West Jefferson Hills, Clairton district leaders dispute report

By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com
A report released by the nonprofit group EdBuild paints two Mon Valley school districts in a negative light, and the districts’ superintendents are looking to set the record straight.
“Fault Lines,” a report by EdBuild, named the 50 most segregated school district borders in the U.S. by measuring economic segregation along a school district border by comparing the proportion of school-aged children in the districts on either side that lived below the poverty line in 2017.
The federal poverty line was $20,420 for a family of three in 2017.
According to the report, the divide between Clairton City School District and the neighboring West Jefferson Hills School District was the ninth highest economic divide in the country.
The report states that in Clairton 80% of students are non-white and 40% of school-aged children live in poverty, while in West Jefferson Hills the non-white student rate is 7% and 5% of school-age children live below the line.
The report also says that Clairton Coke Works, while providing a third of local tax dollars, is to blame for Clairton’s children having asthma rates 80% higher than the rest of the state, but Clairton School District Superintendent Dr. Ginny Hunt said the report was misleading in describing the asthma rate.
“The report said our children are choking to breathe, and that’s not true,” she said. “Ten percent of children in Pennsylvania have asthma, while in Clairton the number is 18%. They used 80% versus 20%.”

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