The Pittsburgh Public Schools board unanimously voted to reopen the discussion on a reconfiguration plan, which had raised the possibility of closing nine schools.

On Wednesday, the Future-Ready plan was reintroduced by Eva Diodati, school board director for District 7.

“I didn’t want to delay any longer than necessary. There’s a lot of work to be done, and so I wanted to get started getting public comment while people were still fresh on the idea of the Future-Ready plan and what that had been,” Diodati said during the meeting.

Wednesday’s vote put the discussion of the Future-Ready plan back onto the table. The plan was referred back to the Education Committee, which will set up additional public meetings, said Gene Walker, school board president, during the meeting.

The plan had been a topic of tension last year when nearly 80 people spoke against closing schools, arguing there was not enough clarity or public input for the decisions.

The plan had included shuttering nearly a dozen schools and more than $102 million in cost avoidance in an effort to help stabilize the district’s deficit.

The plan was defeated by a 6-3 vote in November.

Director Devon Taliaferro (District 2), who voted against the plan in November, pushed for communication and transparency on Wednesday.

“If there are select people making the decision to say, ‘this should come back,’ but it’s not necessarily being communicated as a whole … I think, makes it difficult for us to even have trust in one another as board members, and it makes it extremely difficult to have trust in the public,” Taliaferro said.

In December, Walker told TribLive that while the plan had been shot down, it did not mean that it couldn’t be brought up later for reconsideration — as long as it was introduced by a director who initially voted against it or by a newly seated board member.

Diodati was not installed when the plan was initially voted on.

Despite the board’s unanimous vote in favor of revisiting the Future-Ready plan, strain regarding the nature of those discussions was seen between board members.

“It is imperative that we approach this, this decision or this discussion in a way that we are recognizing that difficult decisions will have to be made, and that if we are not up for that … making those difficult decisions, we should really start to reconsider our position,” said Tracey Reed (District 5).

The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board did not have a timeline for any new discussions.