Pittsburgh Public Schools reconfiguration plan is a 10-year plan for "effectively utilizing" the city's school buildings over the next 10 years, according to the school board. Beginning in the fall of 2011, many of the city's school facilities will be combined. This will force some teachers and students to relocate from their current building. Because the city has too many buildings and not enough students, construction of new buildings is not included in the reconfiguration plan over the next 10 years, although construction upgrades may continue.
In 2009, Pittsburgh Public School facilities tallied up construction costs of $41,517,413 for everything from planning, designing, bidding and construction. This was just for construction projects of existing schools, and not the construction of new schools, as no new schools were constructed in 2009. In 2010, construction projects totaled an estimated $30,026,230.
Pittsburgh Public Schools employs a construction staff that includes architectural inspectors, project supervisors, electrical inspectors, mechanical inspectors and a green sustainability manager as well as other maintenance-related employees. Construction projects that began in 2009 include the replacement of chalkboards, carpet and asphalt, asbestos inspections, swimming pool upgrades, stage lighting replacements as well as major electrical and roofing projects.
While there is no new construction of schools directly in Pittsburgh, plans are in the works to re-construct one old school building. The former Connelley Technical Institute in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, now owned by Pittsburgh Green Innovators Incorporated, is in the early stages of planning to become a job training center for green-related jobs, according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.