COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 10:00 a.m. BILL 040259 - An Ordinance amending Section 9 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Tax," to further....... BILL 040260 - An Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," by amending Section 19-1804, entitled "Authorization.... BILL 040262 - An Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," by amending Section 19-1806 to further authorize..... PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN FRANK DI CICCO COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 P R O C E E D I N G S - - -
Good morning, everyone. This is the Committee of the Whole public hearing regarding Bill Nos. 040259, 040260 and 040262. I would ask Mr. McPherson to please read the titles of the Bills. MR. McPHERSON: Bill No. 11 040259, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Tax," to further authorize the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia to impose a tax on real estate within the City of Philadelphia, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 040260, an Ordinance 19 amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," by amending Section 19-1804, entitled "Authorization of Net Income Tax," to further authorize the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia to impose a tax on net income from real property and tangible and 3 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 intangible personal property of residents of the School District of Philadelphia, all under certain terms and conditions. And Bill No. 040262, an Ordinance 6 amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," by amending Section 19-1806 to further authorize the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia to impose a tax on the use or occupancy of real estate within the School District of Philadelphia, under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you. Our first witness is Mr. Vallas. Please approach the witness table. Oh, Mr. Nevels. Good morning and welcome.
Good morning. First of all, I would like to thank you and I want to acknowledge that Commissioner Glenn, Commissioner Whelan, Commissioner Bednarek are present, and I'd ask that they come forward. Good morning. I have some prepared comments, and they are very brief, as I'm 4 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 always prone to be. And, again, I want to, at the very outset, say thank you, thank you and thank you again to this body for being supportive of children in Philadelphia.
Good morning, President Verna, Councilwoman Miller and Members of City Council. I am Jim Nevels, Chairman of the School Reform Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to review with you the state of the School District of Philadelphia. When the School Reform Commission came to be, there was tremendous academic, financial, operational, safety and facilities challenges, and I know that everyone here remembers what that was like some time ago. Most students were not reading at grade level and 40 percent of students were dropping out before graduation. Financially, the District faced millions of dollars in debt and we faced an enormous structural deficit. Today I think that we can agree that 5 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we have together made tremendous strides in reforming public education for children in Philadelphia. You will hear in greater detail from Paul Vallas and from Michael Harris, the District's Chief Financial Officer, but from an overall perspective and on behalf of the Commission, I can tell you that the School District is moving ahead on many fronts. First, we are academically and student focused, as significant strides have been made in reforming our educational system. The District's curriculum is uniform. I will repeat, the District's curriculum is uniform and aggressive as we work to insure that all of our students are reading at grade level and achieving in mathematics and science. The School District is recovering financially through significant cost-saving measures that have been implemented over the past two years. Thanks to this City Council and the General Assembly, the District has received the funding it needed to keep it solvent and to insure that all of our students 6 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 have the proper educational materials so that they can learn. But we are not out of the woods yet. The School District is operationally more efficient, and when we move forward on consolidating our administrative facilities, we'll not just be neighbors, but we'll have all of our staff in one location. Today the School District is focused on improving climate and safety for our schools, our students and our teachers. As I'm sure you know, we have had too many students lost to neighborhood violence, and we have to do more. We are doing everything we can to improve school policing and to enlist the help of our communities through parent patrol and safe quarters initiative, and thanks to the support of the Philadelphia's legal community, we have streamlined our discipline process in order to more quickly remove students who violate our Code of Conduct. The District is committed to improving our school facilities, to provide 7 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 each and every student with a pleasing environment in which to learn. 5 billion capital plan, which will build new schools, rehabilitate others, eliminate school overcrowding and create school campuses that students and that we can be proud to have our students attend, that program is underway. And, finally, but certainly not least, the School District is equitable. We are committed to reduce class size through additional certified teachers and literacy interns. For FY2005, we will dedicate almost $49 million to sustain smaller classes. Last year we implemented a standardized core curriculum in literacy and mathematics for Grades K to 9, and this year we'll implement a standardized pre-K to 12 grade social studies, science, math and literacy curriculum, with the support of curriculum coaches in each region. We will continue to insure more time on tasks through our extended-day and summer programs and that students have books that 8 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 they can take home and teachers have textbooks and materials all in line with No Child Left Behind.
There is more school choice, with five charter schools this fiscal year and two open enrollment specialty schools, our military school and our Academy of Petro-Chemical Sciences, which was just opened last week. Much has been done, but there is much to do. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you for what you do for children and for what you will do for children in the City of Philadelphia. My colleagues may have some remarks. Commissioner Glenn? COMMISSIONER GLENN: Thank you, Chairman Nevels. Good morning, President Verna, Councilwoman Blackwell, Councilwoman Miller and Members of City Council. I am Sandra Dungee Glenn, a member of the School Reform Commission. Before I begin, I would like to 9 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 thank you for the opportunity to talk with you about the School District of Philadelphia. As Chairman Nevels said, we have made tremendous strides in reforming education in Philadelphia. 5 billion capital plan. These initiatives are extremely important, and the SRC has spent a significant part of the year developing goals that we can measure our progress by and outline for managers, partners and our public how we define success. The SRC will be publicly releasing our beliefs and visions shortly, but to state for you today, we believe that our children can learn at high levels. We believe that the achievement gap can be eliminated, that schools have an enormous impact on children's lives, that the District can be a high-performing organization and that all 10 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 children should be educated in a safe and orderly environment. Our beliefs will be realized through the achievement of what we call Measures that Matter. This five-point belief statement is our yardstick that defines target goals that will be achieved by June 2008. We have identified a number of criteria, but the following are some points that I would like to highlight this morning: By 2008, 80 percent of our students in Grades 3 through 11 will perform at or above the proficient level in reading, mathematics and science; 85 percent of all high school students will graduate; 80 percent of graduating seniors will enroll in post-secondary education institutions; the disparity based on race, ethnicity, gender and social economic status will be less than 10 percentage points on all academic measures; 100 percent of our schools will have active home and school associations or school councils; and that the District will achieve a balanced budget that provides for a 11 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 high-quality education for all students. Achieving academic goals is our first priority, but we believe that we can do this and continue to expand and build on fair business practices and enhanced opportunities for minority-owned and women-owned businesses. We expect the combined participation rate of MBE and WBEs in the capital plan to be 32 percent, far exceeding the percent 11 participation goal and up from 17 percent of 12 the total contract dollars in fiscal year '04. 13 Our goals are bold and they will be 14 no easy reach, but the 200,000 students in the 15 School District of Philadelphia deserve our 16 best. 17 Once again, thank you for the 18 opportunity to update you on the District's 19 fiscal year 2005 budget, and I would now like 20 to introduce the School District's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Paul Vallas. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Vallas. We do 12 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 have a copy of your testimony. It will be given to the stenographer. She will transcribe it in full, so I would ask that you abbreviate your testimony, please. (Please see attached.)
That means keep it short. Well, first of all, thank you so much. I'm going to try to limit my remarks to about minutes and then turn it over to Mike 12 for his 15 minutes, and then we'll open it up 13 to questions. 14 As you pointed out, we have 15 submitted our testimony, as well as our background material. And I think my statement itself is detailed and certainly self-explanatory. Let me just start out by giving you an overview of what we attempt to accomplish. This budget is more than just a balanced budget document. It's a school reform initiative, because the objective of this budget is not only to make sure that our expenditures match our revenues, but to fund 13 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the initiatives that we put in place and that we're bringing to scale. If I can just give a highlight. The budget that we're presenting to you today has a $13 million structural deficit, down from about 77 million a couple of years ago, and let me point out that by the time we've completed our work by the end of May, the budget will be structurally balanced. There's a number of items that we have not counted yet because we just haven't gotten the numbers; for example, our Empowerment Zone grant from the state, the full impact of the workmen's comp savings from the new TPA, the full impact of our strategic sourcing. There is about seven or eight items that we have not factored in. The additional funding that we expect from alternative schools, the prospect of the state fully funding the 30 percent charter school reimbursement. So there's actually eight or nine items that are still in play, and if we 14 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 achieve even two or three of the items, we will have a structurally balanced budget, the first one in quite a while. Also, the financial plan that we lay out today allows us to sustain our initiatives and maintain a balanced budget when you include reserves through 2008, and if even two or three of the aforementioned additional expenditure and revenue initiatives I just summarized become reality, then we'll be able to sustain our balanced budget with reserves through 2009. So what we're presenting here is a five-year financial plan that keeps our house in order, that keeps us out of financial crisis and does what we are here to do; that is, invest in the classroom and advance the cause of public education in the City of Philadelphia. Let me highlight what this budget finances. On the academic side, this budget finances a continuation of our academic reforms. That includes further expansion of early childhood programs, the second year of 15 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the implementation of the districtwide standardized curriculum. We've done language, arts and math. This year we'll begin doing science and social studies. Next year we will complete it with the arts. It also includes the standardization of the high school curriculum by subject areas. It also includes a continued expansion of our after-school extended-day and summer school program, which right now per capita is probably the largest in the nation. It includes a continuation of our class size reduction initiative that has hit the primary grades this year, but it begins to extend class size reduction to the middle grades. It provides for over 100 hours of professional development for our teachers to teach them on the curriculum and structural models, and it provides for enrichment. This past year, we increased by, I think, close to 400 percent the number of students in our AP honors and advanced placement programs. That's going to continue. Last year we restored honors in advanced 16 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 placement to all of the high schools.
Next year we will continue to expand honors, advanced placement, what we call neighborhood high school-based magnet programs like the International Baccalaureate program and others, and next year we will extend high achievement honors, advanced placement programs to the elementary schools, because next year's extended-day program will also include extended-day enrichment and extended-day advanced placement. This summer, let me point out, our summer school programs in combination with those of the City will serve about 90,000 students and it will just not be remedial. We also have enrichment. We also have summer school honors and summer school advanced placement. So, again, we've laid out an academic blueprint. This is about sticking to the plan. This is about sticking to the plan and bringing the plan to scale. Last year we made great strides standardizing our curriculum in language, arts 17 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 and math through 9th grade. By this time next year it will be standardized through the 11th grade, and science and social studies will be added to the language, arts and mathematics, and then by the third year, we will have completed the most dramatic curriculum reconstitution probably in the nation. Let me point out, this plan also includes a continuation of our strategy for reorganizing the District. As you know, we are phasing out our middle schools and we are expanding our K to 5 schools to K to 8 schools, and we are beginning the process of depopulating and decentralizing our high schools so we don't have these behemoth high schools. By 2008, we will have all but eliminated our middle schools. We'll have four middle schools, 11 intermediate schools and 179 K to 8 schools. When we got started, I think we had 55 K to 8 schools. This year we have 79. By the time we're done in 2008, the reorganization will have been complete. The reorganization is critical for 18 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 us advancing our education agenda. Middle schools in large urban areas do not work because they're fed by far too many feeder schools, but with the conversion of K to 5 to K to 8's and with the phasing out of our middle schools and with the downsizing of our high schools also comes intensive investment in middle grades instruction. We are dramatically increasing the investment that we're making in middle grade teachers, from preparation for the Praxis exam to professional development to class size reduction. We do not want to allow the K to 5's to go to K to 8's without that level of investment. But the reorganization will be complete by 2008, and this budget continues that process. Let me also indicate that as schools are converted from K to 5 to K to 8's, they will all undergo about $300,000 of basic renovations, upgrading the gyms, upgrading the classrooms, upgrading the science labs, upgrading the library. So as we add grades, 19 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we will also accelerate our infrastructure improvements. The same thing with the middle schools. A number of middle schools are being phased out and they're becoming high schools, like Sayre and like Vaux. They're also undergoing physical reconstruction in order to make them acceptable as a high school. The same thing with Leeds, which we're going to convert to a military high school. That building is also undergoing renovations. So, again, our move to reorganize the District and to expand options by depopulating our high schools and literally presenting every community with not one neighborhood high school option but as many as two or three or in some cases four options is happening, and we welcome the day when this will be a predominantly K to 8, 9 to 12 system. A few comments on safety, only because I'm trying to expedite my remarks, and then obviously the questions will lead to 20 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 obviously a more focused discussion.
On the issue of student safety, we are, again, expanding our alternative schools programs. We are going from 2,800 slots for alternative placement to 3,500 slots. By the start of the school year next year, there will be six alternative placements for students. And we're actually going to begin to pilot a primary grade alternative placement program, as well as an alternative placement program for students aged to who may not 13 necessarily be disruptive, but clearly are in 14 need of not only additional courses to 15 complete their high school diploma but also 16 job training. 17 The objective here, though, is to 18 significantly expand the number of alternative 19 placement opportunities for students so when 20 we implement our Zero Tolerance policy, as we 21 implement it aggressively, we have alternative placement for our students. But that is not going to be enough. We are also embarking upon two new initiatives. One initiative is to begin the 21 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 process of retraining and reprogramming our support staff so everyone in that school who is not teaching becomes part of the behavioral support team, NTAs, SSAs, lunchroom attendants, safety and securities. At the start of the school next year, all of the schools, particularly the K to 8 schools, will have an individual who is in charge of school climate and control, and all the support staff will be behavioral support staff. This will allow us to more effectively utilize existing personnel, who will be able to support the teachers in the classroom. But we're going a step further. We are expanding our TSS -- I got to get my acronyms right -- our TSS program to convert a number of TSS positions into behavioral support specialists. The TSSs are basically our wrap-around services. They are individuals who are assigned to specific special education children in a classroom, but they are limited to just that special education student, with 22 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 no responsibility other than to keep that special education student under control. So you have a phenomena where in like one school there's 28 TSSs, yet I have discipline problems in the school. If I have 28 additional adults, I shouldn't have a single discipline problem in that school. So we have gone to the state and we've asked for two things. One is that we expand a pilot program we began in six schools to convert TSSs to behavioral support specialists. These are educated, trained, certified behavioral support specialists. The pilot has been extraordinarily successful. We are extending it to 50 schools next year. So instead of TSSs in those schools, you will have behavioral support specialists, Master degrees graduates, Master degrees candidates. These will be individuals who are trained in behavioral support. In addition, the remaining TSSs will be given expanded responsibilities; that is, not just to sit next to the special education student, but to tutor the student, to assist 23 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the student academically and to get up out of the chair if there's another problem student in the classroom. So with TSSs, we have an 5 untapped resource. 6 And, finally, to provide even more 7 support in the schools, next year we are going 8 to, and we've begun to do this already this 9 year, but next year we will be bringing to 10 scale our parent support initiative. 11 Our goal here is to deploy 2,000 12 parents in the schools through TANF, through 13 the Welfare of the Work program, through the 14 Parent Stipend program and to have those 15 parents staffing the parents' help desks, to 16 have those parents participating in parent 17 patrols both in school and outside the schools, to have those parents provide support and assistance to teachers in the classroom. We want a cadre of about 10 to 12 exemplary parents in those schools working with the schools.
We anticipate that we're going to be able to secure some state TANF money to finance this initiative. 7 million initiative, but we will literally in 24 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 every single school have a cadre of parents, trained parents, to basically provide the schools with support, climate control, give parents more access to the schools while reaching out to those parents who are disengaged. So those are some of the initiatives that we obviously have not only begun, but we're also going to be bringing to scale. I will make a couple comments. As Sandra has pointed out, a big focus of this School District is on closing -- obviously, our goal is to close the academic gap, to close the achievement gap, to bring about greater equity in terms of educational opportunities. And I'm talking about equity in excellence, not equity in mediocrity, because we have a lot of equity in mediocrity. We just don't have a lot of equity in excellence. And if you look at these initiatives, they do this, by expanding early childhood, by standardizing the curriculum across the system, by reducing class size in 25 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 all the schools in the primary grades, by expanding after-school and extended-day programs for children who are academically struggling, as well as enrichment programs for children who are exceeding by providing intensive professional development for the teachers, by reorganizing the School District into a K to 8, 9 to 12 District. By doing these things fundamentally, we're going to not only improve the quality of the schools, but by doing these things across the District, we're going to bring about greater equity in excellence in terms of providing students with the educational supports that they need. If you're a struggling student, remedial support, intervention curriculums, more time on tasks. If you're a student in need of greater challenges, enrichment programs, honors, advanced placement programs, honors programs. So that fundamentally is a recap of our reform initiatives, and all these initiatives are not only funded in this year's Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 budget, but we're going to be able to sustain all these reform initiatives through 2009. As you know, every year we extend our five-year financial plan by one more year. When we presented our first budget here, last year we went through 2008. Now we're 2009. Next year our intent is to work towards a structurally balanced budget and to extend the financial plan to 2010. By doing this and by sticking to a financial blueprint, it allows us to get ahead of the game at doing the things on the revenue and expenditure side that we need so that we can tell all the schools and the teacher and the parents and the students that the reforms that we've instituted aren't going to be pulled out from under you in year two or in year three. It's critically important to sustain these reforms if the School District is going to move forward. But the School District's financial health is in excellent condition and the School District is moving forward on the type of reforms that are going to transform the 27 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 School District. I will make just a final footnote on capital, because we're going to have an opportunity to discuss that as you have questions. The capital plan, we've already raised, when you include the Dauphin County borrowing, about $800 million for our capital plan. A number of projects have already been started and actually completed, and if you look at my draft statement, there's going to be a flurry of projects that are going to be started this year, the new Carver High School, the new Fels High School, hopefully the new Audenried, the new Microsoft School, plus a number of elementary schools that we're going to be breaking ground on, plus a host of major renovations.
But we have already secured half the money we need to implement our capital reforms, but securing land and having a fair and open bid process and doing the things needed to get the plan up and running has certainly had some stutter steps, in part due 28 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 to the fact that because of the delay in the state's resolution to the education funding in last year's budget, there was a six-month delay before we got any money from the state. So this caused us to put a number of projects on hold. And then the bid process of selecting CMs and general contractors and architects has taken a little longer than anticipated, because there's been so much competition. When you go out to recruit new architects and 125 architectural firms respond, when you go out to bid with construction managers and something like, what is it, over respond, that creates a lot of 16 competition. 17 So it's been -- we've been very 18 methodical about making our decisions and 19 about making our awards so that we do right by 20 the District from a cost-effective standpoint, but also that we're fair and equitable in spreading out the work, and we're focusing particularly on companies, obviously, that have Philadelphia residents or Philadelphia area residents, because much of our capital 29 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 plan -- it's as much an academic support plan as it is an economic development plan. And as Sandra pointed out, our MBE/WBE numbers are very important to us. This is not just a side show. We're just not doing this because it's the politically correct thing to do. We feel that through expanded opportunities, through our MBE/WBE creates additional opportunities, and through additional opportunities comes greater competition. So right now we're exceeding the numbers that we posted for ourselves. So that kind of summarizes my remarks. And, again, my remarks are in much more detail in my presentation, glorious or inglorious detail, depending on your perspective. But, again, we're in good shape. You're not going to have to worry about the School District having financial problems, and we have a good solid five-year financial plan to advance the reform initiatives that we put in place. We're all impatient for change. We 30 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 want test scores to improve faster. We want graduation rates to improve faster. We certainly want student discipline to improve at a quicker pace. Let me point out that the number of serious incidents has declined and we are certainly making progress, but we certainly have a long way to go. We want to get the schools up sooner rather than later. Clearly, there is a lot of things that we want to do and we're anxious to get these things done. But, again, I think we have a very solid academic, organizational, school safety and capital plan, and the plans that we've articulated are supported by the budget document that you have before you today.
Good morning, Madam President. My name is Michael Harris, Chief Financial Officer with the School District. Good morning, Council President Verna, Councilwoman Blackwell and other 31 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Distinguished City Council members. We appreciate this opportunity to bring to you a presentation on the financial status of the School District of Philadelphia. The SRC obviously could have brought in many CEOs who would have attacked the District's finances. However, they've hired Mr. Vallas to come in and not only attack the finances, but to evolve and advance and better the School District as we bring the finances into balance. And this is my charge and this is the charge of our finance team, and we believe that we have found a way to adhere to our five-year financial plan. I would also like to applaud obviously the efforts of the City Council, the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth for their efforts and financial help during the past years, not only with the securing of the $317 million in deficit financing, but the additional fundings that have come at a critical time for the District. And your understanding of the District's precarious financial position and subsequent dedication 32 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 of revenues have really helped us stave off long-term economic damage to both the District and prevent degradation of educational opportunities for Philadelphia's children. In the past year, the District had gone through many structural and cultural changes involving the SRC and new management personnel and initiatives at all levels of the organization. We believe it's a window of opportunity by which the District can realize greatness, and our finance department and the rest of the School District management team is working hard to make these possibilities a reality. In August of 2002, we put forth a five-year plan that began the work of advancing schools and program initiatives while also dealing with the structural deficit that we have inherited. 6 million for 2005, but with a full expectation that this gap will be closed and the budget will be balanced by final adoption by the School Reform Commission 33 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 at the end of this month. This Administration is continued in its commitment to identify funding for the District's priorities to install positive change. The Governor and State Legislature joined together to substantially improve the District's revenue picture compared to this time last year. The final passage of the Commonwealth's education budget in December of '03 provided $50 million in urgently needed operating and grants funding. The Governor's FY05 budget proposes an additional $50 million in Accountability Block grant funding. Most of this additional state funding has been targeted in grants that support just the types of educational reform programs that the District under the CEO and the SRC have established or expanded during the past two years. Our state leadership is providing significant financial opportunity for these programs because they have proven to drive student success, and we can -- the 34 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Commonwealth can insure the District's financial stability into the next decade if their final budget is enacted with additional support for the District's state-mandated expansion of alternative schools and with a full appropriation of the 30 percent reimbursement of the School District's prior year charter school costs. But even with improved revenues, we are committed to continually reducing this District's non-classroom expenditures. This budget commits to pairing an additional $12 and a half million in administrative costs, mostly through personnel reductions during the upcoming year. These savings build on a $7 million cut from administrative functions in FY03 and '04.
The 2005 budget provides full funding for all of the educational reforms initiated under the guidance of the School Reform Commission. 5 million for alternative schools. In the last months, we have 7 raised over $700 million, close to $800 8 million, for the capital improvement plan that 9 is enabling the District to convert many 10 middle schools to smaller high schools, while 11 shifting many elementary schools to a K to 8 12 grade structure. The School District of Philadelphia has undertaken a plan that will positively change the educational opportunities of the children of this City for decades to come. But this plan costs money, and in these challenging economic times, your support is needed more than ever. This budget represents an effort to continue the advancement towards structurally balanced budgets for the coming years and to continue enhanced programs. And I look forward to continuing our relationship between the District and the City, and I thank you for 36 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 this opportunity to present our budget.
Thank you very much. I know a number of Council members want to be recognized, so for the first go-around, each Council member will be given five minutes for questions. Mr. Vallas, do you mind if we refer to your detailed budget, please? Do you have a copy of it there?
I would like a possible explanation on some of what I see here. On Page A-2, it would appear that you have been reducing the number of classroom teachers from 10,474 in 2002-2003 to 9,370 in 2004-2005 while at the same time you're increasing per diem substitute services from 4.9 million to 16.5 million. Could you explain, please? That's on Page A-2.
Yes. I have it, Madam President. 37 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 The classroom teachers represent two things. One is, this is the operating budget for the School District. This represents a shift of -- some of it is the impact of the census data and the enrollment in the schools. We certainly by losing the population of the schools will see a decrease in school teachers, and some of that, especially between '03 and '04, has been driven somewhat by that issue. Additionally, part of our efforts on helping out the operating budget has been to shift appropriate costs and appropriate expenses out of the operating budget into categorical grants wherever it's appropriate and legal, and we have done that in terms of school teachers. We have shifted approximately 600 teacher positions out of the operating budget and into the categorical grants that have come to us via the state. I believe that's the right number. And I think 400 teachers are -- we're reducing approximately 400 positions due to declining enrollment. 38 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 That would explain the classroom teacher --
What is the present enrollment and what was it in 2002?
2002 enrollment, it's on Page C-2 of the document. 2002 enrollment was 212,697 students. For 2005, we anticipate enrollment to be 207,706 students. And that includes charter schools. School District itself, as you see above that 2002, was 197,000 students, and we will be at 182,600 students in 2005, a decrease of approximately 15,000 students since 2002.
Let me just make a point that I think in this next year, we're projecting an enrollment adjustment of about 8 percent, half due to enrollment declines in the District overall, the other half due to shift to charters, because obviously as we expand charters, the enrollment shifts. So the number of teachers identified 39 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 here does not include all the teachers, because there are teachers funded in other categorical funds. It also doesn't include the teaching positions that have shifted to the charters because of the charter expansion. So the District has been losing population really over the last seven, eight years. Part of it is just the overall loss in student population, but it's been accelerated by the fact that we've continued to approve charter schools and we've continued to allow existing charter schools to expand. So that's why it looks like the number is dropping, but the reality is, there is more classroom -- there's more teachers per capita in the Philadelphia public schools than there have been in the past. In this past year, we were able to reduce class size in two-thirds of the primary grades from about 32 -- I think from 30 to 22. In the remaining third because of lack of space, we provided literacy interns. So the bottom line is, we are having more teachers to reduce class size, but as 40 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 long as we continue to lose enrollment and as long as charters continue to expand, there's going to be a shift of positions and of dollars from the School District to the charter schools, which is obviously most appropriate.
How many charter schools did you indicate that we have presently?
48 with the three that we've approved this year. And they continue to expand. I mean, the charter school -- the shift in funding to charter school --
This budget represents -- million more of this budget 21 goes into the charter schools than last year. 22 So it's an increase of 25 million. The total 23 charter school budget right now stands at $177 24 million, and that has obviously grown rapidly. 25 I think in the presentation we gave, it shows 41 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the growth in charter school over the last three years. Council President, if I can follow up on your other question, if that's okay.
One is overall between categorical and operating -- is that for me?
Okay. Categorical and operating is 11,700 students -- or not students. Teachers. I apologize. So while we see 9,300 in the budget, there's actually approximately 11,700 across all funds. The other thing is, per diem substitute services are not necessarily increasing. It's a different way we've accounted for it. Previously it was in school-based budgets, and we have simply pulled it out and put it into a central administrative lump. So that's the key on that. 42 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
In the past, the individual schools got stuck with hiring the subs and paying for the subs. Now that's all been centralized, in part to insure greater quality control and more effective screening, more effective training for the subs that are coming in. So that doesn't necessarily reflect an increase. For example, today, as of today, we only have, I think, vacancies in the entire 12 School District. Now, that does not include 13 the full-time substitutes. Situations where 14 teachers have said, Look -- or schools sometimes have said, I prefer to keep the full-time sub because they're doing an excellent job in the school for the remainder of the year. But the bottom line is, we have probably the fewest vacancies than we have ever had, but the bottom line is, that number reflects the fact that we pulled out that substitute funding out of the individual schools and that's why it's showing there. And, again, as Mike pointed out, we can 43 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 provide you with a breakdown of where all the teachers come from via funds, but obviously the number of teachers is considerably larger than stated in that operating line.
Thank you very much. Mr. Harris, if you don't mind referring to Page B-2 of the detailed budget and if you could very briefly give us some explanation of Lines 7, and 15. 12
It would appear that we're dealing with 240 less positions. Am I understanding that correctly?
Yes. That is last year's -- that is the adjustments to this year's budget, the current year that we're in. This is the 2003-2004 budget changes from the adopted budget to the final budget and an expectation of enrollment changes during the course of this current fiscal year. 44 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 I stand corrected. That is from '04 to '05. Excuse me just a second. Okay. If you look at Page B-5, it gives a detailed -- B-5 and B-6 give a detailed background to what's happened with not only the enrollment change between the current year and next year, but also how that affects the projected decreases in kindergarten, elementary schools, middle schools and senior and that distribution of -- that reduction of 240.
Line 14 is items that are not required in this year but were spent last year. Let me clarify. That were spent in this current year but will not be in the next upcoming budget.
These are the must-have's that we used to require of schools, and we are doing literacy -- these were central office allocations given to 45 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 schools last year. The literacy interns, the reduced class size teachers, totalling about $10 million or just under $10 million were centrally distributed. This year we put it into the schools' budgets and so it's not reflecting here, but it's part of the must-have's that schools must purchase.
If I can just explain for a second. One of the things we did when we did our class size reduction initiatives was, we really funded -- we directed schools obviously to spend some of their discretionary money on class size reduction, while we also provided the schools with additional money for class size reduction. We also required the schools to convert a lot of the literacy internship positions to classroom teachers. I mean, you have a literacy intern for the third year. Well, why? I mean, when you can -- the salary is almost comparable to that of a regular teacher. You can have a classroom teacher. 46 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 You can reduce, in effect, four classes, because just an additional teacher. We subsidized -- we provided the schools with an additional, I think it was, about $10 million in additional subsidies for class size reduction last year that the schools had been directed to incorporate into their budget this year. It was a headache trying to get the schools obviously to reduce class size, so what we did was, we picked up more of the costs the first year than we planned to do in the out year. So it's not necessarily a reduction as much as it's just the fact we expect the schools in the second and third year to assume more of the costs through their own Title I funds.
The other major component of that line is $16 million for the one-time curriculum purchase. Again, it's not -- it was a one-year implementation of the math and reading curriculum. This year we're going to do it differently and treat it 47 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 through the equivalent of an enterprise fund or revolving fund so it's not part of the operating budget. This will not be a recurrence in the operating budget, but it's not a lack of commitment on the curriculum.
Just a footnote on the curriculum. Last year, all told, we probably spent upwards to $20 million for new textbooks, math and language arts textbooks, K all the way through 9th grade. This year we're probably going to spend close to $20 million on new textbooks, social studies and sciences in the middle grades and for the curriculum instructional materials by subject area 9th, 10th and 11th grade. But rather than go out and spend $20 million in this budget, we are negotiating with the book publishers and the curriculum publishers to, in effect, have them finance the textbook purchase over the next four to five years. So, in other words, rather than pay them $20 million at once, we will pay them a portion of the money in each of the next 48 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 five years so we don't have to take a $20 million hit. So rather than it showing up this year as a million or actually a $20 million 6 line, it's a much smaller amount and it allows 7 us -- rather than go out and borrow, they're 8 borrowing for us. They're basically saying, 9 Look, we're going to -- you can pay us over 10 five years the full cost of that curriculum. 11 That's the price they pay for, in effect, 12 getting the franchise into Philadelphia, so to 13 speak. 14 So, again, we're not in any way 15 reducing our investment in our new textbooks. 16 $20 million in new textbook materials additional on top of what we normally appropriate for textbooks through the schools is going to be distributed to the schools. It's just that they're going to finance it over five years.
Yes, 49 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 please.
This represents in bulk the shifts of expenses out of the operating budget into categorical budgets, particularly the new Pennsylvania Accountability Block grant and the Empowerment grant. This is all within the guidelines and intent of that Accountability grant. We will be shifting reduced class size teachers and full-day kindergarten expenses into those grants to carry. It's a relief to the operating fund and it's also envisioned in the Accountability grant. And the grant will be used for those purposes. So, again, it's not reflective of a reduction of commitment in the District, but simply a better use of resources.
Thank you. I have several other questions, but my time is up and at this time, I would recognize Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you very much, Madam President. 50 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Good morning. Let me first say that we are grateful for the hands-on approach that is very refreshing and for the partnership that we enjoy. I have a few questions. Let me first also say thank you for the posting of the emergency response signs in every school that we fought for for a few years and also to say that the President and I used to complain or ask questions all the time about the alternative programs, but we have a new CEP school in my district and, in fact, held our Team Day there on Friday. And it's really, really working quite well. So we are glad to have that. One of my questions is, I've been approached about a program that I understand that was cancelled called the Reading Recovery Program. Can you give me some information on that? Those who approached me said it made a big difference in reading levels, it was a success and they're really upset that they're losing this program.
Well, the problem with Reading Recovery is, basically you have 51 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 one full-time teacher working and sometimes the teacher being paid as much as 50, 60, 65, $70,000 a year working with four kids exclusively for an entire semester. That's an ineffective use of dollars. For example, the 3,000 Reading Recovery -- the $3 million spent on Reading Recovery I think served 440 kids. Now, I can -- you have one-on-four instruction for an entire year and we can solve all the problems, but the bottom line is, it's simply not cost effective. Let me point out, though, that what we've done with Reading Recovery, the same amount of money that we spent on Reading Recovery actually exceeds the amount of money that we're going to be spending on Fast Forward. Fast Forward is a program that helps students overcome neurological obstacles to learning. There are many, many, many children who have -- through brain development or underdevelopment have problems mastering reading despite the fact that the kids are 52 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 incredibly bright. So some children, no 3 matter how much time you spend reading to them, even individualized attention, they're simply not going to be able to learn how to read or at least master reading. So programs like Fast Forward have been phenomenal at helping children overcome those obstacles. What we're going to be able to put -- very quickly, we are going to be able to finance Fast Forward in over 200 schools with the same amount of money. And, incidentally, Fast Forward over 200 schools may ultimately serve 10,000 students a year, but we're going to be able to finance Fast Forward in over 200 schools for less money than we were currently spending on Reading Recovery, which served about 440 kids a year. So it's simply not a cost-effective program. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but the money can be spent much more effectively and can benefit many, many more kids.
Thank you very much. Flashing lights are a big issue 53 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 here. Every school wants flashing lights, public and parochial, every school, and we really are interested in seeing that we can work something out to make this an issue and I wondered what your position is and how you can help us in this regard.
Well, let me just preface my remarks by saying it's more than the City. It's not just a City administration issue. It's a school administration issue, because at the end of the day, if children are endangered while crossing the street, obviously we bear part of that responsibility, too. What we have recommended, and I've had conversations with Phil Goldsmith about that, along with a number of members of the City Council, is that what we could do is, we could advance the City a million dollars out of our capital funds, which could then be used to purchase the signage, which we could be reimbursed for over a four- or five-year period. It was a recommendation that we made 54 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 to get all the backlog signs implemented. And it's certainly something -- we just offered it -- and I didn't offer it until I had had a conversation with Mr. Goldsmith, but it's something that we just threw out there, the idea being there's probably many more signs needed than funding is currently available for. And since the capital funds and the capital plan and those expenditures will be spent over a seven-year period, simply allocating the million dollars would be a way to perhaps accelerate the installation of the signage.
Madam Chair, may I just ask Mr. Vallas a question on that? Aren't we affected by Act 46 on that if you were to advance the City a million dollars? Wouldn't we have to pay that back in perpetuity?
I don't think we are, although the question was posed a few days earlier. We're looking at the full impact of that. But our capital funds not 55 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 only come through our school construction dollars that we've issued general obligation bonds for those, dedicated revenue bonds to raise the capital money, but we've also been able to access money through Dauphin County and we've also been able to access money through a number of borrowing ventures. We've also -- so I don't think there would really be a problem. Obviously it's going to have no 12 fiscal impact on the School District, because it really becomes a microcosmic -- microscopic cash flow issue for us. But the bottom line is, we think that we have the flexibility to do that. Obviously, we would not consummate any sort of agreement with the City until we get our final reading from our lawyers and our bond counsels.
Thank you. Yes. I was contacted as recently as Thursday by one of the schools. In fact, it's 56 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 a Catholic school, St. Francis DeSales in my area. And every year we go through this and it's difficult. Schools don't want to hear that you can, as a District Council person, you can get two and if you're lucky, some years three. So I certainly am one who would be for making an arrangement and thank you for that offer with regard to flashing lights. Thank you. I have questions, but I'll wait my next go-around.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Let me start out by echoing Councilwoman Blackwell's remarks. I too remain very, very excited about the real tangible in-your-face reforms that I see happening in the School District, 57 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 and to that end, I want to speak on your topic of what you call equity in excellence as you move to close the academic gap and the need for more experienced and certified teachers. There was an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 19th written by a professor at Penn and a woman Elizabeth Useem with the Research for Action who presented four strategies around this issue of high poverty schools getting their fair share of experienced teachers, and I'm curious to hear an update on the Grow Your Own program around this -- Grow Your Own Literacy Intern Teacher program, as well as seniority transfer rules so that the speeding up of hiring for teachers can occur earlier in the year for those high poverty schools. Could you discuss that with us and give us an update?
Absolutely. Let me preface my remarks by saying, though, that the vast majority of our schools are high poverty schools, because a lot of times people focus on 10 or 20 schools, but there's not a 58 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 single school in this District that has a poverty rate lower than 37 percent and I think it's safe to say, and please correct me if I'm wrong, well over 80 percent of our schools have poverty rates approaching 65, 70 percent or greater. So the bottom line is, when we're talking about equity in excellence and the need to do the appropriate investment, we're probably talking 150, 160, 170 schools where we need to expend that effort. I will say this, though: Our approach towards improving the quality of teachers is basically multi-fold. First, it's to recruit year around and to provide -- this year we've been able to recruit about 1,200 new teachers to the school system, all certified or in state-approved alternative certification programs. That's in contrast to maybe 700 recruited in the past. This is why we only have 14 vacancies this year. Number two, to equip every single teacher in the school system with a state-of-the-art curriculum and instructional 59 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 model or models, so to make sure that every teacher in this system is provided with superior curriculum materials. Number three, to provide every single teacher with 100 hours of intensive professional development. So even if a teacher is teaching out of their area of certification, that teacher is provided the curriculum materials that they need to deliver quality instruction and they are trained on those materials. And we actually evaluate the instructional progress every six weeks, because we do a data-driven instruction every six weeks. We assess the progress of the students and we assess really the progress of the teachers in teaching to the specific benchmarks. The fourth thing that we're doing is, we're aggressively recruiting through programs like the Literacy Interns, Teach for America, which is an alternative teacher certification, are now in our middle schools initiative. And the middle schools are often 60 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 cited as the areas where we have the greatest needs, our middle grades, and that is the transitional support tutors, which are, in effect, middle grade literacy interns. It's the same approach. The idea being that we will have anywhere from, including the transition tutors, between 700 and 800 literacy interns and transition tutors in the schools training during the course of the year and preparing themselves to eventually become full-blown teachers. So we think that these initiatives, if we're able to sustain them over the next four to five years, will have a dramatic impact in terms of improving the quality of our instruction across the School District. Now, that said and done, there are also contractual issues that need to be addressed, particularly site selection. The School Reform Commission, while they've given me broad latitude in the contract negotiations -- and broad latitude is not broad latitude. Let's just say it's latitude. They have given me no latitude when it comes 61 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 to, and appropriately so, when it comes to site selection. The School Reform Commission wants site selection. They want the schools to have the ability to fill teacher vacancies without going through an elaborate seniority system. So obviously site selection is a top priority of the School District in the contract negotiations, which, incidentally, are progressing at a civil and I think a constructive pace. The contract will be up in August, but we've been negotiating and -- I don't want to say we're close, but we're making progress and we have, what, four months to go. So we want to get this done as early as possible.
In addition, though, we've already taken steps to streamline the hiring process in other ways. Even before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has been approved, the union has agreed to changing dates when teachers can transfer, shortening the period so that we can make our decisions, hiring decisions, have autonomy to make our hiring 62 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 decisions earlier, and we've also done things like eliminate leveling, so that in October --
Leveling is probably as bad as seniority in terms of impeding a school's ability to attract and retain quality staff. Under leveling, every year the School District -- first of all, you staff the school and then in October, when the October enrollment numbers come in, you make adjustments in the staffing reflecting changes in enrollment as indicated by the October numbers. What that means is, say you staff for a thousand students and then in October you discover you have 950. Well, you got to go and you got to eliminate two teachers. Who do you eliminate? If you eliminate a couple teachers, you got to change all the rosters. So what that was meant to do was, for the first eight weeks of the school year, if they're a new teacher, they're not certain 63 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 whether or not they're going to have a job beyond eight weeks, and if they're a veteran teacher, they're not certain whether or not these are going to actually be the students that they're teaching. Last year we eliminated that completely. No leveling. If there's fewer kids, there's smaller class sizes. And by eliminating leveling, we've, in fact -- we've de facto increased eight weeks of instructions, because usually eight weeks was a waiting period until you made your adjustments. We've also made the schools more attractive and now teachers know if there's a vacancy and they move into that vacancy, they're going to be in that school for at least the entire year. You see? So we're making progress, but I think we've done all that we can through our -- the good relationship we've established with the union and making modifications that we've been able to make, short of making profound changes to the contract. But the 64 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 next big hurdle for us, obviously, is going to be this Collective Bargaining Agreement. And, clearly, site selection, the ability to select qualified teachers regardless of their level of seniority is obviously a priority in the negotiations and we hope to achieve that.
My time is up. I have several more questions around teachers and I'll have to get back to that on the next round.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First, let me start by recognizing and expressing my appreciation to Chairman Nevels and the Commissioners who are here with us, Commissioners Dungee Glenn and Whelan, for the great partnership and working relationship that we have developed out of what may not have started out as the prettiest process in the world a couple years ago, but I think 65 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we're all responsible and stepped up to the plate to make a lot of great things happen, and so I do appreciate that, not only in a global sense but in the regular working relationship and the day-to-day things that happen. With regard to Mr. Vallas and Mr. Harris and is that --
Mr. Harris. It's a new law firm in town, Vallas, Harris & Harris. The second Mr. Harris, I haven't had the pleasure of torturing you yet, but I look forward to working with you. Mr. Vallas, I thank you for your hard work. And, Mr. Harris, the other Mr. Harris, one day when you give me something that I want, we'll be able to do well as well. You guard the money in a wonderful way for the District, keeping it away from any of us. You and Rob Dubow must have a wonderful working relationship. 66 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Let me talk to you about your 2005 budget to start. In the small -- you guys killed a lot of trees this year. In the little book, has the 2005 budget in its briefest form. What I'd like to ask you to do, Mr. Harris, is walk through the lines of the projected FY05 budget and explain the various components.
Absolutely. And let me say, Councilman, we attempted through this overview obviously to boil this document down into something that was at least --
I understand. That's why I'm not asking you from the big book.
On the revenue lines, our revenues are broken into four general components. Local tax revenue, which we expect to increase by 2.8 percent, is primarily real estate taxes, totalling $482 million of the 669.
The second major component of that is the business use and 67 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 occupancy tax, which we expect to stay level this year. And then the other major component obviously is delinquent real estate tax and liquor sales tax.
So the 669 is what's essentially provided by the City and that's the subject matter in front of us today?
That is absolutely correct. The second local non-tax revenues take into account also funds from the City of Philadelphia in the form of a $35 million annual grant that is included in there.
The other major component, why you see it jumping so much from 53 to 81, the 51 percent increase is representative of the anticipated proceeds from the sale of the current buildings of the School District of Philadelphia, and it has to be categorized as a local non-tax revenue.
I understand. 68 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
State revenues are obviously what it says, primarily composed of -- the vast majority is the gross basic education, the Asby (ph) grant, which totals 761 million of the $1 billion. The second largest component is the special education grant, which is approximately $114 million. We expect that to be up about -- 114 is about 3 million higher than last year. And other non-categorical grants from -- it does not include the Accountability grant, it does not include the Empowerment grant and it does not include the tutor EAP grant, but it includes primarily tuition reimbursements and so forth.
So at the moment, excluding those grants, you're anticipating a $2 million decrease in funding from the state?
Right. And let me say that that is driven by the -- in this current year, we had anticipated the equivalent of a $25 million deferral of 69 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 payment. We do not anticipate that next year and so that's the reflection of that event.
Finally, the federal impact data obviously is a nominal amount of funds that has for us.
I also want to make one comment, Councilman. The state number, the 0.2 percent, that while the categorical grant or the Rendell Block grant obviously is elsewhere in the categorical budget, what is missing and what will probably be added is the Empowerment Zone money, because right now while the state has allocated our Title I money, they've given us our Title I money allocation net of the anticipated -- what we will get anticipated through the Empowerment money. So while it looks like, when you take the categorical grant number out, that we're not getting any money from the state, once the Empowerment money is identified or once the Empowerment money number is provided us, we will then work it into the budget. 70 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 That's why when I said while we have a $13 million structural deficit on the books right now, the Empowerment money, once that comes in, and we anticipate obviously that we're going to get obviously an increase, because the state is taking more off the top this year as permitted under No Child Left Behind, we anticipate that that $13 million structural deficit will begin to close.
Okay. I'll come back and finish up on that page. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, gentlemen. Mr. Vallas, if you can, just give me a summary in like two minutes so I can get a follow-up in on the No Child Left Behind Act. One, if you just briefly talk about the funding associated with that, because I know 71 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 people are all over the place on that, particularly in the federal level, as to whether or not it was adequately funded based on the number of mandates. And then I would like to do a follow-up on a specific category, if at all possible.
Well, let me respond very quickly that obviously from an accountability side, No Child Left Behind demands academic improvement as defined by certain goals that they set broadly at the federal level that then has to be interpreted at the state level. The state is given some broad discretion. But it requires improvement in a disaggregated way. So, in other words, if your individual school improves and meets the goals of No Child Left Behind, but if there are groups within your individual school district that are not meeting those goals, then you're not meeting the goals. One of the controversies surrounding the Act is the fact that this data is disaggregated for purposes of measuring 72 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 performance. I like the fact that the data is disaggregated, because it puts us in the suburban districts and the rural districts all in the same boat. You know, affluent districts can't hide the fact that they might not be doing a good job of providing educational opportunities for children of low-income backgrounds, for example. The second major area of accountability is teacher certification, and obviously requiring that by such-and-such year, all teachers must be certified. For example, by 2006, I believe all teachers need to be fully certified. The third area of accountability is school discipline. Basically schools that have problems in student behavior need to be categorized. Let me point out, though, in this third area, the federal government has been very loose with its rules and regulations. For example, we conformed with the Act when it came to vigorously identifying serious incidents and obviously making arrests 73 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 and being very aggressive. And Pennsylvania had an aggressive standard to set. In New York and California, the standard is so high -- or I should say so low, that virtually no schools are on the persistently dangerous schools list. In New York, I think they had two schools on the persistently dangerous schools list. I identified 51 schools that I felt needed to improve student behavior, and 27 ended up being on the persistently dangerous schools list. So three areas: Academics, teacher certification, student behavior. Now, the issue is, has the Act been adequately funded? The answer is no. The Act falls, I think, between 4 to 6 billion dollars short, depending on who is counting, from funding the mandates.
For the entire nation? 74 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
For the entire nation. But that doesn't mean that we haven't gotten an increase in funding. Over the last two years prior to this budget year, and we're still trying to determine what our actual final Title I number is going to be, we actually saw, I think, a 35 to 36 percent increase in our Title I dollars. So we had a significant increase in Title I dollars as a result of the additional Title I money being appropriated at the federal level. It's not all that we need to cover the mandates imposed by the federal government, but I have felt that it is enough to make progress and to not use any excuses, because a lot of people are saying, Oh, it's not enough money. Believe me, we've gotten enough of an increase to show progress. Also, the federal government has yet to fully fund the special education mandate. Right now the federal government -- the federal law mandates that special education be funded at 40 percent of the cost of the 75 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 mandates and it's funded at percent. So that, in a summary, is where we're at with No Child Left Behind.
One of the 6 things -- and I think this centers around the 7 notification process, because I understand it 8 is a requirement for the citizens to have 9 information on the better-performing schools 10 and centering somewhat around charter schools, 11 and some of the areas of my district, 12 particularly some of the newer areas, I found 13 that it essentially works as a recruitment 14 process for some of the charter schools and 15 subsequently some of the traditional public schools are losing population, and my understanding is that essentially the resources follow the children. So those children that are going to the charter schools then leave the existing school in the position where their resources are reduced, and my concern is that with less resources, there's no way for them to improve the quality of the school and I don't see a real process that sets that up. 76 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Well, the state following the federal government's mandate is very specific about notification. If schools are persistently dangerous, you've got to notify the children in those schools. You got to give them educational options. If schools are in school improvement, you've got to notify the children and you've got to identify schools that are making AYP, adequate yearly improvement. So the bottom line is, we're subject by state mandate to send out these notifications, and we do and we do so in a timely manner. Now, obviously, when you sent out the notifications and there's an exodus, say, from the public schools to the charter schools, there's a financial impact. And one of the reasons that one of our legislative priorities this year, and I think we're making progress, is to have the state fully fund the 30 percent charter school reimbursement that they wrote into law two years ago, is so that we can get -- we feel that that's the 77 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 actual -- that that's what we actually lose. I mean, if you lose kids, you should lose staff. If you lose 150 of your children from the schools, you should lose staff accordingly. But we projected that there's about -- there's actually about a 30 percent net loss to the School District, because the transfer of the children and the transfer of the dollars is not always a one-to-one process. Plus, because charters have no 13 enrollment restrictions and they can recruit like magnet schools, a lot of times money is being drawn from the District, but you're not exactly sure where the kids are coming from or where the money is going from where. So I think if the state fully funds the charter school reimbursement, the 30 percent reimbursement, we'll be fine. I mean, from a financial standpoint, I think that will allow us to minimize any adverse revenue impact on the School District caused by the creation of charters.
I know my 78 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 time is up, but I'm more focused on the existing neighborhood schools and the impact on them. And I've seen, as you said, a decline of resources and that's my concern. I can follow up.
If schools are losing money, they're losing money because they're either losing population or their percentage of reimbursement under the poverty formula is changing, maybe they have fewer poverty kids. That's the only -- those are the only conditions in which schools lose money. Schools get approximately, give or take a few million, about $90 million in Title I money. Over the past two years, we've allocated to the schools annually an additional $90 million for standardized curriculum, class size reduction, after-school programs, summer school programs, professional 79 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 development, honors and advanced placement and accelerated programs. So we have literally matched the amount of Title I money with other dollars to fund these initiatives. So schools probably have more money for textbooks and curriculum and instructional reforms, professional development, enrichment than they've ever had in the last maybe 10, 15, years. That doesn't mean that schools 12 have all the money that they need, but the 13 bottom line is, we have made sure under our 14 excellence in equity approach to make sure 15 that all these critical reform programs are 16 fully funded at the local school level and 17 it's not the school's burden through their 18 Title I money to assume financial 19 responsibility for that. 20 Now, some schools -- this is budget season, and I just got two letters as I walked in. Principal Rope saying, Please save my librarian or please save these positions because I'm being cut. If I go back and I pull the file of that school, I will probably 80 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 discover that -- I will probably be able to show you where that school lost student population, and as a result of them losing student population, obviously they've lost staffing. What we've tried to do when there are formula changes, like the Title I formula change, or this year we finally changed the special education formula to make sure that the dollars follow the children and not -- the schools get special ed dollars based on the demographics in the neighborhood but not the demographics in the school, the academic demographics, so to speak. What we've done is, we will always provide a hold harmless, so no school loses an excessive amount of money because of changes in formulas and things like that. But if there are individual complaints that you're getting this year, it's probably because those schools lost a sizable portion of their population.
Thank you. 81 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Krajewski.
Thank you. Mr. Vallas, could you give Council some details on the School District's deal with the parcel located at 440 North Broad Street and -- a two-part question -- is it true that although the initial cost for this proposal was estimated at 80 million, that the cost had risen to well over 350 million? My question is, why so drastically? This is what I'm being told.
Roughly, the cost is still budgeted at 80 million, and we will work to stay within that budget.
Yeah. I mean, that's the budget of cost. And if we have to 82 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 make adjustments obviously in the facility, we will do that, but we won't really know whether or not there's going to be an adjustment in that cost probably until June.
But right now we're operating within that $80 million budget. I don't know if somebody is referring to long-term school construction.
I don't know where that money came from. I'd like to know where that money came from because that would give me --
Before 83 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 you go any further, I just want to -- I only have about five minutes.
My next question is on the capital improvements with Lincoln High. How is that coming along? When will it start, or what is happening there?
I'm going to ask Karen -- Karen will give you a specific answer to that. I can either give it to you now or she can come over and give it to you on the side.
Actually, I was sent here -- I'm Karen Burke, Chief Operating 84 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Officer -- to clarify on the question, because I don't show anything currently at Lincoln outside of our regular proposed programs that we have out there.
We do capital improvements for some capital work and code violations in that building and that will be taking place, but no major renovation at this point.
Schools in the Northeast, there's major renovations planned for Washington, Northeast, Rush Middle School.
Well, Lincoln happens to be in my district. That's the only high school I do have in my district.
We don't have any major renovations planned, but we'll try to identify some of the minor things we have.
And what I could add to that, right now we're going through our assessment process on all the buildings and we're finding when the high schools come up 85 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 and all the dust settles on that, that it begins to inform the work that we have out there. So I'll be happy to share with you the findings from that assessment, and I think that would give both of us a picture of what that school would need certainly over the next several years based on that assessment. It should be in pretty soon.
We're having major problems when the students are coming out of school of Lincoln.
Councilwoman, the stenographer cannot hear you. You're going to have to speak into the mic.
I'm sorry. 86 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 What is the responsibility of the School District when the students are leaving that school?
Well, I mean, if we're talking about student behaviors, Zero Tolerance --
The Zero Tolerance policy is hours a day, meaning if a student 12 gets into a fight after school, if a student 13 is arrested, if the student physically 14 assaults somebody, basically that student will 15 be dealt with as if that incident occurred in 16 the school. 17
I'm 18 talking about once they leave that school, 19 they're in the school yard, crossing the 20 street and there's a big fight right outside 21 the school. 22
Well, I mean, you 23 have security in the school. Obviously, we're 24 trying to organize parent patrols outside the school, but, I mean, the schools -- from a 87 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 disciplinary standpoint, we take appropriate action if students are involved wherever it happens. Obviously, school security is in and around the school and if there's a fight in the school yard, someone is going to try to break it up or somebody needs to try to break it up. One of the reasons that we're pushing our Safe Corridors program and we're organizing parent and community patrols is so that there's a larger parental and community presence on the routes to and from school. And the high schools are not precluded from that initiative, so that we can have more personnel out on the street.
Well, you're still not answering my question. It's a major problem in the schools that I just referred to.
But what I'm saying is, when a school like Lincoln has a problem or Northeast or whatever, if they --
Any 88 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 school.
Right. But if they notify us -- it's impossible for us to monitor every kid who leaves every school every single day. If there's a fight in the school yard and someone sees it, they're supposed to be -- that fight is supposed to be broken up. But it's impossible for the school staff to monitor the entire school campus when schools are let out at the end of the day. I mean, most of the safety and security personnel are in the schools kind of ushering the kids out.
So they're outside of the school yard and the fight begins.
Is that the Police Department or is it the School Board's responsibility?
Well, if there's a fight on school grounds, we will move to break 89 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 it up. I'll tell you, if there's a fight two blocks away involving our students, we'll go up two blocks away if we see the fight to try to break it up. So anything that happens on the school grounds obviously is our responsibility, but anything that happens in the school or on the school grounds is also the police's responsibility, because an offense, an assault, aggravated battery, possession of a dangerous weapon is still basically an offense.
I realize my time is up. I would like to go further in this with you.
Absolutely. And I'll ask Dexter to contact the principal and yourself from Lincoln.
Thank you. I know Councilwoman Tasco has been 90 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 waiting. While we're waiting for Councilwoman Tasco, Mr. Vallas, you talked about the number of new high schools and you said, to quote, "and hopefully Audenried."
I say hopefully for everything. I mean, only because closing deals and getting things moving, there's always obstacles, there's always lawyers, there's always issues about site preparation. This month the Board, the Commission, will most likely take its final action on Audenried. So I anticipate that among all the high schools, Audenried will probably be the one that we break ground on the earliest. But the game plan right now --
I'll repeat it. Demolition this summer, because the game plan is to move the kids to a temporary site, and 91 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we would begin demolishing through the summer and then we would break ground in the fall. So that one we're going to move pretty quickly on. Obviously, we're still hopeful. We need to do some additional community outreach, but we're hopeful to be able to do the same on Fels. We're hoping that -- obviously, Microsoft, we're just waiting for the Parking Commission's final approval and, of course, the new Carver. So those four buildings I believe we can definitely get started on really before the end of the year.
Fine. Thank you. Councilwoman Tasco -- I'm sorry.
92 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Councilman Clarke.
No. They're not going anywhere. We're going to keep them on the same campus.
Well, we're going to build a new building. What we will most likely do is build -- we're trying to finalize the plan. We have another community meeting, because we've been trying -- obviously, all of our projects involve basically holding meetings at the school to discuss the prospects for the school. But I think what we will present to the community when our next meeting is is, we will build a new school, a new school building, and we will probably renovate the existing building.
Can somebody let me know? Last I knew about it, you were looking for another site. 93 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Well, we were. We were looking at the Girard site, but as I announced a couple months ago, that site did not fall through. We had a community meeting that we posted in which we met with the community, and basically the feedback that we got from that meeting was that people who send their kids to Carver and Carver themselves wanted to keep the building at that site. We own the land. It's our property. It was easier than trying to look for another site. We would simply build a new building on that existing site.
Is there like a process where you notify the Councilman?
Yes. My staff is supposed to be notifying Council when we have public meetings. So I apologize if you weren't notified. But at the next Carver meeting -- we haven't finalized anything yet.
Could I have like a meeting? That's like a pretty good parcel. I've been discussing that with 94 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 your people for some time. I mean, the University was interested in the site and now you're telling me that there was a decision made, which I don't necessarily have a problem with, but I'm kind of like perplexed as to why nobody would pick up the phone and say, Councilman, we made a decision. It's amazing to me.
Well, let me point out that one of the things that we've done even prior to this meeting is to meet with Council individually and discuss issues impacting their district. The issue with Carver has always been do we find a new site or do we keep them on the present site. We had a very --
I had that meeting, Mr. Vallas. I'm talking to you about staying on that location.
Well, I'm sorry you weren't informed, and staff is supposed to inform Council when we have meetings in their districts impacting their schools. So I apologize for that. 95 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
I'm not worried about the meeting. I'm worried about the process. I would think if you're talking about renovating the high school in the Council person's district, somebody would pick up the phone and call them to say, We're thinking about renovating your high school.
I think what I'm saying is, I apologize that you weren't notified and I'll make sure that you're informed. We've had plenty of discussions on a lot of things, Councilman, in your district. I'm sorry Carver wasn't the topic of that conversation. Staff should have informed you. I'll certainly take responsibility for you not being informed, but I apologize for that and we'll make sure that you're informed. 96 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Absolutely. You're absolutely right.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you very much. I'd like to just go back to the questions raised about the school safety. There's been a lot of attention nationally and locally on violence and particularly bullying. And I watched on television Good Morning America where a young man had been bullied and no one in the school did anything about it, and when he hit back, he was arrested. One, how does the staff deal with bullying? What do they do? If a child reports that they're being bullied, what action is taken? And also on these school patrols, after-school patrols, who is going to coordinate that? I mean, is that something that someone in the School District is assigned to go to each school to make sure 97 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that there's a team at each school and that they understand and know what their roles are and the procedure, the process for handling problems outside of the schools?
Well, let me respond. First of all, bullying or threatening is an offense that can result in either suspension or expulsion, and we expel students for chronic bullying and chronic intimidating. And, again, the bullying doesn't have to be limited to the school grounds. The bullying can occur off of school grounds. We've also set up a hotline. We call it the Bully Hotline, but it's more commonly referred to as the Safe Schools Line, and it's 215-299-SAFE. And that hotline is staffed seven days a week, hours a day, so 20 that anyone could call with a complaint, and 21 we investigate that complaint. 22 So bullying and intimidation and 23 threats and assaults, whether it's a verbal 24 assault, just not a physical assault, wherever it happens, is an offense that can result in 98 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 consequences. Now, that doesn't mean that every act of bullying is addressed and that doesn't mean that every school reports as adequately as they need to report. But our first year that we mandated reporting, the consequences being disciplinary action taken against employees who failed to report, we had something like a 50 percent increase in serious incidents reported. And so -- and the fact that we put 2,800 students in alternative placement, probably more than any other big district in the country, also reflects the fact that we've been pretty aggressive. That doesn't mean it's foolproof and that doesn't mean bullying isn't going on, but the bottom line is, I think the message is getting across and I think we're making some progress. In terms of the community patrols, Madam, in terms of the parent patrols and community patrols, that is run out of Safety and Security. So Safety and Security works to help organize the patrols. 99 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Our problem right now is, probably about a third of our elementary schools have what I consider to be legitimate functioning neighborhood patrols, community patrols. Others have them, but they're inconsistent, they're not there all the time. Obviously, our goal is to have a parent and community patrol outside of each and every one of the schools. But recruiting is hard. It's hard to recruit. It's hard to recruit people who will do it regularly, but we are making progress. But Safety and Security, the role of Safety and Security is not only to organize the parent and the community patrols and to provide them with the jackets and the walkie-talkies and the training that they need, but also Safety and Security also works with the community patrols to walk the corridors, to identify the safe corridor routes to and from schools and to keep those safe corridor routes properly mapped so that parents and students know what should be the 100 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 appropriate route to come to school and what the appropriate street corner should be for them to cross. So Dexter Green and Safety and Security manages that program. And we're not anywhere near where we should be, but we're making progress. We're hoping this TANF initiative and our ability to provide some stipends through the Welfare of the Work and through the TANF program will enable us to recruit more individuals from the community who can then basically show up with greater regularity.
Are you coordinating any of your safety activities with the local police departments?
Everything. We have liaisons obviously with the local police department. And Dexter, of course, former Deputy Chief Commissioner -- do I have his title right? I mean, with the Philadelphia Police Department. So we do coordinate. Whether it's arrests -- if we make arrests, then we turn it over to the police. 101 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 If there's a serious offense, we report it to the police. The police are very aggressive about reporting incidents to us. If they make an arrest or if one of our students is either the victim or the victimizer involved in a violent act, we receive regular police notification. So there's a constant communication between the Police Department and the School District. If we have a hot spot, we'll communicate it to the police. If Councilwoman Krajewski's -- if they're having problems at Lincoln, when we go out there, if there's a problem that needs additional police attention, we'll make that notification. So there's regular contact and interaction between us and the Police Department, and I think for the most part, it goes pretty smoothly.
Can I just ask one question to tie in with this? It will top it off.
Certainly. 102 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
The behavior support specialists in the schools, will they tie in any way with these school patrols? Will they have any jurisdiction outside of the building, or are they strictly to deal with behavior inside the building?
Well, that's a good question. Their function is really to deal with behavioral problems within the school. In other words, are they going to be required to go outside the building and monitor the kids in the playground when the school is shutting down? Well, the answer is yes. We can require that, but their principal responsibilities are to provide behavioral support services in that classroom where you've got a child or a number of children who are chronically disruptive and badly behaved. But with the reorganization of the school safety programs, with the retraining of the SSAs, NTAs, TSSs, school support staff and with the designation within the schools of an individual who is responsible for climate and control, and that will either be a freed-up 103 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 assistant principal or it will be a Dean of students, the objective here is to have that in-school team outside the school when the kids are released so that you have a much larger presence. So, in other words, it's to get everybody all involved in behavioral support services. Because now what you have in the schools is, you have -- the SSAs do this and the NTAs do that and the lunchroom attendants do this and the Safety and Security people do this. Everybody is kind of doing their own thing. And just as we've standardized the curriculum in the past year to get all the teachers on the same wavelength, on the same program, we want to kind of standardize our strategy towards behavioral support. So everybody in that school who is not teaching is somehow monitoring the kids and somehow supporting the kids in the classroom. So TSSs, behavioral support specialists, NTAs, whatever, when that school empties out, we should have enough adults in that parking lot, in the school yard, on the 104 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 street to monitor what's going on as the children are leaving the school grounds.
You're welcome. I have several, but specifically I'll ask about two projects that are related to PHA projects. For Martha Washington and Sayre that are in the design phase, CIP and design phase, what's the time line for those?
I'm going to ask Karen to speak to Martha Washington. The time line to get started in Sayre is before the end of the year. I think Sayre is scheduled for considerable improvements. I think -- what's the amount on Sayre, Karen? I'll ask Karen to bring the numbers out, but Sayre is being renovated because Sayre is converting to a high school, and as you know, Sayre will provide a second high school option in that area aside from West Philly. 105 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 West Philly is scheduled for new school construction, but the objective here is also to create a second high school option in the West Philadelphia area besides the Microsoft School, which will also have citywide magnet programs, and Sayre is the perfect candidate for that.
Thank you. Can you tell me about the Sulzberger as well, Sulzberger and Martha Washington, what that time line looks like?