Committee Hearing, May 17, 2004

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, May 17, 2004 10:35 a.m. - - - Bills 030372, 040257, 040258, 040313, 040009, 040010, 040011, 040012, 040013, 040014, 040015, 040016, 040017, 040018, 040019, 040020, 040021, 040022, 040256, 040421, 040422, 040423, 040259, 040260, 040262, 040261, 040397, 040255 PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL, Vice Chair COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK J. DICICCO COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN JUAN F. RAMOS COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2

This is the public meeting of the Committee of the whole regarding Bill No. 040397, which reads as follows: An ordinance amending Chapter 19-1500 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Wage and Net Profits Tax by decreasing in six stages the rates of the tax imposed upon certain low-income persons providing for refunds of excess taxes made and directing the Revenue Department to prepare forms for use by eligible taxpayers seeking such refunds under certain terms and conditions. This bill is being continued until Wednesday, May 19, at 1:00 a.m. (Everyone yells "p.m.")

1:00 p.m. Listen, we may be here until 1:00 a.m., so don't correct it. This is also a continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding the following bills: Bill No. 040255, 040257, 040258, 040261, 040313, 040009, 040010, 040011, 040012, 040013, 040014, 040015, 040016, 040017, 040018, 040019, 040020, 040021, 040022, also, 040256, 040421, 040422, 040423, 040259, 040260, 040262, 040397, 040255 -- I think I read that, did I not? -- 3 and Resolution No. 040276. Mr. Vallas, please. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Madam President, thank you. I want to thank you, Mr. Vallas, and the School RC for adopting a soda policy for the School District and the decision you rendered with regard to noncarbonated beverages in our schools. Can you give us an update, if you will, on the next steps regarding nutrition underway in the School District particularly around the school lunches and the like?

First of all, thank you, and I want to congratulate the Council for their leadership. As you know, our action was in response to a resolution that the Council passed, and it has been very well received, although I did run in to a little 8-year-old girl the other day who asked me to put sodas back in her school, which I thought was the cutest thing. We plan on having the policy implemented by the start of the school year next year. We're currently out to bid on our new soda contracts, but 4 the policy will be fully implemented by September. Our next step is to look at the issue of snacks because the District is moving towards a comprehensive rewrite of our family health curriculum, and we want to address all areas of family health including, obviously, the critical area of nutrition. So the objective here is just not only to make sure what we are selling in our machines and over the counter is nutritious, but to make sure that the students -- that we incorporate nutrition into the science curriculum, into the general sciences curriculum, so it becomes obviously a subject of regular discussion in the schools. When we will be ready to go with the new snack policy, I'm really -- I'm not sure. Hopefully, we will have the new policy before the start of the school year. Whether or not we will begin to change the machines around that early, I can't promise that. That would really be up to the SRC, but the new soda policy will be implemented by September, and we now, as we speak, are beginning to look at the whole issue of snacks and other consumables.

Thank you. 5 Another safety issue that comes to mind, and former City Councilman Angel Ortiz really led the fight with regard to safe drinking water in our schools, and I know there has been some movement underway. Can you give us an update on that.

As you know, about two years ago this really hit a crisis when we had, I think, well over a hundred schools that were in need of new filters on the fountains because of concerns or issues raised about the safety of the water. We now have running water in all the schools. That doesn't mean that all of the fountains have had the filters installed, but we now have clean safe water in all of the schools. I can say that with confidence. We still have some schools where we are not -- where all the running water has not been purified. Of course, where it hasn't, those fountains are either shut down or they are marked so individuals are not using them, but the bottom line is I think we did well over a hundred schools in terms of going in, installing the filters, and doing the things that were needed to come into compliance with the environmental protection agency. 6 And Karen has just nodded that that is correct. Anything to add, Karen? This is Karen Burke, our director of operations.

Good morning. MR. VALLAS is correct. You know, the issue is really the number of outlets you have in buildings and we have a lot of buildings. We are ahead of schedule in all correction activity and have been working closely with the health department to bring the whole project on-line. We accelerated it last year; that is, we forwarded some money out there so we could fix the problem as quickly as possible. We are done with all initial testing. Most of the outlets have been replaced in the schools. There is a time lag on the testing where you have to come back after you install new faucets and so forth, retest the water and then go back in around 90 days, but we are totally on target, ahead of schedule, and I think everything agency is pleased with us. We will still have a couple of buildings that will be on bottled water, but in almost all the others most outlets have been corrected.

I thank you for 7 that testimony. If we could go to testing and report card distribution. Last year the Taranova test was literally handed out to students on the last day of school, which made it somewhat difficult for parents to speak with teachers to try to get a handle in the interpretation of that test. This year the report card, the distribution of the report card, is now going to happen via the mail, which makes it difficult for parents to have a sitdown with the teacher prior to the summer. Can you help us understand why now the report card distribution process has changed and will parents be able to receive those Taranova results before the last day of school?

Parents will be able to get the Taranova results before the last day of school, and the last two weeks of school parents will be able to talk with teachers about the progress and performance of the students. In fact, we will be notifying parents before the last day of school. We have already begun to notify parents of children that are likely to have to go to mandatory summer school. So there is going to be early 8 notification, but clearly the final report card in a lot of instances is going to have to be mailed to the homes, as it is in a lot of other districts, and the reason for that is for years the School District allowed or provided for the inputting of grades the first week of May.

I see.

So in effect instruction sometimes in some schools ended by the end of April, and what we have done is we have now set aside time, a half a day on the 4th and a half day on the 11th of June, for report card inputting. Those are two professional development days where we dismiss school a half a day. We are giving the schools, the teachers, that half a day to input the report card data. What that is going to do is extend the period of quality of instructions by another five weeks. But in order to facilitate that and to get the report cards out in a timely fashion, we have to mail the report cards, but using last year's testing data and this year's Taranovas, there will be enough information, as well as the progress reports of the children in the classrooms because, as you know, in 9 all the elementary schools we do six-week assessments of the children. Every six weeks we do bench marks. The children's progress is evaluated and we assess how much -- how far the children have come toward reaching the bench marks. The parents will get ample data before that final report card is sent out as to how their child is doing and whether or not they are going to have to go to summer school.

My final question, and then I have a comment: As you are moving to build these eleven new high schools and I think it is eight elementary schools, the notion of grass and what that means for an environment, can you speak to -- first of all, has the School District had any conversations with Philadelphia Green or the Philadelphia Horticulture Society about that being a real component of the construction of the new schools?

I'm asking Karen to step up. I believe we have had conversations with all of those groups including Earth Force or the -- Earth Force. I have to get these names right. So, in fact, we have met with them about this idea of 10 basically doing campus parks where there is not only athletic fields and recreational fields and, in the case of the elementary schools, there also is play lots, but also there is greenery. We have met with most of the groups we have identified.

We have met with most of the groups out there. In our designs we are trying to encompass portions of Green schools. It certainly encompasses more than the grounds, but we that we make environmentally friendly schools. All of our projects on the new construction contain a portion for landscaping in there. It is more than just a couple of trees and grass. It could include shrubs. We also have a campus park program for some of the larger sites but not necessarily so, and we are hoping to go into these sites -- these are ones that are not new construction but are existing buildings -- and we're trying to pull up a lot of the pavements because a lot of the buildings just have overasphalting, and we put in trees. We are also working with the Eagles and others on some tree donations out there of a large number, and we are going to start evaluating all 11 sites to get in more trees everywhere.

Did you say the Eagles?

Yes, ma'am.

They will be donating trees to the District so we can install trees on as many campuses as can accommodate them.

And I suspect you have a priority listing of what schools will be so lucky to benefit from that kind of partnership?

Yes. We are also evaluating that now to see where we can do fill-ins particularly near the Parkway, but we agree with you totally that grass and trees is critical out there because it cuts down the heat in the building and, as you know, many of our building are open 12 months now.

There are two things that are going to be consistent with all of our new construction and major rehab. One is greenspace greening and two is ADA, disability accessible. So all of the new construction and major rehab will not only be in compliance with ADA standards, but also where we have the campuses, we will green those 12 campuses. As Karen pointed out, besides the new building and the rehabs, there is money in the budget for an upgrade of the athletic fields, our campuses, our fields, our supersites, and there is also money in the budget specifically for campus parks. And we will give you a list, our preliminary list, of schools that this summer are going to undergo the campus park renovation. Our goal for the next five or six years will be to create as many campus parks as we can financially afford.

I'll look forward to that list. That concludes my questioning, Madam President. I do want to thank the School District for partnering with my office regarding the business round table that we have held, our second, which has actually taken place now on the second floor. We appreciate the work of Kimberly Sangst and her team in creating access for NBE/WBE business. So thank you,

Thank you. 13 The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco.

Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, MR. VALLAS. A couple months ago you and I had some conversation about the field at 12th and Bigler, and I understand you are moving forward we renovating that site. During that same conversation we discussed Southern High School and the area between the building, property line of the building, and the Broad Street sidewalk. There is some green space in there, but we had discussed that you had some ideas for that. Anything come about? Is there any plan that you can speak of today?

I don't think South Philly High School is scheduled for major renovation. We have some -- we have had some discussion about what to do with the campus, although we have not made any final decisions, but I will tell you in the longer term plan, we have talked about trading some additional high school options in South Philly. For example, it is no secret that we coveted Bishop Neumann as a site for a potential 14 alternative school, but, as you know, the Archdiocese is going through its vetting process to determine what the most appropriate use for that site is. Also, one of the candidates for conversion in South Philly is a middle school that we discussed converting, but that is something that is going to require a lot of community input. If we had our way, we would like to decentralize or at least create a series of small schools in South Philly, which would then afford us the opportunity to construct a new South Philly High School that would be even smaller and perhaps locate it in a site that might be more appropriate to house a high school, so, in fact, you can get that building off Broad Street. But there are still a lot of balls in play. There's still a lot of scenarios out there, and the only way to really attack the issue of that campus in an aggressive way is to begin to depopulate the school and to have maybe multiple sites, to perhaps put a Central High South campus in South Philly or maybe a Masterman South campus in South Philly, but to literally have three to four 15 small school options so that you don't have all of the children concentrated in a large multistory high school. But, you know, we don't have money for a South Philly replacement yet, and right now there is no major renovations beyond that, beyond looking for additional locations where we could provide South Philly with new high school options.

I assume from your conversation there are no other sites that you are looking at, or have you already?

We have had conversations with -- we have had some preliminary conversations with representatives from the shipyard, the Naval Shipyard.

That is in the Council President's district.

Yes. But those are -- nothing is imminent right now. We are just -- we just feel that our high schools, whether it is Germantown or South Philly or, for that matter, whether it is -- our large high schools need to get smaller and our preference will be in the coming years to 16 decentralize or depopulate some of our larger high schools. Let me give you a quick example. In the case of the Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill area, we are going to make Lankenau an independent school and expand the New Covenant Church Parkway High School to -- we are going to be adding -- we are going to be securing an additional building and we are going to be opening up a charter school. That will allow us to begin to depopulate Germantown High School, plus putting us in a position where we can build a new Germantown High School for many fewer kids off Germantown Road rather than -- because right now the high school literally goes to the curb. So, again, we are looking at all of our major high schools in all of the areas with that in mind, is there a way for us to depopulate and to decentralize these schools by creating a series of small schools. Children and parents would have an option of sending them -- picking one of many schools rather than simply being stuck enrolling their children in a large behemoth high school. That is the game plan.

Thank you. No 17 further questions.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Madam President. I don't have a question, but I just have a comment. I have been here -- this is, I guess, the 13th year for budget hearings in the School District, and the last couple of years have been a totally refreshing experience compared to what we have been through. In the areas of curriculum and class size, I think you have made great strides and approached things in a real practical way. Your teacher recruitment and professional development efforts have been, I think, extraordinary, and I think it is going to have an effect on the attitude and morale of teachers overall. The finances I think are obviously a major goal and a major accomplishment, which has given this District renewed credibility with Harrisburg. I think once we get our budget issues resolved there in Harrisburg with gaming and other things, I think you are going to see some help from 18 there and earned help because you have earned it. You haven't whined about it. You just went ahead and did what you had to do to get yourself back in shape. I think your labor relations -- in private discussions with union leadership, they say you guys get it. You value their input. There is that friction that is normal with labor and management, but it seems to be more of a teamwork effort and attitude from union leadership at PFT. I think that has been tremendous. And I think your capital program has been a terrific plan that gives people hope into the future that the entire system is going to have a new look in the next three, five, six, ten years. I don't think in any way this district is perfect. It is really large. It has a lot of problems associated with all of the kids and the problems they bring to school, but I think overall you have done a tremendous job in changing the attitude that we have as legislators toward the district, that Harrisburg has towards the district, and I just want to commend you and your staff and ask you to keep up the good work because I think as 19 time goes on -- you know, the initial years are the hardest and I think as time goes on, we start seeing some of the fruits of your labor. And I just wanted to compliment you personally and compliment your staff. It has been a pleasure working with you.

Thank you. On behalf of the SRC, we appreciate your confidence in us, and, as you pointed out, we have a long, long, long way to go, but we are not going to make excuses. We feel that we can make progress with the resources we have.

You're on the right road.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning,

Good morning.

I was just wondering -- and I just want to say I agree with some of what -- I didn't hear everything, but what 20 Councilman Kenney, the accolades he expressed. I think that the School District's information is very succinct, and I think you are probably the first, I will call you, superintendent that can come and just talk about everything. You are well-informed. I was wondering when you are talking about building new high schools, we get a lot of requests in my office and I'm sure in other offices to help children get into schools such as Masterman, Central, Girls High, and I know that the plan to do more AP classes and whatnot is a good plan, but do you ever think about expanding or building another academic high school?

First of all, let me preface my remarks by saying -- well, rather than prefacing my remarks, the answer is yes, but our thrust is going to be to create new magnet schools and put magnet programs in neighborhood schools. For example, when we have talked about -- we talked about there is a middle school in Northeast Philly, Rush, which we are going to convert to a high school, but that is not going to be a regular high school; it is going to be a Northeast Kappa. 21 The Franklin Science Institute in South Philly, we have talked about when we looked at -- we are looking at sites to locate the Franklin Science Institute either just south of Center City. We have looked at potentially even the Durham site for that. It is the same thing. When we talked about looking at Bishop Neumann, we want to open up a neighborhood high school if we are able to access it. We talked about doing a south campus for Central. So we want to take our Mastermans, our Kappas and our Centrals and give them second and, in some cases, third campuses so we are expanding the number of high-caliber high school options, and we are giving families choice. And that will allow us to buy ourselves time to revamp and revitalize all of our high schools, putting international baccalaureate programs in neighborhood schools, advanced math, science and academy programs in the neighborhood schools. So it is twofold: One is to do what you requested, which is to have more, let's call them, high academic magnet schools because our objective is to make all of our high schools academic high schools while at the same time magnetizing our 22 neighborhood schools with our honors and our advanced placement and our international baccalaureate programs.

That's good because my next question was actually going to be: I guess one of the things that myself and my staff wonder is that when youngsters don't get accepted to one of those schools or any of the schools that they have actually applied for, what does the School District do in terms of helping them understand why they were accepted or even why they were rejected? And what do you have in written materials that is available to parents that helps them understand the dos or the whys and the hows of applying for some of these magnet schools, and not just to high schools; it is elementary schools too like the Fitler, some of those alternative schools that are City-wide, not a neighborhood elementary school.

Yes, Madam Councilwoman. This year for the first time we created a brand new directory for school enrollment. In that directory we outlined for each of the schools what the application process would be and what the criteria would be for students entering those programs, and I 23 believe it helped us a great deal this year as we looked at the number of students who had to make selection choices and move forward. We also got that book out in early November. We are going to attempt to do the same thing this year, which gives families and schools a lot more time to explain the entire process to their entire school population, so that book is in place and it has worked for us so far.

With respect to your question what type of notification do they get, first of all, there are so many applicants that we get for our magnet high schools and our few magnet elementary schools, and really the magnet elementary schools we have, there are a handful of magnet middle schools, that the notification is simply notification that they were not accepted. We will then obviously -- if further explanation is needed, we will then respond, but we would be responding to -- you always want to be careful about identifying in writing in detail why someone was rejected or not accepted for that type of program. That in itself creates a lot of controversies and a lot of problems, but the sheer volume of the 24 individuals who will apply to a Masterman or will apply to a Kappa for us to go in and to prepare individual responses is something that would be beyond their capacity to do, and we would be reluctant to provide more details other than to say "Look, you just haven't made the grade."

I guess those parents have more information during the application process --

Yes.

-- and they have a better feel for whether their child qualifies or whatnot?

Yes. As Craig points out, we now have this options book, which really lists all the high school options in great detail. And as new high schools are added or as magnet programs in neighborhood high schools are created, that book will grow and the options will increase. Plus, if we are able to decentralize some of our large, behemoth high schools, as I mentioned, in the Germantown area and some of the others and create more high school options within the community itself, not only will -- if parents try to get their 25 children into Masterman and they are unable to do that, they won't just be left with that neighborhood high school. There may be three or four small schools in that neighborhood that they will have a chance to apply to. So it will give them a second tier of schools that they can -- a second tier of school choice options for their children.

I would like to request that City Council receive a copy of options --

Absolutely.

-- a couple copies per office. I remember years ago before I came to Council there was a book out called options that actually gave us a lot of good information on helping parents. I worked with a Corestate representative and used to handle his School District activities. One other question: When do you anticipate receiving -- this is regarding the privately managed schools. When do you anticipate getting results of standardized test scores from the companies that are privately managing our schools?

We will get to turn over the results in June, and, of course, we monitor all of the testing. They have to take the same test our students take. So we will get our initial results in June because, as you know, at the end of the year, if we are going to take any action with any of the privately managed entities, we have to take it, I think, by June. I don't know what the exact deadline is. There is a specific date by which we have to initiate action, not that we are anticipating it, but by June we will at least have Taranova data on charter schools and EMO schools as well as our own public schools.

There is always information or sometimes there is information in the newspaper regarding charter performance, but I don't think we have heard too much about the EMOs and/or the privately managed, and I don't know whether EMO is the acronym for that. Is that it, EMO?

Yes.

And so when you get it, and whatever you decide to do, can you also make sure that Council offices have that report?

Absolutely. We will 27 circulate it. And the report we circulate will be similar to last year's in which we will separate the public schools from the charter schools and the EMO schools and we will separate the magnet schools from the aggregate numbers too. So we will provide you with that comprehensive list.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, MR. VALLAS. Let me start where I think we may have left off last week with a couple items. Can you give me an update on where we stand with regard to information requests from last week?

All the information that was requested will be sent to each of the Council members I think by -- at least by Wednesday we will have the information, and that includes details about the contracts awarded as well as there are those questions about alternative schools, test 28 scores. There have been seven or eight requests made, so we should have all of the information that we will give to the Council President's office for distribution no latter than Wednesday.

No later than Wednesday?

Yes, sir.

I heard you mention in response to another member's question, you made a reference to Lankenau School in the context of it being independent school. Could you share a little more information with me about that? I have not heard much about it. Lankenau, while I know is connected directly to Germantown High School, it is actually physically located in --

Quite a distance.

-- the fourth district, so could you share with me what is going on?

What we will do is -- what we are planning to do with Lankenau we are planning to do with all of the branches, and that is renovate them and make them independent, freestanding high schools. They will continue to serve the same 29 enrollment area that the large behemoth high school serves, but they will offer a second and in some cases a third or in the case of Bartram a fourth choice, a fourth high school choice, in that individual area, but what we are going to do with Lankenau is in the capital plan you will notice that the game plan is to renovate the Lankenau's existing building, which is in very, very poor condition, at least by my definition, and build an addition, and that addition will house a modern gymnasium, a multipurpose room. So in effect we will -- I think we are going to be pending upwards to $11 million on the renovation, which will begin hopefully this summer, and it will take us a little more than a year to complete, but then Lankenau will be a freestanding high school, and residents in the Germantown catchment area obviously will have more than simply the main Germantown High School as an option. They will have two and there is a charter that is also going to be opening funded by the Gates Foundation, a charter that is going to be opening in the area, and then, of course, the Parkway School, which is on the New Covenant Church campus. 30

Hold on for a second. Where is the new Gates Charter?

I don't think they finalized their site yet. It has been approved, but it is contingent on them being able to secure a site. There were a couple of sites identified, but I don't want to get ahead of them. Then on the Parkway campus we are going to be accessing additional buildings on the New Covenant Church campus and then we are going to be expanding Parkway, and Parkway will also become a Germantown catchment area school. So parents who live in the Germantown area will no longer just have Germantown. They will have Germantown, independent Lankenau, independent Parkway, and possibly the independent charter school funded by Gates, so literally within the next year moving forward, there will be four high school options, and, again, that's the strategy. For example, in the Northeast, building a new high school in the Northeast and converting Rush Middle School to a Kappa North. That will create two additional high school options for children who are located in the Northeast. 31 So, again, the operative here is to create more options and Lankenau is going to be one of those options.

Let's go back for a second. In terms of both the renovation as well as expansion, have there been discussions with the local community about proposed changes and expansion of the school?

Not yet. Well, there has been some general discussions about Germantown, about the Germantown High School per se --

I understand.

-- but we have not had specific discussions with the Lankenau School.

Lankenau is not in Germantown.

Right, but it is part of the Germantown catchment area.

I understand that and I'm clear on that. What I'm asking is if you are anticipating renovations or an expansion project, I think you said this summer, then what has been the discussion with the nearby neighbors who 32 are not in Germantown, would not be aware of proposals related to, quote/unquote, the Germantown catchment area or a school connected to Germantown because the school is not in Germantown --

Right.

-- it is in Roxborough.

Well, we have not had conversations with the community on Lankenau yet because basically what we would do first with Lankenau is renovate the existing building, which is a terrible building, so -- and we won't be expanding the enrollment at Lankenau. If anything, we're going to be modernizing the building and giving them a gym. So the number of kids entering that school, the population will remain roughly the same. But we will do community reachout and we will probably do it towards the end of the school year because we will not begin the conversion of Lankenau or we won't begin to modify the catchment area if we do anything like that really until a year from September. Right now we are kind of locked in. The kids who applied to Germantown or who have chosen to go to Lankenau, they are already going; they are 33 already there. Any change, any -- you know, any change in terms of how we select kids or how we place them or whether we have a neighborhood set aside for Lankenau will probably be September 2005, but right now we will be reaching out to the community, but given the fact that all we are doing over the summer is renovating an existing building and trying to modernize an existing building, we didn't feel the same sense of urgency that we would if we were tearing down the building and constructing a brand new high school.

No, I understand that. Let me say this and we can move on: As we have had other discussions about other buildings being renovated, I think it is critically important that the local neighbors, even if it is just a renovation project, the school is, as you well know, in a pretty isolated part of the city. Anything that goes on over there is actually noticed, and you are not just going to renovate the building in the long run. So I think it is important and, quite frankly, demonstrates a certain level of respect to 34 the nearby residents that they fully understand what the entire proposal is, that there is renovation, there is potential expansion, there might be change in focus of the particular school, and I think the neighbors up there at a minimum deserve that kind of information. I would certainly like to be more fully briefed myself. Again, I understand that Germantown High School is located in Councilwoman Miller's district, but there have been -- there is a long history with Lankenau. It was not necessarily some years ago by a different administration looked upon maybe the same as you and your administration are looking upon it, so there are significant sensitivities, if you will, with regard to the school, and I think that the nearby neighbors should be the first to know what is actually going on in their neighborhood.

We will do that, sir.

Now, what is an independent school?

An independent school is a school that has site selection. It is a school that obviously -- I really would characterize it as like a public school charter. In other words, right now, 35 as you know, view schools have site selection, but when you create an independent school or a demonstration school, you are able to create a school where you can basically --

Site selection is a student issue or a --

No; site --

-- teacher issue?

-- selection is a teacher issue. You are able to select your staff without having people with seniority bounce into the vacancies. So as we convert middle schools to high schools or as we create new schools or, for that matter, as we make independent branch schools independent schools, some of those schools, we want those schools to be site selection schools.

How will students access this particular school? Will it be just an open enrollment, or is it still -- is it a Form EH 36?

Currently the Lankenau School for the purposes of understanding the independent terminology, independent in this 36 particular case for the first year would mean that they would have their own administration, their own budget, their own principal, and their own staff. Currently the staff, the principal and the budget is shared between both schools --

Right. I know.

-- so giving them that independent status. So for the first year the school will operate and enroll schools currently as it does being in the Germantown population. So all of the incoming students for September have already applied to Lankenau/Germantown as they have done in the past. This allows us a full year to allow the school and its new administration to establish any type of different process than that which is already established.

So how is it envisioned that students will be able to attend Lankenau? And should I assume that all of the current students will be able to come back?

Absolutely. All of the current students will return.

What about new 37 students?

New students coming in have already been selected through the prior process.

Through the what?

Through the prior process, through the Germantown/Lankenau enrollment process.

Okay.

So for September those young people have already made a selection and have been chosen for that particular school.

What about going forward?

Going forward that will really require interaction with the community, which, incidentally, we planned on doing. Since nothing in Lankenau was going to change this year other than us renovating the building and, you know, if you have ever seen the Lankenau school, it is like a little elementary school housing a high school. It's a very unattractive building and it's a very limited building.

I've been to the 38 school.

Of course. Our feeling was there was not that sense of urgency since nothing will change with Lankenau in the coming year other than the fact that it will be independent. The second year, though, we will decide whether or not we want to modify the catchment area or the enrollment boundaries or other changes that we may want to make to the school, and obviously we will not move forward on that until we have had community input.

That would be good. Is there something else you want to tell me?

No; other than the option -- as the schools move forward, independent or demonstration schools will have the ability to do site selection. So, in other words --

But, again, that's a teacher issue?

That's right, which becomes a teacher issue. Of course, we hope by June or July when we have a new contract that will no longer be an 39 issue, but the issue of selection of staff is also an issue that is on the table. And the School District does have the authority to create independent or demonstration schools, which gives the School District the ability to designate those schools as site selection schools.

I understand that. Let's go back to future years. The school is independent. Who will actually decide what the student selection or ability to attend process is?

The SRC. In other words, if we are going to change the enrollment boundary or change the selection process, say if we were to give Lankenau a new enrollment boundary, that would be something that would have to be approved by the SRC.

I understand that, but do you get in the school by just applying, or do get in by a special transfer? Do you have to take a test? Is there extensive review of test scores similar to whether it is Saul or some of the other schools that may not necessarily be designated magnet schools, but they have admission criteria or admission eligibility criteria that are established? 40 What would be the process at Lankenau?

Currently the Lankenau process is attached to the Germantown process.

I understand that. We assume we are moving on from that.

That will continue for the first year. Any change in that will be determined after a new principal and obviously a school administration is in place to discuss those kinds of changes with their staff and with their community. We are attempting to establish the same process for all of the small schools that we are going to put in place. Once you have a principal in place, an administration in place, that becomes the body that actually starts the process and establishes the communication with the neighborhood and sets up the groups and those kinds of things. Well, do they establish it on their own, or do they need approval by the CEO or the SRC?

They would need approval by us, but right now we are not planning -- we have not decided on just what changes we will make to selection process or to enrollment boundaries or, 41 for that matter, whether or not there will be any additional criteria for enrollment in that school. So I think what Craig is saying is that once we -- the first step is to make the school independent and then the second step obviously is to decide -- is to make decisions on what type of school that will be going into the future, and obviously that step, as you correctly pointed out and reminded us, is going to require intensive community input. And given the fact that Lankenau is so far from Germantown, it is not like the Bartram branches where they are within walking distance. It's quite a distance. Lankenau is going to be -- is not going to be as simple as giving the Bartram branches independence and just allowing them to draw on the same catchment area. But let me point out that we are not getting ahead of anybody on this. The first step is the building is atrocious and it needs to be renovated --

Got you.

-- and the kids literally have no gym or lunch room or anything, and that 42 building needs to be modernized and upgraded. I think that will be a positive. And since we are not increasing enrollment, we are not going to impact the existing community. Then the next step will be once that school has independent leadership and is a free-standing high school in its own right, we will sit down -- and I'm talking about over the summer -- and talk about perhaps other changes we want to make to the school not beginning September of 2004, but rather September 2005, and that will not occur without heavy community involvement.

I appreciate it. Let's talk about the outreach effort. How does that take place? Who is in charge of it, and what's the process?

I'm going to ask Karen Burke to go through the process by which we do community outreach.

Good morning. We do have an outreach process in the office that we use. Part of it is staffed by our program manager, URS, and the other by inhouse personnel. For all projects that we have out there, 43 once it hits the glimmer in the capital program --

I apologize, Karen. You said you have inhouse staff and what else?

Yes, sir; we have inhouse staff that is supplemented by contracts out there to create a large enough unit to deal with this many projects. We believe it's important to have input from the community. In fact, we learn quite a bit when we are out there. When a project is coming into being, most likely at a schematic stage, just the general kind of outline etching of a project and we have a budget, we go out and meet with the school, any school parent councils and members of the community.

Who is "we"?

That would be the outreach section. Anton Hackett heads up that section for us.

Is that the name of this entity, the outreach section?

It's with the capital programs, sir, inhouse, and I'm just saying it's a division that we have in there that deals with the 44 outreach.

How many people are in this unit?

We have two people that are funded from our own budget out there and roughly three others or four others that come through a contract.

What are the costs involved? You said two people inhouse and three people on contract?

Right. And I will get you those costs, sir. Anyway, out there we have this project that is designed up schematically. We set up meetings with the school. Principals are important to us, parent councils and others out there. These are open forums, and we discuss and bring in our architects out there. We have a managing architect with the program, and they would start to walk through what the budget is and what the program is to encompass. But we have noticed also, too, that members of the community have other needs out there that they like to come in with the building. Sometimes they will ask us about community 45 opportunities from a recreational side and how we will build and other things. We attempt to hold to the budget, but I must say that in a fluid process like this a lot of good ideas do come up.

In accordance with the recent borrowings, how many projects will you have going on during FY '05.

That will require outreach?

Yes.

I would have to count them up for you. Probably 40 meetings.

40 meetings? Did you say 40 meetings?

I'm saying 40 -- it looks like to me just on a quick count -- and I will count that up for you when I step back from here, but those are the larger projects out there, the renovations and new schools, if you will, or additions. We also have, of course, a series of smaller projects that we also meet on too, but those would be your fire alarm replacements and boilers and so forth, but even those merit a meeting. 46

How is it -- I mean what did the district do in the past? I know we didn't build a lot of schools, but we certainly have had renovations over the years. How did the district communicate with people in the past about projects?

Let me see if I can find some history here for you.

Good morning, Councilman.

Good morning, Jim.

In the past the School District has, as part of their --

You might want to identify yourself.

Jim Lewis, administrative assistant. In the past the capital program had outreach through its inhouse staff. Whenever we had any type of renovation --

People in the capital office?

Yes. Whenever a project would come about, we met the capital program folks. We went out and 47 initially met with the principal, who is the key to any renovation, and it would filter down from there.

So how is this process different than what you have done in the past and what's the purpose?

I think the district through the capital program has URS as our program manager, and, because of the size of the capital budget and the capital program for the next five years, has increased the outreach staff.

What is URS?

They are our program manager.

What does that mean? What do they do? Are they going to build the buildings?

No. The way we are organized is we outsource most of the management of our capital programs. It's very simple. We have a program manager. We then have construction managers that operate under that program manager, and then we have general contractors. Now, it's a standard design that we have used elsewhere with phenomenal success and that many of the larger school districts 48 with more modern operating procedures use, and it allows us to, in effect, not spend a lot of time and money on inhouse staff managing our programs and it allows us to set up a series of quality controls so that we can control costs. And let me point out that the percentage allocation from the capital plan that goes to a combination of CMs, PMs, and general contractors at least by kind of regional standards is still relatively low. So we use -- we use bench marks in terms of -- because -- in terms of what we allocate to the PMs and what we allocate to the CMs, or, for that matter, the general contractors. But basically the senior entity or the -- that manages our capital plan is URS. They are our program managers.

Who is URS? Where are they located? Who are the principals?

My recollection is that their corporate office is in San Francisco. They work internationally and they are a very large firm, and I can get you some of the prospectus on that company, but they are very, very large.

Who is the person 49 from the company responsible for the City of Philadelphia?

Jack Kelly would be the executive representative on that project. He's just kind of over on a regional basis there. And then we have Pamela Johnson, who is our day-to-day factor out there, and she is a licensed engineer.

What was that name again?

Pamela Johnson.

So she is physically here?

Yes, sir.

So she is here on a day-to-day basis?

Yes, sir.

And what's the contract with URS and how did we find them?

Sorry, sir. Can I get your last sentence?

Sure. How did we find them?

We RFP'd out there for those services, and this is going back in time here. I 50 believe we had about seven respondents. And these are all pretty large firms. And then the firms were first vetted financially and then we had committees that went through a selection process with them and ranked them, and they were the highest ranking for this service.

And what is the cost of the contract?

Just a second. It is million over three years. And 12 I should explain these contracts can vary. Their 13 contract also contains a planning requirement as 14 well as a managing architect service, you know, to 15 take those projects through schematic. 16

I understand. 17 Madam Chair, I know I'm way over my 18 time. I do have some other questions in this area, 19 but I can come back. 20

Thank you 21 Councilman. 22 Councilman Ramos. 23

Good morning, Mr. 24 Paul Valas, and your representatives from the School District. I have been involved for many years in 51 education. My family has made a very strong commitment through some very humble parents, who were not very educated, but who were very insistent that we become educated, and I am a product of a good public school education, a good Catholic school education as well. I commend the efforts and the hard work that has gone on under your leadership as the head of our School District, but it's still frustrating. I know it is frustrating for you and the staff because there is so much yet to do. There is so much yet to fix, but within that framework there is still a lot of hopes, a lot of hope with parents that their children continue to get a good education in our public school system, and we support wholeheartedly our public school system of this country and of this city. I want to touch on an issue concerning your last-dollar scholarship. You came out publicly a few weeks ago in support of last-dollar scholarships for all children in Philadelphia. There was some comments -- I don't know if they were ever made in an official capacity -- that that might not be the position of the School District. Is that 52 your position still today?

That's my personal opinion. We felt that if the City allocated money it shouldn't be allocated exclusively to the public schools. So as far as I'm concerned, we would be supportive of a measure to provide last-dollar scholarship funding for all the children regardless. The proposal that we put forward includes charter schools, which, of course, we have responsibility for, but the bottom line is we think it should be shared by everybody. But that's my personal opinion. That's not an official position of the school. I don't think they have taken a position on that. That was just my personal opinion that I offered.

So this is your personal position, but it says a lot when the head of our School District makes a personal opinion on the matter that has caused a great deal of discussion around here and public discussion and editorials and so forth. You think that with the money that has been allocated for last-dollar scholarships, that within that amount of money we should share this 53 with nonpublic school children?

Well, you know, it is -- you know, the issue was whether or not the City Council, in allocating its share of the last-dollar programs, should limit it exclusively to public school children. I felt that it should include all children. I was asked my opinion, and I basically provided it. And, you know, whether or not it is going to be enough, it's hard to say. I think the first year of the program you are not going to get the participation levels that perhaps we had anticipated or we had budgeted for. So there may be certainly some flexibility because I don't think participation this year will be as great as anticipated. So monies that were identified for this program, at least the first year it may be easier to cover both public and private school children the first year because you are not getting the participation rights. We have been registering kids, and we think that the number of students signing up for the program is going to be less than we projected. That doesn't mean in the out years that we are not going 54 to need more money, but the bottom line is the first year of any program like this, you are not going to get the levels of participation anticipated. So I think for at least the first year the money that has already been talked about publicly may be enough to provide not only public school children with the last-dollar scholarships, but also private school children.

You know, I have made the same argument. I believe because of the way this -- these programs worked that in this first year we seem to have not enough children/parents applying for these scholarships, so if you and I and many here in City Council and all the people that have been involved in this public discussion believe that in the first year we might not have enough of our public school children/parents applying for these scholarships, why not extend it then to other deserving children whose parents in most cases are probably struggling to pay Catholic school tuition, you know, in tuition-based schools other than our parochial school system.

Again, I was just asked my personal opinion, and I felt -- I always feel that 55 -- my approach with parochial and private schools is to be very supportive of them. I'm going to support things that benefit kids regardless of whether it is parochial, private or charter. The heyday for many of the communities or the heyday for the public school system also happened to be the heyday for the Catholic school system and vice versa. I think when you have good schools, whether they are parochial, private or charter, you have stable communities. So I'm always going to be supportive of measures to benefit private and parochial schools, just as I would expect them to be supportive of measures to support public schools. But what obviously -- I mean, obviously what the City decides to do or what the Council decide to do, obviously they will decide to do on their own. I just want to make the observation, though, from the level of participation that we have seen -- and we have been very aggressive. We have extended our enrollment dates and everything. We are just not getting the level of participation that we had projected, although I felt, we felt, that the first year you are always going to get a lack of or 56 less participation in the first year than in out years. So I just felt that this might provide us -- this might provide us with the financial opportunity now to go beyond just the public schools and benefit the children.

I agree with you. I want you to help us get this spread out throughout the different school systems. I stopped a long time ago just worrying about our public school situation, though that is a place where we have to defend the system regardless of its challenges, but I stopped just saying public schools because the bottom line in our city with our residents is that we need to get our children educated. So the descriptive adjective of whether it's public, parochial, Hebrew, or Islamic or whatever it may, Christian academy type of schools, what is important is that we have them in school, that we have them getting an education, and that our parents know that they have choices. And most of our parents choose to send them to our public school system, and we have had so many, thousands upon thousands, of good products of our public school system, but we still have a long 57 way to go. Do you know how many children have applied for last-dollar scholarships up to this point?

Roughly we have over 2000, maybe 2100 students.

That have applied?

Yes.

Have you gone to the point of how many of those 2000 plus would be eligible for last-dollar scholarships.

We will not complete the vetting process until the first week of June. Obviously we extended the date to include more children, so the deadline is, in effect, June 1 or 2.

When you extended the deadline, it was not extending it so nonpublic school kids would be able to apply; it was only extended so that our public school kids can continue to apply?

That would be correct.

So the extension was to be able to get more of our public school kids to 58 be able to apply. I understood it as well, from my involvement with trying to get this worked out, was that it was also to give us some time to work this out, but yet it has not been worked out yet. The Catholic Archdiocese sent me a letter asking me what is happening with the deadline. We are running out of time here, so if we are going to make a move here, we better make it very, very, very soon because when are the other kids going to be able to apply? Even if we decide here or the administration agrees that we should extend it to nonpublic school kids, the school year is almost over, so when do they get to participate? But I guess, Madam President, that is going to have to be an issue that we have to tackle in the next couple of days because we are out of time.

I think we made our position very clear several weeks back, last month as a matter of fact. How does this process work if the parochial school children were also eligible? Would the applications be sent from your office, MR. 59 VALLAS, to the parochial schools, and would the applications then have to be returned to you? How is that process going to work?

If we were to include the parochial schools, very quickly we would have to come up with a process similar to what the public School District uses. We have an application process, and the young people through their counselor at their local school sends an application to our office, and then we take that application to the group that is handling the scholarship, which is referred to as the Core Philly group. The private schools or the parochial schools will, in essence, have to do the same thing. They will have to submit their application to the Core Philly group after they have indeed vetted those applications. As it relates to time, there is still time; however, we do need to move quickly simply because the young people are graduating, but I believe that the private and parochial schools probably do a very good job with identifying who the young people are and what schools they will attend. Once that information is given to the Core Philly or 60 to the party that is handling the applications, we still have, in essence, until August to make the first semester tuition payment to whatever school those young people will be attending.

Point of information. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Madam President. I want to echo Councilman Ramos' position on this. We have been kind of in this together since it started. What is the source of the money that's going to the School District for this program?

The source of the money? The Geroff funding.

The Geroff funding.

What is it?

The Geroff funding, the federally funded Geroff program, which is Congressman Fatah's program that provides school districts with funding to basically help promote -- help increase the number of students who are college bound. It's a segue, a transition program, from 61 high school to college, and it is very successful.

It is federal funds?

Yes.

So that's federal funds, and we are being asked to provide $4 million in City funds?

And 6 from over there, I believe. Is $6 million the figure?

Well, we feel -- we are not sure how much we will need in federal bureau money because let me point out this is still --

I'm sorry. Is there three sources?

Pardon me?

Is it two or three sources?

No, no. Well, there is two sources. One is Geroff, federal bureau money, and one is the money we received from the City. But while we are not sure how much we will need to take out of the Geroff program, obviously this is money that is used for other high school programs. So we are not -- it is not just new money we have been provided. It is existing 62 money that we have to reprogram.

I'm confident -- I'm hopeful that this can be worked out. I have had a conversation with Councilman Fattah who tells me that he's confident this can be worked out. However, in the worst case scenario -- and I can speak for myself -- I will be down at 6th and Market at Federal Court as soon as we know that this is not going to be worked out. It is just unconscionably unfair. And I understand your position, Mr. Superintendent, your personal position. Granted, you are under control of the SRC and the powers that be, but to me it is unconscionably unfair to even consider the use of federal tax dollars and the use of City tax dollars for people whose parents also pay taxes to be excluded from a program based on the fact that they go to a religious or nonpublic school. To me, I can't imagine a federal judge allowing that to happen. And I don't want to get there, but what concerns me -- and I think this is reflected in Councilman Ramos' questions -- is that as time goes on, we are running out of time. The June deadline 63 is what it is and you can do this until August according to Mr. Washington, but it is not going to happen by just ignoring that core of people who pay their taxes just like the public school parents do, who have similar needs, who struggle to send their kids to college, who have concerns about those issues. And I know you empathize with those feelings, but the thought of using a taxpayer-funded program and eliminating or excluding a group of people based on some nonsensical decision, to me is just ridiculous. And I think a large number of Council members in this body feel the same way. You know, there is some type of myth out there that parochial school parents and nonpublic school parents are wealthy, that they don't have the same economic needs as public school parents do. And I know firsthand that I spent, as Councilman Ramos has, my entire life in the parochial school system. My father worked three jobs at any given time, and my mom worked two, one inside the home and one outside the home, to pay those tuitions. And I know parents are still doing that today. I hope it gets worked out. I'm 64 confident that people in the Archdiocese and Councilman Ramos and the Mayor's office are trying to do something to work this out, but I can assure you if it is not worked out, we'll be in court.

Let me point out -- if I can just make some general comment, Geroff is a federally funded program. That program was created for public schools. We're not the only recipient of the Geroff money. It is used federally.

How much is being contributed toward tuitions?

It's hard to say what we will use this year, but I think given the level of -- the reprogramming of federal dollars, Geroff money is really going to fully -- for this program is really going to fully impact us next year rather than this year because of the budget cycles. So in order for us to participate this year, we have to scrape together what Geroff funds we have not committed to our traditional college-bound programs, and that's probably going to come to about $2 million.

Not $6 million? I heard the number 6 million. 65

I think the number -- well, no, I mean right now we feel with 2200 -- assuming we get maybe 3000 students who participate with an average -- you know, 2 million, 2 million or more, or slightly more than that, should be able to cover us, particularly if we got some additional money from the city. Again, we feel that we could be covered this year in this program with about $4 million, 2 million from us perhaps at the very least and 2 million from the City and that would cover us. I know that what has been talked about publicly is the City providing $4 million. Again, I don't think we would need more than $2 million of that to cover the scholarship, to cover those who are signed up for the program today.

I'm sorry to intrude on your time, Councilman --

I'll yield my time.

-- because I know how strongly you feel about this. One final comment I want to make is I think this program is important. I think it's well thought out. I think it is something that we need 66 to do for these kids, all of these kids, and I guess the thing that's most upsetting is that the core of people we are talking about who are being excluded, those families, made a conscious decision to remain in Philadelphia when many of their peers, many of the same families, the same structure families, were moving into Washington Township, Delaware County, Montgomery County, and going to public school out there. These parents made a conscious decision to stay in the city and to be loyal to it, only to be told that their kids and their needs are not going to be met or are going to be excluded as a reward for staying in the City of Philadelphia.

Well, we have not told them that.

No, no. Again, I preface all of my remarks by saying I understand your personal opinion, but I want to make sure it's clear as time goes on and the clock ticks, we are getting to the point where it is not even going to be effective for some of these kids to apply because the time frame is going to be gone.

So there is absolutely no 67 confusion, you bring me here, you expect me tell you the facts. The bottom line is we feel that we won't need any more than $2 million from the City to fund the program the first year and we don't think we will need more than million in our Geroff money, which we have to scrape together. million should cover it based on our assumptions about the average tuition subsidy that they would need, and the enrollment to date. We are anticipating, obviously, that we may approach 3000 by the time we are over, but for that year -- for this year we think 4 million can cover it. And, again, we have two million in Geroff and of course we would not need the full amount that the Council has -- that was in the original budget that was presented to the Council. So I mean that is just a fact. You know, we don't have the enrollment that we anticipated. Next year it will be a different story, but next year we will have more Geroff money freed up. We think it's a good program. I can't argue with your points. I think when it comes to these type of programs, all of the children should participate. And let me 68 point out that our numbers include charter school children too, so we have a responsibility to provide those services or that type of subsidy to the charter school kids too.

Thank you.

I'm very glad to hear that the head of our School District agrees with us that this should be shared with --

Apparently there are a lot of people that are agreeing, but nothing is being done.

We are going to have to -- something has to be done very, very shortly in the next few days.

We have been debating this issue since the early part of April, and we were led to believe that there would be an extension for the applications. I just have one simple question, and then, Councilman, you can have all the time you want.

I yield to you, Madam President.

Whose decision 69 is it to make certain that the parochial school children and the private school children do have an opportunity for this program?

That is the City Council. I mean us. Right now we have federal Geroff money, and we have to use the federal Geroff money as provided by state -- by federal appropriation. We have to it use it for public school kids, but if the City decides to, say, split the money that was in the original budget proposal and provide half for nonpublic school children, we can certainly extend the date and --

What was the purpose of extending the deadline date?

Obviously to get more students signed up.

From the public school system?

Yes. Look, the earned income credit. We go crazy trying to get people to sign up for the earned income credit. Sometimes even when the money is out there, you are not going to get that level of participation, so we have had to do a lot of outreach. Right now we think we can 70 do this program with no more than 2 million from the City. If the City elected to allocate the balance of what was put in the original budget -- I believe it was 4 million -- we could extend the application date a little longer and wait for the Archdiocese to submit their prescreened list of qualified students, and we could have a nice first year of the program. We can then sit back and assess who participated and what the actual costs were and then we can go back and see whether or not there is ways to improve the program next year, for that matter to secure additional funding for what is truly a very worthy program. So if the Council elected to allocate a portion of the money to nonpublic schools, we could extend the application deadline to accommodate the Catholic and parochial schools and private schools. We could do that for --

Time is of the essence right now, Madam President, because it is obvious that there is a willingness by the superintendent of our School District to move on ahead and make this happen for nonpublic school students. There has to be a will from the 71 administration, and they have publicly stated here and I have been told that this will be worked out. It is just that now time is of the essence. We are running out of time, and the numbers that Mr. Vallas has given us and Mr. -- I'm sorry.

Williams, Craig Williams.

-- Williams indicates that even if 2000 of our children from public school system got the maximum of $3000, it would be a $6 million program, so it is obvious, and the research that I have done again coincides with the comments of Mr. Vallas in the first year. There is not an overabundance of kids that would be applying. It will be a sad day in Philadelphia if we limit this and not enough children applied for the scholarships when we have so many of them that need the money, that can use the money to further their education. So I am glad to hear from the superintendent that he is with us on this and that we are going to have to act on this and act on this very, very soon. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. Councilman Blackwell. 72

Madam President, just a point of information for purposes of clarifying. We project the average grant to be about $1,500. So it is really -- when we look at our 2200 students, we are multiplying 15,000 times 2200 students, and that is how we get to that figure that I have talked about. That's why we think it is affordable. The program allows for the grants to be as high as 3,000, but many of our kids are going to go to state schools, which means 85 percent of our children are eligible for either full or at least substantial aid, college aid. So we feel that the average grant will be about $1,500. If there is more children who sign up, we can always prorate the scholarship. We can always prorate the subsidy for the first year. So that certainly gives us an option should we have a rush of applicants before the end, before the deadline date is over. But I think the principal is -- it's a good program and I think it should be extended to everybody, and we certainly have no problems sharing resources with the parochial and private schools on this issue. 73

Thank you, Mr. Vallas. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you very much. Mr. Vallas, I mentioned yesterday that I was the guest speaker for the mathematics, civics and science charter school annual scholarship program. I assume -- at that affair they had some of the students who were graduating. They must have had there, who all came up and named the college 14 they would be attending in the fall, so I assume 15 then for that charter school they have already made 16 application. They are trying to stay on top of 17 things. 18

I am sure they have, 19 absolutely. We do aggressively promote this program 20 in the charter schools. Knowing Veronica Joiner the way I do, she probably submitted every single application.

I'm sure. Thank you very much.

I just wanted to get 74 in one last question with regard to the scholarship issue. You mentioned that the Archdiocese apparently already has prescreened some students. Do they have a list, the Archdiocese?

We don't know what the Archdiocese does in particular as they prepare their children to prepare for their FASB, but it is a normal process.

For their what?

FASB, which is the total financial aid package that a young person has to fill out to apply and to be awarded financial dollars to go to college. Literally every school district, every high school, has some kind of mechanism in place where there is a counselor or some other body that helps young people get prepared.

Let me understand this. If there is going to be a resolution to this issue, if -- you talk about deadlines being extended, coordinated efforts. Who is going to do that and how will the nonpublic school parents 75 access the program? Put the timing issue aside. You can extend the deadline as long as you want. At what point do the parents and the students get information that says, one, you can apply, your name gets on some list somewhere, and then when the adults get finished playing around, trying to figure out what the adults should be doing on behalf of the kids, how does it get resolved?

I believe once it is approved that a portion of the allocation can be awarded to the private and parochial schools, we will immediately with the Core Philly group meet with the parochial schools and get information out to them immediately. The general application is already formatted, which simply means it could be adopted within a day's time and sent out to the schools.

Well, today is May 17. School is over in what, a month?

Mid-June.

So every day that goes by is another day lost, is another piece of information that somebody doesn't get and everyone is waiting for some answer to drop down from the 76 sky. I mean, what about a more proactive approach that at least works towards the belief that something different is going to happen, that a resolution is going to take place, that people will have an application, go through a process. They understand upfront that there's still some details that need to be worked out, but you capture all of the information in the current environment because they are all going to disappear at some point in time. I mean this is an exercise that would lead the cynical to believe that all that is going on here is an effort to run the time off the clock and that somewhere in the course of the summer they will say, oh, you know, we resolved it, but now they have gone to the four winds of the universe. Why don't you get resolution on all of the details, and if we ever figure out, because it is real simple how to figure it out, that the money is going to be available, then you have established a contact and you have an application, you know who the kid is, and you can track him down. We only have a month to do this, and from your perspective you will say you are not in control of the process, 77 right?

Look, we have no problem with that. We will contact the Archdiocese this week and ask them to prescreen their people. If the Council does decide to allocate a portion of what has been budgeted, then the prescreen will be done.

I'm just asking you to do the part you can do.

I think it's an excellent idea.

Do the part you can do. We'll do, hopefully, what we're supposed to do, but I don't want to get caught in a situation where we proclaim at some point in time we have resolved all of the issues, agreements have been made, funding is available, and then we say, "Where are the kids? Oh, they are gone.

I think it is an excellent idea, and there is plenty of time to get all of the eligible students who are interested in the program signed up. We will call the parochial school superintendent's office and we will notify some of the other private schools and ask them to do some prescreening so we can move expeditiously should the 78 Council do that.

I'm only going to ask you to do one other thing. As you take those steps, if you could keep us informed through the President's office as to what is going on --

Absolutely.

If anything is going to happen, it is all going to happen in the course of the next month literally. We are out of session on June 17. Today is May 17. There are a lot of things that have to happen in the course of the next 30 days. This is one of them.

We will give you an update on Friday. We will update the Archdiocese and the private schools within the next couple of days, so we can reach out to all the private schools.

Would you notify them today, Mr. Vallas?

What I'm saying is there is not going to be -- I'm not going to have a problem notifying all of the parochial schools, but there are many independent little private schools out there, so what I'm saying is give me two days to get 79 everybody notified, but the Archdiocese will be the first to know.

Appreciate it.

And the process will be this: We will ask them to put together a prequalification list in anticipation of this program being put together and we will ask them to give us a date on when they can get the prequalified list to us and we will inform the Council of that, and then we will give you a status report on Friday or before the end of the week.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. Are there any other questions for members of the committee? Councilman Ramos.

I just want to make myself available to you because I have gone back and forth with the Archdiocese on this issue, and if I can be of any help to speed this up, and I'm sure Councilman Kenney and those of us here on City Council, Madam President, all of us have been involved to make sure that this is a fair program 80 across the board. I don't want to speak on behalf of my colleagues, but I will say we want to get this done and I'll be available to you.

The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It sounded like the School District was going to be finished in a second, or was it my understanding that we have other people from -- we have representatives from the PFT who are going to testify and then the School District is coming back?

No, no. It's my understanding that Mr. Ted Kirsch is here. He would like to testify now, and at 4:30 we are going to have public testimony. And as far as I know, today is the last of it for the school district.

I understand, Madam Chair. I guess I was under the previous impression that we were basically taking a break for Mr. Kirsch and possibly Mr. Jordan, and that the District was going to come back.

They can.

I have other 81 questions for the School District.

That's fine. If that is your desire, we can do that.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We will be more than happy to come back. In fact, we won't go far.

No, please don't. Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good morning, Council President Verna, Councilwoman Blackwell and City Council members. I am Ted Kirsch, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. By my side is Mr. Jerry Jordan, who is vice president of the PFT. I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the 21,000 members of the PFT this morning. S. Supreme Court's Brown versus the Board of Education ruling, which ended legal segregation in the nation's public schools. In Philadelphia we have seen a rapid 82 succession of changes in the past two years including the institution of a standardized curriculum, new after school and summer programs, expansion of alternative schools for disruptive students, intensified professional development, and a capital improvement program to modernize Philadelphia's aging schools. During the many years that the PFT has been engaged in a dialogue about education with the District and the City Council, we have advocated for these and other important educational reforms to help raise student achievement. While Philadelphia's children have begun to make academic progress, there are several education reforms that have yet to be completed. We believe these are essential to transforming every school in Philadelphia into an excellent high-achieving school. Our number one item: Safety, order and discipline. In spite of the District's efforts to address student misconduct, the daily barrage of verbal and physical abuse of staff, students, and the property by some students continues to be the number one concern voiced by PFT members. Simply 83 stated, PFT members say that administrators often fail to provide consistent and effective support for discipline. PFT members report increasing numbers of children who present serious discipline challenges from elementary through high schools. Disruptive, threatening and sometimes violent student behavior is a persistent problem. We applaud the expansion of alternative schools like the three community education schools which have provided some relief. However, in high schools, new teachers, some only a few years older than their students, are often overwhelmed by the disrespectful, uncivil, and at times threatening behavior they encounter. I believe we can improve the learning environment by holding students to strict standards of behavior and enforcing those standards fairly and consistently. Further, I urge the Council to work with the District to put uniformed, on-duty Philadelphia Police Department officers in troubled high schools. And I might add that when I began my career in the Philadelphia public school system at Overbrook High School we had a full-time officer on duty, and that 84 officer was not just maintaining the security of the building but was a community liaison, someone that knew what was happening in the community, and many times there were difficulties with youngsters in the community that did not spill over into our schools. It was a program that worked. In New York City recently they have added police officers to the most unruly schools, 10 and we have found that since January, when these 11 officers were put into the schools, that there was a 12 steady decline of approximately 9 percent where the 13 difficulties and reports of incidents took place. 14 Last week The Public Agenda, a 15 nonpartisan education research group, published a 16 report entitled "Teaching Interrupted" which concluded that student conduct is derailing learning particularly in urban schools across the country. At a time when we are desperate to recruit and keep qualified teachers, one in three teachers said they have seriously considered quitting the profession or know a colleague who has left because student behavior problems have become unmanageable. 85 percent of veteran teachers agree that new teachers in particular are not equipped to 85 tackle serious behavior problems and are more likely to leave teaching because of out-of-control student behavior.

Discipline is not a problem that any one group can tackle alone. It must be a community effort that draws support from the District, City Council, the police, school employees, community groups and, most important, parents. We urge the Council to help the District develop a program that does place uniformed, on-duty police in troubled schools. In addition, I would like to add my support to those who have asked City Council and the District to find money in this budget to install appropriate traffic signals, flashers and signs around every school in the City beginning with elementary schools. One child injured by a vehicle on the way to school is too many, and I hope you will do everything in your power to prevent another senseless injury or death of a child walking to or from school. Our second item of concern is having real class size reduction. Again this year we urge our friends in City Council to continue to fight for 86 real class size reduction in Philadelphia public schools. Philadelphia has been creative in its use of federal money to develop the literacy intern program to increase the ratio of adults to children in the lower grades. That program, however, will only take us partway to closing the achievement gap. Class size research, which began in Tennessee years ago, showed significant and 11 long-lasting gains in reading, math and science 12 scores for children who are in classes with 15 to 17 13 students and one certified teacher from kindergarten 14 through third grade. By the eighth grade those 15 children are one grade level ahead of their peers in 16 regular classes of 25 students for classes of 25 17 students and a classroom assistant. The gains made 18 in small K to 3 classes are sustained through high 19 school where students are more likely to take 20 advanced placement classes, college entrance exams, and graduate on time. In Philadelphia, classes in kindergarten to third grade contain 30 students, and with literacy interns there can be as many as 34 children in a classroom. That is too many for effective 87 teaching and learning. If we truly want children to leave the third grade performing on grade level, we can no 5 longer ignore 20 years of solid educational research that proves that classes with no more than 17 children are the springboard of a lifelong learning success. Our third issue is the issue of retention of qualified teachers. No one disagrees that students do better when taught by certified teachers who have mastered their subject area and know how to convey the material to children. Research shows that college-educated, certified teachers improve student achievement. Without certified teachers students lose out. There are several steps we must take to improve the chances that qualified teachers hired by the District will stay and help us develop the core of experienced, qualified teachers that every school needs. Research shows that teachers leave Philadelphia public schools for a variety of factors. Among those are low pay and a lack of tuition reimbursement, which is standard in many of 88 our surrounding districts, as well as overcrowded classes, lack of professional support, persistent discipline problems and shortages of critical resources such as books, supplies and technology. The District's new teacher coach program is helping new teachers develop important skills and learn effective teaching strategies, and the new districtwide curriculum is providing a roadmap for new teachers to follow. But at a time when competition for good certified teachers is fierce, we will have to do more to help retain our talented staff across the City. Qualified teachers are more likely to remain in the District if their schools have strong leadership, small classes, good working conditions, competitive salaries, good benefits, support for discipline, and incentives such as the aforementioned tuition reimbursement. College loan forgiveness and housing incentives will also help recruit teachers.

These initiatives can and should be pursued. And, finally, our fourth major objective is to have equitable and adequate resources. S. Supreme Court decision was 89 handed down, and I quote, In the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no 4 place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, end quote. The promise of Brown and the civil rights movement has been achieved in one respect: Access. People are no longer segregated or excluded from public facilities based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. This is a significant achievement that should be celebrated. Unfortunately, a new system of segregation is emerging in cities across the nation. According to a January 2004 study by the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, resegregation is a major concern in urban areas where there is less and less racial and ethnic diversity. More important, in the years since the Brown versus Board decision was handed down, we have learned that access does not guarantee equality, and in this Commonwealth there is much work ahead to guarantee that all children have equal access to high-quality education programs and services. The future of the children who attend the public schools in Philadelphia can only be 90 assured if we renew our commitment to providing children equal educational opportunities. One year ago Congressman Chaka Fattah introduced a student bill of rights that would hold each state accountable for providing equal and adequate educational resources to all its students. It would require all children to have qualified teachers, a challenging curriculum, modern textbooks and materials, small classes, guidance counselors, librarians, technology, and appropriate facilities. This kind of educational equality is long overdue. In too many Philadelphia schools today budget cuts are robbing our children of educational opportunities that students in other neighboring districts take for granted. School libraries are closed. Music and art programs have been dismantled, and sports programs are decimated. In short, the programs that motivate students and enrich education are gone. School budgets may well be balanced, but they have been balanced on the backs of our children. Those of us in leadership positions must not let another 50 years go by before we change government funding formulas to provide what is 91 needed to make our schools work for all students. I urge you to join us in this goal because the children of today cannot afford to wait 50 years for educational equality. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions of our witnesses? Seeing none, I thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Mr. Vallas, if you would come back to the witness table, please. Councilman Nutter, did you want to be recognized at this time?

Thank you. Last week when we were together we talked a little bit about issues like art and music and sports and library services at the various schools and some of the concerns that have been raised, at least with regard to a couple schools in my district; other conversations that we have had, Mr. Vallas, as regarding some other schools. Is there any update on issues 92 surrounding the standards for art and music and library services and physical education and those kinds of issues, the kinds of choices and decisions that some of the principals have to make? You did put on the record that there are changes in a variety of formulas, whether it's special education, Title 1, and desegregation money. Any additional information in that regard?

No. Well, first of all, the schools in question, the schools that I was directed to look at predictably lost money because of two things: Number one, they lost enrollment and, number two, they were affected by the change in the minimum funding provision concerning Title 1. Just to summarize, two years ago school districts -- every school district was guaranteed a minimum of $75,000 in Title 1 money, and last year we raised that to $250,000, in part because we felt we were giving schools so much additional money, close to 80, $90 million in textbooks and class size reduction and a number of other things, that we felt that this was a time that we could change the Title formula and provide a higher minimum funding level. 93 It also reflected the fact that we were getting an additional, I think it was, or $8 4 million -- I'm sorry -- $15 million in Title 1 5 money. So, in other words, the federal government 6 actually increased Title 1 funding for two 7 consecutive years by a substantial amount, and so we felt that this was the time to raise the hold harmless. We were challenged -- or we were threatened with a lawsuit, and we were challenged by a coalition of groups who felt that we didn't have the right to do that, so as a compromise we decided to lower the hold harmless and we worked out an agreement whereby the hold harmless dropped from 250,000 to, I believe, $175,000 minimum. The effect of this was schools that had seen a big bump in their Title 1 because of this minimum hold harmless formula suddenly saw a decline in their Title 1, not -- you know, they still have close to a hundred thousand dollars more than they have gotten in the past because of the minimum funding guaranty, but, nevertheless, obviously if you budget from year to year and you get $175,000 increase one year and a $75,000 decline the next 94 rear, obviously the next year is the year that is going to impact you. And there may have been a number of schools that went out and budgeted -- they funded certain things or they expanded certain things, but the bottom line is those schools are still a big winner because that minimum funding guaranty is higher than it has been in the past. I also want to make one final comment. Every year when we change the funding formulas -- the funding formulas change because population changes and the number of poverty children change, or, in the case of the special education formulas, those formulas are being revamped so that money follows the kids, but we provided all of the schools with a hold harmless so we would minimize their aggregate losses from any of these categories. So, indeed, at least a couple of the schools that you cited, that you made reference to, not publicly but privately were schools that lost because the hold harmless was adjusted and because they lost population. That's simple. The money follows the kids, believe it or not.

I understand that. 95 There may have been one where the population increased, but we can talk about that later. The other schools in question, a couple of them are Daroff and Blueford, and then I have got apparently a resurgence of what seems to be an annual or every-couple-of-year issue with regard to Shawmont and their music program, which appears to be under distress or possible attack. I would like to get an update from you on those issues, not at this moment, but at least I want to have them recognized.

I was going to mention, only because the comment has been made about music and art and athletics, indeed over the past decade or so, those programs have been cut. Last year when we presented our first budget we stemmed those cuts. We just stopped eliminating those positions, and we have actually begun to do some limited add-backs in terms of creating new positions. But what we have also done beyond that is we have invested a considerable amount of new money in athletic equipment, gym and athletic field renovations, and last year, and now including this year, a considerable at of money for the purchase of 96 new musical instruments and things of this nature, last year $400,000, this year over a million dollars, so we are working our way back. It's not anywhere near where it should be, but we are beginning to inch our way back.

But, for instance, why would there be a cut in a music program?

Well, not during -- well, schools decide to expand their own programs. For example, we don't fund elementary school librarians. That is something that has to be taken out of the local school district's Title 1 budget. I don't remember when the board eliminated funding for librarians. We restored central office high school librarians to the budget, but we couldn't afford to pick up the cost of all the elementary school librarians, and that was left up to the local schools. Many schools have elected to have a librarian or hire a LIMA, which is a less expensive librarian where other schools have decided to reduce class size even further and not hire that librarian. Same thing with music. We provide -- and Wayne Harris is here. He could probably explain 97 to you how we fund our music and our teachers, but there are schools that decide to support larger art and music programs, and if they lose their Title 1 money, they may elect to cut those programs.

Therein lines the issue in what I have tried to get back to both today and last week. If we have certain standards for what kinds of programs and activities we believe should be in a school, then I think some of these issues just -- they are not options. I mean, you can have music, but maybe you don't have a librarian. You can have art, but you don't have music. I mean, I think you know me well enough to know and certainly in my many go-rounds with Mike Harris, you know, I'm not either naive or Polyannaish about any of these issues, but it's not like the principal has the option to say, "Well, we are going to have math but not English." I mean, you have to have both. That is part of the standard operation of the school. And what I'm suggesting to you is unless there were some community outcry or every parent in the school said, "I don't want my kid to even be exposed to music or art or library," short of that, 98 which would be a rather insane situation, these choices that are being made -- I know you are saying they are at the local level. Principals can get what they want. They can take it from the shelf or have it or not have it, and what I'm suggesting to you is English, math, science, geography, somewhere in the midst of all the other things that are a standard part of the curriculum, art and music and library should be on a list of things that you just don't really get to touch at some level. Now, if you want to have an orchestra, that may be a different story.

I think what I'm saying is I will get you the specific requirements, what specific minimum requirements, we impose on the schools for art and music both at the elementary and high school level. Right off the top of my head I can't tell you what that is, but I will get you the background, or I will get you an explanation of that. I think what I'm saying is a couple things: First of all, on the issue of librarians, I feel every classroom should be a library, and rather than have a 50 or $60,000 librarian, if you can 99 reduce class sizes and put a classroom library in the every classroom and hire a LIMA, which is a --

Hire a what?

It's called a LIMA, which is a library technician. It is not a full-blown degreed librarian. They can do a very effective job at elementary schools.

Do they go classroom to classroom?

No; they still operate under the library, but they are not the traditional union title librarian with the pay and the status and all the things that librarians are --

I don't want to have a management/labor discussion.

I need to get you an explanation of what the requirements are. Right off of top of my head, it's --

I understand.

I think what I'm saying right now, though, is at the elementary school level some choices are made. There's supposed to be music and art instruction at every level, but it is certainly not at the degree we would like to get it 100 to. So school districts take it upon themselves to use their discretionary money to enhance their programs. Now, how are we going to get at the issue of art, music enrichment? In the following ways: First thing we are going to do is -- first thing we are doing is we haven't cut our art and music teachers, number one. Number two, we are beginning to hire back. We are beginning to supplement. We are working with the various universities and art institutes so we can get part-time music teachers and music majors and music teacher student majors working in the schools so we can supplement our staff. The next thing we are doing is replacing all of the hardware. In the area of sports we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in new sports equipment. In the area of music we are purchasing more musical instruments. I have problems in schools where I have a music teacher and I don't have any musical instruments in that school. So we are beginning to replace the materials that were lost to us over the past few years. 101 And now the third thing that we are doing is one of the five core curriculum areas that we are standardizing is the music and arts curriculum. Our goal here is to provide all of the teachers, particularly the elementary school teachers, particularly those primary grade teachers who obviously have to be multidisciplinary, with basically a music and art curriculum that can be incorporated into the general curriculum. The arts curriculum, the arts standardized curriculum, is probably about a year away from completion. For obvious reasons we focused on language, art, math, and this coming year on social studies and sciences. So I think through those three things, not cutting what is there and beginning incrementally to add back, tapping into the university system and into the art community so that we can get part-time musicians and artists -- our partnership with Joan Golden, for example, that we are negotiating is to enhance art in the schools by bringing Joan and her considerable leadership and resources into the schools so we can have programs -- purchasing new equipment, new materials, replenishing our supplies, upgrading our athletic 102 fields -- I mean in the capital plan we have literally five supersites in the planning stage, and we are going to, within the next five years, revamp at least of our athletic fields -- and then 6 fourth is to basically provide a standardized 7 curriculum for every elementary school teacher 8 because most of the music and art that is taught at 9 the elementary schools is not only taught by the 10 music and art teacher. A lot of times that art 11 teacher is doing more coordinating than teaching. A 12 lot of times at kindergarten, first grade, second 13 grade, third great level, at those younger grade levels, it is those teachers that have those interdisciplinary skills teaching in more than one area.

Why don't we do this: Can you provide to us through the Chair a listing for each school, whether they have art, music, physical education, library services, and whatever level of sports that school has available?

Absolutely.

Just go school by school. Let's go back to the capital program. 103 When you were last up, I was asking you but this company URS, who is your program manager for the capital plan, and you said they are out of San Francisco and they operate nationally or internationally. They have a $24 million over-three-year contract. Who else is involved in this project?

Yes, sir, they have -- they have subcontractors that are also under their contract. There are five subs that they use. Among all of the subs and the prime, they would have 37 employees. And you has asked before --

Hold on one second. So you have URS and five subs. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Total of six companies involved.

Correct.

And what is the total amount of all of those contracts?

The total dollar or the employees?

That's inclusive. 104

The -- 3

25. 4

25. And what are 5 the individual contracts for the other five subs? 6

Did you want the contract 7 breakdown? I can get that for you later. What I 8 have is the employee breakdown. 9

I will take that, 10 but I would like the contract breakdown as well. 11

We were going to send you 12 that as well. 13 URS, 13 people; Polotnik 3; Gingully, 7. 14

Hold it. I was 15 never a quick notetaker. 16

I'm also planning on sending 17 it to you as well. 18 Polotnik, 3; Gingully, 7; McKissock, 9; 19 Contract Compliance, 3. 20

That's a company? 21

Yes, it is, sir. 22 S & G, 2; URS itself, 13. 23 The other thing that I wanted to mention 24 is proportionality. The contract itself over three years has a work base of 1.1 billion in 105 construction. The value of the contract is approximately 2.5 percent of construction.

The overall work is 1.1 billion, the contract is 2.5 percent, which is the million? 7

Yes, sir. 8 Mr. Vallas had also mentioned that we 9 used construction managers as well. Construction 10 managers per our SRC in aggregate are to come in on 11 projects at 3.75 percent. 12

Say that again. 13

Construction managers, the 14 SRC -- 15

How many do you 16 have? 17

We have preapproved 14. We 18 are negotiating with the 14. It will probably be 19 fewer than 14, but what we have done is, per the 20 SRC, we have capped the number of aggregate 21 administrative fees to 3.75 percent of the total 22 construction package. 23

So that is 3.75 out 24 of the 1.1? 25

That is on top of the 1.1. 106 1.1 billion is the construction base.

I understand. So is 3.75 out of 1.1 is the amount.

Yes, that's what it would be.

Let me point out in picking these percentages, we are really using national and regional bench marks, so that the percentage allocations are not only consistent with those bench marks, but historically they are low.

So we are talking about 35 to $40 million?

In a $1.1 billion school construction program or any sort of construction program, you are going to spend --

I am not making any commentary. I'm quickly trying to just do the math.

For the total CM fees it is probably going to come to $25 million also. It depends on what we finally negotiate, but to say we will spend $25 million on construction manager fees -- wouldn't you say, Karen?

3.75 and 1.1 billion -- it is close to 4 percent of a billion. Sounds 107 like -- sounds like 40?

I think the authorization is to negotiate up to 25.

Councilman, the District has always used construction managers on its projects even in the past before this new program, and the fee range for your CM at that point was easily 6 to 7 percent rather than a smaller amount.

Yeah. To be honest with you, having no real base of comparison, I don't know whether it's a low number or high number. So for the moment you don't have to justify the number. I just want to make sure I understand the math. At a later point when I actually learn something about this, then we will have a different discussion.

I think just as a correction, when I say million, that is the 19 authorization. The authorization is 3.75, and the 20 CM contracts will be for no more than 25 million. 21 That doesn't mean it is on the total 1.1. The 22 bottom line is our objective was to bring in a lot 23 of construction managers because there's a lot of 24 companies in the area that are very good and they 25 were all competing, and what we would do is over the 108 next year or two is we would weed out those that were least effective and continue those that were most effective. So, you know, when I say once the CM contracts are completed, it will probably translate into another $25 million commitment, that's where that is coming from.

I understand. And you can provide us with a list?

Absolutely.

You don't have to go through the preapproved, okay. 14 Let's go back to the construction side. You have URS, who has the overall responsibility. You can get us information with regard to the five subcontracting firms --

Yes, sir.

-- and what their responsibilities are?

That will be in your packet on Wednesday along with a financial allocation on how that contract -- how the subs will be contracted -- how the subs will be compensated within the 25 million. 109

Let me jump back to an earlier topic very briefly. Can you tell me what are the eligible uses for Title 1 money?

Wayne, come over here.

What can it be used for?

It will probably be easier to tell you what it can't be used for.

Title 1 is a very nice -- I'm Wayne Harris, budget director. Title 1 is a very nice, flexible grant. The key is that the vast majority of it needs to be distributed to the schools and the schools are empowered to decide how to spend the money with just a few restrictions. The money needs to be distributed in such a way that the schools with the highest concentration of poverty receive the largest amount down to the schools with the lowest concentration of poverty -- the largest amount per student down to the schools with the lowest concentration of poverty getting less. The schools are required to spend either 5 percent or 10 percent depending on whether or not 110 they are in corrective action, which is part of the No Child Left Behind Law, more if they are in correction action, on professional development for their teachers. They are also required to spend 1 percent for parent involvement. Outside of that, there are very few restrictions on what they are allowed to do with Title 1.

So upwards of 11 percent may actually be specifically designated for some use, but the other 89 percent at least you can pretty much do whatever you want?

You are encouraged to use it instructionally.

Also, we are required under the No Child Left Behind to earmark I think it is roughly about 5 percent of the Title 1 money for supplemental education services. This is the after school extended day tutoring that is part of the subject, but other than that --

Essentially we are required to have three 5 percent set-asides, one for after school tutoring, 5 percent for after school tutoring, 5 percent for improvement of teaching, to 111 get teachers fully qualified, and percent for school choice.

We can get you an aggregate 5 breakdown on just how the schools use most of their money, but from experience and from personal knowledge, most of the money goes to hire teachers so that is always priority number one. The overwhelming majority of the Title 1 money goes to hire either classroom teachers or some of these supplemental teachers or instructors like librarians or art teachers or music teachers.

Let me talk about the older students. I'm going to shift. Last week I made a note to myself based on something you said, Mr. Vallas. Can you tell me a little bit about what kind of contact we have with the business community regarding curriculum issues, how well our students are prepared to enter the work force, and any discussions or emphasis with our business leadership about how they carry a message hopefully on behalf of the district to their employees, which may get into a slightly touchy area, on making sure that they pick up report cards, work with their child on 112 their education issues, the issue of taking off time, if they have to, for parent/teacher conference, any of those kinds of things that help to carry a message from the District to the employers and ultimately to parents who may be employees of these companies that education is really important to the business community, that business leaders want parents to be actively involved and actively engaged in their child's education, that if they need time off, you know, other than contractual obligations and the like, they really are sending a message down through the ranks that education is important, and if you need time, that it is going to be given, and it's emphasized by the companies. Do we ever have those conversations?

Yes. One of the things that we did as a result of a task force that was established a year and a half ago in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, one of the recommendations as a result of that task force was to establish business community councils. To date we have established eight of those councils, one representing each of the following state recognized 113 career areas or areas of occupation such as business, health, industry, construction and so forth. Those individuals meet on a monthly basis to talk about work readiness and what they could do in terms of recommendation to curriculum, what they could do in terms of helping prepare internships, and overall what they could do to help with the soft skills or provide recommendations to the School District as it relates to soft skills. As a result, this relationship has afforded us the opportunity to meet with industry leaders representing those fields on a monthly basis to make sure that we are making them aware of the changes that we are making in curriculum, all of the upgrades we are doing as it relates to education and to the programs.

This is being done through the task force or through someone's office or --

The recommendation was the task force. Now we are fulfilling the recommendation through our office of secondary education. 114

So your office is responsible for all the high schools?

Yes, sir.

And I'm going to assume that this is an office or a division of the district that has always existed.

Actually, no; this is a division of the District that literally started with Mr. Vallas' administration.

Who was in charge of high schools before?

Before Mr. Vallas arrived, we had one person in the School District who basically assisted high schools in whatever her limited capacity could be. Once we came in, we started an entire division, which meant we added offices to deal with particular areas as it related to high schools.

How many people are in the office now?

We have seven major divisions, perhaps maybe about 30 people in our downtown office, and obviously we have a field representative such as educational coaches that go 115 to high schools to work along with teachers and students in implementing the new core curriculum.

Seven divisions, 30 people. Some are at the District and the rest are where?

In schools.

How many at the District?

Maybe about 30 in the district, a little over 30 in the District.

30 in the District?

Yes. And we have representatives inside of schools.

How many in the schools?

Close to about 50.

50?

Yes. And those are school-based representatives. They don't come out. They stay in the school.

All of the schools from the K to 8 schools to the 9 to 12 schools have coaches. With the move towards the standardized curriculum, 116 we have standardized professional development and we put coaches in all of the schools, literacy coaches, math coaches.

Who do they work with?

At the elementary school level they work with the principals and the teachers. They are there to provide at the local level local professional development because in the new curriculum instructional models it is important to have -- a premium has been placed on the training of the teachers on how to match to the models. It is the same thing at the high school level. We have coaches. We have language, arts, and mathematics coaches. Eventually we will probably have science coaches. The objective here is to have professional trainers at the local school level who are basically ensuring the implementation of the curriculum. Let me point out that these are not like new positions added to existing positions. One of the things that we did in the high schools was we jettisoned a lot of the what we felt were 117 ineffective and wasteful positions. For example, when we added well over a hundred new AP, honors, and advanced placement courses this past year, we did it by eliminating well over 300 totally irrelevant courses that the high schools had been offering students that had no relevancy to what was required to graduate or had no relevancy for students who were college bound or, for that matter, even on a career track. It is the same thing on the local school side. You go to the high schools and they would have department heads. They would have small school coordinators. There were like four or five -- it is not uncommon to go to a high school and find or 16 teachers in nonteaching positions in that school. 17 So when we -- as part of the high school reorganization we created a number of -- we eliminated a number of positions to free up money in the high schools for the other reforms, but we also created a number of new positions that replaced eliminated positions and put them under the direct control over the high school division so that we could focus on such things as curriculum instruction and professional development. 118

I'm sorry. This division -- the department is called what, Office of Secondary --

Education.

What is the budget for this office?

The entire high school budget, roughly it's about to $20 million. Wayne 10 is going to get some exact figures for you. 11

This is your office? 12

That is the programmatic 13 money, grants and everything, yes, sir. 14

What do the 30 15 people who are at the District do? 16

The offices are divided into seven different departments, and roughly I will tell you about each of them. The first department is our physical education and sports division, actually which handles physical education and sports for the entire district, K through 12. So there is an extension of more than just high school for that particular office. That office oversees all of the sports programs, all of the physical education, all of the 119 health programs, and the newly implemented drivers education program. The second office is the music office, which you talked about, performing arts office, and this particular office, the performing arts office, strictly focuses on performing arts, music, as it relates to ninth through twelfth grade. We have another office that focuses on instructional delivery. That is the office that the coaches report to. That is the office where we make sure that the new curriculum is being implemented. We have another office of curriculum development. They are responsible for developing the entire new high school curriculum that we have in place. We have another office of career and technical education, which are our vocational programs that are spread throughout the entire School District. What did I forget? We have an office of ROTC, which is the junior office of reserve training program in our high schools as well. We have the college and career awareness 120 office that deals with scholarships and readiness for college, all of the SAT and PSAT test taking and all of those things.

Did you say earlier there was a career in technology, education division? What did you say about that?

Career and technical education, which is a form of vocational education.

So it is career and technical education, and then there is a college and career awareness?

Yes.

Let me point out so that there is no confusion, these offices and divisions have always existed, but they were scattered within the bureaucracy. So, in other words, technology would be somewhere, vocational ed would be somewhere. There was no focus on curriculum instruction, at least from a central office standpoint. So one of the things that we did was we took all of high school's functions and we pulled them out of individual departments and we consolidated them into a single office, obviously not only for purposes of articulating the division 121 and implementing the program but also for accountability purposes. And, for example, we have now begun to do something similar in this year's budget for our middle grades initiatives because in the past no one has been responsible for middle grades. The middle grade functions are scattered among multiple departments. So the objective here was to take all of the high school programs from technology to career ed to honors to advanced placement to magnet programs to professional development, the academy programs, which were out there by themselves, almost a quasi-independent entity, and to consolidate them into a division of high school programs with a director of high school programs. I just wanted to point that out.

I think my initial reaction to some of this is to just at least raise the issue of whether or not the central office is -- I mean, is it flattening out, or is it starting to rise again in terms of we seem to have a lot of people doing a lot of things that at least directly don't seem to have a whole lot to do with children and their direct education, and I'm just raising the 122 question that it seems that we have a lot of -- a significant number of people checking on what other people are doing.

No, not at all. If you are going to have vocational ed, you need somebody to monitor and maintain the quality of those vocational ed programs. The School District had wiped out its AP honors and advanced placement courses in all of its high schools. Now we have honors and advanced placement. Somebody needs to be responsible for that. Most of these functions have always been in the school districts. They have been scattered among the individual departments. Let me point out that at least every year in the least three years the central office has been downsized. This year is no exception. We are now down to 1100. I think the central office had how many positions three years ago? I will give you the number. But the central office continues to decline and it will also continue to decline. But as part of that declining, we are not just cutting for cutting's sake; there also needs to be some radical organizational structure -- there needs to be some rational organizational structure, how the 123 office is set up. So having all of your high school functions decentralized among multiple agencies and among multiple departments is just not logical. There is no efficiency.

So you are bringing them into one location and they are all under one roof?

First of all, they were scattered, but Let me give you an example. The high school reforms have been funded through a combination of $15 million in new monies we programmed for the high school budget and $15 million in savings. The high school reforms are costing the District $30 million. What are those reforms? The revamping of vocational ed, the restoration of honors and advanced placement programs, the curriculum instructional forms, the capital instructional models themselves, putting professional development coaches at the local school level, but the bottom line is we had to reprogram 15 million in existing budget resources and then cut 15 million in order for the high school office and the division of high schools and the high school 124 programs to be effectively funded. So it has been a combination of budget cuts and budget reprogramming, but these functions the District already did. They simply were scattered among multiple departments and agencies.

Why don't we do this: Maybe you can give me on a spreadsheet or whatever works, as long as you don't get Mike Harris and company to do it the same way as the budget book was put together. Why don't you show us over the past three years what the administrative costs have been, what the positions have been, and where these savings are? Now, do we have a set number on the Office of Secondary Education in terms of the budget of that office?

His office is 6 million, okay, in the budget, but that is not exclusively positions. But I will ask Wayne Harris to break that out for you, but when you add the reforms like the AP honors, advanced placement, professional development, the capital, obviously the number gets a lot larger, but in terms of his immediate office I 125 think it is $6 million. I will get Wayne to break those out into personal services, contractual services, and things like that, and I will get you that.

Okay. If you can just get it to me. Let me try to focus on two of the areas here. You have career and technical education and college and career awareness. What are we doing in the career and technical education area, and who is responsible now for what I guess used to be vocational education, and what programs are we actually offering to students?

Currently we have had an opportunity to come in and to restructure career and technical education based on the Perkins guidelines, which are established by the State. The programs that have been established in career and technical education include construction, business, health, transportation, communications and technology as well. We have approximately 179 of those programs spread throughout our high school district. In the 42 schools I guess that will give you an average of 126 maybe two or three programs per school. Obviously we have a number of schools that focus solely on career and technical education. We have four of those schools where the vast majority of the programs within those schools are career and technical education. Part of our philosophy of what we have attempted to do is to establish quality career and technical education within neighborhood schools. The current four to five career and technical education high schools simply cannot accommodate the number of kids who would like that training and/or who need and want that training. So within each of the high schools they have an opportunity to open career and technical education programs based on the guidelines that are established by career and technical education. And the umbrella of those programs are the ones that are included -- that I indicated to you. Under each one of those umbrellas -- for example, on the transportation --

Are the umbrellas the six programs that you laid out?

Yes. Let me repeat them 127 and make sure you have them.

Construction, business, health, transportation, communication and technology.

And hospitality.

So it's seven.

Yes. So under each of those areas there are a certain number of programs. As an example, under transportation obviously there is auto body, automotive mechanics, and in some cases there could be diesel. We are trying to establish a diesel. So under each one of the broader categories there are a number of programs and the school elects those programs.

So who is in charge of this office, the seven areas? Who decides what the curriculum is and how it is spread out whether it is 179 programs, 42 schools? Who is in charge of that?

Generally it involves, as we indicated, the division of career and technical education is headed by Roosevelt Brown. In that office we have established a policy, a program 128 approval policy. Any school desiring a career and technical education program makes application to the office to establish the program. In order to establish the program, the school has to meet certain criteria. Number one, they have to have certified staff. Number two, they have to have a dedicated room or laboratory for the respective program that they are inquiring about and, number three, they have to have established an advisory council, an advisory council which is made up of neighborhood businesses or businesses that may not be in the neighborhood but however are reflective to that individual career area. Once they meet those three criteria, we then will make sure that the program is up to speed, the program is up to date, that the equipment is ordered and the supplies are there, and that all of the components for it to meet state certification are in place. We have had an opportunity to come in and restructure that program over the last year and with that we had to obviously close out some programs that were obsolete but, on the flip side, to open some programs that are a little more up to 129 date.

So you are saying all of the teachers involved in these programs are certified in their area?

Yes; they have to be industry certified in their particular area.

If you could share with us through the Chair who the leaders of the various programs are and what their certification is, I would appreciate it. You said Mr. Brown is in charge of the seven areas?

Yes, sir.

In which is he certified?

Mr. Brown is actually a construction person, but that certification isn't needed for that particular position.

I'm sorry. Say that again.

The person who oversees the project is an administrator in my office. The areas of careers, the seven areas, the certification is needed for the classroom teachers. 130

Not for the person in charge?

That's correct.

Well, how would he know if they are doing what they were supposed to? MR. WILLIAMS; how would he know that the teachers are doing what they are supposed to?

Or the people who are in charge of the various programs.

The people who are in charge of the various programs are from those seven areas of certification, so the seven areas I have indicated, the people who oversee those programs have expertise in that particular area.

And what is Mr. Brown's expertise?

Business as well as construction.

Is that from the industry or from academia or what?

That is from the industry and academia.

Mr. Brown is an exceptional administrator. The same things that have -- the 131 same rationale in creating that position or appointing him is the same rationale that school districts have used to bring CEOs in rather than traditional superintendents.

Talking about college and career, where is that?

I do want to add one footnote. One thing that was not included in Dr. Williams' remarks is in addition to these reforms, we have embarked upon a program of enrolling students -- I don't know if you mentioned this, Craig -- in vocational ed courses in community colleges, in programs like Devry, universities who do a credit as part of our Project Excel program. We are doing something similar with honors and advanced placement where we are enrolling our seniors in university courses for dual credit. This program, I don't know how many we have this year, but we hope that this program will rise into the -- in the coming years will exceed a thousand, but the objective here is to allow our students to go beyond just the modest vocational educational program that may currently exist in the high schools, although obviously we are looking at 132 improving those, but to where we can actually enroll them in bona fide certified vocational ed.