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WHEREAS, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt began his tenure on August 29, 2005 faced with numerous challenges such as a tremendous budget shortfall, an expired union contract, and the risk of a state take-over due to low student achievement ; and,
WHEREAS, shortly after arriving in Pittsburgh, Mr. Roosevelt created an aggressive reform agenda called Excellence for All that included Right-Sizing Plan, rigorous evaluation of existing principals, extensive investments in training a new principal corps in instructional leadership, designing a new PreK to 12th grade curriculum, as well as a host of other challenging reforms; and,
WHEREAS, in 2006, Mr. Roosevelt along with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, announced The Pittsburgh Promise®, a groundbreaking scholarship program that provides up to $10,000 a year to qualifying graduates for post-secondary education, some of whom never thought it would be possible; and,
WHEREAS, with the Superintendent's leadership, Pittsburgh Public Schools has raised expectations for all students and n 2009 made history by becoming the largest district in Pennsylvania to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind; and,
WHEREAS, also in 2009 the District's Empowering Effective Teachers in the Pittsburgh Public Schools plan was one of only four “Intensive Partnership for Effective Teaching” proposals in the country selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarding the District a $40 million grant to ensure that there is an effective teacher in every classroom, everyday; and,
WHEREAS, in September of 2010, the District received a $37.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund to continue to help fund the Empowering Effective Teachers plan which will change the way teachers are identified, recruited, placed, tenured, evaluated and compensated; and,
WHEREAS, Mr. Roosevelt ends his career in Pittsburgh having tran...
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