Citing ‘abject failure’ by Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent, black female leaders call for no contract renewal
Share this post:
A coalition of black, female leaders is calling for the Pittsburgh Public Schools to reject Anthony Hamlet for another term as superintendent.
In a letter sent June 1 to the school board that included more than 50 signatures, a group called Black Women for a Better Education criticizes Hamlet’s organizational leadership, financial management, professionalism, efforts to promote equity among students and his covid-19 response. The group includes alumni, parents and partners of the district.
“As PPS school board directors, it is time for you to admit that Dr. Hamlet’s tenure has been an abject failure and to allow his contract to expire at the end of the 2020-21 school year,” the letter reads.
Hamlet became superintendent in 2016. His term expires June 30, 2021, and the board’s review of another five-year contract will begin in July. Sylvia Wilson, president of the school board, said no board members could comment as the review is a personnel matter.
Hamlet was appointed amid some scandal, after he was recommended by a search consultant who did not vet him, and a review of his resume later found innaccuracies. Still, the letter says, he under the promise to be a “transformational leader” who would improve the district’s achievement gaps among students of color. But the group alleges that Hamlet has made little progress in this regard, citing stagnant PSSA test scores and declining Keystone test scores.
Black students are suspended at higher rates than white students, and they underperform when it comes to access and passing of AP courses and tests, the letter says, as well as enrollment in gifted and talented programs and grade retention rates.
The allegations are documented in the Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission report, which states that black girls in Pittsburgh are less likely to pass AP courses than black girls in 98% of other cities. The report also states that black boys are seven times more likely to be suspended multiple times in one school year than white girls. Black students are referred to police and arrested at rates three to five times that of their white classmates, according to the report.
The letter also criticizes Hamlet’s handling of the crisis management during the covid-19 pandemic, when the district went nearly a month before implementing a remote learning plan. Early in the crisis, Hamlet said the district needed time to transition into a plan that catered to students without adequate technology access — but when learning did resume, the letter writers say it was unsatisfactory.
At one point, the district provided printed instructional packets that were blurry and illegible, and there is still little certainty that students with disabilities are receiving specially-designed instruction.
In a critique of his management style, the letter says Hamlet is “evasive, operating the district like an island.” The authors say that when he does communicate with the public, his answers are rehearsed and full of jargon, lacking in real information. They criticize the high turnover in his administration, in which several staff members resigned abruptly or were never replaced. They berate his spending on extraneous staff, high-paid consultants and out-of-town professional development costs, also referencing an unauthorized trip to Cuba in 2019, which had to be investigated at taxpayer expense.
Many of the letter’s signatories noted that Black Women for a Better Education represents precisely the demographic Hamlet needs support from in order to score another term, after he had made specific promises to address issues of racial inequity.
“When highlighted that these were the things he was going to attack, then we looked for him to do that,” said Cheryl Hall-Russell, president of Black Women Wise Women. “And when that didn’t happen, when you have [students of color] continue to not get the quality of education that they needed, we can’t have another five years of them not receiving that.”
Hall-Russell said the letter was in development long before the covid-19 pandemic or the protests over the death of George Floyd began, though recent events have given the group an opportunity to speak up when many more people are listening. People are expanding their vocabulary when it comes to racial injustice, she said. They are more willing to talk about longstanding “systems of oppression.”
For Renee Robinson, another signatory, the district’s covid-19 response was a “breaking point.”
“As a leader, you have to have the foresight to plan for these things,” she said. “To prepare and plan for the unexpected.”
Robinson has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than a decade. She signed the letter, she said, as a concerned community resident who pays taxes. She has a 3-year-old son who she’s planning to send to private school next year for kindergarten, not feeling like he could receive an equitable education in Pittsburgh Public Schools. He’ll probably stay in private schools, she said, if things don’t change within the district.
“It’s another burden that I have to pay out of pocket for him to get a quality education,” she said. “I don’t want him to be in that situation. I want to give him the best tools, skills and opportunities to make it in this society.”
Many women who signed the letter are community activists in other areas like health and employment, which Hall-Russell said informed their approach and decision to speak up. They know from experience, Hall-Russell said, that inequity in education “bleeds” into other areas of life and their combined voices would best bring policy changes.
“We are supporters of public education, but we are also not willing to just continue to accept less than what we feel our children deserve,” she said.
In the letter, the authors acknowledge the weight of their voice as a group of black women.
“We do not take lightly the implications of Black women asking a school board with a Black president to not renew the contract of a Black superintendent of a school district with majority Black students,” the letter acknowledges. “We are aware of the optics, however, we demand better for our Black children.”