COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, May 23, 2007 10:40 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DANIEL SAVAGE COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO BILL 070015 - An ordinance amending Section 19-1301 of The Philadelphia Code, relating to real estate taxes imposed by the City... BILL 070118 - An ordinance amending Section 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Tax"... BILL 070119 - An ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization"... V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, everyone. This is a public hearing of the Committee of the Whole, and I would ask Mr. McPherson to please read the title of Bill Nos. 070015, 070118 and 070119. MR. McPHERSON: 070015, an ordinance amending Section 19-1301 of The Philadelphia Code, relating to real estate taxes imposed by the City, and Section 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, relating to real estate taxes imposed by the School District of Philadelphia, by shifting an additional portion of real estate tax from the City to the School District of Philadelphia, without changing the overall combined rate of the City and School District real estate tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 070118, an ordinance 22 amending Section 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Tax," to further authorize the Board of Education of the 3 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. School District of Philadelphia to impose a tax on real estate within the City of Philadelphia, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 070119, an ordinance 7 amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," by amending Section 10 19-1806, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to further authorize the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia to impose a tax on the use or occupancy of real estate within the School District of Philadelphia.
Thank you very much. Our first witness? MR. McPHERSON: The School District of Philadelphia.
Oh, I'm sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to make some brief remarks on Bill 070015. These remarks are consistent with remarks I made on the floor of Council on March 22nd. They are consistent because my public policy has been consistent, my politics have been consistent on this issue, and I'm consistent about putting public policy before politics. And I said these words on March 22nd. I told the story about how on September 28, 2006, Major John F. Street created the Philadelphia Education Advisory Task Force to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the City's education system. Mayor Street said then, "Children of Philadelphia is the most important and challenging responsibility. Investing in our children and improving their educational 5 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. " Those are the words of John Street. I attended that press conference, and as the only member of Council present at the time, I was publicly asked by the Mayor for a commitment to support more local resources for public schools. I committed then and I remain committed now. On December 11, 2006, Mayor John F. Street testified in City Council before the joint Committees on Finance and Education on resolutions dealing with School District finances, truancy and the dropout rate. Mayor Street said then, "Let me tell you something, we aren't fooling anybody up here on the finances of this City. You got people up here who know as much about this as anybody anywhere, and that's basically what I meant. There are things that we can do that will cost us money and there are 6 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. things that we can do that can increase our revenues. " Those are the words of John Street. Needless to say, I agreed with him then and I agree with him now. On December 30th of 2006, Mayor John F. Street delivered his New Year's radio address. Mayor Street said then, "The future belongs to the children. We will continue to invest in our children's education, safety and well-being. " Those are the words of John 7 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Street. I anxiously awaited the Task Force report then. I anxiously awaited that Task Force report at the time when he made the remarks two months ago, and we're still awaiting that report now. On February 22, 2007, Mayor John F. Street delivered his fiscal year 2008 budget address to City Council. Then Mayor Street said, "Although the City's annual support for the School District has steadily increased, any decision for increased funding should wait until the Education Advisory Task Force issues its draft report," which we're still waiting on several months later. So what accounts for the Mayor's change in support for more local money? My introduction of Bill No. 21 070015 on January 23, 2007. It's quite simple. He asked for my support, not my leadership, but leadership is what I'm offering. I have the support of educational advocates today and at the 8 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. time that I made these remarks before, I had the support of every major democratic candidate for Mayor, and I still have the support of the democratic nominee for Mayor. The time to address this crisis is now. Every major issue in the City -- crime and violence, job creation, economic development, as well as the overall quality of life -- is intertwined with the issue of public education, the need for more local investment. The Mayor says this bill won't solve the problem. That's true. It is meant to be part of a more comprehensive effort. So to the Mayor I say this is a very serious public policy matter. It requires more than a lame-duck response. I remind the Mayor and my colleagues of the Mayor's own words last year: "Children are Philadelphia's most important and challenging responsibility. Investing in our children and improving their educational opportunities is among 9 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the most important actions we can take as a city.
I guess my bottom line is that the School District very shortly is going to need more money, both from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia, if we're going to do something to accelerate the kind of progress we think is necessary in our schools. The future belongs to the children. " I couldn't have said it better than he did, but for me, money talks louder than words. Thank you. )
Thank you very much, Councilman. Mr. Vallas. Mr. Nevels, would you like to join Mr. Vallas.
Good 10 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. morning. Welcome.
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is James Nevels and I'm the Chair of the School Reform Commission. Madam Chair, it's good to see you again. It's good to be back. I would like to acknowledge two members of the School Reform Commission who have attended this morning and joined us, who have been absolute stalwarts in the support of children and what we have been doing in this city for the last five years. Commissioner Glenn, would you please stand and acknowledge yourself, and Commissioner Martin Bednarek. On behalf of children, I want to thank you for your continued support of Philadelphia's school children over 11 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the past year. When we first came to City Council in 2002 -- and I'm sure that all of you remember that, what a different time it was -- we were a School District beginning an historic and unprecedented journey in educational reform. The five Commissioners on the School Reform Commission were charged with turning around a school system that no one believed in and to prove to the City, the state, our children and all of our stakeholders that our children could learn and that they would learn, and I'm pleased to report that they have learned and continue to learn. One of our first acts in conjunction with former Governor Mark Schweiker and Mayor John Street was to hire Paul Vallas in July 2002 to lead and implement district-wide academic reforms. In 2004, the SRC adopted the Declaration of Education defining target goals to be achieved by June 2008. 12 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. According to the Declaration of Education, the mission of the School District of Philadelphia is to provide a high-quality education which prepares, ensures and empowers all students to achieve their full intellectual and social potential in order to become life-long learners and productive members of society. The basis for all of our decisions and our actions over the past five years has never wavered. One, improve the quality of educational programs and offerings to our students and, number two, empower the heretofore powerless. Before 2002, only the wealthy could create educational choice for their children. If you were fortunate to be of certain economic means, you could send your children to private or parochial schools. Our efforts leveled the playing field. No matter what someone's station in life or economic status, all children 13 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. now would have options, and they are learning. Sometimes we lose sight of this because we can't measure the feeling of empowerment or success by test scores alone, nor can we know the true value of our efforts in only five years. Together with Paul Vallas, we pursued reforms in ten critical areas: governance, goal-setting, accountability, curriculum, professional development, classroom monitoring, data and assessments, and early childhood and elementary school instruction, secondary reform, and strategies for boosting the performance of the lowest performing schools and students. To quote Michael Casserly of the Council of Great City Schools during his lecture at the Philadelphia Inquirer's Great Expectation Forum on Public Education on April 5th of this year, "What sets Philadelphia apart is how many reforms are being pursued 14 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. simultaneously. " The reforms instituted are among the most aggressive and productive in the nation, yielding unprecedented increases in test scores and decreases in below basic scores. Thirty-two percent of Philadelphia's fifth-graders achieved proficiency on the Pennsylvania Reading test in 2006. I'll repeat. Thirty-two percent, as compared to just percent 13 in 2002. Math proficiency rose to 42 14 percent from 20 percent. At the eighth 15 grade level, there were 20 percentage 16 points up in both reading and math. 17 Today, the School District of 18 Philadelphia's system of reforms is 19 providing a national model for urban 20 districts across the country.
We are 21 improving academic achievement and financial responsibility. And let me repeat -- and I will repeat it again and again and again -- our children are learning. 15 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. The most unique aspects of reforms adopted by the School Reform Commission is the implementation of a diverse provider model in which day-to-day management of 45 persistently low-performing schools was turned over to for-profit, not-for-profit and university partners. The diverse provider model also supported the expansion of charter schools to provide parents with school choice and reduce bureaucratic impediments to improving school performance. These dramatic changes in governance, management and school choice made in the course of a single year reflect a reform agenda that would normally comprise a decade. We have not even begun to realize the full potential of the educational choices that we've made. Radically changing the public's view of public education is a formidable task under the best of circumstances, but slowly, we believe we are rebuilding 16 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. support for public education in Philadelphia, building confidence in our public school district and educating and empowering our children. Full participation by all stakeholders is the only way this model works. No one yet knows the true cost of reaching our full potential, but we all certainly know the cost if we fail. I thank our students for proving the skeptics wrong. Our children can learn. I thank parents, whose faith and confidence in the School District of Philadelphia was at an all-time low when we arrived. I thank our teachers, who have been asked to take on the difficult task of changing the way they teach in the name of improving the quality of public education. They have proven their versatility, adaptability and dedication, and we must give them the tools they need to win. For them more than anyone, failure is not an option. We know we still have a long 17 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. journey ahead of us. You will hear from our CEO, Paul Vallas, who is sitting with me. He has announced that he will step down as CEO at the end of the school year to become the Superintendent of the New Orleans Recovery School District. I want to thank Paul for five years of dedication to the children of Philadelphia. We have our challenges: the budget, personnel, academic programs, class size, to name a few, but we knew we would have challenges, bumps in the road on our journey. You have my guarantee that our children are our priority and schools will open on schedule in September. We will also be asking Governor Rendell, Mayor Street, the General Assembly and we are asking you, the City Council, to reaffirm your support for the School District as we move into a new year. We are committed to continuing 18 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. with one of the most ambitious and successful reform efforts in urban education. Children in Philadelphia, I repeat, are learning. They responded to our challenge and they deserve our support. As partners we can ensure that the reforms that have been successful continue and all of our expectations continue to rise. We take our fiduciary responsibility to the children of Philadelphia very seriously. We will continue to develop and implement policies that improve our fiscal and organizational oversight of the District. Despite a budgetary setback, you will hear from Paul and our CFO. We will act responsibly and deliberately so we do not undermine the successes that we have achieved to date and the reform efforts planned over the next several years. Many partnerships formed over the last five years have been at the heart of the reform process, and it is 19 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. crucial to continue community involvement in our schools if we want to succeed.
Most important are our partnerships with the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the business and faith communities, our friends in the non-profit and civic organizations, but most of all, parents and students themselves. We cannot reach our goals without everyone's confidence, support and continued investment in our educational reforms and our children. " Our goal is noble. Failure is absolutely unacceptable. The experiment is about our future. I am honored to be part of this journey with you and our attempts together to reach our goals. Our children are succeeding, and we'll forge ahead, I hope with your 20 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. support and partnership. I hope as we collectively discuss ways to make Philadelphia great, we do so with the realization that we will only achieve greatness if our children are equipped to succeed. Thank you very much. )
Thank you. Are there any questions of Mr. Nevels? The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, Mr. Nevels, and thank you for your testimony.
As we move into the future -- and this is very much about the future -- we salute the work of Paul Vallas, but we are glad that you will still be in place to offer your 21 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. leadership. One of the things regarding my bill that many people are concerned about, that I'm concerned about as well, is that we not hand the School District a blank check. I've had a brief conversation with you about what we might do to alleviate those concerns. One thing I've suggested that's been suggested to me is that we look at formulating a Memorandum of Understanding that tells us exactly what we're going to get for the additional revenue that we might provide and particularly in the areas of early childhood education, class size, after-school programs, dropout prevention and safety. Would the School District, particularly the School Reform Commission, be willing to execute such a Memorandum of Understanding with the City?
Well, at the very outset, Councilman, I want to let you know how deeply appreciative the School 22 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Reform Commission and children in Philadelphia are of your efforts on behalf of children. As to a Memorandum of Understanding, I obviously would have to consult with my colleagues on the School Reform Commission to get a sense of whether that would be acceptable. We can't deliberate right now because that's not appropriate, but we certainly -- I certainly would be absolutely willing to take that to the Commission for its full consideration and hopefully for implementation.
And that is something that as Chair of the Commission you would be in favor of personally?
Thank you. It is also part of an amendment I will be offering today, and, in fact, I find it necessary probably to make this bill 25 contingent upon such a Memorandum of 23 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Understanding.
I'm very respectful of that and certainly will take that to the Commissioners as well.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Mr. Nevels, again, I want to concur with Councilman Goode that it's good that you're going to still be around to bring us through all of this. And, Mr. Vallas, good luck in your new endeavors. It's been a pleasure 24 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. working with you. I'm going to cut right to the chase on one of the primary issues with respect to one of the concerns that I've had. Here in the City of Philadelphia years ago we had some fiscal difficulties and a program was put in place to ensure, in the spirit of cooperation, that we had some oversight over our fiscal policies. It was called PICA. And it's not clear to me, although the SRC had members of both city appointees and state appointees to it, if it's supposed to play that role from a fiscal standpoint as it relates to the School District's finances. If in fact it was, where was the breakdown in terms of not getting a sense of the looming deficit and subsequent ballooning deficit as it relates to the School District funds? And if in fact that is not the case where they did or will play such a detailed role in the fiscal oversight of the School District's budget, do you recommend a change in 25 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. strategy as it relates to that, something similar to a PICA like oversight committee?
Thank you, Councilman. Again, thank you for your support and thank you for the question. One of the things -- and I'm going to defer to Paul and our CFO in terms of answering that question, but I want to say to you that when we were here in 2002, early 2002, one of the linchpin approvals -- Council President will remember this as well -- that we were very concerned about getting funds immediately through a deficit reduction bond, and we did that and we did that collaboratively with the state and with the Council as well. Those funds were what provided us a fundamental basis to pay outstanding obligations and go forward. What happened was, we had a situation where literally those funds were to be totally expended, as I recall, 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Paul, in about two years, and through some very, very creative management, those funds were extended. We are now at the point where the funds are gone and we now need funds on an ongoing basis. So we had at that time funds that were supplementing what we were getting. So we have had, in fact, a decrease in revenues but revenues that were borrowed as well.
Certainly we anticipated that, but during the course of what we were doing, the funds ran out and in the process we were engaged in very sweeping reforms. So to the extent that we could recognize that, we did and we have.
That's not -- and I don't want to be combative with you, but that's not consistent with the testimony.
When I go through 27 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. my testimony, I'll go through that point by point if I could -- I could answer it now or do it as a part of my testimony. And believe me, as the President has pointed out, she's got me on a timer here, so I'll definitely try to get to those points in the most expeditious way. But I'll talk about the deficit financing bond or the myth of the deficit financing bond and I'll talk about the really '06 budget crisis, which is what we're suffering from here in '07. It's the '06 bills carrying over into '07. And then I'll obviously talk about the challenges that we face in this budget, '08 and beyond. And I've laid it out in presentation form in that order. So if you can just -- if you can give me about 10 or 15 minutes to get to that point of business, I think I'll be able to answer your questions in detail.
We'll probably be here for quite some time. 28 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Madam President, it's up to you if you want to have Mr. Vallas respond during his testimony. I'm fine with whatever way you choose.
Councilman Clarke, do you have any other questions?
Thank you. I'd just like to know, recently the SRC appointed the leadership for the School District. Did you all ever give any consideration to the diversity of the 29 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. leadership?
Absolutely, and I can tell you that the School Reform Commission has certainly during its tenure been absolutely emphatic about diversity, about MBE/WBE participation, and one of the things that in terms of this interim team, there will be minorities in chief of staff positions and otherwise.
What about the interim and also the top three leadership positions?
What we did was, we initially contemplated working with an individual, the current CIO, and had conversations with him about his interest in being the interim. Unfortunately, he was unable to take on that role, and then, frankly, we went and looked within the organization to provide continuity during an interim period of time and moved down that list.
Is the 30 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. search process in place? Have you hired a search firm to look for a CEO?
Let's talk about that for a moment. What has happened is, we are going to engage in a national search. There has been prepared an RFP soliciting proposals from specific search firms, and we are now in that phase. One of the very important responsibilities of the search firm will be to develop a process for public input. And we are also in conversations with some of the individuals that worked with the Philadelphia Inquirer that did their community forums to get input. But, yes, we have a process in place. We'll be moving to select a qualified search firm or firms and move forward as quickly but as deliberatively as we can to find a successor to our leader.
So as you move through that process and you engage the search firm, will there be a 31 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. selection committee, and what will that selection committee look like? I assume that the forums will be for the community to have input into what you might be looking for, but who will comprise the selection committee to make the final determination? Will there be broader participation than just the SRC Board?
We certainly -- the primary responsibility of the SRC will be to act to select a leader, but obviously to the extent that there are inputs to the SRC and we're respectful of inputs, opinions and advice, we're going to be open to that. I have not had a substantial conversation with members of the SRC. We have one more individual who is about to come on and fill a seat. But we're going to talk about that and come to some determination as to how we move about selection, but the primary responsibility will fall on the SRC.
What is 32 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. your timeline?
As quickly as we possibly can, but we want to take as much time as we need. So I would say to you that it would be wonderful if we could have a new leader by the opening of school. I'm not sure that that's possible, but we will get a better sense of that from the Commission sitting down with the firm or firms that are selected, and we'll certainly report back to you in that regard.
Now, what role will this interim team play in terms of decisions relative to -- will they be sort of like the gatekeepers to maintain what you have in place or will they have the ability or responsibility to move forward on making any new changes or anything like that in the District?
When you have a $2.1 billion operation, you have to have leadership in order to make sure that things run, that they operate. We have a 33 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. great concern obviously with opening the schools on time and going on with the operation of the organization. Those individuals will be charged with that. They will be responsible for that, and that's certainly no different than the current situation under current management.
I guess my question is, will they put forth any -- when the new administration or new Superintendent arrives, he has his ideas or her ideas about what the School District should look like and they want to put forth these ideas. Will this interim team make any of the changes that have been put forth by the current Superintendent and the SRC or will they sort of maintain and operate and run the school in the status quo or will they have the ability to make drastic changes?
They will report, as does current management, to the School 34 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Reform Commission, and the five Commissioners will make a determination as to what is being done and whether it should be done, just as is the case now. Now, the other thing to keep in mind, please, Councilwoman, is that we have a plan, and that plan for educating children comes from the Declaration of Education. The Declaration is our guiding principle, our guiding star, and we intend, I believe, the Commission, to adhere to that and continue moving toward the achievement of those goals, and those individuals as part of the interim team will be charged with staying that course.
I guess one question I want to ask but it will probably go back to Mr. Vallas relative to the budget deficit. The question I want to ask is, what did you know and when did you know it, Mr. Nevels, in terms of the financial situation?
In terms of the financial situation, we have monthly 35 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. meetings, and I can't recollect exactly when it was. I would have to go back and look at notes as of that time, but certainly there was good information flow from the CEO to me personally and to the Commission about the status of the deficit.
Well, if the deficit focuses in on year 2006, were there any red flags for you? I mean, because the School District came to us last year and said you had a balanced budget, and then in the interim, you had found out you had a deficit. I'll wait until you talk, but I want to ask Mr. Nevels, at what point did you know when you were here in '06 that there might be a deficit relative to that budget in April of 2007?
We knew that we were running out of the deficit reduction financing proceeds. We knew that.
So you knew that when you came to present the 36 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. budget to the Council that right at that point you had a balanced budget?
But in the back of your mind, did you know that at some point in time that you would have a deficit, meaning that you would end up with this deficit?
Since I provided the testimony at the City Council meeting, when we presented the budget this past year, we presented what we felt was a structurally balanced budget. And let me point out that if we run a deficit of $23, $24 million this year, then technically we will have had a structurally balanced budget. Our problem was, we didn't close our books and we don't close our books until September and October, and at the time, we felt that we were going to run a deficit for the previous year that would be covered by our reserves, by our fund balance. 37 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. The deficit, when we closed our books, for reasons that I'll articulate again in my testimony, ended up being not million but ended up being $73 million 6 due to a combination of some reasons. 7 One reason was our salvage was much lower 8 than anticipated. We thought we would 9 have our average salvage 24 million. 10 That's historical. We salvaged six 11 million. 12 Term pay. As you know, the No 13 Child Left Behind mandate that employees 14 be highly qualified was enforced. There 15 was a dislocation of about 750 employees 16 who worked for us that our term pay was 17 50 percent higher than it's been in the 18 past. Term pay is retirement, sick time, 19 et cetera, et cetera. Some people call 20 it severance, but there was a 50 percent 21 increase. We are surprised at that. 22 We also did not receipt -- we conducted a number of property sales that were consummated but suddenly got held up in the courts. Incidentally, that have 38 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. yet to be consummated. So those three things alone added something like $30, $35 million to our deficit. So instead of closing the books with a $22 million deficit that could be covered by our fund balance, we ended up having a $73 million deficit that could not be covered by our fund balance. Do you see what I mean? And, again, I think the City closed its books in October. It discovered that their surplus was $50 million higher than they had projected and a hundred million dollars higher than the original surplus that was submitted when the budget was presented. Now, I'm not suggesting that people knew about that. That was good. You erred on the sides of being too conservative on your estimates. But the bottom line is, the books get closed in September and October, and that's when the true numbers come in. So instead of having a deficit 39 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. for '06 that was manageable and that could be funded by the remaining reserve funds that we had in our fund balance, the deficit was a heck of a lot higher and we could not cover that deficit. So as a result, those expenses rolled over into the '06-'07 budget, and that comprises the bulk of the deficit that we have now. We project that by the end of this year -- we're still hoping that we'll finish the year with about a -- between a $35 and $40 million deficit. There are some suggestions that it could be three or four million dollars higher. On the other hand, we're hoping that term pay and salvage will return to historical averages. If they do, then it could actually be in the 20's. But I'm not in any way going to try to speculate or to guess, because we won't know until September what those numbers are either. So that is the crux of the problem. In a nutshell, we pushed the 40 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. envelope. We tried to do too much. And we tried to attrit out teachers at a slower rate than we could have given the fact that we've lost a large part of our population to charter schools, I might add. Because the enrollment of the School District is stabilizing and, of course, the School Reform Commission creates charters. We're carrying almost the entire cost of our capital program, unlike other districts nationally, through our operating budget, through our operating budget. Camden gets 80 percent of their school construction from the state.
So there's a lot of things that -- we're trying to do a lot with the limited funds that we have. Also, there's this myth that the deficit financing bond, my God, all this money we could spend, I mean, the deficit financing bond netted the District $317 million. The first act of the School Reform Commission, prior to my arrival, 41 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. once the deficit financing bond was enacted, was to use something like $115 million of that proceeds just to pay out old bills that they had inherited from the previous administration. In addition, the debt service on the deficit financing bond is $24 million a year. So the net proceeds I've had to work with through the deficit financing bond has been less than a hundred million dollars. So much for the myth of the deficit financing bond. My point here -- and that's why they call it deficit financing bond, so you could draw down on that bond to cover your deficit so that we could -- because we weren't going to tell the City Council, We got to use this deficit financing bond to keep our budget structurally balanced, while we postpone curriculum instructional reforms, postpone early childhood reforms, postpone high school reforms, postpone school construction. We pushed the 42 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. envelope, and we came up short. We came up short, like most school districts are across the nation. But unfortunately, unlike most school districts and unlike every school district outside Philadelphia, we can't raise our own taxes. We are dependent on the state for our money. We are dependent on the City for our money. So I'll take full responsibility for spending more resources than I had, but I'll also share some of the responsibility with the School Reform Commission for having some of the biggest increases in test scores in the country, for offering more school choice than any other school district could even hope to imagine, to have introduced probably the best managed instructional program in the country, to have constructed a school construction program that is historic in size, yet only addresses one-third of our needs. So we pushed the envelope and we are now 43 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. at the crossroads. Now, the budget that we face for '07 and '08, it is a budget deficit challenge that we had expected, because we figured by this time, the deficit financing bond proceeds would have been exhausted, and all of our collective bargaining agreements or, for that matter, our capital programs back load the cost. So we can do reforms and then -- and so that we're not financially constricting us up front, because as Councilman Goode has said over and over again, we have a crisis in our district and we've got to provide our kids with the supports that they need now. But what's complicated this budget that we're currently wrestling with is the fact that we're going into this budget with a carry-over deficit from the previous year, which we had hoped that we wouldn't have. I mean, if we didn't have $35, $40, $45 million in carry-over deficit that really emanates 44 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. from '06 and if we weren't -- and we carried it over into '70 and now we're going to have to in turn carry the deficit over into '08, this budget would have been a little more manageable, because every year we face about $100 million in cost drivers, but what's complicating the budget this year is the fact that we don't have a reserve fund. We don't have deficit financing bond proceeds. We don't have any more creative financing ideas to get refunds on some of our debt restructuring and things like that. We're kind of -- we're in a bind. We don't have a cushion that we've had in the past, and that's why we've gone to the state and that's why we've come to the City Council for some additional help. So, again, we close the books in September and October.
We ended up having a much higher deficit than anticipated, and, unfortunately, we weren't able to make the cuts in the 45 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. middle of the year. After numerous public hearings -- and the Mayor participated in hours of the public 5 testimony, because we were reluctant to 6 go in and cut things that would have an 7 adverse impact on our reforms. So we 8 continue to carry that deficit, and 9 that's the deficit that we're wrestling 10 with today. 11 Now, when I make my 12 presentation, I'll articulate the budget 13 challenges facing us this year, if I ever 14 get to it, and talk to some of the recommendations. I'm sorry for the long answer to the short question. Oh, I made my presentation. Okay. But I do have an outline that I do want to run by you, and if you can just indulge me, just if you can give me about 15 or 20 minutes to give you the highlights, I think the document is more than self-explanatory. So if you can just do that, I'd appreciate that. 46 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Thank you. Councilman Clarke, is your question of Mr. Nevels?
I don't know if you're in the presentation phase. You made one statement during the course of your response, and I commend you for taking responsibility for spending more money than you had, and that kind of brought me to the crux of my earlier question of Mr. Nevels. What mechanisms are going to be in place to make sure in the future that we don't spend more money than we have? And if in fact you have to spend more money than you have, we in Council will have a sense of that early on so we can hopefully respond in a way that's meaningful and productive. So that's kind of what I'm trying to get a sense of, the fiscal oversight, to make sure 47 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that we don't find ourselves in that process again. And I guess I'm asking Mr. Vallas that question at this point.
We are certainly -- we have certainly been chastened by what has happened and we have put into place some mechanisms to do that, and the question going forward is making sure that we have sufficient and adequate financial information systems in place so that we can avoid this sort of situation. Now, one of the things that Paul just mentioned -- and I think it's important to mention -- is that there is -- this is a dynamic process. We are putting together -- we put together budgets based on certain assumptions as to revenue, and then we receive the revenue, which may meet the assumptions or may not meet the assumptions. So we are engaged in a process very unlike in business where you know what you have coming in. And so what 48 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. we're going to do is be very, very studious about making sure that we have in place on an ongoing basis financial information systems that will allow us to determine where we are, but also remember that this is a sort of thing where you have swings of 25, 30 million bucks in a budget of $2.1 billion. So we have those in place and we're going to continue to monitor that.
Can you be more specific in terms of the types of systems? I mean, is it more employees? Have you changed the MOIS systems? I mean, what exactly --
Did Councilman Clarke address that question to Mr. Vallas?
If he did address that question to Mr. Vallas, it's sort of a curious question. I don't believe Mr. Vallas is able to spend one dime after the beginning of the next fiscal year. So there's not a question of whether Mr. Vallas is going to spend more than he has in the next fiscal year, because he's not going to spend any of it.
Madam Chair, if I may, one of the things I just received from the CFO is a list of control environment enhancements, and I would 50 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. certainly like to submit this to the record in response to the Councilman's question. I mean, they include encumbrance controls, expense budget overrides and so on, which I can certainly review them with you here, but I think that it might be, in the interest of time, time better spent by putting it into the record, if that's okay.
Yeah. It's this document that has -- that outlines systems controls and then managerial controls, and there are four items under the system controls and another five or six items under the managerial controls, but I think that this would address the question directly.
Do 51 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. you want a copy?
Mr. Vallas, do you mind if we have copies made and distributed, please.
I also wanted to make -- and it's from a historical perspective. I realize that I won't be a part of this process much longer, but we, for the better part of the last six months, have been collaborating, working very closely with the state, particularly Michael Masch in the Budget Office. Now, we have periodically briefed the state Budget Director and the Governor's representatives on the status of our budget. When we had the mid year deficit, we went in, we met with them, we discussed it with them. We have periodically done that, as we have with legislative committees and as we have with Council staff from time to time, as 52 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. you well know. But that process has really become formalized. And in the presentation of this budget, we've been meeting not only weekly, but our staffs have been doing work during the week collectively to come up with a document that is really a consensus document, because if we're going to request more funding from the City and from the state, the state Budget Director needs to have the confidence level that what we're requesting is justified. And it's my understanding that he'll be coming out here next week to give you his assessment of the School District's finances. And so rather than to speak for him, I'll let him certainly speak for himself. But I imagine that that process or my assumption is that process is going to continue; in other words, that the interaction and exchange with the state is going to become more intensive rather than less intensive as it has been in the past. So rather than the monthly 53 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. briefings, this has really become a weekly exercise. So the state has really immersed itself in the examination of our finances, as they have done in a number of districts. But Michael will be before the -- I believe I was told by the Mayor's Office that he'll be here next week to, in effect, present his report and give you his assessment.
And there will be a similar role from the City's perspective in terms of weekly --
Absolutely. Because at all those meetings the City has been represented, too. The City has had its budget representative there and, of course, Jackie Barnett. The very able education czar has also participated in that process. So it's been a collective. Mr. Nevels and his representative, myself, I've been there involved in those meetings myself personally and, of course, the Mayor's Office has been 54 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. represented and Michael has been there himself. And if anyone knows Michael, Michael really has the -- he likes to immerse himself in the data. And I imagine that that process is going to continue as we build -- because I think a case can be made for more funding. Let me point out that what we're requesting from the state is a 5.7 percent increase in state funding, 5.7 percent. That is less than we've received last year and that is consistent with, at least over the last four or five years, with the increases. So we're not requesting 7, 8, 9, 10 percent funding. What we're requesting from the City, if you include the 9.2 million that we've requested to help us fund our after-school and summer school programs and if you pass Councilman Goode's bill, that would constitute a 5.8 percent in City funding to the District, 5.8 percent, not 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent. 55 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. So, again, if you look at historical trends -- and I'm not suggesting that that is easy to absorb in the City's five-year budget plan, because obviously the City has its own challenges, that we're not requesting something that is outrageous from a historical perspective. So I just want to point that out. And what we've been trying to do is, the Governor's people and the Mayor's people have been going through the numbers so they have a comfort level that what we're requesting can be justified and what we're requesting can, in effect, be specifically earmarked. So that money translates into restore teaching positions or that money translates into more early childhood slots or that money translates into funding for dropout prevention programs, things of this nature. Okay? But, again, the state will make its presentation early next week and I'll 56 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. certainly defer those further questions to them.
Okay. I'm in no way suggesting that there does not need to be more revenue generated for the School District.
I'm on record early on as saying that I'll be supportive of additional revenue. My question only relates to oversight to make sure that we don't find ourselves in a similar situation a year or two out.
Absolutely, and we're respectful of that. And, again, the materials on budgetary controls have been -- will be circulated to you and put in the record.
Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Madam President.
Mr. Vallas, you keep referring to the report that we will be given next week. 57 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Knowing that we were having these hearings today, why couldn't the report be submitted to us?
I know the state Budget Director has briefed both the Governor and the Mayor on his preliminary conclusions or conclusions, but I was told by the Mayor's -- by Jackie that they would be coming next week to present. And so it's their report. It's not ours. It's not our report. It's their report. It's not something that we're co-authoring.
So to the best of your knowledge, the report is completed?
Well, then I'll submit it since I haven't read it. Jackie just gave me a copy of a letter submitted by Michael to Jackie, and I'll 58 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. just submit it to you and we can read it at the same time. So I don't -- I'm getting a copy of it this morning. But it's my understanding that they've made a presentation to both the Governor and to the Mayor about the status of the School District's budget and obviously to make a case for additional funding. And I was told that they would be here next week to answer questions and to, in effect, respond. And when I read the letter that Jackie just handed me, I may be able to elaborate further, but that's my understanding. And I believe they've pretty much completed their work. I think they probably wanted to brief the Governor and the Mayor before putting out something publicly, but I imagine that they'll be briefing the City Council shortly.
Well, we have not been informed of that as yet and I think we do have a timetable to pass this before us, and I know that's 59 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. not your concern. Councilwoman Brown, did you want to be recognized?
Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, gentlemen. Let's go back to the discussion around the search process. You say that your goal for finding a new CEO is fall '07 by the time school is open?
With the exception of the community input that you're putting in place this time, how does this search process differ from the search process that gave us Mr. Vallas?
Oh, my goodness. 60 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. I'm hearing three to four and I'm also hearing six months.
Six months. But I believe three to four months was really what --
So it's conceivable to think if we add community input and the last process took six months, it's a strong possibility that we will not have someone in place prior to schools opening?
Last year there were a lot of questions raised around the School District's fragile, sensitive discussions with the building trades. Update us on where you are with the agreement that was put in place.
As to that agreement, I can say that it has moved very, very nicely. There will be a follow-up announcement in the next month, 61 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. I believe, that will show that rather than there being 500 apprenticeships that are available, we're really on a trend line that could yield 700. So rather than we're looking at in the first year 100, it will be substantially more than 100, because we are now at the one-year anniversary of that historic agreement. So there's some very good news to be shared in terms of the collaboration with the building trades and the fact that we are looking at an increased yield of young people that will be admitted to the building trades.
So then it's fair to say that you reached the benchmarks that were stipulated in the agreement?
Councilwoman Tasco gave us some discussion and questioning around the procurement activities there. What is 62 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the connection between the District's vocational curriculum -- that question is better suited for Mr. Vallas. The remaining of my questions are better suited for Mr. Vallas. So I thank you for your testimony.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Nevels, Mr. Vallas --
-- members of the SRC. I'm concerned, as always -- and I was going to wait to mention the few 63 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. issues, because I try not to bring my own District Council issues into a full budget discussion, but I think I'll do it anyway. I went to a meeting -- Al Bichner and others were there, and I'm grateful -- last night at West Philadelphia High School, and I left the meeting feeling that I don't know if there's a real plan to do West Philly High. I mean, at the meeting, discussions were about how Turner School would input, even though we've talked at KIPP whether that would input. As you know, we've been talking about Salzberger becoming a high school. And if you're going to do anything with West and University City, you got to have a high school feeder school. But it's as if the discussion on all of these things is just starting, not that it's been going on for years, and it's very frustrating. The students complain in the schools that in spite of the fact that 64 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. there are fires, that they don't empty out the school every day and they don't know what's real and what isn't, but you and I know whether it's real or imagined. If there's an alarm, you've got to empty out the school, and we have to deal with it. So there's so many of those things. But I'm looking at the budget and I'm trying to figure out where we stand. We've worked hard to have a comprehensive plan. I thought that we could make West Philly or the Third District a model for the City, but I don't feel any further along than before. I don't know if Salzberger is going to be a high school. After I left West Philly High School, I have no idea. I felt that everybody was in -- I thought that everybody was kind of in collusion to not do anything. That's how frustrating it is. We talked about boundaries. We talk about cutting the school in half. Either the Girls High or the boys part of the school open, cutting that in half and 65 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. lowering those numbers. But where are those kids going to go? Then they mentioned Turner School, which we were talking about for KIPP. What happens to half of those kids? What happens if Salzberger doesn't become a high? And Salzberger can't become a high school with an elementary school gym, and we've been fighting for the money. PHA was willing to do the turnkey. They still have their four million. We needed the other four million. We're talking about acquisition money that I understand the School District has for West. Penn is here. They talked about, Penn and Drexel, redoing University City and the part they would play in that. So I've got all my schools tied up, and I really try to stay on top of the issue. You know I'm a former educator. I love my schools. I love the Education Committee, but I feel no 24 further along and more frustrated than I did two years ago, because then I felt 66 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. hopeful. Now it's just confusion, and I don't feel we have any answers. We're supposed to know for West by June 18th. Well, that's about a week before schools end. And I'm really frustrated at people slipping me notes, call me, and the Home and School and you've got still Concordia in there. You've got the student union. You got all of these entities on a student level, as well as the adult academic teaching level. I mean -- and I'm just throwing it all out there, then you can respond and I'm done with it at this point of our hearings. But Cliff James left in March. Now we have Ozzie Wright. Ozzie Wright is already at another school. Now we've got more principals. I mean, if we weren't going to have all this stuff straight, why did we -- part of the frustration with the Home and School and the people who are there, as all of you know, is that they didn't want Cliff James to leave. Having said all of that, 67 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
then why did we change principals and couldn't even have an interim until the end of the school year? I mean, we got a search on. We have one new principal. Ozzie Wright, everybody liked him or most people, and then he left. He's already in another school. I mean, it's just mass confusion on every level. It's very, very frustrating, because our responsibility as leaders is to lead, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to say and to whom you listen, because everybody has a different point of view, whether they're a teacher, an educator, administration, and it's just -- I feel that it's all just one big mess. And so I'm happy to listen to -- I'm not blaming anybody specifically, but collectively how can we be further behind than we were two years ago?
Was that in the form of a question? 68 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Let me respond. First of all, as you know, Salzberger, we want to convert Salzberger, but we can't convert Salzberger until the new Barry is built, because we have to house the Barry kids in Salzberger. So Salzberger has been delayed because of the need to house the Barry students. As you know, the Barry School was not safe to be occupied. And the Barry School is under construction, and once the Barry School's construction has completed its course, Salzberger can then begin its conversion to a small high school. And, as you know, we've talked to Mastery Charter about, in effect, doing the type of conversion that they've done at Thomas and that they're going to do at Pickett and that they've done at Shoemaker. And all you have to look at 69 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. is their middle school conversions and they did an outstanding job.
But you can't do it with an elementary -- the gym is too small.
Right, and I support the community center, but the Commission will have to deliberate on that. And I believe that the community center is in the capital plan. But we can't begin the conversion until the Barry kids are out. Secondly --
I mean, I don't know how we view -- you got replacement schools. You have reservations. How do we translate that?
Well, let me take you through it, because we've had conversations of this and I've met with all of the community groups on your 70 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. behalf many times with you. We've asked KIPP about Turner, but as you know, KIPP takes a year to select the principal and then a year to train the principal. That's their model. And they will only do their school their way, which is why they're successful, because they don't go in and they don't do the school until they have the right team for that school.
But now they're saying West kids may go to Turner. Turner kids used to go to Bartram.
Well, as you know -- but there is -- look, the community has never been divided on a lot of things that want to be done. Our recommendation was to convert it to a K to 8. There is still a group out there that wants to convert it to a small high school and has approached Mastery and some others about converting it to a small high school to reduce the 71 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. population of West Philly. But the bottom line here is, KIPP is still on board to do the school once they've selected the principal, and when we met with the community and when we met with the Seniors Council out there, that's what they wanted, they wanted a K to 8 school. They didn't want to turn Turner into a high school.
Well, how are they going to get rid -- how are you going to divide the population of West Philly in half?
Well, West Philly -- and Al Bichner is here to talk about it, and he'll be more than happy to talk about the plans for West Philly for next year, and he'll be more than happy to talk about that. In terms of the construction of a new West Philly, I can go into all sorts of reasons why the construction has been delayed, and you know as well as I have that there was a long time lack of consensus on where that 72 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. building should be built, and if somebody wants to blame me for indecisiveness, I mean, I'm moving on, so I'll take responsibility for everything and that will kind of clear --
I know. I know. But the bottom line here is on West Philly, there was a lack of consensus on a site. The status for West Philly is in the capital plan. It is going to be budgeted. It is budgeted in the capital plan. The RFP for design is being issued next week. The design phase will begin in July. The design phase will probably take at least six months. And as you know, I mean, we went through that long methodical -- what was the group? The year-long Concordia group. What did it take? 12 months?
But the bottom 73 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. line here is, the Concordia group brought all the community organizations together and they went through a year of --
I know, but what I'm saying is, the Concordia group had representation from all of the community organizations and the individual feeder schools. I'm not saying you brought them in, but what I'm saying is, there's been a long process of community involvement in the schools. And they suggested small schools. They suggested the design of the small schools. So there is a plan for West Philly. It's just going to take longer than anticipated. And it's going to be because there's been a lot of input, maybe too much input, into the whole West Philly project. And I'll be more than happy to have taken responsibility for not trying to expedite it or not trying to, in effect, muscle the project 74 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. through, but at the end of the day, the new West Philly will be built and we will have a new high school out there. Now, the status of Turner, Turner is still in line to be a KIPP school, and the future Superintendent or in the future the Board may change direction on that, but the bottom line here is, KIPP is gearing up. They're recruiting a principal, and they are more than willing to convert the school into a K to 8 school. And I support the addition at Salzberger. I've always supported that addition. And there's no reason why we can't go halves on creating that addition. But nothing is going to happen at Salzberger until the Barry kids are out. And so we're going to continue to have to wait until the new Barry School is built, because we have to house those kids somewhere. Now, on the bright side, Microsoft has opened and Sayre has 75 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. converted to a small high school, and the Sayre campus has been revamped and revitalized and are almost done with the athletic field. So some things are moving, but I'll take responsibility for the delays in the process.
I'm not asking that. I'll ask two small questions, because the President wants to move on, only two specific small ones. Number one, would you check into -- they're really complaining about that music -- they have a traditional program with students, alumni and others, a music program every year in the school and they're told they can't have that.
Okay. COUCILWOMAN BLACKWELL: And number two, is our supersite still on?
Yeah. I mean, the supersite is part of the budget, is part 76 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. of the school budget. And, as you know, we've been talking about the 4601 Market Street site as the site for the supersite.
And they were talking about Lee Cultural Center, too.
Believe me, I haven't -- that's not mine. I'm not -- the Cultural Center is not on my radar screen.
Councilwoman Brown, do you have a question of Mr. Nevels?
I do. I want to seize the moment. Tell us the process you went through for identification and recruitment of the current CEO.
Please 77 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. tell us the process you went through with the identification and recruitment of the interim CEO.
What we did was, we looked at the -- we started initially with internal candidates. We started with the current CAO. The SRC had deliberation about that, talked to him about his interest. He had other opportunities and other opportunities to look at and pursue. We then determined that it would be important to remain in-house internally during this process and then moved to the COO, Tom Brady, who has a wealth of experience at larger school districts, Fairfax County and other experience that we felt commended him to be the interim. That was the process that we used.
And subsequent steps regarding uniformly making aware all SRC members of the decision was what?
How did you go about informing all of the SRC Commissioners of the decision?
There was a process, and during the process, the four SRC members were asked to submit names. This was something that transpired over a five- to six-week period. And during that time, individuals were allowed to come up with names, come up with suggestions, and they did, and then we sifted through those. It is important to note that this was not an intemperate act, that it was in fact a deliberative act that proceeded over a five-week period.
So then what are the lessons learned, given the press reports that not all SRC members were uniformly aware of the decision?
No. What are the lessons learned where, according 79 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to press reports, which are contrary to what you've just shared with us, not all SRC Commissioners were informed simultaneously? What are the lessons learned?
I think that the lessons learned are that, number one, what we will do in the future is, we will engage in the fullest measure all SRC members, along with funders and others that are involved, and would continue to do so. I will note to you that there were ongoing conversations about this process with funders as well. What we will do is, we will be certainly more transparent about that in the future and more public about it.
And when you say "more transparent," that means what?
What that means is, it will be a far more open process in public deliberation in much the same way 80 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that we will try as we look to finding a new leader, community input, look to have also a search firm that will design that process and reach out into the community in that respect. In the case of an interim, it is my personal opinion that a broad, far-ranging public engagement in that is not appropriate.
Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you so much, Mr. Nevels. Mr. Vallas, if you don't mind -- 81 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
No. 5 Please don't, because we do have a witness that has a very, very important commitment and has asked if he could testify.
I would like to call to the witness stand Michael Nutter, who will present his testimony, and Mr. Vallas will be next. Good morning. Again, congratulations and welcome.
I'm sorry. Councilman Clarke, did you want to be recognized?
Madam President, do we get to ask questions of 82 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. this witness?
You've been looking forward to that one. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Madam President. My name is Michael Nutter, N-U-T-T-E-R. I appreciate this opportunity to give some very brief remarks, which will be unusually characteristic, which all the members I'm sure by now will appreciate after 15 years of long speeches and testimony. I'll be very brief today. Madam President, Councilwoman Blackwell, Chair of the Education Committee, and all Councilmembers, as well as Chairman Nevels, SRC Members Dungee Glenn and Bednarek and CEO Vallas, I appreciate this opportunity to give brief remarks with regard to Bill No. 25 070015, which is sponsored by Councilman 83 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Goode, with regard to proposed additional financial resources for the School District to be transferred from the City of Philadelphia. First, Madam President and Madam Chair, I am in complete support of Bill 070015. I wanted to lend my voice to finding additional support for the School District of Philadelphia and the City's ongoing commitment to providing educational opportunity for our young people. And while some may say that the District's financial circumstances far outweigh this amount of money presently, I think it is critically important that this City Council and this City Administration continue to demonstrate financial commitment and support to the School District, but, more importantly, that we send the right message to our partners in Harrisburg, the Governor and the General Assembly, as they go through their budget process that for whatever we can afford presently -- and I believe 84 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that we can afford this particular transfer -- that for whatever we can afford, we should put on the table as a sign of good faith but also ask our General Assembly to more than match this funding for the schools, one, because it's the right thing to do; second, because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a constitutional responsibility to provide fair and efficient education for all children in Pennsylvania, and certainly we are advocates for children here in Philadelphia. And so I would hope that these dollars would help to leverage by multiples the funding that should come from Harrisburg, not only to solve the present financial circumstance but to also right the ship financially for the School District of Philadelphia so that we do not have annual budget crises. Madam President, I'd like to conclude with I believe it's important in the course of a campaign that if we say 85 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that we support certain things or propose certain things, that we in fact, through our actions, as they say, put our money where our mouths are. During the course of the campaign, I commented about this issue and supported it strongly, and as a part of the education plan that I laid out for the School District and the City, I had proposed the following: That as Mayor, I will work with City Council to pass legislation that will increase the allocation of the property tax revenues going to schools. As a member of City Council, I supported then Mayor Rendell's request for an additional tax on drinks, which provided the additional funding for the School District. As Mayor, I will work with Council to provide additional funding for the School District by changing the allocation of local property taxes that go to schools from 58 percent to 60 percent. This would shift approximately 86 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. $18 million per year to schools. These new educational resources will be evidence of the City's increasing financial commitment to the educational success of its children, and this commitment should be matched by a new state commitment and private sector and foundation funding of at least the same amount. As a result, this $18 million commitment by the City will leverage additional funding from new sources for education. That was the proposal then.
That was the commitment I made then, and that's the commitment that I want to make today as, for the moment, a private citizen and the democratic nominee for Mayor in the City. I would hope that this Council, through its wisdom, would support this particular measure completely through the legislative process to make sure that this bill becomes law, and I want to commend Councilman Goode for putting this 87 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. legislation forward. I know there are a number of members who are supportive. I wanted to lend my voice to this effort, and I thank you very much. )
Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate your taking the time to come in to testify. I know that no one has any questions.
I was here long enough to know that if there are no 19 questions up on the board, it's time to get out of this seat. Thank you for having me back. I'm glad to be here at this particular moment. I look forward to working with all of you during the course of the next few months of the campaign. Should I be 88 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. successful in November, I want to have a very good, close, warm and friendly working relationship with City Council. Thank you, Madam President.
We are going to share. We're going to spend wonderful time in the sandbox. We're going to exchange our toys and information. And I'm going to spend a lot of time up here on the fourth floor of City Council from a different office. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Mr. Vallas. I think we're finally ready for your testimony again, and thank you very much.
I think the Madam President asked me not to go through my testimony. Let me for the members, though, just point out a few things, because every year I present rather detailed, very specific testimony and then sometimes questions emerge that were actually in the testimony. So if you can just indulge me.
As I just summarize the document for you. And I think it will be helpful, 90 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. because you may have some questions that you wanted to pose, but you didn't think of. What I did in the document on Pages 2 through -- and this will go on 7 our website, incidentally, today after the testimony has been given -- is really to summarize what the District has become, about our successes in teacher recruitment and retention, the doubling of the number of kids in early childhood, the curriculum reforms, the small high schools -- we have 33 small high schools -- what we've done with school choice, what we've done on the student discipline side, and it really lays out -- it contrasts 2002 with 2007. So as you're looking at the District's budget for this year, please look at what the District has become. RAND, Mike Casserly, the Council of Great City Schools, they all came here to a public forum to discuss school reform in Philadelphia the other 91 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. day and they all had good things to say about the progress that the District has made, granted the District still has a long way to go. So I do ask you and I really beg you to take a look at the document. On and of the budget, we really lay out a pie chart on where the money goes and where the revenues come from. Rather than to get into those numbers, I think those numbers are pretty revealing, and the numbers do not say anything that I haven't said privately. So please take a look at those pie charts, because it shows where the bulk of our money goes and it shows where the bulk of our money comes from. And rather than to belabor the point, I think the point is pretty much there in writing. On 10, we identified, Madam Chairman, the cost drivers, the things that have been driving our costs since 2002. And the charter schools have grown 92 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. in cost by percent a year. Alternative education costs have gone up $47 million. We all want to be tough on zero tolerance, but that also comes with a price. Utilities have grown by nine percent. Debt service has grown by 100 percent. Let me point out for anyone who thinks that we have too much debt, you can't say we have too much debt and we're not doing enough on capital. There's five billion in identified needs. 5 billion capital plan in Phase 1. And in our second five-year plan, we have $730 million in capital over five years. So we're not done. We need 160 million a year just to maintain the physical condition of our buildings. And we all know about the neglect. Plus our employee benefits have gone up 72 percent since 2002. So, you know, if you looked at SEPTA, if you looked at the Housing 93 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Authority, if you looked at the state, if you looked at all of the other governments that are walking around with a hundred-million-dollar-plus deficits, you would see the same thing. It's the same cost drivers driving our costs up. The fundamental question we have to ask, though, is what have we gotten for these cost drivers? If you look at and 12, and talk about how we've been able to finance these reforms over the last five years, and it's due to the fact that we've gotten more money from the City and it's due to the fact that we've gotten more money from the state. It's also due to the fact that we've done a lot of creative financing things and we've done a lot of fiscally accountable things in the District to reprogram dollars. Because you don't do this much school choice, you don't expand early childhood this much, you don't replace every textbook in the system, you 94 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. 5 billion construction program, you don't open 31 small high schools, you don't pay for four years of labor, peace and benefits, you don't have large after-school and summer school programs without doing something -- without bringing some efficiencies to the table.
So we've documented what those revenues are that we've gotten from the state and we've also documented what the savings and efficiencies that we've brought to this district. And let me point out that all of our audits have had literally no material findings. The question here is, we're just overextended because we've probably done too many charters, we've probably -- our after-school, summer school programs are probably too large. I mean, we've probably -- school choice has probably cost us more than we anticipated. The capital plan is more than we can finance 95 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. locally. I mean, we're carrying the entire capital plan ourselves. It's on our book. It is our debt, yet it only addresses about a third of our need. I know there's frustration over the Salzberger addition and things like that, but the bottom line is, we have a lot of needs and we just don't have enough money to finance it. On is what Councilman Clarke had requested. This lays out the '05-'06, '06-'07 shortfall in specific audited details, and this tells you why we're going to finish this year with a budget deficit, and it lays it out specifically point by point by point. And this isn't new testimony. This is testimony that I've put out. 2 percent in salary increases, 10 percent in benefits. We got hit very hard with PSERS. The state 96 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. retirement bill came due this year. 8 percent. So it really shows where 6 the cost drivers are coming from. 7 And in the documents in Pages 8 15 through 19, we talk about the revenues 9 and expenditure proposals in the budget, 10 all designed, in effect, to balance the 11 budget. And then on , we talk 12 about taking reform to the next level. 13 So that's an outline of the presentation, and I'll be more than happy to respond to any questions about any element of it. We've been briefing staff, as we always do. Of course, this is on our website. It is going online. Let me indicate that the request in additional money that we're requesting from the state and from the City I think are reasonable based on historical contributions. 7 percent increase in state funding. That's very comparable to what 97 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. we've received in the past from the state. And let me point out that all but $14 million of that money is already in the Governor's budget. There's already -- the alternative schools money has been put into the budget. The money for the EMO schools is in the budget. The money for the increase in accountability and categorical grants are in the budget. It's just a matter of us getting our fair share of that. So we're actually asking for about $13 million more than what is currently in the Governor's budget that we are either going to receive or be entitled to. So when you see a number saying we want $55 million in new money from the state, actually we're asking for a little over 13 million more than is currently in the Governor's budget to help us address our needs. And we are asking for 27 million from the City. Obviously we support Councilman Goode's resolution on 98 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the millage, and we are requesting some additional funding to help us pay for our after-school, summer school programs. 8 percent increase in our City funding request. So that's kind of a summary of the budget document. We lay out our proposed expenditure cuts in very, very specific detail. With the additional money from the state, we're confident that we'll be able to pass a budget that does not dismantle critical programs if we are able to receive the additional funds. We have identified some contingencies if those funds are not received, and those contingencies are documented on . And then, finally, at the request of the Council, I provided an analysis of where we need to go to get to the next level, and that's on and beyond. And so I've attempted to cost out what district-wide class size 99 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
reduction will cost us, what classroom modernization will cost us and how we might secure the money for it, expanded student behavioral supports, expanded alternative and transitional schools, dropout prevention and reduction initiatives, expanded capital initiatives. So I have critiqued those recommendations and I've talked about -- I've made some suggestions on how we may be able to address those issues. So it's a pretty comprehensive document. I'll be more than happy to talk about any aspect of it. I'm sure we'll have other opportunities to do so, but I submit the document for your review and I make myself available to answer any of the questions that you may have.
Thank you. I only ask one that's not directly yours, but one group who will be testifying, that on Tuesday, the 29th, the SRC meets. Is that true, and that 100 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. they'll be dealing with teacher cuts, budget cuts, school closing, et cetera?
Yes. I believe that's the date to vote on the budget. Yes, ma'am.
And they say that includes teacher cuts, school closing, et cetera.
Let me point out that our schools are losing population. Some buildings need to be closed. And we've closed a lot of buildings, but we've converted most of those buildings to small high schools. We've closed a number of middle schools that we've converted to small high schools, very successful small high schools. While test scores across the nation in high schools are going down, our test scores are actually inching up. 101 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. And they're not where they should be, but everyone else in -- other districts are not releasing their test scores. They release their elementary school test scores, and then the high school test scores are kind of like released on late Friday afternoons when they get the minimum coverage. Our high school test scores have been improving. Our high school attendance has been improving significantly, and our high school dropout rate has actually been declining, although it's still far too high. But the bottom line is, we've gone from six high schools making adequate yearly progress to 30 high schools making adequate yearly progress. And we've created so many high school choice options. I mean, I live in Northwest Philadelphia in one of ten regions, and in the old days, so to speak, Germantown High School and maybe King were the high schools of choice, but now you have the 102 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Leeds Military Academy, now you have the Arcadia University High School for Peace and Social Justice. As somebody likes to joke, they call the military academy the war school and the peace school. We have -- there are two charters in the area serving kids. Lankenau is being converted to a Masterman type school. You look at South Philly where South Philly High School used to be the only high school of choice. Well, in addition to South Philly, Audenreid will be open in September. The Audenreid High School will be open in September. There's plans to convert Peirce to a small high school. As you know, University of Pennsylvania is very interested in putting an international high school program there, at least temporarily. We converted Palumbo to a Central High School, a Central High School type high school and we're doing massive renovations. There's two 103 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. high-quality charters in the area. There's -- is it Prep Charter and there's Mastery Charter. And all you have to do is visit Thomas School with the renovations that they've done. And that is in every area. And even in West Philly, the long neglected West Philly, there is a Microsoft, there is a Sayre, there will be a West Philly. As long as Sandra Dungee Glenn lives and breathes, there's going to be a West Philly, and she will follow me to New Orleans or to the ends of the earth to make sure that West Philly becomes a reality, and you'll be close behind, I know that, Jannie. And Salzberger will be converted as soon as we get the Barry kids out. So there are options. And in Northeast there's a new Lincoln under construction. Rush has been closed for a year and a half as we're converting it to a Kappa Northeast. There's a new Fels High School under construction. There's a new Gamp under construction. There's a 104 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. new Carver under construction, not to mention the National Constitution Center High School and the Franklin Science High School and the numerous small high schools that we've opened, not to mention seven small schools and additions that are currently under construction right now. So there are a lot of things. There are a lot more choices and there are a lot more quality choices than we've had in the past. That's not to suggest that anything is where it should be. We are light years ahead of where we should be.
And you're absolutely right, Councilman Goode, when you say that there is a direct correlation between dropouts and crime and poverty, and when you look at the individuals who are victims and both victimizers and you look at their educational breakdown, there is a direct correlation. There has been and there always will be. So obviously we have to 105 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. change the dynamic. But I want people to recognize that what you bought for this deficit is something pretty special, and this is a district that is in far better shape today than it was years ago, with fewer structural problems than it was years ago. But, again, we remain a relatively underfunded district, and I don't care who comes in and testifies afterwards, there's no escaping the fact that we can't do school reform on the cheap and we're going to need to step up to the plate to provide more funding. The Governor has been trying to make up for years of underfunding, 18 both this Governor and Governor 19 Schweiker, who did a lot for us, too. 20 And, of course, the City has its own challenges with the need to address the issues of public safety and infrastructure. Certainly the City's finances are stressed, too. Maybe not this year, but over a four- or five-year 106 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. period, you need to think long term about these things. But if you look at the presentation, I think you'll see that there is a lot to be proud of and that there has been a lot of success. And I think when Michael makes his presentation next week, he's going to conclude the same thing. We've done a lot of good things for our expenditures here, and there are more choices and more opportunities than there have been in the past. But that said and done, I think we now have the opportunity to get to the next level, and that's what I've tried to do by articulating my testimony. And I guess I ended up making by budget presentation anyway, didn't I? So I'll take whatever additional questions you might have.
Thank you, 107 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Mr. Vallas. Thank you for your service over the last five years, and I am actually sorry to see you leave. Let me ask you two broad questions, one related to the $27 million request in new local funding. It's a two-part question. One, what does that $27 million buy us? And the second part of that question is simply, if we did nothing but the millage transfer, which would amount to about $18 to $20 million, what does that buy us?
I've got a head cold, so I didn't hear the second part of that question. I apologize, because I have like -- my ears are permanently --
The second part of the question was, if we did nothing above the millage transfer, which amounts to about $18 to $20 million, what does that buy us?
If we don't -- the 108 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. additional $9.2 million that we requested from the City -- I'll answer the millage question in a second. The additional $9.2 million that we requested from the City will allow us to continue to sustain what is a pretty large after-school and extended-day program and our summer school programs. I'd like to say that additional $9.2 million would buy us more summer school and more after school, but I, in all honesty, can't say that. That will help us sustain those programs. As you know, we do have one of the larger after-school and summer school programs in the country. The millage transfer will allow us to maintain the status quo when it comes to our teacher-student ratios. It will allow us to maintain our status quo when it comes to our staffing. Without the additional millage transfer, we will have to begin to attrit out teaching positions to what we refer to as our 109 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. contractual level, because the ratio of teachers per students right now in the District is about one to 26, and when you take out the special education teachers, it's about one to 28. And so as the public schools have lost population and as that population incidentally has shifted to charter schools -- because our population is stabilizing for the first time in a number of years. A lot of people talk about -- I saw a story that talked about the diminishing School District, and I pointed out that we still have, what, upwards to 200,000 kids in the system, because we've got the charter school system and we've got the alternative school system, and that's what's the choice, school choice. But what we've done is, through hold harmless and through supplemental staffing positions and through keeping the de-seg money in the schools, even though we're no longer required to 110 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. provide de-seg funding, we've been able to, in effect, staff beyond what the ratios that we're required to staff by in our contracts. Now, is that enough? No. We need to hire more teachers, but the millage will allow us to sustain those additional staffing allocations. Because right now, look, we have too few counselors than we have kids, but we have more counselors than we're statutorily required to have. We have too few nurses than we have children, but we have more nurses than we're required to have. But being able to sustain those levels and even slightly increase those levels is going to depend on the millage, in all honesty. So I think we'll be able to stabilize the system to maintain the status quo from a staffing standpoint if we get the additional money. If we don't, we're going to then start to -- we're going to have to reduce our 111 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. numbers. I'll also point out, too -- and I think when CFO Masch makes his presentation next year -- the cost drivers this year are very high. The cost drivers next year are much, much lower. Where we had 150 million plus in cost drivers this year, next year our preliminary cost drivers are $45, $50 million. Why? Because all of our contracts are up, our labor contracts, everything. And our expenses are always -- the expenditure increases are always smallest in the first year of our contract agreements. They're always highest in the last year of our contract agreements. So if we are able to structurally balance this budget and get additional money this year so that the budget is balanced, not on one time but the budget is balanced structurally, it will put us in a position to begin to run -- we will run a surplus next year 112 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. and we will begin to rebuild our fund balance. So we've introduced a status quo budget plan, a status quo budget plan for this year, but if this budget is structurally balanced -- I mean permanent revenue base with expenditures -- then it will put us in a position to have more flexibility to begin to do additional things next year.
Well, the state resources help pay for the reforms, too. We are trying to get -- this is the additional money we're requesting from the state that is not in the Governor's budget currently, and it's about 14, 15 million -- it's 13 -- I think it's $13.2 million.
Can you tell me about the first portion before you get to the additional 13 million?
Well, first of 113 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. all, there's money in the budget. I believe there's about $22 million in the budget, and those are our basic grants, the special grant, the General Fund grant. And let me point out that that's not a lot and that barely allows us to maintain the status quo. In fact, that money is less than our salary increases, our compensation. Certainly you saw what we got hit with in terms of PSERS, a ten percent increase. So, clearly, that does not cover the cost increases for special ed and the cost increases for general School District operations. We are requesting that the $22 million for alternative school funding be restored, in addition to the basic grant and the special education grant. And that comes to about $22 million. We are also requesting that we get our fair share of money that is put in the Mayor's budget for early childhood all-day kindergarten and technology. And we've already dramatically increased our 114 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. early childhood programs. We got 50 percent more kids in early childhood than we've had in the past prior to 2002. We have one of the large early childhood programs in the country. And we already do full-day kindergarten. So we think we should get our fair share of that. And it could be as high as $30 million, although we're only counting $15 million for budget purposes, because we want the flexibility to do that. I'm also asking the state for the flexibility to spend our education support dollars. They give us this EAP money for tutoring, supplemental education services. I'm asking for the flexibility to spend that as we see fit rather than to spend it in a very restricted way that the state sets for us. I'm also asking for a full reimbursement for the statutorily required reimbursement for our charter expenditures. We're supposed to be 115 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. reimbursed at 30 percent. We're reimbursed at about 27 percent. We're appreciative of that. I'm also asking for our funding for the new autistic grant reimbursements, and that comes to about 3.2 million. If you look at , it lays it out in detail what the additional requests are. And, again, what's missing from that is the three percent increase in the state's basic grant and special ed grant. That's worked into the base. So that's what we're requesting. And all but 13 million of that is currently in the Governor's budget, and what's not in the Governor's budget is the transportation reimbursement for charter schools, the charter school reimbursement funded at the -- mandated at the statutorily required level and the earmark for special education services for the autistic grants. So really, we're asking for the 116 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. state to fund the mandates and to give us the flexibility to -- we're asking the state for fair share. We're asking the state to fund some of our critical mandates, our state mandates, and we're asking for the state for flexibility. Those are the three things we're asking them for. And that's kind of where we're at. We're also hoping that they don't cut the EMO money, because let me point out, even though in this budget we do recommend a reduction in EMO spending, we are spending upwards to $70 million on contractual educational services, be they supplemental education services, after-school, summer school programs, privately run schools, university partners. So I think we can make alternative schools -- because we don't get fully reimbursed for alternative schools. So I think I can make a case to the Legislature that even though we're 117 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. cutting back on funding for the private managers, we are still spending far more than we're getting reimbursed by the state for contractual educational services.
Thank you. One last question, and I will end where we began. You may not remember where and when you met me, but I actually met you after you were hired on the Parkway at Unity Day and had the opportunity to ask you a few questions about what your tenure would look like, and one of the questions I asked was about inclusion in terms of contracting by the School District, and your answer was very direct and you said that you had been very successful in Chicago, that you opened up contracting, and the biggest thing was about opening contracting in terms of new contractors would lead to more diversity.
And I believe that you've done that. And I 118 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. salute you for what you have done in the School District, which has not been done pretty much anywhere, particularly within local government, but that brings to me the concern --
-- that there are severe cuts to the Office of Minority Business Development within the cuts that are outlined here, and can we actually sustain those cuts, particularly because while we don't talk about it a lot anymore, there was a time when many people believed that the school Board was just there for patronage purposes, the school Board was just there to pass out contracts and jobs, that people did not care about the education of the children in the City, and that people looked at it as basically one of the political tools by which they gained power and kept power. I believe that your approach has been different, particularly because 119 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. you've opened up the contracting and particularly diversified the contracting. Is this office not crucial as we move forward? One, because in view of the fact that you are moving on, in view of the fact that there are some other political plays in motion right now over governance and control, and some of them may be related to patronage, shouldn't we make sure that a system is kept in place --
-- that ensures diversity and ensures that there's openness in terms of contracting?
Well, first of all, let me respond, I've never viewed that office, as you correctly pointed out, that we don't view that office as a patronage office. That office has been important, and it's been very modestly funded, and it has spearheaded our efforts to bring more diversity to our contracting. And so let me just say that 120 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. my bosses will weigh in on that and I think that we'll reach a resolution that people will be satisfied with. I also want to say that it's been very easy to push these initiatives when you've had a School Reform Commission who has really made diversity and inclusion a top priority and, through Jim Nevels and, of course, Sandra Dungee Glenn, constantly asking for monthly updates on contract allocations and things of this nature and, of course, Marty Bednarek and others. They've made this a top priority. Also, as you're looking at our diversity, too, look at the leadership positions, too. We've had an extraordinarily diversified staff, and the majority of our principals in this District are African-American. And it wasn't because we're seeking out to do -- we don't have quota systems in the District. We sought out the best candidates, and the best candidates are 121 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. running our schools. And the majority of our principals, for the first time in the School District's history, are African-American principals. So, again, it's easy to do when you've got a School Reform Commission that has really made this a priority. It's been easy for me. I think this thing will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
So you plan to be around to -- because during your response to Councilman Goode's question, you referred constantly to "I will do this" and "I will do that." Do you plan to be here to manage the budget 122 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. process in Harrisburg?
Well, the Governor has asked me to stick around until the budget process takes its course. Now, that, of course, could be August, which may -- because the Governor has a reputation for holding out until he gets his priorities met, and that's -- and sometimes you need to do that. So I am going to continue to be available beyond June at the School Reform Commission's request, and it will really be up to them to determine what that need is.
Who is managing your process in Harrisburg? Do you have lobbyists or someone who is there --
Of course. We have Lee Whitaker and Hugh Allen. I mean, they've done -- I don't think there's -- I've worked with some terrific intergovernmental people, but I'll be honest with you, when I robbed from the 123 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. City Council, and literally, I robbed from the best. They have been absolutely fantastic. They have been absolutely fantastic. They're tireless. They're extraordinarily loyal, but they require competency as a prerequisite for loyalty, and they have really -- I mean, they have a way of just communicating and making things happen. They've also been the public service end. I don't think there's a Councilperson who has called me in the past five years that we've not attempted to be responsive to, but as you know, it's easy for me to be responsive when I can hand the ball off to Lee Whitaker or Hugh Allen or ask Heather Fatone or, for that matter, to ask the chief. So they have really managed the intergovernmental aspect of our system for the last -- really since Tim Spreitzer's departure, and they, of course, did a lot of the heavy lifting when Tim was here, too. And they've done 124 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. a superb job, and they are very respected down there, just as -- up there, just as they are with City Council. So they're going to continue to manage that process for us. And, of course, I'm sorry. Bob O'Donnell also is our permanent lobbyist in Harrisburg, and I wasn't in any way not trying to denigrate him by omitting him. He's just been an institution down there. But the people that I work with on a day-to-day basis have been Hugh and have been Lee and Heather. In fact, they're inseparable. So they've really, really done a spectacular job.
In listing your number of accomplishments, you do give discussion on of your 125 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. testimony to the recruitment and retention of teachers, and for sure when you came in 2002, that was a major hurdle that the School District faced. Speak to the retention of teachers to date.
Well, our first year retention rate has significantly improved. It's gone to about 91 percent from 73 percent in 2002. It's too early to make a call on long-term retention. I think those rates are slightly better, but, again, we're still attriting out over a four- or five-year period. There's different views on whether or not that's bad or good. There's going to be some attrition. People are changing professions now more than ever before. But we've had a much better job filling vacancies in all of our schools and we've had a much better job at least initially retaining those teachers. And generally if we keep them for one or two years, they're going to stay longer. I think 126 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. there's a lot of reasons for that: the standardized curriculum and instructional models, the professional development, the coaches that are assigned to the teachers. Now, we have cut back on the citywide first-year teacher coaches, but we are restructuring our school-based coaching to compensate for that. But I think clearly we're starting the year with far fewer vacancies and we're carrying far fewer vacancies than we ever have in the past, and we have far more applicants than we have slots. I'll tell you, there is one program that's been invaluable in helping us recruit and I think helping us with our early retention, and that's the University Intern Program. That's where we subsidize university students to come and work in the District. And people don't realize that this year we had over a thousand university students working in our school system as student teachers. 127 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. We had about a hundred counselors. We have close to 1,200, 1,300 university students working in the District in a variety of capacities. And what this does is, it gives us almost like a triple A team. Because teachers come in and when they go through the subsidized student-teacher program, it allows us to attract three times the numbers that we used to attract. We used to attract about 330 a year. Now we're over a thousand. They also come in and they've given the curriculum instructional models, so they can become an asset to the classroom almost immediately, because they also go through training similar to first-year teachers. So they're immediate assets in the classroom. But what also happens is, we now have a larger number of potential teacher candidates who have spent time in our schools. So when they come and apply for jobs, it's not like future shock, 128 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. because the teachers that a lot of times leave right away are teachers who have no 4 familiarity with our school environments. But when you have a teacher that has done a semester student teaching and maybe the second semester has worked as a teacher aide or maybe they've worked as a tutor or maybe done some work in the after-school program, when they apply for the job, they know what they're getting into. So I think those programs have helped us. I will tell you this, though, the best way to recruit and retain teachers is to pay them and to compensate them and to reduce class sizes. So I think while we've made gains, if we're going to have long-term gains, we've got to finance class size reduction. And there is nothing in this budget or nothing on the horizon that will allow us to reduce class sizes to the degree that we wish to reduce them without significant increases in funding. I've 129 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. told the Governor that and the Governor's staff and I've told Michael Masch, because Michael has asked me that class size reduction question. I said if the state can increase the accountability grant by $50 to $60 million a year, our share of that would enable us to, in effect, add another 150 teachers to the budget in each of the next three years. So just a reasonable increase in the accountability grant earmarked for things like class size reduction will allow us to begin to make progress.
But short of those things happening, we're going to continue to struggle just to kind of maintain the status quo.
Speak to the need for special interest area teachers, math and science.
Well, our biggest shortfall this year, critical shortfall, has been ESL teachers, and we're always -- we always have more shortages in math and science than we've had in the 130 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. past, but we haven't had a lot of serious shortages. There's still the problem of certain schools having more shortages than others, although with the improvement in recruitment and with programs like Teach for America, which has been very widely embraced and supported by the principals -- and our Teach for America teachers have done very well -- we've begun to address some of the shortages and some of the staffing shortages in some of our more distressed schools. But, clearly, high schools remain a bigger challenge than elementary schools, although the small high schools have proven in many cases to attract more teacher candidates than some of the large behemoth high schools. And we continue to have some shortages in math and science. But Sean Krauter can speak to this specifically, but I think our problems are not severe in nature. Our big problem is getting the more 131 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. experienced teachers into the lower-performing schools and the more isolated schools, and that's going to continue to remain a challenge for us, and getting stability in the more economically isolated schools where there is a lot of mobility. Your more affluent schools, which, of course, we don't have a lot of, and your less racially isolated schools do have a tendency to have a little more stability in terms of teacher staffing than perhaps the more racially isolated and economically isolated schools.
Okay. On of your testimony, you talk to a number of causes that have resulted from this year's deficit. So walk through them and let us know lessons learned, since you've indicated that you anticipate some level of surplus next year.
The lessons learned, don't try to balance the budget 132 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. based on anticipated property sales. So, I mean, we came up short there. Even if you've actually sold the property, there's always Common Pleas Court to hold up that -- the Durham building, the classic example that we sold for 6.6 million and it was challenged in court, and we still haven't sold that building.
So what's the status of -- oh, you still have not sold it?
We still have not sold that building. We're still hoping. And, again, the building continues to remain idle, but there was divisions within -- well, there were groups who challenged that sale. But the District has a lot of buildings. And, look, we've closed a lot of buildings, but all but a handle of the buildings have been converted to schools, to small high schools, new schools. Believe me, we haven't done a lot of wholesale just closing of the buildings and closing them 133 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. down period. But the population has declined in some of our older buildings, and we can't go to Harrisburg and say, We need more money, when we're not closing buildings that are half full or a third full, not when -- Pittsburgh is going to close another buildings. Pittsburgh, 9 I think, this year has like a projected 10 budget deficit of like 50 million plus, 11 and they're, of course, one-sixth our 12 size. And they're closing 20 buildings 13 and consolidating and things like that. 14 Our dilemma here is, we don't 15 want to close buildings and then make 16 schools bigger when we're trying to make 17 schools smaller. So in many of our 18 schools, the population hasn't reached 19 that threshold, like the Key School. 20 There was a push to close the Key School, but the Key School, even though it has half the kids that it used to have, but it's a good school and it has 430 kids.
Where is that? 134 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
South region. South region. But the Key School has 430 kids. That's kind of an optimal size. So that's our dilemma, where in other cities, like Pittsburgh that have 140 kids in a school or 160 kids in the school, those buildings need to be closed or consolidated. But that's a challenge that we're -- but I digressed from your specific question.
Oh, yes. Let me go through a few others. What lessons have we learned? Well, look, we always budgeted based on a historical salvage, and that's unspent expenditures. It has always been about $25 to $30 million, and in '06 we salvaged $6 million. Part of the reason was, I think, the local budgets were squeezed, so people went out and I gave people flexibility to move money around. That's what they did, they spent their money. I can't criticize 135 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. people for what they spent their money on. We just didn't get our historic salvage. So what we did was, we reduced our salvage rate. Like this budget we're assuming a much smaller salvage level than we have done historically. The same thing with term pay. We paid $30, $31 million in term pay, about million, 10 million higher than 11 was budgeted. Well, we're budgeting term pay at a much higher level. So I think what we've done in terms of learning our lessons is, we're being much more conservative on those unknowns, what's our salvage going to be, what's our term pay going to be, what's our severance payout going to be. So we're budgeting conservatively. I mean, I could easily budget at historic levels and bring down kind of the initial budget deficit for this year by $20 or $30 million, but we refuse to do that. So we're basing our budgets on a much more conservative assumption, having been 136 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. burnt in '05-'06, and basically what we're saying is, if our salvage is higher and if our term pay is lower, great, we'll have a surplus. We'll run a surplus or a larger surplus. And so we want to err on the side of -- just as the City has done, the City has budgeted conservatively and I think they've reaped the benefits for that. But there's an urgency to do things when you're dealing with children. I mean, there's an urgency. We put 117 teachers back in the budget in June. Why? Because schools -- because at the end of the budget process, schools were still saying, Look, we need more staff. So we surveyed the schools. We said, How many more teachers do you need? And we got like 180 requests back and we added 117. And we gambled that our salvage for the year would cover that. Well, it didn't. And maybe it was a mistake to make, but all I know is, those 117 teachers probably sure made a big 137 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. difference in the schools that they were working in.
Now, you also mentioned that the charter school payments were higher. Is the School District obligated to continue to open up charter schools?
Yes. And we don't -- the charter school formula sometimes can work against us, because the charter schools -- as our population declines, the District's population, and as the funding per pupil goes up, that average per-pupil funding number is then used to calculate the charter reimbursement. You see what I mean? So as a consequence, I mean, the charters benefit. It actually provides kind of a residual benefit. And I'm not criticizing that. I think charters deserve to be adequately funded, and a lot of charters are doing a great job. But the charter program, it has certainly created some degree of financial stress. 138 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. This year we're going spend $237 million in charters. And someone from the back just shouted off on that. But that doesn't count the 10, million 6 that are being spent on these cyber 7 schools. The state has approved these 8 cyber schools and they just sign up kids 9 and then we got to pay regardless, 10 because we have no control over the 11 cybers. And, of course, the state is attempting to get some control and to bring some accountability to the cybers. And I'm not making a value judgment, but the bottom line is, we could be looking at a charter bill of about, by the time we're done this year, $245 million and next year $270 million. And that's a lot. And while we get reimbursed for a portion of the charter expenditures and while we -- obviously there is some -- as you reduce the number of students in traditional public schools, obviously you have to hire less staff. Unless those schools are closed, you don't get that 139 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. dollar-for-dollar savings, because, great, Keys has 430 kids instead of 530 kids. They may lose a teacher or two, but you still have to operate that building, maintain the support staff, you still have to have principal, assistant principal. So, clearly, charters have contributed. The biggest funding increase has been for charters. That's why it's important that the state work -- and Dwight Evans is helping us and Vince Fumo has helped us -- work to get us reimbursed for the 30 percent on the charters, and that's what we're trying to get, a parochial school type reimbursement for our charter transportation costs. And the School Reform Commission -- and I can't speak to that. I'll just generalize -- is looking at a way of coming up with a charter policy that, in effect, kind of not only controls the growth, but we're trying to -- I don't want to say cap the charter 140 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. population, but we're trying to have a more manageable charter population. I mean, maybe if a school is failing, it should be converted to a charter. Just as if a charter is failing, it should be converted back to a public school. So we can have more revenue-neutral charters. So, for example, if we need to open schools to relieve overcrowding, you open a charter because you have to open the school and it's got to be open. You've got to relieve overcrowding. Or if you want alternative schools, the Commission is considering proposals for three alternative schools that are charter schools. We need more kids in alternative placement. There's some charter experts out there that can provide quality alternative placement. So what we need to do is, we need to be less free and open-ended in the approval of charters and to come up with a more rational -- because 20 percent increase a year in funding, I 141 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. mean, $270 million is a big chunk of our budget. That and the cost of debt service and the cost of employee benefits, particularly healthcare and retirement benefits, constitutes the bulk of our costs. It's not spending on governmental operations.
Now, you mention that you advocate for more schools that are tied to discipline. You just used another term. Yet, you stated in your earlier testimony that there's not full reimbursement from the state for disciplinary type schools.
Yeah. The state has paid for the expansion of our alternative schools, but they do not reimburse us for the full cost of our alternative schools. And so we get -- and really the former Speaker of the House single-handedly was able to secure us 22 million, and he's put the 22 million back in the budget this year, too. Every year he puts the money back 142 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. in, and he doesn't -- he won't support the budget unless that alternative school money is in there. So he continues to be heroic on this despite the outcome of the House election. But we don't get fully reimbursed. And we need alternative schools not just for zero tolerance kids, we need alternative schools for overage underachieving kids. One of the proposals of the dropout prevention initiative, Project Leap, which speaks to the very issues that Councilman Goode appropriately lectured me on the last time I was before this body, was -- I mean, one of the things that they propose is to create a series of transitional programs for these overage underachieving kids, because the overage underachieving kids are the kids that are getting into trouble and the kids that are dropping out. And if we can get overage underachieving kids in these small transition high schools, like 143 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Youth Build -- some of them are charters -- and others, like the wonderful school Camelot runs up in the Northeast, they won't drop out, they won't get into trouble. And we'll get sometimes a very challenged population out of the general schools, which will ease the impact on the general schools. So the School Reform Commission under Mr. Nevels' direction is looking at opening transition -- approving charters that take alternative school kids. Everybody accuses charters of taking the best kids. I think charters take any kid who applies and gets through the lottery, but we're looking at alternative school charters, transition schools. Vernard and I have talked about the need to open these transition schools, and the charter route is one way to do that. Plus if we get reimbursed for that charter and we're taking troubled kids out of our main schools and putting them in charters and then getting the charter reimbursement, 144 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. then that becomes a win for us, that becomes a win-win situation.
On 20, you talk about taking reform to the next level. In the items that you cite there's no discussion or mention of vocational training and where the District is with that and where it may need to go for young people who simply aren't college material. Can you speak to that?
Drop down to 6, and I can give you the more -- there's an attachment that goes with this. The attachment is based on the findings of Project Leap and the dropout prevention initiative. What we're pushing for is dual enrollment in not only dual enrollment programs and not only college courses, dual enrollment in job-training programs and vocational ed.
I'll tell you, Time Magazine's article, their special 145 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. edition, a story called "Dropout Nation," focused on why inner city kids -- why poor kids drop out, because they looked at kids in the inner cities, suburbs, rural areas, the Appalachian, and they said for two reasons. Forget about they're not prepared for high school, because somewhere along the line they weren't motivated to do well enough to prepare for high school. So what zapped them of their motivation? And they said there's a perception out there among many low-income children that college is not an option and that it's not affordable and that it's not financially affordable, so they go through elementary school not viewing high school as a way to go to college and a job and things like that. So they don't have an incentive. I mean, project -- Chaka Fattah's initiative to --
The GEAR UP program. I had a mind freeze for a 146 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. second. The GEAR UP program was designed to address that very issue, to begin working with the middle grade kids and beginning to convince them that college is an option. So what we have said in Project Leap is, if we could do two things, if we could have early college and dual enrollment in every one of our high schools, so every one of our high schools was connected to a college and university -- and there's only, what, 80 colleges and universities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area?
If we could do that, if every high school could be connected to a vocational technical educational program, like the 250 kids in the Sunoco -- I'm sorry; in the Sunoco training academy at Bok, when they get out of Bok, they can go right in to get a job at Sunoco. And if all of our schools can have work study so that every kid 147 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. knows that once they get into their junior and senior year there's a work study program available to them -- remember the summer jobs program back in yesteryear where like in Chicago 18, 19, thousand kids would work the summer? 8 They were all put in work study, things 9 like this, the old CEDA program. If we 10 could do those things, we could do more 11 to turn the tide on dropouts than 12 anything out there. 13 But dual enrollment and early 14 college, while it's not going to take a 15 lot of money, because the high school 16 office is looking at restructuring our 17 curriculum so that many of the electives 18 and many of the courses that are taken in 19 the high schools can be substituted for 20 university courses or courses at the Community College and things like that, so we can have some course substitution. And we're working with Dwight Evans and we're working with the Governor's Office to try to get funding for dual enrollment 148 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. type programs. But if we could have a system-wide work study program where every kid had a job-training opportunity or had a paid work study opportunity, if you told the kids entering high school, If you stay in high school and get to your senior year, you'll be in a paid work study program and you can actually take courses at a university, community college, vocational technical educational program for dual credit, the kids aren't going to drop out. When I walk through a high school, if I shout "job," I have 20, 30 kids surrounding me. The most asked question by a student isn't "I'm getting bullied" or "I'm afraid to go to school." The most asked question is "Can you find me a job somewhere." So that's something well worth taking a look at. And I've suggested that as the casinos come in, maybe each dedicate $5 million to a work study program so that we can put our high 149 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. school kids to work. You know what it is? It's the Fattah Mayor program -- the scholarship program taken to another level. There's a high school in Chicago that's called Cristo Rey. It was started by the Jesuits. And leave it to the Jesuits always to be the great innovators that they are. And all the kids who go to that high school are in paid work study, all of them, and they graduate 95 percent, 98 percent. It's 99 percent poverty, and the majority of those kids go on to college, community college and they go on to a job. So I think you're on to something here. Early college, dual enrollment, work study I think can have a transforming effect, can have an absolute transforming effect, that you're not going to have to wait five or six or seven years to get results from. I honestly believe that. But I also honestly have to admit that we don't have 150 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the capacity to provide those services in the schools. That's going to require that someone else step up to the plate and provide the funding for those initiatives.
Finally, there was no discussion or mention on the status of beacon schools, where they are.
They're alive and well. They are. They're alive, thriving, and our schools remain open for all the Safe and Sound programs.
Well, the issue always is what's going to happen in August, because there's always a fight, because we got to get our buildings cleaned. And the shorter our duration to go in and get the buildings up to speed, the greater the cost to the District, not 151 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. only the delay. So believe me when I say it's us not trying to tweak the City.
It's us trying to allocate enough time to go in. Because our buildings are very old and very worn out, and when we have a two-week window to go in and clean -- and I don't care what you say. If you have a summer program, you can clean one side of the building and not the other side, but some of the buildings you can't do that to, because they're not that large and they're smaller and it is difficult to do. So that issue is clearly one of cleanliness. But we're going to slug it out, and at the end of the day, the School Reform Commission will tell us what to do on that. Sandra Dungee Glenn and Marty will weigh in on that before we're done, trust me on that. But beyond the debate over whether or not we close our buildings in 152 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. August for cleaning or we wait until the second week in August, that's always kind of a slug fest. Fortunately, I'm going to defer to someone else to make that decision.
Mr. Vallas, let me echo Councilman Goode's comments. You have done an admirable job on the toughest of circumstances. So we thank you for the difference you've made in your tenure here.
I keep on calling it Project Leap. It's Project U-Turn. It's the youth collaborative. But you know me. I call my son Paulie "Gus" and I call Gus "Mark," and they just -- as long as I'm speaking in their direction, they respond regardless of what I call them. I'm getting worse as I get older, 153 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. too.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to also echo the comments of my colleagues on the job you've done over these years, Mr. Vallas. Just quickly, when you talk about the state money that has not been committed yet, what feelings do you have, either you yourself or reports you've gotten, of the likelihood of that funding coming through? I mean, I know you can't predict it totally, but --
I'll tell you, the basic grant, three percent grant, which is already in the budget base, that's going to happen no matter what. The alternative schools money will be put in the budget or we will downsize the alternative schools. It's as simple as 154 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that. So get them screaming and lobbying. You can't talk to us about law and order, I can't get lectured about not moving fast enough to transfer students to alternative placement and then take the funding away. And obviously the former Speaker has made it a priority, as he always has, and he's always been extraordinarily supportive of us, and he still carries a little clout in the House. And I know Dwight Evans is supported and the Philadelphia Caucus is supported and, of course, Senator Fumo in the Senate and Senator Williams, they're going to work on our behalf. So I think we'll be okay. The additional money, I'm not sure. We're trying to get full reimbursement on the charters. I say it's a 50/50 proposition. Representative Evans is going to pass a budget into the Senate that has our stuff in it, but then, of course, it will go into 155 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. conference committee and then who knows. If we don't get the additional transportation reimbursements, we're going to have to come back here and we're going to have to do some transportation cuts. We're going to have to start cutting things that we're not mandated to provide. Let me point out that we spend about $96 million on transportation. And, I mean, we bus everybody, parochial, private school kids, public school kids. We bus everybody, special education. Our bussing mandates are killing us, and we don't get fully reimbursed for those. The Governor has put $160 million in the budget for certain categorical grants, like early childhood, technology, classroom of the future, accountability grants. Our fair share of that should be more than $15 million, but we're only budgeting $15 million. So we're hedging. We're assuming that the Governor is going to -- that if the 156 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Governor gets less than what he had anticipated or if he has to compromise, that we're not caught short-ended. So we're not saying, Oh, there's 160 million, we should get million of 7 that. So I think we're trying to budget 8 conservatively on that number. 9 And for the rest, we've really 10 asked Senator Fumo and others to give us 11 maximum flexibility. Anything coming out 12 of Harrisburg, we want maximum 13 flexibility. We don't want to be told 14 how to spend the money. We want the 15 flexibility to move that money around. 16 So if we're able to get a lot 17 of technology dollars -- well, we got a 18 pretty sizable technology program 19 ourselves. Maybe we're going to use some 20 of that money for class size reduction or 21 maybe we're going to use some of that 22 money for counselors or maybe we could 23 use some of that money to fill some of 24 our special education vacancies. 25 So I'm reasonably optimistic, I 157 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. mean, that we're going to come close to getting from the state what we've asked for. And, of course, I feel more optimistic because Michael Masch has been so involved and so immersed, and he's told me that what we're requesting is reasonable, I mean, given our track record, given our results, and I think he'll testify to that effect next week. So I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that we'll come close to getting the money.
Thank you. Mr. Vallas, we're going to ask you to allow us to let some other people come and testify, but don't leave, please. We have other people here who want to testify. We may call you back.
I'm going to step out for about ten minutes. I have to return a couple emergency calls. I'll be there at the door. Thank you so much. 158 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Thank you. The Chair calls Ms. Barnett, Jacqueline Barnett.
I just want to thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the School District. And before I begin, on behalf of the Mayor, I want to acknowledge the five years of service by --
Jacqueline Barnett, Secretary of Education. I beg your pardon. I just want to acknowledge Paul Vallas and the SRC for five years of dedicated service, and a lot of their efforts certainly have given the District quite a bit of hope. And I'd like to say on behalf of the Mayor that in fact we are on the right track, and through their 159 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. dedicated and tireless leadership, the School District has implemented reforms that have improved the quality of our schools. They provided greater opportunities for our students and built on the academic foundation for moving towards what has always been our shared goal: providing a first-class education for all of Philadelphia's children. While our discussion today is focused on the District's finances, we can't lose sight, nor should we minimize the achievements that have been made. Notwithstanding the progress that has been made, we have not achieved as much as we must if we are to provide our children with the education they need for their personal fulfillment or for them to assume successful, meaningful employment in our local economy. The District has achieved significant gains in K to 8, although our high school level reforms certainly leave room for improvement and are more likely 160 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to be achieved with reduced class size and continued implementation of the small schools initiative. Class size reduction is central to reform and we strongly discourage any gap-closing measures that would compromise the District's ability to move toward smaller class size. From the middle years through high school, our truancy rate remain a cause for serious concern, as they indicate that students need additional support to complete high school and pursue higher education and to mitigate the troubling dropout rate. The City is currently exploring ways to increase contributions to the School District, because we believe that these reforms must continue. We participate in ongoing discussions with the state and the District regarding the additional funds necessary to support the District, and we hope that in concert with the additional funding from the City, the Governor and the General Assembly, we will provide 161 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. further resources to close the gap. We also hope that the Assembly will provide further, as Paul has mentioned, their commitment to charter school reimbursement and for other alternative ed commitments that they have made in the past, and we hope that as a new source of funding develops, that a percentage of that funding provided by the City and the state would reflect the appropriate funding ratios. When the state assumed control over the District, it was understood that state-wide reform of public school funding would be necessary for the District's long-term financial stability and continual educational improvement. Secretary of Education Debra Kahn testified before this Council to that point on March 19, 2002. State-wide school funding reform has not occurred. While we await that reform, the City must do its part financially to support and advance the educational achievements that 162 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. have occurred in our schools. For the last six months, Governor Rendell's Budget Secretary, Michael Masch, has led a collaborative effort between the City, state, the District to analyze the District's finances and to report on them in a manner that identifies the District's key cost drivers and funding needs.
Secretary Masch's report will be released at the end of this week, and I'm strongly urging Council to recess this hearing at the end of today's testimony and delay the Committee vote on the tax reauthorization bills so that the Masch report will inform any final decisions or consideration, thus both the City and state will be guided by Secretary Masch's fiscal analysis to determine the magnitude of the funding gap, as well as the additional funds required from each governmental entity. The decision about additional City support for the District must be made with a clear, detailed 163 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. understanding of the District's needs and an understanding of the consequences of providing or withholding support. Upon release of the Masch report, I will request a subsequent hearing for Secretary Masch to testify and present his analysis to this Council. In addition, the Mayor's Education Advisory Task Force report, which speaks to the District's comprehensive needs, will be available 30 days after the release of Masch's report. As the Mayor has said repeatedly, he supports additional revenue for the District. The specific level of City support must follow careful review of Masch's report. The Mayor also will request that these funds be made available to the District subject to several conditions. First, the SRC must revise its budget plan to address the issue of lower class size and truancy. The SRC must also abandon the current proposal to eliminate teachers as 164 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. enrollment declines. This proposal makes class size reduction impossible, and class size reduction is critical to boosting academic achievement. In lieu of the teacher reductions, the SRC must also offer an alternative set of reductions that do not adversely affect the District's most important reform efforts and achievements. The SRC must provide the Governor, the Mayor and this City Council with detailed implementation plans for spending reductions with specific milestones and timetables so that the funding authorities can have confidence that the promised spending reductions will occur. Finally, when such a proposal is finalized, the Administration asked the District and the SRC to provide a public forum for our most important stakeholders, parents and students, to learn the anticipated effects of the cuts on specific schools. We all understand 165 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that even with additional revenue, some cuts will be necessary. And I know from speaking with many parents, teachers and students that it has been difficult to envision any cuts in light of what our children currently lack, art studios without art teachers, not enough paper to make copies, split grade classrooms where children do not have dedicated teachers for their grades. But our goal is to achieve transparency and clear communication regarding proposed cuts and to seek opportunities for you to understand what options we have in such difficult circumstances. Over the last five years, the quality of education has improved in our city. If we are to continue to make improvements in the education we provide to our children, we must continue to act collaboratively with the Governor, as well as with the District, and we look forward to working with Council and the Governor over the next several weeks to 166 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. assure that progress continues. I'd like to add one last thing that was not a part of my testimony that was mentioned earlier. We have been working with the Governor's Office as well as with the Chairman and other SRC members to look at the District's finances, and this morning I received a letter from Secretary Masch stating that he wanted to bind those finances in a report and report out on those at a subsequent hearing.
So that is sort of the genesis of our request, to allow Secretary Masch to share in detail his understanding of the finances, and I will submit a written copy of Secretary Masch's letter for your review.
Is Secretary Masch auditing the District or what is he doing in terms of determining what the gap might be?
My name is Joyce Wilkerson. I'm Chief of Staff to the Mayor. 167 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. What Secretary Masch, working together with the Administration and the School District, has done is try to deconstruct the School District's finances so we can really get a sense of what's driving the current deficit that's projected in excess of 100 million that grows to about a billion. So what are the specific items. Also, trying to get a better understanding of where the dollars have been spent. We know that charter schools have been eating up a lot of money, but Masch's analysis is also taking a look at what's happening with other segments within the school. For example, what's happening with the elementary schools, have their budgets been growing, have the District-operated schools been growing at the same rate that charters and other portions of the District's budget, how much has gone to things like transportation, maintenance, debt service, so that we really have an understanding of why we are in this 168 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. situation that we are, and as we begin to talk about making cuts, what impact are those cuts going to have on the District's finances, what impact will they have on the program initiatives that everybody thinks are important. Masch has also been working on trying to construct a budget and a budget model that will allow us to generate a five-year plan. It's one thing to understand what's going on in the current year, but we need to understand how that plays out over time. I think that one of the things that everybody agrees on is that most of the money has bought good things for the District. Most of the changes that have happened are changes that we want to embrace. They were things that largely were put in place in the first year. But what none of us had was an adequate understanding of how those things were going to play out over time. If we had had an adequate five-year model, we would 169 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. have seen this coming and could have prepared for it years in advance. We wouldn't be facing the current crisis that we do. So Masch, working with the District people and the City people, have been developing that kind of model that will allow us to understand what happens to the District's finances over time, what the state's need is to supply additional revenue and what the City's need is to supply additional revenue.
Well, wouldn't it be most advantageous for the School District to have the capacity to do this analysis on an ongoing basis?
And I think they are developing that. Some of what I sense is -- I think this has happened in a crisis atmosphere, but I think that the experience working over the last several months has allowed everybody to develop an understanding of the District's finances. The District will have the 170 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. capacity to talk to the state in a language it understands. I think if we get the kind of reporting that is being requested, we'll all have the ability to follow the District's finances moving forward. They'll be providing us with reports in a format that we will all be able to understand. The District has very complicated finances. They get a lot of categorical grants. They track their dollars in a way that was hard to understand from the outside. Some of what the Masch analysis does is put it into spending categories and it looks at it in a way that's more transparent for parties from the outside. But I found just -- I haven't seen the report. The final report is not finished. I think Secretary Masch worked hard trying to get it completed by now. It's not complete. Although they've done a lot of the analysis, the report is not complete. They expect -- their goal is 171 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to have it by the end of the week so that they can begin sharing it around and presenting it publicly next week. But I found that it was very, very helpful in understanding why the District is where it is and what its need is moving forward.
And to further that point, the Chairman offered a resolution to create and establish the Financial Accountability Unit within the School District that would report out quarterly and would be able to give us indicators of if in fact there was overspending or where we are with regard to revenues and/or expenses. So they have set up an internal unit to report out to both the City and the state with regard to the state of their finances.
So because they didn't have this model or this process, they were caught off guard?
I think that -- I can't speak for whether they were 172 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. caught off guard. I think that -- my sense is that there wasn't the handle on exactly what was going on because -- and you always do have variances that you don't anticipate, revenue doesn't come in like you want. The City experiences the same kind of thing. We're projecting -- we had been projecting really aggressive ongoing growth in the real estate transfer tax. It's not happening like we thought. So those kinds of swings really do happen, but I don't think there was a sufficient appreciation of the way the deficit was going to grow, when it was going to grow. The question you asked, what did you know and when did you know it, my sense is there was not enough sense of that, and that's some of why we're sitting here with a crisis.
Do you suppose that the analysis provided by Mr. Masch will show a difference in the gap from the School District's proposal? 173 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
I think that it -- I don't think it will be far off. I think that -- I don't think it will be far off. I think that one of the other things that they do is take a look at the gap-closing measures, and I know that the Administration has concerns about one measure in particular that would reduce the teacher complement by 100 teachers. We don't support that, that we would rather see other -- as Jackie testified, we would rather see other attempts to balance the budget. And if that's not possible, it would be that kind of thing that would change the revenue requirement for the District and force the need for more, not less, revenue than is projected.
Do you have an idea where the Administration would call for the revenue that the City would provide?
It's our position it would need to be new revenue, 174 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that we cannot transfer revenue within the Five-Year Plan. New revenue meaning new tax revenue is what we would propose and would be prepared to support for the School District. As Councilman Goode has said repeatedly, education is probably our largest -- our most important need. We're prepared to recommend additional revenue, additional new revenue. Yesterday when --
I said new revenue. I didn't identify a specific source. There are a number of sources, millage, other --
No. I'm sorry. What I meant to say is additional new 175 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. revenue.
I think new tax revenue. I think there are different sources you could look to. When you look at what happened, the action Council took yesterday, when I look at the budget that was proposed and the impact it would have on the Five-Year Plan, if the FY08 budget were rolled through the Five-Year Plan, we end up with a negative $55 million fund balance by FY12. That's not a Five-Year Plan that can absorb another $27 million additional expense and keep all the other items that were proposed yesterday. I think that we need new revenue. I think it's not currently available. If we were -- I think that if we simply take the money out of the District, I think we're going to end up -- out of the City, we're going to end up with challenges with PICA, which will -- my guess is we'll all end up 176 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. being back here with a rejected Five-Year Plan and having to develop a Five-Year Plan that requires Council concurrence.
So when you speak of new revenue, you mean raising real estate taxes?
How do you balance that with the whole notion of this fair --
I think that we could increase millage without doing either the full valuation or the reassessment. The City needs to do both those other pieces, but the increased millage would not be dependent on having first done either full valuation or citywide reassessment.
But if you have a real estate increase and then you 177 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. come behind it with the full valuation, that's going to have -- and without any in-depth discussion about that, it has a serious impact on the citizens.
Well, it would have a serious impact on the people who live in Philadelphia. I mean, if you want to raise the real estate tax for the schools and then you move to full valuation as being supported by certain segments of this community, and then in that situation, maybe not everyone, but there would be some communities that would have a large increase in their taxes on top of the increase you give for the School District.
The City faces a challenge with real estate reassessment anyway. I think that it's not constructive to marry all these issues. It becomes an intractable problem that we can never deal with. 178 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. What we have is a public school system that needs additional revenue and we don't have the capacity within the Five-Year Financial Plan. As we've said repeatedly, we've extracted $1.3 billion out of the City's resources through tax reduction. We can't now ladle on top of that another 27 -- or $17 million a year in support of the School District and also address all the other concerns, some of which PICA raised in its letter just last week. We need additional revenue. The Administration is prepared to support the District.
Even if PICA doesn't specifically say the City needs to address a fiscal crisis in the School District?
And if the Five-Year Financial Plan does not do that, it should? 179 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
The City needs to do it, and what we're saying is, we don't need to do it within the four corners of the Five-Year Financial Plan. We need to put more revenue on the table and that --
The PICA letter said that your Five-Year Plan does not address the School District in a way that it should.
We don't within the corners of the Five-Year Plan. We would propose putting new revenue, not simply transferring revenue, but putting new revenue on the table in support of the public schools.
So PICA has essentially said that not looking at the School's fiscal crisis is irresponsible on the part of the Administration; is that correct?
PICA says we need to deal with that. And what I'm saying is, we do need to deal with that. 180 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
I have a whole host of questions regarding how you have not dealt with it and how you're still playing games now, but my point of information was strictly related to the fact that how you characterize the PICA letter. The PICA letter said that you were irresponsible by not dealing with the School District crisis.
That's what it said. It said you can't do a Five-Year Plan without taking into consideration the School District crisis and the SEPTA crisis. That's what it said.
Well, there are a couple of different responses. One, we are working with the Commonwealth on both the School District situation and the SEPTA situation.
But you haven't done anything. You haven't put 181 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. anything into the Five-Year Plan yet. You referred to the PICA letter, so I'm just clarifying for the record, the PICA letter said that you need to do something about the School District fiscal crisis.
We do need to do something about the School District, and what the Administration would propose is that we raise new revenue.
Until we have a final review of the Masch report, I think it would do us all well to sit down and review the Masch report. We're not prepared to put a dollar figure on it. As I said earlier --
So the Mayor is putting no money on the table right now? 182 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
The Mayor has proposed to, if we can get nine votes for it, put new revenue on the table in support of the School District.
You're saying the Mayor is prepared to raise taxes. But Council is not, so I can tell you that already. Council is not looking to raise taxes. We're not considering raising taxes today. We're considering a millage shift. So without raising taxes, is the Mayor willing to take any of the money out of his Five-Year Plan and put into the School District's Five-Year Plan, yes or no?
The Administration would shift millage before it would -- I believe would shift millage before it would see the District go without any money. In saying that, there will be dramatic changes to the Five-Year Plan. All of those changes that were supported yesterday end up 183 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. being --
We voted it out with no recommendation. We didn't support it.
Well, the City's budget and Five-Year Plan cannot absorb $100 million of additional --
My question was a yes or no question. Is the Mayor willing to take money out of his Five-Year Plan, the City's Five-Year Plan, and put into the School District's Five-Year Plan? It's a yes or no 15 question.
If it came down to that, my sense is that he would, that it's imprudent -- it's his sense that the more prudent path is to put more revenue, new revenue, on the table in support of public education.
Over the last five -- 184 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
If I may respond, over the last five years, the City has taken the path of simply reducing taxes. We can't continue along that road. We don't have the revenue to support core City services. We can't make changes in the Fire Department, the Police Department, the Recreation Department, the Health Department, the Fleet Management. All across the City are departments that we can no longer touch. We can't sustain that. The City simply cannot sustain that.
Since you decided to continue to talk about it, I asked a simple question. Since you 185 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. decided to continue to talk about it, the issue is the City has not sufficiently grown over the last eight years, not due to Council's actions or inactions per se, but the City has not grown at the level it should have, and it has not failed to grow because of tax reform. The truth of the matter is, it has continued to grow probably because of tax reform.
Tax reform said a lot of things. Tax reform said reduce tax rates. It called for reductions. It also called for --
All I'm suggesting to you is that we don't necessarily buy your strategy anymore.
The Chair 186 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Wilkerson, just so I'm clear here, because we were distracted there for a while, you said about new revenue on the table and various options. All that new revenue, you're talking about in some form some tax increase?
Other than Councilman Goode's bill, which is shifting the millage.
Which then has a severe impact on the City's current Five-Year Financial Plan.
Point of information. My legislation amounts to about one half of one percent of the Five-Year Plan; is that correct? 187 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
I don't know what the percentage is. We have over a $3.5 billion Five-Year Plan, so your legislation on the face of it --
We have over a $3.5 billion annual budget. So the Five-Year Plan is --
We have a $3.925 million budget this year, which is expected to increase. We have about a $20 billion Five-Year Plan. One percent of $20 billion would be $100 million. This bill amounts to less than $100 million. So we're talking about less than one half of one percent of the Five-Year Plan; is that correct?
And of these taxes or the new taxes, at least the Administration's viewpoint -- and I don't necessarily agree -- but that 188 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Councilman Goode's bill would have too severe an impact, but do you have suggestions on these taxes for the schools? I mean, is there something you're advocating as we sit here now?
But you do agree that there needs to be more money to the schools?
There needs to be more money to the schools. We've invested, going back to the beginning of the Administration, an additional support for public schools in this City. At the time we made the initial investment, we knew that there needed -- there were going to be even more revenues needed, and my guess is that what the District is bringing to us today is modest in comparison to what the need is if we're going to have the kind of public school system that we want. Seventeen million 189 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. is not enough. The 27 million will get us through the short term, but if we're going to be serious about reforming education in this City, it's going to take substantially more revenue.
I guess my question -- and I don't mean this confrontational, but it's May 23rd and I haven't heard the term "new taxes" until today.
We have been working with the Commonwealth and the SRC and the School District to try to determine exactly what the need is. We have just a year ago sat here with you and heard that there are not problems or that it's a minimal problem. It's not a small problem. It's a huge problem. The Administration determined not to come forward until we had a real understanding of what the District's need was, why the need existed, and we think we are near the point of having that, that there's been a 190 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. lot of time spent analyzing what's going on with the District. The Secretary of Budget for the Commonwealth working with the City and the District have a report. I would urge you to take the time to look at what the report says, look at the recommendations being made before making any final decision about the size of the funding that the District needs and before we make final decisions about the type of support that is available to the District.
Actually, I had a host of questions I haven't gotten to yet. Secretary Barnett, thank you for your testimony. On September 28, 2006, Mayor Street created the Philadelphia Education Advisory Task 191 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Force. I was at the press conference. Do you recall at that point the Mayor turning around acknowledging me at the press conference and saying, We're going to need more local tax dollars, and asking would I commit to that?
At the point of that press conference, was it your anticipation that there would be new local revenue needed to support the school system?
We always anticipated that there would be additional funding necessary for the School District. What that amount would be was not determined at that point. The Task Force was charged to look at what additional reforms would be necessary and the price tag for those reforms.
At what point was the Task Force supposed to issue a report?
The goal was to have it issued three months out from the initial date, and it was in many ways hobbled by the fact that we were trying to get an understanding, as the Chief of Staff has said, understanding of the finances.
The report was supposed to be due before the end of 2006; is that correct?
Correct. And so when we began to look at the finances, as has been stated before, we were not clear as to the magnitude of the debt that we 193 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. would be incurring. So in order to have a report that fully took in the understanding of the finances, we thought it prudent to ask Secretary Masch to come and help us understand the finances. At that point, we did.
You're jumping ahead, Secretary. When the Mayor held a press conference creating the Education Advisory Task Force, he said a report would be done by the end of the year.
Then on December 30, 2006, the Mayor delivered his New Year's radio address. He said the Task Force report would be available within a month or so after that.
He set a new timeline in January or February. He did 194 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. not meet that timeline either; is that correct?
Okay. There were further comments made in the Mayor's budget address on February 22, 2007. He said that Council should wait until the Education Advisory Task Force issue its draft report, which was supposed to come at some point in March at that time; is that correct?
The Mayor since that time continues to tell us to wait for this report. When is the report coming?
Sir, let me backtrack a bit with your timeline. On December the 20th, 2006, we sent a letter to the School District asking them for additional understanding of their finances, and this letter was actually 195 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. penned by Secretary Masch stating that five years had gone by since the Commonwealth and the City had entered this bold historic agreement --
Secretary Barnett, I was not privy to that correspondence.
I'm dealing with public statement. There was a public statement on September 28, 2006 that said the report would be done by the end of the year. It was not done.
There was a public statement and radio address by the Mayor on December 30, 2006 that said the report would be done in January or February. The report was not done. In 196 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the Mayor's budget address to City Council on February 22, 2007, the Mayor said that it would be done within the month, by the end of March. It was not done. When is it going to be done?
When you needed to understand the District's finances in September, how were you going to reach that goal, and did you see the need to call Michael Masch at an earlier point?
At the time, we did not anticipate that we were going to ask the Secretary to specifically come and look at the District's finances. The Governor's Office always had agreed to participate with us, but as we became aware of the deficit that continued to 197 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. grow, we thought it prudent, particularly since the state is our partner, to have them to come and take a closer look. Clearly, as the fact that Secretary Masch was just getting ready to issue a report on the District's finances, we didn't want to have a report that would not reflect with any sense of accuracy or the state weighing in in a way that provided information that had been requested.
So what has the Task Force been doing since September?
We have been working alongside with Secretary Masch to look at the finances.
Well, he just came on recently. What happened from September to December?
No. In December, the Secretary asked for the additional information of the finances, because when I spoke with him, he said -- I said, We don't have the additional information 198 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. that is necessary. He said, I'd like to continue to work with you and to partner with you to get the District to provide that information. And since that point, he has, and we have been meeting, as Mr. Vallas and the Chairman have talked about, along with other members, to look at the District's finances.
What was your plan in September to review the finances of the School District to meet the goal of December 31, 2006?
What was your plan? How were you planning to look at the School District's budget and determine what your report would be by December the 31st? What hampered you from doing your report?
Understanding. The way in which the District's finances were organized and projected were not 199 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. clear to us, and so upon receiving quite a bit of the information, we still were not clear and as, again, sort of talked with Secretary Masch about it, and he agreed and has since created templates that are completely different than the ones in which he has reviewed.
So you spent $350,000 to develop a report that depends on Michael Masch?
One portion of it does. There are five sections in it, and we thought it critical to understand if there were reforms that were necessary, to know how much they're going to cost, and we did not want to give an inaccurate number.
We paid a 200 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. consultant that held public town hearings. We did focus groups. We actually did the research and sort of looked at the history and the state of the School District and the progress that has been made to make projections and recommendations moving forward.
So when you had the town meetings and forums, what were the goals? What were your goals to have those forums and what did you glean from those forums that would help you understand the School District's finances?
Right. Those things are embedded in the report in which we will share, but certainly the Mayor has always been prone and privy to public process. And we learned quite a bit with regard to class size. There are other things around professional development that are also a part of the report.
Thank you. 201 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Any other questions from members of Council? (No response.)
Thank you very much. Mr. Jerry Jordan. Good afternoon. You know how this runs.
These hearings run. You want to state your name for the record, please, and begin your testimony.
Yes. Good afternoon. I am Jerry Jordan, Vice-President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents 17,000 teachers and school support staff. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the School District budget. Philadelphia's public school students can boast of many achievements over the past five years, and the PFT is proud of the many contributions our 202 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. members have made.
Excuse me, Mr. Jordan. Mr. Nevels, you're not leaving, are you?
But after five years of reforms in Philadelphia, a majority of our students perform at or below basic levels. Despite what has been described as the most ambitious school reform program in the nation, 59 percent of Philadelphia's children leave the third grade reading at or below basic levels and only a third of Philadelphia's 11th grade students are proficient in reading, a figure that is virtually unchanged since 2001. In a technology-driven global 203 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. economy, the rate of academic progress is too slow to guarantee that our children will be prepared to enter the workforce and lead productive, successful lives. We need a Marshall Plan for education that combines political will with strategic investment of public funds directly into the classrooms and education programs that are proven to accelerate academic achievement and provide opportunities for disadvantaged children. We have become complacent about education policies and funding by accepting a status quo in which the students who need the most from public schools receive fewer resources and opportunities. It's easy to raise academic standards, says Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond in The Nation, but it's far more important to ensure that the standards and conditions under which students are educated are 204 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. also raised. As Gloria Ladson-Billings, former President of the American Educational Research Association, has noted, "the problem we face is less an achievement gap than an educational debt that has accumulated over centuries of denied access to education and employment, reinforced by deepening poverty and resource inequalities in schools. " With the imminent change in the School District's leadership, we have an opportunity and responsibility to turn this equation around by investing wisely in classrooms throughout the City. We cannot move forward, however, without accurate budget information. Over the past three years, we 205 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. have been fed a steady diet of half truths when it comes to District finances. Educators, parents and the larger community have a right to transparency and fiscal accountability from the District, which has wasted millions of dollars on private contracts and, at times, a bloated bureaucracy. The District's lack of candor on budget matters over the past three years is irresponsible. Budget mismanagement resulted in a 30 percent reduction in extracurricular spending in Fiscal 2006, a $73 million deficit this year and a projected $186 million deficit in Fiscal 2008. The deficit has grown despite the District receiving millions of additional city and state revenue since 2001. In fact, if one totals the additional increases given in each of the last five years, new revenues totaled over $1 billion. The deficit remained even after 206 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the elimination of 175 School District jobs last December and the demotion of scores of District employees who were forced to accept pay cuts of percent. 6 Ninety percent of those laid off and 7 demoted employees are Philadelphia 8 residents - teachers, secretaries, clerks 9 and other bread-winners who support 10 learning in our schools and families in 11 your districts. 12 Still hemorrhaging money in 13 January, the District eliminated 26 new 14 teacher coaches, leaving hundreds of 15 first-year teachers without mentors to 16 help them develop their skills and become 17 effective, confident teachers. 18 billion budget for the 2007-8 20 school year, which includes another $100 million in budget cuts, including teachers. Without additional city and state funds, the District will have to cut another $85 million from the budget to balance it. 207 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. It's clear that this budget will not move education reform forward.
Money is not going directly into the classrooms in order to lower class sizes; support struggling students with quality extended day, summer school and tutoring programs; improve professional development for staff; increase the number of children in our early childhood education programs; repair or replace dilapidated schools; provide safe and orderly learning environments; restore art and music education; or reopen dozens of closed school libraries. Instead of investing in classrooms, the School District is squandering resources on outside contractors. According to a study by Research for Action, under the SRC's leadership, the District spent 500 million, or one-quarter of its operating budget, on contracted services in Fiscal 2006, up from 380 million in 2003. The 208 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. number of contracts in excess of $25,000 doubled from 2002 to 2003 alone. We believe the School District's budget proposal deserves close scrutiny by Council. We urge Councilmembers to demand that the District reduce the number of costly outside contracts and spend more money on direct services to students. Although we believe the budget requires more scrutiny, that doesn't mean the District does not need additional money. Despite increased funding from both the city and the state during the past five years, Philadelphia schools remain vastly underfunded compared to surrounding districts, particularly when one considers the large percentage of students who require extra services to overcome economic, social and educational disadvantages. 's bill to dedicate additional tax millage 209 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to public schools. Councilman Goode's legislation would provide an additional $19 million a year. We do not, however, support giving the District a blank check. Rather, we urge City Council to require the money be provided for research-based programs, proven to help children succeed. PFT members have seen firsthand this year how budget cuts hurt students. Over the past two years, class sizes have increased dramatically despite overwhelming evidence that reducing class size improves student achievement, raises graduation rates and college attendance and decreases student discipline problems. This fall, PFT members reported more than 500 oversized classes. Some classes, at Carnell Elementary, for example, contained as many as 42 children. As of mid May, the District had 205 classrooms in which the number of students exceeded contractual limits, 210 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. which at 30 to 33 children per classroom are among the highest in the Commonwealth. Seventy-one teachers were assigned to teach split classes in which they teach children in two different grades simultaneously. With the No Child Left Behind requirement to raise student achievement, assigning elementary school students to combined grade classes deprives children of the individual attendance and academic support they need to be successful. The District's 2007-8 budget will do nothing to alleviate overcrowding. In fact, the current budget calls for maintaining classes at the contractual maximums, hiring fewer teachers this summer and eliminating a number of instructional positions permanently. This guarantees that schools will open in the fall with hundreds of overcrowded classrooms. The District announced in its 211 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. budget highlight that this strategy will save $9 million, an example of saving money on the backs of our children. Even before tragic attacks on PFT members this year occurred, our members were telling us that they did not feel safe in their schools. In an online survey of nearly 600 Philadelphia teachers this year, 55 percent said they do not feel safe, 45 percent said they have been victims of crimes in schools and 27 percent reported being discouraged from reporting or documenting disciplinary cases by their principal.
Over the past several years, the District has cut non-teaching assistants, school employees hired and trained to control students in corridors, stairwells and other places where misconduct is most likely to occur. A decade ago, there were nearly a thousand NTAs to keep schools safe. In Fiscal 2005, there were 409 NTAs. This year, there were 226 NTAs. A review of this 212 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. year's school budgets reflect that a further decrease of 50 NTAs will occur. As a result, approximately high 5 schools will have no NTAs next year. 6 When math teacher Frank Burd's 7 neck was broken by students at Germantown 8 High School, there were no NTAs on staff. 9 When music teacher Ed Klien's jaw was 10 broken by a student in November, no NTAs 11 were assigned to monitor that floor at 12 West Philadelphia High School. 13 We believe the increase in 14 assaults on teachers and staff is a 15 direct result of the reduction of NTAs. 16 Therefore, we urge City Council to 17 recommend that the District restore 18 funding for NTAs. The responsibility for 19 the safety of students and staff requires 20 it. 21 It is equally critical that 22 every school have enough counselors, 23 nurses, psychologists and social workers 24 to connect students and their families 25 with services they need. 213 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Further, school principals and regional administrators must provide consistent support to teachers working with disruptive or violent students. There must be an effective, communicated disciplinary policy at every school that supports teachers, staff and students and provides a range of interventions for violent or chronically disruptive students. Philadelphia's Comprehensive Early Learning Center Program has for 50 years has provided high-quality programs for pre-school children and after-school care for elementary children. Studies show that well-designed educational programs are wise investments. They help children improve their thinking, social and learning skills, which improves academic performance and behavior. Disadvantaged children benefit most, but in Philadelphia, not enough three- and four-year-olds are enrolled in 214 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. high-quality pre-schools. If the School District's goal is to educate children, it must expand and reach out to Philadelphia's families so that every at-risk child is enrolled in early childhood education programs. Finally, I would like to address the sad state of learning and working conditions in our schools. Last fall, a window at Creighton Elementary School slammed shut on a teacher's hand without warning and severed three of her fingers. At Middle Years Alternative School last month, students were evacuated after a classroom ceiling rained down on a teacher, injuring her. The PFT had warned the District about defective window balances a year before the Creighton teacher was injured. To date, the response has been to screw 40,000 classroom windows shut. So when temperatures outdoors reach 80 degrees next month, think about the thousands of children, teachers and staff who are 215 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. being asked to do their very best work in rooms where temperatures will climb as high as 95 degrees. Other health and safety issues abound in Philadelphia's aging schools. Poor ventilation, mold, leaking ceilings, crumbling staircases and floors, extreme temperatures, rodent droppings and vermin are among the unhealthy and unsafe conditions that plague some of our schools. We tell students that we value them. Yet, we send them to buildings that can injure them and make them sick. Philadelphia needs a long-term plan for repairing and replacing schools. Instead, the District's proposed budget calls for a limited second phase capital improvement. In conclusion, the PFT hopes City Council will invest in the success of our children. We urge you to allocate money to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade.
We all 216 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. agree that class sizes are too large. What we need is the political will and the money to do something about it. Insist that early childhood programs enroll 100 percent of at-risk three- and four-year-old children so that every child is prepared for kindergarten. And demand window replacement and other safety and health-related work is done before new construction projects are started. We ask you to work with the District to create long-range maintenance and construction programs that will provide adequate, safe and healthy public schools for our children. Children should not have to learn and teachers should not have to work in unsafe, unhealthy environments. Encourage the District to restore new teacher coaches, who help inexperienced teachers become successful educators. We cannot improve teacher quality and retention without providing one-on-one mentoring and assistance to 217 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. bright, talented newcomers. Insist that schools have sufficient numbers of counselors, psychologists, nurses and social workers and advocate for research-based programs to reduce violence in our schools and our community. Finally, there is an imbalance between what we expect of school staffs and students and what is offered them by way of support. Rather than handing the School District a blank check and hoping it will make its way into our classrooms, we urge the District to earmark new revenues for the programs mentioned above. If we are serious about helping students succeed, we must increase spending in the classrooms, where it counts. We don't mind being held accountable, but we must be provided with the tools we need to be successful. Thank you for your attention. )
Thank 218 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. you, Mr. Jordan. I would like to say that I haven't heard you talk about a Marshall Plan before or that I haven't heard you talk about a plan for disruptive students. You've done it many times in Council and certainly many times before the Education Committee. It is unfortunate that we're still there. I know of a child right now in West Philadelphia, a seven-year-old, who stabbed another youth with a pencil, who threw a chair at a teacher, who has all kind of mental health issues, along with a brother, and who is out there wreaking havoc on a school. She's almost blind and she broke her glasses. She just threw her glasses away. All kinds of things. So the whole issue of disruptive kids, you know how I feel about ADHD and have for some 20 years, that we don't deal with it as an issue. All the issues you mention are very, very 219 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. important. I only regret where you talk about demanding that the School District support Wilson Goode's bill but demand that the School District give us -- that the money be provided for research-based programs. Unfortunately, the law allows us to pass the budget, but we can't tell the School District how to spend it. We would love to.
But you have a tremendous amount of influence. I ask you to urge your influence in determining exactly how the resources are spent on the kids.
Well, let me say thank you. We agree with your statements, as always, and thank you for the excellent job you always do for the children and everyone in our City. Thank you.
Our next witness is Shelly Yanoff. 220 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Good afternoon. I want to start by congratulating you all, successful last Tuesday. I'm Shelly Yanoff, Executive Director of PCCY, and this is Sheila Simmons, who is the Education Coordinator. She'll give our testimony and then both of us are available for questions.
Thank you. The impact of schools not having enough money is felt in a number of settings: overcrowded classrooms that face even larger class sizes in the fall; teachers forced to manage two grades simultaneously; schools with libraries and no librarians; counselors who have no 21 time to counsel; and a population of children who suffer disproportionately from asthma and lead poisoning sharing their school's nurse with another school whose students' health needs are equally 221 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. as great. Our school children feel the impact of their lost funding today. Our city will feel it tomorrow, with increased dropout rates, more unmanageable court dockets, further entrenched neighborhood poverty and a larger unskilled workforce. At this critical juncture in Philadelphia's future, when we can capitalize on long-awaited school progress or stumble back into the hopelessness of the past, we as a city simply cannot afford to let the chips fall as they may. In recent years, a new infusion of state and local funding coincided with academic progress that on a number of fronts outpaced the state. Children whom critics insinuated simply could not learn in some cases gained national attention for their double-digit improvements in reading and math. Now lack of financial discipline and a long-accepted structural problem once again threatens the 222 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. potential of each child whose future is entrusted to us. Progress that was so hard to come by will, in all probability, reverse direction in next year's test scores. Schools across the District, long respected elementary schools that have served devoted, hard-working middle income families and long overlooked high schools that struggle to educate their poverty-stricken communities, are cutting deep into bare-bones budgets. So we come before you today underlining the importance of textbooks and paper, art classes and music teachers. We ask that each school have a single nurse, counselor and librarian, necessities in neighboring communities, but optional in Philadelphia. At some point, our priorities have to match up with our realities. Ever since a Germantown High School math teacher suffered a broken neck in an assault delivered by an underserviced 223 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. student traumatized over the circumstances of his life, the headlines of our major newspapers have, on an almost daily basis, reported on school violence. Yet, we also know that when we continue to rob schools across the City of needed staff, the possibility of achieving a good school climate becomes more and more remote. Funding public education is a state role. It's an argument we've heard before. " As advocates, we understand that funding responsibilities and public revenue burdens are a delicate balance. But when compared with other school districts in the State of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia's contributions come up short, a fact that earns us little compassion in Harrisburg, particularly from officials who represent communities with similarly underfunded school systems. If we compare, in equalized mills, the revenue local governments 224 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. 8 equalized mills. 6 equalized mills. 5 million below the state median. 4 million more a year that would make up some of that difference. We urge you to support it. I would also like to note that if there is another proposal on the table that would also net similarly $20 million, we would probably support that as well, but I think it deserves a question of where is it. We note that mayoral nominee Michael Nutter as well has endorsed the Goode bill and stressed the City's need to put up what could be part of a state-match funding proposal. We expect all our important members of local leadership to work with the state toward providing more funds to 225 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. all of its school children.
But our kids need your action today to help stave off another round of unacceptable cuts. We cannot thrive as a city with schools that begin to succeed and then fall back with large class size, unstaffed libraries, little music or art, inadequate support across the board. Leveraging our own increased contribution through the proposed millage transfer will strengthen our chances to save our schools and our city. That's a much better option than merely letting the chips fall as they may, because they will fall on our kids and our future. Thank you. )
Thank you very much. You know we have agreed for some time on the whole issue of split classes. We all know that's a disaster, especially if your kid is in the lower grade. Then the kid loses a whole grade. Very, very important issue. Thank you. 226 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Oh, okay. Are there any questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Actually, if you've given me the opportunity, I would say that the School District also could secure additional help in addition to the millage transfer by having its trash picked up by the City, by supporting -- by not having to pick up police during non-school hours with school police expenses. There are a lot of different ways that the City could support the schools in addition to the $18 or $19 million that we're talking about. So we urge you to consider those. 227 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Thank you.
Brian Armstead is our next witness. Is he here? Good afternoon, sir. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Brian Armstead. I am the Director of Civic Engagement for the Philadelphia Education Fund. I am here today to encourage you to support Councilman Goode's proposed Public Education Reinvestment Bill and to create additional funding streams for the School District of Philadelphia. For the last years, the 19 Philadelphia Education Fund has provided 20 direct service to Philadelphia students 21 as one major strand of our work. Through our College Access Program, we serve students throughout the City in almost all of the Council districts. Most are youth in 228 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. neighborhood high schools that often have the highest dropout rates and lowest college attendance rates. The College Access Program motivates, supports and guides students so that they graduate and are prepared to enter and to succeed in college. Our programs complement services that the District provides. Through our Scholars Program, the Ed Fund has distributed millions of dollars towards Philadelphia students' college tuition. Most of the recipients have been the first in their families to attend college. This year alone we will distribute about $1 million. We know firsthand how necessary it is to support middle grades and high school youth. We also know that because of budget cuts, the District has been forced to close down significant segments of their college and career services to youth. It is because of our long history of direct service to youth that I ask you to increase the City's 229 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. contribution to our schools now. The problem is too dire for City Council to play a game of chicken with the state. I urge Council to avoid saying, I'll give more after they give more. Philadelphia youth need Council to be the bigger legislative body and increase funding to the schools first. In another strand of our work, the Ed Fund provides professional development for teachers. We see both the tremendous dedication of many of our teachers, as well as the tremendous need for high-quality professional development and teacher coaching. But it costs money to provide good, consistent training. Faced with budget cuts, the District has had to reduce the number of teacher coaches, lessening the teachers' impact on the children as well as their own job satisfaction. More money is needed from both the city and the state to ensure this city has the highest quality teaching force. We need you to take the 230 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. first step. A third strand of our work is research. Over the years, our researchers have examined factors that affect school improvement. We know small class size is vital if we want to make sustained serious improvements. For several years, the District had resolved to lower class sizes and we had been seeing results. Then the District's inevitable structural deficits caught up to all of us. For the last two years, we've seen class sizes ballooning in the wrong direction. Schools have complained of a return to the bad old days of large classes, split grades and late leveling, and the District is looking to cut up to 250 more teachers in '07-'08. This promises to further increase the size of classes and exacerbate an already troubling situation. Most kids can't learn in crowded classrooms. Most teachers can't give students the 231 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. individual attention they need and deserve in crowded classrooms. It costs money to give teachers and students the class size they need and deserve. We need Council to make the first move and increase funding for the schools. A fourth strand of our work, civic engagement, joins us with a multitude of advocates working to improve public policy around public schools. We know the state has been unwilling to seriously address the underlying funding inequities in this Commonwealth.
We know that many state legislators refuse to support us because they say that we in Philadelphia do not even support ourselves at an appropriate level. We need Philadelphia to take the first step in order to leverage more money from the state. The Public Education Reinvestment Bill can be that act of good faith and, not inconsequentially, would provide a much-needed infusion of revenue. These are funds that our students need right 232 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. now. We at the Ed Fund are also residents, neighbors, employees and concerned members of the Philadelphia community. We know that the City could be and should be doing more to support public education. From this vantage point, we also urge City Council to allocate more funds beginning, as I said, with Councilperson Goode's bill. Thank you.
It does appear that these bills have overwhelming support and it is my understanding that a couple of Councilmembers do have other commitments. So what I'd like to do is recess the public hearing, go into our public meeting and then we will resume the public hearing again. So at this time, we will recess 233 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. our public hearing and go into our public meeting, and the Chair recognizes Councilman Goode regarding Bill No. 5 070015.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Bill 070015 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation, that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next Council session. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 16 070015 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation; further, that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session of Council. All in favor will please say aye. (Aye.)
Those opposed? 234 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. (No response.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell -- (Applause.)
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell regarding Bill No. 070118.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Bill 13 No. 070118 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and, further, that the rules of Council be suspended in order to permit first reading at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 21 070118 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation; further, that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session of Council. 235 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. All in favor will please say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Again, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell regarding Bill No. 12 070119.
I move that Bill No. 070119 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and, furthermore, that the rules be suspended in order to permit first reading at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 22 070119 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation; further, that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next 236 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. session of Council. All in favor will please indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. That concludes our public -- (Applause.)
-- meeting. We will now return to our public hearing, and our next witness is Michael Churchill. Is Michael Churchill present? (No response.)
Do we have Parents United for Public Education? Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing us to 237 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. present today. My name is Aisha Richardson. I'm President of the Samuel Powel Home and School Association. I'm a member of Parents United for Public Education and I'm a member of the Mayor's Education Task Force Subcommittee on School Climate. I wanted to commend Council for supporting the School's Reinvestment Act. That's a wonderful first step in securing permanent funding for Philadelphia's public schools. I just want to talk a little bit about Powel School. Last year during the School District's initial budget crisis, Powel School lost a great teacher, a librarian, a new aide and an SSA, and so began organizing and we brought our kids out to City Council to testify. We brought parents to the School Reform Commission meetings and we partnered with other parents, and as a result of our organizing activities, over 100 teachers that have been cut from schools were 238 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. returned, and four days of public hearings of this were held. This year Powel is going to lose two more teachers. And so one of our teachers this year is on a medical leave, our music teacher, and because of his absence, that means no music classes, no prep for teachers, no annual spring concert. So we have a small school with only teachers. If one person is 12 absent, all 250 children are affected. 13 Next year our school will lose 14 another two teachers and another SSA. And so we're asking how much more does Powel need to tighten its belt before our school is strangled to death. Council has a unique opportunity to increase more funding for education, and this was a very excellent first step, and so I want to make sure that there is some emphasis put on reducing class sizes, supporting academic excellence and not supporting mediocre education management organizations. 239 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. I just wanted to thank you again for passing this bill and I want to turn it over to my colleagues.
Good afternoon, Madam President and Chairwoman. My name is Harry Levant. I am the current President of the Home and School Association at Shawmont and one of the parent leaders of Parents United for Public Education. There are two dynamic women to my right and my left, and months ago 14 the three of us were Parents United for 15 Public Education. Because of the 16 severity, the crisis that our schools 17 face, we have grown to include schools 18 all across the City. We're nearing, say, close to 100 parents who are involved and we're growing every week. I wish we weren't growing the way we are, because the reason we're growing is because how severe the crisis in our schools really is. I need to acknowledge that our 240 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Mayor, Mayor Street, met on Monday with a group of parents from schools across 4 the City and we brought our concerns to 5 his attention. I thank Council for the 6 first step that was just undertaken in 7 moving the Goode bill forward. However, 8 I listened to Mr. Vallas' testimony and 9 testimony from other witnesses this 10 morning and I have come to the conclusion 11 that there is a dangerous disconnect 12 between what is happening at the SRC and 13 what our elected officials seem to 14 understand or don't understand. I have one horse in this race. The horse has three heads. Those heads are my children, the 600 children whose families I represent as a Home and School President and my concern for children all across the City. If I wasn't concerned, I wouldn't be sitting here. I wouldn't be dedicating the time that I and others dedicate to coming forward and testifying and attempting to bring to your attention and the attention of others the severity 241 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. of the problem. To highlight this, I must tell you what has happened at Shawmont in just the last three months. We were promised by Mr. Vallas and the SRC that there would be no additional cuts in discretionary spending. This promise was made on April the 11th. On April the 12th, we had $102,000 cut from our budget. If this money is not restored by the time the budget is approved on May the 29th, we stand to lose our fifth classroom teacher. That's five classroom teachers in two years, with an enrollment decline of 12 children. That has mushroomed the size of our classes. We stand to lose all of our kindergarten support, which means in September, in September, we will open with two kindergarten classrooms, each with the contractual maximum of 30 five-year-old children and one adult in that room. Our kindergarten SSAs are no 25 more, gone. Thirty five-year-olds, one 242 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. teacher in the room. And we're going to lose our entire mentally gifted program. My children has north of 75 children in the mentally gifted program. This is a dynamic and mandatory program for our highest achieving students, and it's being cut. So this morning when you heard that we're not touching the schools, it's not accurate. Something needs to be done to make sure that the money that is there now and hopefully the additional money that's on its way to approval will get to the schools, because the cuts that we have absorbed over the last two years are dangerous, and the ones that are about to happen are nothing short of Draconian. We need some help. Our teachers need some help. There are dedicated parents out there. We're tired, but we're going to continue to push forward because we believe in our schools. We have our children in the Philadelphia schools because we want them 243 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. there and we care about the children across the City. Please get more actively involved, both with finances and with knowledge, so that we don't have the type of cuts that Shawmont is absorbing.
And please look into my particular issue at our school so that these funds can be restored by May the 29th so that when my school opens in September, we'll be able to function at an appropriate level. Thank you for your time.
Hello. My name is Helen Gym. I'm a parent at Powel Elementary School. On behalf of parents that worked very hard to lobby for Councilman Goode's bill, we very much thank and are grateful to the support of Council. We will definitely hold you accountable for your vote, especially if there is any chance of a mayoral veto on this, but we believe that this Council is standing firmly beside Councilman Goode's 244 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. bill and we are very deeply appreciative. But I want to be clear about one thing, that nothing in this District comes easy. Councilman Goode's bill is a start, but we are here to talk about the years ahead and the years that have passed under our watch. We have cut 2,000 teachers from our School District, classroom teachers from our School District since 2004, at a level of 500 teachers a year. We have more split grades than we ever have had. We have parents who talk at Disston Elementary about 38 to 40 kids in a classroom, 31 fifth-graders in a half size trailer. At the end of the day in Powel School's budget, we will have $5,000 for the 250 children at our school, less than $20 a year to cover for their books, their art supplies, field trips, any extracurriculars and, God forbid, a graduation ceremony to remind them that they are loved in this world. We are losing a special ed 245 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. teacher, and after the Philadelphia Inquirer's amazing two-day story spread about the decline of services to special ed, we had to wonder how does this make academic sense. We want to talk about the School District's budget plan that is coming up. Next year there are 250 teacher cuts planned in the School District's budget. There's $100 million in cuts next year alone. There are 13 school closings that they are banking on. 14 Are they in your district? Do you know? 15 Would that make your constituents upset? 16 They have not told us this. And the 17 almost total elimination of de-seg 18 bussing. 19 There is a Five-Year Plan for 20 the District. It consists of one page, 21 PDF, online. We do not believe that is 22 enough detail to talk about $100 million in cuts to our schools. The SRC's budget plan will raise class size because it includes 246 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. teacher cuts that have nothing to do with enrollment. Although you may not be able to earmark the dollars from Councilman Goode's bill, you certainly have the power to raise the public voice and demand a public process on the upcoming budget cuts. A Philadelphia Public School Notebook study shows that the ratios of student to teachers has actually increased since 2002. The budget plan that we have does not adequately support a quality teaching and learning environment. There's been no opportunity for review of the Five-Year Plan of the School District's budget. It barely provides any detail. There's been little public conversation and very little public questioning of the fiscal and academic theses or theories on which it rests. The budget plan eliminates proven initiatives, like reduced class size, but yet assumes that there is 247 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. certain questionable financing for the next five years for EMOs, private contracts, consulting contracts and even the SRC's burgeoning staff. We have to ask these questions now. As parents, we have come here time and time again only to ask for a public process, only a chance to ask why are the things happening as they are to our students at this time. We believe that a lot of the surprise of anything that happens with the School District's budget is largely because of the lack of public process that has taken place and the lack of parents being at the table in the decision-making process. Last fall, Chairman Nevels promised parents that we would be involved in the development of the District's budget as it was being developed. The SRC reneged on that promise.
And for those reasons, we are asking you to join us in rejecting the 248 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. SRC's budget plan, not only for next year but for the Five-Year Plan on which it rests, only for the three reasons of this: Just to ask that no budget cuts be implemented until an emergency process has been called for and involve substantial and substantive parent and community-based review, as was promised to us; that the SRC hold public hearings for detailed questioning by the public of the Five-Year Plan and its financial and academic implications for the long-term future of our children; and that there be an opportunity for parents and community representatives to meet with the District budget staff to come up with an alternative set of cuts, not for the typical list of our teachers, of our nurses, of our librarians, of our counselors, of our academic programs, but instead to review once again private contracts, staffing, EMO funding that continues to be on the table despite four separate independent studies that have 249 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. confirmed that they perform no better and cost our District $90 million over the last five years, and as well consulting contracts of retired administrative personnel. We ask you to give your money to our schools, but we ask you not to pat yourselves on the back as you give the money, but to take responsibility for the money that you give, to take initiative and demand some questions, a public process, and answers that will definitely impact us as parents, you, your constituents and the children in your district for many years to come. Thank you. )
Madam President, I brought something I'd like to hand up today, if I may. I brought an article 24 that Chairman Nevels published in Forbes Magazine in March of 2005 when we still 250 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. had reform. In this article, Chairman Nevels writes about hiring teachers, teacher coaches and the mandate for reduced class size, and he, Chairman Nevels, attributes in Forbes Magazine the improvement in our Philadelphia schools to these three initiatives. This is just over two years ago. We have lost all of these initiatives. I'd like Council to read this closely and ask the SRC whether the very things that Chairman Nevels wrote about two years ago are still being enacted in our city, and if they are not, we need a return to them and we need a return to them now. I respectfully submit that article and ask that members of Council pay close attention to the writings of Chairman Nevels and hold the SRC accountable to what its leader said we need, because they have taken from us.
Thank you very much. 251 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. (Applause.)
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is George Ricchezza. I'm the President of Local 1201. Good afternoon again, Madam Chair and Councilmembers. I represent 3,000 non-teaching School District employees. I have been 252 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. an officer of Local 1201 for nine years, but I have been a School District employee for 34 years, and as a result, I can say I am very familiar with how the non-academic part of our District works. The vast majority of our Local 1201 members are black and female. They earn about $28,000 a year. They are an older group of employees who will find it exceedingly difficult to find new employment if their jobs are eliminated. They are your constituents. Nearly 100 percent of our members live in Philadelphia. They pay Philadelphia taxes. They vote in Philadelphia. I sit before you to ask for your support and for your understanding of what is currently taking place in the operations of the School District of Philadelphia. I would like to address two issues: school cleanliness and school safety. First, cleaning. My members clean the schools. When they leave at 10 253 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. or 11 o'clock at night, the schools are clean. The challenges they face daily are daunting: graffiti, vandalism or kids just not paying attention to the rules that are not enforced. But they get the job done even if it requires them to stay late or work extra hours to complete the work of absent co-workers. They are proud of the job they do. Let's be clear. We make no 13 claim that our schools are spotless, but within the system designed by the School District, the system that the School District demanded and negotiated over an 18-month period in 2003 and 4, our members have more than met the challenge. The major problems that exist in the cleaning process are not the employees, but the system itself. In the last contract, the District demanded that each cleaner be assigned square footage requirements that were too high for the number of staff 254 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. assigned to do the job. We gave the District evidence that its square footage cleaning requirements were well above the industry average. We told the District that forcing the square footage cleaning requirements would lead to burnout and absenteeism. On the subject of absenteeism, we made numerous offers to work with the School District to reduce absenteeism. They ignored our offers. Then to add insult to injury, the School District privatized the cleaning of 14 high schools, eliminating over 200 jobs in our bargaining unit, over 200 jobs of your constituents. In the last two years, the School District has spent over $14 million on this outside contract, including $600,000 in management fees for this year alone. I should note that the management fees have now been eliminated given the current budget crisis. But this is a typical example of the 255 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. District's reckless and run-away spending patterns in the last few years. The District employs over 5 FACs, field area coordinators, who are 6 responsible for supervising the cleaning 7 and maintenance of all school facilities. 8 The District did not lay off one FACs 9 when it privatized the schools. The 10 District did hire outside managers to 11 supervise cleaners. They paid hundreds 12 of thousands of dollars in additional 13 fees or, should I say, profits for 14 additional layers of management that were 15 not needed. 16 Next let's talk about these 17 schools. Are they cleaner? They may be, 18 but the fundamental question is why. 19 The answer is simple: staffing 20 levels and adequate supplies. In the 21 contract last negotiated between the 22 District and our union, we agreed that 23 buildings would be staffed with one 24 cleaner for every 32,000 square feet of 25 space, plus one additional individual. 256 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. So, for example, if a building had 100,000 square feet, there would be four cleaners assigned to the building.
Has the staffing level been met? Absolutely not. On the contrary, if an individual retires or resigns or is terminated, the District has simply not filled over 350 cleaning positions alone. As a result, most buildings are permanently understaffed. Moreover, in 2004, we negotiated the creation of a relief cleaning crew so that if, in particular, one building several cleaners are out due to injury or illness, bodies could be assigned on a temporary basis and the building would be properly staffed. As of today, the relief pool are permanently assigned to buildings. In contrast with the private contractor, the District demanded that a specific number of hours be worked in each privatized school. The contractor must provide that number or be in breach 257 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. of the contract. If a contractor's employee is out ill, the contract simply provides another body. As a result, in the privatized buildings, the cleaning staff is always a full complement. In our schools, it is not. In short, we are not competing on an apples-to-apples basis. Next let's turn to supplies. In the privatized schools, the contractor must provide the supplies with which to clean the buildings. Not so in our schools. The District is supposed to provide the supplies, but I guess to have money, the District either underorders or doesn't order at all. Just yesterday I received a call from a general cleaner at one of our schools who was advised to go to a different location to pick up paper towels so they would have them in their bathrooms. There's over 600 students and an inordinate number of employees in that building that had to go without supplies for the day. 258 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the area of cleaning. Next let's look to safety. Our union also represents the building engineers and maintenance mechanics in the Philadelphia School District. Our engineers, who are licensed employees, are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the schools. Our maintenance teams include electricians, plumbers, painters, carpenters and, in total, individual crafts. 14 But at the end of the day, to 15 pay for outside school managers and 16 underperforming charter schools, this administration and the School Reform Commission have cut the workforces in both these categories to the bone. And let me cite just one of the egregious examples of the District's cavalier attitudes towards safety. In May of 2006, over one year ago, the issue of the dangerous window conditions was brought to the attention 259 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. of the then facilities manager of the District. He was specifically asked about the situation with new windows at many schools in which the weight of the windows and their state of disrepair posed a very serious safety hazard. The issue of broken balancers was also brought to his attention. His response, he said that he was unaware of the problem and that it was one that he inherited. He said that the cost of fixing or replacing all the windows was prohibitive. He said that the District would conduct a survey of the windows in the District and the District would try to ensure at least two operable windows per room in every area without air conditioning. I should also add that the dangerous windows in question weigh between and 70 pounds and are quite 23 heavy. It has been reported to us that 24 within a very short time of installation, 25 from several months to a year, the 260 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. balancers, the spring and weight systems designed as counter weights in double-hung windows that allow them to be safely and smoothly raised and lowered, started to fail, resulting in a serious safety hazard from failing windows.
We have been led to understand that because of the type of windows purchased, the way it was handled by the District in the bidding, contracting and installation process and the lack of attention of routine maintenance over the year, warranties were voided and windows presented real dangers. And the result? As I am sure you are aware, in February 2007, a tragedy occurred involving one of these windows. A member of the PFT, protecting a child, lost three fingers on one hand as one of the windows in question came crashing down on her. Do we have to endure yet another accident to an employee or, worse, a child before this issue is addressed in a comprehensive 261 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. way? Right now the District has a contract for $500,000 with a window maintenance firm to try to achieve the goal of having a minimum of three properly operated windows per classroom and would install a metal screen along the bottom of each of these properly functioning replacement windows so that this type of accident will not reoccur. The question is, why do we need an outside contractor? If the School District uses the carpenters on staff right now and supplied them some additional hours each day, we believe that we could save the School District $200,000 and have this job done by the opening of school. This is just one example of the mismanagement in the area of the facilities that impacts not only on the bottom line of the School District facing a terrible budget crisis, but on the safety of everyone involved. 262 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. These are not just the union's conclusions. These are also the conclusions of City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who under the City Charter performed the same auditing functions for the School District. We have provided each member of Council with a copy of that report. But I must quote from the summary. "As our limited inspections show, conditions at Philadelphia schools, from elementary to high schools, are less than desirable for students and teachers and, in some cases, pose a direct danger to the safety and well-being of students, teachers and other school personnel. "Conditions found ranged from something as simple as a missing doorknob to as complex as structural problems like falling support beams. Broken or inoperable toilets, vermin and insect infestations were noticed, yet the School District continues to decrease spending in the maintenance, engineering and 263 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. cleaning budget lines. 3 million in the Basic Cleaning Services budget line. On this total, there 526 building engineers, 424 maintenance and 1,805 cleaning service positions. 5 million for Contracted Maintenance Services. 6 percent of the workforce, a decrease of approximately $9 million in Local 1201. "These reductions were across all three categories. 6 percent; maintenance, 264 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. 8 percent loss of manpower. 5 million for contracted maintenance services, a $2 million decrease or a 44 percent reduction from school year 2001 and 2. "While the School District can boast that these decreasing numbers have saved millions of dollars over this five-year period, the lack of preventive and ongoing maintenance is not without cost. The resultant cost cannot be measured in dollars. Rather, the conditions discovered by the Controller's Office personnel clearly show that we are putting the welfare of our children and teachers at risk. " 265 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. The Controller's report is devastating and clearly shows the true cost of bad management and failed policies. It is not the road that the District needs to take in the future. Nor is privatization the answer. It is expensive and it just does not work. We need to stop enriching private contractors and see to it that money is used to provide the employees the supplies that are needed to provide safe and clean schools.
In sum, the students and employees of the School District are getting shortchanged by the failed policies of a CEO whose main achievement was to bring in high-paid consultants from out of town, to feather his own monetary nest, and to leave the District and the children with the highest budget deficit in history. The members of the School Reform Commission have a monstrous task before them. They must continue to 266 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. improve our children's educational opportunities, while at the same time balancing a budget that is woefully off kilter. The SRC's efforts at privatization, both in the academic area and the facilities area, must be reexamined and reexamined right now. We at 1201 urge this Council to appropriate every dime possible to fully fund our public schools. But we urge you to do so with strings attached. Yes, strings. We urge you to demand from the SRC that the EMOs, which by all reports are doing worse than our regular schools, be removed and that no contracts for outside managers be renewed. And we urge you to demand that the SRC end the privatization of cleaning and maintenance and restore those jobs to the people who live and work in this area and who are so intimately familiar with each and every school facility. Finally, we urge you to demand that the SRC fully staff the 267 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. cleaning, engineering and maintenance staffs of the School District. By so doing, the SRC can save money needed to close the budget gap and at the same time ensure the cleanliness and safety be restored to the School District. Thank you very much. )
Thank you very much for the excellent testimony. Are there any questions? (No response.)
Thank you very much. Thank you. Helen Matthews. I believe you submitted written testimony. Duane Ingram, are you here? (No response.)
I'm here. I'm Helen. 268 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
You're next. Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
My name is Helen Matthews. Thank you for accepting my testimony. I want to thank Councilman Goode --
Thank you, Councilman Goode, for sponsoring this very important bill for our children. I urge you to support the Public Education Reinvestment Act. The 269 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. City of Philadelphia has a moral obligation to care for its children, including a financial obligation to educate them. Many Philadelphia school children live in poverty and social chaos, and their schools offer them their only opportunity to succeed and to survive. Providing an adequate education through high school for our children is the best crime-fighting tool that we have, as well as our best economic investment for the future. Funding education is the smartest financial move our City can make. The looming budget deficit projected for 2007-2008 will have dire consequences for my neighborhood school, Meredith Elementary, where I have a first-grader. Meredith Elementary is an economically and racially balanced neighborhood school in Queen Village, with academic performance equal to wealthy suburban schools and a very rich art and music environment. The school 270 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. has strong community and parental support, and many of us credit smaller class sizes for the school's success. Our school has faced budget cuts before, but this upcoming budget cut will be crippling. The 100 plus teachers to be cut includes our newest teacher, Ms. Slaughter, an outstanding teacher by any standard. The loss of this teacher will result in split grades and maximum class sizes at our school. The quality of the school will be greatly diminished and families, who previously bought homes to be within the school's catchment, will consider leaving the City. Families do not move to the suburbs because of taxes; they move because of schools. Passing this bill will help us keep our teachers. It will help us maintain our quality schools and work to improve our lagging schools so that all children can succeed and be productive in the City. Passing this bill also demonstrates to the legislators in 271 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Harrisburg that Philadelphia does care about the welfare of its children and is willing to shoulder more of the financial responsibility to educate them. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Duane Ingram is next. (No response.)
Yes. This has Bethel. Welcome. Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Good afternoon. My name is Arenda Bethel. I am a member of the Home and School at Ada Lewis Middle School, also a group called the 272 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Concerned Parents of the Ada Lewis Middle School. I am here to discuss not only the proposed closure of my school but the fact that something needs to be done at this time to get not only the financial piece of our City on track but also the educational piece of our City on track, because our children are the ones that's suffering at this time because of that. My name is Arenda Bethel. I'm a member of the Home and School and the Concerned Parents of Ada Lewis Middle School. It was cited for proposed closure as of March 6, 2007. The decision will be made on June 20, 2007 by the School Reform Commission. I'm here with an uneasy feeling about how and why our budget is in such disarray. It is clear that things were not handled the way they should have been. The problem that worries me now is who is going to suffer because of these mistakes. The answer to that are clearly our children. 273 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. These children are our future and, again, has had something taken away from them that should not have been. First, the incentive that used to perk other children once to go to school, like music, shop, or typing, were taken away like a thief in the night. These things are only available in specialized schools, with excellent grades needed to attend some of these schools. I don't understand why the people in charge of making the mistakes are not punished instead of our children. Each and every time there's a problem, our children suffer. Let's start making the people responsible for making the mistakes have to be punished instead of constantly having our children suffer. Why not just start over with an almost new Commission? Let's leave Mrs. Glenn in and add the necessary people to complement her in changing this system into a positive mode for our children. Fill the other four seats 274 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. appropriately and let a person from our community knowledgeable enough to be there if, for no other reason, but to observe what is going on. It seems that just like you heard, if you don't watch them, they will get away from you. It seems that this is a good enough time as any to get in there with someone who will be understanding, that the Mayor and the Governor needs to be on top of what is going on with the budget at all times as they are. Do not keep the communities in the dark about it either. Though we are there each meeting, we can't speak about what the Commission has already decided on. We need community involvement to help know what is going on in there also. I am asking you for a change for the better now while we can. This includes getting a CEO in there with a degree in education. The financial degree hasn't helped our children at all. Let's get someone in there to help not 275 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. only with finances, but with real education. I thank you for listening to me and hope you take my recommendations to heart to help our future, which is our children. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you very much. Susan Blanc? Is Niel McDowell here? MR. McDOWELL: Yes.
I hear you. I hear. Next will be Mr. McDowell. Is Alison McDowell here? MR. McDOWELL: I'm afraid she's not.
All right. And Patricia Toy. 276 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. If anyone else is here who would like to testify, see Mr. Christmas, because that concludes our list. Welcome. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. My name is Suzanne Blanc and I'm a Senior Research Associate at Research for Action, a local non-profit organization which has been contributing to the debate and knowledge about school reform in Philadelphia over the past five years. Thank you for the opportunity to address members of City Council today and thank you for your support, for the increased role of City Council in supporting the schools financially. The School District of Philadelphia has made important progress since 2002 when the current reform began. It can be seen in several ways, but most importantly in improved student outcomes, especially at the K to 8 level. We at Research for Action believe that the substantial increases in per-pupil 277 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. spending between 2002 and 2005 have helped to make this improvement possible. In planning for Fiscal Year 2008, the District is now faced with the dual challenges of continuing to improve student outcomes at the same time it's reducing costs. You have heard many other eloquent advocates, parents and non-profit organizations involved with the schools talk about the need for increased funding and the serious implications of the cuts, of proposed cuts. I'm just going to talk for a little while about some of the research efforts that we've been doing that substantiate the view of activists and parents. First of all, on the level of curriculum and instructional decisions, we've been doing research both quantitative and qualitative, which shows that teachers in the schools appreciate the resources that have been put into 278 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. them through the core curriculum and through the instructional management system that's now in place. They also make it clear, though, that those materials, while they're important, are not a replacement for content knowledge and professional development among the teachers. This costs additional money that -- additional money in order to provide professional development and training to teachers through their peer experts. Math coaches and literacy coaches are essential parts of what has made the District's increased scores on the level of K to 8. Without such support, student performance is in danger of stalling or even rolling back. What we've seen in our visits to schools is that teacher experts are essential to good use of the existing curriculum. The District has invested substantial funds in really good materials, but teachers can't teach just 279 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. on the basis of materials. They also need to understand the math and literacy that's embedded in those materials. And what we have seen is that it's teachers who are trained to use these who work with their peers in order to improve the performance. We've heard really eloquent remarks about what happens to kids when there's overcrowding in classrooms. What else happens is that teachers do not have time to improve their own skills. They need to be able to work with each other, and the people who have knowledge don't have the time to share their expertise with their peers when there's the bare-bones staffing which is now being proposed. So the reduction in teacher positions has a direct impact on students and it will also have a less direct impact on the ability of teachers to teach what they need to teach. We've also been studying small high schools. Many people know that 280 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. there are new small schools that have been created in Philadelphia since 2002. There are a lot of exciting things that are happening in these schools, but without additional funding, the schools cannot have the personnel or the time to meet their potential, which is to create individualized, personalized relationships between students and teachers and to create themes which make these small schools attractive to students.
In order to be successful, 14 these small high schools need planning 15 time and they need enough staffing and 16 they need principals that are hired in 17 advance so that planning and 18 implementation in a realistic way is 19 possible for this initiative, which, 20 again, has already used substantial funds 21 to be successful in the long run. 22 Another area where we have 23 produced numerous reports is in teacher 24 quality. These are quantifiable 25 improvements that show serious progress 281 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. since 2002. The number of highly qualified teachers who are hired has increased substantially, and retention among new teachers has also increased seriously. However, attracting experienced teachers and highly qualified teachers to the schools that need them the most is still a serious challenge, and long-term retention is a serious challenge. Improvement in human resources is essential to moving forward in the District. Some specific recommendations, which some of these have been mentioned by others, is return to the funding for teacher coaches. This is funding which will -- it's an investment that will pay off very quickly with less teacher turnover in the future. Hire and train more minority teachers, who are shown to have greater success with minority students, and create strong incentives to attract more teachers to hard-to-staff schools. 282 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. I want to say one or two sentences about the EMOs, which other people have mentioned and which Research for Action has done numerous reports on. The RAND/RFA study noted that the EMO schools progress at the same rate as District schools even though they had greater investments. We also noted that choice and competition are not present in the current model of the EMOs. We have stated that EMO contracts should be renewed on a school-by-school basis where there is evidence of adequate improvement, and we also have stated that the criteria for these decisions need to be made transparent and need to be informed by research and there have to be ongoing criteria for holding providers accountable. In conclusion, the education of our City's youth is about the City's future. The interventions that I've mentioned have shown to be successful in improving both teaching and learning. 283 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. The District has made significant gains and deserves congratulations. However, the next steps are critical to keeping the momentum going, and it's very clear that appropriate interventions, as other people have said, are tied to dollars and are tied to improved achievement. Thank you very much. )
Thank you very much. Are there any questions? (No response.)
Thank you. Niel McDowell. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you for your patience. MR. McDOWELL: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I am the parent of a kindergartner at the William Meredith Elementary School at 5th and Fitzwater in Philadelphia. Meredith is a public 284 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. school and a great school. Its halls and classrooms are warm and inviting, its teachers loving and skilled, and the children respond to this atmosphere of support by achieving. Meredith is an example of a public school that works, and my wife and I are thankful to be a part of the community there. Like every other school in the District, however, Meredith faces an uncertain future. Because of a reduced budget, the school stands to lose Ms. Danielle Slaughter, about whom you've already heard, a very talented new first grade teacher. Already in her first year, Ms. Slaughter has earned the respect and admiration of the students and parents who know her. If she were able to stay at Meredith, she could make a huge contribution to an already great school. But we are told she must leave because the school must cut a teaching position. As if this weren't bad enough, we have also been told that one classroom 285 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. will need to be combined, second- and third-graders together in one room. How is it possible to teach simultaneously two different curricula to a room of mixed second- and third-graders? How many other talented educators will Philadelphia public schools lose because of money problems? I ask you all to support Councilman Goode's bill, the Public Education Reinvestment Act. I am well aware that the new funds this bill would direct to the School District do not even come close to solving the school's financial problems, but they represent a gesture of good faith, of willingness on the part of the City to help find a solution. There has been a lot of talk recently about the public's desire for change. Philadelphia public school parents are tired of this game, tired of the endless cycles of cuts and crises. We're tired of the politics of it all. 286 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. We ask for a solution, and we ask you, our elected representatives, to take the first step. Show legislators in Harrisburg the way to filling the financial hole so that we don't lose our talented best, teachers like Ms. Slaughter at Meredith. We just want the schools to function the way they're supposed to. It really isn't asking too much. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you very much. And we assume you spoke also for Alison McDowell. MR. McDOWELL: Yes.
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)
Good 287 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. afternoon. Thank you for your patience.
Good afternoon, Committee Chair Blackwell and members of City Council. My name is Patricia Toy. I am the parent of a seventh grade student at Albert M. Greenfield School and President of our Home and School Association. I was here in December to give testimony about Greenfield School and how the School District budget deficit this past fall affected our school. Basically, one of our fourth grade teachers was cut, which forced us to go from three fourth grade classes to two overcrowded classes, with no special help for our underachieving students. I am here today to tell you about our school and the problems we will face in our next school year budget with further cuts from the School District. These budget cuts will have a very negative impact on our school and our students. We will lose three 288 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. teachers from our staff. This will be four for this school year and next. These are three of our younger teachers, who have least seniority, but they are among the best at our school. They are bright, innovative, enthusiastic teachers and they are well loved by everyone at our school. To compensate for losing these teachers, our principal will shift three of four more senior teachers from their special teaching assignments and reassign them as regular classroom teachers. One of these is a reading specialist who has been working with students at our school who are reading way below grade level. Another of the teachers is a math specialist who works with two populations at our school, students whose math skills are way below grade level and high-achieving students to give them more challenging work in math to better prepare them for admission to some of the top magnet high schools. 289 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Next year we will not be able to offer any of these special programs to our students. This will be a tremendous loss for them. Not to mention we have no 6 music teacher or librarian at our school. It has been many years since we've had one. For the past five years, our public school children have been used as powerless pawns in an unfair game of finger pointing by the powers that be, with no one taking responsibility for their part in the fiasco of our public school system. I think it is a gross injustice that the public school children in Philadelphia are shoved aside as unimportant and treated as second-class citizens who don't deserve the best education that other more privileged children in Philadelphia are fortunate to get. Are not all children entitled to a good education? Should we not be responsible and accountable for all Philadelphia students to see that they 290 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. get what they deserve, an adequately funded top-rate education from a school district, city and state that value each of them? When will City Council, the Mayor and state legislators get on the same page with the parents, teachers, students and advocates that have been pleading for more adequate funding for our public schools? We cannot afford to lose any more teachers from our classroom. We cannot afford to continue this downward spiraling effect of overcrowded classrooms. Although it is not a cure all, we ask that you support the Public Education Reinvestment Act. This bill, though a minimal first step toward improving long-term funding for our schools, will provide some additional financial assistance to the School District, but also it will send a message that our City, the Mayor and City Council 291 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. does want to do the right thing by our public school children, that they do value them and they value their future and want to make this important investment in their future. I have with me some additional petitions that were signed by students at our school and some of the parents and teachers. And we want to thank Councilman Goode for introducing this bill.
You have the support of Greenfield School, and we hope that you will have the support of every fellow Councilmen and Mayor Street. Thank you. )
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)
Venard Johnson, Healthy Family, Healthy Life. After Mr. Johnson is Marsha Brown, President, Home and School Association, 292 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. West Philadelphia High School and a member of the Walnut Hill Community Association. Thank you for your patience, Mr. Johnson.
Hello, Councilwoman. It's okay. Good afternoon, Councilwoman.
So long that some Councilmembers have changed, even the Sergeant-at-Arms have changed, but the 293 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. conditions of the School District remain the same. It's ridiculous. I remember the conditions at the Franklin Learning Center when Rotan Lee, our friend, was President of the School Board. And we struggled and we struggled, and the Board struggled, and they authorized a new Franklin Learning Center, only for the property, as I understand it, to be sold. The people from Ada Lewis were supposed to have town meetings conducted by the School Reform Commission. I have a transcript of testimony here that we're going to present to our lawyers on Friday where the School Reform Commission held a hearing, but they weren't present. Held a hearing about the closure of a school. Here's the transcript. Those in attendance were School District employees. Not one School Reform Commission member at a School District hearing about the closure of a school. Here's the other transcript a 294 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. week later. They were there, but the public hearing was held at 440 North Broad Street, a long way from Ada Lewis. By the way, it was held at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. What I'm trying to talk about, Councilwoman, is process. A month or so ago your committee held a hearing on the impact of new construction in transforming communities, and I was happy to sit here and say -- because I felt real good. I had talked to Mr. Vallas and I had talked to Lee Whitaker, and there was going to be a meeting of all these community people, to include myself and other folks who agitate the system like me. There was going to be a meeting where we were going to discuss the budget. I came here and I said so. I have yet to sit in on a meeting. It hasn't happened. You were at City Council a few weeks ago and it was said, I guess, during the time that you were there that 295 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the Home and School Council was going to conduct citywide hearings around the budget. It hasn't happened. Today I sit here and listen to Councilman Goode have an exchange with people from the second floor to find out that maybe they're thinking about raising taxes, without a conversation with the community. It has to stop somewhere along the line. The line has to be drawn. And so I just want to talk about process. There almost is no 15 process, with no offense to Mr. Brady. He's not an insider. He's been here six weeks. He's been here six weeks. That's not an insider. I thought I heard the Chairman say we wanted to hire an insider. Well, how far inside did they look? The rumor on the street is that Mr. Brady came here with the intentions of getting that position, that it was all a political move anyway. The rumor on the street. I don't know, but I'm saying 296 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to you that there was no public discussion. An interim CEO could be around for two years, three years. Look at the interim President of Cheyney University. He's been there two years, just said last week he was going to leave. Two years. So that could be a very long time. So I don't consider Mr. Brady an insider. When I looked at Mr. Brady's credentials in the paper, Superintendent of Facilities. I mean, I respect that. He's got a big job on his hand. He helped us at Ada Lewis. When we wanted to take a walk through Ada Lewis, Mr. Brady was certainly helpful. But I didn't see anything that talked about his ability to lead this institution academically. Several weeks ago, there were some older professors that had a relationship with Cheyney University, went to the SRC and said to the SRC that they wanted to be involved with the 297 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
selection of the new Superintendent, not a CEO, because they thought that they needed to have someone grounded in education, grounded in academics, because Cheyney, an institution that traditionally takes the disadvantaged, the academically disadvantaged, was complaining about the quality of students that Philadelphia was sending them. My daughter is a Cheyney graduate, complaining about students in her class not prepared, not taking notes. Philadelphia students. We need a change, and we need a change real quick. I just want to hit a couple other points and I'm done, because it sounds like 1986 again. The Office of Specialized Services for the District, if there's going to be some money, they need to get some of it. We've been talking about nurses for a long time, Councilwoman. Fifteen hundred students to one nurse is 298 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. too much. I think the District has made some improvements, maybe have gotten it down to 900 or 800 or so. Our kids have some critical needs. We need a nurse in every building all day long, and whatever we need to be doing to do that, together we need to do that. I was at a meeting today, an interagency meeting today at a school in your district. Not only are the students not getting the services through the District that they deserve around behavior, but it came out today that the managed care -- that the behavior health companies who are supposed to be providing them with services are shortstaffed. I think maybe several months ago at a meeting with Mr. Vallas he talked about the number of referrals that his office has made to DHS, maybe 30,000. I don't know. It was a lot. That they were just sitting on, nothing was happening. And so the beat goes on. 299 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Here's what's really interesting: In '86 and '96, it was the racially isolated schools that were in here crying. Today it's Greenfield. Today it's Powel. So the inequity is spreading across the board. It's absolutely spreading across the board. We haven't had books for years. We haven't had music for years and art for years and now they're crying they don't have it. It's got to stop somewhere. Summer school, how does a student at McMichael get to Lock? And they're on public assistance, barely making ends meet, and have to pay for tokens? There's a problem somewhere there.
They want you to pay twice for one 300 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. destination.
The conditions of these buildings are poor. We let Mr. Vallas alone for five years about the conditions of the buildings, Councilwoman, but the conditions of these buildings are poor. I'd invite you to visit Gillespie School. You were at West Philadelphia High School last night. The curtains, the drapes, they won't even take the drapes down and make the place look presentable. I thought I had heard from the last time that we were there the drapes were down and they had done something. I was there last night. It's a dump. It has nothing to do with the quality of people in the building. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying it's a dump. The rumor on the street is that there are fires in the building, that the students are setting fires in the building, but there's no evacuation of the building. What's going on? 301 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Almost done, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Verna, how are you?
I don't think Audenreid is opening this year. I thought I heard the Superintendent say Audenreid was going to open this school year. Last time I passed there, the steel frame was just going up.
So what's that about? And I'm a supporter of Paul Vallas. I have been a supporter. I'm not going to say I hadn't been.
I'm going to stand here and say the last time -- one of the times I was -- the union was hanging out the rafters and me and my family was here and we almost had to get 302 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. our shit out the door, because we were for reform.
Well, I take that into locations in our area. Every star is going to come at me.
Some of the reform has worked. I'm not going to say it hasn't, but for the families that we work mostly with, they're still struggling. I'll close with this: A couple of -- maybe last year we went to Harrisburg. We went in our pockets and we took students from South Philadelphia, West Philadelphia to Harrisburg. And the point I'm trying to make here is that there's got to be consistency in the truth. We thought we were going to Harrisburg to encourage the state to free up $25 million that would come back to the District and be used in an equitable way. What we found out is, we went to Harrisburg and the $25 million that we thought we were freeing up was the $25 303 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. million that the EMOs were going to get. So when people come to the community and ask for help -- and we're the kind of people who will respond -- then be truthful with us. Tell us what you're actually asking us to do and we'll do it. Classroom size reduction, truancy prevention programs, music and art are critical. I'm done with this. My youngest daughter -- and you know her, the Council President knows my family -- is an artist by just her being. We sent her to all kind of public schools, charter schools, traditional public schools. She never had in her whole school experience music or art. When we started looking for -- we thought we were going to send her to Cheyney. She said, I don't want to do math. I don't want to do English. I'm an artist. I want to study art. So we had to start looking all around for her. In looking, we went over -- looking in 304 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. the paper, we went over to Drexel one night, the School of Design and something else. We saw --
Thank you. It was an auditorium full of people, five, six hundred people. I'll just say it the only way I know how to say it: We could look around and find the black folks. You could see them. Those kids are there on scholarships because they went to colleges somewhere -- I mean high schools somewhere in the country where they had art and design, and our kids who have a natural ability to do this aren't getting that here, so they can't qualify for those scholarships, because they don't have the portfolios, they don't have the experience, they don't have the background. So I'm going to just leave you guys with that, is that I don't know how the District puts together a committee, 305 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. an ethics committee or -- I said this at the last meeting, an ethics committee or finance committee, and don't have the people on the committee representing the institutions that they come to for the money. If they come to you for money, shouldn't you be on the committee? If they go to the state for money, shouldn't you be a part of the committee? All these years I just realized it wasn't in the law that allowed you -- doesn't allow you to track the dollars. Maybe we need to be changing the law. Y'all are lawmakers. There's lawmakers in Harrisburg. Maybe the laws need to be changed so that we can track the dollars. It was a disgrace, in my view, to have the Councilman talking about $325,000 for a consultant and town meetings that very few people knew about. (Applause.)
Marsha Brown. Thank you for all your efforts last evening at West Philly High and 306 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. being a great leader of the Home and School Association and being there all the time. Nothing like people who give of their time, energy and talent. Thank you very much.
Thank you, and thank you for giving me time today to come forth and represent the student population of West that has some voice, but not enough voice. Today I come to you with some dire news, some news of desperation, news of need. We need to be heard. Students need to be heard and need to be accommodated in our community. With the projection for the new West Philadelphia High School, there has come about a lot of different initiatives, different projects, recommendations. A lot of these recommendations come from people who do not live in our neighborhoods. They do not know our children. They do not have children that attend elementary public 307 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. schools or high schools in the area, in the community, but they feel as though it is their right to make decision-making -- to have decision-making authority over our children. The first part of my topic, I'll just basically start with what has happened with West in the last three months. As of -- I come before you today to question the wisdom of how we use the money in our current budget and to suggest that we do better with the money we have. Despite the way West Philadelphia High School has been portrayed in the media, West was experiencing academic success. These charts represent academic progress as reflected by PSSA test results from 2004 to 2006. percent below basic. 1 percent below basic. Those scores 308 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. 2 percent. This ranks West as number two in test score improvement when compared to other comprehensive high schools across the District. The reading scores rose from 79 percent below basic to 59 percent below basic, an improvement of percent. 11 This ranks West as number two in test 12 score improvement when compared to other 13 comprehensive high schools. 14 Student attendance rose from 64 15 percent, which ranked West last in the 16 City when compared to other high schools. 3 percent. 19 This ranks West number one when compared 20 to other high schools. Student attendance has gone down since the removal of Mr. James. Most of these increases in academic performance and student attendance were incurred during his tenure as 309 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. administrator at West Philadelphia High School. This data was shared with the leadership team that was created to focus on using data to improve academic achievement. Of course, as a parent representative and because the students of any school in the Philadelphia School District are the property and under the jurisdiction and care, providership of their parents, I was on that committee, and I thank him for including me in this process. After these improvements, the budget at West was cut because of the School District budget deficit. As a result, funding for top of the clock, a CBO, was cut from the budget of the District to the budget of the school. On top of having that budget cut, 300 new students were networked to West from Turner, which Turner School would normally feed into Bartram. This was an amazement to most parents and community 310 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. members, along with, I'm pretty sure, most of the staff, because that increased our student population without extra funding, without extra security, without those resources to attend to those students. This is what I mean by spending money wisely. Why would you remove the principal of one of your top-improving schools when it has shown improvement academically and attendance-wise, low incidence of student misbehavior and disciplinary problems? Why would you remove the principal of one of your top-improving schools and have to replace him with three principals? How much extra money did this decision cost? Just to pacify and to maybe avoid bad publicity and to justify the needs of a few teachers that -- a group of teachers that had disagreements with the principals. Now, I don't know if you have these charts.
I did give them to someone 311 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. to pass out. I gave them to Mike, I think, to pass out. And these charts will -- I have one I can give you and you can share it, but I gave them to Mike.
And on these charts these charts represent the improvement. So not only are we still in bewilderment, we have never known and students don't know, parents don't know, community don't know, we are not aware of what the reasoning is behind the sudden removal of Mr. James, which caused chaos at West Philadelphia High School. We had incidents of serious fires because of this removal of Mr. James. I did address this issue to the SRC Commission. I will read that letter. "The safety of the students of West Philadelphia High School has been greatly compromised by not evacuating students during fires at the school, placing the students in a situation of 312 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. reckless endangerment. Without a safe climate in the school, there is no 4 positive learning environment. "After the removal of the former principal, these fires increased and there was a sudden increase in teacher absences. This led to very little or no academic instruction at all for students, which continues today. "These circumstances create a loss of continued academic improvement that had been accomplished in the last three years until the sudden change of principal occurred in March. Why is the safety and academic progress of the students at West Philadelphia High School less important than avoiding bad publicity and differences between administration and teachers? " Now, I was invited to a meeting with several members of the School 313 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. District: Mr. Golden; the School District Fire Marshal; Mr. Albert Bichner; Mr. Harry Gaffney, regional law office; Ms. Rashivitz. I think Mr. Trent was there. There were several School District officials who explained to me that they had had a meeting with the City Fire Commissioner, who determined that it was fine for them to place a delayed response fire alarm in our school. Delayed response means that we would have no knowledge of a fire unless they deemed that this fire was serious enough to let the alarm go. There was a 30-second delay on this fire alarm. So if there was a fire in the school, we would never know it once they would push that delay button so that they could determine whether they could put it out or not. So in the meantime, all students, staff and personnel are walking around assuming there's no threat. Our problem with that -- and I've discussed it with parents since this meeting with 314 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. those District staff members -- they are still not adequate. We want our children evacuated. We don't want chances taken with our children's lives. These are our children. We should have been at the table when the Fire Commissioner said that it was okay to have a delayed reaction for our children to be evacuated. Fire is very deadly. You can start a fire maybe with an incendiary device. Who says that any School District personnel, unless you're a toxicologist, is qualified to determine that they are not toxic fumes being emitted because of this fire, whether it's put out or not? I understand that they described nuisance fires to me, but that still does not mean that my child needs to stay in that building until your determination is, well, it's not a large enough fire for us to evacuate. There are several other things that I'd like to speak to today. These 315 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. are just some of the things that the community has felt, and parents. We have not gotten a proper reaction. We have got conversation. We have got reasons why. We have not gotten -- we have not come to an understanding of getting what we need for our children's safety, their academic progress and to promote West as a community school. Back to the new West Philadelphia High School that has been projected. Since that has been projected, there have been many recommendations about boundaries.
The latest boundary change occurred in 2006 in September where children that live on Chestnut Street a block away from the school are forbidden and cannot attend West Philadelphia High School. There is an additional proposal to further restrict the boundaries to 52nd Street, thereby excluding hundreds and hundreds of students from attending West Philadelphia High School. 316 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. We are parents and taxpayers and voters in that community. These are our students. That is their community school. They have the civil right to go to their community school. We are seeing deliberate means of disavowing and disengaging our children from their right to education in their community school. What we want for the School District to understand and for all our political advocates to understand is that we do not want these changes. We are not willing to accept them. There is no 15 reason why boundaries should be changed because we're projecting a new school in the area. There is no reason why our students should not be able to attend in the catchment area as it was. These are the main issues that concern us. We also have a question about the academics being projected and the student activities and the just normal day of business of administration at West. 317 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Our students lately have been told that they cannot participate in a student activity that has gone on for at least a decade. It's a tradition that's called The West Jam. These students are told that they are not able to have this function at the school. By who, we're still trying to determine that, because we don't know if the principal actually has that authority just to make a decision offhand or if she has to call down to the Office of Secretary of Education. We're not sure of what that practice is. But what has happened is, it seems as though West Philadelphia High School is in some type of lockdown, subject to the decision-making process of an Executive Committee that was developed on behalf of the new West Philadelphia High School that has somehow been shifted into the current West Philadelphia High School, where community members are making decision-making policy concerning 318 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. budget, principal, hiring of staff and activities at West Philadelphia High School. Our community, our parents, we have spoken out against this. We have not gotten any response. We have got just a continuation of the perpetuation of this committee and their function, and they're actually making decisions at West beyond our control. We do participate on this committee as Walnut Hill Community Association, as we should, but our vote, our word and bringing that word from the community and from the parents seems to have no avail. We have said several times -- I've been in this process since 2003, since the concept of the new West was originated. This boundary question has been on the table for at least the last two of those years, and we adamantly and continually say we do not want these changes, but yet we hear that the School District has the right to change the 319 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. boundaries intermittently at will to accommodate whatever population that I guess they choose, which to us means that our children are deliberately being discriminated against, bottom line. There is no soft-spoken way to put that. If we're going to have a new school, then the school should be adjusted and manifested to attend and to accommodate all of the students in that community. So where are the students going to go? If the boundaries stick at 52nd Street, where will these students go from 52nd Street from Market all the way to Baltimore Avenue to 60th? What school will they attend? They all can't go to Sayre on 58th and Walnut, a smaller community school project. They have a cap. We already have students from Sayre who can't get in their neighborhood school, who live across the street, around the corner.
They can't all cross boundaries and go to Bartram. So where are these students to go? So we have 320 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. disposable students, people that we can just write off on a piece of paper? I don't think so. We are very concerned about the welfare and benefit of our children. They deserve the right to education. Our voices deserve to be heard. We come to this Council on behalf of them and ask for some sincere effort and action on our behalf as our political leadership to make some adjustments and recommendations to help us with this situation. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Brown. I mentioned some of these issues earlier and spoke with you last night. I'm requesting -- and, Mr. Bichner, whom I've known a long time, I would propose that some of us meet to discuss the -- you mentioned four issues: fires and that policy; the boundaries that for some reason changed this year when we're not sure where we're going next year; the academic program; and 321 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. student activities, for example, the West Jam that has been a tradition at the school, and associated with that the issue of a lockdown, whether or not there is a lockdown and this whole issue of boundaries from 52nd to 60th and Market to Baltimore. So I'm requesting a meeting. Some of us can meet in my office or in the Caucus Room, so that we can have a real discussion so we won't be -- I was very frustrated. I felt after the end -- after the meeting last night -- and I know also Mr. Armstead, I know -- several people came up to me last night and invited me and said, Oh, we're glad you're here and I'll invite you to a new meeting, as if I haven't been to other meetings. I would certainly call the principal, Ozzie Wright, whenever I heard there was a fire on the news. I mean, I do live in the neighborhood. So people who were new were inviting me to meetings 322 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. and that was their first meeting. But it's just the level of confusion is just overwhelming. It's very, very, very frustrating.
There's too much concealment. Everyone does not know what's going on at West. Yes, there are fires still going on with the -- to put three principals in place to replace the one principal, between the three of them they had no control over the school. The school was totally out of control. Students lost all interest in learning. They thought their voice was not being heard. They really wanted to know why Mr. James was removed. As I said before, students thought he had developed a very good rapport with these students, and as a black role model, it was very relevant for him to be there with them and to be effecting changes in policies that benefit them, and they thought that that's what they lost, their support, and obviously so, because now their 323 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. activities are being shut down. And we want to know who is in authority? Who is giving all these orders? When did West become -- what is this Executive Committee? Don't we have to vote as taxpayers to turn over a Philadelphia public school to a community organization, a group of community organizations? I mean, we can just have a few meetings and decide this is what we're going to do with the budget, with staff, with principal? We're just going to give a community's group whose viewpoints may not be and most of the times they are in contradiction to the best interest of the students? Parents have to be included on all these decisions, must be included. There must be no reluctance to bring them together. They don't all always come out, but they have representatives, such as myself, and other representatives. This change in policy, School District policy, concerning the budget 324 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. and the hiring of the principal with this Executive Committee we're not quite comfortable with at all, because we want to know when was that policy developed and why has it become a rule at West when it is not at any other Philadelphia public school, just like there is no 9 delayed response to fires. There is no 10 system installed to execute that process at any other Philadelphia public school. So West Philadelphia High has come under a lot of drastic changes lately, and it's time -- and the community is standing up -- to speak on them and to ask for change.
Absolutely. We certainly -- as I said, I would call Ozzie Wright, whom I've known a very long time, and many of the members of this Council know him, because they talk about him coming back from the Iraq War and being sent to the Iraq War, and then you learn he's gone, too. I was told he was leaving and we have two other 325 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. principals. So there's just so many questions, and as the President said earlier, it's a matter of communication, sharing and communication. So we really, really need to do that. I'm always available. I love my schools, and certainly this is a school that many of us attended. This is the school of Lucien Blackwell and many other members of our family, and we definitely just need to feel more comfortable about whatever this plan is, even where the plan stops, but we just -- it's very frustrating to feel that you're available for meetings and you get no -- and everybody is frustrated. As you know, Ms. Brown, people were passing me notes, "I'll meet with you, not here." Everybody wants to meet. Everybody has a different story. And we can't move forward together when everybody has a different story. It shouldn't be that way. 326 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. So I'll be in touch with you, Mr. Bichner, you and whomever else you would like, Mr. Brady or Lee, or I don't know who. I won't make those decisions. That's for you all to make, but certainly we really, really -- Mr. Thornton, we really need some help on this issue and we really want more communication. Thank you very much, and I'll be in touch.
Thank you for coming down. Jasper Jones. After Ms. Blum, is there anyone else? (No response.)
Thank you. So we will hear from Mr. Jones and Carol Blum and that will be it for our testimony today. Thank you very much. 327 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC.
Good afternoon, Council. I'm Jasper Jones. I'm representing 52nd Street and 60th Street Business Association. I was at that meeting as the business facilitator for West Philadelphia High School, and as a part of that process, an issue was raised that caused me to bring these two props, and, that is, the apprenticeship program. The businesspeople felt that the school was being managed based on ideas rather than facts. And a fact that we need to have a great concern over is the curriculum and that the school is, in effect, a de facto school, the prison system, as illustrated by this article in West Side Weekly where a graduate of West Philadelphia High School, unfortunately he did not make it to prison. He died from his wounds in a drug gun-related battle. And what the businesspeople are interested in is working with the School District to establish a school-to-work 328 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. program where they train young people to work in their business according to Department of Labor standards. I specialize in that. And I, in fact, have a letter from the School District about our program plan from 1996, which would have implemented as a national exemplar model an apprenticeship program based on individualized instruction to students using computer technology. That program is what we would hope to implement at West Philadelphia High School again so that we can have the school transform to work effectively with the small business community and other members of the business community, because during the session that we held, it was identified that there are jobs available in Philadelphia County that are not being filled because there are not people trained from the county to work in them. So we would want the School District to establish a program that's 329 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. based on facts and not ideas of this small school concept and all of that. That's fine, but it doesn't have any relationship to the reality of jobs that are available. And the fact that the small business community supplies most of the jobs that are currently available and they need the technical and training assistance, help, hands-on from the School District to be effective in providing school-to-work transition for our young people rather than school-to-prison transition, which is what is largely going on now.
Thank you very much, Mr. Jones. If you make that information available to us, we'll share it with the School District --
That 330 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. will be great. Thank you very much. Any questions for Mr. Jones? (No response.)
Carol Blum, parent at Meredith School. You folks at Meredith, you all are blessed. You all got a good school there.
Thank you for allowing me to address all of you this afternoon. I appreciate it. Before I forget, may I submit some petitions and also some testimony from other families at Meredith Elementary School?
Thank you very much. I remember when President Bush was preparing to send troops to Iraq for the first time. Michael Moore, the filmmaker and professional political 331 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. agitator, asked members of Congress who were voting to send troops to Iraq whether or not their children would be traveling overseas to Iraq. No one answered him affirmatively. Today, I ask a similar question to City Councilmembers. Will any of your children be affected by pending budget cuts in the Philadelphia School District? And I thank all of you who are here today. Whether your answer is yea or nay to this question, I ask yourself to place yourself in the position of a parent who has no choices but to educate their children in the Philadelphia School District. Do we want to send our children to a school where children are engaged in the process of learning, where they have a reasonable student-teacher ratio and adequate material resources? Do we want to set them up for success? Of course we all do, which is why we're here today. 332 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. I'm the parent of a child at Meredith Elementary School, a first-grader, and that school is in Queen Village. Thanks to the leadership of the principal and dedicated teachers who are chosen through site selection, Meredith Elementary has been a success story. I am asking today to request that Council vote to support the Public Education Reinvestment Act to maintain status quo funding and staffing at Meredith Elementary. I also ask that Councilmembers work with the School Reform Commission to advocate for financial stability for Meredith Elementary and all of the schools in the District. Thank you for your support of our children and also of your constituents.
Thank you very much and thank you for the 333 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. information and lovely photo.
Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to testify? (No response.)
Thank you very much, and thank you all for your patience. MR. McPHERSON: We have a list of individuals who left testimony and I just would like to read their names very briefly. Shannon and Kelly Stirman, Michael and Deena Flanagan, Valerie Yoder, Tia Reinvald, Angela Camarote, Tract Preebrow, Frank and Carol Russo, Carol Blum, Elisa Forgey and Scott George, Dawn Davenport, Gerri DiCriscio, Carmen Hayman, Jeff Fadellin, Dawn 334 5/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070015, ETC. Klemash, Wendy and Ted Wolf, Darnell Thomas, James and Nary Rennie and the Chief Financial Officer from the School District, Folasade Lewis.
We have now concluded the public hearing and public meeting on Bill Nos. 070015, 070118 and 070119. Thank you all very much. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 3:50 p.m.) - - - 335 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on May 23, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)