Okay. Well, thank you again for your important testimony. 111 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095
Thank you. Thank you for coming. Cory Bowman, Associate Director, Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania; Nancy Streim, Associate Dean of Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. And let me introduce to you Dr. Van McMurtry who's Vice President of Government and Public Relations. And Dr. McMurtry, thank you for coming and for all of the support. You've been a blessing to us, a blessing to our city and our community and Penn. (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Welcome. Thank you for all 112 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 that you do.
Good afternoon Councilwoman Blackwell and the special committee.
I'm Cory Bowman. I work at the Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, and it's a pleasure to talk about this very important topic before this committee.
Good afternoon. I'm Nancy Streim. I'm Associate Dean for Educational Practice at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. And I'd like to thank Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Education Committee for inviting us to present testimony on this critical issue of Philadelphia schools. Nothing is more important for the future of Philadelphia than 113 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 ensuring the success of our public schools. The civic leadership in Philadelphia has long recognized that public education is a community responsibility, and there are many examples of strong and productive business, philanthropic, and higher- education partnerships with the public schools. No higher-education institution has been more forthcoming or more involved than University of Pennsylvania. Local engagement is the cornerstone of President Amy Gutmann's strategic agenda for the university. Support for education in Philadelphia and especially in our own community of West Philadelphia engages the entire Penn campus, the faculty staff, and students. In the 2005-2006 school year, Penn directed $11 million of operating budget, externally raised funds, and in-kind support to programs and 114 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 services in Philadelphia schools. Penn is recognized as a national model of higher-education investment in communities in K-to-12 education. I'd like to focus for a moment on a couple of ways that Penn is making a significant difference for young people in West Philadelphia and suggest that these models of collaboration are worth expanding as the School District seeks to develop a comprehensive strategy for improving conditions and outcomes in Philadelphia schools. First is the Penn Alexander School. As you know, the University of Pennsylvania, the School District of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers entered into an historic agreement back in 1998 to create a new public school for the children of University City. The result has been the highly acclaimed Penn Alexander School, and we're very grateful for the appreciation and the 115 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 acknowledgments that you've already made about the school this afternoon. This neighborhood public school serves 500 students in grades K-to-8, all of whom must live in the defined catchment area to attend. The student body is ethnically and economically diverse, representative of the West Philadelphia community. And counter to much of the misperception that often occurs about Penn Alexander, the student body there is 48 African-American, 28 percent Caucasian, 13 percent Asian, 6 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent other ethnicities. Less than percent of 18 the student body is associated with 19 University of Pennsylvania through 20 their parents. The school has now -- is about to complete its sixth year and it's consistently ranked among the top neighborhood elementary schools in the City. However, it is not just the 500 116 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Penn Alexander students who benefit from the school. The idea of the Penn Alexander School was to leverage improvements in other area schools. And I'm proud to say that Penn Alexander teachers regularly share knowledge and experiences through joints projects with colleagues from our schools, as instructors for School District professional development programs, as representatives on districtwide committees, and as presenters at regional and national conferences. The school has also had a very positive impact on the community, and University City is now one of the most desirable residential neighborhoods in the City. Another model for higher education's involvement in K-to-12 schools is represented by Penn's formal relationship with the Henry Lee and Alexander Wilson Elementary schools 117 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 under the umbrella of the School District's diverse provider, or EMO model.
While Penn does not manage the schools, we assist the principal and teachers at these two schools to help their students achieve at higher levels. 9 million directly into the schools in the form of additional teaching materials such as textbooks, literature, and science kits, and professional development for staff, and in academic enrichment for students, including music and art residencies. Equally important, Penn has also leveraged the partnership to secure additional funds for Lee and Wilson Schools from both public and private sources for things like technology, after-school math and science programming, and other special 118 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 programs. After five years of partnership, the results are significant. Lee and Wilson no longer rank in the bottom quartile of District schools. Both schools are safe and orderly. Student suspensions are among the lowest in the District, and teacher turnover has been drastically reduced. Wilson has achieved adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act for three of the past five years. And at Lee, one third of last year's graduating class was accepted into selective high schools compared to none five years ago. Penn is equally committed to helping improve the quality of education at the high schools in West Philadelphia. We are already deeply involved at Sayre High School where faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Medical School are assisting in developing a focus on 119 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 health careers and health service. And my colleague Cory Bowman will tell you more about Penn's program at Sayre in just a moment. Penn has also been working closely with the School District to establish a new university-assisted high school of international studies in West Philadelphia. The goal here is to prepare young people from the community to thrive in a global society. The school is scheduled to open this September, pending approval by the School Reform Commission. Penn is designing the academic program in collaboration with the School District. And the school will also be affiliated with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's National Network of International Studies high schools. Over 500 students have applied for the 125 seats in the first 9th-grade class, and we urge the School 120 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 District and the School Reform Commission to make this fabulous new partnership a reality this year. There are a number of elements that make schools successful. These include focused and strong leadership, high-quality teaching, parent involvement, and adequate resources. While leadership and teaching are the most critical, there is no 12 doubt that resources are necessary in the form of clean and safe facilities, well-stocked classrooms, usable technology, and sufficient staffing to meet the students' needs. Though we recognize that adequate funding for Philadelphia schools is an enormous challenge, innovative partnerships with higher-education institutions can provide valuable human intellectual and financial resources. We appreciate the Council's efforts to stimulate strategic planning 121 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 for capital improvements in Philadelphia schools through these hearings, and we are grateful to Councilwoman Blackwell, who has been a tremendous supporter of Penn's efforts to strengthen the quality of life and quality of education in West Philadelphia. And we look forward to future opportunities to deepen Penn's local engagement in schools through innovative and formalized partnerships such as the new university-assisted International Studies High School and the continuation of the Penn Partnership Schools Network. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We know that we wouldn't have a library at Lee School were it not for your intervention and your commitment. I mention Lee School because that's where I taught in my first life, and I 122 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 was very disappointed. I wrote a curriculum and we did a yearbook. And perhaps with your help, they'll get back to these things. But certainly to not have a library was devastating in addition to the garden and all of the work outside. So I challenge -- I challenge my colleagues to have the partnership we have in your neighborhoods to do these wonderful things that we enjoy with the University of Pennsylvania. Thank you. Mr. Bowman?
Thank you, Councilwoman. I have submitted an appendix about a variety of comprehensive approaches that universities and colleges and other anchor institutions, as Councilwoman, you mentioned, health-care institutions might be able to take to partner with schools and facilities. Due to the brief time I will 123 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 take, I won't enumerate the educational partnerships; Nancy began doing that. The second area is around college access activities, the whole idea of opening up the schools for job training and recreation and other kinds of community activities. Fourth, social and health services. C. Green and Bright. But I would like to focus in particular on the work that the Councilwoman has helped us do at the Sayre School in her district to help create a comprehensive -- a potentially comprehensive model of university school community partnerships that are particularly relevant to this facility as an education program. 124 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Truly democratic partnerships between universities and schools are a powerful strategy for changing communities, schools, and higher education itself. The partnerships described herein represent the fruits of over two decades of collaboration between Penn, community organizations, and the public schools in West Philadelphia. Penn's Center for Community Partnerships, together with Community Partners, have created university- assisted community schools that are the centers of education and engagement that provide a range of services for students, their parents, and other community members. This approach works towards tapping, integrating, mobilizing, and galvanizing the resources of communities, including colleges and universities, to improve the community, the school, and the educational 125 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 learning of students. Somewhat more specifically, the strategy assumes that, like colleges and universities, public schools can function as environment- changing institutions, and public schools can become the strategic centers of broad-based partnerships and genuinely engage and coordinate a wide variety of community organizations and institutions. Public schools belong to all members of the community. They are particularly well suited, therefore, to function as neighborhood hubs or neighborhood nodes around which local partnerships and youth programs can be generated and formed. When they play that role, schools function as community institutions par excellence. They then provide and decentralize democratic community-based response to significant community problems and help young 126 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 people make positive contributions to the community and learn better through action-oriented, collaborative community-based problem-solving. The program that we're talking about now works with over 6,000 children and was begun in 1985 through Penn School's Community Partnership. Each school in our partnership in West Philadelphia engages in different locally-determined activities and partnership, but overall, the students in the school engage in hands-on community, real-world problem-solving not only in the school curriculum but after school, weekends, and summers. Let me speak a little bit about the Sayre School Penn Community School Initiative. The Sayre High School Penn University-Assisted Community School Initiative provides an example of how these principles have been put into practice. The school- based Community Health Promotion and 127 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Disease Prevention Program at Sayre was formally launched in January of 2003. It functions as a central component of a university-assisted community school functioned -- excuse me -- designed to advance both student learning, democratic development, as well as to helping strengthen families and institutions in the community.
The program is integrated into the core curriculum and the co-curriculum of the public school and the university, assuring an educational focus of the activities as well as the sustainability of the program and the partnership. To support this aim, Penn faculty and students from across the university now work at Sayre through existing and new courses, internships, and research projects. An outcome of the integration of health promotion and service activities as an outcome of the integration of health promotion and 128 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 service activities in the curriculum, Sayre students serve as agents of health care-change in the Sayre neighborhood. For example, Sayre 11th-graders, in an intake medical procedures course, work with Penn students, learning how to perform the basics of intake medical procedures; for example, blood pressure, height, weight, glucose, reflex, vision, et cetera. Sayre students also learn about prominent community health concerns such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, proper nutrition, et cetera. And the students are going to gain clinical experience by operating after school -- and they actually have been for the last year -- have been gaining clinical experience by operating an after-school health- monitoring clinic. When the health 129 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 clinic opens during its permanent facility in the summer of this year, Sayre students will work with Penn doctors, nurses, health professionals, students, and community members to provide basic intake services, medical information, and referrals. The Sayre Penn model extends student learning and positive youth development into the out-of-school time as well. Sayre is the site for City-funded beacon and State and federally funded 21st Century Community Center funds, and the building's open to students of all ages to participate in a myriad of academic enrichment and fitness activities, carrying the school-day health focus into after-school health programs, offering a safe space to youth and community members of all ages. A community advisory board oversees these community school activities, and staff from Penn's 130 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Center for Community Partnership help provide the coordination. Sayre represents a unique and highly effective integration of City, community, and university resources that aims to enhance the educational, recreational, and health-related opportunities and to improve the overall quality of life of students at Sayre School, its feeder schools, and the surrounding community. m. for a couple hundred students; it's been evaluated as one of the best in the City by Philadelphia Safe and Sound. The 9th through 12th-grade after-school program includes early college, a youth job corps. There's a number of evening activities, summer activities that provide academic, 131 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 cultural, recreational, and job training activities for all members of the community, recreation programs and comprehensive summer activities. The work at Sayre demonstrates that higher education can become a permanent anchor for revitalizing schools and communities and advancing student learning and development if the vast resources that universities possess -- particularly it's faculty, students, and staff -- are brought to bear in a coordinated fashion. This could be a model for citywide activities. Taken together, there are five integrated initiatives that we can look at Sayre that could serve the educational, professional, and social needs of all residents. First, a comprehensive school day program that connects learning to community health improvement that's improving learning and community 132 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 well-being simultaneously. Second, comprehensive after-school, weekend, summer activities for K-to-12 students across the entire community.
Third, communitywide programming providing academic, cultural, recreational classes as well as community development, job training, parent-support workshops and seminars for all members of the community. Fourth, being a hub for a comprehensive delivery and services such as the Sayre Health Center linking the resources of Penn medicine, dentistry, nursing, social work. Fifth, the creation of a West Philadelphia neighborhood link. This was designed in conjunction with Councilwoman Blackwell, students and community members. This would be a collaborative effort of government agencies, local higher-education institutions, nonprofit organizations, 133 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and West Philadelphia residents that will improve the conditions and overall quality of life in West Philadelphia by creating a single point of service delivery and referral site, integrating core areas of city and government services, including education, workforce development, housing, municipal, and human services. By activating, educating, and serving all West Philadelphia residents, this link this fifth component, could function as a center for the community to fulfill needs and improve access to central services and information. Replicating this component will support a thriving Philadelphia comprised of strong individual neighborhoods that that also belong to a broader Philadelphia community. In conclusion, university-assisted community schools serve, educate, and activate students, 134 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 their families, and other local residents. Students not only learn by doing, but also learn by and for service. Simultaneously, the university benefits from the unique critical opportunities community schools provide for learning, research, outreach, and program development. This opportunity to develop this model provides not only an opportunity for Penn and West Philadelphia but to be replicated across the city and across the country as a national model. To speed the development and advancement of this university-assisted community school idea to help our schools become vehicles for safer communities and improved learning, the City Council could do the following: One, develop and apply innovative funding strategies that provide support to broad-based coalitions, local coalitions that are 135 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 designed to help and sustain community schools. Two, create multi-agency City commissions designed to advance and implement university-assisted community schools. And three, strengthen and expand community-based partnerships to help universities comprehensively partner with their communities. I would like to applaud Councilwoman Blackwell, this special committee of Council and City Council in general for holding these important hearings. Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you very much. Let me thank you too for all the work and certainly both of you, Dr. Ira Harkavey and certainly Glenn Bryant who's out of town and Dr. McMurtry for all that you do in schools and the millions of dollars that you invest in schools across West 136 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Philadelphia. It's very important that we have these programs in so many schools. Obviously, we -- obviously Penn understands the difference and we will see the difference in young people who come out of Sayre and Wilson and Lee and all of the other schools that you're involved in. And certainly again, we say thank you very much. Any questions? (No questions.)
Thank you very much. The committee will note that Jacqueline Barnett, Secretary of Education for the City of Philadelphia to the Mayor, was here but she had to leave. Apparently, that truancy program downstairs is pulling our folks, but it's okay. Jane Golden, Director of Mural Arts. Then Dr. Nancy Morgan. I guess 137 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 I've lost Dr. Morgan. Jane Golden, Dr. Morgan, Mayer Krain, then Men of Mill Creek, then Vernard Johnson, and we'll go from there if someone else comes in. (Witness comes forward.)
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for inviting me here today and for all of the work that you do.
I'm very grateful to both the Mayor and to City Council for all of their support. As of today, we have 2,752 indoor and outdoor murals in the City of Philadelphia, making Mural Arts the largest program of its kind anywhere in the world. But what I think is one of the City's best kept secrets is that as of today, we're serving over 4,000 young people with free, very intensive, 138 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 rigorous after-school programs. In addition to our many after-school programs, we have an incredible partnership with the School District and are very grateful to Paul Vallas and to the SRC for improving this contract several years ago, where we are transforming 100 schools and working with young people at schools all over the City. " And we realized that you can offer a lot of programs inside the school, but if the school is concrete and barren and uninspiring, children are just not going to feel right because their environment doesn't reflect anything positive. And I think that we can't say this enough: That kids need to be in an environments that are beautiful. 139 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 People need beauty. And so we started to think of transforming a school beyond just a mural. So what we did at McKinley School has become a model, where we created murals around the school. We did sculptures, mosaic benches. We created outdoor interactive learning gardens, we made games for the kids. And in effect, it's a different school today. And what the principal did, which was so smart, is she leveraged that project and she was able to raise additional funds, she was able to get the basketball court, the running track her library fixed, a couple of new classrooms, and the cafeteria totally beautified as a result of this public art project. So when we started working with the School District, we decided that that's exactly what we would go for -- major transformations at schools 140 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 all over the City. So we are now in Year 3, and every year, we do between and 5 School District projects. And every 6 time we go into a school, we go into 7 the school with an intensive 24-week 8 art-education program. 9 Now, many of the schools in 10 Philadelphia sadly have programs that 11 do not include art. And we feel very, 12 very strongly that not only should 13 every citizen have art in their lives, 14 but every child has a right to have art 15 education. 16 And so we're going in with 17 programs that are very similar to our 18 Big Picture Program or our Mural Core 19 Program, which is our program for 20 teens, or many of our DHS programs, and 21 that is that we take the wonderful art 22 of mural-making and we deconstruct it 23 and we look at every step of mural 24 making, whether it's citizenship, civic 25 engagement, budgeting, transfer, 141 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 architecture, design work, color, composition, design. It's as if they're going not to just an art school, but we also tie in very much with their academics. And so I'm not just talking about an art curriculum. This is merging both art, social services, and education, and offering kids the best experience possible. We learned, when we were the Anti-Graffiti Network, that in order to make a difference in a young person's life, you need to offer them sustained programs over long periods of time. I think if you're able to offer them rigorous programs and, at the same time, beautify both their immediate environment and the neighborhood as well, then I think that we have a winning formula. I think we also need to take into account that many of our children in this city, the only way they 142 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 articulate themselves is through art. And I think that it's -- we cannot offer a well-rounded educational program for them without having them exposed to both art and music.
And by introducing them and having them be part of an intensive mural program, what they're doing is, they're learning to not just create a mural for their classroom or the hallway or the cafeteria, but they're also learning what it means to contribute to the life of their neighborhood, and that is what is so important. And moving beyond just the School District, we have a wonderful partnership also with the Department of Human Services where we're working in alternative schools, and we're offering these rigorous programs to kids who are truly at risk, who have fallen through the cracks. And over and over and over again, we see art become a lifeline for 143 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 them. Currently, we are a part of the Reintegration Initiative at the Department of Human Services, and we are offering kids amazing programs where we're there during the school day, we're there after school, and we also have the special Saturday programs at the Thomas Aikens House, where we're bringing in well-known Philadelphia artists so the kids can learn more. And in addition to that, we have special programs where we're bringing in guest speakers at schools and residential placements and different social-service providers around the City where they're learn from artists like James Dupree, Sonja Sanchez, Rennie Harris, and I could go on and on and on. We believe that every minute we have a young person's attention, it is up to us to make the most of it. This is not just a job or a 144 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 responsibility; I believe this is a moral imperative. And just to give you an idea of some special initiatives that Mural Arts has right now with young people in the City with schools, with social-service agencies, I'd like to just list a few of them. We have a new program called "Cops and Kids Turning a Corner" where we're bringing together police officers and young people to try to break down the barrier that divides them in order to talk about the impact that crime and violence has on the City. How do we make Philadelphia a safer city. We're about to embark on a major restorative justice project with young people in schools in Olney and Logan, with kids at St. Gabrielle's Hall, with the men at the Graterford Prison, and with community members. We're doing a big project about identity at Second and Thompson, 145 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 where our young people are painting a mural that is a quarter of a mile long. We're doing a major project about the artist Faith Ringold, and Faith Ringold is actually going to be coming here in the late sprint and visiting our kids, and the kids are learning not just painting but also quilt-making, and they're also studying the civil rights movement. We're doing a special project about forgiveness and working with kids who have been victims of crime. We have special intergenerational projects going on. And we have a special project at Graterford Prison where every other Wednesday night, we turn the visiting room of the prison into an artist's studio where the kids, along with the prisoners there, write poetry, do narrative, they paint together, and they talk about how they can make a change in their lives so that they 146 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 don't end up in institutions. In addition to those programs, we have many other special mural projects going on. And in their junior year of high school, what we're doing is, we're taking kids to visit colleges, art school, Community College, and trade school. We're doing portfolio development with them in order to help facilitate their next move in life. After that, we also get kids into different high schools. We've gotten many of our young people out of William Penn High School and into charter schools. And we have, I would say, over the last two years, have gotten 50 kids into Saturday sessions at University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
When young people graduate from thigh school, if they feel they're unsure of their next step in life, they can stay and work at the Mural Arts 147 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Program until they're ready to move on. We love these kids with all our heart, and we will do everything we can to make sure that they are safe and successful. You have my commitment. I personally take being a public servant very seriously. I am so grateful and feel very privileged to have this job. And please know that we will do whatever we can to make sure everyone in Philadelphia has access to art. It is absolutely not a luxury. It is indeed a necessity. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions, and we will make sure that every member of City Council has am accurate listing of all of the programs that we offer around the City. We are now in 70 sites around the City of Philadelphia, and we are turning the Thomas Aikens House into an art center for kids. We are renovating the house 148 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 next door that belonged to Thomas Aikens' caretaker. I feel we're carrying the spirit of Thomas Aikens on, and will be a wonderful space with studios and a multi-media lab. And we continue to recruit and train young artists as well. As of today, we're employing about 350 artists a year. It's great to give artists a space to show their work. It's better to pay them and let them know they have real value in our society. And even better than that is to connect artists with young people because there's so much great cross fertilization that occurs.
Well, thank you. And thank you so much for all of your support over the years. It is truly appreciated.
Dr. Morgan? I was so afraid you had gone. And Dr. Morgan and I worked together. She wears so many hats. She's also Chair of Education for the Mayor's Commission on African and 150 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Caribbean Immigrant Affairs, and that is very, very important to many citizens in this city, to all of us. Thanks for all that you do. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Nancy Morgan. I'm president of Bridges International, Incorporated. I service as commissioner on the Civil Service Commission and as well as Chair of the Educational Commission of the Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs. The reason that I bring this up is, I could testify today to the obvious relationship of effective and efficient school facilities as it relates to raising and educating a skilled and productive workforce in the City. Or in terms of the Mayor's Commission on African and Immigrant 151 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Affairs, I could testify regarding the conditions of neighborhoods and the resultant effect on immigrant populations who come to this country specifically for opportunities and public education and the need for better than equal facilities to enhance their integration into the so-called host community. But today, I wanted to testify mainly from the perspective of being an educator, having been in the School District for years prior to my 15 retirement in 1994, early retirement, 16 and as the parents of three educators 17 who have two educators as parents. 18 I thank you for the 19 opportunity to address this committee 20 on a topic that is both integral to the 21 development of the child as it is to 22 the development of the neighborhoods 23 across the City of Philadelphia. 24 In the midst of what appears 25 to be a tumultuous world fraught with 152 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 violence and chaos, we honor the spirit of God and good and are thankful, as our elders have said, we are in our right minds -- or at least we'd like to believe. Now it's the minds of the children we must protect as we enhance that which is positive in our space and time. " If logic follows the soul is within the protection of the mind, then the mind must be in the protection of something greater than that. A practical translation: Consider the environment and/or atmosphere in which we nurture the minds of our youth, our future, what's on and in their minds. Philadelphia City Council Resolution No. 070095 addresses just this issue and challenge, it seems to me. In our society, young people are 153 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 truly aware of what is valued by what they see and the ways that adults respond to things. Many young children aspire to become legendary sports figures, and we might wonder why. They are mindful that, apparently, sports are important in our society. A child needs to only come before lush fields and the grand edifices we create and erect for sports events to know the value of the experience. Similarly, when they watch television and they see the Academy Awards programs or any entertainment venues and they see the red carpets, the extraordinary lights, the glamour, the jewels, the wealth, any child would believe that success lies in the field of entertainment rather than academic or vocational endeavors. While it's realistic to believe that education can never command or may never command the kind 154 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 of resources that are designated for sports and entertainment, it is equally fair to expect at least a decent representation. When a child spends the greater part of every day in a building where he or she has been told there's something valuable to gain, then the surroundings should reflect that experience. There are those of us who, as children, arrived at old buildings with shining hardwood floors, clean, tall windows, and fine wooden cabinets, and we felt that we were in a place where something important was happening. Of cours, then we didn't know anything about poor lighting or asbestos insulation or inadequate ventilation systems. But also in those days, we did not need the technology; we didn't need to be in a building that supported sophisticated computer systems. We did not need the 155 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES.
070095 capability -- or it wasn't available to us to have the capability to correspond with schools in other countries around the globe. The fact that at least half a century has passed since those buildings were half a century old should trigger a thought. Why is it that neighborhood schools do not evolve to handle change as do office buildings and other places where important things takes place every day -- and not things that are more important necessarily. Thankfully, councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, your leadership and this austere committee on education have apparently given it thought and are now moving to put thought into action. As neighborhood development moves to another level, our priorities must become clear to those we treasure. We have to create for them an atmosphere and environment that 156 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 indisputably demonstrates what's important to the growth and development of the greater community. Even if we maintain the exterior facade in a city known for its historical sites, at the very least what's happening on the inside and around the building should be consistent with the many necessities of competing in a global society. And in listening to the previous testimony, we also have to be really careful to keep the beauty there for balance. Capital improvements are not only necessary to provide a more suitable haven for the mind, but within the context of nurturing the mind, student achievement is positively affected. There was specific testimony preceding this from the District, from University of Penn, and from other others. There's data to show that 157 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 supports the data that shows greater student achievement when there's parental involvement, for example. And certainly new buildings with facilities for community involvement will bring the parents in and will create some pride. There are also statistics that show greater student achievement when self-esteem is positive and sustained. We spent a great deal of time in the '70s doing professional development that was built around building children's self-esteem. Sitting in a classroom where paint is fresh, the windows open and close, the heating and ventilation systems work properly, the infrastructure is updated, and general surroundings are more consistent with today's standards rather than those of the '50s could better provide incubators for the minds of tomorrow. With little effort, we could 158 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 also probably find data that would suggest that often the most sought-after teachers are attracted to facilities that support creativity through technological and contemporary aids. We've lost good teachers to the suburbs and other districts that are able to provide more modern and updated buildings and facilities. Outside of central government offices, or maybe in addition to, schools and churches in every community should be pinnacles of the best of today's society. Unfortunately in many neighborhoods, they sometimes lag far behind the commercial venues. This is another testament to our children about what we value. In summation, once we've established and demonstrated through word and deed the value of education, the world can expand for each of our children not only through the confidence and esteem of the educators 159 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 but also the pride of the parents and the realization that the relationship between neighborhood development and capital improvements to School District facilities can perhaps be likened to the relationship of water to fish. It's a scientific fact that if you put a fish in a small bowl, that fish will stay small. If the fish, however, is in the ocean, that fish can grow enormous in size; the fish fills the size of its surroundings. Resolution No. 070095 proposes to view the current environment of the fish and to provide a greater realm for its growth.
Not that the bowl must be large but clean, effectively designed, and resplendent with light, possibilities for creativity, and windows to the world. At the risk of following an analogy to its natural, albeit stretched, conclusion, fish do travel in schools. 160 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Finally, let us always view schools as bridges to the future and bridges within the neighborhood and across the City between generations, families, and also between the many diverse thinkers as we nurture the minds of our community. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dr. Morgan. Thank you for your leadership over the years and for taking your time out today and your willingness to come into other hearings that I unfortunately did not inform you about and so we had to catch up.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Morgan, for your patience.
Also, I'd like to submit a revised testimony that will better reflect the statements that were 161 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 made rather than the testimony that was submitted before.
Thank you. Thank you. Mayer Krain, certified public accountant. Men of Mill Creek, Derek Long and Mr. Adams, you're next. (Witness comes forward.)
Chairwoman Blackwell and Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown, good afternoon.
My name is Mayer Krain. My background as a certified public accountant is more of an operating of a business nature than a strict economic nature. If funds were made available through non-taxable interest-bearing bonds for development and capital improvements to our current and new school buildings, it would create jobs, 162 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 salaries, and wages to construction workers and profits to the owners of those construction companies. This would create an immediate increase of City tax revenues of the City wage tax, business privilege, and net-profit taxes from those development and capital improvement monies. Those construction workers would be purchasing goods, services, and meals when working in that area. Those areas and their workers will be supplying more goods and services and meals; in turn, paying additional taxes to the City because of their increased economic activities. City Council along with the State legislature should consider providing additional funds to the School District to help eliminate all budget deficits, which may aid in the improvement of the School District of Philadelphia's bond rating, which, in turn, reduces its cost of borrowing for 163 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 the entire life of those bonds. The School District of Philadelphia's bond rating was recently reduced by a bond rating agency, which will probably increase the School District of Philadelphia's cost of borrowings. Last year, the School Reform Commission, the SRC, made an agreement to partner with the various labor unions to make union membership easier for Philadelphia public school graduates. It gave incentives to our children to develop into better students with a light at the end of the tunnel. Some of our current graduates may be employed to work on those projects. Businesses seek environments where they can safely earn profits and obtain reasonable return on their investments. They don't usually seek the place of poor, neglected, and blighted neighborhoods. The crime 164 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 insurance costs, worker safety, ability to attract qualified workers, and the failure to earn enough money to offset those costs and risks usually make it undesirable to locate their businesses in those areas. They need additional incentives to reduce their expenses like taxes from a KOZ, which is a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which would be the eliminations or reductions of their tax burdens. If it was good for Comcast and the multimillionaires or the Roberts family in the heart of Center City, it should be good for the poor, neglected, and blighted areas. New buildings and better school accommodation make children seek a better environment than they have now to spend their time. However, it is only the physical environment that needs to be addressed. They need to feel safe, have adequate teaching support, school equipment, supplies, 165 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and a career path to follow. As I have testified previously before City Council, the City needs to collect the enormous amount of real-estate taxes due and past due so that the School District will have the necessary funds so it can properly and timely improve the quality of education for our children. The City of Philadelphia needs to attract for-profit companies that pay business taxes. Usually outside businesses that deal with the education of students are nonprofits, and they are exempt from all taxes. Maybe City Council should seek collecting payments in lieu of taxes from these entities. Many of these nonprofits do not maintain their headquarters in Philadelphia. They take most of our tax dollars to their own locale, and according to the tax returns of those nonprofit companies, they are accumulating assets and equity which 166 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 comes from their profits because they don't pay any taxes.
For-profit companies cannot accumulate excessive assets and equity because taxing authorities like the Internal Revenue Service will step in and demand an accumulative earnings tax or dividend distributions to the shareholders. Economics is always circular, spiral in nature. We do not need to struggle to obtain money into the City's economy only to watch it leave through nonresident, nonprofit companies. And I wish City Council the best in their decisions to improve the environment for the school students, the teachers, City residents, which should be progressive for the entire City of Philadelphia. And I just wanted to add one comment to my actual testimony here. Basically, I've talked to some State 167 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 legislators and now City Council, and everybody is basically saying that they have no funds available. And the one major calculation that comes into the School District is from the availability or the assets of the City of Philadelphia for taxable ratables, and we seem to be falling behind; in other words, our increase of our real estate and our revenues from taxes is falling behind the various other school districts. In other words, when the State of Pennsylvania allocates money for their basic budget for the year, for basic education, if the suburbs ratables go up by 7 percent and ours only go up by 5 percent, they're going to be getting a bigger share of that pot continuously. And basically, that's what we have to be looking at, as to what the future is. We just can't keep on accepting what we're doing as a basic 168 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 standard because what we're seeing is that the School District of Philadelphia is losing. And because we're not getting our ratables, it's a circular issue. We don't -- we can't pay the teachers as much as we should be paying them, and then they go to the higher-paid school districts, and it keeps on feeding on itself. It goes round and round and round. And I think City Council in its entirety has to sit down and really look at what's glowing on in the City, start to look at the calculations, because if we're going to issue more bonds for funding for construction, that's going to incur more interest costs to the operating budget of the School District, all right? The capital comes out of capital and the interest on those bonds comes out of operating. And that is going to consume more and more money, 169 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 and if the State does not allocate money or City Council cannot allocate in those kinds of funds either, the School District is going to be another PGW with bonds issues, and basically, the City of Philadelphia guarantees these bonds. So I think you have to look at the financial issue. I mean, it's great that everybody's doing all these great services and have testified here, and I think it's wonderful. But when it comes down to the dollars and cents and the future of Philadelphia, that's what you really have to look at, okay?
Derek Long, Men of Mill Creek. I'm sorry some had to leave. I apologize for 170 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 holding you so long. After that, Vernard Johnson, you're next. (Witnesses come forward.)
Is there anyone else after these gentlemen who would like to testify? (No response.)
Thank you very much. We made sure that the School District and all who were here knew that you were here. As you know, one of the main reasons that we convened these hearings was to talk about our community center, the Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center, and get on board with that with the new West Philadelphia High School, and we wanted to make sure -- you know, we've been struggling for a while now, and you men have done a wonderful over the years, and you deserve a bigger center so that we can service the community we have. 171 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And so we thank you for all the volunteer hours you give, taking time from your families. My goodness, you know, after a while, you get to know the families, you get to know the wives 'cause they're not home; they have to see them at the center. (Laughter.)
But I want to thank you for all the work that you've ever done over the years. The food is always good too. They cook good food too, but it's always a wonderful program. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Councilwoman. We thank you for this opportunity to speak, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, you know, who we love. Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown, I had the pleasure to meet you at the pastors' wives breakfast. I was the caterer there, right, when you was the 172 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 keynote speaker. Jannie, God bless you. We thank you for all you've done in the revitalization of our community. As a -- I won't say so much as a victim, but as a person who lost family members in the Lex Street massacre, I think the change that happened was great. I thank who's no 11 longer here, Mr. Green, Mr. Carl Greene, for his vision. It was time something needed to be done. I was born in the Mill Creek housing projects, 7297-A in 1959. I've been there all my life. It was something. I lost my nephew, my sister got shot in the Lex Street massacre. And thank God it was God's infinite wisdom that put organization before that because we knew it was time for a change after that. You know, when young men is getting killed senseless and it's no longer safe to work in the street, it was something 173 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 that we could do. So the Men of Mill Creek was established right then, in June of 2000 -- Lex Street happened in December 28th of 2000. And we started to provide services that we seen maybe they was unconventional, but it was service that was needed to bring about a change. We had to provide a positive alternative to the general negative behavior that was happening in our community for financial or it wasn't resources or it wasn't conventional; we had to provide services that could give our young children a better choice than between a rock and a hard place, you know. So we started to partner with Mr. Vallas, who we spoke to on numerous occasions. Some of our programs run through a school, as Sulzberger when we have our karate program. At Locke, we have our basketball program. We had 174 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 our swimming program at University City, but as he said, it was some changes was going to be made. We did the baseball at West Philly. So the collaboration and the partnership and the networks of the housing communities and the school board and the CBOs (the community-based organizations) are very important and vital if we going to keep our community as going on the upper swing. We don't want our community to go back to the projects we want our community to move upward. We've just seen positive gain. We think the place changed, has changed people's behavior in their hearts. People are taking pride in our community once again. The educational system has gone up, students are learning better. As far as requirements for our program, we was at C average, but the children's making that mark and we improved that to B. So it's a partnership. 175 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 I think the center is greatly and vastly needed because not only do we serve Martha Washington and Sulzberger, but we serve Locke, we serve James, and Blankenberg, and these are all the children that come from our program. We run about nine different programs and we need to continue with that partnership with the School Board and PHA and the Men of Mill Creek and get this center built. I think it would be a great place to have a community. We could also reach I young men to who are either the 17 perpetrator or the victims of this 18 crime that happens right now. That age 19 group is really nothing to do with 20 (indiscernible) midnight basketball if 21 there's nothing to do that we could 22 talk about. 23 So there's a lot of things 24 that we do and we greatly appreciate 25 it. 176 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 And I'm just testifying on the fact that we do need that community center, and we're going to continue partnershipping with PHA and the School Board.
Let me say thank you very much. You've been a blessing for years and years, a true sacrifice, and we know and we appreciate that because it's only love and working with our community that's going to end the violence and it's going to end problems. There's nothing magic. It all comes back to loving ourselves, loving our families, and realizing that children become what they see. And so we thank you. God bless you. We're with you. We had this hearing to get there. And thank you very much.
Thank you. 177 3/5/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 070095 Vernard Johnson? Is there anyone else here who would like to speak? (No response.)
We thank you very much. This hearing will be recessed subject to the call of the Chair. God bless you all. Thank you and thank you, members of the committee. (Proceedings end at 3:47 p.m.) * * * 178 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the City of Philadelphia Council Committee on Education are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me on Monday, March 5, 2007, and that this is a true and correct statement of same. __________________________________ JOSEPHINE CARDILLO Registered Professional Reporter (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)