COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, March 5, 2007, 1:25 p.m. - - - Resolution 070095 - Calling for hearings before the City Council Committee on Education to explore the relationship between neighborhood development and capital improvements to School District facilities. COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Jannie L. Blackwell, Chair Donna Reed-Miller Frank Rizzo - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Specialists 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 WITNESS Kevin Hanna, Secretary................. 9 Housing and Neighborhood Development Philadelphia School District Paul Vallas, CEO....................... 16 Fred Farlino, Interim COO.............. 54 Carl Greene, Executive Director........ 72 Philadelphia Housing Authority Cory Bowman, Associate Director........ 112 Center for Community Partnerships University of Pennsylvania Nancy Streim, Associate Dean........... 112 Educational Practice, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Jane Golden, Director of Mural Arts.... 137 Dr. Nancy Morgan, President............ 150 Bridges International, Incorporated Mayer Krain, CPA....................... 161 Derek Long, Men of Mill Creek.......... 171 3 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. The Committee on Education of City Council is now convened. We thank Councilman Rizzo for being here. And this is with regard to Resolution No. 070095 that the clerk will now read.
Resolution 070095, a resolution calling for hearings before the City Council Committee on Education to explore the relationship between neighborhood development and capital improvements to School District facilities.
Thank you very much. Mr. Kevin Hanna, we're going to ask you, if you would, to start us out. (Witness comes forward.)
While he's coming forward, let me state for 4 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 the record welcome to all of you. This is a very, very important subject. We invite those who are in the building and those who are in their offices, we ask you to please tune in carefully. This is a very, very, very important subject. We believe that we hold the key to making Philadelphia a first-class City in every sense of the word. And the area that I represent, the Third Councilmatic District, as well as City, of course, by being chair of this committee and chair of the Finance Committee and chair of the Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development, and the Homeless and ex-officio on all committees as well as a City resident, we believe this -- having said all of that, we believe that this hearing is important because it allows us, and especially in the Third District that I represent, to create a model to be used citywide that 5 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 makes the difference in our city being what we read about in college called "Utopia." We have the opportunity to have -- we have wonderful facilities, educational facilities. I represent Penn, Drexel, the University of the Sciences, and Community College. I'm using myself as an example 'cause we can create a pilot there. I represent many hospital institutions: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Misericordia Hospital, or Mercy Catholic Medical Center, and many other medical centers and many other rehab and treatment centers and many senior centers. But what we're focusing on now, now we have the housing development -- we fight for it. My colleagues think there's something magic. Those who think that the Mayor 6 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 just gave it to me -- Kevin Hanna, do not I fight all the time?
And so we have development in our district because of the partnerships we have with institutions and private individuals and government facilities, so we do have more housing development than anyplace, but we fight all the time, and we're always trying to solicit more partnerships and more investments. And now, today, we want to -- before the Council budget, before we hear it at the end of April, Mr. Vallas, we wanted to have the time to in a more informal way talk about projects in various areas of the City, and we invited, my colleagues and those who are on this committee, to do the same so that we don't have budget books and we're not talking broad-based, but 7 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 we have had the opportunity to talk about neighborhood schools, how they affect neighborhood development. And it is obvious to me that once we solve the elementary, middle school, and high school phenomena, those issues, then we will have everything we need to be number one in every sense of the world. And we're there in my area. We have the opportunity to improve schools. We have the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel involved in closing University City High School to make an international school. We want to talk a little bit about Sulzberger being a magnet high schools, as we talked about in meetings between PHA and Mr. Vallas so that when University High School closes, people have someplace to go. And in other neighborhood schools; about Martha Washington becoming a K-to-8 facility and about us 8 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 having a community facility in the middle, a Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center, to allow youngsters who go to Sulzberger to have a gym. And the men of Mill Creek and neighborhood people to have a place on nights and weekends. All these things are possible. In addition for me, a new Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia High School that we talked about and talked about a turnkey program and how we can initiate these things. So we think this is an exciting day, it's an exciting opportunity for us to have discussions about what is possible about programs such as Jane Golden and the Mural Arts brings, and we welcome all of you and thank you for being here. And with that, now that I've made all that long speech, we will call on Mr. Kevin Hanna, Secretary of Housing and Neighborhood Development, to make his testimony. 9 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Again, my name is Kevin Hanna, and I serve as Secretary of Housing for the City of Philadelphia. I'm here to provide testimony on Bill No. 070095 and on the Administration's view of the relationship between public schools and neighborhood transformation and restoration. In 1995, the City of Atlanta commissioned a study by the McKinsey Consulting Group which looked at why that city -- that is Atlanta -- was losing population, losing its middle- income households to neighboring suburbs. That study found that there were four primary reasons for this phenomenon. Number one, public housing and 10 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 the blighting influence it was having on many of that city's neighborhoods. Number two, the lack of affordable housing for middle-income families. Number three, public safety and the perception that it was unsafe to live in the city. And, number four, public schools and the perception that public schools were better in the suburbs. I submit that the findings of that study done over ten years ago still apply today to the City of Philadelphia. Though I don't think the Mayor knew of the study at the time, the initiatives which he has undertaken and implemented go straight to the heart of these concerns. It was not by coincidence that NTI, Project Safe Streets, the overhaul of public housing and city/state partnership formed or reformed Philadelphia's public schools 11 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 were all launched at about the same time. This administration recognizes and fully embraces the idea that transforming our neighborhoods depends as much upon removing blight as it does improving schools. Further, once neighborhoods do begin to, quote, turn the corner, end quote, one of the most important factors in whether they reach their full potential is the quality of its public schools. Consider the following: There is a clear relationship between the quality of local schools, or at least the way they are perceived, and the value of housing and the willingness of residents to make new or larger investments in housing. While there has been no formal study, residents of University City generally believe that houses within the Penn Alexander School Catchment area are worth at least $50,000 more 12 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 than comparable properties just outside of the catchment area. Families are willing to pay a premium to be able to send their children to a public shool with a good reputation. New public schools can create islands of opportunity in neighborhoods that have overgone disinvestments. The newly constructed Hunter School in Norris Square will anchor newly-constructed affordable housing opportunities created through public investment by the Office of Housing and Community Development and the Commonwealth. The School of the Future is another example of tying education investment to other community revitalization. Situated in the centennial district, this new state-of-the-art facility is adjacent to other institutional investments by the Zoo, the Please Touch Museum, and the Mann Center. 13 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Taken together, they are stimulating the residential and business markets in the Parkside community. The investments made in the physical structure and surrounding property of the school has an impact upon that community's quality of life. Thus, the School District's campaign to create green campuses were carried out has spurred community revitalization. School facilities often serve as centers of community life in a neighborhood. In addition to serving school-aged youth during the day, they often provide active recreational facilities, adult learning centers, and even provide passive green space for the neighborhood. Finally, the success of the local school in educating a young person and providing him or her with future employment or higher educational opportunities directly impacts the 14 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES.
070095 earning potential and wealth creation of a community. The only way to fully transform our neighborhoods is through the ongoing cooperation with, and of, the Philadelphia public school system. The Administration looks forward to continuing and improving our relationship with the school system in an effort to see to it that our neighborhoods reach their full potential. If anyone has any questions, I'll be around for another half an hour or so before I need to take off for another important meeting, but that concludes my testimony at this time.
Thank you. That really gets to the heart of what we're talking, about because we know we have a direct correlation. Members of the public look around their communities and they say there's a lot 15 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 going on here, there's blight here, we need a school here. But they -- but it is our responsibilities and our jobs to make that happen, and so that is why we're having this. People -- you know, sometimes a community doesn't see what it takes, but we here on the inside have a responsibility to certainly do what we can to make sure that the correlation is intact and that we rise together. Are there any questions for Mr. Hanna? (No questions.)
And Mr. Paul Vallas, CEO, School District. Thank you so much for coming, and we 16 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 thank you for taking the time. We know these are busy days 'cause we in politics are just worried about getting our petitions in today. So we are okay. That's another issue, though, that we can't discuss here, but we're working hard on it, aren't we, Councilman? That's right.
You've got a lot more to work on too. I don't envy you. Obviously, anyone who has a problem or an issue, they're going to call their elected official first sometimes -- sometimes before they call 9-1-1. So we appreciate everything do you and we certainly appreciate the opportunity to come before you, Madam Chairwoman.
And we also appreciate the strong support we've received from the City Council, having had an opportunity to work with 17 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Councilman Rizzo on so many issues, and we want to thank you. And we want to thank you for not only supporting us, but also for understanding some of the challenges that we face in the district and your patience with us.
What I would like to do is, I've provided some testimony that I've submitted to the chair. It's a summary of the -- or it's a -- I'm going to try to summarize the testimony I've put out here. So if you can just indulge me as I look at the highlights. And then obviously, I have some time to spend. The Mayor's going to be swearing in the current truant officers at 3 o'clock, so we certainly have some time up until then to answer any questions or concerns that you may have. I'm going to ask -- who's going to volunteer to come and join me 18 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 here. Come on, don't raise your hands all at once. I'm going to ask Fred Farlino to join me. He's our chief operating officer. And I'm going to ask Pat Henwood to join me too. Pat is our point person on school construction, probably the most maligned person in the administration. He can't make anybody happy despite the fact that he's really done a superb job with limited resources. Let me start off by really summarizing the scope of the Capital Plan. And, as you know, in the last -- really every year since at least the present administration took responsibility for the district, we have worked to inform Councilmembers about the projects in their individual district, and I think that the staff -- my staff has done a pretty good job of doing that. 19 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 But it is now, of course, Year of what I affectionately refer to as 4 "Phase of the Capital Plan," meaning 5 we would like to have a Phase 2 and Phase 3, and I'd certainly like to just summarize what that plan consists of. Phase 1 of the Capital Plan is a $1.5 billion construction plan, and while the construction of new elementary schools and additions as well as new high schools gets a lot of the focus, believe me when I say that well over 80 percent of the money that is spent is actually being spent in renovating, doing repairs, doing critical renovations, doing rehabs, because there's been a lot of deferred maintenance that has created -- that has deteriorated the building stock in this school system. In fact, there are many schools that I simply cannot repair and that I'm searching for alternatives. Let me give you an example. 20 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 The Wanamaker Building would have made a great small high school as part of our middle-school conversion of high schools. You cannot imagine how disappointed I was when the architects told me, Yeah, you can renovate it for $35 million because it's got a crack down the middle of the building and the facade is separating from its foundation. Bok. Bok would cost $37 million to renovate, so we're seeking out a replacement building there. You know, we've actually talking about eventually moving Bok into Barrett and then Barrett into the Childs School, a school that we're planning on closing. So we have a lot of instances like that. Overbrook, for example. To repair Overbrook long-term will cost $50 million. For that amount of money, you're just better off building a new 21 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 school. So there are those challenges that we're facing. You know, we've been talking to the -- the Pierce Phelps property is for sale; it's an 11-acre site, and we've been looking at perhaps that property somewhere along the line as perhaps providing a suitable campus alternative to Overbrook. We haven't made any decisions and I'm certainly not trying to make an announcement here, but the bottom line is, we have some critical, critical needs because some of our buildings, because of decades of no maintenance, simply cannot be repaired, or they're beyond physical repair. So a lot of --
Point of information for Mr. Rizzo. 22 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Mr. Vallas, just a question. In the total plan, if you do plan to close the schools that you just mentioned because they're so expensive to repair, would they be razed, would they be demolitioned, or will we just have another boarded-up building in our community?
Well, we're planning -- as you know, the -- probably there are some prominent boarded-up school buildings that we're currently trying to sell -- the old Clemente School and the Deburgos School. And we're -- hopefully, we'll be able to dispose of those building shortly. But no, we plan on tearing down, we plan on tearing down whatever we board up.
And that's 23 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 expensive in itself.
Absolutely, that's right, that's expensive. But, you know, keeping a very tall, pretty-much abandoned building smack-dab in the middle of a terrific neighborhood is just very counterproductive.
Well, thanks for being a good neighbor because that's important.
Absolutely, absolutely. 5 billion construction plan does focus on new elementary schools, additions to relieve overcrowding, building some new and replacement high schools, improving school campuses with green space, modernizing buildings, modernizing libraries, modernizing classrooms. But let me point out that despite the size of the Capital Plan -- 24 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and this is the largest capital plan in the School District's history -- we address about 35 percent of our long-term needs, and I'm just being honest with you. I mean, that's -- in effect, it's going to cover about -- it's going to cover about a third, a little over a third of what the long-term needs are. Just to maintain our buildings and to keep them from deteriorating requires upwards to $150 million in capital renovations in a year. In order to get ahead of the curve and to reduce kind of our emergency repair and renovation costs would cost us about $220 million. In other words, we would need a Phase 2 of the Capital Plan to get ahead of the game. Right now, we're just trying to play catchup, but to get ahead of the game, it will require that type of capital. 25 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And, you know, I'm not here pitching or requesting support for an expanded school construction program, but we've identified the District's long-term capital needs as being in excess of $5 billion. And if you look at what the State of New Jersey is spending on Camden; or for that matter, what the state and the city are spending on the reconstruction of New York's public schools; or what we spent in Chicago -- close to $4 billion; clearly it's -- we have a long way to go. 5 billion school construction program, I think, is going to -- is going to make an appreciable contribution in terms of improving the School District's overall building stock. Let me just give you some examples. ) What was the number of repairs and 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 renovations? There's been -- just the Capital Plan along with our general operating dollars, just the last five years alone, that includes -- this year, there's been over 228,000 work projects in effect that have been done -- repairs, renovations, some major, some more minor -- just through the Operations Department just since 2002. So it gives you kind of a sense of the scope of the amount of work that's been done and also drives home the task before us. The -- but let me give you some highlights. In the area of new construction, as you know, these are projects -- by June of this year, we will have either completed, started, or started -- and when I say "started," contracts let, permitting is done -- we've had a groundbreaking, the hole's being dug in the ground. So projects that are going to become a reality. 27 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 But the new Fels replacement high school in Northeast Philly and the Lincoln replacement high school, already broken ground on. Audenried already under construction. Microsoft already complete. We're waiting to finalize the contract for the construction of the new Kensington High School. As you know, we broke up Kensington into three small high schools, and we're adding a fourth, one of which we're going to build. So those buildings will be under construction hopefully before June. The only major construction projects that are currently in the Five-Year Plan that we have not begun or we have not committed the contracts to is the new West Philadelphia High School, although the West Philadelphia High School will be in this year's budget. 28 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And we're -- and Dobbins. And we're going to need to secure new money if we're going to build a new Dobbins. But in addition to Fels, Lincoln, Audenried, Microsoft, Kensington, this week we'll begin construction on the new (indiscernible) building. We've already begun construction on the new Gamp building. Gamp building. So there are a lot of major projects under construction.
In addition, we've contracted out with Mastery Charter to convert three middle schools to high schools, and to do a total of, it's close to $40 million in renovations in those schools. If you go visit South Philly, they've done a marvelous job with Thomas Middle School, completely gutted and renovated the building; it's marvelous. They're doing -- Shoemaker is their second project. And the 29 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 School Reform Commission just approved their third project. We now have charter high 5 schools and 33 small high schools. The 6 charters -- the small charters are 7 among those 33 small high schools. And 8 the Pickett, Shoemaker, Thomas are 9 really three of our new gems. 10 And what they're doing is, 11 they're dramatically expanding school 12 choice. 13 We're not neglecting 14 elementary schools in the process. As 15 you know, the Newberry is under 16 construction, and we have finally been 17 able to secure property for the new 18 Willard School -- finally, after -- I 19 think the Willard School's been kind of on the books for ten years. We have secured the money and now we have finally secured the property. So hopefully, within the next 12 months, we'll begin construction on the long-awaited, long-promised, long- 30 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 overdue Willard Elementary School. But in addition to those projects, there are numerous additions and -- elementary school additions and annexes being built. Incidentally, I also failed to mention the new G and Hunting Park Street, the construction of that new school. But new additions are underway at Lawton, at Brown, shortly at Forest, at Ziegler, so there are many, many other projects out there. So, you know, so I think we've come a long way towards -- in this first phase towards getting projects underway. In addition, we've opened a number of new high schools, using leases, leasing out with landlords who then would go in and do the renovations for us. And I cite the National Constitution High School and the Franklin Science Leadership Academy as 31 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 just two of the more recent examples. And, of course, we hope to conclude an arrangement with the University of Penn for the -- I call it "the Penn Alexander High School" hopefully within the next couple months or so. So, again --
And you know I didn't want to interrupt you when you're talking about Penn, who is also here to testify, but we had a point of information from Councilman Rizzo.
Before you begin, Councilman, the Chair notes that Councilwoman Donna Reed-Miller is here.
Mr. Vallas, that's an impressive list of 32 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 construction, but you mentioned about the magnitude of the dollars required for doing some of the things that you want to do. Is there any new approach where developers build a building, rent it back to the School District? I mean, have we looked around? And I know you look around the world when it comes to ideas.
Is there any new approach that could get you what you need but not have to have all of that money up front for construction? Has anyone ever built a school and rented it back or leased it back? Is there ever anything considered like that?
The -- you know, what you -- well, we're always open -- we are always open to those type of partnerships. And, you know, on more than a few occasions, we've approached 33 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 certain developers or certain business interests who are getting large City subsidies for the construction of major projects to talk to them about perhaps partnering with us on a school. I'll be more than happy to let you know who they were privately rather than to put them on the spot publicly.
So we're always receptive to that. But I'll tell you what's happened. With the charter school law, a lot of times when you have a new development coming, you see the impetus coming from the community to create a charter. And, as you know, we now have 62 charters. For example, there's been a big push for a charter school in Liberty Heights. And in response to that, we've been building an addition to Kearny to make Kearny more attractive, although Kearny is a 34 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 wonderful K-to-6 school, and a great job, the principal out there does an outstanding job. So a lot of times what you will see in certain areas is, it's actually easier to go out and to open the charter to address the educational needs as opposed raise $40 million or $30 million to build a new elementary school. And that's what you're doing. So when we look at -- for example, when we look at charter proposals, we look at charter proposals through the following kind of template, so to speak. We ask ourselves, is this charter -- rather than just to open charters randomly and say, Okay, great idea, let's open it, it becomes another magnet school. You know, we have to provide the busing, it draws from everywhere in the City. It's not necessarily addressing the specific need. 35 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 We have now in the last three to four years in the School Reform Commission's leadership begun to approve charters that, number one, address a school -- a need in a specific community. Many of the new charters have catchment areas, they have attendance boundaries, so we have overcrowding, and we designate a new charter. There's new development occurring and there's a need to expand school choice in the area, we designate a new charter. We've also used charter schools to depopulate our large high schools. In northwest Philadelphia, obviously, Germantown's gotten a lot of attention recently. Unfortunately, despite, you know, some of good things they've done there, the tragedy involving the teacher who was injured -- and I'm happy to say that his surgery has been successful and he 36 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 has been walking around and he now is, I believe, at his brother's home, but he still has a lot of rehab to go through. But in that area, we have -- we converted -- in the northwest Philadelphia area, we converted Leeds to a military academy high school. We opened an independent public high school -- what we like to refer to as a School District-run charter, which means it's union employees -- the Arcadia High School for Peace and Social Justice. We have the Bale-created charter school. And Mastery Charter has taken over Pickett, they're and converting that from a middle school to a small charter school. And, of course, Lankenau became an independent school. So what -- so I think we are responding for a demand in communities that want more choices, that want 37 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 smaller high schools, that want to relieve overcrowding. I think we're responding in flexible ways. And sometimes we're building something new, but more often than not, we're reconstituting something, or in some cases, we're building charters, you see. We are -- you know, in the first two or three years of the charter movement here in Philadelphia, I think a lot of charters were created kind of randomly without an eye towards, how do they fit into the overall scheme of things? But what we've tried to do is to use charters as an asset so that if there's development of overcrowding, you need to break up a large high school. Right now, I'm soliciting charter proposals for alternative schools. We need to set up a network, we need to expand our network of alternative schools for disruptive and 38 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES.
070095 potentially disruptive kids so that we can get them into the more appropriate setting and, at the same time, relieve the neighborhood schools of the additional burden of trying to manage classrooms where you have four or five or six kids who need to be put in alternative placement. And there's at least four charter proposals before us right now specifically to deal with high at-risk alternative school kids. So much for the charters only picking, you know, the best kids. So a long answer to your question, to your very good and important question, and that is: Yes, we have solicited, but what we found is that it's easier to convert a middle school to a high school or to approve a charter school than it is for us to raise another $40 million to build a school.
Or use some 39 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 of the same concepts that folks have that develop charter schools, looking for appropriate structures --
-- at a minimum expense. Everyone knows there's no such thing as minimum expense --
Well, the great thing about the charter law in Philadelphia -- not the great thing for 40 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 charters, but while I think our charter funding formula is one of the best in the country, the charters are supposed to secure their own buildings, and that's something that they're required. And you will be amazed at how effective they are at securing their own buildings. What we've tried to do where we really want a charter to be created like -- look, it's no secret that I'd like to depopulate Germantown, reduce the size of Germantown. Fifteen hundred kids go to Germantown High School. Get that population below a thousand. When I was out at the school the other day, the principal and her leadership team told me that 500 of the 1500 kids, you know, aren't being raised by their biological parents. So clearly, to have that high a concentration of children with special needs in a single building can 41 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 create -- and, you know, our smaller schools are doing a heck of a lot better. Mastery Charter, a terrific models, one of the best models around. You know once Pickett is converted, it's going to be one heck of a public high school. Look at Thomas in South Philly, or look at the great attention that has been drawn to their successes already the first year in Shoemaker. So I think we've got some tools here at our disposal when you consider just how limited our resources are.
Let me do this. I can start taking questions now 42 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 because the questions may be -- you know, it can frame my additional commentary. Let me just make a couple final comments, though. When we look at opening schools, we look at demographics and enrollment; obviously, we consider these things. You know, we look at the -- you know, we look at the needs of the communities. We look at the need to create -- to relieve overcrowding or to create school choice in the community. And a lot of times when we talk about the need to address overcrowding needs, a lot of that has to do with areas that are under development. I mean, we realize that if we dramatically expand school choice, we'll not only keep people in the City but we will significantly improve and increase the number of options for children who don't have any 43 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 choice but to go to the public schools 'cause a rising tide lifts all boats. Right now in Philadelphia today, we have 84 high schools, not 42 high schools, including alternative 7 high schools, including 19 charters high schools. So wherever you live in Philadelphia, you have multiple choices. And we've created those charter options by buying buildings, by doing turnkeys; in some cases, building some new buildings; in some cases, taking closed middle schools and converting them to new small high schools. So we've done -- we've expanded our high school options, created charters schools, we've expanded our high school options in multiple ways. So now -- right now, wherever you live in Philadelphia, you can apply to of open-enrollment high 44 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 schools, you can apply to 1 of 19 charter high schools, or you can apply to a cluster of regional -- of regional high schools. If you live in Center City, which doesn't only -- it's -- Center City is a part of the -- pardon the Chicago expression -- downtown. It not only is -- but it includes outlying areas -- it used to be a part of -- it's part of South Philly, it's a part of central east, it's a part of East Philly. And the Center City region is 67 percent minority and 68 percent poverty roughly, so it's just not the downtown area. Ben Franklin used to be the only high school of choice. Well, now you have Ben Franklin, three charters -- two of which are excellent, I might add, Mastery Charter and the Comprehensive High School for Architectural Design. 45 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 You have the -- you have the Science Leadership Academy, which is Franklin Science. You have the National Constitution Center High School, you see? So, if you live in South Philly -- South Philly High School used to be your only choice, and God knows, we struggled with South Philly, and South Philly has been a lot quieter and more manageable this year. But now in addition to South Philly, you have Mastery Charter -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Not Mastery.
You have the Academy at Palumbo, and you have Mass Charter. And so you have more options. I mentioned northwest Philly with the Leeds Military Academy. In Northeast Philly, as you know, in addition to the new Lincoln, we're converting Rush to a CAPA-type high school in the Northeast. The building 46 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 has been closed, it's being gutted and renovated, and within a year, that building will reopen. So we've dramatically -- and West Philadelphia. West Philly used to be your only high school of choice. Well, now you have West Philly, you have Microsoft, you have Sayre. And so the approach has been to dramatically expand school-choice options available for kids. And I think you're going to continue to see us move in that direction. But we do need -- we're going to need a Phase 2 of the Capital Plan. In the budget -- in the budget proposal that we'll present to City Council next month, we -- our five-year balanced budget plan, we assume that we're going to have to raise about $600 million for school construction. And that will help us maintain the present stock -- our present building stock -- in other words, not 47 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 allow it to deteriorate anymore and deal with critical emergencies -- and it will allow us to complete construction on the new West Philadelphia High School. But we've got to go beyond that. If there are some critical -- our next capital needs need to be as follows: We've got to build a number of annexes and addition in those small high schools and K-to-8 schools that need modern gyms and multi-purpose rooms and cafeterias. We need to do window replacements in the vast majority of schools; we need to pull out the little (indiscernible) and we need to replace it with glass windows. We need to do tuck pointing and roof repairs. And we need the electrification needed to modernize our classrooms. If we're able to do those 48 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 three things, if we're able to do those three things, you'll see 80, 90 percent of the buildings transformed, you see? So those are things that we are going to need in the next two to three years to secure additional funding for, things beyond just kind of the core maintenance -- this building's falling apart, it's in need of serious rehab, major rehab, major repair. We need to move beyond that. Annexes and additions, windows, tuck pointing, roof replacements, electrification for classroom modernization -- those are some of the things that we are going to need to secure some additional money for in the next three or four years, okay?
Thank you, Councilman. Before I ask my few questions, Councilwoman Donna Reed-Miller has a question. 49 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Hi, good afternoon. I wanted to follow up on your statement regarding the depopulation of Germantown High School.
And I know that this is something that you and I have discussed for several years. Is there a plan?
Yeah. I think the plan has really been underway 'cause the population is -- has declined in the past few years. For example, Lankenau was made an independent high school. Leeds Military Academy was opening. Leeds was designed to provide additional choices for children who go to King and to Germantown. The P School on the New Covenant Church campus opened up. And the Gates-funded Bale Charter School opened. And now, of course, Pickett is 50 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 being converted to a small high school, and they'll begin that process. And all of those schools -- Leeds shares a catchment area with Lincoln -- I'm sorry, with --
With Germantown and King, where Pickett's catchment area is Germantown's. But those schools have created additional options, and we think by the time the Pickett conversion is done, by the time they reach their senior year, the population in Germantown will have been reduced below a thousand. But I'll tell you what happens when you open up new schools: You attract kids back to the School District who previously didn't go to the School District. So a lot of times when you open a school, 20 to 30 percent of the kids who actually attend the schools are kids who might not have 51 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 attended a public school in the first place. So we've seen that happening, we've seen that happening. So consequently, you can open up new schools to depopulate an existing school, but it's not going to be a one-for-one depopulation because, you know, a lot of the kids going to the Leeds Academy would not have gone to public schools had the military academy not been created. And a lot of kids going to the Arcadia University High School for Peace and Social Justice would not have attended a school in their neighborhood had there not been an Arcadia School, so they might have gone somewhere else, but they've decided to now return home, but they're going to send their kids to Arcadia. So I think, the -- you know, I think with the addition of Pickett, I think you're going to see the 52 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 population continue to decline. And once the new addition is built at Lankenau, the number of kids at Lankenau will increase, and that will also further depopulate Germantown.
They were actually -- they were about 1700, between 16 and 1700.
Yeah. It's -- it's -- you know, we have a handful of large remaining high schools. William Penn is very large, South Philly is large, although that population has been coming down. Lincoln remains very 53 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 high. Northeast High School and Washington, schools that -- where we haven't had some of the headaches we've had in other schools. Fels, for example, still remains large. But, you know, the average size of our high schools now, Madam Councilwoman, has gone from -- it used to be 1700, where now the average size of our high schools is about 1100. And by the time the schools -- the new high schools have reached their full enrollment capacity, the average size of our high schools will be 900 or less, and about half the high schools currently have fewer than 500 kids. So we're gravitating our way toward being a much smaller district. But Germantown is big, Germantown is big, and it's important that we get that school smaller.
It is. I was -- you were there Friday 54 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 afternoon, I was there Friday night talking to the principal and, you know, the alumni association.
Right. I stopped by the alumni association meeting. It was nice, good turnout.
Councilwoman, we're also working with the principal and the faculty at Germantown to discuss the actual closing of a part of that building. She's probably discussed it with you. It's called "The 70s Wing."
And to close that, it will save utilities, it will make the footprint of the school far more manageable, and help us do a better job in supervising our students.
Okay. You need to identify yourself for the 55 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 record.
Okay. That's for the stenographer. Madam Chair, so that I can ask a couple more questions.
Can we have an updated list of what you've done when you talk about classroom renovations?
And I'm not -- I have no idea what classrooms, what schools. You said we have now 84 high schools?
Can we have -- we just need a list of all that charter schools.
Okay. We have the -- we'll provide you with our -- we have our high school choice catalog, 56 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and it not only gives you a map of the schools, but it also profiles each of the schools, and we'll provide you with a copy. We'll also give the committee a list of the classroom modernization campaign.
We've modernized about a thousand classrooms. When I say "a thousand classrooms," I'm talking about the smartboards, whiteboards, laptop computers, et cetera. We have enough money to do about 2500 more, but -- which will leave us about 50, 60 percent short of modernizing all of our classrooms. So we'll give you an update on that.
And a couple of other questions. One is, that you're right, I 57 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 agree. The schools will and does impact the neighborhood and its stability. At some point, we need to discuss community access to these new fields -- you know, the Germantown High field, the Marcus Foster Field, and Northeast High. I'm certainly not familiar with any issues in the Northeast, but certainly at Germantown High and at the Marcus Foster Field, the communities do not feel that they have access, and we understand that when you put $6 million -- we do understand when you put $6 million in a project, then we have to be a little bit careful, and I know we have to have some guardianship over how the field gets used. But we want people to -- and maybe you're changing the policy.
-- 'cause we always wants people to feel 58 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 that they have access, but that's been an issue, non-access.
We've met -- I've personally met with the community on the Germantown field at the diner in -- on Germantown -- on Germantown Avenue.
And I think we've made some progress on reaching an understanding on how to best open the Germantown field to the community and at the same time also to make sure that ten years from now, we still have one heck of a field. But absolutely, we'll give you an update on the use of the super sites.
And we may need to have that meeting with Nicetown and also Marcus Foster.
Because the communities are absolutely used to using that. 59 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
And the other question I have is that you've done a lot of capital projects in the neighborhoods, and I know in the beginning, there was a lot of discussion around agreements with the unions, okay? And Mr. Nevels took a stand that we were all very proud of. Is there -- do you have some type of a report on how many of those projects have actually been able to employ neighborhood people, job creation, and all of that as it relates to this resolution addressing the information regarding the capital projects and neighborhood economic development?
We can give you that. We do monitor that. As you know, we have a very, very aggressive MBE/WBE program which we enforce very rigorously, and our numbers are pretty solid. 60 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 But we can -- let us see if we can go beyond that and look at local hiring and things like that.
We'll try to get more specific. You'll see that the MBE/WBE numbers are very high. I mean, it's like in the -- on the professional service architectural design, those numbers are like in the -- it's over 50 percent. On the actual construction it's -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's 37 percent combined.
It's 37 percent. So we've been very, very aggressive, very, very aggressive, but we'll see if we can't break that down and identify what we've done to do local hiring and to reach out to local artisans, okay?
Okay, all right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 61 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Thank you very much. With regard to your statements about charter schools, we have one class left at Turner School, as you know. After this, there's only one class.
And even though it's an existing facility, would it be possible, for example, to have Laboratory Charter School, who's looking for a site, maybe use that? You know, Turner's become a real problem.
Yeah. Chip has finally returned. As you remember, I met at your request with the community on Turner, given the fact that we're phasing out Turner. And we had talked about KIP, which, incidentally, the "Knowledge Is Power" program -- they have a school in Baltimore that's one of the highest-ranking academic schools 62 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 around. They -- it's 90 percent poverty, and it is not select enrollment, so they go around door to door and try to recruit the kids. And they have schools all over the nation and they're uniformly doing very well. Their KIP school -- they have one school in Philadelphia that's doing very, very well. And they are very interested in opening a K-to-8 school at Turner. You know, we were in limbo for a time because KIP will not commit to a school until they find just the right principal. And believe it or not, I mean, the principals go through a year of principal boot camp. So they are very interested in the school. They would not begin to take over the school until September of not this year but next year because the principal candidate they've selected has to go through a year of training. They take dear, sweet time, you know 63 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 what I mean? I wish we could speed 'em up. But the bottom line is, they're very interested in converting it to a K-to-8 school. I mention given the building's design, it -- they may want to have a performing arts emphasis 'cause it was really designed to be almost like a little CAPA. So I think the communities will be very pleased with their model. They're very interested in doing K-to-8, and they're going to be scheduling some outreach meetings with the community. I met with them last week, and they asked permission to go out and do some additional outreach with the community. So I'll give you -- if Lee can -- I'll get you some -- I'll get you an update on where they're at.
Yes. As you know, it would have been a wonderful CAPA before it was destroyed. 64 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 With all of the new organization and people coming in from every zip code, it just created a big social fiasco.
Wherever they've opened schools, they've been successful because they hand-pick the principal then they hand-pick the staff, then they train them for a year, and it will be quite the school, and I think people are going to be very pleased. And, again, it will be a K-to-8 neighborhood school, you know, so I'm excited -- I'm really excited about getting them to open their second campus here. I'd like them to do more. They're of Mastery Charter calibre.
All right. My other two interests and my last two interests are, of course, I was happy to hear you refer to West Philly High School and then the Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center between Sulzberger and Martha Washington. They're my two concerns. 65 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
And I was happy to hear you talk about tearing down West Philly High School because maybe we -- you know, had been talking about turnkey programs. Maybe we could do something in both instances.
We do have PHA here to testify as well. And, you know, we're really, really interested in --
Right. We have a resolution, Madam Chairwoman, to authorize us to begin negotiating with PHA about an arrangement to build the Lucien Blackwell Community Center, which would be a part of the Sulzberger conversion to a high school. And as you know, that's a part of our plan to begin to depopulate University City. University City High School has to be depopulated, and I'll 66 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 tell you why. We have to do major renovations in University City. And if we do major renovations we, have to shut down the school. And we may very well have to shut it down for an extended period of time 'cause you can't do the type of renovations that you need to do without creating a hazard. So -- because once you start tearing down walls and replacing ceilings, you're going to create asbestos problems. So over the next couple years, we're going to need to have satellite -- satellite locations for the University City kids as we prepare to renovate the building. It's going to have to be like Rush. When we renovated Rush and converted it from a middle school to a high school, the type of renovations we needed to do would not lend itself to keeping kids in that building. And 67 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 with University City, we're going to have the same problem. So right now, we're looking at alternative sites so that we can continue to have the University City High School so we can shut down the main building we can do the renovations. There's about 20, $25 million in repairs that need to be done. And in order to do it right and in order to do it in a way that won't create any contamination problems, we need to shut down, clean out the building, and do it once and for all. We just have to do it that way.
Well, we have University of Pennsylvania who will testify right after PHA testifies with regard to their work in University City, the EMOs, and all that they do and of our goal to -- certainly we're excite about them rebuilding University City High School, and we know those 68 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 high school kids. You know, obviously we support the conversation of Sulzberger to a high school and the creation of a Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center. We talked earlier about the School District operating -- and we've met several times on the School District operating it during the day.
And the Men of Mill Creek -- in fact, I'm going to ask them to stand. We have some of them here. Men of Mill Creek, would you stand. These are people who volunteer at the Mill Creek playground now all the time -- weekends, holidays. They volunteer, and they would continue to do so in a new center.
And thank you very much. Thank you for taking off from work and being here. 69 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And they would continue to do that with a new center because, as you know, the other is as big as a matchbox.
And it just doesn't accommodate it. So we're still where we were with the School District operating it, so Sulzberger would have a gym, a great facility, and then we have the ability to have some kind of agreement or turnkey agreement --
-- with PHA so that we can do a Lucian E. Blackwell Community Center as well as a West Philly High School.
Well, we're at a point in our relationship where the School Reform Commission has given us the go-ahead to begin to get it done, so to speak. And as you know, I mean, our 70 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 plan -- Sulzberger is another middle school planning to be converted to a small high school. And we've had conversations with U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan about creating a -- getting his support and other support from law enforcement institutions to, you know, convert it to have -- to create a high school that has a public safety focus, a law enforcement focus, like law and public safety, et cetera. So there's a lot of interest in that, and so we won't let you down on that. I mean, it's -- if we're going to convert it to a high school, we need a kind of a multipurpose gym/auditorium rec center type situation.
Thank you very much. Are there any further 71 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 questions? Are you able to stay around for a few moments?
Great, great, great. Thank you very much. Carl Greene, Executive Director, Philadelphia Housing Authority. And we know with him is Michael Johns, Assistant General Manager, Design Division. (Witnesses come forward.)
Michael, I got your title right for the first time in history. It still wasn't right, was it? He's general manager, design. I told them, you know, that were that guy.
Good 72 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 afternoon. Thank you coming to talk about the important subject of the relationship between school facilities and neighborhood-building.
Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and other members of the Council. First of all, I'd certainly like to open my comments with just an appreciation for Paul Vallas and his great vision because whenever I meet with him, he always has a brand-new concept; they're new to me because I'm not in the school business. But he has great, great ideas and great vision, and I'm just fortunate -- I think we're all fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him 'cause he's such -- his ideas really stand apart in terms of the opportunity to create a new environment for change. And change is a little bit of what I'm going to talk about 'cause I 73 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 2 billion in construction in some of our neighborhoods is a dramatic shift in terms of the pride that people feel in the neighborhood and the opportunities for hope and the opportunities for just optimism and the opportunities for people to feel safe. And specifically in two neighborhoods -- in South Philadelphia at the old Tasker Homes and, you know, Audenried High School used to be there, and we spent about $200 million there doing demolition and the reconstruction of 554 homes, of which 125 are home ownership. And today, the School District is in the process of building a brand-new high school there, the Audenried High School. And I think a comment on that development from the sense that it's an 74 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 opportunity to change the values and the norms in the neighborhood and actually to contribute to social change and help contribute to the reductions in crime. What we've seen is a dramatic reduction in crime, and for us, a dramatic reduction in the operating costs of public housing. So while we have more tenants today in Grays Ferry Estates than we had in the old Tasker Homes, our crime is less than a tenth of what it was then. So we have very, very low rates of crime; very, very high rates of community optimism and pride in where they live. And where we used to have over two dozen maintenance people, we have maybe two maintenance people because the people are taking pride in their homes, and they watch where their kids play, and they're very proud of where they live. And so I believe that 75 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 redevelopment of homes and housing in neighborhoods as well as schools helps to create a new framework from which kids to grow and from which parents can manage their children. And I certainly envision a day when parent-teacher associations and home ownership associations and resident councils in rental communities are one in the same, where they have a large group of people who live in the neighborhood who go to the same school. And we have a similar development, as you know, Councilwoman, in West Philadelphia, the former Lucien E. Blackwell Homes. In the former Lucian E. Blackwell Homes, we have another $200 million in redevelopment and over 500 homes being developed there. And that certainly was formerly one of the highest-crime neighborhoods in the City of Philadelphia. And just the other day, we had a grand opening on Lex Street. We 76 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 opened new homes there on Lex Street. S. Attorney Patrick Meehan and the District Attorney Lynne Abraham were both there for our opening along with yourself and others. And we had the great, great pleasure of denoting the rebirth of a neighborhood and the stamping-out of what was a high concentration of high crime community and really replacing that community with a neighborhood where people are very proud of where they live at. And we believe that this particular neighborhood redevelopment strategy has contributed to a sense of pride, a sense of the parents in the neighborhood managing their children and being involved in their children. The neighborhood includes two schools: Martha Washington, which is an elementary school; and Sulzberger, which is a middle school.
And we have had several meetings with the members 77 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 of the School District, Paul Vallas and his staff, and they have shared with us their vision for that community. And we believe once completed, you know, a renovated and reinvigorated Martha Washington and Sulzberger will continue the downward trend in crime and continue the upward trend and the sense of optimism and hope. And the two schools sort of sitting almost like the middle of a campus of sort of newly-built homes presents an opportunity for maybe teachers abound. We've sold some of our homes to School District employees. It presents an opportunity for the parent-teachers association and the resident council group to be very similarly made up. It presents an opportunity for lower cost of operation for us. You know, we have (indiscernible) serving more people. We only had about 120 families in the former Mill Creek when 78 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 we moved everybody out. And today, you know, we have over 500 families in the community (indiscernible) the old building. And so we feel that the combination of neighborhood redevelopment and new and reinvigorated schools and reinvesting in schools give just like what they have in suburbia America: An opportunity to move into a brand-new neighborhood with a brand-new school with a newly-redeveloped school and have the sense that the public sector really cares, you know, that the public agencies and the community really work together. And doing the Lucien E. Blackwell community, we had a lot of coordination with the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative program oversaw the demolition, the Redevelopment Authority did acquisition of hundreds of parcels, and the City contributed some of those parcels to 79 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 our redeveloped area, and the Water Department also developed a new water drainage system to make sure that the creek, the underlying creek, is properly managed and maintained. And so we have an opportunity for people to raise their kids up in an environment to go off to be professionals and to contribute to our society in a positive way and for the parents to have clearly-defined private spaces like wonderful backyards and off-street parking in the rear of their homes and also a safe route to schools, the ability to walk from Lancaster Avenue down to Martha Washington and Sulzberger School and out onto the shopping that exists there. And so we have a number of partners in the neighborhood that are doing redevelopment -- most notably the St. Ignatius folks who are doing the nursing home as well as Angel Court, a senior and assisted-living facility. 80 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And so I do think that these two schools typify what I believe is the great opportunity for the schools and redeveloped housings. While we do not plan together from its inception, I think it's Paul's great vision and commitment that with these transformations of schools, we have the opportunity of getting to the same place and having the same parent benefit from a new home and also for the kids to go to a quality school and also for there to be well-lit streets, well-lined streets with greenscape and new lighting in the community. We're also planning a camera project in the neighborhood, over 19 cameras. We were funded by the 20 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to install cameras as well as to do public infrastructure in front of the privately-owned homes. So whereas the PHA new homes have new ornamental lighting, new landscaping, new green 81 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES.
070095 space, new fencing, new signage, we also have a grant to do that same thing for the privately-owned homes in the neighborhood so that you can walk from Salisbury, which is there on 48th Street, and down Brown Street or Aspen or Fairmount, and you could walk from there all the way down to Martha Washington and points north out to Lancaster Avenue to the community-related shopping, and you can feel safe and you can do it at night and you can do it in the daytime. So we believe that in the framework of new construction and new investment and new programs, there's an opportunity for lower cost of doing business of both housing as well as schools, lower cost of maintaining the homes for the parents, and an environment of hope and optimism for the kids and the parents alike. So I think if the vision of public sector both, you know, as 82 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Councilmembers and as public appointees and officials, we have the opportunity to show that government does work, that we can put in new cameras and new lights and the new community center and new schools and new housing, and we can take what was once the highest-crime neighborhood in the City, the neighborhood with the most notorious gangland murder occurred in the City of Philadelphia on Lex Street and put in new homes and have working families agree to move on those blocks, line up. We have a waiting list of thousands of people to move in this particular community. So now that we have thousands of people who want to move back into their former neighborhood of Mill Creek, which we now call Lucien E. Blackwell, that shows the hope and the optimism, and it also shows what Paul Vallas talked about, which he said when you build something new, you get a lot 83 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 of people who didn't live in that neighborhood before who want to come to that neighborhood. And so we are enjoying a period of optimism, of hope, a period of confidence in government and confidence and a commitment in public officials. S. S. Attorney and Justice Department, and we also receive some funding to put up some cameras as well as to study defensible space and to ensure that our architecture provides eyes on the street, you know, for the parents so you know who lives to your lest and you know who lives to your 84 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 right and you know what's in front and back of your house. And that's what Philadelphia is all about, a city of neighborhoods where you know, you know, the people who live near you and you around you. And Philadelphia is the prototypical, you know, eyes on the street, safe community design and architecture. We just need a new rebirth, and we're experiencing that rebirth. And so with respect to this hearing, I believe that it is important for schools and housing to coordinate, and we have a school CEO with a great vision for the future, and we at the Housing Authority, we share in that vision, and we are building new houses, and we are coordinating and we're meeting we're and talking. And I hope to see more of it. And what we're looking to do in this area is to convert Sulzberger as a -- which was Paul's vision to convert it 85 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 into a smaller high school for public safety, to train people, to remind people of the past and to encourage them to be law enforcement folks, to be firemen, to be airport screeners, to be public inspectors, whatever they need to be to contribute to the safety and robust growth of our communities. At the same time, a new community center would abut the school, and that community center would be available to the community in the evening hours and would also include space, condoed-out space for the PHA's use but primarily to be used by the School District as a gymnasium and auditorium and some classrooms. And the community would get to use it as well.
We built some buildings in other parts of town, and what we don't enjoy is the kind of intellectual skills and competencies that they have in the School District for helping kids 86 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 grow and learn. And so we're very fortunate that if we can consummate this deal with the School District because we believe that they bring the kind of intellectual resources and educational programs and curricula that, of course, is not in our expertise or line of work. And so, we think that together, the government can do a better job in which two of the City's worst public housing communities and restoring them with new schools at the same time to create a sense of optimism and hope and to create an environment where crime is reduced -- not through a cop on every corner but through a carpenter, an electrician, a painter and a plumber working in these neighborhoods to give parents a chance to have a better quality of life, a better opportunity to raise their kids, to have parent-teacher associations as 87 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 well as community resident councils that are made up of the same people that really care about their children and their children's environment and are proud of their home and are proud of their new or reinvigorated school. And it shows that you all as our leaders of our city have really thought things through and that we're working together as public organizations -- both housing, public education, as well as our elected officials and provide a high-quality service to the citizens here in the City of Philadelphia. Michael Johnson, who's with me here, is our chief designer and architect, and he has brought handouts, which we'll pass along to you about the market studies and things that we've done to show that around these areas where we've reinvested in schools -- in this case, where we've reinvested in housing, pardon me, that the property 88 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 value has gone up two-and-a-half times the rate of the City as a whole between 1999 to 2004. So there is a lot in it for everybody if you redevelop homes, redevelop neighborhoods, and at the same time, work together with the local schools to make them better. I think it gives us a chance to reduce crime, increase property values, and see our kids grow to be contributing members of society. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to provide some comments, and I am certainly here to take any questions that you may have, Madam Chair or other members.
Thank you, Mr. Greene. Obviously, I say it all the time. You're a true visionary because coming from the public sector and being able to design neighborhoods and keeping in mind that people are just people, and because some people 89 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 have less than others doesn't make them less than that. And we appreciate your vision and being the visionary leader you are in housing. And as our committee knows, we have homeownership as well as home rental, and everybody lives with everybody else. There's no -- there's no separation, and it works in many places. It works very, very well. And we're very, very impressed to hear that property values increased two-and-a-half times their rate between '99 and '04. And as I said then, you know, Lex Street was a -- the Lex Street massacre was the worst killing in the history of our city. And now I'm so impressed that we could stand there and talk about the cameras and talk about new housing and have mothers there and have neighbors there who love the neighborhood. I'm always reminded that the 90 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 late Lucien Blackwell used to say his older brother lost his best friend due to a gang war. And Lex Street, for generations, has been a place where people died, and now it's a place where people are happy and they live in wholesome environments, and there's no 9 crime. And all of this is certainly because of your vision. We thank you, thank you Michael Johns, who designs it. That's 'cause he came from my area. He came from nearby, so he understands. But we just thank you for your leadership. Councilwoman Miller, you had a question?
And thank you also. You heard me -- Mr. Vallas is back -- where we talked about this possible turnkey program with the school and with the Lucien E. 91 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Blackwell Community Center. And Mr. Vallas said that we're in the budget and that they do tear down the school itself. So we have hope and we are grateful to have this commitment today.
Great. Thank you. And I'd like to ditto Councilwoman Blackwell's remarks. I think PHA has just been phenomenal in helping to turn the City around. I just wish I had more land in my district. And you knew I was going to say that too, didn't you? More land in my district. But anyway, do you still have the apprenticeship program where tenants can get training to be involved with the --
Okay. Are people taking advantage of that? 92 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Yes. We just started a new class. We originally started with a class of 50 students who, at the time, we paid them a minimum wage doing a 21-week training program. So we typically have a good list of people who sign up every term. And this year, we just started a new class here in January.
Okay and how many cameras did you say you were going to get or you're going to receive?
Well, around the Lucien E. Blackwell Community, we plan to put up cameras that are funded in 19 part with some federal funds and some 20 state funds, and so they won't be just on the public housing site but they'll be in the broader general community, which is why we wanted to bring the private -- the old homes together with the new public homes so that it is one 93 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 community and that there will be safe walkability between the between the commercial, the education, and the homes between Lancaster and 48th Street and the streets in between.
So in order to get cameras in an area, it ties in -- the criteria would be new housing, newly-constructed housing?
Well, in this case, you know, we wanted the cameras not to be on the PHA site; we wanted the cameras to include the entire community, and we applied to the State. The State has a couple of programs that we applied for, and one was called "Elm Street" or sometimes they call if "Safer Routes to Schools." And the other was called "Hometown Streets."
And so since we had houses and we had two schools right in the middle of the houses, I think it 94 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 makes for a good completion to the project to now make sure that we can preserve the sense of optimism and hope and safety and lower crime rates by being able to monitor and work in partnership with the U.S. Attorney and the Men of Mill Creek and the people who are not public-housing residents and bring the people of public housing together. So that happened with that circumstance. But with respect to other neighborhoods where we have high-rise buildings and things like that, we typically do have cameras, but we don't have the kind of community involvement. We don't have the cameras reach beyond the public housing to include the broader neighborhood because to do that would require some non-public housing funds. And so we think that this camera project is different than any of the others that we have because the 95 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 cameras will be in the public right-of-way along with the new lights that we're putting up and new sidewalks and we're paving the streets throughout the community. So it won't be something just for the public housing; it will be something for the combined public and private neighbors that live in the community.
Well, we have areas in our district that have Elm Street and Hometown Street funds.
In fact, my office wrote a proposal to the State to get some Hometown Street, and we have it, and we're doing another one. So I never thought that we could probably tie in video surveillance cameras --
-- with 96 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 safe corridor to schools or whatever it's called okay. Okay. Thank you. I'll probably -- I might talk to you later about that.
'Cause we'll probably be submitting another application for Hometown Street funding.
Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown. And then we're bring on Penn, Mr. Vallas, I promise, and we would like you to hear a little bit of their testimony, but that will be before you have to go downstairs. Thanks.
Thank you, Madam Chairlady. 97 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Good afternoon, gentlemen. Let me first underscore the compliments shared by my colleagues for what is indeed visionary leadership and has really put Philadelphia in a different place when it comes to the look in the neighborhoods. We can't say that enough because you have made a difference.
And so often, we're quick to be critical of appointed officials when they don't measure up, and I think we need to be as aggressive and enthusiastic and when a lot of good has been done to turn the City around, so I commend you on your leadership.
Following up on Councilwoman Donna Reed-Miller's question regarding the apprentice training, is that limited to just PHA residents? 98 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Yes. Our program is limited to both public housing and Section 8 clients. And it's intended to increase the income potential and show -- and it's a part of our economic development because we have such a high concentration of extremely low-income individuals.
Uh-huh. And has recruitment been a struggle for you?
No, actually it has not. I mean, we typically get an overwhelming response for every class. I think we're about in our 11th class now. We do two per year.
Okay. What has been the impact of the $7 million fewer dollars that we're getting from the federal government that impacted other housing agencies here in the City?
Well, I think the reduction -- what you're talking about 99 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 is the $7 million in the CDBG Program, and we're certainly not funded as a part of that. But with respect to our end, the Public Housing Authority, we have actually lost about $28 million in our operating budget this year and another $18 million in our Section 8 budget this year and about another $10 million in our capital budget this year. So we lost quite a bit of money this year. Our total budget on an annual basis is usually around $350 million. And so we've probably lost, if we add them all up, maybe $40 million, so it's getting up there to be pretty close to... So we have lost quite a bit on all of our programs this year under the federal budget cuts. Our staffing is down by 50 percent between 2000 and today, 2007. And in 2000, we had 2500 employees; today, we have 1250. And that trend may continue 100 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 southward. We are working with the Mayor and the Congress of Mayors, and we are trying to work with, you know, all of the national organizations that represent elected officials because we believe that we need more involvement at the national level, 'cause typically, only the Housing Authority executives do the lobbying of Congress and HUD to try to increase funding. And so I think that we haven't been as effective as we could be if we had more of the national organizations that represent elected officials to help us.
And so the Mayor's agreed to join us, and we're attempting to get the governors -- the Governor to get the Governors Association to help us out. But -- so through the advent of these other bodies, we were able to 101 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 get $300 million restored, but that still means we got less money this years than we had last year because of HUD's -- I don't know what they're doing with their money. I think they're taking some of it for special operations overseas or something, because it's all not coming to our communities. So we are going through a period of decline in a financial commitment from the federal government, and we don't know where the bottom is because we're kind of in A democratic leadership in the House and in the Senate to help us out, and also, you know, our U.S. senators on the Senate side, Senator Spector, has been helpful, but we need more help. And so with respect to our cuts, the impact may appear this summer. You may see some of our developments deteriorating in physical conditions, you may see higher rates of 102 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 crime in public housing this year for the first time, and you may see more abandoned and boarded-up homes this year because the impact of the layoffs hasn't really impacted our operations yet, but we are down, like I said, by 50 percent, and we laid off percent 9 on January the 9th. 10 So without support from the 11 City or the State or somebody gets the 12 federal government to do its job and 13 fund these programs here in our 14 country, we will see a decline in the 15 quality of life and neighborhoods as a 16 result of the disinvestment from this 17 current administration. 18
19 So that the Section 8 program, given 20 what you just described, the future for 21 Section 8 is at best dismal if at all. 22
Well, the future of Section 8 -- also this year, they funded us at 88 percent for Section 8, which is about $18 million less than we 103 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 need. And the Section 8 landlords we have not provided a rent increase to the Section 8 landlords in four years, and so a lot of them are complaining. But I do think that in the short term through technology, through raising funds in low-income housing tax credit programs, through effective partnerships like we talked about with the School District, we want to continue to invest in our communities but the future is going to be a challenge because under this administration, we've lost money every year in our program, and they continue to move money from the northeastern states to the southern and the southwestern states even when there is money. So we're suffering not only a dramatic reduction in funds but a redistribution to the states that voted for the president.
104 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Finally, my question is to the partnership that you just described with Mr. Vallas, are there any other potential projects on line like Lucien Blackwell and Martha Washington, Strawberry Mansion.
Well, we're very proud of -- while we didn't plan it together, we're certainly very proud of what's going on at Audenried High School.
Because we put in 554 new homes, and the School District puts in a brand-new high school, and the plans they have for that are really, you know, just great. And we think it's going to create a lot of after-school social-gathering kind of places and recreational activities for kids.
You know, and so I think that we're -- we think that when a new school and new housing all come together, certainly it's great because you have more people and more people want to attend the school, more people want to move in and rent the houses because they're new and they're safe, and the teachers and, in our case, the property managers who work there all very prideful. We did, in South Philadelphia, rebuild the Martin Luther King High School, and the School District is supposed to be reopening the Palumbo School there -- I assume that's correct -- the Palumbo School. And so that's another case where you have new houses, new people to live in the neighborhood and the schools. So these things have been happening just because of the vision that Paul has for the School District, 106 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and I think that we can work together more, there could be more things where, from inception, we plan together from beginning to end. We were successful last year in getting the State law changed in that the Housing Authority now has the ability under State law to do construction within two miles of any public housing development.
And so that means that we are -- 'cause we are interested in education and we are interested in services and commercial, and so we went to our legislators and we got a new State law passed, and the Philadelphia State legislators helped us out, helped us get this bill passed last year, and the governor signed it on November 9th, which permits us to do mixed-use community and mixed-use community planning and construction. 107 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And so we're more prepared than ever, and we have the tools and the and we have the expertise to work together with the people doing community-based commercial, community-based education, community-based recreation, community-based and many activities in the neighborhood where we have a lot of housing, we're interested in being a full partner with the School District and other public entities or private entities to ensure the quality construction of those combined set of services that make for a good mixed-use community.
Yes, yes, yes. Lastly, after-school programming. As you plan together with the School District, is that a service becomes a part of the big picture, knowing, you know, that there are still at least 40,000 children that don't 108 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 have after-school programming?
Well, that's the vision that we have. I mean, we certainly believe in the Lucien Blackwell community as well as the Grays Ferry community in South Philadelphia that these are communities that are at risk because, you know, there's not a lot of activities, you know, after school. And so our view is that if we can get this community center built and it can be used by the School District for programming throughout the day and maybe hopefully for a broader use after school that we can provide, you know, plans and programs activities for kids so they can grow --
-- in an environment where they get to learn from qualified professionals --
109 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Mm-hmm.
-- qualified trainers, qualified teachers after hours or other qualified social and economic development folks who can help them grow to be leading members of our city.
So that's our vision. Our vision is the day when we build new housing, there's also planned programming for activities after school for the kids, because our communities, we built 500 houses in one neighborhood, that's a lot of kids.
That may be about 2,000 persons living in that neighborhood and half them are kids.
And so there are 110 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 a lot of kids, you know, that are school-aged kids in this neighborhood because we -- before, we had 124 homes; today, we have over 550 homes in Lucien E. Blackwell, so that means there's a lot more living in this neighborhood than lived there before. And so the risk for crime coming back to this neighborhood is great. And so that's why we believe that a new community center will give some positive activities and a positive role model, and that's why the cameras are important.
Because if we don't treat the problem before it becomes a real problem, then it will be become a high-crime neighborhood again, and that's our concern.