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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
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 --
-- 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 --
-- 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?
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.
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.
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 --
-- 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
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 --
-- but we have not had specific discussions with the Lankenau School.
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 --
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.
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 --
-- 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 --
-- 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?
New students coming in have already been selected through the prior process.
Through the prior process, through the Germantown/Lankenau enrollment process.
So for September those young people have already made a selection and have been chosen for that particular school.
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.
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 --
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 --
-- 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.
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.
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.
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?
Jim Lewis, administrative assistant. In the past the capital program had outreach through its inhouse staff. Whenever we had any type of renovation --
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 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.
And what's the contract with URS and 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.
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
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?
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?
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 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.
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 --
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.