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Public commenter Kara Britannic presses Pittsburgh SD for 'Future Ready' implementation update, cites multiple operational failures
Summary
At the July 20 virtual hearing, Kara Britannic asked why the district has not published an implementation update since voting to move the 'Future Ready' plan forward, and cited recent communication and execution errors — a mislinked parent survey, calendar problems, inaccessible report cards and lack of outreach for a 'family math' site.
Kara Britannic, who spoke during the July 20 Pittsburgh Public Schools public hearing, pressed the board for an implementation update on the district's "Future Ready" plan and urged stronger oversight after what she described as recent administrative missteps.
"Where is the first implementation update for the Future Ready plan? Has the accountability for this unpopular and infeasible plan already slipped?" Britannic asked. She said the board voted two months earlier to move the plan forward and that the administration had time to produce substantive updates but she had seen "nothing of substance."
Britannic gave multiple examples she said demonstrate execution problems. She said a parent survey that was circulated "linked to the 2023 survey" rather than the current one, that the "2627" school calendar (transcript wording) was approved months earlier but remained incorrectly posted on the website until recently, and that the district's move to paperless report cards led to limited availability of final report cards and an inability to access last year's reports.
She also criticized a "family math" website, saying it was created without families receiving any communication or guidance on how to access and use it. "A working link, an updated web page, a clear emailwould have prevented every one of these," she said, and argued that if the district mishandles simple tasks, it raises questions about rerouting bus lines, merging communities and redrawing feeder patterns.
Britannic concluded by asking the board to demand the quarterly updates promised when the plan was approved, to scrutinize implementation closely, and to be willing to "press pause" if costs outweigh benefits. The moderator thanked her for testifying; the transcript records no immediate board response during the hearing.
