Committee Hearing, March 24, 2003

We could do that.

-- morning, I think that even -- Forget the tickets.

That we could do.

Just your presence alone. You know, they put the empty police car on the Atlantic City Expressway.

That's correct. That's what they do.

And that's a fact, right?

We could do that.

We'll find some empty cars, too. Just joking.

There's a lot of Explorers.

That's right. We'll put the little dummies in the cars, the little crash dummies in the cars.

They work.

All good ideas. 00243 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole And -- And -- And -- And -- And I will tell you, we have taken the initiative. We're going to try to step it up to another level next year, of actually closing off critical streets that students have to cross, with the horses. And it's really something we want to do on a much more massive scale, particularly during the times that schools are opening up and schools are closing. Because you're right: A lot of our schools have no campuses, and the kids have to walk. You know, there's a lot of traffic in front of the buildings. Obviously, we won't close off Broadway --

Thank you.

-- or Spring or any of those.

All right.

All right. The 30 seconds has been up a long time ago.

I ruined it for him.

Thank you. I don't know whether it's Councilman 00244 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole Cohen or Councilman DiCicco who wants to be recognized. Who is that? Is that Councilman Cohen?

I'm glad I look like Councilman DiCicco.

Those lights are on. You have your light on and you have Councilman DiCicco's light on.

Yeah. Well, the reason I'm sitting here is that hearing at that end is a bit difficult, and hearing here is much better. And that's the reason I switched my seat in DiCicco's absence. Also, it's nice to be thought of as maybe looking like him, since he's maybe two years younger than I am. (Laughter.)

First to Mr. Nevels again, I always try to bring you in to make sure that you're fully occupied. Tell me, sir, how would you define the role that the School Reform Commission plays, in a way which would tell us why it's necessary to take away control locally from the people of Philadelphia. 00245 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole What does the School Reform Commission do that a School Board composed from Philadelphians and appointed, say, by the Mayor in the usual fashion... What can you do that the old School Board couldn't do? As you see it. You've seen them in action. You replaced them. Tell us what you offer the people of Philadelphia.

I believe what the School Reform Commission offers, Councilman, is the enumerated powers -- the exercise of the enumerated powers under the law. And that includes the ability to have -- the ability in the past to have terminated some contracts, to have made some of the sweeping changes that you and I talked about last year. I know that there were some concern and some questions as to the efficacy of the School Reform Commission doing that. But that's one of the -- But those powers that are set forth in that legislation makes for a more powerful, if you will, body to serve the City of Philadelphia and to serve its children.

But was there 00246 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole anything inherent in the lack of powers of the old Philadelphia School Board to prevent them from having done it? They issued contracts. They made decisions the same way you did.

I think that there was a slight difference, I think that the --

Could you speak, sir, directly into the microphone?

Sure. I believe that the prior School Board did the best job that it possibly could. But I think that one of the things to keep in mind is that there was a partnership between the Mayor, the Governor, and the General Assembly, that believed that the creation of the SRC with its staggered terms, with the -- appointed by -- the use of the appointed powers of the Mayor and the Governor to have five individuals who were independent is, in fact, something that allows -- and a being a smaller body, as well, allowed us to be in a position to be a little bit more managerially nimble than the larger School Board. But I would defer to Sandra Glenn, who has served on both bodies. 00247 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole I mean, the other thing is --

All right. I just wanted to make clear that in my judgment -- and the case is now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court -- I regard as absolutely essential to a Democracy the right of the local community to make the final decisions with respect to the kind of education their children should have and who should have the responsibility. And for that reason, I will be continuing my efforts to displace you, unless you're named by the Mayor as a member. I would have no objection to that. But I do have objection to the State claiming to be better able to run the Philadelphia School System than Philadelphians. So I understand your position. I know it's difficult. And I do commend you, as I did before, on the selection of Mr. Vallas. That's the one action I know that you did that was very good. But I thought Mark Shed was very good, but somehow he didn't seem to have the ability that Mr. Vallas has to put everything 00248 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole together. And I thought we've had a good line of Superintendents since the days of Richardson Dillworth, when he took it on, and we all thought he was crazy after he was Mayor, to take on that job. And he did it very effectively, but still was not able to put the pieces together in the same fashion as Mr. Vallas has. But I appreciate your position. Mr. Vallas, tell me, in all the debates recently about public education, I believe we're living kind of in a surreal world. We no 14 longer talk about the importance of income to a family. We no longer talk about the supportive family structure. We don't talk about the fact that low income people, where the kids may not be able to get a breakfast in the morning -- We expect everybody to perform at the same level and to respond equally to the fine efforts of the teachers and school systems, even though they begin at such different points of view. Tell me in your judgment, is it that 00249 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole the winds of repression and conservatism have so enveloped the situation that nobody in recent years has ever discussed, well, you know, we ask the schools to do impossible things. We ask the schools to educate --

We do.

-- just as well the child of an impoverished single mother, who maybe lives on welfare, and who may not even have enough money for food and often can't send the kid to school, because you know in Philadelphia you have to pay transportation costs. And SEPTA, even though it's a public agency, doesn't care at all about the fact that families often have to decide that this week Johnny goes to school, next week Mary will go to school because we can't afford to buy two tokens, you know, to send them both to school at the same time. Nobody even mentions that. Nobody mentions the fact of the huge unemployment that exists in the minority community, and how difficult it is for parents to give supportive services to their children, with respect to the school activities, when they're 00250 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole worried about managing to put enough food on the table. And sometimes they don't get enough food to put on the table. Tell me: What has happened in the world? Do we really think we can develop a school system that through its own services can equalize those conditions? I'm wondering about that. Or am I wondering, am I the only what I call Roosevelt Democrat left in the world? Nobody -- You Know, so few people talk about these economic conditions. And yet it seems to me we expect from the school system something that cannot be achieved; that, in addition to the fine things you're talking about doing -- and I think they all deserve support -- I think we've got to talk in terms of how do we get more employment. And along that line, I think we have a very practical approach. We've had testimony in other hearings here about the building trades. Seems to me the construction industry offers the potential for many jobs to the minority community. We talk about vocational schools and their importance. We talk about 00251 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole training them for real jobs. We have all that in the construction industry. We spent years in the construction boom, and the number of minority members in the union that get work are about the same level when I fought in support of the Philadelphia Plan 35 years ago, and nothing much has happened. The same terribly low rate of minority employment exists today as existed then. So why doesn't the school system say, the real people who ought to operate these apprentice schools, that the... building trades unions, various kinds: Cement masons, sheet metal workers, builders, carpenters, electricians, at least those four. There may be many more apprentice schools, all supported by government funds. Why shouldn't that be run by the school system? Because then you would have real training. And then there would be a democratic way of movement from training education, into an apprenticeship program, into membership in the union. And then we would begin dealing with 00252 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole the problems that will make the whole school system work. What would your thought be about that? And how can we begin provoking discussion saying: Look, we're limited in the school system until we correct the housing, until we correct the economic situation. We're limited in what we can do. Because seems to me otherwise we're just kind of smoking pot. Maybe we're doing it legally. But aren't we living in a world of imagination if we say it doesn't matter whether you're poor, whether you eat or don't eat, or whether your parents can afford to send you to school. The schools are going to perform miracles. What's your thought about that, sir?

Well, let me respond by saying that my job has been to come here and not make excuses. And in other words, to not come here before the City Council and to say: Woe is me; I can't do anything unless Harrisburg gives me more resources. I mean, I'm absolutely -- I'm genetically programmed not to do that. I can't help it. There's a genetic chip malfunction somewhere. But if there's a problem, we fix it. 00253 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole Now, there's no one who's worked more aggressively, both at the local level and at the national stage, for school funding reform. Many of the reforms we instituted in Chicago changed the whole dynamic about inner city schools. If you remember in 1989, 1990 Bill 9 Bennett coming through Chicago and saying, it was the worst school in the nation. Let's voucher the entire school system, public school system nationally. And then in '96 he showed up saying that many things in Chicago, that we were doing in Chicago, could be a model for the rest of the nation. I mean, six, seven years ago they were debating whether or not a department of education at the federal level should even exist. Now in the last Presidential election, Gore and Bush were trying to outdo each other on who was more pro on education. Now, am disappointed that the education budget equals the cost of maybe two aircraft carrier groups? Yes, absolutely. I 00254 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole mean, we don't invest as much in education. And it's the greatest civil rights violation that this country has experienced, the fact that it does not provide all children with equal opportunities to education. And we're going to be as aggressive as anyone, both lobbying both the State and Federal Government, to get them to do more. And when the Governor presents his ambitious program for it, and he moves forward with his initiatives, we're going to be as aggressive as anyone lobbying for those initiatives. But that said and done, there are two schools of thought. One school of thought is, you cry poor and you ask for more. But that's like crying wolf, because after a while everybody says: Well, you've done it before; you've done it before. What do you have to show for it. And then there's another school of thought that says you establish legitimacy, you establish credibility, you demonstrate that you can get the most of our your buck. Because then when you ask for more, 00255 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole and then when you ask for more support, you're speaking from a position of strength. You're speaking from a position of credibility. I subscribe to the second strategy, which is to get this fiscal house in order; for us to move forward educationally, for us not to make excuses, for to us say: The schools are going to get safer, and we're going to improve the condition of the schools, and we're going to do early childhood and after-school and summer school and class size reduction, and retrain our work force, and we're going to coordinate and with City agencies and State agencies, to provide those wrap-around services that many of our children and their families need because they are economically disadvantaged. But I truly believe that by doing that, we set the stage. We can make an even stronger case when we go to Harrisburg. That when people are voting on the Governor's ambitious education agenda, as I'm sure it will be, people are just -- people are going to vote for it, knowing that when those education initiatives are passed, and the money comes to this District, it's 00256 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole not going to go to pay patronage workers, it's not going to go to fund positions that are not impacting the classroom. It's going to go into the classroom. It's going to go for support services. It's going to go so that we can have every child at risk in early childhood programs. It's going to go in extended day and extended school year, which is critical to children who don't have the support at home.

It's critical that those children are engaged in constructive supervisory activities? You see what I mean? So our whole approach toward this has been to move our agenda forward, based on the most conservative budget assumptions possible. And the Governor, Governor Rendell's first budget has afforded us an opportunity to do that, but then to set the stage, to tell you: This is how much we're going to do just with the resources we have. But when the Governor's initiatives are successful or even partially successful, we're going to do so much more, because we're going to be able to tell people honestly and directly that 00257 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole if you vote, if you vote for a school funding reform package in Harrisburg, that money is going to go to the kids, that money is going to go into the schools where there's the greatest need, that money is going to make a difference. That's what this exercise is about. That's what these tough decisions in this budget is about. It's to set the stage. I think that we make a clearer case for the Governor's package, and we make a stronger case for that package, and we become more of a potent force for lobbying for that package by being able to say: Our house is in order; we're moving forward; but if the Governor is successful, we're going to be able to move even that much faster. And I think that's the strategy that we're taking. And it's not going to solve everything, not until the Federal Government wakes up and realizes that -- you know, that education is indeed not only the great civil rights issue of the 21st Century, but the great national security issue of the 21st Century, because the competition that we really face internationally is economic. 00258 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole And they're getting there, and they're getting there slow. But I truly believe that what we have done here, along with what the Governor hopefully will be able to do at the State level, will be able to take this school system to another level. Because we can talk about high property taxes and wage taxes. But the thing that drives parents out of this system quicker than anything else or out of the City quicker than anything else is poor quality schools. And ultimately, for those who think that this is just a strategy or program to make our schools more attractive for those who would leave, it's a rising tide lifts all boats. If we expand the number of opportunities so children and families don't have to look elsewhere for quality education, then at the same time we've improved the quality of educational opportunities for those families and those children who will never have an option to go anywhere else.

Well, I salute you for your stubbornness in believing that you 00259 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole can do wonders, and you do do wonders. And I salute all the teachers who I think have really the toughest job in society, because they're asked to take the children --

Absolutely.

-- as they exist real life circumstances and develop people who are going to be independent, who will be able to raise their own families at a much better level than current members of families can because of economic conditions. But I do think, in fairness to all people involved in education, that more of us outside of the education field ought to make clear the enormous burden we're asking you to assume. Now, I'd like to ask you one other question. You're going to have a great deal of construction work to do --

Yes.

-- under the program that you have. We're convinced -- I think a majority of City Council is probably convinced that unless some drastic action is taken, there's 00260 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole going to be no improvement on minority employment picture. I'm not talking about entrepreneurs. I'm talking about the working people that perform the work: The laborers, the electricians, the carpenters, the cement mixers, all of the actual work. Nothing will happen unless there's a changed policy. By changed policy we mean not permitting people just to hire a contractor and holding the contractor responsible. Because contractors call the union. And the union says, we have so many workers. How many do you need? They will often say, well, we don't have that many. We'll send you what we have. And we think there has to be a way for government, in this case the School District, to ensure there are representative minority employment. I think it ought to be much more than the current numbers, that indicate the diversity of Philadelphia --

Yes. 00261 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

-- because I think there's a big bill that's owed for past misconduct in limiting employment of minorities. But I don't know whether you want to use the word reparations or not. Some people get very concerned about that word, and they have very technical explanations. But I think we ought to have goals on many jobs of 50 to 75 percent, not just representing for today, because minorities have been denied so long. And by minorities, I mean the usual minorities: African Americans, Asians, Hispanic, women, all the groups that have been barred. But I would like to know: How are you going to learn from the mistakes of the past? Because the City is supposed to have had for a number of years very specific programs.

Mm-hmm.

And we have panels that will come before us and say --

Yes.

-- how they check it out. And their results are vastly different 00262 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole than the results that seem to exist in real life. And we'd like to know how --

Sure.

-- you're going to deal with real life application. Councilman Ortiz put a Bill in City Council --

Yes.

-- some time ago. And we're struggling with that. And how do we get that kind of protection so that everybody in Philadelphia really feels that employment is open? And when we go to minority communities, there ought to be no more people hanging around unemployed than there are in other communities. But today that's not the case.

Yes.

What mechanism will you put into place that will demand, say -- that demands adequate representation? Will you be able to use your vocational education people?

Mm-hmm. 00263 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

Or are you going to demand some action for participation in the apprenticeship programs?

Well, let me respond by saying, first of all, we will learn from the mistakes of the past by taking the best practices that we've used in the past with great success. And as Councilman Ortiz has pointed out -- and he certainly has checked me out with people that he knows in Chicago -- the MBE-WBE program in Chicago not only produced over 50 percent MBE-WBE contracts but over 50 percent of individuals who worked on the construction sites were minority workers. In fact, 47 percent of the -- of the skilled workers were hours -- This is based on hours -- audited hours performed by minority workers. And over half the residents, because we couldn't go beyond 50 percent because of Constitutional limitations, were City residents. So we've done this before. Karen Burke and Chris Harris managed these programs for me before in Chicago. And we 00264 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole will work to hit numbers that have not been hit before. And you can take that to the bank. But I will make -- I will provide a copy of our -- a summary of our MBE-WBE strategy and approach that -- among four or five things that the Council has requested to all the members tomorrow, so you will see that we do have a strategy and a program in place. We've done this before. We know how to do this. You know, the biggest --

Do you know how do you deal with the numbers game when it's played by the other side? Which is to have certain selected groups that go from job to job so that the number of hours worked may seem halfway decent?

Yes.

But actually, the employment is limited to a relatively small group of people.

Well, that works when you only have a few jobs going on. But when you have as many jobs as we have going on, believe me, there's going to be a need. 00265 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole But we're going to audit. We're going to audit job sites. We're going to -- And all contracts will have provisions in them giving us the ability to go in and to take appropriate action. And we will be aggressive on this. That's my commitment to you.

Do you agree, Mr. Vallas, to permit a Council Committee to meet regularly with you to check on --

Sure. Absolutely.

-- to check on the progress?

Yes. Absolutely. Alderman Ortiz is going to convene a meeting. We will use that as an opportunity to --

Alderman?

Councilman. I'm still saying the West Side, you know, or the South Side. I apologize for that.

It's his only shortcoming.

All right. Sorry about that. I apologize. Almost. I almost got through the whole day without -- You know, I'm still 00266 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole saying pop instead of soda. You know, I'm struggling.

Every time you refer to Chicago, I have mixed feelings.

I know; I know.

Because I was in the Convention in 1968, and I was among --

I was in high school. I was in high school in 1968. So -- But I will tell you this --

Maybe Chicago has also reformed.

I make reference to the MBE-WBE, because we really had a startling record of success there.

Well, then, you can lead the way because --

Yeah. I think you'll be very pleased.

All right. Thank you.

But we'll be -- We'll be meeting with the Councilman on his call. And we'll be more than happy to subordinate ourselves 00267 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole to any Council oversight as you see fit.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

Welcome. The chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.

Thank you, Madam President. I have to be sure because my wife now is working in Harrisburg, and I have to go pick up the kids from the Afterschool Program.

Sorry.

It ends at 5:00. And I have to be there, because they each have their things to do. One goes horseback riding, one has to walk Nilsa's dogs. (Laughter.)

Nilsa thought she was going to get away without that.

She is employed by one of your staff person, one of the elite persons in your organization. But I'm very glad that both Nilsa and Tomas are in the places where 00268 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole they're at. But you know, the thing is that I believe you. Okay? I believe you. How fast -- Give me -- I don't know if they asked this.

Yes.

But a time line, of the K to 3, and in terms of when do we expect to see the class sizes in K to 3 drop --

Yes.

And then 4 to 8 drop down?

Next year.

Next year?

Yes, next year. In fact, in a couple weeks all the School Districts will receive budget templates, showing them how to consolidate resources and to do class size reduction. We've identified a number of schools that have done it, and they're the model schools. In fact, we're presenting all of our principals with three or four class size reduction models.

This will mean a 00269 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole huge influx of brand new teachers.

Yes.

And you know that we've had quite a problem, in terms of the recruitment aspect of teachers. And what is the process that is going to make -- Besides having somebody as energetic and bright and together as Tomas Hanna leading the charge, what are the things -- what are the tools that Tomas is going to have, that is going to make this recruitment effort as successful as you want it to be, and that we are not going to be here next March talking about, well, you know, we had it but we couldn't recruit the teachers; so therefore, 4 to 8 is not at the level we wanted in terms of class size, and high schools are not at the level we want in class size.

Well, fortunately for us, through the leadership of Sandra Dungee Glenn and through the leadership of Rosemary Grecco, who co-chaired the --

Oh, you got three. 00270 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

That's right.

Rosemary is AN incredible person.

We came out with an unbelievable. Of course, Tomas is tasked with making sure that plan is implemented. But let me ask Tomas to take you through some of this.

This was all planned. I wanted him to get up here. That was my next.

Councilman Ortiz, thanks for asking. We think --

Please identify yourself for the record.

Tomas Hanna, School District of Philadelphia.

Spell the last name, please.

H-a-n-n-a. First name T-o-m-a-s, accent on the a, if you're able. What we're expecting, and frankly, is the excitement that Mr. Vallas has brought to the District, to say: We're going to provide 00271 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole reduced class size, is an instrument that will also attract other folks. Folks, there's also a sense of mission to come to the District to follow a reformer such as Paul Vallas, and what we're attempting to do. Those are two issues that don't cost a cent. Well, reduced class size costs a cent, but the notion, in terms of the outreach, doesn't cost a cent. What we're also expecting to do is support teachers as they subsidize -- as we subsidize their professional education. It's not just coming into the District and saying, here's a class, it's reduced class size, good luck. It's about superior curriculum materials that we rolled out last week. It's about strong teacher support. We're expecting to -- We will implement what we call new teacher coaches. At a 10 to ratio, new teachers are going to be 23 supported by an experienced coach. 24 One of the complaints that teachers 25 give us is, they walk out the door is, you didn't 00272 1 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole support me. You didn't help me in my classroom when I needed that support. This is an area that we're looking to expand upon. And as we mention this, as our recruiters go out and are talking to potential teachers, what they're saying is, I've never heard this level of support before. Huh. Okay. I need to think about Philadelphia again as a district of choice, not as a district of last resort. Another issue that we're very excited about is mandatory pre-service. The other issue that comes to mind --

What does that mean?

Mandatory pre-service is that if Angel Ortiz -- if Councilman Ortiz is --

You know me long enough.

If Angel is going to be a teacher at Shepherd Elementary School and he may be coming from, you know, business, and wants to become a teacher in the District, we have historically secured emergency permits for Angel 00273 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole come in and teach, no background, no training whatsoever. Basically, it's pre-service training for teachers, so that you have an expectation of what to expect when you come into the classroom, how to deal with issues of classroom management, how to deal with the minutia of school operations which, while important, are issues that many times our teachers don't know how to negotiate this. And we propose to do this this summer, tie it to extend the day to summer school programs, where new teachers will come in and be paired up with a teacher in the summer. In the afternoon this teacher would go and work with these new teacher coaches, preparing them in a course, as it were, so that when September rolls around they're not overwhelmed and we don't have that look in deer in headlights when teachers come on board. And that's something we get all the time. So, in essence, summer training support when they're in their classroom so that they really get it, you know, in a wrap-around fashion. 00274 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

What's the cost? And is there going to be any financial incentive, in terms of the recruitment? Because I like Paul's enthusiasm and energy, too. But if I'm -- I'm at college in New Jersey or NYU School of Education, or even Temple, and I get an offer from Bryn Mawr. And Bryn Mawr says to me: You have training. You're going to have all of this: You're going to have a brand new school. It's going to be air conditioned. You're going to have a football field, baseball field, all of that, and you're going to have that support, plus you're going to have this money here.

Mm-hmm.

It puts a balance there.

Yeah. You know, there are -- Let's face it: There are some districts that are not going to be able to compete salary wise, although I'll tell you, the budget that we've laid out does provide for a salary increase for our teachers that will at least exceed the rate of inflation. So we have factored in some 00275 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole compensation increases. It also does not -- It also holds the line on health care costs to our teachers, because an incentive that we can offer or teachers is: We pay decent salaries but we still provide you with health care -- we still provide you with free health care. Okay? Although we certainly try to manage the utilization to make sure that there's responsible utilization. But there are going to be some districts that are going to pay more than us. There are also going to be some districts surrounding this City and in the State that pay a heck of a lot less. We feel that if the teachers come in, and we can subsidize their professional development, we can put them in with mentors, we can reduce their class size, and provide them with that support, we're going to do a heck of a better job retaining those teachers. But we also feel --

How do you deal with the residency requirement? 00276 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

No longer. It's no 3 longer required. Big obstacle removed.

Right.

But we're also going to be doing national recruitment. Right now we have the Teach America, contract with Teach America, the National Teachers Project. In addition, we've just embarked upon a program called The Ambassadors Program, where we turn every single teacher in the school system into a recruiter. We actually pay the teachers a stipend for every teacher that they recruit to this system. But I'll tell you: On top of all those things, the removal of the -- The changing of the window for senior teachers to transfer, the closing of that window June 30th, so that we can tell new teachers what school they're going to go and what class they're going to teach and what subject they're going to teach, after June 30th, and the elimination of leveling, which creates some certainty in the school system for any new teacher, because if you have -- If you don't have 00277 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole enough kids and you're going to lose the position, guess who gets laid off first? Those two provisions are going to eliminate the second reason, the second most important reason why teachers say they don't come to our system. And that is, uncertainly as to what school they're going to go to. So, we think these things in combination will allow us to fill these vacancies. Because as I pointed out, we're going to need three hundred and... and what is it 74? 374 additional teachers next year on top of the 500 to 600 we normally have to hire to fill existing vacancies.

How are we going to make sure --

Excuse me. How many teachers presently do we have, and what type of a shortage exists?

You know, we always carry probably about a hundred vacancies during the year. Teachers leave every month. I mean, there's always an exodus in and an exodus out. So among the -- What's our total headcount? 00278 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole Among... There's currently 11,891 teachers in the system. And so, we carry about a hundred vacancies. But the larger issue for us is, we also carry a much greater number of uncertified teachers or teachers who have not completed their certification. Now, every year we need to replace -- We have about five percent vacancies. So every year we have between 500 to 600 positions that we have to fill. Next year when we proceed with our class size reduction initiative, we will need 12,255 teachers. In other words, 364 additional teacher positions will be opening. So you can add that 364 to the 500 or 600 vacancies that we have. And we're going to have to hire close to 900 teachers next year. It's going to be a task. It's my challenge. It's a challenge that I'm going to have to meet, and you're going to be able to hold me accountable for. But we think we've got the mechanism in place to come close to hitting that number. 00279 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole I'll also tell you one final thing.

One thing. Before I go, because I have to leave. How do we make sure that teachers move into schools like Shepherd, that we just don't get just the green teachers, and that we maintain a certain amount of competency, seniority, so that the poor school -- the school -- not the poor school -- the schools in those areas that are not economically as well off as others get a certain percentage of those teachers that really are the top of the line?

Well, two things. First of all, alternative certification does give us some flexibility to steer teachers to certain schools, number one. Number two, we're going to continue to modify the bonus program which provides financial incentives for teachers to locate in certain neighborhood schools. And then number three, the fact that after June 30th there's going to be stability, in terms of the identification of vacancies that teachers can fill. I think that's also going to help us recruit additional teachers. 00280 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole I will tell you this: You know, clearly, the more experienced the teachers, the greater the likelihood that the school's going to be performing better. But you know, not all the teachers who elect to leave a neighborhood school and exercise seniority and to move to maybe a safer or more secure school are -- You know, they're not always the best teachers in the system. Most of the time they are quality teachers, but sometimes, you know -- You know, sometimes those teachers moving on is a positive feature, because you want individuals teaching in those tough neighborhood schools who are committed, who want to be there, not those who feel that they are stuck there.

I agree with that. Thank you. I've got to go. Thank you.

Mr. Vallas, is this the first year that the teachers are being offered free health care?

No. No. We just -- Most School Districts have increased the cost of their School District -- of their employee health 00281 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole care, through expanded co-pays and through taking percentages out of their salary. Our strategy is not to do that. While we want to make sure that we're managing utilization costs well, because obviously we have to negotiate with health care providers to get respectable health care rates, we do not plan on going in and asking for a percentage of salary to be dedicated to pay for health insurance. So, we don't want to change -- Right now there is no contribution other than the co-pays. And right now our plan is not to require a contribution. We're going to continue to basically operate with no contribution required, save the co-pays.

So that would be for the over 12,000 teachers?

Yes. Yes. Yeah. And that allows us to provide a bigger -- You know, I mean, it's -- In this day and age of rising health care costs, it becomes -- It's an attraction for recruiting.

It's very expensive. 00282 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

It's very expensive. It's very attractive for recruiting.

Councilman Cohen, I believe Councilman Nutter has his light on before you. We start at 10:00 tomorrow morning. We will call a break at 12:00, come back at 1:30, and then from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. we have the public testimony.

We'll have representatives here for public testimony.

Would you be present?

I sure would, if that's the Council's will.

That's the way it works.

Okay. Absolutely.

All right. Because I have some questions referring to various stories I've heard about privatization, whether it increased or decreased.

Mm-hmm.

I have some 00283 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole questions about ROTC.

Yes.

What the plans are. We see some items in the newspaper, but I think we better start tomorrow, rather than getting involved in any of those subjects tonight.

We will also have the background material, Madam President, that individuals requested, the MBE-WBE, number one; the information about the Zero Tolerance Policy, number two. We were asked for a more detailed breakdown of the Capital Plan. That will be provided, number three. We have an organizational chart which we can -- Is it in -- We have an organizational chart which we will distribute, number four. I think you, Madam President, or one of the other Councilmen or Women, asked for a breakdown on how we're complying with No Child Left Behind. We also have that. So we will distribute that material. And the fifth thing is, the one thing that 00284 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole Councilman Nutter suggested or recommended, was that was the breakdown of the expenditure reductions by category. And we'll either -- We'll have all that material in a folder for the Council first thing tomorrow morning.

Would you be able, sir, to tell us how easy or how difficult it is for a retired teacher who is willing to respond to the call for more teachers in return of service? Yesterday I had occasion to meet with a fond retired person living in my community for many years, who retired about three years ago, when she pressed me so much, I was meeting with her to fill a Committeeman's post politically. She pressed me so much, I said: How come you're not teaching again? She said: Oh, so much red tape. Now, I don't know whether that's true or not or whether it used to be that way and it's changed. But I'd like tomorrow if somebody could explain what it would take. Because in the community where most of us are active, we may be 00285 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole able to help them recruiting teachers if we knew what circumstances --

Yes.

-- we would have to face. Tomas and his team are coming up with brochures for retired teachers. And the goal here is this: As you know, Majority Leader Purcell is pushing legislation to eliminate the penalty, the retirement penalty for teachers who retire and then want to continue to teach. We are going to move even faster than the legislation, to contract out with retired teachers. So, next year, any teacher that is at retirement age and contemplating retirement, we are going to offer an opportunity to continue to teach in the system. And they can take the retirement and we will bring them on contract, and so allowing them to continue to teach in the system. So that's going to help us a long way. But we'll get you the information that you need and the number that you can call so 00286 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole any retired teacher out there that obviously meets our standards and qualifications, because we're just not going to -- You know, there's going to be certainly a screening process for those retired teachers who we allow to remain in the system. But the bottom line is, there's going to be a process. And that's going to help us meet our goal of 900 new teachers. Hopefully, the need will be less, because the top retired teachers will elect to remain another year or two.

Thank you.

Mr. Vallas, when does the School Reform Commission going to be meeting regarding the proposal of closing some schools?

April 19th. And we have -- Just to give you update obviously we've -- We'll probably be finalizing our recommendations within the next week. And while we've already made a decision to close Walton, and we've made a decision to close Ellison, although we're going to phase out that middle school -- Alverson, even though we're going to phase out that school, as 00287 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole opposed to just close it all at once, because that is a middle school. And we just don't want to transfer middle school kids to another middle school. We're still finalizing our decision on Durham and Stanton. And as you may be well aware of, we met with the Stanton community last Saturday at the Marian Anderson Fieldhouse, to basically look at some other options. But within the next week, I'll be making my recommendations. I will communicate those recommendations to you, Madam Chair -- Madam President, before we put anything out publicly. April 9th? April 16th. But April 16th is when the issue has to go before the Reform Commission.

Thank you. Yes, Councilman Cohen.

A question, Mr. Nevels. A complaint I get about the School Reform Commission is it's meeting is scheduled in the afternoon instead of the evening. A number of constituents have called said they would like to get to know you, they would like to get to feel as if they know other 00288 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole members of the School Reform Commission, they would like to see you in action. They might want to present issues, but they can't do it because they're working. And 1 o'clock is very inconvenient. And I think in Philadelphia our history and practice has been to hold meetings at the time when the Philadelphia School Board operated mostly in the evenings, to make it possible. So is there anything that can be done to have meetings in the evening? I've never understood and never had a good answer as to why you meet in the afternoon. And I've tried very hard not to say, well, I guess they don't want the public to come. I was trying to preserve a sense of objectivity. So I've always said I'm going to find out. And this is the time. Could we have a change? Could we have some meetings in the evening, maybe every other one? I don't know -- I assume you're doing it because of the convenience for the members of the School Reform Collision. 00289 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

No, not at all. In fact, the tradition of the Philadelphia School District and the old School Board, existing School Board, was to have meetings at the appointed time at 1 o'clock. However, I do -- I am pleased to tell you that there will be a series of meetings, at least once a quarter, in which we will have meetings in the field and in the evenings. So... And, in fact, we -- at schools. So we will be in the field. We'll be accessible. And we'll have those meetings for the public to attend. One thing I want to say to you is that there is a great deal of debate among members of the community that we found last year when we were visiting the 70 schools. Many people said they did not want to have evening meetings, especially parents who had the responsibility of child care in the evening and preparing children for school the next day. So we are going to have a number of meetings in the evening in schools. And the first of those, I believe, will be in May. 00290 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

All right. I think my feeling would be there ought to be at least once a month in the evening. I think it's very important. I'm now talking in your support and not in opposition. If the School Reform Commission wants to be regarded as a legitimate Philadelphia institution as well as a State institution, I think it's got to make itself much more available. We're used to school members who are not presidents of universities, not presidents of major companies, but ordinary folk who come from the community, and therefore we feel better express the feeling of the community. One way of achieving that with the current membership, because you do have one or two members that fit that regard, perhaps --

I'm an ordinary guy.

-- would be to make them more available.

Councilman, I'm an ordinary guy.

What's that.

I'm an ordinary guy. 00291 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole

Well, I don't know. I think you're responsible for Wall Street thinking so highly of the school bonds. I got a call from a stockbroker the other day, commenting about a statement I had made about business. Business frequently may not like statements I make. And he said something about the school bonds, why don't I buy a school bond? I said, we'll I'll buy a hundred dollars worth of school bonds. He said, you can't. He said, you got to buy at least 5,000; and I'll tell you, you've got to pay a heavy premium. I said, what's the premium? He said, well, it's $113 for every hundred dollars of face value. I said, well, that's a refreshing change. There was a time when the school bonds were almost worthless in the mind of the public. He said, well, they're very much in demand. So, again, I think that's a tribute 00292 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole probably to you, because they know you're in the finance business, and they feel very comfortable with the way in which the finances are being handled, apparently.

You give me too much credit, but I'll take it.

So I want to compliment you on that, too. But I really think to get the -- I think it's important, because I don't know how long our law cases are going to last. I don't know what the ultimate outcome would be. But I'd like to prepare for defeat, as well as victory. And if we lose the law case -- If we win the law case and your School Reform Commission goes out of business, then we'll have a Philadelphia Board. But if we lose the case, you're going to be in for quite a long time, and we ought to get to know you better, and the people of Philadelphia ought to feel more comfortable with you. And that's the reason for my suggestion. I think you've got to find a way to 00293 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole be more available to people and to be more customer friendly, in business terms, because your customers of the people of Philadelphia. And while you're here, and for as long as you're here, we'd like you to do well. And again, I want to salute you for your wisdom in selecting Mr. Vallas. Thank you.

For now. (Laughter.)

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Cohen.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you. The chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Vallas, I have four items I would like to ask if you would overnight into tomorrow be prepared to talk about. I do not need responses to these issues at the moment. First, I want to follow up on an 00294 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole item that you and I discussed not too long ago. You made reference to it in your opening comments this morning, but among a number of things. But it certainly deserves more attention than we were able to give it this morning. You talked about summer jobs or jobs in general. I'd like to explore with you the prospect of offering some kind of youth job tax credit to businesses in Philadelphia, to encourage the employment of our young people. We can talk about the age ranges. We can talk about how much might be available, especially in a pilot program for this year, but creating some additional incentive to hire young people in Philadelphia, as an additional alternative to either being out on the streets or just kind of hanging out in general. Secondly, Councilman Cohen mentioned it -- and I'm not sure, although I may have a sense, but I don't want to prejudge where he might be coming from on the issue of ROTC. I saw a story in the paper last week, which I assume was also tied into, to some extent the current war effort. I have my own 00295 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole perspectives on the advantages and opportunities of young people learning about discipline, responsibility, and public service, having nothing to do with war and conflict and battles, and the like. I think that all of those lessons are important for young people to learn, regardless of what they might do in their post-secondary education. Third, there was a bill and a resolution and a ballot question, ultimately approved by the voters of Philadelphia in 1999. This is in the context of when we did have a Board of Education in place. It did a number of things, the most prominent of which was allowing the Mayor to, within a few months of being sworn in, to appoint all the members of the Board of Education, which had never been the case before. One of the not so prominent features of that legislation required two meetings annually, to talk about education issues between the Mayor, the then Board of Education, and the City Council. 00296 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole That opportunity for an education discussion, unlike this discussion which is primarily budget based, not a tremendous amount of education or operation discussion in budget hearings. We have not had the opportunity, actually, to have that meeting or that requirement fulfilled. And so since that time -- And then naturally we had to switch from the Board of Education to the School Reform Commission. I'd like to ask -- This is actually probably more of Mr. Nevels' question -- if the SRC would consider taking up that, quote unquote, requirement. It is not a requirement of the SRC. We cannot require the SRC to do anything. But I think in the spirit of partnership and cooperation, if you would take a look at that and think about how we might take advantage of what I think is a great opportunity for us to work together and not officially see each other once a year at budget time. Lastly --

We would welcome that opportunity, Councilman, to sit down with the 00297 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole Council President and you, to discuss how we might go about structuring that.

Thank you. Lastly, Councilman Cohen raised a question about daytime, nighttime meetings. And there has been that history and tradition in Philadelphia, with -- I believe my recollection is, actually, daytime board meetings, as well as some nighttime board meetings. And whatever the community's response is to either is certainly fine with me. And there will be no one time that is convenient for anyone. What I would like to encourage -- and I know that both Mr. Nevels and Mr. Vallas and many of us talk to business people on a regular basis. And whatever time the meetings are, and specifically the daytime meetings of the Board or Home and School Association meetings, parent-teacher conferences, pick up the report card and the like, I think that the business community and our parents would probably benefit from a bit of a push or an encouragement by you, Mr. Nevels, and Mr. Vallas, with encouraging our 00298 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole business community to emphasize and support our parents in their need and interests, to participate in their child's education. And whether that is within reason, the opportunity to either leave work early, to go to various meetings in support of their child -- I'm not saying leave work early to go hang out somewhere or, you know, go have a cup of coffee. But if you needed to go to a School District meeting or a board meeting or something else, involving your child, that the businesses actually encourage their workers to go to those meetings, and that it's not a tremendous hassle, that it's not a pain, or you're -- you know, like you're asking to, you know, take a week of unscheduled vacation off. It's usually only for an hour or so to go to these kinds of meetings. And I think if the business community -- And I'm not saying people are onerous about it. But I think if the business community heard from the school community that you want to encourage them to be cooperative with our parents and encourage the parents to participate in these kinds of functions, daytime 00299 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole or nighttime, that this becomes an important business issue, so that we don't have situations where you have 500 kids in the school and, you know, 100 parents show up to get report cards. I mean, I just kind of made those numbers up. But you know what the numbers are. And sometimes they're just not that tremendous. That, you know, it's important to this community that people pay attention to what's going on with their child, and that the business wants to support and encourage it. Not to get into their day-to-day details of their lives. But that as a business community, that they're sending out a different message, that if you need to go to a parent-teacher conference or if there's some burning issue over the School Board, go to the meeting. And, you know, we're not going to, you know, put a bad mark on your personnel record or dock you or all those kinds of things. Because that's what people worry about. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

Well, let me respond 00300 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole just one... The whole issue of parent report card pick up. Obviously, one of the things that we're going to be looking at doing in this next contract negotiation, if we -- assuming we can't reach an agreement currently, is to try to get a parent report card pick-up date, where, you know, parents can come after work to pick up the report cards. When, you know, you can only come up till 3:00, 3:30 to pick up your child's report card, that places them at a disadvantage. One of the things that we did in our previous life is, our parent report card pick-up dates were always 12:00 to 7:00. So it would be in effect like a open day, but parents could come upwards to 5:30, 6:00, 7:00 to pick up their child's report card and to talk to the teachers. So it's also not only getting the businesses to provide a break or to accommodate parents, but the school is to open the doors so parents can have an opportunity to come. But your points are right on target.

The 3:00 thing is a bit of a challenge for many of us.

But you're right on 00301 03/24/03 - Committee of the Whole target.

You can always tell when report card day is around here because there are a few of us are running out the door out of hearings. But I look forward to talking with you more tomorrow about these issues. And thank you for the information for today. Thank you. Thank you, Madam chair.

Thank you all so very much. The Committee will stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10:00. Thank you. (Hearing concluded at 5:00 p.m.) 00302 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the City Council Hearing taken on March 24, 2003, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. _____________________________ DAVID A. DEIK, RPR and Commissioner of Deeds (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)