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Also known at University Prep, U-Prep High School, U-Prep, UPrep, UPrep High School, Pittsburgh Milliones, University Preparatory School, Milliones and Milliones High School

Background[]

Contacts[]

  • 412-622-5900
  • FAX: 412-622-5925
  • Ms. Tamara Allen (Director)
  • Serving Grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in 2010, with expansion to include 6-12
  • 3117 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Insights[]

Located in Pittsburgh's Hill District, University Prep offers an academic magnet program for students enrolled in grades six through twelve. The faculty and diverse learning community together demonstrate that a public secondary school can connect all students to a relevant post-secondary opportunity, regardless of their previous academic record, serving as a model of innovation and excellence in urban education.

Formed by a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Public Schools, University Prep embraces a total college-going culture in and outside of the classroom. The University of Pittsburgh’s Helen S. Faison Center for Urban Education is located within the Milliones facility.

Curriculum is driven by research but molded by each student's individual goals and abilities. A small school environment provides support for students below, on, or above grade level, and a continuum of interconnected support systems has been designed to help every student at University Prep access advanced coursework and activities in order to succeed in a college preparatory sequence. All learners are expected to maintain high academic standards, believe in themselves, and graduate from high school to further their education.

University Prep’s campus is housed in the former Margaret Milliones Middle School Building, which has been renovated to include new classrooms and meeting spaces. The tri-level facility houses library and technology center, cafeteria, gymnasium, and 4-lane, 25-yard swimming pool, in addition to administrative offices and research laboratories. An adjacent playing field is used for outdoor sports and facilities. Our special location overlooking the Hill Distrcit, Central Oakland, the campuses of the University of Pittsburgh and Carngie Mellon University enjoys frequent and close collaboration with key civic leaders who share the spirit of innovation Pittsburgh Public Schools is returning to this important cross-section of scholarship, culture, and commerce.

School named after Margaret Milliones[]

Margaret Milliones, a former Pittsburgh school board member and professor of black studies at the University of Pittsburgh, cared greatly for the students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and wanted them all to have a quality education -- together. Her main focus was to rid the city of segregation. Milliones felt integration was the sure way for children of all ethnicities to get a sound education. Though soft spoken and polite, her zeal earned her the name Integration Crusader. We have to put aside all our various prejudices and fears and go about the business of designing a desegregated educational system that is par excellence, Milliones once said.

In 1976, her fight for integration got her elected to the school board, where she represented the Hill District, East Liberty and South Oakland. On the board, she fought to retain middle schools and to strengthen the district's ability to abolish segregation.

Her outspokenness even gained her respect from opponents.

Milliones was also active in the community, serving on the boards of the local and National Urban Leagues and on the American Civil Liberties union. Milliones was 38 when she died of a massive stroke in 1978, and later that year she was posthumously rewarded for her long years of active struggle when Herron Hill Middle School in the Hill was renamed Margaret Milliones Middle School. It was a tribute to her involvement and positivity, say those who pushed for the name change.

Milliones was born in Decatur, Ala., and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a bachelor's degree in psychology. She received a masters degree in sociology from Atlanta University in Georgia. She taught at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at South Carolina State College before she moved to Pittsburgh in the '60s.

- By Angela Dyer and E. Dyer

2011[]

In March 2011, the PPS Board announced that in September 2011, some 1,100 students (grade 6-12) are “anticipated to go there." Perhaps as many as 1,200 that have signed up. The jump in enrollment comes as Peabody High School closes and Westinghouse High School switches to single-gender academies.

Student Body[]

Wiki chart of enrollment[]

Template Name Enrollment # source
/HS boys 160 (for 9, 10, 11) via PPS
/HS girls 160 (grades 9, 10, 11) via PPS
/9+10+11 boys 99 via PIAA
/9+10+11 girls 106 via PIAA
/ideal combined 500 in HS via reformers
/ideal boys 250 in HS via reformers
/ideal girls 250 in HS via reformers

Ideal Enrollment Expectations[]

  • As of October 2010, grades 9, 10 and 11 at U-Prep had an enrollment of between 300 and 320 students. [1]. That is more than 100 kids per grade by counting boys and girls. But, once Peabody closes, in the fall of 2011, the expected enrollment is 500 students in the high school grades. [2]
  • Ideal enrollment projections for grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 is 500 students: 250 boys and 250 girls.

Present[]

  • PIAA reports enrollment, without any Date from snapshot of October 2010:
    • Total Enrollment = 205
      • Female Enrollment = 106
      • Male Enrollment = 99


Enrollment of U-Prep as reported on the PPS site, snapshot from October 10, 2010:

  • The chart below would include those in grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 -- not just high school students.
Total Students: 517
African-American: 494 (95.55%)
American Indian: 0 (0.00%)
Asian: 3 (0.58%)
Hispanic: 2 (0.39%)
Multi-Racial: 9 (1.74%)
White: 9 (1.74%)
Male Students: 279 (53.97%)
Female Students: 238 (46.03%)

Past[]

Future[]

Pipeline and feeder pattern implications include:

Sports[]

Note coaches, team page links, class size per team, records and status reports, facilities used, possible classifications of PIAA and WPIAL, rivals.

Seasonal[]

Fall[]

Winter[]

Spring[]

Summer[]

Year round[]

Coops[]

Activities[]

Intramurals[]

Music, Drama, Academics[]

Facilities[]

Sports Venues[]

Gym[]

Swim pool[]

U-Prep pool-empty

U-Prep's swim pool is four lanes wide and 20-yards long. The boys enter from the locker-room on the deep end and the girls enter at the shallow end. The door to the girls locker-room is visible in this photo.

Aux. Gym[]

Fields[]

Security[]

  • Cameras:

Auditorium[]

  • Seating:
  • Spaces:

In building surroundings[]

  • Locker areas:
  • Trainers:
  • Coaches:
  • AD:
  • Storage:
  • Classrooms:

Outside surroundings[]

  • Parking
  • Lighting

Walkable neighbors[]

  • Parks, fields, and other venues within a 20-minute walking distance for team and community use.

Building[]

  • Engineering reviews

Photos[]

Programs[]

First year's brochure[]

Scan 20180328 (4)
U-Prep-brochure-inside

Academics[]

  • Engineering magnet
  • Japanese is taught.

Community Based[]

Library[]

  • In school
  • Computer labs
  • Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branches:

Links[]

Blogs[]

Media[]

Outcome for invite for Pittsburgh Combined[]


Details[]

Traditions[]

  • Input welcomed. Edit me.

Footnotes[]

  1. Phone call insights from October 2010.
  2. Phone call to school in October 2010.
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