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OT: WPIAL HS Sports are a mess

Yes and I’ve alluded to this several times, specifically with tj and Clairton. Yet sone on here don’t speak of the elephdd as my in the room.
Nobody wants to merge. The poorer district wants to keep their own HS and tradition, identity. The richer district doesn't want poor kids going to school with their kids. We all know this and that's why Western PA still has 1 school district per town and has so many small schools. Everyone wants their own school district. In the voice of Oprah, you get a school district, you get a school district.
 
I wish they would have fought a lot harder. The Woody Hills merger has been a disaster for every community involved. A generation ago, prior to the Woodland Hills merger, there were nice neighborhoods in the east end.
Blame Westinghouse for both the decline of the school and the area.
 
Monessen offers -

Trig
Calc 1
Calc 2

AP English 11
AP English 12

AP Physics
AP Psychology

Extracurriculars

Football
Soccer
Baseball
Softball
Basketball
Track
Cheerleading
Chorus
Band
Theatre
Marching/Concert Band
Music/Fine Arts
Visual Media

Not to shabby for a school that graduates around 50-70 kids/year
And even more impressive for a general population school!

One thing that people are missing, is that while bigger is better for the teams, plays, musicals, it isn’t necessarily better for the kids. Being able to get in the field, or stage, can do wonders for development. At the bigger schools, this limits these experiences to those who are extremely talented.
 
Yeah, State College has been in the Mid-Penn for almost 20 years. Altoona, too, if you don’t include their brief stay in the WPIAL ten or so years ago.

It’s tough for those schools just because they’re so much bigger than pretty much all of their geographic peers. No real easy travel solutions there if they want to play schools anything close to their size.
As an old ForbesField attendant, I'll tell you that way, way back in the 70's, when the top WPIAL category was still AA, the Altoona Mountain Lions were in the WPIAL. They apparently have come and gone several times.
 
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?
Ferndale by chance? I’ll always have a soft spot for that school. Their football uniforms were worn by Ampipe in All The Right Moves, and I once dated a beautiful girl who went to school there. She was my Lisa Litsky.
 
For the love of god, NIMBY has no political party!

It's not always NIMBY when it comes to this issue. I'm all for consolidation but at the same time, I wouldn't want my kids on a bus 30-40 minutes each way to go to another district. The logistics of mergers are difficult to manage.
 
I think these larger schools in the middle of nowheres should suck it up and buy charter jets to fly the team for games like Ridgemont High did for Jefferson.
 
Monessen offers -

Trig
Calc 1
Calc 2

AP English 11
AP English 12

AP Physics
AP Psychology
Yeah, bigger schools don't always mean more course offerings in terms of electives. Some of the higher regarded schools have relatively disappointing offerings compared to smaller schools with fewer resources.
 
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You realize state college and Altoona are in the top district 3 league with CV, CD, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Harrisburg?

state college still made state playoffs despite finishing 5th in the league , yet teams above of them did not, because they get in thru district 6 , it’s a joke
District 6 football is sad.
 
They also ran from the Mid Penn league. Now they are back.
Did State College ever leave? I know Hollidaysburg, Altoona and State College all entered as football-only in the early 2000’s, then Hollidaysburg left a few years later.

If I remember right, there was a particularly nasty incident at an Altoona/Harrisburg game around 2010-2011 that played a pretty big role in prompting Altoona to leave. Then they went to the WPIAL, were only there for a few years, before coming back to the Mid Penn again.

I also learned recently that Gettysburg was back in the Mid Penn after a few years in the York-Adams. Gettysburg always had one of the coolest stadiums to play in, so it’s great to see them back.
 
Why would you possibly want your school district to merge with Johnstown? That would be the worst thing for the children in your borough and for you as a taxpayer.
I answered that question. Our kids are getting a subpar education and have few academic options. Johnstown offers far more. It’s also the only school I see that would take us.
 
Ferndale by chance? I’ll always have a soft spot for that school. Their football uniforms were worn by Ampipe in All The Right Moves, and I once dated a beautiful girl who went to school there. She was my Lisa Litsky.
No, the other school on life support. But Ferndale should do the same.
 
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You'd think that people from this part of the country would understand what happens to areas where the big, dominant employer closes up shop and thousands of locals lose their jobs.
It is easy to blame a large regional employer when a group of communities is forced by the state to merge school districts (despite resistance from those communities involved) and it turns to shit. Interesting how other eastern communities not involved in the merger didn't turn from wealthy to shit in a generation. Try to take a bus (or a car) from Turtle creek, or Wilkins township to Edgewood primary school one morning and tell me how that works out for you. It is hard to force merge districts that are barely connected by roads and it takes an hour to get from one side to the other during rush hour. How can parents be involved with their kids at school and have a job?
 
It is easy to blame a large regional employer when a group of communities is forced by the state to merge school districts (despite resistance from those communities involved) and it turns to shit. Interesting how other eastern communities not involved in the merger didn't turn from wealthy to shit in a generation. Try to take a bus (or a car) from Turtle creek, or Wilkins township to Edgewood primary school one morning and tell me how that works out for you. It is hard to force merge districts that are barely connected by roads and it takes an hour to get from one side to the other during rush hour. How can parents be involved with their kids at school and have a job?
Um
Because that’s what parents do ?
 
Um
Because that’s what parents do ?
Soufy, do you have an hour trek from your house to your son's school? No. And nobody should unless they are living in a very rural area. Surely shouldn't happen in a very urban area of Allegheny county that most people who do not know better assume is part of the city of Pittsburgh.
 
It is easy to blame a large regional employer when a group of communities is forced by the state to merge school districts (despite resistance from those communities involved) and it turns to shit. Interesting how other eastern communities not involved in the merger didn't turn from wealthy to shit in a generation. Try to take a bus (or a car) from Turtle creek, or Wilkins township to Edgewood primary school one morning and tell me how that works out for you. It is hard to force merge districts that are barely connected by roads and it takes an hour to get from one side to the other during rush hour. How can parents be involved with their kids at school and have a job?
Central Catholic has a LOT of kids from the Woody High district because of all of the issues. When my kid was there, I was shocked at the numbers.
 
Soufy, do you have an hour trek from your house to your son's school? No. And nobody should unless they are living in a very rural area. Surely shouldn't happen in a very urban area of Allegheny county that most people who do not know better assume is part of the city of Pittsburgh.
Kids are busses all over the city for magnet schools
Their bus rides have nothing to do with their parents helping with homework
That’s a terrible excuse
 
It is easy to blame a large regional employer when a group of communities is forced by the state to merge school districts (despite resistance from those communities involved) and it turns to shit. Interesting how other eastern communities not involved in the merger didn't turn from wealthy to shit in a generation. Try to take a bus (or a car) from Turtle creek, or Wilkins township to Edgewood primary school one morning and tell me how that works out for you. It is hard to force merge districts that are barely connected by roads and it takes an hour to get from one side to the other during rush hour. How can parents be involved with their kids at school and have a job?
It is very easy when the school district functioned quite well prior to the large corporation breakup. Prepared us well for Amherst, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Cornell, Pitt, CMU, MIT, Hopkins, etc AND put a shit ton of player into the NFL.
 
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Yeah that’s the thing. Such an imbalance and western PA is archaic.

the Avonworths should have merged with the North Allegheny’s

the Char Houston’s should have merged with the Canon Macs

the greensburg Salems should have merged with Hempfield

the Bentworths should have merged with Ringgold.

etc. etc

Yough and BVA should have merged.
The list goes on and on

but there has to be a better solution than a 5 team classification. That’s just stupid.
Greensburg and Hempfield are still good size schools . It’s Jeannette that needs to merge with either Hempfield or Penn Trafford
 
Yeah that’s the thing. Such an imbalance and western PA is archaic.

the Avonworths should have merged with the North Allegheny’s

the Char Houston’s should have merged with the Canon Macs

the greensburg Salems should have merged with Hempfield

the Bentworths should have merged with Ringgold.

etc. etc

Yough and BVA should have merged.
The list goes on and on

but there has to be a better solution than a 5 team classification. That’s just stupid.
How about Aliquippa, Hopewell and Central Valley? They all use an Aliquippa address 15001.
 
How about Aliquippa, Hopewell and Central Valley? They all use an Aliquippa address 15001.
They should merge, but do the Quips want it to happen? If CV and Quips merge, then they could beat anyone in the state.
 
How about Aliquippa, Hopewell and Central Valley? They all use an Aliquippa address 15001.
Crazy. Isn’t Central Valley the only team who beat the Quips last year and they too were state champs?
 
Interesting how other eastern communities not involved in the merger didn't turn from wealthy to shit in a generation.


If you don't think that there are other eastern communities that turned from wealth to shit in a generation after the loss of the dominant employer in their area, well, like I said, someone from Western PA should know better. And the school districts didn't have anything at all to do with that.

I'm guessing that you actually do know better, but you are too emotional on the subject to admit it.
 
If you don't think that there are other eastern communities that turned from wealth to shit in a generation after the loss of the dominant employer in their area, well, like I said, someone from Western PA should know better. And the school districts didn't have anything at all to do with that.

I'm guessing that you actually do know better, but you are too emotional on the subject to admit it.
It is why I am hard on especially the local politicians and think our choices this year are worst than ever. Why can't we bring in big businesses again? Neighbors West Virginia and Ohio are doing it. Bringing in big companies with big paying, community building wages. Ours? We celebrate unionizing a Starbucks!

We need a Caligiuri. We need a Heinz. We need someone with some vision.
 
It is why I am hard on especially the local politicians and think our choices this year are worst than ever. Why can't we bring in big businesses again? Neighbors West Virginia and Ohio are doing it. Bringing in big companies with big paying, community building wages. Ours? We celebrate unionizing a Starbucks!

We need a Caligiuri. We need a Heinz. We need someone with some vision.


And as I said before, we celebrated stopping Amazon from bringing a big warehouse with all those attendant jobs to the area.

"Hooray! Now we won't have to deal with all the extra traffic from all those people coming to work at a place like that!"

"Hey, by the way, have you been able to find a good paying job yet or are you still workin down Giant Iggle n'at?"
 
It is why I am hard on especially the local politicians and think our choices this year are worst than ever. Why can't we bring in big businesses again? Neighbors West Virginia and Ohio are doing it. Bringing in big companies with big paying, community building wages. Ours? We celebrate unionizing a Starbucks!

We need a Caligiuri. We need a Heinz. We need someone with some vision.
Our local government is so corrupt, nothing gets done unless the politicians get a handout as part of the deal.
 
It is why I am hard on especially the local politicians and think our choices this year are worst than ever. Why can't we bring in big businesses again? Neighbors West Virginia and Ohio are doing it. Bringing in big companies with big paying, community building wages. Ours? We celebrate unionizing a Starbucks!

We need a Caligiuri. We need a Heinz. We need someone with some vision.
What is West Virginia bringing in ?
 
And as I said before, we celebrated stopping Amazon from bringing a big warehouse with all those attendant jobs to the area.

"Hooray! Now we won't have to deal with all the extra traffic from all those people coming to work at a place like that!"

"Hey, by the way, have you been able to find a good paying job yet or are you still workin down Giant Iggle n'at?"
Bringing in a company like Amazon would have lowered their taxes as well.
 
Bringing in a company like Amazon would have lowered their taxes as well.
And Amazon had no interest in coming here
But of course they wanted to pay no taxes as well - so I’m not seeing how that works -
Just like upmc and Highmark aren’t lowering taxes with far more employed
 
And Amazon had no interest in coming here
But of course they wanted to pay no taxes as well - so I’m not seeing how that works -
Just like upmc and Highmark aren’t lowering taxes with far more employed
Officials had said taxes would have included between $600,000 and $660,000 annually in property taxes to Churchill, plus between $2.3 million and $2.5 million for Woodland Hills School District. Churchill is one of 12 municipalities within the district.

Adding that much extra tax revenue could have helped the community avoid tax hikes, Futules said, and would’ve served as a “shot in the arm” for their budgets.

 
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