King PreK-8 is a neighborhood school on Pittsburgh’s North Side, close to the Children’s Museum, surrounded by Allegheny Commons Park. It’s one of many Pittsburgh Public Schools potentially slated for big changes: Under the districts proposed plan, it could become a 6-8 school in future. But for now, it’s a school of 350 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, riding to school on yellow buses, wearing uniforms and showing off new shoes.
90.5 WESA visited on the first day of school, where teachers and students alike were nervous and excited about the start of the new year.
Principal Dawn Gordon begins the day with a stand-up staff meeting.
“I’m always nervous on the first day, so join the club!” Gordon tells staff. “We’re going to wing it. It’s the first day. What do we do? We greet our kids, we smile, we laugh, we welcome them, we say we missed you.”
Gordon is in her fourth year at King, and she says the theme for the 2024-25 school year is “Our House Is Under Construction.”
“We have had a lot of changes staff-wise. We are constantly getting new students in. Our ESL [English-as-a-Second-Language] population is really growing,” Gordon said. “We really have to start building our learners. Our [test] scores, unfortunately, were very low. At this point, I feel like we can only build up. We can only build strong scholars at this point. So we’re under construction."
Destiny Hoffman takes middle school students’ phones for safe-keeping at the start of the day. Hoffman is the school’s project assistant.
“Essentially that’s the district’s title or role for, ‘Go into this building and use your skill set to the best of your ability,’” Hoffman says. “Luckily I have a principal who trusts my skill set.”
Hoffman is King’s behavior specialist, teacher envoy, wellness coordinator, transportation coordinator and restorative practice liaison.
“I’m still learning time management with all of that, for sure,” Hoffman says. “But it gives me the opportunity to know every single student.”
Honesty, age 8, started second grade on Monday. Her mother, Chrisann Kendrick, said Honesty had been ready to go back to school for two weeks before the first day, with her uniforms laid out and three book bags.
“School is just, like, my happy place,” Honesty said. “I like art, I like my teachers, I like maybe everything.”
Honesty also likes the window seat on the bus.
Project assistant Hoffman leads a group of students to the elementary side of the building. She says there are a lot of misconceptions about King.
“King has been under a lot of different administrations,” Hoffman said. “And there’s a lot of [staff] turnover whenever administration changes. But Principal Gordon, I truly, wholeheartedly believe that she is exactly what this school needed.”
Hoffman is in her fourth year at King, and she believes the school, which is nearly fully-staffed, will see payoffs this year from Gordon’s and the rest of the staff’s efforts in recent years.
“Our story is … it can only be told from in house,” Hoffman said. “As teachers, sometimes we become just that: just teachers. But we are people, we are humans, we have feelings, and we care a lot about our jobs. The children and families that we serve? That’s King’s story.”
