Sound Off: Should Allegheny County Schools and Municipalities Consider Mass Mergers?

David Wassel, a lawyer and political consultant, penned a very intriguing article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in mid-2009. Wassel's article, titled "The Next Page: For a New Allegheny County -- 26 school districts, 26 municipalities," called for a dramatic restructuring of not only the Pittsburgh area's school districts but also its municipal borders.

(Notes: Wassel's article mistakenly refers to Baldwin Borough as Baldwin Township, and it also leaves Whitehall Borough out of the final mention of Baldwin-Whitehall's proposed new school district/municipality.)

Despite Wassel's typographical errors concerning , the lawyer and political consultant's proposal would merge , the and the with Brentwood Borough, Castle Shannon Borough, the Borough of Dormont, Green Tree Borough and Mt. Lebanon.

Currently, Brentwood and Mt. Lebanon make up their own school districts, while Castle Shannon, Dormont and Green Tree make up the Keystone Oaks school district.

Wassel isn't the first person to suggest mass mergers in Pennsylvania. As he writes in his aforementioned article, "In 1957, the number of school districts in Pennsylvania was dramatically reduced from 2,700 to the current 501. Earlier [in 2009,] Gov. Ed Rendell proposed another extraordinary consolidation -- to just 100 districts. Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato followed by suggesting that the 130 municipalities in Allegheny County be folded into the 43 school districts."

What are your thoughts? Should Allegheny County restructure its school districts and municipalities? If so, what are the advantages? What are the disadvantages?

If you wish to take your thoughts to the next Baldwin-Whitehall school-board meeting, it will be held in the school-district office on Curry Road on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. That is an agenda meeting.

The next regular school-board meeting will be held in the school district office on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m.

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