North Allegheny School Board President: Peebles Elementary Staying Open

At the beginning of Wednesday's North Allegheny School board meeting, board President Maureen Grosheider announced that Peebles Elementary School, once slated for closure, would remain open.

Reliable sources tell North Allegheny Patch the packed meeting room erupted in applause.

Grosheider said increasing enrollment, and overcrowding at Franklin Elementary School has prompted the administration to begin a redistricting plan this fall, and the board will not consider closing a school again for at least several years.

The announcement is a major victory for the community group Save NA Schools, which has argued for more than a year that enrollment was increasing in the district, and the closing of any elementary school would lead to classroom overcrowding.

Superintendent Dr. Raymond Gualtieri rebuffed that argument for months.

In late January, approximately 100 people spoke out against the proposed closing at a public hearing.

Debate over the issue became heated, eventually prompting one school board member, Beth Ludwig, to resign.

In the spring primary, two school board challengers, backed by the Save NA schools group, won both the Republican and Democratic nominations to school board seats, virtually guaranteeing their election in November.

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