Duquesne City School District

In 2010, Duquesne City's 8th grade was ranked 105th out of 105 district 8th grades, in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[31]

The eighth grade ranked 141st out of 141 western Pennsylvania eighth grades, by the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2009, for academic achievement as reflected by three years of results on: math, reading, writing and one year of science PSSAs.[32]

8th grade reading:

• 2010 - 37% on grade level. State - 81% of 8th graders were on grade level.[33]
• 2009 - 44%, State - 80.9%[34]
• 2008 - 34%, State - 78% on grade level
• 2007 - 20%, State - 75%[35]

8th grade math:

• 2010 - 26% on grade level. State - 71% of 8th graders were on grade level.
• 2009 - 14%, State - 71%
• 2008 - 31%, State - 70%
• 2007 - 45%, State - 67%

8th grade science:

• 2010 - 2.9% on grade level. State - 57% on grade level.[36]
• 2009 - 6%, State - 55%
• 2008 - 2%, State - 50%

In 2010, Duquesne City's 7th grade was ranked 105th out of 105 district 7th grades, in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[31]

7th grade reading:

• 2011 - 21% on grade level (56% below basic). State – 76%
• 2010 - 21% (50% below basic). State - 73%
• 2009 - 14%, State - 71%

7th grade math:

• 2011 - 36% on grade level (49% below basic). State - 78.6%
• 2010 - 28% (57% below basic). State - 77%
• 2009 - 28%, State - 75%

In 2010, Duquesne City's 6th grade was ranked 105th out of 105 district 6th grades, in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[31]

6th grade reading:

• 2011 - 12% (72% below basic). State - 69.9%
• 2010 - 8% (73% below basic). State - 68%
• 2009 - 17%, State - 67%

6th grade math:

• 2011 - 16% on grade level (63% below basic). State - 78.8%
• 2010 - 16% (63% below basic). State - 78%
• 2009 - 45%, State - 72%

In 2010, Duquesne City's 5th grade was ranked 105th out of 105 district 5th grades, in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[31]

In 2009, Duquesne City's 5th grade was ranked 289th out of 291 fifth grades in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[37]

5th grade reading:

• 2011 - 24% on grade level (44% below basic). In Pennsylvania, 67.3% of 5th graders are on grade level.
• 2010 - 5% (68% below basic). State - 64%
• 2009 - 17%, State - 64%
• 2008 - 13%, State - 61%
• 2007 - 17%

5th grade math:

• 2011 - 50% on grade level (28% below basic). State - 74%
• 2010 - 16% (54% below basic). State - 74%
• 2009 - 19%, State - 73%
• 2008 - 30%, State - 73%
• 2007 - 40%, State - 71%

In 2012, Duquesne City's 4th grade was ranked 306th out of 307 4th grades in public school districts, in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[31] In 2010, the 4th grade ranked 105th locally.

4th grade science:

• 2011 - 22%, (42% below basic). State – 82.9%
• 2010 - 34%, (43% below basic). State - 81%
• 2009 - 20%, State - 83%
• 2008 - 20%, State - 81%
• 2007 - tested, results were not made public

In 2012, Duquesne City's 3rd grade was ranked 321st out of 321 3rd grades, in schools in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[38]

• 2011 - 322nd locally.
• 2010 - 105th [31]
• 2009 - 325th out of 327 third grades in the western region of Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[39]

According to a report from Representative Todd Stephens office, Duquesne City School District receives 72.7% of its annual revenue from the state. This is among the highest state funding ratio in Pennsylvania.[79]

For the 2014-15 school year, Duquesne City School District will receive $8,573,762 in State Basic Education funding. The district will also receive $170,449 in new Ready To Learn Block grant. The State's enacted Education Budget includes $5,526,129,000 for the 2014-2015 Basic Education Funding.[80] The Education budget also includes Accountability Block Grant funding at $100 million and $241 million in new Ready to Learn funding for public schools that focus on student achievement and academic success. The State is paying $500.8 million to Social Security on the school employees behalf and another $1.16 billion to the state teachers pension system (PSERS). In total, Pennsylvania's Education budget for K-12 public schools is $10 billion. This was a $305 million increase over 2013-2014 state spending and the greatest amount ever allotted by the Commonwealth for its public schools.[81]

In the 2013-2014 school year, the Duquesne City School District received $8,568,333 in Pennsylvania Basic Education Funding. This is $66,470 more than its 2012-13 state BEF to the district. Additionally, Duquesne City School District received $110,911 in Accountability Block Grant funding to focus on academic achievement and level funding for special education services. Among the public school districts in Allegheny County, South Fayette Township School District received the highest percentage increase in BEF at 5.5%. The district has the option of applying for several other state and federal grants to increase revenues. The Commonwealth's budget increased Basic Education Funding statewide by $123 million to over $5.5 billion. Most of Pennsylvania's 500 public school districts received an increase of Basic Education Funding in a range of 0.9% to 4%. Eight public school districts received exceptionally high funding increases of 10% to 16%. The highest increase in state funding was awarded to Austin Area School District which received a 22.5% increase in Basic Education Funding.[82] The highest percent of state spending per student is in the Chester-Upland district, where roughly 78 percent comes from state coffers. In Philadelphia, it is nearly 49 percent.[83] As a part of the education budget, the state provided the PSERS (Pennsylvania school employee pension fund) with $1,017,000,000 and Social Security payments for school employees of $495 million.[84]

For the 2012-13 school year, Duquesne City School District received $8,501,863.[85] The Governor's Executive Budget for 2012-2013 included $9.34 billion for kindergarten through 12th grade public education, including $5.4 billion in basic education funding, which was an increase of $49 million over the 2011-12 budget. In addition, the Commonwealth provided $100 million for the Accountability Block Grant (ABG) program. Duquesne City School District received $110,911 in Accountability Block Grant funding. The state also provided a $544.4 million payment for School Employees’ Social Security and $856 million for School Employees’ Retirement fund called PSERS.[86] This amount was a $21,823,000 increase (0.34%) over the 2011-2012 appropriations for Basic Education Funding, School Employees' Social Security, Pupil Transportation, Nonpublic and Charter School Pupil Transportation. Since taking office, Corbett's first two budgets have restored more than $918 million in support of public schools, compensating for the $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars lost at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

In the 2011-12 school year, Duquesne City School District received $8,502,012 in state Basic Education Funding. The exceptionally high increase in funding is part of a state plan to see the district through the 2011-12 school year and then close it completely.[75][87] Additionally, the district will receive $179,723 in Accountability Block Grant funding.[88]

For 2010-11 school year, Duquesne City School District received a 2% increase in state Basic Education Funding resulting in a $6,427,396 payment.[89] South Fayette Township School District received an 11.32% increase, which was the highest increase in BEF in Allegheny County. Kennett Consolidated School District in Chester County received the highest increase in the state at 23.65% increase in funding for the 2010-11 school year. One hundred fifty school districts received the base 2% increase in 2010-11. The amount of increase each school district receives is determined by the Governor and the Secretary of Education through the allocation set in the state budget proposal made in February each year.[90]

In the 2009-2010 budget year, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided a 2% increase in Basic Education funding for a total of $6,302,414. The district also received supplemental funding for English language learners, Title 1 federal funding for low-income students, for district size, a poverty supplement from the commonwealth and more.[91] Chartiers Valley School District received an 8.19% increase, the highest increase in Allegheny County for the 2009-10 school year. Among the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania, Muhlenberg School District in Berks County received the highest with a 22.31% increase in funding.[92]

The state Basic Education funding to the district, in 2008-09, was $5,897,045.35. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 890 students received free or reduced-price lunches due to low family income in the 2007-2008 school year.[93]

Beginning in 2004-2005, the state launched the Accountability Block Grant school funding. This program has provided $1.5 billion to Pennsylvania's school districts. The Accountability Block Grant program requires that its taxpayer dollars are focused on specific interventions that are most likely to increase student academic achievement. These interventions include: teacher training, all-day kindergarten, lower class size K-3rd grade, literacy and math coaching programs that provide teachers with individualized job-embedded professional development to improve their instruction, before or after school tutoring assistance to struggling students. For 2010-11 the Duquesne City School District applied for and received $304,041 in addition to all other state and federal funding. The district used the funding to provide full-day kindergarten for the 5th year.[94][95]

Beginning in the 2014-2015 budget, the State funded a new Ready to Learn Grant for public schools. A total of $100 million is allocated through a formula to districts based on the number of students, level of poverty of community as calculated by its market value/personal income aid ratio (MV/PI AR) and the number of English language learners. Ready to Learn Block Grant funds may be used by the districts for: school safety; Ready by 3 early childhood intervention programs; individualized learning programs; and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.[96]

Duquesne City School District will receive $170,449, in Ready to Learn Grant dollars in addition to State Basic Education funding, Special Education funding, Accountability Block Grant funding, PreK Counts funding, reimbursement for Social Security payments for employees and other state grants which the district must apply to receive.

In 2010 the Duquesne Consolidated School was awarded a School Improvement grant - Transformation, of $1,391,872. As a part of the federal stimulus program, Pennsylvania received $141 million from the US Department of Education, to turn around its worst-performing schools. The funds were disbursed via a competitive grant program.[97] The Pennsylvania Department of Education identified 200 Pennsylvania schools as "persistently lowest-achieving," making them eligible for this special funding.[98] Pennsylvania required low performing schools to apply or provide documentation about why they had not applied. The funds must be used, by the district, to turn around schools in one of four ways: school closure, restart - close the school and reopen it as a charter school. The other two options involve firing the principal. One would require at least half the faculty in a chronically poor performing school be dismissed. The second involves intensive teacher training coupled with strong curriculum revision or a longer school day.[99]

The district did not qualify for any funding because it did not operate a high school.

Duquesne Elementary School successfully applied to participate and received a Science It's Elementary grant in 2008-09.[100] For the 2008-09 school year, the program was offered in 143 schools reaching 66,973 students across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[101] In 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of Education initiated an effort to improve science instruction in the Commonwealth's public elementary schools. Called Science: It's Elementary, the program was a hands on instruction approach for elementary science classes that develops problem-solving and critical thinking skills.[102] To encourage schools to adopt the program's standards aligned curriculum, the state provided a grant to cover the costs of materials and extensive mandatory teacher training.[103] The district was required to develop a three-year implementation plan for the participating school. The school district administration was required to appoint a district liaison who was paid $3,000 by PDE to serve as the conduit of all information between the district and the Department and its agents along with submitting orders and distributing supplies to implementing teachers. For the 2006-07 state education budget, $10 million was allocated for the program.[104] The grant program was expanded to $14.5 million in the 2008-09 budget. The grant was discontinued in the state's 2011 budget by Governor Edward G. Rendell.

The state's EAP funding provides for the continuing support of tutoring services and other programs to address the academic needs of eligible students. Funds are available to eligible school districts and full-time career and technology centers (CTC) in which one or more schools have failed to meet at least one academic performance target, as provided for in Section 1512-C of the Pennsylvania Public School Code. In 2010-11 the School District received $99,931.[105] In 2003-04, Governor Rendell signed into law the EAP for targeted tutoring at a funding level of $38 million. Almost 35,000 students in 82 academically challenged school districts received extra help in the first year. The program was continued at the same funding level in 2004-05. In 2005-06, the program received $66 million in funding and expanded to support tutoring in 175 school districts and Career and Technical Centers.

The district did not participate in: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Education annual grants;[106][107] PreK Counts preschool grants; and 2012 Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy grant;[108]

Duquesne City School District received $1,505,902 in ARRA - Federal Stimulus money to be used in specific programs like special education and meeting the academic needs of low-income students.[109]

School district officials applied for the Race to the Top federal grant. The district is identified as a turnaround district due to the chronically low academic achievement of its students. When approved for the grant, the district will receive hundreds of thousands of additional federal dollars for improving student academic achievement. Turnaround status also brings an extra $700 per student, in supplemental funding above the basic grant amount.[110] Participation required the administration, the school board and the local teachers' union to sign an agreement to prioritize improving student academic success. In Pennsylvania, 120 public school districts and 56 charter schools agreed to participate.[111] Pennsylvania was not approved in the first round of the grant. The failure of districts to agree to participate was cited as one reason that Pennsylvania was not approved. A second round of state RTTT application judging will occur in June 2010.[112]

The Duquesne City Board of Control set property tax rates in 2014-15 at 17.5000 mills. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. Irregular property reassessments have become a serious issue in the commonwealth as it creates a significant disparity in taxation within a community and across a region. Pennsylvania school district revenues are dominated by two main sources: 1) Property tax collections, which account for the vast majority (between 75-85%) of local revenues; and 2) Act 511 tax collections (Local Tax Enabling Act), which are around 15% of revenues for school districts.[113]

• 2013-14 - 17.5000 mills
• 2012-13 - 21.0000 mills[114]
• 2005-06 through 2011-12 property taxes were set at 21.1000 mills.[115]

The Act 1 of 2006 Index regulates the rates at which each school district can raise property taxes in Pennsylvania. Districts are not authorized to raise taxes above that index unless they allow voters to vote by referendum, or they seek an exception from the state Department of Education. The base index for the 2011-2012 school year is 1.4 percent, but the Act 1 Index can be adjusted higher, depending on a number of factors, such as property values and the personal income of district residents. Act 1 included 10 exceptions, including: increasing pension costs, increases in special education costs, a catastrophe like a fire or flood, increase in health insurance costs for contracts in effect in 2006 or dwindling tax bases. The base index is the average of the percentage increase in the statewide average weekly wage, as determined by the PA Department of Labor and Industry, for the preceding calendar year and the percentage increase in the Employment Cost Index for Elementary and Secondary Schools, as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor, for the previous 12-month period ending June 30. For a school district with a market value/personal income aid ratio (MV/PI AR) greater than 0.4000, its index equals the base index multiplied by the sum of 0.75 and its MV/PI AR for the current year.[116]

The School District Adjusted Index for the Duquesne City School District 2006-2007 through 2010-2011.[117]

For the 2014-15 budget year, Duquesne City School Board did not apply for exceptions to exceed their Act 1 Index limit. In 2014-15, all Pennsylvania school districts were required to make a 21.4% of payroll payment to the teacher's pension fund (PSERS).[122] For the school budget 2014-15, 316 Pennsylvania public school districts adopted a resolution certifying that tax rates would not be increased above its Act 1 Index limit. Another 181 school districts adopted a preliminary budget leaving open the option of exceeding the Index limit. Districts may apply for multiple exceptions each year. For the pension costs exception, 163 school districts received approval to exceed the Index in full, while others received a partial approval of their request. For special education costs, 104 districts received approval to exceed their tax limit. Seven Pennsylvania public school districts received an approval for the grandfathered construction debts exception.[123]

For the 2013-14 budget year, Duquesne City School Board did not apply for exceptions to exceed their Act 1 Index limit. In 2013-14, all Pennsylvania school districts were required to make a 16.93% of payroll payment to the teacher's pension fund (PSERS). For the school budget year 2013-14, 311 Pennsylvania public school districts adopted a resolution certifying that tax rates would not be increased above their index. Another 171 school districts adopted a preliminary budget leaving open the option of exceeded the Index limit. For the pension costs exception, 169 school districts received approval to exceed the Index. For special education costs, 75 districts received approval to exceed their tax limit. Eleven Pennsylvania public school districts received an approval for grandfathered construction debts.[124]

For the 2012-13 budget year, Duquesne City School Board did not apply for exceptions to exceed the Act 1 Index. In 2012-13, all Pennsylvania school districts were required to make a 12.36% of payroll payment to the teacher's pension fund (PSERS). For 2012-2013 budget year, 274 school districts adopted a resolution certifying that tax rates would not be increased above their index; while 223 school districts adopted a preliminary budget leaving open the option of exceeded the Index limit. For the exception for pension costs, 194 school districts received approval to exceed the Index. For special education costs, 129 districts received approval to exceed the tax limit.[125]

Duquesne City School Board did not apply for exceptions to exceed the Act 1 index for the budgets in 2009-10 or in 2010-11.[126][127] In the Spring of 2010, 135 Pennsylvania school boards asked to exceed their adjusted index. Approval was granted to 133 of them and 128 sought an exception for pension costs increases.[128]