The NFL draft is set to bring hundreds of thousands of fans to Pittsburgh this week. The school district plans to pivot to remote learning in response to overcrowded transportation systems.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Pittsburgh Public Schools are canceling in-person classes for several days this week because of the NFL draft. Pittsburgh is hosting the event this year, which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of fans. Jillian Forstadt of member station WESA reports.
JILLIAN FORSTADT, BYLINE: Hey. Do you go to school downtown here?
I’m standing on a street corner in downtown Pittsburgh as students spill out of the city’s Creative and Performing Arts School, also known as Pittsburgh CAPA. The middle and high school is located in the heart of the city’s cultural district, a corridor many buses and cars stream through every day. That traffic is expected to intensify during the NFL draft. While some adults are pushing back on Pittsburgh Public Schools for opting to go remote Wednesday through Friday, 11th grader Kaya Lewis (ph) says she likes it.
KAYA LEWIS: Especially ’cause we go to school downtown, so it’s just going to be really hectic trying to get here and trying to get home. So, personally, I think it was a good decision.
FORSTADT: Like a lot of CAPA students, Lewis is also excited to get a break from in-person classes. Although remote learning, she notes, isn’t always easy.
LEWIS: I have physics, so that can be hard to try and learn online, but especially with the AP test coming up, it’ll be easier for us to, you know, study at home and just get as much time as we need to study.
FORSTADT: The NFL draft is expected to bring 500- to 700,000 people into the city, roughly doubling Pittsburgh’s population, and all those fans will swamp the city’s bus and transit systems, the same ones many students take to school. Some of the transit routes students rely on will be canceled, and road closures will make travel generally more difficult.
EBONY PUGH: Hopefully, when people see the actual impact when we are here and we have the influx of people, there will be some understanding to it.
FORSTADT: District spokesperson Ebony Pugh says the move to asynchronous learning with assignments completed independently online rather than altogether in Zoom classes is meant to be an equitable one. By closing all the city’s schools, it’s not just some students who get in-person learning during the draft.
PUGH: We understand for some, yeah, my kid can go down the road, but there’s also a number of students who that’s just not the reality.
FORSTADT: She acknowledges, though, the difficulties this will create for some students. Sour memories of pandemic-era remote learning are still fresh for many Pittsburgh families. But online classes have also become a regular and controversial part of schooling nationwide. Many districts, including Pittsburgh, went online in the wake of January’s massive East Coast snowstorm. Parent Sonja Smith (ph) says the decision to go remote still raises concerns. Smith lives within walking distance to her daughter’s elementary school, miles from the draft events downtown.
SONJA SMITH: I feel like something like this really puts it into play of, like, who matters and who doesn’t.
FORSTADT: She says the big business that city officials hope to drum up through the draft shouldn’t outweigh student learning. Smith adds she’s relieved the district has opted for asynchronous learning rather than requiring students to be at their laptops for live online classes all day.
SMITH: I feel like when it’s synchronous, so much of the day is just, my mute doesn’t work. My message doesn’t work. And so I’m glad that they’re not going to be just trapped to mindlessness all day ’cause really, it just turns into a time suck for everyone.
FORSTADT: City rec centers will open their doors to students who need a place to connect online and offer activities that bring the draft festivities to kids.
For NPR News, I’m Jillian Forstadt in Pittsburgh.
(SOUNDBITE OF DINOSAUR JR. SONG, “ON THE BRINK”)
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
