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?
Yes. The Sayre project will be going out to bid this September.
How about Martha Washington? 106 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Let me ask you a question on a different subject, parent support hotline. Do you know what hours that functions, the hotline?
Claudia Averette. The hours are from 9:00 to 5:00, five days a week.
Say that again. 107 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Five days a week, 9:00 to 5:00. And it has an answering service, so we're able to follow up on any calls. But, again, if it's like a bullying call or if a parent doesn't know a process, we still have the 299-SAFE hotline that they can call.
Thank you very much. Also, as you know, we want to deal with the -- I guess we've got to wait on the West Philly deal with the land, because you know we're interested in plotting and a plan for the field house that currently exists. So I guess we've got to wait a little bit longer to see when that's a little tighter. Councilwoman Brown?
Thank you. A quick budget question and then I want to do some follow-up regarding teachers. On of your testimony, mid paragraph, you state, and I quote, "All of these curriculum materials will be funded through an annual appropriation from the 108 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Philadelphia Parking Authority" and you credit the leadership there at the Authority and members of the General Assembly for that fund. However, on of the summary, you mention "no Parking Authority funding is included." Can you reconcile that for me?
Yeah. What we're doing is, we're counting 4 million from the Authority. What we're not including is what additional money the Parking Authority may generate. And let me point out that -- so that's number one. Number two, the Parking Authority money is not in the operating budget. You see what I mean? So it's a separate fund. And what we're doing is, the 4 million that's been allocated will help us finance the costs or reimburse those textbook companies over the next four to five years. Rather than it coming out of the operating fund, it's going to come out of the special fund, because we want it to earmark the money that they allocated to us for a specific purpose, and 109 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that purpose is to pay the companies for the purchase price of the textbooks. Now, what the companies are going to do is just not charge us the million all at 6 once. They're going to charge us about 4 7 million a year, 5 million a year over the next 8 four years. So we'll be able to pay them in 9 time and we won't have to take money out of 10 the classroom or it won't affect our operating 11 budget. 12
Okay. 13 That answers my follow-up question. Are you 14 where you want to be with regards to adequate 15 books for our students or is there still room 16 for improvement? 17
Well, there's room 18 for improvement, but by really next year, we 19 will have completed all of our curriculum 20 reforms with the corresponding textbook purchases. And what will happen will be, we will have made that investment, that now all we'll have to do is to sustain that investment in the out years. So literally, by this time next 110 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 year, we will have purchased close to $45 million in new textbooks and instructional materials. Once we've made that initial investment, then we've got to sustain. So by next year, we will have completed the bulk of our work and then it's just a matter of making sure that when textbooks are lost, they're replaced or when they're out of date, they're replaced. So if we have a good textbook policy which appropriates money for replacement, adequate money for replacement every year, and we keep that replacement money off budget -- because, again, if the Parking Authority money ends up becoming a permanent allocation, once all the new textbooks are purchased, we will then earmark the bulk of that money for placement in a separate fund, so never again will you have the School District in a budget crunch cutting its textbook budget. Once we've made this considerable investment, all we've got to do is sustain it. Another example, musical instruments. We're going to purchase a 111 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 million dollars in musical instruments next year on top of the $400,000 purchase to enrich all of our elementary schools so that we can replace all the musical instruments lost to the School District the last years. 7 After this year, all we're going to 8 have to do is have a small replacement budget 9 for those musical instruments. We've restored 10 the investments previously lost. Then it's 11 important to segregate money off budget so 12 that we can sustain that investment in the out 13 years. 14 So it's the same thing with 15 textbooks, musical instruments. What we're 16 doing is, we're restoring and then it's a 17 matter of sustaining. 18
That 19 partially takes care of my arts question. 20 Back to teachers. I need you to give me an update on -- the Education Lost Center filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights regarding minority students having less access to qualified teachers and how that ties into the reforms and initiatives you have underway 112 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 with regards to matching up high poverty schools with experienced teachers. I need you to comment on that. I'm trying to beat this clock. The second --
Very quickly, that really was a signal to the teachers union on the issue of site selection. Because their focus was on teacher seniority and site selection. So that really was designed to -- I mean, what they're trying to do is, they're trying to send a statement that the contract needs to be changed so that seniority doesn't dictate where teachers go. Let me point out, though, that Judge Smith recently modified her Order with respect to the -- I don't want to call it a consent decree, but she modified her Order with respect to guidelines she had given the District to basically institute reforms designed to provide greater educational equality throughout the system. So Judge Smith actually has directed 113 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 both us and the plaintiffs to reach a memorandum of understanding so we're no longer really operating under this Court Order mandating that we do certain things. And in her statement, she cited the District's reform initiatives, the District's equity in excellence initiatives as being the reasons why she felt that her role had reached the point where it was now time to enter into a memorandum of understanding moving forward and she would not need to direct what the District should do via her Court Order.
Substantial progress on that issue. I'll come back next round. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Vallas, three quick questions. Any decisions yet on the G and Hunting Park site? Can we get an update on that?
I'm sorry? 114 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Yeah. That's scheduled. When are we scheduled to break ground on G and Hunting Park? Before December? SPEAKER: Expect to go out to bid September.
Is a design done yet? SPEAKER: It is not completed, no. It is in design phase.
Good. Thank you. Second question, I remember -- Councilwoman Krajewski was talking about this, but I have Frankford High School, which, all in all, works very well, because the principal is a real decent guy, but the problem there is, there used to be cops in there all the time. There was a Philly cop assigned to there. Did they stop doing that or we still do that? And when we do that, how do we 115 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 reimburse the Police Department?
No. We're precluded from having Philadelphia police officers in the schools. I could have Dexter Green give you the staffing numbers in terms of School District police officers, but the bottom line is, we don't have Philly cops. I will say this --
I think 15 you did have a cop assigned there while I was 16 Councilman. 17
I think the cops 18 were assigned in at least all of the high 19 schools. 20 But let me point out that 37 of the 50 largest urban districts have police officers, uniform police officers in their schools. We have also made a request or we're in the process of making a formal request that we be allowed to participate in a federally 116 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 funded program that subsidizes uniform on-duty police officers in schools for three years. It's funded through the United States, I think, the cop's office. Where is the cop's office? I'll let you speak to this. Why don't you speak to the cop's office.
The grant that Mr. Vallas is talking about is a grant from the cop's office in Washington. And what they do is subsidize the salary and benefits for full-time police officers working in the School District. They call them school resource offices, is what they call them. They subsidize them for three years and either the School District or the Police Department would pick up the fourth year.
Our thinking here on that initiative is, it's federally funded for three years. We would make a request for 30 officers. We would then have teams of -- 15 teams of two, and then we could deploy those teams to schools where we've been having problems in those areas. For example, 117 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Overbrook has done a wonderful job. The leadership of the Overbrook school, it's done a spectacular job. But in the area around the school, there has been a couple gun incidents, someone shooting at a student, and so there's been some gun incidents in that area. We've had the same problem -- well, the same thing at a school like Peirce. So what we would be able to do is, we would be able to deploy, say, teams of two police officers to a school that was obviously in a problem area or that was being plagued with a lot of illicit activity so you would have the police officers -- a form of community policing at the entrance of that school during admission and dismissal time.
Because I see a fine job that you all do up at CEP and Edison where the CEP students and the Edison students sort of intersect at different times, and it's scary there if you don't realize what's going on, but CEP handles it, Edison handles it, and there's some Philly cops there, but there's mostly your people and they 118 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 do a good job. Now, on this, this is my last question. I saw this thing on Fox 29 last week, and I'm sure you did, about the CEP girls traveling downtown and on the El.
Yes. They were fighting with the charter school kids with belts and all. They get prosecuted just like they were in school?
Yeah. Well, let me point out that CEP is just not a school that serves students from Philadelphia who have been expelled from their neighborhood high schools. They take private school kids --
Mr. Vallas, let me say, I'm not one of those that are down on CEP. I think CEP does a good job. No matter where you put CEP, there's going to be the students --
Those kids will be 119 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 arrested and they'll be prosecuted. The problem you run into with CEP is, if you've expelled the student to CEP and that student obviously violates CEP's Zero Tolerance policy, where do you expel them to? Where does CEP send its students? But the bottom line is, yeah, they can be subject to arrest and prosecution, obviously. What we do is, if charter schools are having problems with students, even if those students do not come from one of our running administrative schools, we will send support teams out there. Veronica Joyner School had some problems about a year ago with some of the kids from Ben Franklin, and we were able to provide her with some support. She notified us about her problems with CEP, and Dexter has gone out there not only to meet with SEPTA and the police, but also to try to help her basically protect her students. So we've been -- even though CEP is a privately run school, we still take 120 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 responsibility, particularly when CEP students are doing something that impact our public school students or our charter school students.
And I'm sure you know this and everyone here has watched CEP. The problem with CEP students is probably not when they're in school. I'm sure the experts will tell you, and I'm far from it, is getting to school, changing classes, and I know they eliminate most of that, and getting them out of school, that's the problem.
What we're trying to do with our alternative schools program next year is to expand the number of alternative schools so we're decentralizing where the alternative school population is. When you have that many students concentrating in a single building, that creates problems. So as you know, we'll be opening up Miller, which will be a CEP-run school; Boone, which has been taken over by Camelot; Delaware Valley High School has just opened up. There 121 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 are a number of other schools in the pipeline that will be open and will be accepting kids. So we can kind of spread the kids out. What we're also doing with CEP is, we've talked to CEP about setting up some sort of a transportation system so that the students aren't just leaving CEP and then getting on mass transit or then taking SEPTA. We would provide bussing for the students to and from CEP. So we're talking about the possibility of coming up with some sort of bussing solution to help them address some of their problems.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First, Mr. Vallas, real quick. I meant to mention this to you in my opening comments. Over the weekend, we read about the 122 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 great success and performance of the students at Overbrook High School, and there was some recognition for their statewide championship here in Council. I think I was out of town at the time, but I know my colleague, Councilman Ramos, had introduced a resolution. I want to congratulate you and the District. These kinds of performances help to reinforce many of the great things that go on in school that many people who like to talk about public education somehow either miss or overlook or have no awareness of. So congratulations to you and the District for Overbrook High School's success. Mr. Harris, I want to finish and then move on to some other questions. Why don't we try to do it a little quicker. Total revenue at 1.8 billion?
Total obligations at 1.8 also with what appears to be a $7 million deficiency?
Tell me 123 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 very quickly about the 33 and the 19.
The other financing sources net are basically proceeds from the use of Swaption proceeds that we have -- and advanced refundings that we have undertaken this year. The net that you see, the reduction of the reflects basically -- I'm sorry. 10 The other financing uses net would be the 11 comporance (ph) of day care subsidy that we're 12 taking back out of this, leaving us with a 13 fund balance of 131,729. 14
The 20 is a change 17 in reserve. Basically what we're doing is, 18 we're recognizing up top in the non-local tax 19 revenue $25 million from the sale of the buildings. The SRC has requested that this be spread out over five years through the course of the plan, so we're putting 20 of the 25 in reserve, so we're backing that out. And that is generating the $13 million initial deficit that we are working to correct over the next 124 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 couple years.
Did I see in another document that you're spreading out the over four years and taking a positive? 6
Right. 9 Don't go to 39 yet. 10 So on the one hand, you're showing 11 for FY05 a $13 million deficit. On the other 12 hand, you're showing a fund balance positive 13 of $118 million; is that correct? 14
Right. That takes 15 into account the proceeds from the deficit 16 financing that is still -- the fund balance 17 that you see is the proceeds from the deficit 18 financing. And as we work through that, that 19 will obviously come down over the years. What 20 we're trying to do is maintain that as long as possible.
So what's 125 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the amount that is unspent from the deficit financing from a couple years ago?
And when we go to , what do you anticipate it to be in FY05?
FY05, this year we anticipate using approximately 44 of that and we'll begin the next fiscal year with 131.
That's correct. I don't mean to walk you through the math. I apologize.
That's okay. 126 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Our anticipation, though, is that we will not use that deficit financing in the FY05 budget. We expect that -- we are making every effort to attempt to have a balanced budget this year so that we can maintain that 131.7 into the beginning of FY06 and work from there.
And so through FY08, you're showing, which I'm assuming you then start to use, the deficit financing proceeds again for six, seven and eight?
And you then expect to have a fund balance at the end of '08 of $10.2 million positive and in FY09 you're anticipating, without any further intervention, having a negative fund balance of $46 million?
That is our current projection, but, again, with many years and many still unrealized opportunities we believe over the coming weeks and years, our goal is obviously to make that -- erase 127 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that.
Also, if I can add, we have identified in our projection a number of revenue expenditures we should set, but we have not factored it into the budget yet, in part because they haven't been finalized and one or two or maybe even all of them could become reality. But we feel confident that we're going to be able to make another $13 million adjustment in our bottom line, either from an expenditure reduction or revenue adjustment side. And, of course, if we do that this year and you multiply $13 million over the next four years in terms of base adjustments, what it means is that we would not hit that cliff until 2009 as opposed to 2008. So making that final $13 million adjustment, which we're very confident we're going to be able to do within the next couple of weeks, will defer that cliff, so to speak, until really the end of the year of fiscal year '09 as opposed to fiscal year '08.
Madam 128 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Chair, I need to make a desperate appeal to the Chair that none of my time gets charged based on the lengthy response from our quite eloquent CEO. I was right on the verge of actually being able to ask another question and he just took my time away.
It's a new strategy picked up from the Administration. I'll come back.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mr. Vallas and Mr. Harris.
Good afternoon, actually. I have a couple of questions, but I 129 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 do want to follow up on some of the questions that my colleagues asked regarding school safety. I think when I read your -- I don't know whether it was in your testimony or whether it's in this little black book that the vice principal of a school is the safety director. That's true?
Right now, no. 11 The goal next year is to have someone designated as being responsible for safety and security and having full responsibility for that. It could be an assistant principal, it could be a Dean of students. It really depends on what the school has available.
Okay. And I want to make some comments on CEP. I attended CEP in March for a program during Women's History Month and I found that audience, who was all females, to be extremely attentive, they participated, they asked lots of questions, and I was quite impressed with the behavior of those students at CEP. I was at another middle school in my 130 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 district a couple weeks ago during an anti-violence assembly in the auditorium and the audience was quite different. So we were really impressed when we left CEP. When I went to Houston, Texas prior to CEP coming here to Philadelphia, there was a delegation of people that went at various times to Houston to look at the CEP program there. One of the things that I thought was important, and I'm glad to hear you say this morning, that you're considering providing transportation for those students to and from school, because that was a large part of what we thought was really good. So I was glad to hear that. And the crisis intervention teams, is that the PanA and -- just who are they?
PanA is included. Well, first of all, we have in-house crisis personnel, but we also contract out with community-based organizations like Pan, the Interfaith participates. I think there is close to about a dozen community groups that provide us with crisis intervention help in 131 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 the individual regions. So it's not limited to Pan. But Pan plays a larger role than most community-based organizations in assisting us in crisis intervention.
I'd like to know who those community-based groups are and what --
Because you know there's a couple schools in my district that really have some safety issues going on here, and other than Pan, I don't know that anybody else has actually interacted with us and our group to deal with some of the issues that we're dealing with there. I do know that the principals and I know there's a lot of parents that are going to the school, one particular school, every day trying to volunteer. So I just want to get more 132 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 information about the District safety initiatives so we can figure out how we can use them to help us when we're dealing with the issues of violence. And in our area, in my area in particular, in the Northwest, it seems like the gangs are starting to resurface, whereas for a while the gangs weren't really a big problem here in Philadelphia. But we keep hearing more and more that this gang or that gang is fighting each other. So that's been a worry for us. So I'd just like to get more information, but I do want to also talk to you about the curriculum as it relates to computer instruction. Can you tell us what they're actually teaching children? When I first came to Council, I used to ask questions about, Around how many computers are actually in a classroom or in a school, does every school have computers. And I know that many schools do have computers, but what is the goal, what is the competency goal and the instruction designed around computer instructions for students at the elementary? 133 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 And the reason I ask that is because I know a lot of young people that just don't know how to use a computer other than to go into the Internet to pull information out, and I think it's important that they know a little bit more than that.
Well, let me make -- very quickly, and I apologize if my answers are a little longer, but sometimes the questions are pretty comprehensive. Our game plan is to incorporate computer training into all of our instructional techniques, particularly at the middle grade and the high school level. In fact, our goal with the incoming freshmen next year is, we want our freshmen when they reach their senior year not only to have a high school diploma, but also to have a computer certification; for example, like a Microsoft Office certification and to have a financial literacy certification. So the objective here is, you get your high school diploma, your computer certification and your financial literacy 134 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 certification. If we accomplish those things, the kids will go on -- will have made a lot of progress. But I'm going to ask Pat to talk specifically in terms of our investment and technology resources into the elementary schools, because if you don't have computers and if you're not wired for the Internet, you can't do too much computer training.
I'll try to answer quickly since I know we're out of time on this question. Specifically, to answer your question about what are children learning, as we've done in developing a core curriculum for both literacy and math, we have developed a core curriculum for technology. This is new for the District. We have developed a curriculum that actually starts at pre-K, goes through 8. We are piloting it this spring and we'll roll out that technology to all of our schools starting in September. We have technology academies in each 135 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 one of our high schools, and as Mr. Vallas said, we are developing a curriculum for the early years of high school. We're looking at a program called the International Computer Driver's License, which is a program that has a full set of skills expectations for our students in the early years. With regard to computers, it varies depending upon the school. We had a very decentralized management of our computer base, so that you had some schools that were more active in installing computers than others. Our average right now is about seven children to one computer. We're looking through the capital program to reduce that ratio so that we have an adequate infrastructure of computers that's equitably distributed among all of our schools, and every one of our classrooms is wired for the Internet. We are expanding our technology infrastructure to actually increase speed. We have our children using the Internet so much that we're actually out of bandwidth. So 136 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we're expanding that.
That's really good and the District has come a long way, but the children are actually learning actual programs? Because that's really what's needed. Because I've talked to a lot of young people that just really didn't know much about the operation of a computer other than how to research and look something up. Okay. Thank you. I know my time is up.
It's interesting what Councilwoman Miller said about computers. Is there a program where -- it's great that they have access to a computer at school, but once they leave that environment, there's no computer in many cases. 137 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Is there anything going on that we could eventually hope that our young people that -- they become supportive of computers at school but then when they get home, they're out of business.
We as a school district have found that we cannot afford to buy brand new computers to the extent that we'd like to just even within the school. We have begun a program where we are placing refurbished computers both in our schools and beginning to start placing them in our homes to overcome the digital divide. What a refurbished computer allows us to do is take computers that are in reasonably good shape from our various community partners, large organizations, universities, corporations in the Philadelphia area. We have a consortium of not-for-profit organizations, there are four of them that will take these computers, fix them up, install software licensing on them, and we the School District can purchase them at the not-for-profit's cost, which is approximately 138 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 $150, a considerable savings for a very good device as compared to what it would cost us to buy a brand new computer. We have been able to attract almost 3,000 computers since we began this program last August. We focused first on giving them to our teachers, because we found very many teachers didn't have computers, and if the teachers can't use the computers, it's unlikely that they'll engage the children in doing that as well. But we have a lot of technology that we're placing in the classroom, both for the children but to relieve the administrative burden of the teachers. We've got online report cards. We've got online IEPs. And our secondary effort then is, once we've given them to the teachers, is to start sending them home with our students that are in our high school technology programs to help mom and dad learn to use a computer.
Well, I'd suggest somebody talk to this City Administration, because I understand that 139 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we're just throwing computers away.
No. I have worked very closely with Diana Neff and her office, and actually, we're working with DHS who is giving us the first round of their computers, which is about 800. We're very excited.
That's a relatively new relationship, because I was told by someone that knows that it was a shame to see what was happening to some of the old computers that were in this government. Thank you. Thank you for that, Madam Chair.
Do you 140 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 know whether the schools managed by Edison -- when Edison was here prior to your coming and we were having Council hearings, they said that one of the things that they do is to give each one of their students a computer. Do you know if Edison group is actually doing that?
No, they haven't, and part of the reason for that, at least as they explained it, is, they did not receive all the money that they had anticipated receiving which would have enabled them to have done that. I'm not making excuses for them, because that arrangement kind of pre-dated me in terms of those negotiations. But while they're bringing technology into the classroom and they're incorporating it into the classroom, I think in an effective way, the Edison children do not have one computer per student. Their ratios is probably similar to ours, about one computer for every seven students.
Actually, they said they were giving them to them to take home. 141 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Yes. I want to talk to you about the alternative schools. What kind of curriculum is used in the alternative schools for children who are problem students?
I'm going to ask Gwen Morris to come up. She runs our alternative schools and she can answer.
Also, how long does this child stay in an alternative school? If they show any progress in behavior or whatever the problem is, do they go back or can they go back to the regular neighborhood school?
Well, very quickly, all the students who attend the alternative schools are required to take our 142 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 tests and required to be taught to our standard, so just because they're put in alternative schools, it doesn't mean we don't pay attention to what those schools are doing academically, number one. Number two, the length that students spend in alternative schools depends on the offense. So, for example, if somebody is sent to an alternative school for physically assaulting someone or threatening to kill someone, obviously they're probably going to be in the alternative school forever. On the other hand, if someone is sent to an alternative school for selling drugs or for violating a lesser offense under the Zero Tolerance policy, they may only spend a semester in an alternative school. But go ahead, Gwen.
Good morning. My name is Gwen Morris. All of our alternative school providers must align their instructional program with the School District standards. So they deliver the same curriculum. They 143 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 also administer all of the standardized tests, PSSA, TerraNova. What they do often is supplement that curriculum with individualized computer-assisted instruction. So not only do they have the regular curriculum delivered, but to remediate that youngster's deficits, they will add a computer-assisted program to that youngster's academic program. When youngsters go into alternative schools, depending on the level of the violation, the state law requires if you bring a weapon, you are assigned to an alternative school for no less than one year. But there are quarterly reviews. The students receive report cards and we review those youngsters that are to be restored to the District every quarter to determine if that youngster has met both academic, behavioral and attendance goals, because quite often youngsters may not maintain good attendance if they're assigned to an alternative school.
What supportive services, other than the academic 144 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 curriculum, what other supportive services are in the alternative schools to provide some behavioral or mental health or those kinds of services?
Quite often our alternative schools -- and I'll talk about the privatized ones first -- the student-adult ratio is extremely reduced. So there's typically multiple adult classrooms where there is a behavior support staff assigned to each classroom. In addition, at one of our alternative schools, there is a school-based behavioral health clinic where not only can students but also students' families access services through that clinic, and that was through a collaboration with CBH and with DHS. So there is a behavioral health component. At the Boone School, there was a family center that has a very, very strong social service behavioral health component that we're going to make certain continues even after that building is taken over by another provider. 145 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 So the behavioral health component of their program is addressed and there's support staff that's designed to support those particular parties.
Also, in the coming year with the expansion of the alternative school's network, we're really trying to have schools tailored for specific students, schools that are focused on the more behaviorally disruptive students, where schools that focus on the less behaviorally disruptive students, special programs for disruptive primary grade students. So as we expand the network of alternative schools -- and CEP is a fine model and CEP is going to be taking a second building, which is Miller. But as we bring in more providers like Abraxas and Camelot and others, we'll be able to tailor our alternative school programs to meet the specific needs of that individual student based on that student's behavior and behavioral support needs.
Okay. 146 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Thank you very much. I have another question. As it relates to the health and welfare of our children, does the School District of Philadelphia have a comprehensive educational program curriculum that focuses on preventive measures; i.e., sexually transmitted disease testing, counseling, HIV/AIDS testing and counseling?
The answer to that is yes. As part of our science curriculum -- as part of our approach to standardize the science curriculum, our family health curriculum is also undergoing a reassessment and a review so that we can upgrade the quality of that curriculum. Also, let me point out that we've also begun, in partnership with the City's Department of Public Health, a testing program, voluntary testing program, to identify students who have chlamydia, gonorrhea, sexually transmitted diseases. And we actually tested 30,000 students last year, and all of those who were identified as positive were actually treated. And that 147 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 program is just not testing. It is accompanied by intensive educational outreach. So when we go out there to test, it's accompanied by a more intensive educational program on the dangers of and preventive measures to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
Can I follow up? Do you contract with organizations that provide services, and who are some of the organizations that you contract with?
Is Brenda Taylor here? Yes. The answer to that is yes. And Brenda Taylor, who is our Director of Specialized Education Services, can answer that question in terms of the type of organizations that we're working with.
I guess I was asking who is working with the students in terms of education on AIDS, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and things of that 148 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 nature?
We have organizations that work with us. However, we have a department, our Department of Health Services, Health and Phys Ed Services. Part of the curriculum is, they do AIDS prevention and sexually transmitted disease prevention curriculum within the health and PE programs.
Do you contract with the Health Department or any outside organizations?
But do you have any groups from like Bashe or any of the other --
We work with them. We meet with them on a regular basis. We have committees and groups that really support the effort.
149 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Flipping the coin on teacher quality, if you will. In fall 2000, I had hearings on school uniforms and so I'm curious to know -- I know that the School District wanted to transition into enforcement. So give us an update on where you are with regards to uniforms for children. And then anecdotally I hear from teachers how horrible some of the teachers in our schools dress, how what a poor example that is, and it was affirmed for me this past February when I spoke at the program for the teaching that the PFT has. And I've raised the question about school attire and learned that the PFT does not have a dress code. If we want children to do the right thing, we need to lead by example. So give us your perspective on that and what may need to be done.
Well, first, as you know, the School District does have a 150 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 uniform policy, and the enforcement has not been as aggressive as it should be. Next year, obviously, we're going to be stepping up efforts to enforce the uniform policy, just not in terms of color coordination, but also in terms of size. Because it's great to have a color-coordinated uniform, but if --
-- if it's three sizes too small or three sizes too big, that creates a problem. So as part of our campaign -- and we're going to begin our campaign to raise public awareness and parental awareness and community awareness about the discipline challenges that we face in the schools up a notch. We're actually going to begin the campaign in June. So June, July and August is going to be time spent to focus on the lesser offenses that can sometimes lead to more serious offenses.
Sure. 151 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Call it the Broken Glass Theory. If you get the graffiti off the walls and you clean up the broken glass, if you get at the petty crime, the more serious offenses won't come. And a big focus is going to be on proper uniforms, the proper wearing of uniforms, the proper attire. Concerning teachers, we have put on the agenda in our negotiations a request that every school have a policy governing teacher dress. So that the Building Committee in every school is going to be required to come up with a policy, a dress code policy, for the employees in that individual school. So whereas right now there is no 17 policy, all the schools would be required to, in fact, have a policy so we can address the issue of the attire among our professionals.
And I would be remiss not to add, in speaking with those teachers that attended that forum, I was enlightened to remember that gym teachers have to wear what they wear and kindergarten teachers have to dress in such a way where 152 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 they can get on the floor. But in that range, there has to be some consideration for appropriate dress.
I saw an 8th grade teacher the other day, Madam Councilwoman, that I thought was the PE teacher because of the sweats and everything. It was the 8th grade teacher. So the bottom line is, clearly the dress code can improve, and, obviously, that's one of the topics of our current negotiations.
Okay. One final series of questions around the equity piece. There is the teacher equity campaign. I just would like for you to comment on a couple of things. Providing extra incentives, what kinds of things is the School District talking about with regards to providing incentives to help teachers want to remain, experienced teachers, to remain in our high poverty schools?
Right now the School District does have a series of bonuses 153 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 and some incentives to have teachers locate in the more hard-pressed schools. Although the latter incentive is more limited, although the bonus there is available for anyone who obviously -- I think after year three or year four the bonus kicks in. But let me point out that our approach in this new contract negotiations is going to really be focused on providing professional development incentives. So teachers in the system, particularly new teachers and existing teachers, can be provided with heavy professional development subsidies to help encourage retention. Because a lot of teachers who enter the system, the biggest challenge that they face in those initial years, because they're required to take additional courses to achieve full certification, is the cost of paying for college so that they can reach those professional development objectives. So a lot of the focus of our efforts is going to be focused on this area of providing more comprehensive professional 154 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 development subsidies. What that will do is, that will help the teacher from a career standpoint, give them the incentives to stay in the school, because professional development will be subsidized. For us, it will make for a better-equipped, better-prepared teacher.
Hi. Tomas Hanna, Office of Recruitment and Retention. One of the areas we're looking at is how do you attract that teacher who is certified, who potentially has been in a -- let's call the school Baldi 7th grade teacher. How do you attract a teacher to Gillespie, to a hard-to-staff middle school? We do have bonuses on the front end. We have bonuses after about three years. You can collect a bonus, a retention bonus, of $3,000 in your 37th month. What we have yet to do is put together a bonus that would bring that teacher from this school to the school that most needs them. There are bonuses for hard-to-staff positions. So, for example, in special 155 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 education, a teacher who would come in has an opportunity for that bonus. I think one of the challenges that we have is sort of publicizing that a little better. Because there are a number of bonuses in place, but that teacher quality bonus is one we need to look at and maybe restructure the types of bonus we have in place to fund this other potential.
I see. Well, we heard the bell. So I'll get you on the next round. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Vallas, before I ask this question on the capital improvements, could you tell me whom I should be expecting a call from on the Carver School issue?
Yes. Tim Schweitzer will call you, along with Karen Burke, and we'll send out -- no final decision 156 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 has been made, because we have to -- we promised the community we would go back to them and consider their requests that Carver remain at that same site. So I don't want to suggest that the dye was cast. If we build on that site, we can build now as opposed to later, and I do apologize for my --
Tim Schweitzer and Karen Burke or Chris Harris from operations, very quickly, will get to you to talk to you about the options.
All right. In the book that was circulated yesterday on the participation plan on capital improvements, I'm trying to get some clarity on it. In one sentence you reference participation goals of 20 percent MBE and WBE all inclusive, but then you talk about the capital improvement plan has released RFPs with the combined goals of 27 percent and the projected actual combined participation will 157 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 be 32 percent. Give me some clarity on the numbers.
I'm going to ask Karen Burke to come up, who is our Director of Operations, who can actually give you specific numbers on not only what the goals are, but what we've achieved so far.
And if the time runs out as the response proceeds, a follow-up on that, can you break down the participation, the MBE versus WBE and DBE? Because it sometimes can be misleading when you combine them.
Yes, we can, Councilman. I'll be happy to get those numbers back to you. On that figure that's there, by project your MBE/WBE objective or goal out there can vary by project depending on local area dynamics out there. The 20 percent represents sort of in the aggregate -- 158 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Well, what it is is that there are certain, if you will, tasks out there or portions of a project that would have more oomph for MBE/WBE development in the project. So when you see the percent, our 10 projects aren't all 20 percent. Sometimes the 11 projects can go to 30 percent, 35 percent. 12 They took an aggregate in the first round of 13 the capital program and said, Okay, the 14 objective was 20 percent. But we've always 15 come in well above that, and I think we owe it 16 to some really good staff and our purchasing 17 department and Kim Sangster that has worked 18 with vendors. And so our vendors find a 19 willingness to come in at a much higher 20 percentage, and that's the difference, Councilman.
Let me ask you a question, because when you said it's the 159 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 local aspect of the participation and you talked about certain, as you use it, oomph, does this mean that in areas where traditionally the ability to get minority participation on a particular job site or particular trade, that you will accept the history of that inability to get minorities because you say that --
No. Kim can address that, of how they do that. And we know time is of the essence to stay with the five minutes, so Kim will answer that one.
Hello. I'm Kim Sangster. I'm the Chief Procurement Officer for the School District. We have a relationship with the City of Philadelphia through their MBEC program for all contracts over $100,000. What we do is, we send the specifications to the City, and that includes construction projects where they will on a case-by-case basis determine what the appropriate M/WBE participation will be. So with each project --
MBEC 160 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 determines that?
Yes, they do. So it will vary from project -- yes, they do.
And that will set the minimum, let me point out. And so far in most cases, we've always exceeded the minimum. For example, the CMs, the construction manager of contracts, which could total as much as $25 million and the MBE/WBE response to that was in the, what was it, the mid 30's, Kim?
Yes. For the construction projects, the participation amounts have been higher than some of our other types of contracts, but they determine on a case-by-case basis what the statistical market of minority and women-owned businesses will show for that particular contract.
And that governs, I want to stress, that governs the minimum of what we award, and so far we've been exceeding numbers and expectations and we will probably continue to do that. We also don't double count. 161 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
I just want to get a question in. Is the percent 4 participation goal set by MBEC or is that done 5 by the School District? 6
No. That was 7 done internally by the School District as a 8 review of our past performance on M/WBE 9 participation and an analysis of the different 10 types of contracts we have, which include 11 construction, supplies and equipment and 12 professional services. 13
I have to point 17 out, if I can, Mr. Chairman, only because 18 obviously the question deserves a longer 19 answer. 20 Because MBEC kind of sets the floor for these projects individually, the actual aggregate amounts are exceeding 20 percent. For example, what we've been doing on a construction site is like in the low to mid 30's, and we anticipate that number will 162 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 continue. I will tell you, though, we're moving from a district that had like three percent MBE/WBE to -- well, since the start of our programs, I think we're well above the 7 percent in terms of new contracts being 8 awarded. So we're kind of working our way out 9 of a very deep ditch. 10
If you can 11 get me a breakdown on the MBE/WBE versus DBE, 12 that will be extremely helpful. 13
Also, we can 14 provide the Council with a monthly report that 15 I receive on MBE/WBE progress. Sandra Dungee 16 Glenn requests this as part to our monitoring 17 plan, and we'll be more than happy to submit 18 that to you. 19 It lays out what we're awarding by 20 subject area and the MBE/WBE breakdown. I'll make sure Kim submits that, obviously, to you, Councilman Clarke, and to the Chair.
You're welcome. We have been involved, Mr. Vallas, in some meetings with regard to crime in schools and we're happy to continue with that, with Victim Witness Services, DA. So we have a tight system on what we do. Right now sometimes I think we send a zillion people and sometimes we send less, but we're happy to work in that regard. It's one of my areas of interest. Councilman Goode?
Good afternoon, Mr. Vallas. Can you update me on the status of the African-American studies curriculum within the School District?
Yes. 164 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 And I'm going to ask -- if you can come up.
Good afternoon. Mary Lou Fischer, Director of Curriculum representing Cecilia Cannon, the officer for curriculum instruction and professional development. The African-American studies lead position has been filled by Dana King, and right now we are preparing a course in African and African-American studies for all students in the District, standardized for grades K through 5 for next year. That will be a module, if you will, or a unit of study that will go out throughout the school year. There also is development for the high school, and the high school office might better address that. But for the elementary school, we are also including the African and African-American historical and cultural perspectives in all of our social studies and science curriculum throughout the entire curriculum, not something that's added on.
I'll also point 165 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 out that the language arts curriculum is a multi-cultural curriculum. So in establishing the standards and in developing the curriculum instructional models, the emphasis was on multi-culturalism. So in addition to the development of specific courses, not only K through 5, but middle grades and in the high schools, we are integrating Afrocentric studies, as well as other aspects of multi-cultural curriculums into our language arts, into our literature. If you go beyond and you look at the textbooks that we're purchasing, the textbooks that we're purchasing are probably the most multi-cultural textbook selection of any school district in this country. We've actually taken the bold step to actually begin to contract out with minority textbook publishers and providers, so that to give them basically a piece of the pot or a share of the action, so to speak. In fact, just last year our selection of our 8th grade literature textbook received some criticism -- and, incidentally, 166 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 this was a literature textbook of all Afro-American authors -- because of some of the contents of a couple of the stories. So the bottom line is, I think we've gone further I believe than any other school district in the country to not only develop specific courses on Afrocentric studies, on Afro-American history, but also to develop -- to integrate into our curriculum and instructional models and into our curriculum and instructional materials true multi-culturalism in terms of the content.
So you expect that curriculum to be standardized within the next school year?
Well, the language arts curriculum has been standardized. And if you look at the textbook supplements, even, for example, the Hundred Books and the Great Books, we mandated that both the Hundred Books Challenge and the Great Books be multi-cultural. So that the Hundred Books Challenge and the books that they were recommending that the students read and the 167 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Great Books include multi-culturalism. So the bottom line is, the language arts curriculum has already, in effect, achieved the goals that we set out for. We are developing the independent courses, though, and those are going to be implemented next year, particularly in our high schools. With regards to the social studies curriculum, the social studies curriculum is indeed multi-cultural, not only teaching African-American history but teaching African history as part of world history. That will be introduced into the middle grades next year and into the high schools next year through 11th grade and then from K to 5 the following year. But our task force is multi-cultural and there's been a lot of slugfests as we've been hammering out the standards and things like that, but I'll compare -- I'll give you samples of what we've put out in language arts and social studies, and I think -- we're not satisfying everybody, but I'll tell you, I'll 168 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 compare the quality of our curriculum with everybody.
Have you given any thought to how you might utilize the African-American Museum to either complement or enrich that curriculum?
Yes. We've actually met with the Museum on a couple of occasions to talk about how we can more effectively coordinate some our efforts. So the answer is yes.
I believe prior to you coming, I don't know if it was when you first came or right before you came, the School District was experiencing a financial crisis. They terminated their financial relationship with the Museum, but the School District actually at one point used to subsidize the membership for public school students to attend the Museum on a regular basis. Do you expect to have any formal relationship with the Museum in terms of getting access for public school students? 169 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
I think we talked about a variety of issues. I'll get back to you specifically on what the contents of those issues were, but we've talked about attendance, we've talked about participation, we've talked about liaisons. Not that we want to restore all the Museum liaisons that the School District once had, but at least having an office, our Office of Cultural Affairs, who can liaison with basically museums and cultural institutions. But I'll get you a summary of what we've talked about since we got started, but our conversations have actually gone beyond just the African-American Museum. We've met with the Marian Anderson Society, for example, and a number of other institutions to partner with for purposes of enhancing our curriculum and supplement our curriculum.
You're welcome. Councilman Nutter? 170 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
First, Mr. Vallas and Mr. Harris, it would be, again, just kind of speaking for myself, it would be tremendously helpful if both at budget time and then I'll talk about other times -- I don't know when these books were produced, but I think we got the big white ones and possibly the smaller ones on Friday.
I think you received the large document on Wednesday. I believe it was delivered here on Wednesday, a week ahead of time, which I think is traditionally what happens. The executive summary/overview, I think, was here on Friday, if I'm not mistaken.
That's what I was talking about. The PowerPoint document was here on Friday, I do believe. 171 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
The larger point I guess is, whenever you produce them, it would be helpful to get them a little earlier. I'm sure you probably know, this year our process started much later. We got our City budget much later. So we're still in the midst of that and doing a few things on taxes and the like. So getting some of your information a little earlier would be helpful. The second is, the smaller book, what are you calling this?
You can call it an executive summary or an overview of the document.
Again, not to drive up your printing costs, but, I mean, there's a lot of good information both in this book and the smaller black book, and I would only suggest to you, maybe talk about it back at the shop, actually a bit of a mid-year what's going on with the School District with some of this information I think would also be very helpful.
Be happy to. I 172 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 hope this document actually was more useful than what we've presented last year, and we certainly would like to do quarterly or mid-year updates.
That would be good. Thank you. Let me ask you about the line item from with regard to the sale of administration buildings. I know it's 21st and the Parkway. I think it's -- what's that address, 734 Schuylkill?
The third building is the Stevens Building. It's a building that houses early childhood education. Its address is --
Doesn't 173 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that have that incredible mural on it?
You might want to check on that. What's the total proceeds from the sale of the three properties? Is that the 20?
Total proceeds of the sale will be million, ballpark. That 15 appears to be what's under contract and what 16 we should expect. We expect that the closing 17 will happen -- it's scheduled to happen, I 18 believe, September of '04 to consummate the 19 deal. So that's why we were recognizing the 20 full 25 this year, but then, like I said, 21 spreading out the -- putting 20 in reserve to 22 be used over a course of the next four years. 23
Yes, because what 174 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we did was, we recognized the 25 in the revenues and we netted 20 back out there in the bracket and then spread that 20 over the next four years. So we absorbed five into the '05 column.
Okay. And you are then going to consolidate everyone into space on North Broad Street?
The all-in project cost is 80 million. I did not bring the detailed project budget with me. It is a project under project management with the SRC and we can bring you the project detail and project budget from that.
The purchase of the building, yes. We're in the process of doing build-out right now and actually to take possession of the building, I believe, moving 175 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 December of '04.
No. It's going to be at least an eight-month process to, I think, fully move everybody from the three buildings.
I'm sorry. Well, what did you say was going to happen in December?
I think we will take possession of the building, officially purchase the building and take possession of it. Right now the contractor is doing interior build-out and tenant improvements and going through that phase right now.
I think IT starts moving in in December of '04 and the final move-out will be somewhere around August of '05. I'm doing this off the top of my head, but I believe that's the schedule.
And you 176 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 said the total project. Is that renovations plus purchase price?
I don't recall -- again, I did not bring that project budget with me. If I say a number, I'm going to guess. I think it was around -- but let 11 me -- if you indulge me, I'll get the actual 12 project budget back to you, because I don't 13 want to misstate for the record. 14
We have secured 17 $80 million in financing. We have taken as 18 part of our capital -- not as part of our 19 capital improvement program, but as part of 20 two of our borrowings this year -- actually, it's spread across three borrowings. I apologize. We took 20 million out of our Dauphin County initial borrowing, 20 million out of our state public school building 177 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 authority borrowing and the SRC has authorized us to engage in an additional hundred million dollar borrowing from Dauphin that we'll take another 40 out of. So total is $80 million that we have borrowed for this project.
No. This is like any other capital improvement. I mean, we are using it for the purchase and build-out of the property.
Yes, we do. Again, that's built into the project budget. I do apologize. I just didn't bring that with me. It's not intentional, but it's built in.
Can you provide to the Chair all the information related to that?
Absolutely. Yes. It absolutely has an operational savings as well as a debt service cost to it. 178 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Also, notice I decided not to provide any commentary on that question.
I greatly appreciate that. I really do. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. I have a couple of questions regarding teachers and certification, recruitment and retention. And in your comments in the black book, the School District of Philadelphia Budget Presentation book, you say that, under Certification for 2004, percentage of new teachers highly qualified is at 73 percent. What is the School District's definition of highly qualified teachers and what are the educational requirements? 179 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Highly qualified refers to a teacher who is certified by the state, number one. Number two, the state is also allowing us to include as highly qualified a teacher who is in an approved intern certification program. So, for example, the teachers who we brought in from Teach for America, the 97 who are with us, they are considered highly qualified because they are under intern certificates. That means they've taken most of their licensing exams, most of the Praxis exams. They are not fully certified, but it's what we refer to as the No 16 Child Left Behind highly qualified loophole where you're not fully certified, but you got most of the work done.
Okay. What is the salary range of a highly qualified teacher, the certified teachers?
I'd say about 90 percent of our teachers are considered highly qualified. So you're talking about on the high side of the spectrum. 180 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Right. The salaries start at about 35, 36,000. I think actually 37. $37,000 plus, and they can run into the 60's. They top out at about $68,000, I thought which was the top. There may be some exceptions to that, but they range from about 37,000 to about $68,000.
What is an emergency permit? And you said emergency permits are at 27 percent. What is the process for issuance of an emergency permit?
An emergency permit is issued when, let's say, a person who wants to change careers comes into the District. We apply for an emergency permit for them. They are enrolled in a certification program, but have yet to complete the Praxis exams. So they are not in an approved certification program, although they are in an approved program at a local university.
Okay. So how long does that permit last? How long is it valid?
It varies. I mean, 181 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we have up to two years where the state allows us to issue emergency permits for teachers.
All right. Thank you. I have other questions, but I'm just going to wait until Monday, Madam Chair.
That will be fine. I think we have Councilwoman Brown and Councilman Nutter and then we're going to recess until then, unless they would like to wait until Monday. Their choice. All right. Councilwoman Brown and then, Councilman Nutter, it will be your turn. Councilwoman Miller, it's up to you, but Monday would be fine. Councilwoman Brown?
Sure. I'll go back to the issue of arts education. I do know that -- no. Let me go back to the issue of violence in the schools. We learned last week that the District Attorney's $100,000 for her truancy program is very much in jeopardy because of cuts to her department, and my side-bar 182 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 conversation with her was to have a conversation with you since we know -- we know what happens if we catch young people at the truancy stage and what doesn't happen. Have you had a chance to have a conversation with District Attorney Lynn Abraham around the potential discontinuation of that program?
I met with her a couple of weeks ago at the request of Representative Evans, who is the point person on this legislative task force, to come up with solutions for problems of violence in the community, and we touched on that, but we actually went over a whole host of proposals that we're going to present collectively to that committee. So we actually -- I view this working group -- because they're scheduled to reconvene, I believe, later on this month and, in fact, it's my understanding that it may be hosted by the Governor. But we were tasked with coming up with specific recommendations that the 183 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Legislature could respond to designed to alleviate violence in the communities, and I believe the funding for that will probably be one of those items.
Yeah. I'm sure that will be on a list of a number of things that we will request to the Legislature that they provide support for. Because if you remember in -- not only was Lynn Abraham there, but Sylvester Johnson was there, U.S. Attorney Neeham was there, Vince Fumo, John Perzel and others.
They said specifically that they will fund initiatives that they feel can have a positive impact. So we're going to include that item among a list of recommendations that we're going to submit to the task force.
The reason why that resonates for me is, when I hear in 184 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 your testimony that the number of young people in the alternative schools is going from 850 to, I think you said, 3,500, it just -- it begs the question for the need for a truancy program.
I agree. There's 2,800 students in alternative placement right now. Let me point out that about half of those students, they're in alternative placement because of Act 88, which bars us from allowing individuals who have been released from correctional facilities to return to their neighborhood schools. So that's why the number is what it is. But I agree with you 100 percent, we have got to invest more resources in truancy, and the School District can't do it alone. So I'm with you, and that is one of a number of initiatives that we're going to at least present to the working group when they meet again later on in the month.
Okay. The bell hasn't rung yet, so let me go to arts. I learned that the Art Museum at one 185 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 point prior to your arrival, the Philadelphia Public School District supported two arts teachers at the Museum for an after-school arts program, wonderful program, and that no 6 longer exists. So I am asking you, as you move to achieving the operational budget goals of the next five years, if you will relook at and particularly as you move to standardizing the arts curriculum, relook at the possibility of involving the Philadelphia Art Museum and their two art teachers that they had there.
Before this budget is done, we'll get back to you specifically on that proposal.
Okay. Vocational programs: To what extent is training in the vocational trades offered in our schools? A lot of questions have been raised around the decline of vocational training options for young people.
Let me respond very quickly, and just indulge me with the answer here because some of these questions require more than a yes or no answer. 186 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 We're revamping vocational ed like we're revamping everything else. Those who have said vocational ed have declined are absolutely right, not only in terms of quantity but also in quality. Our approach towards vocational ed is to, first of all, get rid of the junk that's there and to reinvest in the programs that work, number one. Number two, expand our relationship with the academies, the Philadelphia academies, but expand that relationship in the legitimate programs, because every program can be streamlined. Number three, to expand the number of out-of-school placements for our vocational education. Craig Williams is joining me quickly. What we want to do is, we want to buy classroom space in vocational and technical educational institutions off campus. So that when you're in your junior and senior year, just as we're enrolling seniors in universities for dual credit, we want to begin, and we've begun this this year and 187 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we're going to be expanding it next year, we want to enroll our juniors and seniors in off-campus vocational and technical educational programs. This is one of the reasons we're partnering with city colleges, community colleges in setting up like a five-year high school diploma and Associate's degree program. The final thing that we're going to do, if you can just indulge me, is, we are obviously going to build a new Dobbins High School and perhaps revamp Bok so we can have more quality vocational educational programs. So Dobbins in particular is on the drawing board. We're going to, in effect, replace the old school with a new school on that same campus, and we've already approached a number of the trades, including Johnny Dougherty and others, to basically put together a planning group so when it's built, there is no --
There's a pipeline. They help us design it, they help 188 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 us equip it, they help us staff it. So those are the things that we're going to be doing and that we've begun to do in vocational ed.
That addresses my final question on that, what relationship is being put in place with the building trades so that we don't hear the horror stories we hear now, young people get the vocational training and there's no place for them to go.
That's right. I have to make one point, though. It's very important that the nature of vocational ed, just like the nature of automotive mechanics and as the nature of most blue collar jobs, they necessitate -- a prerequisite is 10th to 11th grade reading and math mastery. So the bottom line is, we've got to -- unlike 20, 30 years ago, there's no 22 substitute for mastery of math or mastery of language arts if our young people are even going to get into these vocational and technical education jobs. 189 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 In order to become an automotive mechanic, where or 30 years ago you didn't 4 need any technology skills, you need it now. 5 You didn't need math skills or language arts 6 skills. You need literally an 11th grade math 7 mastery to get into legitimate, quality 8 automotive mechanic programs, you see. 9 So a big focus on our curriculum 10 reforms will help expand vocational 11 opportunities for our kids, because they'll 12 have the prerequisites for getting into these 13 programs. 14
Did you 15 want to add anything, Mr. Craig Williams? 16
Yes. Craig 17 Williams, Deputy Chief Academic Office. 18 A tremendous amount of work has 19 already taken place with the upgrading of our 20 vocational and technical education programs. Currently we have about 179 programs throughout the City. This year we've made a substantial investment in the amount of equipment and the upgrading of supplies and all of the things 190 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that we know that are necessary to make those programs current. So we're well on the way, and we envision within a two-year framework that we would have developed some very serious quality vocational technical education programs with the kinds of laboratories and equipments needed that are necessary to carry those young people forward.
I visited Swenson and it's a five-star, in that it is well equipped and great options with the tools for those young people there. So to know that that's going to become universal with Bok and a couple of the others, that's progress.
Absolutely. We're very pleased with that. And might I note, I think Chairman Nevels indicated our new partnership with Sunoco where we're going to add there will be 180 programs with Sunoco with the Petroleum Academy that we're going to put in the Bok High School.
Very well. Thank you. 191 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Thank you, Madam Chair.
You're welcome. You will provide us with the minority participation goals for our new schools, too, correct?
Thank you. One small issue. Would you have somebody confirm that the Librarian Association is clear for games at West Philly High on Saturday, the 15th and Saturday, July 24th? They can call me on that.
Thank you. Councilman Nutter, you, sir, are the last speaker today.
That's a wonderful feeling. So, Madam Chair, I can have the rest of the afternoon?
That's a different question. 192 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Oh, okay. Mr. Vallas, we've established what the budget is. You and I have had some discussion about the individual schools. I don't want to talk about the one that we discussed the other day. What I do want to talk about is, I've received inquiries from a variety of schools in my district with regard to, quote/unquote, cuts in their respective budgets, and part of what I'm trying to grapple with here is, given the District's finances, which on the one hand are pretty decent, on the other hand realistically they are not perfect, why would certain schools be experiencing, quote/unquote, cuts in personnel areas, whether it's library services or music or art or some of the other programs. And so I'd like to frame the question in the context of, are there now standards for each school with regard to art, music, physical education, sports programs and library services that no 23 matter what else is going on in the school, there is a certain minimum amount of service that should be provided, and why would anyone 193 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 be getting a cut given the present fund balance of $118 million?
Right. Fund balances are designed to sustain budgets over multiple years, not a single year. So the worst thing you can do is spend on your fund balance in a single year. But let me point out that with regards to standards, there are now standards for our core curriculum subject areas, and we're in the process of developing or refining our standards for our art and music programs, which, incidentally, we're restoring, we're not cutting. There's no cuts in music teachers, there's no cuts in art teachers. The trick for us is trying to figure out how we can get more art and music teachers into the schools within our current budget constraints. And we're certainly going to be purchasing new musical instruments and things 194 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 like that. But let me point out with regards to libraries, there is not a standard for -- we do not provide libraries for the elementary schools. So if the libraries -- if there are librarians in -- I mean the librarians. If there are librarians in the elementary schools, it's because the schools have elected to have a librarian. They can have a librarian or they can have a LIMA, which is a --
Why wouldn't we have or insure that there is a librarian in an elementary school?
Well, quite frankly, because we would prefer to spend the money in class size reduction rather than putting libraries in all the schools. We can't afford it. So the old Board had eliminated all librarians throughout the School District. I restored the librarians in the high schools, but in the elementary schools, we decided to focus on class size reduction and we told the 195 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 schools that if they wanted to hire a librarian or a LIMA, which is like a less -- an aide. It's an aide who can also basically do elementary school librarian work. It's a less expensive position -- they would need to do so with their Title I money. So as you pointed out --
Isn't it true that some schools have also experienced changes in Title I funding, deseg funding and --
And based on very clear formulas. Let me point out that if schools lost money, this is how they lost money: The most obvious and the most major impact on their budgets is, if they lose students, they lose money. That's number one. Number two, a school's budget might have been affected by the modification in the Title I minimum funding guarantee. Last year we did something that was unprecedented. We 196 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 raised the minimum funding level for Title I students in all schools from $75,000 a school to $250,000. The argument being made that all of our schools have at least 37 percent poverty, so all of the schools should have some discretionary Title I money. And we also rationalized that by arguing that since we were pumping $90 million of support programs into the schools, that would be a small minimum standard to set. We were threatened with legal challenges from a number of organizations who claimed that we had no right to do this and claimed that -- well, whatever. So we decided to negotiate a compromise with them that, in effect, lowered that minimum funding level from 250,000 to 175,000. The bottom line is, it's still $100,000 higher than it was two years ago. It's just $75,000 lower than it was last year. That could have also affected some of the school's funding levels. The third way that schools might have had their funding impacted is, obviously 197 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 their Title I numbers change because of change in poverty. And then the fourth way that they might have been impacted is through the change in the special education formula. And what we did for the first time, long overdue, was, we said the special education monies are going to be allocated to the schools based on the number of special education kids, because under the old formula, schools got money based on the demographics. So you could be a magnet school with select enrollment and you would be getting a ton of money in special education dollars despite the fact that you only had a handful of special education kids. To hold the schools harmless through the changeover in this formula, we provided all the schools with, in effect, a funding guarantee. We provided them with at least 75 percent of all the money that they had received the previous year, and then we went into the individual budgets and made additional adjustments just beyond that 75 percent hold harmless so that we would 198 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 minimize the City's loss and the School District's loss in revenue. I have effectively run you out time. I apologize for that, but those are the four ways that the schools could have been impacted.
I appreciate your apology. I think, though, that we've reached that point in the day where the bell may not actually save you.
Thank you. Well, as I indicated, a number of schools in various parts of my district are reaching out, mostly parents, concerned about -- are we still providing what in the past was referred to as the non-teaching assistants or did we get rid of those a while ago? 199 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Last year we eliminated a number of SSA positions and literacy interns and we purchased 500 new teachers. But there's been no change in those positions this year. We haven't done any additional cuts this year. We haven't restored those cuts, because we have a lot of support staff in schools and better hire a teacher than have a literacy intern and an SSA, where we can afford to do that.
Supportive services, the teacher aides, teacher assistants, the positions that I thought you were referring to.
No. No. If schools are laying off NTAs, they're doing it on their own. We don't necessarily -- the schools get an allocation, but schools fund most of the NTAs themselves. They buy the NTAs themselves. 200 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Well, if they don't have them, why wouldn't they be providing them or why would they be getting rid of them? I mean, obviously, there's something going on at their individual school at the budget level that causes them to make these decisions.
If you give us the name of any one of those individual schools, I'll tell you specifically how much money they lost and why. And, once again, it's probably due to enrollment changes, number one. Number two, it might be due to the fact that the special education formula change might have impacted them, which is long overdue.
I understand that, but I thought I heard you earlier talk about a hold harmless provision and --
That doesn't mean -- I mean, they might have lost $20,000. That's the cost of an NTA. So while we held them harmless, we didn't hold them 100 percent harmless. We held them 75 percent harmless 201 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 with some adjustment above that.
Okay. Well, the two I have here are talking about NTAs, school police officers, assistant principal and the librarian. As I indicated, you and I have had other discussions about similar situations. So I guess what we may have to, unfortunately, do is go through each of the schools --
-- and see what's going on at the school level with regard to their budgets and what they have, what funding they have available for purchase of services and why they don't have certain things. Now, at the same time, I know we've had some discussion today about safety and security. Is there a safety or security plan for each individual school?
All the schools are supposed to have a school safety and security plan, just like they're supposed to have a school improvement plan. 202 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Okay. How often are they updated? How often are they reviewed?
So we know for a fact that each school has a safety and security plan?
Well, they better. We actually go in and we do evaluations. We do our own school audits. When we do quality reviews, we look at the school improvement plans, and that not only includes the academic plan, but the teacher recruitment and retention plan, as well as the safety plan or the student behavior plan.
In one of these documents, maybe it's the small black book, there is a section on safety and security. Tell me a little bit about, what happens out of these many incidents that are reported? I mean, some of which are obviously pretty serious. Half of them involve assaults on either other students or a teacher, and you've got hate crimes, bomb threats and a 203 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 variety of other issues. Tell me what happens or do you have any information with regard to, I guess, it's Tab 10? How many people have been prosecuted for these things and what were the results?
Dexter Green, School Safety. Last year alone, approximately 3,600 kids were arrested in our schools, and part of the reason we ended up on the persistently dangerous list was because of those arrests.
There are different levels of prosecution. In some cases, the cases are discharged. In other cases -- if the kid brings a gun to school, in most cases they're incarcerated.
Okay. Can you get to us, to the Chair, an analysis of -- you've got and in Tab 10 of the 204 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 small black book. I'd be interested to know what the follow-up is on these incidents.
And I'm going to let Ms. Morris take some of this. Again, some of this ends up in prosecution and then some of the cases will end up in disciplinary action -- all the cases end up in disciplinary action.
Let me point out that the reason that we have 2,800 students in alternative schools is regardless of what action the courts take regarding the students, even if they're arrested and they're found innocent, if they have violated school policies, that does not preclude them -- that does not prevent us from expelling them to alternative schools. So the reason we have 2,800 students in alternative schools, at least insofar as the schools' discipline policies are concerned, we're enforcing our discipline.
Okay. I just 205 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 wanted to add that in terms of those violent incidents, most of those youngsters are the youngsters in alternative schools. We're different somewhat with youngsters that are under the age of 10. Those youngsters cannot be arrested. Typically we will process those youngsters through the Office of Alternative Ed. If those youngsters are violent or dangerous to other students, we will remove those youngsters to other settings, but not to the traditional alternative schools.
For 2003-2004, you have a total of 5,424 incidents. Would you be able to provide to us since you've made a great distinction between the under 10 --
Could you split those out for these incidents just for that one year between the under 10 and over 10 category?
We could divide it 206 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 up K to by incident, the number of youngsters that were suspended, the number of youngsters that were expelled, and if there were other actions that were taken, we can provide that for you.
Okay. But you would do it based on the way you've laid out the chart?
Yeah. We do that. We should also try to break it out based on incidents that occur in the schools and outside the schools, because our discipline policy is hours a day, meaning if you're 16 caught with a dangerous weapon on Sunday, 17 you'll be facing expulsion on Monday. 18 I also want to point out, though, 19 for definition purposes, we probably have the 20 broadest definition of serious incidents in 21 terms of reporting requirements as any school 22 district in the country. So threats, throwing 23 an orange, I mean, the bottom line is, we're 24 very aggressive and we probably arrest more aggressively than any other school district, 207 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 too. That doesn't mean that the police follow up with a police arrest, but just one slight example, in Philadelphia, we arrest for every two and a half students. In Allegheny County, which is Pittsburgh, they have one arrest for every 95 serious incidents. So the bottom line is, we do a lot of follow-through, and even though you may not end up being arrested by the Philly police or prosecuted, we initiate disciplinary action so at least we have a record.
Okay. In going through your budget, even though I commented that I only received it the other day, your format is slightly different than the City format. So I could not for the moment find -- the way the City budget is laid out by department, you can go into the departmental detail and it will tell you about private contractual services and lay out who the contractor is, what it's for and the dollar amount. Quickly going through this, the big 208 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 book, I could not find that. Where would I find those kinds of contracts in this book?
I don't know that they are broken out that way in this book. I think there's a summary up front which we'll refer to, but while Wayne is looking for it, let me say that in all my years, this is the most unwieldy document I've ever seen. We are instituting a new budget program this year. It's currently underway, and we plan on next year to have a much more usable, readable, informative document. This simply is -- it doesn't provide -- I mean, it's a lot of pages without providing clear information, and I am not pleased with it myself. But it's what we inherited at the moment, so...
We're pleased with the budget. We're not pleased with the format. Next year we'll be pleased with the format.
The way we show it is not the best. 209 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Page A-24, it does not break out -- there's nowhere in this document that breaks out individual firms, contractors or contracts. We can provide that through the documents that -- our contracts through purchasing and our limited contract authority. Certainly we can provide you a whole report off of that, but it's not in the budget document.
A-24 has broken out professional and contractual expenses, computer contract expenses, contractual labor expenses, but I think that's as low as this detail goes on this.
So is there a document somewhere that would tell us -- you're estimating $14 million in professional and consultant expenses, plus another $16 million in professional and consultant fees. 210 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Yes. I can give you the background of that. It's not in this document, though.
It may be the difference between -- I don't know. Let me find out what the differentiation is. It may be the difference between law firms and other firms, but I don't know. So what we can do is give you the background report that supports these two numbers. Obviously they're exact numbers, so there's supporting documentation we can provide for you by Monday.
Is this page, A-24, a summary of all of your outside contracts?
Categorical budgets and capital. 211 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Is there a document somewhere in this budget that would show -- you said categorical and what else?
For instance, consultant contracts through -- if we consult with PEF, contract with Philadelphia Education Fund, under Title I or under any of the -- say the Accountability grant, that's not reflected here because those are categorical grants. This is simply operating.
They are not in 212 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 this document. This document does not incorporate categorical expenditures either.
I know you've only been there for a little while, but is this the same budget that goes to the SRC?
How can you put together a budget that doesn't show who you're contracting with?
Well, some of the contracts are going to be prospective. I mean, they'll be subject to RFPs and ongoing process. So I don't think there's any budget document that can provide you sort of a lock-in ahead of time all your consultants and contractors unless you have multi-year agreements with them, which really we don't.
Well, no. 20 I understand that, but you would probably show either on the executive side or in these categories you're talking about a lump sum amount that you anticipate spending. You may not have identified the contractor, but you know you're going to provide for the service. 213 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Councilman, what we can do is also run a report that shows -- under each of these blue pages under each agency, there is contracted services, professional/technical. Turn to any page and there is three categories of contracted services, professional/technical, property and transportation and other.
No. I saw those, but they didn't tell me who was getting the money.
Look, we can do two things. Pick a category and a department or program and we can pull the contracts for it. We can also give you a list of all the contracts approved by the SRC, because it's recorded in the manner that the SRC approves those contracts. So, for example, if you want to know in the Office of Accountability what they're spending their contractual service money on and who the contractors are, we can print that out.
And I can do that 214 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 for '02 and '03, but I'm saying for '04, there may be some that are already determined, but there's probably a great number of them that haven't been determined and will be determined through Kim Sangster's process.
For '04-'05. But for the first two columns, '02 and '03, those are historical numbers and we can show you what was spent out of those and show you the list of --
But you must have some idea of who you're probably going to contract with for services next year because you probably are contracting with them this year.
It depends. Some we want to get rid of as well. So we basically -- yes. There are some multi-year contracts that -- I can --
Why don't we do this: Again, not that ours is the Holy 215 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Grail or Ten Commandments or anything else, but if you -- we're going through the budget process at the same time. If you look at the City budget, we know in the departments who is lined up to get what, what is the contract for, what's their name, dollar amount, and it tells us if they've got anything in the past couple years, even though most of them are technically one-year contracts. We just --
That's the format I'm used to seeing, but this is not the format we inherited. But I can give you a background report and promise you that in the upcoming document.
Is that the $2 million figure that has trash and rubbish removal?
Was that in place when you arrived? 216 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
And am I correct that at some previous point in time, the City of Philadelphia used to pick up trash of the District?
My understanding is either yes, they did or there certainly have been discussions to that effect. Yeah. Jim can -- yes, they did. When did they stop? Five years ago is when we started paying our own way. Did we reimburse the City? There was a reimbursement to the City.
And going out in the private sector you were able to save a significant amount of money; is that --
Was there a 217 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 discussion with the City about the cost of the reimbursement at the time and why the number was so seemingly high as compared to what you're presently paying?
Jim Lewis, Administrative Assistant to the COO. We did a study for trash pickup for this year, because our contract with Waste Management expires in August, and we did a cost analysis with Commissioner Tolson and the price that Commissioner Tolson came in at was around $7 million for trash pickup.
The way we haul trash now is by dumpster, so we don't get a daily pickup, which is what the City would give us.
And from the private sector, what are you getting? Once a week?
Why wouldn't we just give you the same service that you've been getting?
You can join the party, but you can't kind of shout at me from the back.
Come on up. Since we're on the subject of the trash pickup, let's get all the trash pickup people here.
Tremendous amount of expertise in this area. There might be a cost savings that we can talk about.
If the question is on the cost savings or having the City do it, actually our contracted price is pretty good. It's around 2.9 million versus the estimate 219 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 given us by the City of over 7.
I heard what you said, but I thought what I was getting was information that the $7 million was based on a daily trash pickup. Why would we do that? If you're content with once a week, every three days, I mean, obviously some appropriate amount, you can't have the trash sitting out there forever and in many instances, obviously schools are in neighborhoods and it's a pretty nasty situation, but why wouldn't you request of the City something that was comparable to what you were putting out on the private side? If it's $7 million for daily, then it seems to me that weekly or twice a week is going to be, I don't know, maybe that's about half of that.
I don't think they have the capability to haul the dumpsters like Waste Management does, the trucks that actually pick it up and throw it in the back of their compactors.
Is that the things that come out and grab it and flip it? 220 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
I will tell you this, though: We've talked about that. We've had some internal debate about perhaps having that very thing. I mean --
I just don't understand how someone can do it cheaper than we do it. I mean, we're kind of like in the business.
Yeah. Sometimes the price you get may not be -- well, sometimes there's the price that it would cost them and the price that they would want to charge you. So it's trying to get to what the actual price of that service would be. But would we love to have our trash picked up daily by the City? Absolutely. If, obviously, we could afford it and if we could adopt the carriers so that the City could manage it. And it's something that we've talked about. We just don't think --
I 221 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 understand. Let's go back to the overall contracts area. So you're going to provide to us a detailed listing of all the various professional services contracts, consultants, dollar amount, scope of service and you can do that for the last at least two years?
Yes. I think we can make it reflect -- yeah; for the last two years. And if we have ideas of what's going into the next budget, we'll put those in as well.
And along with that information, you'll be able to tell us the name of the company, location of the company, who the principals are and what the work was for, nature of the work?
Well, we will get you the name of the company, and then obviously if more information is needed, the location, where the company is located, board of trustees, owners, whatever, we can certainly provide that.
We'll do our best. 222 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 I only smirk because of the quality of our information systems at times. So I think certainly we can get the location. As far as the principals, that might not be on the system, but we'll do our best and give you the complete package.
And this would cover all generally professional services, consultants, lawyers, vendors, architects?
Everything that would fall into a professional service contracted category, yes.
Okay. Are you having technology problems over at the District, keeping track of information?
No. No. I'm not saying we're having problems. I'm just saying I can't promise you, Councilman, that all that you asked for right there I can spit out in a report automatically. I will see how much we have and do the best we can with the systems.
We don't have -- the system doesn't have the history that we'd 223 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 like it to have. I mean, we can tell you what we've been contracting out and the cost, but going back more than two years, it is going to be difficult. Plus, when we go -- when we evolve to our new budget process and to our new data system next year, we'll have a more workable document. But we're a year away from completing that.
Lastly, you'll be able to give us information about the gender and race of the various professionals?
The data systems we're building are obviously comprehensive, so Kim Sangster will pull out the MBE/WBE firms, legitimate MBE/WBE firms, and the contracts they have with the School District. We'll give you all those.
It's not a very long list. I mean, it's getting longer now, but prior to two years ago, the School District maybe did 3 percent of its 224 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 contractual services with basically MBE/WBE companies. There, in effect, was no --
That's not the narrow request in terms of the information. It's a part of a larger --
-- package. All right. I just have a couple of last things. I seem to remember there was a lot of discussion in the past year or so about an accountability system I think that states --
Accountability Council has been created and has met, and it's actually going to be issuing a report shortly. They're meeting tomorrow.
Next week we'll give you an update on what their time line is for laying out their report.
Could you comment for me on Tab 8, ? You lay out some test scores for charter schools, most of 225 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 which seem to be below the District's average with regard to PSSA and SAT tests. 4
I'm going to ask 5 Joe Jacovino, who is our Accountability 6 Officer and Acting Chief Academic Officer. 7
Councilman, 8 three of 38 charter schools met AYP criteria, 9 adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind. Fifty-eight of our own schools met the AYP criteria. Even though there are more charter schools than 38, only 38 have tested grades that are part of that requirement. We also require --
Even though there are 48 charter schools, because of the state testing at the grade levels of 5, 8 and 11, some charter schools do not have tested grades, or they will have tested grades eventually. We require also that all charter schools as well as all of the District schools, including privately managed schools, 226 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 are part of the standardized assessment system where we use the TerraNova in grades 1 through 10. So we track the performance of charter schools consistently with data from grades 1 through 10 and we analyze their performance in relationship -- on a level playing field with the performance in our own schools.
Okay. What I wanted to ask you is, in your report on 2, you say that of the 48 charter schools, nine of scored above the District average 15 for 2003 5th grade; nine of 19 for the same 16 year for 8th; three of 14 for grade 11. And I 17 guess what I'm trying to better understand 18 from you or get your perspective on is the 19 testing of the charter schools and how they're 20 performing in comparison to the District's own 21 average, and what your numbers are saying is 22 that less than 50 percent, significantly less 23 in two categories, less than 50 percent are at or above the District's average. Why is that?
Well, again, 227 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 charter schools are independent schools from the standpoint that they have their own Boards of Education and their own Chief Academic Officers. Each of them is an independent school district. What we're trying to insure and guarantee is that we do have measures that we use, not only state measures but local assessment measures that we use so that we can compare the progress which schools make over time. So those figures are accurate figures. Charter schools, like many of our public schools, are struggling to perform at what we would call nationally recognized levels. What we're attempting to do as part of an accountability system is measure that progress and replicate success. There are a number of charter schools that have programs which hold great promise. We are encouraging the continued expansion of those programs, and Mr. Vallas can talk more about the kind of relationship with charter schools. However, I would categorize the performance of many charter 228 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 schools as areas of concern for us as we move forward.
Bottom line is, the research, basically the results aren't any more impressive than the public schools. If you look at the high schools in particular, half the high schools are doing better, half the high schools are doing worse. So they kind of fall just at or average or slightly below. I will point out, in the last PSSA and TerraNova exams, the charter school test scores were relatively stagnant. There were a few that went up, but basically they showed no 16 gains. Also, the percentage of children in charter schools, how do the children who enroll in the charter schools compare to the District, generally they are at or slightly above the School District's average. So the charters don't necessarily get the worst-performing kids. They get kids at about the District's average or sometimes slightly above the District's average. 229 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 So the results have been -- I said when I took the superintendentship here, I said, I didn't realize I was taking two struggling districts, the public district and the charter district. That's one of the reasons that we've moved very aggressively the last two years, with some heat being generated, to toughen the standards on the selection of new charters and to toughen the standards on the recertification of existing charters. And that's why the SRC has moved to develop a comprehensive charter policy which will be more aggressive about not only approving charters but also in making sure that when charters are approved, they fit into some overall strategic plan for the District.
Thank you. Madam Chair, I have two last questions. Mr. Vallas, can you give me an update or give us an update rather on the status of the Microsoft School?
Am I correct to 230 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 say we're waiting for the Park District to give -- the school is in design. We're ready to go. We're just waiting for the Park District to basically -- the Parking Authority to sign off. Is that right, Ellen? Fairmount Park. I've got to get my authority district right. Sorry about that.
Hopefully the Parking Authority is not involved in this one.
Lastly, Tab 9, Pages 3 and 4. A couple years ago there was a significant amount of discussion about Beacon schools and also relationship with Safe and Sound. What are the costs of those programs and how much are you reimbursed to provide those programs at the schools?
The cost of not only providing of services for the Beacon schools but also providing services -- because there's 190 schools that have programs that 231 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 are sponsored by the City's Safe and Sound. And the total cost of all those programs to the District is about $5 million. And, no, we don't receive any reimbursement for that.
That's for everything. That's Beacon and Safe and Sound general, because it's just not -- Beacon and regular Safe and Sound-funded after-school programs.
City rec. There's three people talking at once. We have 190 schools that have some sort of City or City recreational programs. Beacon, City rec, Safe and Sound, all told, the cost of the District is, I think, 4.7, 4.8 million dollars, and we are not reimbursed for that.
You are not reimbursed? 232 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
No. We don't receive Safe and Sound money directly. It comes to community-based organizations or it comes to -- but we house a number of programs in our schools.
Thank you. Is that not by agreement, however, that the schools would house the programs, Safe and Sound would pick up the operational tab for those programs? Do you recall?
Well, when I first came in, the first thing that we did was, we stopped charging the City for Beacon, but also that same year we also sought to secure funding through Safe and Sound. But the bottom line is, every year we've requested funding through Safe and Sound. So I don't know if we've reached the formal agreement. Certainly we welcome the programs and we've opened our schools, and let me point out that the programs are only going 233 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 to continue to expand, given what's happening to a number of the recreational facilities. But it is imposing a cost and we have sought Safe and Sound money in the past, and likewise we will do so again this year.
Are the Safe and Sound programs in the rec centers or are they also separate from that and in schools?
One more question. Is the Beacon program -- I know they're pre and post schools. Are they mental health programs, too, or just pre -- or not just, but pre and post programs for students and community members?
The Beacon programs are after school and they run obviously through the dinner hour into the early evening. So they're not pre start of 234 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 school day programs. They're after school. They're exclusively after school and evening programs.
And, therefore, they're students from the schools and the neighborhood?
No. It's not limited to students from the schools. The kids come from all over the neighborhoods to the programs.
No. That's great. So we're going to get information on that?
If I could ask the Councilwoman. When you asked the question with regard to was something by 235 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 agreement, is the question was it by agreement that you provide the service or was it by agreement that you would not be reimbursed for it?
No. It's just been good-will. I mean, we open our buildings. We have not turned anybody away, any City program, any recreational facility program that is sought to locate in one of our schools, including the summer. The schools will not only be open to Philadelphia public school academic programs and enrichment programs this summer, but our schools will also be open to City-funded and recreational programs this summer. So we open our buildings. We don't shut our buildings down.
No. I understand that. And I was going to leave this for Monday, but it sounds like a lot of buildings are going to be open this summer. 236 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Yeah. We will prioritize opening up all of our buildings that we consider to be conducive for summer school; in other words, our air-conditioned buildings, and that's about 100 buildings. So we'll have at least 100 buildings open.
Okay. We'll talk a little bit more about that on Monday.
I just have to ask what it's costing the School District.
I think it's about 4.7, 4.8 million dollars. That's security, third shift custodial services, things like this.
No, we're not reimbursed. Those are costs that the District 237 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 incurs. We don't receive money directly from the Beacon program. Beacon funds programs that are in the schools, but they're not school programs.
We have sought Beacon funding. What we did -- I'm sorry. We have sought Safe and Sound funding. So rather than charge -- prior to my arrival, the School District --
I think it's 4.7. It's a little over $4.7 million. I'll get you the exact number. I've asked staff to itemize it at your request.
Thank you. 238 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Lastly, Mr. Harris, when you put together that list of the professionals, how many bond deals have you done since you've been here?
Can you get us a full fact sheet on the teams that participated?
And the fees that were generated as a result of their participation, whether it's the underwriters, legal counsel, special counsel, extraordinary counsel and any other kind of counsel that came as a result of any of those transactions? I'd like to know all the people who were on the deal and what their fees were.
We'll provide that, along with the rest of the information you requested.
Great. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll wait until Monday. 239 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Thank you, Councilman. Thank you all. This hearing will be recessed. This is with regard to the School District, because tomorrow we do taxes. School District, Monday, May 17th at 9:30 a.m. Thank you all. Thank you. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 1:50 p.m.) - - - 240 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on May 11, 2004, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)