Schenley High School repurposing - PMC gets recommendation

[Clint.]

I don't think any of those guys (living or dead, although most of them are dead) offered any money to fix it up. How many of them even bothered to stay in Pittsburgh once they made it? Not many. Even if they had, today it is an underutilized asset. Why should Pittsburgh residents pay higher school taxes to keep a building open because some people feel nostalgic about it? The City is littered with empty school buildings. There are fewer students in Pittsburgh now than practically any time in the last 80 years.

It's not like it's going to be demolished - time to move on and adjust to the new reality.

[simetime]

Originally Posted by Clint.

I don't think any of those guys (living or dead, although most of them are dead) offered any money to fix it up. How many of them even bothered to stay in Pittsburgh once they made it? Not many. Even if they had, today it is an underutilized asset. Why should Pittsburgh residents pay higher school taxes to keep a building open because some people feel nostalgic about it? The City is littered with empty school buildings. There are fewer students in Pittsburgh now than practically any time in the last 80 years.

It's not like it's going to be demolished - time to move on and adjust to the new reality.

I know two who did plus others who did not make the list but are doing well for themselves, this is one of the reasons that the whole thing sounded kind of fishy. When they first said that it would cost 800,000 to remove it the alumni had backers and then the cost jumped up over 1.5 million and now it is higher then that.

That is the reason why it should have remained opened as a school because of the location and it's reputation for teaching it's kids. Btw, the majority of the people on that list are still living.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by simetime

That is the reason why it should have remained opened as a school because of the location and it's reputation for teaching it's kids. Btw, the majority of the people on that list are still living.

The Schenley building doesn't make its teachers any better, and the good teachers there can be just as good if they teach at Carrick or Alderdice or Westinghouse instead.

Actually its location is a good reason to close the building if there is overcapacity in the public schools. Returning the property to the tax rolls will yield money that can be used to further education. The Schenley location is worth a whole lot more than my own alma mater Langley is located on- I can see why it is probably just as well to keep the Langley building open as an elementary- Sheraden is about as cheap of a location as you can get.

[Clint.]

Ok, only about half are no longer alive, not "most". It's not that important, anyway. There is nothing magical about the building that will make students there better students. I'm sure that there are plenty of others who went to Schenley who did just fine (without having a natural talent for sports or music), and others in the future will do just fine wherever they go to school.

It just happens to be in a prime real estate location, so if a school in an area needs to be closed because there are too many building and not enough students in the system, then why not close the one that is going to yield the biggest benefit to the community? Sending the students to another building within the City is unlikely to make a negative impact on their future careers (unless adults fill their heads with the idea that they are being done a great disservice by being deprived of Schenley HS and they end up acting out a self-fulfilling prophecy because of it), but on the other hand it is very likely that the sale and development of no other building would yield as much financially for the school district and resident tax payers, so it's an easy business decision, maybe not an easy emotional one for everybody, though.

[simetime]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

The Schenley building doesn't make its teachers any better, and the good teachers there can be just as good if they teach at Carrick or Alderdice or Westinghouse instead.

Actually its location is a good reason to close the building if there is overcapacity in the public schools. Returning the property to the tax rolls will yield money that can be used to further education. The Schenley location is worth a whole lot more than my own alma mater Langley is located on- I can see why it is probably just as well to keep the Langley building open as an elementary- Sheraden is about as cheap of a location as you can get.

Yes, I realize the school does not make good teachers but that was a teachers learning center for the whole city.

[simetime]

Originally Posted by Clint.

Ok, only about half are no longer alive, not "most". It's not that important, anyway. There is nothing magical about the building that will make students there better students. I'm sure that there are plenty of others who went to Schenley who did just fine (without having a natural talent for sports or music), and others in the future will do just fine wherever they go to school.

It just happens to be in a prime real estate location, so if a school in an area needs to be closed because there are too many building and not enough students in the system, then why not close the one that is going to yield the biggest benefit to the community? Sending the students to another building within the City is unlikely to make a negative impact on their future careers (unless adults fill their heads with the idea that they are being done a great disservice by being deprived of Schenley HS and they end up acting out a self-fulfilling prophecy because of it), but on the other hand it is very likely that the sale and development of no other building would yield as much financially for the school district and resident tax payers, so it's an easy business decision, maybe not an easy emotional one for everybody, though.

The location is the main reason why it should have been opened. Peabody and Westinghouse students should have been closedd beforehand and those students should have transferred to Schenley. Intially telling the students that their transfer to Reizenstein was only temporary was a preplanned lie from the begining. I remember when I was in Schenley there were rumors of Pitt wanting to buy the property.

[Clint.]

I totally agree that if the asbestos story was a ruse then it was wrong. Institutions need to be truthful and there isn't a good excuse to lie about things. Even if was only a "partial lie" the school district needed to say something like "Yes, there are some problems at Schenley, it would be expensive to fix them, not prohibitively expensive, but enough that it will be in the city's long-term interest to close the school and sell it. Schenley is the best building to sell because...etc.". At least then everyone could have raised their objections and had an honest discussion about it.

Maybe that's the way it happened? I didn't really pay attention because I don't have any sentimental attachment to the building, so it didn't really matter to me (although looking at it now I can see the decision made economic sense). Glad Pitt (or UPMC) didn't buy it, though.

Peabody and Westinghouse are closer together, so based on proximity and maybe efficiency it would have made more sense to close either of those instead. Neither would have fetched much on the market. Maybe Peabody a little more than Westinghouse, but neither as much as Schenley, and unlikely either would be reused as upscale apartments...probably another charter school or community center or some combination of a few things. Pittsburgh hasn't had any qualms with busing students in an out of neighborhoods to go to school for a long time, so student convenience or proximity to the students' home neighborhoods probably wasn't much of a factor in the decision.

[pman]

did asbestos removal regulations change over that time period? didnt they change in the. 90's? its the type of liability that has bankrupted companies.

[simetime]

This is what I was talking about the cost that keeps changing


Schenley renovation costs estimated to be more than $50

Read more: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette