forces it somehow. Belle Vernon does not want Monessen. I'm thinking there would be a better chance to merge Monessen and Charleroi.
 
They obviously would. The TJ school district was born out of racism in the late 50s.
So what? You think what happened 70 years ago has anything to do with what would happen today? Lol. Come on.

would people fight it? Absolutely. But the 1950’s are irrelevant.
 
No, there is very little difference in teachers between districts. But Monessen kids could take more class offerings at a bigger school. Does Monessen have Trig, Calc, AP Bio? An ambitious Monessen kid could do better elsewhere. Not to mention the extracurriculars.

I am get the feeling you don't know what your talking about. At small schools, kids get to participate in many things, the school play, the band/football, etc. small schools must share their kids. At larger schools, kids compete and get left behind because there is no need to share kids. i.e, You play basketball at a large school, you won't be excused to go practice on the Spring Play, small schools work around it, in my experience.
I live in Johnstown. My house is located in a single A school district. The high school is 5.2 miles away from my house. There are two high schools in other districts closer to my house. There are elementary schools in three other districts closer to my house than my district's elementary school. The high school football team has a 99 mile trip to its away game next Friday. The following week it travels 58 miles. Last week it traveled 51 miles.

The school district hasn't had a shop teacher in five years or so. I think it has finally hired a language teacher after not having one for a few years. It loses several teachers every year to better paying jobs in other districts. It graduates fewer than 70 kids per year. It has a total of seven varsity sports teams. It co-ops with many other small districts just to be able to continue to field teams in some sports. It quite frankly, needs to go away. The obvious school to merge with is Greater Johnstown. That will never happen. And I can't see another district wanting it. So what do you do?
 
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I work with someone who moved to the Erie area because he only has to work in his office in Pgh occasionally. Work from home changed a lot. I doubt those Bedford people are commuting every day. If you were offered a great job in DC paying significantly more than what you are making now but had to go into the office 2-4 times per month, I think many of us would take it and just get a hotel room.
Well, that's not what these folks are doing. Every, single, day.
 
IMO, that only happens if the state forces it somehow. Belle Vernon does not want Monessen. I'm thinking there would be a better chance to merge Monessen and Charleroi.
Rostraver residents really never wanted Belle Vernon. It was a failing district, too. The allure of a bigger tax base is all it takes. There are a lot of older tax payers up on the hill over there that BV would love to have. Those neighborhoods are still very nice.
 
I live in Johnstown. My house is located in a single A school district. The high school is 5.2 miles away from my house. There are two high schools in other districts closer to my house. There are elementary schools in three other districts closer to my house than my district's elementary school. The high school football team has a 99 mile trip to its away game next Friday. The following week it travels 58 miles. Last week it traveled 51 miles.

The school district hasn't had a shop teacher in five years or so. I think it has finally hired a language teacher after not having one for a few years. It loses several teachers every year to better paying jobs in other districts. It graduates fewer than 70 kids per year. It has a total of seven varsity sports teams. It co-ops with many other small districts just to be able to continue to field teams in some sports. It quite frankly, needs to go away. The obvious school to merge with is Greater Johnstown. That will never happen. And I can't see another district wanting it. So what do you do?
Pretty sure I know what district you speak of. It's unfortunate. Some of the smaller schools in that area have wonderful histories.
 
Well driving from highland park I pass Penn hills and Verona on the was to oakmont
when house shopping we checked all those areas

thats why it was present of mind

had a new grip and loft adjustment done at the oakmont golf center just a month ago
Then kind of.....isn't it your own projection of identity.......because all mine was is the majority of Riverview is more proximate to the Plum school district. Being that I have lived in the AK Valley most of my life.

And I am the guy when presented these things in the past, have told others that the more privileged areas need to "suck it up" if they had to absorb some of "those people" into their district.
 
Yes, and you are coming from Pittsburgh. You put it closer to you. Owt did the same.
Well on that note, there is a point on some districts that would be absorbed. If the school district is going away, why be beholden to their original boundaries and do what makes most geographic sense. Hence Verona to Penn Hills, Oakmont to Plum. Or in Springdale, most to Deer Lakes, but some maybe to Fox Chapel. Etc...etc...
 
Some of the smaller schools in that area have wonderful histories.
Which is probably one of the problems, plus the fact that things have changed so much since some of us were around schools, there is very little use for relating what needs done based on our
The obvious school to merge with is Greater Johnstown. That will never happen.

experience with schools, other than acknowledge the need for a school to close, the problem is getting elected to a School Board on the "We need to close our school" platform, it doesn't translate well.
 
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It takes a small mind to label people and believe they all think the same things. Yours must be tiny.
No no no......Souf and liberals NEVER view things through the prism of race. They just see it through the eyes of others who think they do. That's what makes them superior to the rest of us. They have special racist decoder rings.
 
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experience with schools, other than acknowledge the need for a school to close, the problem is getting elected to a School Board on the "We need to close our school" platform, it doesn't translate well.
If it's the district I'm thinking about, they only border Johnstown and right now that district isn't in great shape. Not a lot of good options.
 
I know the Pittsburgh metro is smaller so we are not going to get the same funding for infrastructure, but if there can be a high speed Harrisburg to Philly line, why can't we get a high speed Amtrak line from Altoona to Pittsburgh, or if not that then from Latrobe to Pittsburgh?

I get that it is an ultimate chicken or the egg problem, but I do think that if our region can get some projects like that, more people will be attracted to Western PA.
Geography. Harrisburg to Philly is flat. Pittsburgh to Altoona has mountains, and has to deal with the Altoona Curve, or whatever it is that they call it.

Politics, as well. Harrisburg and Philly have a lot more weight behind them than western PA.
 
Well on that note, there is a point on some districts that would be absorbed. If the school district is going away, why be beholden to their original boundaries and do what makes most geographic sense. Hence Verona to Penn Hills, Oakmont to Plum. Or in Springdale, most to Deer Lakes, but some maybe to Fox Chapel. Etc...etc...
My preference is to have higher property tax areas flow into schools with less, rather than advancing a disparity between districts
i don’t think white flight should be rewarded - I’ll just go ahead and say it
 
No idea. Probably political. Consolidation means less teachers jobs I assume. But I’m not interested in the politics of it. Just was interested in a sporting discussion around it.

We are in a tiny district begging for consolidation (Carlynton). In reality we should merge with Montour or Char Valley. I know our district reached out years ago and the answer from those districts was "no thanks". The only district willing to discuss is was Keystone Oaks and that would be a logistical nightmare given it would be one long, narrow district pretty much cutting across the entirety of the south hills.

The state will eventually need to compel these larger, wealthier districts to merge with smaller ones. And that doesn't even account for the small districts with meager tax bases like Sto-Rox.

As for sports, our district is competitive in everything except football. Not sure if we've even scored a point yet this season, lol.
 
My preference is to have higher property tax areas flow into schools with less, rather than advancing a disparity between districts
i don’t think white flight should be rewarded - I’ll just go ahead and say it

The problem is that in some smaller suburban districts (even those in decent areas) the higher property taxes are just barely covering the budget given the relatively small tax base. I don't see anything changing unless districts start merging on a large scale.
 
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