‘A bump in the road’: Duquesne City schools’ effort to reopen high school to continue despite recent setback

After years of work by administrators and staff, the Duquesne City schools last week received a much anticipated decision from the state on whether the district could reopen its long-shuttered high school.  

In the past few years, the district became the first school system in Pennsylvania to bring back seventh and eighth graders after previously closing its middle school. But reestablishing Duquesne City High School — closed since 2007 after years of financial and academic problems — was the ultimate goal.

The answer that district officials got, though, was not what they had hoped for, “that operating a high school program would require long-term revenue commitments that the district’s current financial status will not be able to support,” the state Department of Education told Duquesne. 

“We’re literally just heartbroken,” Superintendent Sue Mariani said earlier this week in a phone interview. “We’re disappointed in the decision. The community and the parents have been asking for this to happen, and to be this close and for it not to happen is really just heartbreaking.”

The state Department of Education said that in partnership with Public Financial Management, a financial consulting and advisory firm, it conducted an in-depth analysis of the district’s finances and projected multiyear financial scenarios, including potential facility and operational factors associated with reopening a high school. 

“While the district has been a cooperative partner to PDE and a vocal advocate for the students that call the district home, the analyses run by PFM show that operating a high school program would require long-term revenue commitments that the district’s current financial status will not be able to support,” state Education Secretary Khalid N. Mumin wrote to the district. 

“Although PDE has determined that it is not financially feasible for the district to reopen its high school beginning with the 2024-2025 school year and I cannot therefore approve the district’s request, I greatly appreciate your dedication to your students and staff,” he wrote.

Mumin added that the department would continue to support the district and provide recommendations around future financial analyses. 

While the department did not provide any data from the financial analysis, the question of finding sustainable funding always has loomed over the district’s plans. 

“There’s not much of a tax base here, and there’s a lot of rental properties, so unfortunately that’s definitely a huge portion of [the financial problem],” Mariani said. “Plus, the rate of return for people who pay taxes is lower than preferred.”

Similar to many Mon Valley communities, Duquesne has struggled since the collapse of the steel industry, which once employed thousands from the city.

Duquesne’s population has been shrinking for years, and the city’s poverty rate was greater than 25% in 2020, according to the U.S. Census. 

Duquesne students in ninth through 12th grade have been sent to either the West Mifflin Area or East Allegheny school districts since the closure of the city’s high school.

Mariani said the district would continue making sound financial decisions while looking forward to new jobs and businesses that come with the upcoming expansion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway to Duquesne.  

Despite the challenges, Mariani said the goal remains the same as the day she started: restoring the Duquesne City School District in its entirety.

“We’re still going to continue to move in that direction,” she said. “The state was very clear that the decision was based on the long-term financial projections of the district, and it’s going to have to be proven over time that with the enrollment growing, with new businesses opening in the community, that we can show this is a long-term viable option for this community for the future.”

For Mariani, that starts with providing the best educational experience possible for the district’s K-8 students. 

Her administration has brought a significant amount of money into the district in grants, assistance from corporate partners and generosity from the community. For example, Reynolds Bros. Landscaping of Burgettstown demolished Duquesne’s old athletic complex free of charge, a $400,000 savings for the district.

The district has used those boosts to ramp up academic offerings and provide opportunities to students that the district did not have for a generation — or ever.

The district built makerspaces, where students explore graphic design, coding, horticulture and more. A new esports arena, one of the few in the region, gives students a place to learn about video game design and compete against other schools in tournaments. Donations of instruments from other local schools have helped Duquesne restart its music program.      

With the reintroduction of eighth grade students in the fall of 2022, the district brought back its athletics department, starting with football, basketball and volleyball. Meanwhile, restoration of the district’s athletic complex continues.

The restoration of the district, too, will continue for Mariani, who called the state’s decision “a bump in the road, a ginormous bump, a big old pothole, if you want to call it that, much like Pennsylvanians experience on their own roadway.”

“We’re optimistic for the long-term future of this community,” she said. “It’s a great little community. The kids deserve to go to school in their home community and not go somewhere else, and we’re going to focus on what’s here in front of us right now but keep our eyes on the prize, which is the high school.”