The Oakland School teaches outside the box

Tucked away on McKee Street among rows of college apartments is The Oakland School – perhaps… Tucked away on McKee Street among rows of college apartments is The Oakland School – perhaps one of Pittsburgh’s best-kept secrets.

Student Mike Irby said it’s known as the “bad school, because [people] see us outside smoking.”

Student David Gordon claims that the Pitt police hate him and are always trying to get him in trouble.

But these students’ school owes its existence, in fact, to the very behavior and attitudes they exhibit. The Oakland School was created as an alternative environment for students in grades eight through 12 who struggle with learning in traditional public schools.

With just 47 students currently enrolled, The Oakland School focuses on the student as an individual in a relaxed setting.

“We make sure the students feel like a person, not a number,” said the school’s Assistant Director Jan Stein. The student to teacher ratio is six to one.

The first floor of The Oakland School is one large open room. One student sits alone on a leather couch, reading. Two students wearing headphones stare intently at a computer screen. Toward the back of the room, Jack King, the school’s Director of Academics, is sitting on his knees drawing on the table with his finger tips.

This is English class.

Students graduate from The Oakland School with a high school diploma. The school is a private institution approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education that follows a normal high school curriculum.

“We try to prepare students for college, not only in maturity in taking control of their learning, but as a person,” Stein said.

In the back left of the room is Joyce Puebla’s Spanish class. Puebla said she loves the personal setting of her classrooms. “I’ve taught in other public schools and it is totally different-I would never go back.”

Fifth period begins and three students stroll into Puebla’s class. “I can see what everyone is doing,” she said while giving a smirk to her students, “no slipping through the cracks.”

Puebla says she can see an immediate change for the better in students when they transfer to the school. They experience something she calls the “honeymoon stage” in the new, laid back environment.

Student Michael Irby, an 11th-grader who transferred from Allderdice High School this year, is still in the honeymoon stage.

“I like everything: the teachers, more attention and nice breaks. Oh, and no fights,” he said.

Another student joked that he hated the school and Puebla gave him a joking poke with her pencil.

There is a close personal relationship between teachers and students, Stein said. “They are just happy to be in a place where they aren’t being harassed.” Up a spiral staircase is Rebecca Kosterva’s art class. To the soundtrack of “The Lion King,” five students spread out to work. One student they call Louie wildly taps his feet to the music while hunched over his sketch.

Kosterva said some have been given assignments and the more advanced students work on their own individual projects.

Some students at The Oakland School were referred there and others chose to attend. Either way, they have left the public school realm behind. Stein said, “If they have the choice, they would never go back.”

Though The Oakland School has a reputation for taking in underachieving students, in reality there are just as many gifted students enrolled.

There are no special education students at the school, but many with learning disabilities. These students are given one-on-one instruction and are paired with a mentor for support.

The Oakland School is not for students with behavior problems but rather learning problems. Students with disruptive behavioral problems will not be accepted into the school.

Last year The Oakland School’s average SAT score ranked eighth among the 45 schools in Allegheny County.