And Chief of Evaluation, Research and Accountability, Dr. Tonya Wolford. (Applause.)
We also have here with us this morning our Director of Government Relations, Ms. Laurel Grbach, who many of you work very closely with. It's an honor and a pleasure to be here. I count it as an honor and a privilege to be fortunate to serve as your Superintendent in the nation's sixth largest city and the eighth largest school district. Honored to be here. Slide please. This morning, Mr. President, members of Council, as President Streater said, I will share the District's charge, highlight the outcomes and the direction and our strategic plan Accelerate Philly. We'll get right into the results that the District is experiencing, share next steps and then provide some additional context in Phase 8 of the Facilities Plan as directed by the Board and President Streater. And then I'll give some insights into the building of Fiscal Year '26 budget. And we'll be happy to take questions and feedback. Slide please. Very pleased at this time to share an overview and the District's charge in the District. Slide please. For a quick overview of the District, a reminder as the Board shared early, the District is comprised of some 200,000 students, nearly 200,000 students which represent both traditional District students and Charter students, all a part of the public school children in the School District of Philadelphia. These are actually last year's numbers that show enrollment of 197,115 young people. That number increased this year by 1,841 new students. And the current District enrollment as of this month is 1,988 -- 198,299 young people. There are a total of 249 District-operated schools and we are very pleased that we have a very diverse -- we represent a very diverse school district, with the majority of our students being African American and Latino, with our students and families speaking more than 200 languages, and we believe that diversity is a strength. Slide please. Having been hired by the Board of Education in June of 2022, our charge in the School District of Philadelphia quite simply is to achieve the Board's goals and guardrails, very strong, lofty and stretch goals for academic performance as measured by PSSA scores and Keystone test scores as well as to position our District to become the fastest improving, large urban school district in the country and certainly in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Among the 500 districts in this Commonwealth, we measure our performance and those goals and guardrails related to PSSA scores in Grades 3 through 8 and the Keystone exams in grades 9 through 12. Additionally, when we compare our district to other urban districts across the United States, we're focusing in on NAEP, the National Association of Education Progress scores, which our 4th and 8th graders take every two years in the United States. There's a set of kids throughout the entire nation that take this test in 24 urban districts. We also benchmark our performance with graduation rates and dropout rates with other big cities across the country. Slide please. The District's strategic plan, entitled Accelerate Philly, is our roadmap for how we will achieve the goals and the Board's goals and guardrails as well as position ourselves to be the fastest improving, large urban district. Slide please. In June of 2023, our Board of Education unanimously approved Accelerate Philly, the District's five-year strategic plan. Many members of the District community participated in three groups that contributed to the development of Accelerate Philly, hundreds of Philadelphians. These individuals represented a wide range of roles across the District and they represented the diversity of the city at large. The strategic plan draws on the themes that emerge from the Listening and Learning tour. Kudos to our Evaluation and Research Department led by Dr. Wolford. They put a detailed report of all that we learned across the city, and those learnings are archived on our website.
The Listening and Learning tour was followed by a transition team report that engaged 100 Philadelphians as well as a few local and national experts in the field of K-12 education as well as the personal and lived experiences of people throughout the city. Accelerate Philly has five priority areas that you'll see on the screen. Priority 1, and these are in ranked order. Our first priority in the School District is to improve safety and well-being, both physical, social and emotional as well as environmental safety and well-being. Priority Area 2, to partner with our families and community, not just as partners, not just as engaged partners but as equal partners. Priority Area 3, consistent with the Board's goals and guardrails. Our core business is to accelerate academic achievement. Priority 4 involves recruiting and retaining a diverse and highly effective workforce in the School District. And Priority 5, to deliver efficient high- quality and cost-effective operations. Slide. As we implement Accelerate Philly and prioritize how to expand the budget because the budget is both a moral document, it also speaks to our priorities, the five high levers that help a district to significantly improve, and we know this based on more than 50 years of research in the United States of America. Their number one most significant factor in improving student outcomes no matter what school district or group of students we're working with involves highly-qualified, well- supported, stable teachers over time, the No. 1 factor. Our budget reflects that. No. 2, the No. 2 factor is highly-qualified, well-supported and stable principals over time. Principals are really important because they recruit, onboard, develop and retain highly-qualified teachers. The third area that we're focused on as a high lever is high-quality standards align and culturally appropriate curriculum, both academic curricula in reading, math and science as well as social and emotional curriculum, social and emotional learning resources because our young people need lots of support related to a lot of areas outside of just reading, math and arithmetic, and we understand that. And certainly High Leverage Area 4, to ensure that our kids have enough high-quality time on task and that they have regular student attendance, pushing hard for our kids to be in school no 15 less than 90 percent of every month 90 percent of the year, and our kids have to have rigorous instruction in their classrooms. And certainly, we have to engage our parents and guardians, not just as partners but as equal partners. Slide please. I'd like to get right into the results in the District. I want to begin by saying first I want to acknowledge that we are doing some really good work together under the leadership of the Board of Education. Again, I want to highlight the role of Board President Streater, Vice- president Andrews and the members of the Board because the Board has set a very -- several years ago set a very aggressive vision for the School District of Philadelphia that says that -- and it's outlined in the goals and guardrails and really robust goals. The Board not only set those rigorous goals, the Board spends its time monitoring or progress-monitoring those goals in all of its meetings. One of the Board members, I believe it was President Emeritus Wilkerson or someone said focus on focus, and that was how the Board operates. And certainly, we want to also note that in terms of the outcomes that we are achieving, they are a testament to the hard and strategic work specifically of teachers, principals and school- based staff at the schools throughout the city. We could not do this work without the Board's leadership, and the Board's vision is coming into fruition so we certainly want to thank the Board, our Mayor who spoke this morning, all the members of City Council, our families, our unions and other community partners for their ongoing support. Slide please.
I want to begin by giving you an update on some of the priorities referenced by Mayor Parker this morning, first of which is the Extended Day Extended Year. Across the 20 district-operated schools that are part of this initiative, there are also five charter schools. We've created a free before-school care and enrichment program that serves more than 1,400 children. The program has also nearly doubled the seats available for free afterschool care and enrichment programs, increasing from 1,435 to 2,555 students. And we will continue to grow that over the course of the year. In addition to the free before-school and afterschool care enrichment that's provided in these schools, in these pilot schools, the pilot schools will be open for more than 2,000 students during the winter break, during the upcoming winter break for the first time. They will be open to our young people during spring break and for six weeks in the summer. Mr. President.
I just want to take a moment of my personal privilege, and I'm going to let you finish your presentation so we can open it up to the full body, but does the Extended Day provide breakfast, lunch and afterschool snack? Just was wondering.
Yes, I know we provide breakfast. Dr. Dawson, we also are providing lunch and dinner; is that correct?
Awesome. Just wanted to know for the record. Go ahead, sir.
Yes, sir. Slide please. As we launch this new Extended Day Extended Year initiative, we are partnering with the Office of the Mayor, working very closely with the Mayor and her staff to monitor and assess six measures of success. And so, I want to share those, how that's going. To date, we can share with you, Mr. President and Council, 74 percent of the available seats for before and afterschool programming are filled. 70 percent of these pilot schools offer intramural sports and we're continuing to grow. 100 percent of the students in the Extended Day Extended Year program at the 19 pilot schools are exposed to 20 enrichment programs. And as the year progresses, we will be able to see the percentage of these students who attend school 90 percent of the month or the year and what they tell us about their sense of belonging. We are tracking that data throughout the year. And under Dr. Wolford's leadership, we'll have an biannual survey that allows our parents and our students to give us feedback on their satisfaction on the survey. I also want to note that relative to the Mayor's vision for the City College for Municipal Employment, I believe she talked about that being a manifestation of what John Lewis referred to as good trouble. We're pleased to be a part of that good trouble. The Board and the staff and that work is well underway and we look forward to our young people in the high schools who in the second semester of the year will continue to get some intensive support to prepare for both the civil service exam and to prepare them to be able to take on City jobs here in the city of Philadelphia. Slide please. I want to remind Council that as a reminder from earlier this year the Harvard University Center for Education, Policy and Research and the Stanford University's Educational Opportunity Project released the nation's first post-COVID report about how are America's children doing in reading and math, specifically in Grades 3 through 8. The report is titled, The Education Recovery Scorecard. This report included 30 states and it represented 60 percent of the entire United States public school population. It found that the School District Philadelphia had the fastest school year '22-23 post-pandemic recovery in math in Grades 3 through 8, followed by the Los Angeles Unified School District. And in 3rd through 8th grade reading, the School District of Philadelphia had the second best rebound, recovery performance in 3rd through 8th grade reading following only the Chicago public schools. On the next slide you'll see a depiction of how the large urban districts stacked up. You'll see here that the School District of Philadelphia had the fastest or best rebound performance followed by Los Angeles. You'll see several other school districts listed here. And on the next slide you'll see that the Chicago public schools had the best rebound performance, recovery performance in 3rd through 8th grade reading followed by the School District of Philadelphia, which was followed by San Diego, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, in that order and ultimately Atlanta. Very proud of that hard work, strategic work of the School District. (Applause.)
Thank you. On the next slide I want to highlight how we're doing relative to the Board's goals and guardrails specific to PSSA and Keystone performance. Quickly I'll just note that over the past two years under our strategic plan Accelerate Philly, student attendance has increased, the four-year graduation rate has increased. The number of kids who drop out of schools in Grades 7 through 12 has decreased considerably, and the District increased performance in 9 out of 13 areas. The number of students with regular attendance, those students who attend school 90 percent or more increased by some 3,500 young people and that's really significant. The number of students who dropped out of school has decreased by more than 1,400 students. Very important for a couple of reasons. First, kids who drop out of school don't have the same bright futures as young people who get a high school diploma and get an industry certification, learn to participate in the building trades or get a two-year or four-year degree. They don't have as good as health insurance. They don't live as long. And dropouts, not just in Philadelphia but about this country, dropping out of school is a life or death issue. Additionally, according to a Neubauer Family Foundation report in 2017-2018 time frame, we learned that the cost to the city of Philadelphia and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for every child that drops out of school is $405,000. When we multiply $405,000 by some 4,000 kids who on average drop out any given year in the city, this is really important. And so, we're sure pleased to see that number being reduced by 1,400 students. And we also understand, Mr. President, that we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to get down to zero. percentage points. Percentage of 3rd through 8th grade students -- excuse me. 6 percentage points. 5 percentage points. These increases can be attributed to the laser-like focus by our Board of Education and its goals and guardrails as well as the District's conditions for success where the Board receives a report every month on our student regular attendance rate, our regular teacher attendance rate and the number of dropouts. Slide please. The slide you see currently, President Johnson and Councilmembers, is what we refer to as our District spotlight. Our Research and Accountability Department produces this. It illustrates the District's progress relative to the Board's goals and guardrails on the left-hand side. I know you may not be able to see the screen very well, but it shows School Year '23-24 -- excuse me, School Year '22-23 on the left and on the right-hand side you'll see School Year '23-24. With the green, yellow and red dots, you are quickly able to see three things: A green dot means we're moving in the right direction. A yellow dot means that we are flat. And a red dot means that we are moving in the wrong direction. You'll see in School Year '22-23 the District has 10 out of 13 green dots. In School Year '23-24 you'll see 9 out of 13 green dots. Each school has their own respective spotlight just like this District spotlight, and this assures that every school community is improving the same outcomes. Slide please. This slide, Mr. President and Councilmembers, shows our District enrollment over the past 10 years. I am pleased to share again that for the first time in a decade the School District of Philadelphia released enrollment data some time earlier in the month showing that the district-operated schools increased its enrollment by 1,841 students. Also want to note that the enrollment for this school year now in the district-operated schools is 117,956 students based on the October snapshot. One of the Board members referenced earlier that there are nearly 200,000 children that the Board of Education has responsibility for. They are all our children.
Approximately 60 percent of the children in Philadelphia are in the district- operated schools and approximately 40 percent of the children in the School District of Philadelphia are in our charter schools. Over the past year student enrollment increased in the district-operated schools in our neighborhood high schools. Our enrollment in the district-operated schools increased in our criteria- based high schools. I was so pleased to see that it wasn't one or the other but both. And our student district enrollment increased in 10 out of 15 of the geographic regions or learning networks as well as the opportunity network. The significant improvement that is occurring across the School District in our schools is a testament again to the hard and strategic work of teachers, principals and school- based staff and certainly to the Board of Education which monitors our progress and holds us accountable for driving faster improvement toward its goals and guardrails. As we continue to accelerate achievement, we are thrilled that more families are choosing the School District of Philadelphia and we certainly are working hard so that this trend continues. Slide please. Other improvements I want to note, Mr. President, members of Council. First, I want to note our teacher fill rate over the past three years has improved each year. As of today for the '24-25 school year, we have more than 8,000 positions filled, which places us at a teacher fill rate at 97 percent as compared to 96 percent the previous year and 95 the previous year before that. This is really, really significant when we consider the fact that in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the number of teachers who are graduating from our public and private universities across the Commonwealth has decreased by 71 percent over the past eight years. That's a much greater decline than the national average which is closer to 50 percent. So as we continue to hire emergency- certified teachers, emergency- licensed teachers, that tells us that we have to double-down on our efforts to support them because they're working hard and doing their absolute very best, and we certainly thank them for that. Yes, sir, Mr. President.
Two questions: Have you increased pay for incoming certified teachers, increased the salary?
Yes, sir. The salaries, the Board of Education approved a one-year extension to the Philadelphia Federation for Teachers contract last year, which I believe was a 5 percent, if I'm right, Mr. President. And I'll remind Council, Mr. President that this year we are negotiating three labor contracts, Teacher's union, Principal's union and School Police Officer's union.
Next slide. I'm pleased to also report that over the past three years the number of schools with inadequate air-conditioning system such that on hot weather days we have to release our young people early has dropped nearly in half, from 118 to 58. In the current Board-approved capital improvement plan, there are cooling projects scheduled at 13 additional schools. 14 Of the 58 schools 15 remaining with inadequate cooling, 16 13 schools have an HVAC or AC 17 system -- need for a new HVAC or 18 air-conditioning system which 19 represents a total spend of about 20 $295.15 million, and all schools 21 need an electrical upgrade for the 22 installation of 24 -- installation 23 of air-conditioning units in 24 instructional spaces representing a total cost of $59.3 million --
Yes, sir. Of the 58 schools with inadequate cooling, schools need 8 an HVAC or AC system. 9
And/or AC system which represents a $295.15 million spend.
Yes, sir, 11 schools. 11 schools, Mr. President, need an electrical upgrade for the installation of window units in the instructional spaces, and that is a cost of $59.3 million.
So basically 59 million for electrical upgrades and 295 million for HVAC?
Correct. And we have Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill here should you want --
I'm trying to let you get through your presentation, but I want you to provide for the Chair and members of the Council, if you could provide where those schools are located throughout the city of Philadelphia, what Councilmanic Districts. That would be very helpful, sir.
Yes, sir. We'll get that to you subsequent to this presentation. Yes, sir, Mr. President. Again, I want to commend Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill and that operations team and our Chief Operations Officer. And I want to recognize her. I did not see her earlier. Ms. Teresa Fleming, our Chief Operations Officer. Very good to see you, Madam COO. And I think we can applaud. She's a -- (Applause.)
Next slide. Councilmembers, now that you've seen where we've been I would like to share a bit about where we are headed. On this slide you will see that the District will focus on three key areas this year and as we go into the next year. Accelerate academic achievement, we've got a major charge from the Board of Education to put the foot on the gas and accelerate. So we're going to do that by investing in our teachers and leaders and the giving them the best professional development so they can do their jobs as best they can. And second, I'm pleased that last year we launched a new math curriculum, Illustrative Math, this year across the entire District. This year we launched a new English language arts curriculum, Expeditionary Learning and StudySync with (inaudible). And next year we'll launch a new science curriculum under the leadership of Deputy Superintendent Jermaine Dawson, Dr. Jermaine Dawson. Second, we are laser- focused on improving our customer service score by expanding a district two-way communication system that lets parents, that allows us to track every phone call, every email, every message, every piece of correspondence from parents or the community or others, and we track how long it takes us to respond. We also track, give our constituents an opportunity to give us a feedback score, and I'll say more about that in just a moment. I want to thank our Chief of Communications and Customer Service Alexandra Coppadge for her leadership in that regard. Third, we will partner with our parents and families by -- earlier this year we reorganized the District in a budget-neutral manner, Mr. President. Did not increase the operating cost of the District. We relocated District leaders, our assistant superintendents and resources into 15 geographic regions across the city. And in the early part of the next year we will relaunch Parent and Family University and we will drive faster improvement on the Mayor's initiative as we pilot and continue to build out the 2020 District pilot schools, and we will also drive on the Mayor's priority related to the City College for Municipal Employment in partnership with our parents and families. Slide please. Did you want me to pause there, Mr. President?
Okay. These are the geographic learning new maps that we launched this school year, which you will see on the far left we have elementary and middle school learning networks. In the center you will see that we have three neighborhood high school networks, and on the far right you'll see that we have one citywide high school networks for some of our criteria based and specialty high schools. And they all have a respective assistant superintendent who has an office inside of these parts of the city so that we can put the resources close to the parents. If parents need to get in touch with the District, they don't always have to come to one of the School Board meetings. They can get access to District leaders in their respective communities as we seek to serve our parents and families better and place the resources closer to home. We're also working to decrease the travel time for our assistant superintendent who supervise these schools and to increase our engagement with grassroots organizations, our faith-based organizations and accelerate academic improvement. In Phase 1, in August the learning networks were created. Now, we created these networks based on geographic boundaries, natural boundaries like rivers, major roadways, train lines and with attention to the current catchment areas. In Phase 2, as we move throughout the year we will actually repurpose and reallocate additional people resources from the Dr. Constance E. Clayton Education Center formerly known as 440 into the learning networks. In addition, schools that were previously in the innovation and acceleration networks will receive ongoing support under the updated learning network structure. This framework allows the District to enhance support across critical areas, including operations, professional learning, talent acquisition, special education, serving diverse learners, student support services, fostering a positive climate and facilitating stronger and better parent engagement. Slide please. I'm really pleased to share with you, Mr. President and Councilmembers, this slide. This slide represents our two-way communications initiative entitled, Let's Talk. If you go to the District website, you'll see it front and center on the main page. During the Listening and Learning tour in the summer of 2022 we heard frustration from parents, family members and others about their concerns, questions and issues that we were not always timely in addressing their concerns or returning phone calls or emails, and we knew we needed to make some changes and to be more timely. Last school year in an effort to improve customer service the District launched a new convenient way for families, students and staff and community members to engage with the District via this new platform entitled, Let's Talk. Let's Talk tracks all inbound communications to the School District, whether it is electronic note, email, phone call and the like to provide -- and our community has a chance to provide a customer service score after they interact just like you might when you take your car to the dealership to get it serviced or some other area of service. This was piloted last school year in my office as well as the Board of Education offices and it slowly expanded over across the District office. Now, this initiative has been launched in all of the district-operated schools as well as all the offices at the District office. As of this month, to date we have received more than a 20,166 increase, whether that's phone call, written messages, et cetera. And our response time is just over three days, 3.2 days. The gold standard is to 48 hours. We're not there yet. And our feedback score for the 20,000-plus increase to date is 8.9 out of an average scale of 10 on customer service. I want to thank Chief Alexandra Coppadge, Deputy Chief Monique Braxton, our District spokesperson and all the members of the Communications team for that leadership. (Applause.)
Slide please. As the Mayor mentioned and President Streater and Board members mentioned, the Board directed that the Superintendent and staff get the Facilities Plan completed. And before I get to that, let me just make a note with family engagement. We are going to relaunch Parent Family University in the spring. We'll continue to -- we are going to launch a Parent and Guardian Advisory Council just like we have a Teachers Advisory Council, a Principal Advisory Council and a Student Advisory Council that meets on a monthly basis. We'll be staffing that up. And the third family engagement opportunity that I want you to know is that under the leadership of our Communications Department, in 2025 we are going to launch an app, a family app so parents can go straight to their cell phones and communicate with the District. (Applause.)
Okay. All right. I think the Board President is listening. Slide please. The Mayor, the Board President and Board members referenced Phase 8 of the Facilities Plan and the Board directed that the Superintendent and staff complete Phase and get some recommendations to President Streater and the Board by the close of the next year, and we are on course to do just that and we intend to deliver. Before I talk about the timeline moving forward, Mr. President, I want to acknowledge, as the Mayor did, some pain points quite frankly from our past and to reiterate what Mayor Parker stated relative to what we learned from the past. A bit of context. 3 billion budget deficit and accordingly, Superintendent Dr. Bill Hite and the Board of Education had some really tough decisions to make fairly quickly in issues not caused by their actions but they certainly had to have a response. So the District closed a number of schools, I believe, 30 in total, and I think the Mayor referenced or so in the first 5 year. Now, the closures saved the 6 District $24 million annually, but 7 these closures also had significant 8 impacts, including declining test scores for the displaced students in the closed schools and declining attendance rates for the students in the closed schools. We also know from research from the University of Pennsylvania and Research for Action for the schools where our young people were removed to, they also experienced some declines in academics. So from these experiences we've learned some valuable lessons that we can apply this time. Our current approach aims to prioritize creating the best conditions for improved student achievement, learning, use comprehensive data -- we have a comprehensive data warehouse that will be completed by the first of the year -- to engage transparently with our community, and to repurpose buildings to better support our communities. Slide please. There are a number of community engagement opportunities being provided across the city under the leadership of Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill. And so, you may have seen this slide if you visited any of those community conversations. Through Phase 8 of the facilities planning process, we look to address the challenges of our District facility which are twofold. Number one, the average age of our school facilities is 73 years. A number of more are 120 years or older. Number two, we've got a really significant problem with underenrolled and overenrolled schools, and we've got to address that. So through the planning process, we look to develop a plan that achieves the following desired outcomes: We heard the Mayor earlier talk about the need for safe, modern and 21st century schools. I heard her say we can't do it on the cheap. I heard her talk about playgrounds, recreation centers, health facilities, nurses and counselors and music teachers and the like being in our schools. And absolutely, that's the vision of the Board of Education for us to create the conditions to improve academic achievement, for us to be in a position to provide those rigorous academic offerings that the Mayor referenced, to provide more PreK across the city, to provide better and higher quality arts, music and physical education in alignment with the Board's goals and guardrails and to enhance the career and technical Education opportunities available across the District. We know to do this we must maximize the use of school buildings. And certainly as we better utilize our resources, we will be able to be in a position to offer Algebra in all of our middle schools or middle grade bands. We'll be in a position to offer more advanced placement or international baccalaureate or dual enrollment opportunities in our high schools and the like. Slide please.
Before I go further, I do want to note that the district-operated schools have space for some 180,000 students, and at present we have more than 117,000 children in the schools. Now, I also want to note that for the first time this 1,841 new student addition could likely grow each year so we need to be mindful of that as well, but we still have a gap that we have to address and attend to. This slide shows the work that's been occurring from August through the current end of the year. This month I also want to note that we've launched the Facilities Planning Listening and Learning Tour under the leadership of Colonel Hill. We've extended an invitation to all internal and external stakeholders to apply to be a part of a facilities planning advisory group. There are a total of 10. This is in addition to the advisory that the Mayor mentioned that she is pulling together over the next few weeks. We've kicked off a facilities planning process project team. We've shared the public survey with all students, families and school-based central office staff as well as extended external stakeholders like elected officials and community partners. Slide please. And this next slide shows you the work that will occur between January of 2025 and the conclusion of Phase 8 in December of 2025. We're very pleased, as directed by the Board, to be in a position to bring this facilities planning process Phase 1 through Phase 8 to a conclusion by December of the next year, of 2025. So as we look to the months ahead, we will continue to engage with our community, work with our project team and advisory groups and provide updates. And to be clear, as the Mayor referenced earlier, we will look forward in the fall to bring to President Streater, Vice-president Andrews and members of the Board of Education some final plan recommendations that will include after a robust engagement process and review of the data a plan that will include, one, what schools in the District we recommend to the Board be colocated; two, what schools in the District we recommend to the Board be renovated, rebuilt or built anew; three, which schools in the District we recommend ought to be repurposed. The Mayor talked about several possibilities for repurposing buildings, and that will certainly be one of the options we bring forward to the Board of Education. And we'll also bring recommendations to the Board relative to, four, which schools ought to be closed because as the Mayor said, they are antiquated and it's too expensive to restore responsively. I also want to note that all of these resources that this chart as well as the previous chart are posted on the District website. Slide please. I do want to note that the facility planing process has a robust project team, which is comprised of local community, education, nonprofit, faith-based and business leaders. After extending an invitation to the Philadelphia community to apply, we've already filled many of the slots on several of the advisory groups and we will fill all the remaining spots on the remaining advisory groups before the close of this month. Those advisories include -- and I also want to note I believe our City Council Education Chair and Council Whip Councilmember Thomas is a part of that project team. So thank you for your service, sir. Relative to the 8 advisories include business and 9 community partners, elected and 10 government officials -- this is in addition to Councilmember Thomas' participation on the project team -- Parent Advisory Council, School Leader Advisory Council, School Support Staff Advisory, Student Advisory Council, registered community organizations and Community Leaders Advisory, a Teacher Advisory Council, Technical Experts Advisory and Union Representatives Advisory. And we look forward to naming the members of all of the remaining seats by the close of this month.
And again, we look forward to the Mayor naming the Intergovernmental Committee that she referenced to you, President Johnson, to also advise her and the Board on this process. Next slide please. To date our community engagement which is being led by Colonel Oz Hill, our Deputy Superintendent of Academic, excuse me, Deputy Superintendent of Operations -- I want to be clear, Dr. Dawson has the academic side and he has the operation side, but they work so closely together, sometimes it just kind of comes together -- there'll be a foundation, the community engagement is the foundation of that eight-phase process that Colonel Hill is leading. And we want to hear from our school communities and engage the public at large. We want you to have -- Philadelphians to have slept under a rock not to have known what's going on over the course of the next year, so we want to thank our Communications team for making sure to widely publicize this, and we're making a concerted effort to get to as many people as we can. From October until the close of the year, we will have offered a total of 32 community conversations where anyone can come and share their thoughts, questions or concerns. Additionally, we extended an invitation for the public to more deeply engage in the process by serving on one of the 10 advisories. And there's also a survey under the leadership of Dr. Wolford that's being shared so that our city and communities can provide their feedback. Want to make sure everybody's at the table. Slide please. As I shared, we continue to invite the community to attend facilities planning community conversations. On the slide here, you can see the next four community conversations are inperson or virtual and will occur on December 11th and 18th as well as December 9th and December 10th, and we certainly look forward to as many people in the city who desire to participate. More information is available on the District website. Slide please. We're also encouraging citizens and community members across the city of Philadelphia to take a survey, the survey to give their feedback about the facilities planning process. On November 25th, this survey launched to provide students, families, staff and community members with an additional opportunity to provide feedback on the facilities planning process. And again, we'll keep that survey open for the time being and we want to get as many responses as possible. Lastly, Mr. President, on the next slide I want to provide to you and Council a brief update on Fiscal Year '26 budget development, and I promise to do this expeditiously. We're nearly halfway through the fiscal year and we're kicking off the budget development process for Fiscal Year '26. Absolutely want to begin by saying thank you to the Mayor and to you, Council President, and all the members of Council --
-- for not just 240 but upwards of $250 million in additional funding over the next five years. We want to give you guys a round of applause for that.
Your investment in the District is invaluable, and as an employee of the Board we say a very sincere thank you. Second, speaking of the Board, I want to -- on the next slide I want to publicly again applaud the Board and the District for making academic gains while maintaining very tight financial controls. Under this Board of Education's leadership and the previous Board, since day my administration has been focused on financial discipline and robust internal controls. Over the last six months we've received two credit upgrade ratings. In May, Fitch Ratings upgraded the District's long-term bond rating to investment grade for the first time in the District's history. And in October, Moody's upgraded us to our highest level in four decades. I continue to learn all the details about that very important process from our CFO Mike Herbstman as well as Board member Joan Stern, who knows that area exceedingly well, and I had a chance to learn more from her as I attended as her guest to the PA Society, and I was very thankful for that. Those upgrades came on the heels of rating outlook upgrades in the previous year. These organizations cited the work of leadership and governance and improved financial positions due in part to the availability of federal relief grant funds. They did note, however, that as those federal dollars sunsetted in September it will be incumbent upon the Commonwealth and the City of Philadelphia to continue moving towards funding adequacy in order to mitigate the impacts of looming future budget deficits. For more than a decade, consecutively the District has had an unmodified or clean audit opinions on its financial statement audit and no material findings, while winning financial reporting awards from the Government Finance Officers Association and the Association of School Business Officials International. Additionally, the District has been designated as low risk for federal audits due to strong internal financial controls, and the grant compliance function has been held up as an exemplar by both the U.S. Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. I recall receiving a call in the past year from folks in Puerto Rico as a matter of fact about the District. And then finally, fiscal responsibility and good stewardship continues to be a primary goal of the administration.
Thank you, sir. Very thorough. Thank you for doing your due diligence as well. I have a couple brief questions and I'm going to release the chair to the Chair of Education, Councilmember Thomas. I know a couple members said, well, we might want to -- and some of the staff out there said that they might want to get something to eat, but we want to dig right into this. We want to work. If anybody feels the need to step out and get a bite to eat and come back, I think that'll be okay. But the Chair of Education said it would be appropriate for us to at least do a round off the top of you both giving your presentations. And so, I'm going to delve right into it. One, I commend you on those key areas, the spotlights that were mentioned in terms of increasing performance in the 9 out of the 13 areas. I just want to know, it listed six areas. So I want to know what Areas 7, 8 and 9 are, and then out of that 13, the other four areas that we didn't increase in.
9 out of 13 areas is the correct number. I apologize if we have a typo --
That's correct, you're correct when you say out of 13, correct. But the paperwork has six listed, which means there's another three that isn't listed.
Let me 7 tell you the areas where we are 8 most concerned about. While we're 9 pleased with the improvements in Grades 3 through 8 math, 3rd grade reading, 3rd grade math, which is part of the Board's goals and guardrails, where we have a lot of work to do and I want to transparently say we are not getting better to date. In fact, we're going in the wrong direction in Algebra 1. We're going to turn that around by having some different investment in our teachers who teach math, particularly new teachers and teachers who have not had the benefit of a teacher education program, emergency certification, et cetera. We're going to invest in high-impact tutoring and we've launched a best- in-class math curriculum. That in tandem with other areas will lend itself to improved performance in Algebra.
So they are within the other -- the 4 out of the areas, 12 that's the four areas that you're 13 focusing on that needs improvement, correct?
Correct. Another area that we need to work on is while 3rd grade reading has improved -- we're seeing faster improvement in 3rd and 4th grade reading, but when we get higher in the higher grades, 7th and 8th grade, we're not seeing that same progress. So we need to stay the course so that over time we improve through 8. And then third, one of those areas that was not improved is our regular teacher attendance dropped by 1/10th of 1 percentage point, but it's not a green dot. So it decreased from, I believe, 84.5 to 84.4 or something like that, very closely.
And I just want to talk numbers regarding the School District's budget. We know that local tax revenues are up right now, pretty much 77 million from the initial projections and the projected fund balance you will have of 728 million. And so, I want to know how will these unexpected funds be allocated to address the current deficit and other priorities?
I'd like to invite our CFO Mike Herbstman to the desk to talk specifically about that. As Chief Herbstman comes to the desk, I do want to note those five major areas referenced in Accelerate Philly we intend to use those dollars to drive faster improvement in those areas. I also want to note that the cost for the District will significantly increase in part because of, one, increases in salaries and benefits. Most school districts are people-intense and those benefits and annual salaries will go up over time. And the second driver are charter payments that the Board of Education is required to make. Chief Herbstman.
Thank you, Dr. Watlington. And for the record, Mike Herbstman, Chief Financial Officer for the School District. So we have recently allocated some of those additional funds that we received recently for areas, including extracurricular activities which we recently announced that we've increased as well as funding for some of our local organizations that have helped to identify and connect our students experiencing homelessness with services that they're in need of. I would also note for the record that even with some increases we've seen recently we are projecting in the current year a deficit of about $65.6 million in our operating budget. So a portion as we see new funds come in do go towards that current year deficit as well as the more substantial deficit that we see on the horizon as the federal funds have sunset.
Also, you got a 171 million increase in real estate tax revenue and also 18.16 million in Use and Occupancy tax. How are you utilizing that as well?
With those we are still projecting that deficit overall of about the $65.6 million this year. That's included in our assumptions.
And so, my numbers have that you have $80 million deficit this year and a $400 million deficit coming up on FY26, correct?
It's a little higher than that for next year. It's right now about 442 million where --
Mr. President, if I can ask them to advance to the next slide -- if you'll go back, Ms. Grbach, two slides, it will show the five-year.
Okay. Out of that 7 million we gave to the District 8 this year, is that subtracted from 9 the 80 million deficit? 10
So that 11 includes all of the revenue we 12 received from the City this year in 13 these numbers here. 14
Point of information by the Chair of Education.
I'm sorry. Real quick. So we talked -- for those who don't know, the School District is required to do a quarterly meeting with City Council where we go over the finances of the District and talk about the economic health of the District. In our last dialogue we did look at an $80 million deficit, but I thought the $80 million deficit was the number that was based on where we were financially before we seen some of the revenue that came back from the City? Shouldn't that number be lower based on the extra revenue that the City has collected this year that we didn't necessarily anticipate collecting?
So at that point, I believe we were already anticipating most of that revenue. It has decreased a little bit to a deficit of about $65.6 million.
That matters a lot to this body, right. So I want you to go ahead and do that victory lap and I want this legislative body to do that victory lap, because when we leave here today for us it makes a huge difference for that deficit to be 66 million instead of 80 million, and I do give you credit for that as well too, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I had one last question before I relinquish the chair to the Chair of Education. So me and my colleagues and I are reviewing Project 2025, right, and it was kind of hokey- pokey during the last election, kind of like what is this, is it real. And it pretty much can become a reality regarding the abolishing of the Department of Education, right. So we're going to take it at face value. Are we strategizing to mitigate any event that it does happen? And then we also know federal fundings are going away. Do we have any plans and strategies to address it? And then also at the convening we had with some other members of City Council and members of the State legislature and members of Congress, we also talked about how in the event that we have to address the issue of immigration and the deportation of immigrants here in the city of Philadelphia, one of the key areas is the significant impact on children who attend our public school system. And do we have a strategy to address that in the event that that happens, under the leadership of Councilmember Rue Landau and Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad?
Absolutely. Yes, sir, Mr. President. I will invite President Streater to speak on behalf of the Board because the Board has on its radar this issue and I believe issued a resolution 8 relative to our students and their well-being, and I will follow President Streater from the District's response.
Yes, so thank you. This question is a question that definitely the Board is engaged in, keeps us up late at night. I think in 2020 or 2021 the Board passed a resolution as it relates to the School District and what happens if federal agencies come and try to enforce or to pull students out of the school if they are assumed to be undocumented immigrants. And I will say this: The Board takes seriously its role in protecting students. This resolution is on the books. It directs the Superintendent to create a process as well as how our school-based staff can engage with federal officials if they come through. That guidance is also guided by our Office of General Counsel. And then I want to actually ask Board member ChauWing Lam to kind of speak to the importance of the resolution. My understanding is that you are an immigrant yourself and -- I'm going to give her a chance to speak on this.
Thank you. So the resolution that was passed by the Board in 2022 still stands. In absence of passing a new resolution, we still back the resolution that was passed. I speak here because I do know a little bit of the struggle of being a non-native-born citizen here in the U.S., and it's important that all of our families feel safe. There are approximately percent of students at the 8 School District who speak a home 9 language other than English whose 10 families may come from other parts 11 of the world who do have concerns. 12 And as of right now the expectation 13 is when they're in a School 14 District building they will be 15 safe. 16
17 Mr. President, may I just also add 18 very briefly that on the 19 administration side working under 20 the leadership of the Board of Education, we are actively working with the Council for Great City Schools and the American Association of School Administrators to stay abreast of the contents of Project 2025 as well as monitoring the events with the transitions with the President- elect and particularly around the U.S. Department of Education. As you may recall, the Council for Great City Schools is an organization two blocks from the White House that represents 78 urban and large school districts across the country. We're very fortunate in the School District of Philadelphia because President Emeritus Wilkerson serves on the Executive Council for that body. Also, I participate in a monthly meeting with superintendents across the country. I believe President Streater does the same with his counterparts across the country. Relative to the resolution President Streater referenced, the administration will fully and completely comply with the contents of that resolution. We're working with the General Counsel and the School District as well as under leadership of Dr. Dawson and all of our principals to have plans in place well in advance of January and 9 we'll have more to share in the 10 upcoming weeks. 11
Thank you. And then also 13 just in terms of the funding 14 strategy to mitigate in the event 15 that there's a significant impact 16 on our school district from a 17 funding standpoint, any strategies 18 to mitigate a shift in policy from 19 the Feds? 20
I think that -- was your question would there be need for financial resources as --
We know it's going to be a need, but what are we strategizing and doing on a District level in response?
I think the immediate thing that we're focused on is per the Board of Education's resolution should officials show up in schools to either target students who are undocumented or for whatever reason are targeted by ICE to make sure that, A, we clearly know the District protocols as directed by the Board, B, that we comply in an appropriate manner consistent with the letter and spirit of the Board's resolution.
And, Council President, we definitely hear your question. We're not trying to be evasive, but right now we have no idea what the next administration is going to do. Every day there's a new thing that's taken back, put on the table as it relates to whether there's going to be a Department of Education. Well, apparently there's someone who's going to be appointed to lead --
Do we have a lobbyist in the federal government on the federal level representing the City of Philadelphia around these particular matters? I know you just mentioned we have representatives on the Council of Great Schools and I know you also sit on the Board. But just the political aspect as well, who works with the Feds?
So Joyce Wilkerson, I'm going to ask her to come up and speak to this issue. She understands this issue very discreetly And can tell you how we're partnering with the Council of Great City Schools and can definitely answer these questions in a more substantive way.
Joyce, just state your name for the record officially and then go ahead.
Joyce Wilkerson, member of the Board. As was mentioned, I also serve on the Executive Committee of the Council of Great City Schools that's been around for over 65 years. The Council works in a bipartisan way and so has relationships on the Hill as well as relationships with a number of education advocacy organizations, and they are doing a deep dive on what we might anticipate coming up. There's a reconciliation bill that's moving through Congress that has to be adopted by the end of the year. We don't expect to see major cuts then, so we're watching carefully to see what we might anticipate going forward. The guidance is that Project 2025 probably has some of the details of what we can expect going forward. And so, we're asking districts across the country to identify so that they can speak with their legislative officials about what potential cuts might mean. So we're working aggressively organizing in an effort to forestall any cuts or at least minimize the nature of the cuts.
Mr. President, I may also note that the Council of Great City schools that President Emeritus Wilkerson is referring to will actually hold its national conference in Philadelphia next October for the first time since 1967 and we're sure pleased with that. Secondly, under the leadership of our Chief of Staff Sarah Galbally who, as you recall, is the former Policy Secretary to Governor Tom Wolf, we have a very strong group of government relations folks who are supported by a lobbyist group that is very focused on local, state and federal government relations.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Last question, Mr. Streater.
What's on all of our minds today, this week, the proposed 76ers arena. Y'all just took a vote. Just give us for the record the proposal in front of the Philadelphia School District, the vote, the position that the School Board has taken regarding this particular project.
Yes. Just as a reminder to those who need a reminder, the Board voted at our October -- November 25th 12 action meeting, Council 13 President -- 14
Yeah. We 18 voted to amending the current 19 boundaries of the Gallery at Market 20 East Increment Financing, also known as TIF district. The procedural requirements require that the Board of Education consider this action in advance of City Council holding its next public hearing on the matter. What's important to note is the Board of Education's understanding and what we were told by Council internally and by presentation that was done by people from the Mayor's team, including Mr. Dubow, that should the deal not go through we'll go back to the status quo which is the current TIF that is on the Fashion District.
Do you know how much the current TIF is that represents the status quo just for the record?
I don't know off the rec -- we'll definitely get back to you in writing, but I do know that -- oh, I'm sorry. Let me ask Joan Stern --
Yes. How are you doing today again, Ms. Stern? State your name for the record and please respond.
For the record, I'm Joan Stern. I'm a member of the Board of Education. We were asked pursuant to the State Tax Increment Financing statute as the other taxing authority in the TIF District because our governing body approved joining the TIF District in 2015. In order to remove two parcels from the TIF District so that you lucky folks could get the opportunity to decide about the location of the --
-- arena, we were asked to approve amending the TIF District to remove those two parcels from the District. We did consent to that. We adopted a resolution consenting to the amendment. The state statute requires that we do that before City Council considers what to do with that same amendment of the TIF District because it is the primary taxing authority in that district. So if those parcels were removed, they could then become the site for the 76ers arena, which is an economic development decision which is solely within the purview of the City and this Council would have to consider ordinances allowing for the creation of a site for the arena. That's what we did.
Do you know the amount of the current PILOT in the event that it moves forward, the amount?
If this moves forward and Council decides to approve the site and the Sixers affiliate transfers the site to the City, it will become subject to a mandatory PILOT payment required by the state Tax Reform Code based on the cost of the project, the construction cost, which is all to be financed by nonpublic funds as we understand the current proposal.
My question was did you know the cost of the actual PILOT now versus in the event that the actual proposal moves forward? That's all.
-- but we can ask the administrator of the TIF District to provide that information to your office.
All right. I just wanted to get it from the Board's perspective --
There are tax revenues currently being received which go into the Tax Increment Reserve Fund and pay the debt service.
But we will ask that you be provided with the original projections on the current revenues because this was created before COVID and there has been a decline in retail revenue in the TIF District, which I'm sure all of you are aware of.
Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you very much, Ms. Stern.
And, Chairman Streater, just for the record what was the vote count?
I actually want to get the answer to your question. I believe Chief --
Point of information, Ms. (inaudible)? (No response.)
For the Fashion District TIF, the initial base amount is $829,000. What is going into the TIF Fund currently is about 1.07 million annually, and that would be reduced if this were to go forward to a revised base amount of about 596,000 instead of $829,000.
And if it does move forward, how much additional revenue will be provided to the Philadelphia School District?
So that varies by year. In the near term the total amounts per year would be lower by about $1 million. If you look at the --
Would be lower by $855,000 in the first year, $927,000 the following year. As you look in the outyears, once the stadium is in operation our total tax revenues would increase over the course of the 11 years remaining on the TIF. The total increase across those years would be about 5.8 million.
And to be clear, that is inclusive of real estate U&O, Liquor and the TIF assumptions.
So it'll be a slight decrease initially and then after it's up for operation, you'll actually see an increase --
Okay. Just want to hear that clarified for the record because we have a lot of different perspectives when individuals come down here. Chair recognizes Councilmember Thomas.
Mr. CFO, real quick before you go, are those numbers you just communicated based on the current TIF or are those projections based on the change in the TIF that you voted on recently?
So the original projections, the initial base of $829,000 is based on the current TIF. But those numbers that we quoted in terms of the decreases in the upcoming years and the final total increase over the 12-year TIF is all based on the total amounts -- or sorry, the difference between the total under the build and no-build scenarios.
So Mr. Chairman of Education is going to clarify for the record the amount of revenue. Go ahead, sir.
So I just wanted to just -- and I don't want to interrupt the Council President's line of questioning, but real quick I think that the point that the Council President is trying to make is that the anticipated revenue hypothetically speaking if the project were to pass would show an increase as it relates to the amount of money that goes to the District with the new TIF compared to the current TIF. I think that's the point of clarification I was trying to make. Would you agree with that?
Over 12 years that it would according to City projections be up by about $5.8 million.
I want to clarify if I may, Mr. President. Since we were also assuming that if the arena were built and the property was transferred to the City so that it would have the same basic revenue production that properties in the Sports District have because once the City owns land, it's not subject to any taxation because the City is exempt from all taxation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that before the spectrum was built, and that's still a ruling in the Commonwealth. So we were assuming that once they decided to donate the land to the City for a nominal amount and leased the land back from the City, the PILOT would be payable for the entire term of its lease from the City, which would be 30 years beyond the TIF term, and that was a key factor in our decision.
Yes, it's clarified. Thank you very much, Ms. Stern. Chairman Streater.
And just last because we all are working on this every single day, just for the record just give us the vote tally for that particular PILOT?
And just go on the record for the yeas and the nays.
The yeas were myself, Vice-president Sarah Ashley Andrews. It was also Board member Whitney Jones. In addition to Whitney Jones, it was Board member Crystal Cubbage, Board member Cheryl Harper and Joyce Wilkerson. The two nays were Board member -- and the final yea was Board member Stern. The two nays were ChauWing Lam and Board member Wanda Novales. (Applause.)
Ms. Lam, could you take the stand please? (Witness approached Witness table.)
No. Just for the record, your no vote could you expound upon your position?
Just for the record, and we're working on this and we're discussing this issue amongst ourselves so members have an interest in.
Absolutely. At the time of the vote I had only received the materials probably a week or so ahead of time and there was a lot of material to digest. I simply wanted more time to understand the long-term ramifications for the School District of Philadelphia.
Okay. And when you say long-term ramifications, and I think Chairman Thomas just clarified with the finance person Mike -- I don't want to be too casual by -- it's Michael, correct?
The Finance Director for the District that overall in the long run you will make more revenue to support the children in the city of Philadelphia than currently. But give me your perspective on long term, how you think it has an impact on the School District?
Sure. Absolutely. So I think that there's a couple of things to consider. There was the build, no-build comparison of what happens with a new arena, without a new arena. But what I didn't see information about was what happens with an arena with different negotiated numbers or terms. So for instance, the build, no build took into effect based on current negotiations and there were certain anomalies that I saw in the numbers. For example, the comparison assumed that there would be $4.2 million of increased liquor sales in the build scenario versus the no-build scenario. But if they existed in the current arena, I don't see what the difference would be in liquor sales at the current arena versus the new arena. There were just oddities like that that I wanted more time to digest and I wanted to make sure that the City of Philadelphia is getting the best possible deal on this.
The best pos -- and in your mind what would you think would be the best possible deal?
I think that the terms of the -- I'm no economic development expert, but I do understand that the negotiation currently is based on what was negotiated 20-plus years ago in a South Philly District that looks very different from a Center City District. So I think it would be unfair to have the same setup and arrangement be the status quo for the new developers as opposed to taking into consideration the robustness and the liveliness of Center City District, especially on land that the City is allowing -- is owning and becomes tax-free. So I think overall it's not just arena or no arena. It's what terms can we as the City of Philadelphia say is fair for the long-term advantage of the children in our city. And which by the way, when the arena opens our 10-year- olds will be already graduated out. They will be 20. So I personally voted no because of wanting to understand the long-term impact and wanting to increase the amount that's on the table for the foreseeable future. (Applause.)
Okay. And one last part who provided you the build, no-build scenario? Who presented to the Board the build, no-build scenario?
I believe -- I've been watching the hearings at City Council and it was Mr. Dubow and Mr. Rhoads from PIDC.
So did y'all ever have an official presentation and walk you through the numbers and --
-- giving you an idea overall taking apart and examining the CBA and the whole proposal for the area?
Well, the Board received the presentation and the way it was communicated to us was that this was not a vote for the arena. It was a vote for the TIF. And because the way that it was presented to the Board of Education, and understanding Board members can have their different views and we respect that and we're still --
-- just as united, after we took the vote the communication from the Board of Education was that it saw this as opening the door for potential new revenues that were not available to our students with the understanding that we're historically an underfunded school district, but also our focus on student achievement and understanding our role, which is that this Board of Education isn't mandated by the law to be the economic driving body of the City of Philadelphia. That's City Council and that's the Mayor. So with that being kind of the backdrop, the Board communicated its vote that night through our communication mechanisms being as such.
And also, I do know part of some of the things that are proposed has an impact in terms of supporting young people through internships and also job training opportunities overall, but I just wanted to get an idea of how y'all came up with the actual decision, the presentations behind it and how well-informed the Board was in terms of the actual details, because we're working on this 24/7 and doing our best to the best of our ability to address all issues and concerns and trying to get it right to the best of our ability rather we move forward or not with it. And so, that's my line of questioning. So with that being said, the Chair relinquishes his time to the Chairman of Education Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
Chairmember Thomas, can I add something briefly to that last line of questions real briefly?
Just FYI, the City Council President asked about who gave the presentation. We had a public presentation where everything you discussed was part of the conversation as it relates to the year-round and things like that that are currently --
So when you say a public presentation, not an official let's sit the Board members in the room 2 like members of the City Council was sat in the room and given an overview of the details of the actual proposal that you were going to be --
Council President, there was a presentation to the Board where Mr. Rhoads --
Okay. Public or private? I'm just asking you --
Okay. All right. Because before you just said it was a public --
But it was also a private one, like y'all just in the room 2 amongst yourselves walking you through the vote you're about to take?
It was a presentation just to walk us through, but it wasn't no 8 deliberating. The Board didn't make any decisions nor opine whether or not it would vote yes or no which makes it complicit with the Sunshine Act and --
-- things like that. I just want to put that on record. I know there are certain individuals in --
That's all right. Listen, that's not a big deal. I'm just trying to get clarity, transparency. So there was an actual meeting with Mr. Dubow and whoever else with members of the Board separately, because we don't want to break the Sunshine Act, to say this is what the 76 Place proposal looks like so people can get an idea to build or not to build? That's all I'm asking you.
Yeah. And it was only focused on the financial impact of the current status quo, which has been testified about is --
-- not meeting the expectations of when that TIF was approved and then what potentially could happen with a build scenario as it relates to the TIF. We were not asked to opine on the deal, but those issues. I got you.
But it was private presentations given to members of the Board, correct?
All right. Members charge me to ask these questions from a matter of transparency and just the process in general, so it's not a right or wrong answer. It's more information gathering because we have a big decision that we have to make. And as much information that we have from all parties and stakeholders helps inform us of these decisions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent.
The Chair turns it over to the illustrious Chairman of Education, Mr. Isaiah Thomas.
Good afternoon. Similar to the Council President, I want to thank you all and your entire team for being here. I know folks are a little restless and we want to take that break, so I would just ask that we all as members stick to some of the time limits, and I would ask that you all be as concise as possible in some of your answers so we can get through this first round. A couple things on my end. You said that the Board vote was a 7 to 2. I'm wondering throughout the course of this year for this new Board that has just been put in, has there been any votes that you've taken on any issues that have been like 5-4?
Okay. Have you been given any legal advice as it relates to the recent decision that City Council made around approving eight members as it relates to any possible liability issues that could be created if there were a 5-4 vote on a particular issue?