Linda Lane still has the musical theater playbills she collected in the 1960s when she was an eighth-grader falling in love with the arts.

“We’re trying desperately to hang onto arts in our schools,” she says, “because we all know that arts programs have taken a hit nationally. But we’re an arts city.” She nods her head, emphasizing the point: “I mean, we’re an arts city!”

Now, as superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, she recalls those playbills while reflecting upon the duties of managing an over-extended district with increasingly tighter budgets.

Lane spends a lot of time grappling with her district’s priorities — the arts being one among many — and its academic and fiscal challenges. As a whole, her students are underachieving. And the district has been scrambling for several years to avoid or reduce projected deficits that threaten to destabilize budgets.

But she also sees great potential in the students and the district, and believes high achievement is within reach. “I think part of my role is to take advantage of opportunities to go before students and encourage them to dream big and set goals for themselves,” says Lane. “I talk with parents and want them to understand our commitment, the other issues notwithstanding. I think being a voice for that is important. I also believe I need to be a model of a learner myself. A lot of our students know I’m a reader. I want them to see me as someone who sees herself a

also needing to get better.”