public schools in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh's school board announced a plan to close 20 public schools—including the middle school (Reizenstein) that the boy would probably attend—yesterday. It's interesting to be in a city that's contracting, where schools need to be closed because there just aren't the students. After years in New York, Texas, and California, I'm accustomed to schools having to import teachers from other states to cover the load. The wife and I have been debating or, better, musing over the question of public versus private schools for the boy. We get mixed reports on Pittsburgh public schools. I know that the city's magnet and talented-and-gifted programs are great, and that there are a ton of great teachers within the schools. We also hear that Pittsburgh also evidences the worst sins of big-city schools: time-killing teachers, unsafe facilities, bizarre incidents (last year, the principal of our chosen elementary school was killed by her husband), rote learning, teaching to the test... it's a tough choice.