Committee of The Whole, April 30, 2025

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 30, 2025 10:22 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 RESOLUTION: 250214 - - -

Good morning, everyone. (Good morning.)

Good morning, everyone. Got to have some joy in this room. This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 and Resolution No. 250214. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll to take attendance.

Councilmember Squilla.

Present.

Councilmember Gauthier.

Present.

Councilmember Jones.

Present.

Councilmember Young. (No response.)

Councilmember Driscoll. (No response.)

Councilmember Lozada.

Present.

Councilmember Bass. (No response.)

Councilmember Phillips.

Present.

Councilmember O'Neill. (No response.)

Councilmember Gilmore Richardson. (No response.)

Councilmember Thomas.

Present.

Councilmember Harrity.

Present.

Councilmember Ahmad. (No response.)

Councilmember Landau. (No response.)

Councilmember Brooks. (No response.)

Councilmember O'Rourke.

Present.

Council President, Johnson.

Present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the bills and resolutions.

Bill No. 13 250195, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1500 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Wage and Net Profits Tax," by revising certain tax rates, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250196, an ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2026. Bill No. 250197, an ordinance to adopt a Fiscal 2026 Capital Budget. Bill No. 250198, an ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2026-2031 inclusive. Bill No. 250199, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-2600 of The Philadelphia Tax Code, entitled "Business Income and Receipts Taxes," to revise certain tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12-100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code" to revise the fee for the use of parking meters, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax of the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate; and amending Chapter 5 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction the tax rate for the City real estate tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250202, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250210, an ordinance amending Chapter -- amending Section 10-1001 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Fees of the Commissioner of Records," to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds and mortgages in related documents to be used for Housing Trust Fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250211, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Realty Transfer Tax" revising the rate of the tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 19-4400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Development Impact Tax" to end imposition of the tax, under certain terms and conditions. Resolution No. 250214, resolution providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2026-2030, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2025, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.

Today we continue the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2026, a Capital Program and a Forward-looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2026 through Fiscal Year 2031. This morning we will hear testimony from the public before proceeding. I will lay a few ground rules on how we will proceed with public testimony. We are here today to hear from you about the proposed budget for the City and School District. To ensure that there is an opportunity for all of you to be heard, certain ground rules have been established as follows: Your testimony should be made to the bills listed on the Calendar. Once your name is called, you will then have up to three minutes to speak. In order to be fair to all those wishing to speak, I intend to hold faithfully to the three-minute limit. Once you are asked to begin your testimony, a timer will be started. When there are 30 seconds remaining to your time, you will be reminded of this. Once your allotted time has passed, you will be asked to conclude your remarks. I will ask for Mr. Darryl Bundridge to please approach to testify. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good morning and state your name to testify and please give your remarks.

Good morning, Council President. Thank you, Councilmembers, for the opportunity to address you about steadfast support for City of Philadelphia. My name is Darryl Bundridge and I'm the Executive Director of City Year Philadelphia, an education nonprofit that has proudly served Philadelphia for 27 years, supporting students, families and communities across the city and then unwavering in our commitment. However, today I come with a deep sense of urgency. We're at a critical crossroads. We've leveraged AmeriCorps funding for the past three decades, which currently is 38% of our budget. Now, we face the stark reality that this vital funding is at risk of not returning, threatening the lifeline for many of us who have served so many thousands of students. This demand hopefully will call for increased support more than ever before. We have 118 members serving 8000 students across 11 schools providing consistency, safety and connection, elements for student success that are key. We are showing better attendance rates than the larger student body. 56% of all City Year students had an average daily attendance of 90% or better. And City Year students with critical need of literacy and math supports are showing great growth. 58% of students in literacy and 58% of math students moved from a D or F to a grade of C or better. 88% of our principals agree that core members are having a great impact on literacy and math, and 88% of our teachers agree that the core members are having a positive impact on students' learning environment and engagement. Beyond the classroom, our City Year alums are becoming educators, health care workers, lawyers, social workers and nonprofit leaders. 29% are educators. 14% are teachers. And that number continues to grow. We know that investing in City Year is investing in the talent of Philadelphia's future. We're continuing to work with the District to create pathways for high school students to serve, including 10th and 11th grade internships and postgraduation opportunities, but we recognize the challenge that we are facing. Without these resources, we have to at least scale back but we do plan to stay in the city. We do plan to continue to serve. And so, none of this has been possible without your support. So we ask for your continued support. We are respectfully requesting an amount of 1.25 million. This is an investment as vital, if not more vital now than ever. We're working on many fronts to fill the AmeriCorps gap and enable the School District to retain our support. We thank you for your time and your commitment to the students, adults and communities. We urge you to act as decisively as you can to help all programs impacted by this work. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Before opening it up to members who may have any questions, I just want to acknowledge the work that City Year has done. I'm an alumni of City Year Philadelphia, played a pretty critical role in helping me become the person who I am today. What's the total number of students that City Year services and how many schools in the city of Philadelphia?

Yes. Currently we're serving in 11 schools and 8000 students across those schools.

That's all I have, sir. Continue to keep up the good work. Any questions from members? (No response.)

Thank you very much, Darryl.

Thank you.

Will the Clerk please call the next person to testify.

Lisa Haver. After Lisa, we have Calvin Williams and Arthur Steinberg. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good morning. My name is Lisa Haver. I'm co-founder, coordinator of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools known as APPS, and I also write commentary for the Hall Monitor. For 13 years members of the Alliance have attended all Board meetings and of course Council meetings. We write reports on the Board and we write research reports. We testify on many, many issues. We have sued the District on three occasions, and I want to say including the SRC years, not just the Board, because of Sunshine Act violations. No matter your issue or whether we agree with your position, everyone has a right to be heard and to know what the Board is doing. I want to thank all the Councilmembers who asked important and decisive questions yesterday, especially those who followed up until they got an answer. At Board meetings, unfortunately most of the parents, students, educators and community members who speak rarely get an answer. We do not have an elected school board, unlike every other district in Pennsylvania. So it's even more important that the Board be transparent. We heard the Board President say yesterday that the facilities program is not a school-closing program. It absolutely is a school-closing program. APPS has been fighting to get answers on when, in which neighborhoods, how many schools will be closed, and most importantly, why. We attended all the initial public meetings and we did not ever hear an answer to the question why are we planning to again close more neighborhood public schools. In fact, the Board has not scheduled any more public hearings. They have appointed a committee whose meetings are not public and who has issued no 20 information on the recommendations to the public. And we remember the devastation when over 20 schools closed in 2013 and we remember students crying and begging the SRC please don't close our schools, and maybe the Board just doesn't want to hear all that. Another area I would like to clarify is the lack of public oversight of charter schools. Substandard charter schools are routinely renewed whether they meet academic standards or not, whether they educate children with special needs or English language learners. APPS actually had to file a right to know to get re -- a right-to-know request to get information on that Project RISE, which was discussed yesterday, which convened in October 2024. And when we found out about -- actually in these chambers on December 9th. It had not been announced publicly. And the public who pays for those schools that refer to themselves as public charters were not invited to attend. I want to let the rest of that go, but just to say when public schools are closed, nobody has any due process. Charters do have due process. Public schools not at all. One word I was surprised to not hear yesterday was libraries, because that is the one issue that people bring to the Board more than any other single issue. I think Dr. Watlington said they're considering a Chief of Joy, but you really can't have joy without school libraries and we only have three. So I'm going to cut my remarks right there. And thank you very much, Council President, all the other members of Council and I appreciate you being here today for the public testimony. I really, I really do. Thank you.

No, thank you. (Applause.)

I will say we weren't a part of the last school closure process from a leadership standpoint. And so, I'm going to be at the table but also under the leadership of my Chair of Education to make sure it's a very, very transparent process with accountability in terms of how we move forward. And also, the District taking in consideration that when you do right-size schools, you have take in consideration that we are city of neighborhoods and some kids can't go to school in certain neighborhoods, and that's the reality that we have to face in terms of the city. And so, we're well aware of it and we will be on top of it just to make sure that in the event any decisions are made, that the public's recommendations on the issues and concerns will definitely be a part of the process before anything gets approved from this body.

There are no 11 public hearings scheduled. And as far as we know, the Board will be voting we believe in November of this year. There are no public hearings, at least at the Board. I can't say what Council is doing. And I hope you do. But other than this committee that is not open to the public -- which should be, that's a Sunshine Act violation -- there are no public hearings.

I just want to make a recommendation to the Chair of Education and the Vice-Chair of Education that we work in partnership with the Chairperson of the School District as well as Dr. Watlington, but particularly the Chair to have an open process and provide the public an opportunity as opposed to the back- door, closed-door, lack-of- transparency approach that's being taken right now. And so, I want to put that on the record and we will work to make sure that that happens.

Appreciate that. Thank you, Council President.

You're welcome. Councilmember Phillips.

Yeah. I just want to say that Isaiah Thomas has been doing a really good job at pushing the School Board on a lot of -- School District on a lot of issues. And we've been rallying around his meetings that he has. But one of the things I just want to quickly mention is that we do need to ask the School District to come up with a plan to reimagine our libraries and our schools. Unfortunately, because there's been so many cuts our libraries have become spaces where there might be fun activities, meetings, but we need to figure out how to make them into 21st century libraries. And I think that is a focal point that we have to work on as well. I just met with an advocacy group on that this morning obviously. And so, thank you for bringing that up. Thank you.

Thank you.

Will the Clerk please call the next individuals to testify -- can we have Arthur Steinberg, the President of the PFT, to come on up. (Witness approached Witness table.)

We thank you, Mr. Steinberg, for your leadership and advocating and fighting on behalf of our teachers who are our most valuable assets to make sure all of our young people get a quality education. So just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Okay. Thank you for that. Good morning, President Johnson. My name is -- and all the other members of council. My name is Arthur Steinberg. I am the President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents 14,000 education employees in the City of Philadelphia. And as a little aside to show how much support we have from the membership, we have 97% membership density which is really high for public employee unions. We are proud to consider ourselves the foremost advocates for children's education, health and well-being in the city of Philadelphia. First, I want to thank the members of Council for continuously stepping up for public education over the past decade. Because of the passionate advocacy by many on this body, the School District of Philadelphia is on stronger financial footing than it ever was while under state control. I especially want to thank the members here for sharing a vision of abundance and opportunity for Philadelphia's public school children. We will never settle for less than for our students ever. The PFT is strongly in favor of bold increases in state and local funding for the District, needed to mitigate harm done by years of unconstitutionally, chronic, inequitable underfunding and disinvestment of our schools by the Commonwealth. We continue to urge the General Assembly and Governor to accelerate their plan to confer with the Fair Funding ruling in Commonwealth Court, and we strongly support a property tax millage shift and increase to ensure that Philadelphia public school students have the fully-staffed and resourced schools that all kids deserve. So we would ask that you use your influence with the Philadelphia Delegation to lobby the state to make sure that at a minimum the Governor's budget gets enacted. We are tragically living in a time when the very dignity of the children of Philadelphia public educators serve under is under vicious attack. As you heard from District administrators yesterday, the short of the teachers and support staff continues to be a crisis. In fact, the District's inability to recruit and retain staff impact schools in just about every Councilmanic District in the city. Staff shortages cheat students. It is why we at the PFT fight to win labor contracts that cap classroom sizes and cast caseloads. We are one of the few collective bargaining agreements around the state that actually has a maximum class size in it, because our working conditions are students' learning conditions. With our current contract set to expire in August, in addition to the increased wages and improved working decisions we're advocating for, we're negotiating even stronger controls over classroom environments to better protect the rights of our students as well as educators. As the District informed you yesterday, we have nowhere near the number of counselors and behavioral health specialists needed in most of our school districts. In order to attract, hire and retain dedicated educators and specialists, salaries must be competitive with surrounding school districts. Not only do our members make substantially less on average than their counterparts across the region, but our veteran teachers are required to have more credentials in order to obtain the maximum salary than surrounding areas. Our paraprofessionals and classroom assistants perform critical labor every day. They literally are the support system for overwhelmed teachers and counselors. They deserve to earn a living wage. Every day our members display their deep commitment to the communities and the students they serve. They're here teaching in Philadelphia public schools because they are fully dedicated to the post Brown v. Board of Education mission of equal opportunity for all kids. Thank you for your time. I want to piggyback on one thing if I get a (inaudible) on the issue of libraries. One of our contract demands is the reinstatement of a library in every public school in the city of Philadelphia. (Applause.)

Okay. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge our Chair of Labor for comments and the Chair of Education. Starting with the Chair of Education please.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Mr. Steinberg, for your leadership and your advocacy. We share your passion as it relates to fight for all of our stakeholders who are involved in the work of our children, but especially those who work directly with our children. Just to note a personal privilege, Council President, Mr. Steinberg and my father were teachers together some years ago --

Just put it this way, it was before he was born it started.

There you go. And so, my family and I, we know firsthand the educator you are, the educational family you come from, your background and your passion for teachers and for stakeholders who truly care about our children in the city of Philadelphia. So just on a personal level, Council President, I want to say thank you for your service, for your work and for all you do for the public education of Philadelphia. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you for that and everything you do as well.

Chair recognizes the Chair of Labor, Councilmember Jim Harrity.

Listen, you know where I stand. No 9 secret. I think the fact that you're fighting for the libraries back to school is great. I just don't see how the kids do it without, you know what I mean. I know it's a lot different. And a lot of research is now done online, but nothing beats going in and pulling a book and being able to see it in black and white. So I thank you for that. I thank you for all your work over the years. I mean, I remember working with you when I worked for Jonathan Seidel in 1993, so a long time. Keep up the good work. And this Council here, there's a lot of products of the public school system here, so we get it. Thank you.

Thank you. To add a little to what you said about the libraries and everything being done online, that is what the modern 21st century instructional material center has become. So our youngsters need to be trained on how to use all the different equipment and devices and be able to access that research, which again kids all across the region have access to.

Thank you. Vice-Chair of Education Councilmember Dr. Phillips and then Councilmember Curtis Jones.

Just really quickly, Arthur, can you just explain more about what librarians can serve as because people forget that there's research, there's projects, there's technical skills to prepare our children in the 21st century for how to learn basically that librarians can do in the library setting. They're teachers, right?

Yes, it's a teaching certification awarded through the state of Pennsylvania. They don't simply put books back on shelves. They instruct students on how to use the materials in the computers, the Internet, different databases, where to go to find information. It is really the cutting edge of what you need to do to survive in this society going forward. And we're really doing our kids a disservice by not having these services provided to them.

Yep. That's it. Thank you.

Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for what you do. And one of the things I raised yesterday was safety, safety in the schools, safety from often irate parents that come up to school in an effort to show their love for their child and sometimes threaten your members. And we want to work with you and the School District to figure that kind of right and responsibility level out. Second piece is that some of our scholars tend to act out. And if you have 30 kids in a class and one of them disrupts the other 29, how do we gradually move that to a situation where the other 29 can learn? So we want to take a hard look -- we want to take a hard look at those procedures and how it impacts your members. And to the President's point, I want to be culturally competent about parents and teachers who may not speak the same language. But doggone it, there's a basic right to learn and a basic right that your members have to be safe in classrooms that I as Chair of Public Safety would love to work with.

Listen, I appreciate that. All of our members appreciate that. Nobody wants to go to school and run the risk of being injured just by going in and doing their job. We would love to sit down with you, the District and anybody that would want to develop a process to tighten those procedures up. Because you're right, you have one or two youngsters that -- by the way, it may be that they need the special help those mental health counselors that I was talking about that aren't provided. Nothing works in a vacuum. And they prevent the rest of the kids from learning and take all the teachers attention. So we would be thrilled to be part of trying to develop a solution for that.

Thank you so very much. Mr. President, thank you.

Thank you, Chairman of Public Safety Member Jones. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you so much. Just two seconds to say, first of all, thank you for all that you do in supporting our educators and making sure our School District is filled with all of the tools that people, the educators and the students need to thrive. I said yesterday and will say again I think for too long we've normalized the lack of resources that we have in the School District, the scrambling, the fighting for crumbs and we must get beyond that. We have great minds in here and great minds in this building and we've got to come to a way where we can make sure that we are funding the School District at the maximum amount we possibly can from Harrisburg, to here, to a variety of other ways we can do it. But you all know what you need. We just have to help you get there. So thank you for everything.

We appreciate that.

Thank you very much. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next individual to testify. Thank you very much for your leadership. (Applause.)

Thank you.

Next we have Calvin Williams followed by Marissa Johnson, Valenzuela and LaTi Spence.

We could have two at a time. And so, who's the next individual?

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela. After her will be LaTi Spence. And following LaTi Spence will be Jada Butler and Keith Harrington Sr. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Excuse me. Is Calvin -- Calvin Williams. Is Marissa here? Oh, she's not here. Okay. Thank you. How are you doing, sir?

I'm good.

How are you today?

Good.

That's good. Just state your name and begin your testimony, sir.

My name is Calvin Williams and I am a 19121 zip code North Central Philadelphia lifer with three score and a decade of lived experience. And I come being conscious and conscious during that whole period of time. I did bring something to help me try to keep focus in the short period of time. But mine is a story of the tale of two cities. It was the good times and of the worst times. But I'm going to read this to help keep me focused. This was a letter or a note that I wrote to my two adult daughters last year in January, to Chrissy and Kim: You are both a product of the village. The village your grandparents, their siblings, parents and their siblings, cousins, neighbors, schools, community, Grandma Byrd, both parents and yourselves attended, the same neighborhood elementary school, John F. Reynolds. Our paths were where we are today was through the public school system and community college. Not bad as success goes. Both grandparents, Grandma Byrd, Grandma Williams Moore and your parents were deeply involved with the education. You know the stories. Your parents attended junior high school and high schools in the neighborhood. It was all we had and obviously all we needed with the village there to provide for us. The stepping stones rooted in the neighborhood schools has been essential for our successfulness in the village. All of your mother's schools have been repurposed. If she and we had to start today in the village, the neighborhood, how successful will we be? And this is a note to the note. I will always be grateful to the union representatives, my first wife. And Bell Atlantic signed a letter of agreement of employment while she was a senior at high school. At her physical training, before she discovered, my oldest daughter, Christine was on her way, the union saved her position and made it still available for her when she finished high school and she went on to Bell Atlantic and she retired after 40 years. I'm saying all that to say that we have a history in our neighborhoods of training a lot of us in here to be where we are today. And the Reynolds School that I spoke of in the new Sharswood area is there no longer. The junior high school, Vaux Junior High School, is not a junior high school any longer. The girl's mother went to William Penn High School, which was moved to Thompson Street which is not there anymore. She cannot trace her background and the education that she received through the city of Philadelphia and the public school system now. There's no trace of it. And my question is just this, this body has to find a way to have our community schools do the jobs that they've always done and before to bring us in this body, a lot of you here I know and I see are in this body because of that. And my question is, what happened and what went wrong? (Applause.)

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

And I'm available for any questions. Please interrogate me like you did the last guy. I love it. I've come to sit for a while.

Thank you, Mr. Williams.

My name is LaTi Spence. I live in the 8th Council District and I am proud to speak today as a member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black-led parent membership organization uniting families across race, class and neighborhood to demand urgent actions for our schools. We stand with everyone who is here today to call for truly welcoming schools that meet the needs of all their students. I'm going to thank many of you on Council for standing with us for being defenders of joy. But we need your leadership now to fully fund our schools and end the dehumanizing practices we call the Dirty Dozen and appoint a Chief of Joy. I have a daughter who currently attends Houston Elementary and my son will be joining her next year. Before I discuss my own personal story, I wanted to make two points that I think are critically important for us to foster a frank and transparent discussion about our schools. First, there is a lot of discussion around fiscally responsible, this idea that providing more funding to our schools would not be fiscally responsible. I personally am a bit confused by this concept because what I don't understand is how pulling $306 million from the reserves, nearly half of your savings, to pay for expenses is fiscally responsible when there are other means. How positioning the District to face a $2 billion deficit in five years is fiscally responsible. I think every parent can understand the concept that if we keep pulling from our savings, eventually there will be nothing left and the amount we must give or fund becomes too large to catch up. We need the investment now to avoid a much larger, unattainable amount later. Second, as a parent I find it incredibly frustrating to hear constant discussions around the underperformance of our schools. We know exactly why our kids are underperforming because our schools are underfunded, lacking teachers and necessary programs. It's like an employer blaming an employee for not writing fast enough, but only providing the employee a paper and pen and refusing to pay for a computer. You cannot criticize schools performance when you are failing to fund their success. Our schools are facing a major budget deficit and we can't afford to lose any more programs or staff. We know that programs our kids rely on are often deemed optional and cut when they most certainly are not. This happened at Houston with its beloved robotics program, leaving teachers and parents to raise funds to save this fantastic program. I'm incredibly grateful for the parent engagement we have at Houston, but whether schools have certain programming should not rely on whether parents can afford to financially support programs at the school. We need to stop expecting parents to consistently fill the gaps on the needs of the school and what should be provided by the School District and the City. These programs are not extra. Programs like these create spaces for joy. We know what happens when our kids enjoy learning. Whether schools have adequate programming should not rely on what parents can afford. These programs are not extra. They are basic necessities. They create spaces for joy. We know it happens when they are excited and willing to learn. Today our schools are barely surviving, not thriving. We need Council to lead. Come up with a real plan to fix the District deficits and protect students, teachers and staff, including a 2% millage shift this year. If we fail to act, we will be back to cutting critical staff and services and kids will pay the price. Thank you again for standing with us and for the time today. (Applause.)

No questions, comments from members? (No response.)

Thank you. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next individual to testify.

Jada Butler, Keith Harrington, followed by Linda Rubin and Melissa Sway. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning. Just state your name for the record and please begin.

Hello. Good morning, Council President and Councilmembers. My name is Jade Butler and I proudly serve as an AmeriCorps city member with City Year Philadelphia. I wanted to warm up the vibes a little bit and start with saying g-o-o-d m-o-r-n-i-n-g, good morning.

Good morning.

I also reside in Councilman Young's District. I wanted to thank you guys for the opportunity to share the important work our core members carry out in service each day in schools across the city. I serve as a student success coach and team leader at Olney High School in District 8, represented by Councilwoman Cindy Bass. Olney High School is a special place and I am proud to be serving two years in a row within these halls. In tandem with the school's motto, we welcome you choose, let's grow. Our City Year team at Olney strives to present our students with a multitude of ways to grow both academically and personally. One of the more important connections I've established at Olney High School are my relationships mentoring and tutoring our students who are athletes. This has been crucial in ensuring they stay on track to graduation, maintain eligibility for games and making certain they understand the importance of the student and student athlete. With the help of myself and my City Year team, all of our students are able to time-manage effectively, communicate with their teachers, maintain personal responsibility for classwork, celebrate their wins in and outside the classroom. We can do this and so much more because we have developed strong mentorship with our students and we are able to advocate for them. In addition to student success, City Year cultivates the next generation of leaders through the 18- to 25-year-olds that serve in our core. We receive both personal and professional development that guide us towards success after we complete our year of service. As I complete my second year, I am earning my degree in organizational leadership and change at College Unbound, a partner university of City Year. I hope to join the School District of Philadelphia as a high school English teacher and I'm passionate on creating writing centers and high schools to support teen literacy efforts. City Year has shaped my path and I am proof of its impact. In fact, for 27 years City Year has been strengthening our communities and empowering young leaders. City Year Councilmember -- or sorry. City Councilmembers, please accept my deepest gratitude for continuing to invest in City Year. It means investing in brighter futures and a stronger Philadelphia. Thank you for your time. (Applause.)

Thank you for your testimony. And also, most importantly thank you for your service. Go ahead, sir. Please begin.

Good morning. I apologize from the outset. I don't have a cheer for you. I am sorry. Good morning to the distinguished members of Philadelphia City Council and to all assembled, I am humbled to come before you today as the principal of John F. Hartranft Elementary School located in District 5, represented by the Honorable Jeffrey Young, Jr. I also come as a lifelong Philadelphia resident in the Overbrook section of District 4, represented by the Honorable Curtis Jones, Jr. And as I sat here, I heard a lot of things that really resonated with me. I wish I could speak about all of them, but that's not my task this morning. My task is to speak on behalf of City Year and to echo what was said by Executive Director Bundridge and by our core member Jade. My partnership with City Year began in 2010 with my appointment as principal of Thurgood Marshall School. I quickly determined that I never wanted to lead a school that did not have City Year as a partner. At Hartranft, City Year works directly with our 3rd through 8th grade students and that will continue into the next school year. City Year bridges the gap created by the school's limited resources and human capital, providing inclass support and small group instruction as our students strive to achieve academic proficiency. Through membership and the establishment of relationships, City Year supports the school's mantra for all students to be safe, be respectful and be responsible. The City Year student success coaches are critical to our endeavor to meet the challenge set forth by the District, to accelerate learning and to equip our scholars on their journey to becoming productive members of society. As we continue in the implementation of a new math curriculum, a new language arts curriculum and soon a new science curriculum, the coaches work directly with the classroom teachers to facilitate new ways of teaching and learning that are focused on student engagement and participation. There's a well-known cliche that resonates in many circles. In God we trust all others must bring data. City Year's impact is well substantiated by data. The midyear report documented that about 80% of focus list students at Hartranft were meeting their grade prevention goal for reading or math, and 75% of focus list students were meeting their attendance prevention goal. Perhaps the biggest City Year endorsement I can give is that I encourage my own son, Keith, Jr. to serve as a student success coach after graduating from a Philadelphia public high school eight years ago. I witnessed the impact City Year had on his development at the same time he was impacting the South Philadelphia School community in which he served. Your investment in City Year will provide the resources to attract more young people like my son to serve as student success coaches, to be the champions for the many more at-risk students who are presently beyond City Year's capacity, the District's capacity and the City of Philadelphia's capacity to reach. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. Thank you for your services. Any questions from members of City Council? (No response.)

Hearing none, Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next individual to testify.

Lynda Rubin, Melissa Tsuei, followed by Kyaire Outterbridge and Marion Campbell. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning. My name is Melissa Tsuei, and I'm the manager for the Thrive Project at HopePHL. Thrive works to support 12 schools in the District, eligible families who participate in HopePHL's programming and individual students across the District referred by the School District's homeless education program and other referral resources. We provide case management, rental assistance, eviction prevention, temporary hotel stays, security deposits and much more. Some of the schools that we partner with are Strawberry Mansion, Morton McMichael, E.W. Rhodes and Feltonville Intermediate. Our work operates under McKinney-Vento federal law, which governs the educational rights of students experiencing homelessness. At HopePHL, our umbrella agency, we provide emergency shelter, truancy prevention, behavioral health programming and many more services. With our partners at Valley Youth House and Eddie's House, we have led efforts to make the city aware of the scope and scale of homelessness among children. I'd like to share a case that illustrates what our Thrive team does to support families experiencing homelessness. This family was comprised of a single mom of a high schooler and middle schooler in the Philadelphia School District. The family was referred to us by our school counselor, who mom disclosed a lack of utilities to. The family had no running water and no heat. The students qualified as the family fit the definition of McKinney-Vento eligibility due to not having access to an adequate and safe nighttime residence. Mom had historically worked as a home health aide at the time that we met her but was living on public assistance and waiting for a filing error to be reconciled with her unemployment claim. She was scammed by someone posing as a landlord who later disappeared and the home's heat and water had been cut off for some time. Mom reported symptoms of depression, experienced trauma historically in the Philadelphia homelessness system and her daughter was missing school on a regular basis due to the challenges the family was facing. When we were able to come into contact with this family, my team was able to support her in the following ways: We were able to give transportation funding for mom to get to job interviews. We provided gift cards for food, laundry, clothing and school supplies. We made referrals to CareerLink for employment support and to Methodist for mental health services. The family's high schooler was referred to a District program that supports students experiencing homelessness to develop education, job and life skills, and we worked together to play to address her daughter's truancy which resulted in the student's increased attendance. As far as housing, mom had been submitting applications but she believed that her credit score was dissuading landlords from working with her, so our team was able to reach out to the landlord and guarantee her security deposit so that the landlord would invest in this family. One common factor in many cases that we come into contact with is that time is required to build a trusting relationship to allow us to address the many layers of complexity that families are dealing with. Our programs allow the time and relationship building that is required to support these families. School counselors have been amazing partners in this work, but even the most dedicated school counselor and school personnel just don't have the time to address the holistic nature of these issues and the complexity of the things that families are facing. So what does this -- I'm running out of time. Can I wrap it up?

You are, but you can still make your last point. Go ahead.

Okay. So I just wanted to make the point that the City gets from investing in programs like Thrive and Valley Youth House and Eddie's House, we're increasing supports for children in the city. We've served 338 students, 483 of their siblings across 329 families. This means that we're also helping schools meet the federal mandate for McKinney-Vento services. Sorry, I'm going to skip through some of my statement in the interest of time. You have everything here. I'm going to just skip to what we are asking for. So we request that the City of Philadelphia commit 4.5 million over a three-year period to sustain these current programs. So that's Thrive at HopePHL, Valley Youth House and Eddie's House. A three-year commitment is necessary to retain qualified staff and build consistently good relationships with school principals and counselors. Thank you so much for your attention. (Applause.)

Thank you. Councilmember Jones and then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

It might not have come as a surprise to the Chair of Education, but it was a shocker to me that one-third of the students at my alma mater Overbrook experienced some type of homelessness. It blew me away to know that that type of housing insecurity existed. I don't know how they deal with the day-to-day pressures of that insecurity, but I think I would like to find out along with my Chair of Education. But also, Mr. President, if any student body deserves a scholarship, it's that student body because in spite of, they make their rounds. And if they can find their way to graduate, find their way to a college campus, I would love to raise some money to find a way to offer that scholarship to that population.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Member Jones. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to thank HopePHL for being here and to commend the organization on its work. Your efforts are vital to our city's ability to end homelessness and I appreciate all of your work and advocacy, and I'm proud to have you in my District. And in particular, I want to thank you for focusing on this issue of student homelessness. This is something that for me, even as the Chair of the Housing Committee I was unaware of the scale of this problem before it was brought to my attention by HopePHL and the other organizations involved in this effort and our Education Chair. But I do know that this is solvable. And it's up to us to solve it. And so, definitely we will be supporting your budget ask. This is critically important. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. (Applause.)

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.

Thank you, Council President. And in the spirit of Councilmember Gauthier, I just want to provide just a tiny bit of context. We had a hearing last summer at the Sixth Man Center where a lot of the members of the Education Committee, and if I remember correctly, even Councilmember Landau, not a member of the Education Committee but still came to the hearing that day, we were able to listen to the work that was being done by these organizations, specifically through the narratives of the young people who were able to benefit from the programming. So this started with COVID dollars where the School District recognized the void, put up a few million dollars in a private pilot program to support Valley Youth House, Eddie's House, and Hope Philadelphia Thrive, right -- did I get it right?

HopePHL.

HopePHL Philadelphia. Sorry. And what we found was these organizations were able to create a system and a pipeline to fill a void for a problem that they didn't create, the School District didn't create, but we began to see some solutions. And so, fast-forward we met with Dr. Watlington and team and we were struggling to find funding and we were able to find some temporary funding in collaboration with this legislative body, but nothing sustainable. So it's imperative that we find a way to fund these programs through the City, through the School District and even possibly pulling in our state partners to ensure that the support systems and programs that they provide for young people who aren't traditionally homeless, right, like that traditional I don't-have-nowhere-to-sleep homeless is very different than the young person who doesn't realize they're homeless because they're couch surfing. One week I'm staying with grandma. Next week I'm staying with Auntie. A couple weeks I spend the night over my friend's house. In our young people's minds, that's not homeless. But from a societal-ill perspective, it is. So thank you for leeway, Council President. And thank you to all three of the amazing organizations for the great work they're doing.

Thank you. (Applause.)

And also, I know we have a homeless working group that specifically tries to look at this comprehensively and always trying to find more voices of our young people. So the young lady right here named Christina that's behind me on the tech team, could you provide your information as well just to keep you in the loop on how we're trying to address the issue of supporting homeless youth, if that's okay.

That'd be great. Thank you.

Ms. Lynda Rubin, good friend, how you doing?

I'm okay.

State your name for the record and please begin.

My name is Lynda Rubin. I'm a retired Philadelphia school counselor for over 40 years and I'm a member of Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, advocating for real public schools. Thank you. Saving and rebuilding true public schools: This past February, Lisa Haver and Deb Grill wrote on the APPS website about how the privatization of public schools over the past years has had more to do with real estate and investments than educating children. "By any standard, the privatization of public schools has been a failure. Data collected over the years in schools in Philadelphia and in districts nationwide shows that neighborhood public schools consistently outperform charter schools. Charter schools are not public schools. They do not accept all children in their neighborhood and many have been cited for lack of service to students with special needs and English language learners. Over time it has become apparent that the charter school business could make a lot of money, especially for real estate deals by the charters backers, legal offices that make a lot of money to specialize in charter schools and also oversee these profitable real estate deals as well as hefty salaries for the CEOs themselves, including family members. APPS has spent time pouring over the 990s in financial payouts to executives, staff and associated agencies. The amount of money that's been siphoned off by charter-adjacent companies over the years is astounding. Names like Pa's own Jeffrey Yass who, with his wife Janine, brought in David Hardy to start Boys Latin. Billionaire Vaughn Garrigan in Chester County, locally Veronica Joyner, CEO of Math Civics and Sciences announced in October 2023 that she was shutting down the school because of years-long battles with the Board of Ed over the school's lack of progress and not adhering to the contract, suddenly shut down the school without a plan or informing the parents of students even by one day. This is not an isolated incident. Good intentions aside, all this is doing is enriching individuals making a name for themselves in newly-formed real estate and charter adjacent companies. Conversely, the actual Philadelphia School District tries to oversee these companies as by law but who has a history of ignoring the Board's oversight." And it is just very important that -- I'm just finishing. It's very, very important that neighborhoods that anchor the schools and that there are long-lasting places between the elementary schools, the middle schools, the high schools, these are incredible things. We grew up with them and we need to repair them and reinvent them rather than just giving away to charter schools who may or may not pay attention. Thank you. (Applause.)

Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)

Ms. Loughead, please call the next individuals for testimony.

Kyaire Outterbridge, Marion Campbell, followed by Jada Hardman, Quadirah Locus. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning, Council President and members of city council. My name is Marion Campbell. I am the Executive Director and co-founder of Eddie's House and we are a committed partner with the City of Philadelphia in addressing the needs of vulnerable students, families and communities in the Philadelphia area. Eddie's House is a community-based agency that has been in the trenches for over 10 years. We are located in North and 11 West Philadelphia. Our mission is 12 to empower lives, equip 13 individuals, educate people and 14 enable communities. And we do this 15 by strengthening individuals and 16 families, by addressing 17 hopelessness, housing, food, basic needs that include clothing, hygiene, whatever else is needed, education, economic and life insecurities. Both locations serve as community and youth support centers. Our North Philadelphia location is designated as a youth access point for young people who are experiencing housing insecurity. Our North Philadelphia location is unique because it has access to showers, laundry services and mail for young people who are experiencing housing insecurity. A little nervous, but that's okay. All right. So we are currently working with over 12 schools on site at seven schools 13 and have a staff of four people. 14 And since September 2024, we have 15 serviced over 150 families with 16 just the School District McKinney- 17 Vento program, which we call HELP. 18 The situation that we 19 are dealing with and that we all 20 deal with, that we all should know and recognize is that children are sleeping on the floor, children are going hungry, children are living with no running water or electric. Families are doubled or tripled up. We have five people living in one room, families living in their car or sleeping on the streets, students coming to school dirty, hair matted and bed bug bites. High school students and families couch-surfing, single parents trying to make ends meet and generational poverty that communities are facing. Yes, this is what we see. We also see the frustration, despair and hopelessness of children and families that can lead to high student dropout rates and crime. Imagine a high school student or a parent that thinks they have no way out and needs to provide for their family. The result may be something illegal. So while this funding is so important, okay -- why this funding is so important not just short-term, but it also benefits the long-term -- it's also a long-term investment. So I am going to be running out of time so I am going to skip to -- hopefully I can read this little case. No, I'm going to skip to why invest. So we all know there's a housing crisis in Philadelphia. Finding affordable housing is an extensive time- consuming activity for those with good credit and making a real living wage. Imagine what it is like for someone who is homeless or unemployed or has no credit and doesn't have the information or support needed to work through their circumstances. And I can go on. There are a lot of different things that contribute to this issue and there's a lot of different reasons why we believe you should invest, but our ask is similar to, you know, we represent with Valley House and HopePHL. Our ask is similar to them, that we just -- the City of Philadelphia can commit to the $4.5 million over three-year period. I'm going to stop. (Applause.)

Thank you very much.

Good morning, President Johnson and Councilmembers. My name is Janiyah Heyward and I am years old. I 16 am requesting funding for the 17 agency partners contracted with the 18 School District of Philadelphia to 19 support children and youth experiencing homelessness. We are asking for 1.5 million each year for three years totaling $4.5 million. I care about this issue because I am one of the 10,000 children and youth identified as experiencing homelessness. Experiencing homelessness while trying to go to school was very frustrating and hard. I have a now 4-year-old son. Juggling him in school while also having to worry about where we were going to sleep put a toll on me. Students experiencing homelessness have much lower rates of attendance and for a good reason. When I was going through it, it was so hard for me not only to get to school but also to focus once I was there. I wasn't able to focus in school up until I met the Synergy in Schools team at Valley Youth House. They helped me with clothes, food access and transportation as well as my overall motivation. I could talk to them about anything and I became a part of the community, giving me a sense of belonging and purpose. Given all I was going through, I also really benefited from the one-on-one therapist at Valley Youth House. It was flexible. I could reach out to her between meetings. She was hands-on and always checking up on me. This support helped me regain my focus, set goals for myself and my future and gain a connection to my community. I also regained my focus and motivation for school through becoming a youth ambassador at Valley Youth House. When a peer or someone going through something similar tells you about a program that really helps, you believe them and it means something different. Our Youth Ambassador Program does just this. We go school-to-school to advocate and teach youth about their rights, and I let them know that there are programs out there who really help. These programs work, and being part of the Youth Ambassadors has changed how I navigate situations and how I approach my community when they're struggling, I now have something to offer them that I know works and view my community through a different lens. If this type of support goes away for children and youth, the rates of homelessness will continue to rise. Youth will be lost without a guiding light and resources to help. There will be more youth involved in the juvenile justice system and Chauncey Court and who do not graduate. Our young community will lose their purpose and will turn to the streets. I am calling on you today to continue funding these programs to save our youth from this destruction. Without this funding, we will lose the opportunity to really get to know what they're going through and what solutions work. More importantly, we will lose the opportunity to know the potential and the futures of more than 10,000 young Philadelphians. Thank you. (Applause.)

Well, first we just want to say thank you for your leadership. You're 19. You're coming down to City Hall speaking truth to power. Before I turn it over to the Chair of Housing, I would just hope that if we borrow $1 billion for a housing plan, that at least we are targeting and supporting homeless youth as a part of that program. And so, I will work with my colleagues as we do a deeper dive on this borrowing to address the housing crisis in the city of Philadelphia to show you we make sure that the children of the city of Philadelphia who are homeless should be incorporated as a part of that particular plan. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, Chair of Housing.

I concur, Council President. I couldn't have said it better myself. And I wanted to thank both of you for your testimony and say a special thank you to Ms. Marion and Eddie's House for all of your service to homeless youth in my District and across the city. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

Thank you for your testimony. Will Ms. Loughead please call the next person to testify.

Kyaire Outterbridge, Jada Hardman, Quadirah Locus, Erica Breitbarth and Madison Kearny. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Could the next person who was called join us at the table. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Just state your name for the record and please begin.

Rich rising, everybody. My name is Quadirah Locus. I want to say I'm deeply grateful to be here and everyone coming together to address the urgent issue of student and family homelessness. My name is Quadirah Locus and I serve as the Synergy in School Supervisor at Valley Youth House. Since the program's inception, I witnessed this deep impact on youth and families, some of which are the most vulnerable members of our community due to the limited supports available. In Philadelphia alone, more than 10,000 youth are experiencing homelessness and we have remained committed and focused in our approach to solving this issue. While our City leaders face many priorities, housing stability remains the foundation to improving education, public health and community. To address this issue effectively, we are asking for 1.5 million annually over the next three years to fund the three community agencies partnering with the School District of Philadelphia. These funds will allow us to identify and support children and youth experiencing homelessness, ensuring they receive vital services in connection to resources. This investment is not only compassionate, it's fiscally responsible, offering long-term solutions at a lower cost than reactive measures. Our partnership with the (inaudible) office at the School District sparked a more comprehensive systems level collaboration that continues to grow. What began as a targeted effort now serves as a model for bridging education housing, delivering meaningful wraparound support to those who need it most. The Synergy in Schools team at Valley Youth House has been pivotal in this effort addressing both immediate needs in equipping youth with skills for long-term success. We provide direct services, helping them re-enroll in school, offering emergency assistance like temporary housing, navigating homeless services and child welfare systems while supplying essential items. Nearly 70% of the young people we serve are unaccompanied who also have an extreme lack of systems because of previous involvement. And there is a certain level of approach that is needed to restore that trust and receive buy-in for ongoing support. One participant from SIS program reflected that their focus was solely on making it through each day. The program, however, helped them develop emotional regulation strategies and taught them how to plan for the future, manage stress and take control their finances. They emphasize it for the first time they felt like they had a roadmap disability rather than just reacting to crisis-after-crisis. Intersecting homeless services and education systems has allowed the agency to partner with schools across the city to provide direct immediate support for students and families. The collaboration not only increases community knowledge around the issue but also breaks down the silos in which we previously operated in to provide a continuity of care. School counselors and (inaudible) teams have an onsite presence with their assigned MV team and designate point of contact to support for these families and students. I'll close out by saying referrals have more than doubled since the beginning of the school year compared to last year. Discontinuing these services will cause a major disruption and increase the gaps of services that are already scarce and limited. The return on investment for these services is undeniable. By funding these services, we invest in not only the stability of youth and families today but also in the strength and resilience of our community tomorrow. This 1.5 million investment is a promise to Philadelphia's 10,000 youth experiencing homelessness, that their potential matters and we believe in their future. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. You can begin. State your name for the record.

Good morning, Councilmembers. My name is Erica Breitbarth and I'm a doctoral student in education at Temple University. I'm here today to speak on behalf of the over 10,000 children in Philadelphia who are currently identified as homeless. As a former classroom teacher of over 14 years, I know firsthand the immense and complicated needs of students without stable housing in our school system. The students identified as homeless in my classroom were in desperate need of emotional and logistical support far beyond what I could offer them as a caring and dedicated educator. The students experiencing housing instability had often had trouble focusing, were more likely to act out in class and struggle to keep up with academic work. And it wasn't that they didn't care or didn't want to do well in school. They were simply overwhelmed by the challenges that come alongside housing instability. I saw firsthand how these students could fall through the cracks when teachers and support staff were overstretched and expected to meet their needs while also educating hundreds of other students. As a city, we need to provide more support for homeless students in schools to prevent school staff burnout and give these vulnerable students a better chance to succeed in school and in life. The number of students experiencing homelessness in our city is on the rise, and data shows that students without stable housing have lower academic achievement, poor attendance and higher suspension rates than their housed peers. There are proven ways to address these disparities here in Philadelphia. And the targeted support offered by programs like HopePHL, Eddie's House and Valley Youth House exist to help school staff and connect homeless students to the additional services that they need to succeed in school and beyond. These vital programs formerly funded by the American Rescue Plan need to continue if we truly value the future of our most vulnerable students. I implore you to allocate 4.5 million in the City budget over the next three years to continue this important work for Philadelphia's children. These students are the future of our city and I urge you to prioritize their needs in this budget. Thanks. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. Questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)

Hearing none, will the Clerk please call the next individuals for public testimony.

Next we have Madison Kearny, Donna Fields, Donna Cooper and Mitch Chanin. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Just please state your name and begin your testimony.

Good morning and thank you for your time. My name is Madison Kearny and I am a graduate student at Temple studying urban education and policy. My most recent experience is working as a teacher's assistant at Tanner G. Duckrey. This is a K through school in our city's 5th 8 District, which spans over much of North Philadelphia. As of 2023, roughly 8% of our school student population was experiencing homelessness. 8% doesn't seem like a lot, but frankly any percentage is too much. When I think of the effects that homelessness has on youth, one particular student of mine comes to mind. He was amazing. He was funny, kind and patient, but he was also tired, hungry and disengaged. Our school was the only stable place that he had. So naturally, he spent most of his time sleeping at his desk in the back of the classroom and rarely was I able to get him to participate in class or hand in any assignments. But I couldn't blame him because when you don't know where you'll sleep at night or if you'll go home to dinner, you don't really care about completing your work. I did my best to help him get caught up. On the days when he was more present, I always encouraged him to participate in class and small group activities and I always kept snacks with me for him. I did what I could to ensure that he always got breakfast and lunch at school and was always willing to provide him with one-on- one support. Still without the proper resources like those offered by organizations such as HopePHL, Valley Youth House and Eddie's House, there was only so much that I could do. He was in 8th grade reading at a 3rd grade level and had failing grades for most of the year. His teachers ended up passing him and he matriculated to 9th grade despite all of this. I often wondered how he was doing and if he is still in school or if he was just one of the 510 8th graders that the District identified as homeless that year or is he just lost in the District's database as one of the 10,029 homeless students they identified. It's a harsh reality that many of our students face every day and it is one that weighs heavily on me. Each story is unique. Yet they share a common thread of instability and struggle for basic needs which only go unmet without future funding. You guys can do something about this. It is time for the City of Philadelphia to step in and help fund a better tomorrow for our youth. I ask that you support the partnership between the District and Valley Youth House, Eddie's House and HopePHL. Support the request to incorporate $1.5 million annually over the next three years into the City budget so that they continue identifying and assisting our students who are housing insecure. This is not the solution to our housing crisis in Philadelphia but is the piece of it, as our students deserve to thrive. (Applause.)

Please begin your testimony. Just say your name.

That was beautiful. Good afternoon. I, Donna J. Fields, I'm a Philly native, a product of the School District of Philadelphia and I am the mother of three daughters who attended a combination of charter, Catholic and magnet schools within the Philly School District. For nearly a decade, I've been a registered nurse and for two years I've worked as a school nurse with the School District of Philadelphia. For the last years, I have resided in 13 Council President Kenyatta 14 Johnson's District. 15 Thank you, Council 16 President, for your continued 17 support of Rebuild funding of our 18 recreation centers, summer 19 programming for our youth and 20 increasing safety and monitoring in high-risk areas and high-crime areas. Thanks to an unwavering resilience instilled by my ancestors and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my eldest is a Temple University graduate, my second born is a junior at Thomas Jefferson University and my youngest is an incoming freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. (Applause.)

During my last visit with City Council thanks to Lift Every Voice, I recall your questions regarding the ratios of students and counselors. Expert national organizations and state law set the student council ratio at 250 to 1 and the student nurse ratio 750 to 1. At my school, we have over 900 students. I am the only full-time nurse and an assist nurse who visits twice monthly. Two counselors, one who is also the athletic director, unavailable regularly due to practice and games and the other whose role is also the college prep coordinator. We are nowhere near the recommended ratios. I have referred hundreds of students to counselors and I've witnessed the results of exclusion to alternative schools with less funding and less resources than were previously mentioned. We are continually filling the school-to- prison pipeline. I can no longer stand by and watch the cycle of a system failing our children. These children, our children, your children, attend these confirmed unconstitutional, underfunded, underresourced and unregulated Philly schools. Isaiah Chapter 44, Verse 3: For I will pour water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. Right now I see a lack of urgency for increasing the share of property taxes going to the schools and a plan for business tax cuts over the next years. 5 (Applause.) 6

This leads 7 me to believe this Council is 8 having a difficult time empathizing 9 with nearly 200,000 students. I 10 sadly question if you truly will 11 fill the parents with the love that 12 they need in the city and the 13 support that they need. 14 You, our Councilmembers in collaboration with our first female Mayor Cherelle Parker, hold the power, the authority and the responsibility to make this significant, crucial and vital impact of funding our schools for the citizens of Philadelphia. Thank you so much for your time. (Applause.)

Thank you. Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)

Thank you very much and thank you for living in the 2nd Councilmanic District as well. Thank you.

Next we have Donna Cooper, Mitch Chanin, followed by Sarah Burgess and Margaret DiSanto. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you very much. I'm Donna Cooper. I'm the Executive Director of Children first. New haircut, yeah. Okay. On behalf of Children First, I'm here today to ask this Council to continue to increase local funds for the School District by increasing the millage transfer by at least 1% adding $25 million to operate our public schools. And we thank the Chair of Education for being clear that poverty and education are the biggest challenges the City faces and funding the schools help tackle both. And we appreciate this Council very much because it's reached a high watermark in terms of how much it's funded the schools. And I want you to know we are loading up buses to go to Harrisburg to secure the more than 200 million that's on the table for our schools. And we need Philadelphia to step up to do another million. In my neighborhood in Councilman Young's District, I also want you to know that I don't hear anybody clamoring for tax cuts. I am active in my neighborhood every week, night, meetings, weekends, and to a person they want better schools. In the last decade, the City Budget Office underestimated expected revenues for the next fiscal year nearly every year, doing so makes some in Council skittish about adding funds above what the Mayor proposes. I urge you to look at the numbers yourself and get the confidence that you can responsibly make these funds available. Case in point, this year's budget preparation documents show less money coming in next year than the current fiscal year is already receiving. City revenue corrections are above estimate already. You can do this. Some members of Council do know that revenues are strong, demonstrated by the out-loud discussion of tax cuts of the BIRT, property or wage taxes while our schools were starved. The best economic development and family- friendly strategy for this city's growth is improving resources for our school. You heard that enrollment is growing and achievement is up yesterday. Make the decision to increase the millage before examining how to pay for tax cuts because that's what more than 200,000 parents and caregivers and children in the city want you to do. The School District's budget next year has a projected fund balance of about 8% of its budget. That's what the state asks school districts to do so that they can take care of things in emergency. That fund balance is enough to fund the School District for just three weeks. And given what Donald Trump has in mind, they may need to use that. Don't let the fact that the District is holding funds and reserves for emergency be a reason not to give money for operating costs like libraries and teachers to reduce our class size and counselors. You have operating department choices. The latest reports from PICA show overtime costs at over 250 million for police, fire and prisons. It's hard to wrangle these costs, but it seems quite reasonable to ask these departments to improve their overtime controls to generate the 10% you would need to fund the schools. One more sentence. The proposed budget also increases debt service for the $800 million in housing investments, and boy, do we support that. But you can adjust the debt service schedules so that you can generate enough money to increase that million. There 9 are ways to do this. 10 Only two months ago we 11 gave every member of Council this 12 report on the struggles of our 13 children. There is no world in 14 where it makes sense to wait to 15 provide funds for our schools. 16 Thank you. 17 (Applause.) 18

As a proud public 20 school mom, we thank you very much 21 for your testimony and for your 22 continued advocacy. Thanks for 23 being here. 24 Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is Mitch Chanin speaking today as a member of Philly DSA's Education Justice Committee. I grew up in Northeast Philly and I'm extremely grateful for the nurturing that I received in our neighborhood public schools for 11 years. 12 My parents worked in Philly public schools. My dad was a counselor, could barely keep up with his incredible caseload and were active in the PFT, and the fight for education justice has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. All of our kids deserve a nurturing education in safe, healthy facilities and I'm asking you to take a few steps to honor that right. I wish I could echo all of the powerful asks and stories that were shared today, but I'm just going to focus on a few things. First, echoing Lift Every Voice we need courageous leadership to solve the District's funding crisis. The District will spend 40% of its reserves next year to avoid massive cuts to essential programs. Council needs to increase school funding by 50 million and plan for the budget crunch that looms after that. And I cannot understand how we're even considering slashing the BIRT tax when the School District has a massive structural budget deficit. It just seems off the wall to me. Second, it's time to end dehumanizing practices and honor kids' dignity and provide them all with joy. I remember the nurturance that I received as a student in our neighborhood schools through art classes and in the gifted program and in a fully- staffed library. All students deserve joy and dignity and Council should press the District to hire a Chief of Joy. Third, schools where I live in the Northeast are absolutely bursting with newcomer immigrant students who need much more support than they're getting. Council should appropriate the $1.9 million for the programs that Juntos is calling for to support them. And finally, so many of our buildings are unsafe and unhealthy. DSA has been raising the alarm about the need for safe air. Many schools lack ventilation and air filtration, exposing our students and staff to respiratory viruses, asthma triggers, allergens and other hazards. My mom worked as a school secretary for years in an 4 office that had no ventilation most 5 of the time and was 90 degrees 6 every single day year-round. Not 7 good for her health to say the 8 least. Council should press the 9 District to follow CDC guidelines 10 and supply each room with a HEPA 11 air filter right away. They could 12 do that at a minimal cost with 13 major benefits for health and 14 learning. 15 We've been back and 16 forth with Oz Hill about this for 17 months, for years now. We keep 18 hearing they're considering it, 19 they're studying it, they're making 20 moves in that direction. We can't 21 keep waiting for this. And for the 22 long-term, we need a facilities 23 plan that ensures every school has 24 a high quality HVAC system. And to protect a livable climate, we need HVACs that heat our buildings affordably without oil or gas. I'm thrilled that the District and the City and PGW -- I'm almost done -- are exploring plans now for a geothermal network that would heat and cool the McCloskey School and the Dorothy Emanuel Rec Center in Cedar Brook. But why is this only one location when we have an entire city? Council should press for integrated capital planning that includes the City, the District and PGW to replicate this all across the city. Please fight as hard as you can for the funding that we need for an end to these dehumanizing practices in our schools to support our newcomers and make sure everyone has safe air. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and for being here today. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good morning. My name is Sarah Burgess and I am a proud member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black-led organization of parents united across race, class and neighborhood to transform Philly schools. We stand with everyone here today calling for truly welcoming schools that meet the needs of all their students. I am a long-time educator. And so, I've always understood that schools were places of awesome responsibility, but it's only when I became a parent that I felt this in a whole new level. I and my fellow caregivers are trusting the School District, and by extension, City Council to care for nurture and develop the people in this world we love most. When I think about what I want for my child, a 2nd grader at Lea Elementary, it starts with joy. I want her to feel good, to take pleasure in the way her body moves, to have fun with others, to enjoy learning. In a world filled with political uncertainty and rapid technological change, the value of joy in community is enduring. So when she tells me the amount of time she schemes ways to avoid going to the gross bathroom closest to her classroom, I know we must do better. When she repeatedly reports not having recess outside on a warm day for an unclear reason, I know we must do better. When I know the versions of the issues my child faces are much worse for my fellow Lea families in less stable schools, I know we must do better. This past year I taught aspiring educators at Temple. And when we turned our attention to funding, I was embarrassed to explain how many districts in Pennsylvania, including ours, are inadequately funded. When I explained that some schools in our district don't have the resources to adequately staff consistent recess or to support students with mental health challenges, I felt my students disbelief. This is the best we can do? It's not. We all know that. Our children deserve more than survival. They deserve schools that are joyful, safe and supportive, which is why I'm here with my fellow parents to demand that you marshal your time, talent and resources to fulfill our collective responsibility to care for our children. Currently the District, as you have heard, is using 40% of its reserves to stay afloat. Next year there won't be enough left. This is not fiscally responsible. You must increase funding for Philly schools by $50 million this year with a 2% millage shift. And you must plan now for next year in the future. Show us a plan so that we can feel confident our leaders won't let the School District face the financial crisis. I would feel immeasurably proud to be a parent in a city and district that leads the way, showing through historic, unprecedented investments in schools that we take our responsibility to our children seriously. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you for your testimony. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. MS. DiSANTO: Good morning, members of City Council. My name is Margaret DiSanto. I am a proud resident of West Philadelphia in the 3rd Councilmanic District. I serve as a block captain, a committee leader and an avid voter. I'm here today to strongly urge you to invest at least million more in our public 20 schools because our children can't 21 afford to wait. 22 I'm also a former PreK 23 and elementary school teacher. I 24 spent years in the classrooms and I've seen firsthand the toll that underfunding takes on our students and on the educators to show up every day for them. Special education in particular is in crisis, deeply underresourced and chronically short-staffed. Our students with disabilities deserve better. They need consistent well- trained professionals who can truly support their learning. Without adequate funding, we are failing to meet even the most basic needs. Pennsylvania ranks among the worst in the country when it comes to school funding equity. That isn't just a statistic. It's a reflection of what we choose to value. When we underfund schools in Black, Brown and working-class neighborhoods, we're sending a clear message about who matters and we're pushing our passionate qualified educators who simply cannot stay in a system that doesn't support them. As a block captain and committee leader, I hear from families in my community all the time, people who are doing everything they can for their children but who feel left behind by a system that refuses to invest in their future. As a voter, I know we have the power and the responsibility to change that so I'll say it again: Allocate the additional million our public 16 schools desperately need, invest in 17 our children, support our educators 18 and give our communities the 19 resources they need not just to 20 survive, but to thrive. Thank you. 21 Vote May 20th. 22 (Applause.) 23

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and your advocacy. And I think you forgot one very important title, Ms. Margaret, and that's mom to my Girls' High classmate. So thank you. Girls' High. Thank you very, very much for being here. So, Clerk, will you please call the names of the next set of witnesses.

Maritza Guridy, Keisha Nicholson, Madison Perry and Vivian Chang.

Please if you could make your way to the podium. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Don't leave yet, Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas, don't leave yet.

Please state your name.

Good morning. My name is Maritza Guridy. I'm a Philadelphia parent that is an active voter and community member. I am a constituent in Cindy Bass' 8th district. I have five children, three of which have gone through the Philadelphia School District. Two that are currently 3rd graders at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. I also have two grandchildren, one of which is a kindergartner in this District. I am here today to ask a question: Who will be taking care of all of us in the future? How are future caretakers supposed to be equipped to be our future if they are not properly educated? This proposed 14-year plan, if passed, will affect the rest of the educational careers for not only my children, but all of our children. It would be a disservice to all of us to allow a deal that will decrease that much needed resources in an already tapped-out budget to be squeezed out completely. The result will further devastate our School District. Our children deserve a larger piece of the pie. They deserve to get the million that is being asked for 12 the School District of 13 Philadelphia. They are our 14 leaders, caretakers, and keep this 15 in mind, future voters. 16 I am imploring all of 17 you that have made promises to your 18 constituents to make education an 19 important part of your agenda to 20 follow through. Money for 21 education should not be a fight 22 every single year. It should not 23 be another empty promise year- 24 after-year or term-after-term. Our children need access to better now. It should not be -- it should not matter what socioeconomic status of a school community or their families of particular schools to determine how much money a school gets. Families want a cleaner, greener and safer Philadelphia, but families also want for all of our children to have access to better education. I stand here in representation of all families that cannot be here today to speak to let you all know that we demand better. It is your job to make sure this happens. For those of you that have followed through with your promise, thank you. To Councilman Chairman Thomas, thank you. Thank you for bringing this to light. Stand with them and support this fully, honestly and transparently. Do not allow another generation of our children to get less. They deserve better regardless of their zip code. I want to add something also. When it comes to libraries, if you want to see an example of an excellent library, visit the library of Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. They have a beautiful library and it is staffed by a person that comes in as a volunteer. So volunteers matter. School libraries matter. They were a safe haven for me and for my children as they were coming up in schools. And as far as the homeless situation, yes, we want more homes. We want affordable homes. That is why a lot of our youth are homeless because their families can't afford a roof because the rents are too high. Thank you. (Applause.)

Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Sure. Good morning -- good afternoon to everyone. My name is Keisha Nicholson. I'm a District parent at Bryant Elementary and a first member of Lift Every Voice Philly, where I now serve on the board. Lift Every Voice Philly is a Black- led, parent-led organization organizing across race and neighborhood to demand real change in our schools. We've grown from one chapter at Bryant to members representing 18 schools across the city. We've spoken with hundreds of parents and our base is rooted in our communities that we lost the most and have the most to gain. I'm here today to speak about the budget crisis. It's not front page news, but it should be. The District is on track to repeat the same mistakes we saw in 2013. At Bryant we know what happens when budget cuts threaten our children. In 2013, budget crisis taught us that school budgets are matter of life and death. That was the year Laporshia Massey died at Bryant suffering an asthma attack because there was no 15 nurse. That year a child at Jackson Elementary collapsed and died at another school without a nurse. These weren't isolated tragedies. These were the District's result of disinvestment. We can't get those children back, but we can and must make sure it never happens again. (Applause.)

We know City Council had invested in our schools and we feel it. We pay out wage taxes, we pay our property taxes, we pay our soda taxes and we know that in the end all we have is us. The District has already spent 40% of its reserves just to fund next year. That's not a solution. We need a real plan and a down payment on that plan. That means doing more. Shift the millage by another 2%. As parents and taxpayers, we refuse to go back to time when schools operated without nurses and counselors. We knew teachers and staff were laid off like relationships don't matter, but they do. Relationships are the heart of our schools. We also need full investment in what makes schools joyful, art, music, recess and a freedom for our kids to play, create and thrive. These are nonnegotiables. We're asking you to stand with us, not just to protect what we had but to build something better for every child in this city. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much for your testimony. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is --

Oh, pardon me. Pardon me one moment. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Young.

Thank you. I just want to acknowledge my cousin Keisha for being up here for providing her testimony. So thank you so much, Keisha.

Thank you. Thank you very, very much, colleague. We welcome your family to this chamber. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

My name is Madison Perry, and professionally I'm a researcher and much of my work concerns public policy and tax policy relating to children and families. But I took time out of work today to come here and speak as a private citizen because my partner is a teacher, and he obviously can't be here testifying today because he's teaching 9th grade Algebra and Physics at Lincoln High School in the Northeast right now. He actually can't take any days off for the whole remainder of this year because in the fall, he got one of those upper respiratory colds that's always going around in the schools and then it developed into quite serious pneumonia and used all his absences. I'm here to highlight the importance of indoor air quality as you allocate money for the school budget, some of which will go towards school facilities improvement. Lincoln is really lucky to be in one of the newer and nicer buildings in the District, but I know for a fact that they still score badly in terms of dampness and mold. Compounded with the overcrowding, which has been highly publicized, those are conditions that are conducive to students and teachers getting sick more often, being absent from school more often. I've actually read all those facilities conditions reports that the District paid four years ago, and I know for a fact that a large number of the school buildings in this District have entirely outmoded and completely nonfunctioning ventilation systems and insufficient climate control, which further exacerbate latent issues of mold, mildew, asthma and transmission of illness in crowded classrooms. I also want to note that Philly has an exceedingly high rate of childhood asthma. In the hearing yesterday, a few Councilmembers mentioned the poor condition of many school buildings and asked about the facilities plan. District leaders responses focused quite a bit on the planning process and not so much on what's being done now to improve conditions in older buildings. I'm focusing on air quality as one facet of the necessary improvements, improvements that we can make in the near term and far more affordably before we talk about any school closures or building new schools. In this year's budget, I am asking the School Board to appropriate funding for -- I'm sorry. I'm asking the Council to earmark funding for the School Board to spend on HEPA air filters in all classrooms to meet the CDC guidelines for indoor air quality, as Philly DSA's Safe Air Campaign has been advocating for around two years now. Installing HEPA filters is a low-cost investment that the District can and should make now. While we do need a comprehensive long-term plan, we don't need to wait for that to be completed before installing HEPA filters. We need a line item for that this year. We also desperately need to fill the funding gap for the School District. I think we need to move the District's share of property tax millage from 56% to 58%. We know that the District has a structural budget deficit and is pulling a large portion of its reserves to stay afloat this year. Not only do the Philly schools need that million more this year that 17 Lift Every Voice is advocating for, 18 we need sustainable budget plans 19 for the future. 20 I want in the relatively 21 near term, modern electrified HVAC 22 systems in every school, geothermal 23 ones, like at Kensington CAPA. We 24 need our Council and our District to start explicitly allocating funds toward that now. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and we're so glad that your partner is feeling better. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. My name is Vivian Chang. I'm here with Asian Americans United. My colleague and I will be reading testimony from students who are in the School District of Philadelphia and our youth program. Obviously, they can't be here today but they deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity as children of our entire city and as we treat each other with. So what you will hear in their stories are national shames and embarrassment to our city, but hopefully calls to action. City Council must allocate $1.9 million for three newcomer programs, which provide vital, academic and social support for recently arrived students. The School District must reinstate the Multilingual Assessment Center and Council needs to press them on this. That is critical for ensuring proper placement, language access and resources for immigrant families. As you heard throughout today, a Chief of Joy protecting our children from dehumanizing conditions that destroy their potential, we need all of these things. We need housing and supports for homeless families. We need clean air for educators and students. And none of this is possible unless we move the military and the City stops giving up on the BIRT business tax exemption. Because right now City Council is considering to squeeze blood from a stone from 80,000 small businesses while cutting taxes for the biggest corporations. We cannot fund any of this while doing all of that. So I wanted to share testimony from one of our youth. I'll be reading in first person in her voice. Hello. My name is Astor Chou. I'm a student at the Academy at Palumbo, and for once I'm in school and not at City Hall. Throughout my time fighting and advocating for Chinatown, I sacrificed a lot. I missed school to be at City Hall and spoke in this room 23 the night before my AP chem test to plead with the room of adults to care about the young people in this city and our communities. I was stuck between two decisions, to do my testimony, to be seen but maybe not heard and fail my test or spend the night full of regret and fail anyway. I have spoken at School Board meetings and watched as the Board stared blankly at students and twiddled their thumbs. The topic of my speech was disappointment. And I think the longer that I am in the School District, the more this becomes visible. Watching Board members on their phone as students cried in fear of ICE raids and not addressing any of the students was infuriating. They sent a message that when you encourage students to speak up, you don't listen to them. In Astor's voice, why must we coddle adults who are entrusted with voting and all the privileges of adulthood only to require hand-holding for them to do their jobs and support young people. My school has survived pipes burst, flooding, electrical fires, ceiling collapses, lack of mental health resources, the take- over by mice, asbestos and just other common Philly school things. But no student should fear losing their teacher or going to school for doing what we believe is right and getting support. Palumbo is still one of the more privileged schools and other students in the District endure even worse and that is the norm. We need funding for schools and for it to be allocated properly. The students deserve better and we are watching. We need our government to do more for us. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you for your testimony. The Clerk will now call the next witnesses.

Ashley Redfearn, Mercedes Mason de Gomez, Ashley Rosario and Mijuel Johnson.

Thank you. Please approach the witness table and proceed with your testimony and do state your name for the record. (Witnesses approached Witness table.) MS. MASON dE GOMEZ: Good morning, Councilmembers. I am Mercedes Mason de Gomez, educator of 19 years, native and resident of District 8 and a proud member of Philadelphia Charters for Excellence, the citywide voice of Philadelphia's public charter school community which collectively serves over 64,000 Philadelphia public school students in over 100 campuses and neighborhoods across the city. Our esteemed Mayor Parker has a vision for the city, one Philadelphia, a safer, cleaner, greener city with access to economic opportunity for all. Inspired by her vision, I ask that we commit to one standard of opportunity across our public education system, recognizing that public charters and traditional public schools are both essential institutions providing access to educational choice for all students. Too often Philadelphia charter schools are pitted against district-operated schools. Yet both are public schools open and accessible to every Philadelphia student at no cost. Kai is a bright and driven 5th grade student living in Philadelphia's District 7. Raised by his devoted single father, Kai is thriving both academically and personally thanks to the strong partnership with his family and his public charter school. Kai excels in his studies, participates in the Mayor's extended day, extended year programming and is known for his kindness towards classmates and leadership abilities. He has a deep passion for reading and inspires those around him with his bilingual superpowers and his love of learning. Kai's journey highlights the potential realized in support of school environments across our city. Furthermore, broader evidence supports the positive impact of robust school choice. A 2024 study by the Progressive Policy Institute found that in cities with large, vibrant charters, the opportunity gap for children from low-income households is narrowing. I hope you support all Philadelphia students by uplifting our public charter schools. They are vital for Philadelphia, provide families with high-quality options and deserve equitable funding and fair policies along district-operated schools to truly achieve the one standard of opportunity. Let's work together to ensure every student in Philadelphia has access to great education regardless of the type of public school they attend. (Spanish translation). Thank you for this opportunity. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good morning. My name is Ashley Redfearn. I'm the CEO for American Paradigm Schools. We represent four public charter schools in Philadelphia with 4200 students in our network. Our schools have libraries. Our schools have counselors. Our schools have student-based health centers to support their wellness needs. I'm asking today that you ask some specific questions of the School Board prior to approving the budget. Memphis Street Academy is one of our schools. Memphis Street Academy and parents are in an active civil rights litigation arguing that the academic success domain used by the Philadelphia Charter Schools Office is structurally and statistically racially-biased, penalizing schools that serve high percentages of Black and Hispanic students. The framework relies on unadjusted comparisons to district averages and test scores and attendance, measures that are strongly correlated with student demographics and neighborhood conditions. Despite operating in Kensington, one of Philadelphia's most traumatized neighborhoods, and despite meeting the financial and operational standards under the Charter School renewal framework, MSA faced closure based on flawed and inequitable metrics. The closure decision was made under a surrender clause shortly after reopening from COVID-19, a devastating disruption for students and staff who rely on the school not only for learning, but for health services, food and community stability. School closures are among the most traumatic experiences a student can endure. We respect and appreciate the work of City Council in reviewing the Ballard Spahr report. Now, we urge Council to take the next step and examine how the charter school framework itself disproportionately harms Black and Brown communities. Due to our litigation, the School Board is already in possession of detailed evidence of the framework concerns. Please do not make the students and staff of Memphis Street Academy wait more years for the inequities to be addressed. Every charter school that experiences a conditional, a one-year renewal, a nonrenewal or having signed charters and not approved by the School Board, it affects our ability to hire, retain, and even finance facilities. The consequences of delay are real, compounding and unjust. The slide that was displayed yesterday about the role of the Board versus the Charter School Office is one I've seen modified a number of times through the years, and I urge you to pay attention to how the decisions are made and how frameworks are being applied. Thank you for your time and your work. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your work and for your testimony. Thank you both for being here. The Clerk will call the next witnesses.

Ashley Rosario, Mijuel Johnson. Then we have Peri Law and Amy Hollister. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you very much for being here. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you for having me. My name is Ashley Rosario. I live in the Northeast section of the city. My Councilman is not present today. I'm here as a mother, a policy student, a former teacher, advocate, a community member because I believe deeply in the power and potential of our young people and I refuse to let them be left behind. We need a Chief of Joy. We need Black and Brown educators. We need youth housing. But I'm asking City Council to extend $25 million to the School District of Philadelphia for our young people. We're moving forward with business tax cuts down the line, will take away 11% of City revenue. We say it's about creating future jobs, but what about creating opportunities for the young people already here. Young people are not just the future. They are the present. And if you do not fund our schools today, you'll find that future a lot emptier than you planned. You know this but I'll say it anyway. Our students are showing up every day to buildings that are crumbling, a lack of teachers, counselors, libraries, classrooms that are overcrowded and programs that are being stripped away. Slack that is being picked up by parents. They deserve better. Fully funding our schools means giving every child a real shot at success, not a lifetime of survival. I know this firsthand because I not only work with these young people, I'm raising a young person that's being shortchanged by this very school system. The one that they are legally required to attend, we are legally forcing them to suffer. When we underfund schools, we limit what our young people can dream, build and become. We create jobs on one side but shut doors for an entire generation on the other. We cannot grow an economy on broken promises to children. We cannot create a better Philadelphia and we fail to invest in the people who will inherit it. We are maintaining the exact system public education was built on in predominantly Black and Brown communities. Politically, we're moving the clock backwards. Let's not do that to our schools too. I am asking you to invest in young people. Extend the school budget by $25 million. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much for your testimony and thank you for being here. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hello. My name is Mijuel K. Johnson and I'm also calling for the School District budget to be fully fulfilled. So as one who has an all Philadelphia education, I'm deeply troubled with what I see within our schools. I want one to see our schools fully serve our students. And when it comes especially to our facilities, I want our school facilities to match our students' ambitions. While our school facilities are slightly older, I remember going to George W. Childs School and actually being proud of the fact that the school was built in 1894. But that being said, the buildings do require higher, massive amounts of renovation. And I would hope that we'd focus on renovation as opposed to demolition and replacement, at least for the majority of our schools. Some of our schools are on the National Registry of Historic Places, and it's vital for students to be in a place where they can feel inspired by the structure of the building to reach their full potential as well. Also, I would like for our schools to focus on investment in areas such as environmental sustainability. We can actually turn our schools into batteries for our neighborhoods by combining geothermal heating, cooling and electric along with solar. We could actually have our schools produce more energy than they use, making them net positive and potentially even sell off some of that extra energy for an additional revenue stream for our schools. I hope that we would be able to invest in this budget as well as long term. Our schools should also be a major part of our long-term plan for people in our city. Our city in 1950 had a population of 2,071,000. We're down to 1.5 million. We have space to bring in more people. If we have a school that, for example, that maybe was built to fill 1000 but only has 400, that's room for 600 students, say, 600 students from Ukraine or from Gaza or from Congo. We could be opening up our city and building our city's population nation and building our city further and stronger into the future as well. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

Thank you very much for your testimony. The Clerk will now call the next witnesses.

Peri Law, Amy Hollister, Luis Ojeda, Carla Luna. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you very much for being here. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Hi. My name is Peri Law. I'm a youth educator with Asian Americans United and I'm here to read testimony from some high school students that I have the privilege of working with who are unable to be here due to being in school and taking AP exams and PSSAs. So this following testimony is from a senior at Masterman: There are a lot of issues in my school. We had asbestos, glass leaks, our roof caving in, floods in bathrooms that leaked in the floors below. And to the average person, that probably sounds awful. So it's atrocious that I have to go to one of the most well-funded schools in the District and all of these issues are still happening. I have friends who go to schools with far less funding and when I hear their stories, I'm stunned. They don't have working heating in the winter. Most of their classrooms don't have air-conditioning and they have to suffer through blistering heat in the summer. Some don't even have basic necessities like toilet paper in the bathrooms. This is not a minor oversight. It's a failure of priorities. Students are expected to show up and do their best every day. The District should be held to the same standard. Safe buildings, working facilities and basic supplies are not luxuries, but the bare minimum. If even the best-funded schools are facing these problems, it shows a clear pattern of negligence that cannot be ignored. The District has a responsibility to do better. It's not a question of whether there's enough money which there isn't. It's a question of whether the students are truly being put first. And I have another testimony from a freshman at the Academy of Palumbo: My name is June Dong and I'm speaking to you about this budget dilemma. I struggle with major depressive disorder and heavy anxiety, but our counselors are not the best and students do not receive the resources or days that they need to maintain a good state of mind to academically succeed as a happy scholar. Why should I have to be jeopardized by something I cannot ever truly cure? We request more assets catering towards these with special needs and require more assistance when it comes to their education and more opportunities for those who did not learn English as their first language. Students who are in a bad financial situation should receive help getting the support they need for a better learning experience. There were days I worried about whether or not I would still have a house to return to when my home income was so low, we needed to receive food stamps. Our buildings are collapsing of age and there are people who fear when a fire or ceiling caving will occur. Heating is such a perpetual issue that I don't even go to my fourth period without feeling light-headed. We ask you to take action and take these issues into account when making decisions regarding our budget. We need safe and physical spaces that our youth want to show up in, not ones that are falling apart around them. We need more funding for our students wellness with licensed mental health professionals who support our young people as they are their full selves. I am also here to urge City Council to allocate 1.9 million for three newcomer programs, which provides vital support for newly-arrived students, that the District needs to bring back Multilingual Assessment Center to provide proper support and resource for immigrant families. We need real protections and support for young people and their families in the city regardless of immigration status.

Hi. My name is Luis. I go to the Academy of Palumbo. I joined Juntos when I was in 8th grade in 2023 after an incident that happened to me when my collarbone broke in school. The school didn't do anything about it. My mom was infuriated when she saw they didn't do much to support us. It was only through Juntos that she was able to get more information and support. I am tired of my District making me and those around me feel unimportant. We don't feel like our physical, mental and emotional safety are prioritized. Let me take into the reality of how many youth that are in your hands are constantly feeling. ICE, have you heard about them and what they're doing? You most likely have heard of them. But if you haven't, let me tell you what they are doing. They are going and taking people into horrible detention centers. They are ripping families apart. These may seem like numbers to you. But to us, they're our dads, our moms, siblings and more. They are harming our families. These families have students in your district. Many parents are scared to take their kids to school. What's going to happen when school starts to empty because of the consequences of what is happening? We shouldn't have to live this way. Kids are in class worried for their parents and for themselves and can't focus in class. We need to know what you will do to protect us if worst happens. As of right now, it feels like there isn't much being done to avoid and prepare teachers and administration if the strategy were to occur. The District claims school leaders have been prepared, provided guidance about how to protect immigrant students' rights. The Superintendent's recent statement came late and only after community pressure and still doesn't answer all of our questions. From what I know, teachers are worried about what they should do. They decided to take things into their own hands. Why should they be doing that when they are supposedly given the guidance? What has been happening in this country impacts your students and families in every way. The School District placed a small amount of resources to get the pressure off their back and felt like that was enough. They might have created this small portion of resources with such a big team, but don't you think they could do more to help? I, along with many other students, feel like there's so much more that can be done to ensure our safety. We need to know if you are with us or against us. There is no 6 in between. We demand safe schools. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and thank you for your advocacy. Very, very proud of you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good morning. My name is Carla. I'm a student of the School District of Philadelphia. I'm here today to speak on why the School District of Philadelphia must fund and implement the resources immigrant newcomer students need. Right now in a city filled with thousands of immigrants, there are only three newcomer student programs in Philadelphia schools, two programs at high school level and one at a charter middle school. One is located in North Philly and the others in Center City. But what about the newcomer students who live in the other areas of the city? Take South or Southwest Philly, for example. These are some of the highest immigrant- populated neighborhoods in the city and they have no newcomer student school programs in their own neighborhoods. It makes me upset and frankly disappointed that the School District hasn't done something about it sooner. How can you say you support the students of Philadelphia when they are leaving so many students behind by not investing more in newcomer students? Access to the right education and right support is everything. It makes the difference between students staying in school and students dropping out. Three programs are not enough, not even close. In the $1.9 million budget that I'm here advocating for, it would fund not only three more newcomer programs, but it would also bring back the Multicultural Assessment Center and hire six new BCAs. I know $1.9 million is a large amount of money, but isn't the gift of education priceless? Philadelphia is a city built by immigrants. It's time that we show that we haven't forgotten that it's time to invest in our future, all of our futures. It's time to invest in immigrant families. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you for being here. We're very proud of you. The Clerk will call the next set of witnesses.

Amy Hollister, Angelica Carrillo, Le Quien Vu and Lilianna Sand. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you very much for being here. You can state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

(Spanish translation). INTERPRETER: Hello. My name is Angelica. I am a resident of Philadelphia and the mother of three children, one of whom attends Palumbo High School. I am here today as a community member of Juntos to offer my support and connection with the Sanctuary Schools Campaign.

(Spanish translation). INTERPRETER: During the years that my son has attended school in the School District of Philadelphia, I have requested support from the District, their staff and faculty in order to guarantee he gets a good education.

(Spanish translation). INTERPRETER: When I asked to speak with the school administrator and the counselor about his education, a bilingual counseling aide was there to interpret so I could convey my concerns.

(Spanish translation). INTERPRETER: Those meetings produced an Individualized Educational Plan for my son.

(Spanish translation). INTERPRETER: Thanks to this program I was able to support my child through the many hardships he faced in getting an education. Without it, I wouldn't have known how to help my son. Even today if I need to ask questions or get clarification about my son's education, I know that I can count on the support of the interpreters and translators the school offers. I think this is a key resource that enables me to be actively involved in his education. Unfortunately, we don't always have interpreters in the schools. And when this happens, we're forced to communicate through Google Translate. Google Translate is not always reliable. And furthermore, it's not always accessible for those that don't know how to read and write or even worse, asking third parties, including our own children who are not professional interpreters, to facilitate sometimes delicate, conversations with their teachers. Even though I'm not here representing every Spanish-speaking parent, I know that this is a common experience among us. It is critical that the City and the School District recognize the importance of resources, resources such as bilingual counseling aides and multilingual assessment centers by awarding them the necessary funds to expand their programs to serve families such as mine. In these times in which students and families are under attack, the City and the School District should take the following steps to ensure their resources. In this case we ask for $1.9 million to facilitate the right to a good education. We hope to count on your support. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Thank you for your testimony. Gracias. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Councilmen and Councilwomen. My name is Le Quien Vu. I am the Executive Director of the Indochinese American Council. I am here today not as an Executive Director of the Indochinese American Council, but I am here as a friend of my 218 little friends that I work with at Jay Cooke and at Edmonds. I want to tell you a story about myself, the story that I tell these students day-in and day-out. And I also wanted to keep that promise to students at Jay Cooke, they keep telling me, Ms. Le Quien Vu, you make a promise, you have to keep that promise. I came here, I left Vietnam when I was 17. I came here when I was 18. I came with nothing except for one set of clothes on my back, but public school, only high school, helped me to be successful. Public school in 1982 and 1984 when I graduated, I repeated high school but I graduated high school, had a lot more to offer than the school today. So I am asking you to at least do the right thing for the children who don't have a choice of going to Catholic school, who don't have a choice of enrolling in a Friends school, to have an adequate education, to have a gym. Jay Cooke did not have a gym for eight years. They finally have it fixed, the first one fixed, because the floor caved in. The second one is being fixed this year. Imagine a school in the neighborhood of Logan and the children can't play and don't have a place to go and being locked up in the classroom. So I am asking you to increase the share of property tax so that the school will have the funds that it needs in order to have just a safe, adequate place, activity or education, science education at the minimal. Jay Cooke did not have a science teacher two years ago for half a year. Math, science are the basics of what children need. So please do what you need to do. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. The Clerk will call the next set of witnesses.

Lilianna Sand, Kimberly Nelson, Inella Raquel Ray and Elena Brunner. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

All right. I'm Inella Raquel Ray. So good morning, City Council. I live in the 3rd Councilmanic District so I'm very disappointed not to see my Councilperson here currently. I am the Director of Parent Advocacy and Engagement at Children First. I am also a founding Board member and current Co-chair of Lift Every Voice Philly and a proud graduate of Philadelphia public schools. I'm here today to urge you to direct an additional $25 million to our students by increasing the millage reimbursement that goes to schools. This isn't about numbers. This is about our values. It's about making sure our schools are places where young people can experience joy, where their potential is nurtured and where they can have what they need to grow and thrive. Yesterday during the School District's budget hearing the topic of swimming came up. And like many of you shared, I believe that swimming is important but it's also a powerful metaphor of what's happening to many of our kids right now. Our children are drowning, not in water but in schools that don't have enough staff, enough resources or enough support to hold them. They are doing the best to stay afloat and systems that were not built to keep them safe or help them succeed. I know this because I was a student that was drowning. I went to Academy at Palumbo High School, which is a magnet school. We didn't have a full-time nurse or librarian. Music and art only appeared when the budget allowed. We had to share sports teams with nearby schools because we didn't have our own, and we only went on one school trip, our senior trip, and we had to fundraise that for ourselves. That was nearly years ago. And yet the families I speak with every day are still navigating the same conditions. And I would argue they're more egregious. You all heard on April 4th at the Joy hearing how egregious things are and you all need to act. So I want to ask you all directly, if you had the power to keep a child from drowning, would you? Because that's the situation we're in, not just with one child but with 198,000 children in this city. And right now you have the power to keep them afloat. You can throw them a lifeline while we wait for Harrisburg to do their job. The conditions in our schools are urgent. Our schools are not failing. They are being failed. And just like with swimming, we cannot keep telling them to try harder if we're not willing to provide the tools, the instruction and the care they need. This $25 million investment is one way you can act now to keep our kids up, to help them breathe, to show them and all of us that this city is willing to fight for them. (Applause.)

Hi, everyone. Can everyone hear me? Okay, yeah. Hi. My name is Elena Brunner. I'm a long-time Philly resident from the Kalmyk Mongolian community and I am here to give testimony in support of the $1.9 million for three newcomer programs and reinstating the multicultural assessment centers in the School District led by Juntos. Our community originally came to Philly about 70 years ago as refugees struggling like many other communities to settle and survive day-to-day. We are an endangered indigenous Northern Mongolian people of Siberia and the (inaudible). Today there are only 270,000 left of us across the world, significantly less than the people of just Philadelphia alone. Since 2022 we have unexpectedly welcomed the arrival of our second mass migration of Kalmyk seeking asylum in Philadelphia, many families with school-aged children. They quickly escaped our ancestral lands because of turmoil, flew across the world and were held in detention at the border for varying lengths of time and entered a new environment with a new language in Philadelphia, this all while and navigating confusing immigration processes and threats of ICE harassment, detention and deportations, also trying to stabilize housing, food, utilities like electric and water at home, and helping their parents with younger siblings. That journey is a lot for young children to experience. It takes a toll on long-term emotional health, which we unfortunately learned from the last generation of refugees from 70 years ago and are still healing through today. Sorry, I lost my spot -- oh, while we have a community to help support families outside of the school, children spend large parts of the day in school. We need at least three newcomer programs to start and the multicultural assessment centers to help ensure our students and all students of Philadelphia have an actual chance to learn. Setting children up for the future through education is the purpose of the School District. It's part of a holistic approach to ensure that our people, all people, have access to the resources they need to survive, feel safe and supported and thrive. Help us keep our people alive and thriving to see the next generation and the one after by funding programs that help our kids and their families in your Districts while our communities and families are under attack. Schools and education need a bigger slice of the pie. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and for being here. Please approach the witness table. State your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. Good to see you. 52nd Ward in the house.

Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Kimberly Nelson and I'm here today. Thank you for having me. I'm here asking a question in reference to the changes that are happening in Washington, D.C. for special needs children. I sat here for two days listening to the conversations and this is the first time that I'm going to be mentioning the support that is going to be needed to protect our children in our city, with 25,000 children that are in the School District of Philadelphia that hold 15% of the children inside of our School District. I myself have a daughter that does have a disability. And knowing that some of the schools that are short with accessibility for children that have wheelchairs and that need accessible entry inside of the schools, how does the City plan to support our children, our baby Philadelphians? And I want to also incorporate conversation about the transition of 8th graders going from charter schools going into our public schools and high schools. I have a challenge right now that I'm going through with my daughter with trying to get into a school that's going to be accessible for her as well. So I'm asking City Council to please support us parents as myself to make it easier for the process of entering high schools for our children with disabilities and have IEPs. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and for being here. We appreciate you, and our junior block captain. Will the Clerk please call the next witnesses.

Is there a Lilianna Sand present or a Julie Krug? (No response.)

And is there a Jada Hardman? (No response.)

As there is no one else here to testify, we're still going to come back at -- what time is it now, 12:44. We'll come back at 2 o'clock to reconvene for our afternoon session. But I just want to give us just a brief time because somebody is at the metal detector. I just want to get this last young lady in before we break so she's not standing around until 2 o'clock. One second. Council will be at ease. (Council at ease.)

I do want to take a moment to just thank all the activists who are here today. Could we give them a round of applause? (Applause.)

Just to show that this is democracy in action on a Wednesday afternoon, and it's nice outside and you're right here speaking truth to power for our most precious assets in the city of Philadelphia and that's our children. So it does not go unnoticed that we recognize the hard work that you are putting in advocating for all of our young people and everybody who's here. So I just want to personally acknowledge that as well as my colleagues acknowledging that as well. The Chair recognizeS Councilmember Landau.

I just wanted to lend my voice to thank you all for coming out here and making such a clear case to us about how while we're in this budget process, we have such important decisions to make. There's unfortunately some version of a limited pot and we get to choose how we're prioritizing our spending based on the needs of Philadelphia. Whether you've brought in the stories of students who are in school now, whether you spoke from parents, whether you even just spoke from your experience as educators, it is clear as day that the need is still as urgent now as it was years ago, as it was years ago, and the only way we are going to be able to create the Philadelphia that we all want, having the pipeline of the students who are so highly educated that they get into these great jobs, is that if we invest in our School District now to the best possibility that we can keeping the funding for the future, knowing that we don't have to keep doing this every single year. You guys have really made the case for that and I appreciate you so much. Thank you. (Witness approached Witness table.)

I think I'm a good, fair -- I think I'm a good, fair leader too. I kind of waited and -UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible).

Yes, taxpayers. That's right. That's who we work for at the end of the day, the taxpayers. How are you doing today?

Hi.

See, I would have got you a personal escort upstairs. So the next time let me know if any of your team downstairs and they give you a hard time. As you come through the checkpoint, we'll get you escorted upstairs. So you can begin your testimony.

I'm a little out of breath.

That's all right. Take your time. We got a bottle of water for you as well. Thank you. Fighting for our kids. Take your time. Take your time.

All right. This is obviously very important to me and to all of us here at Lift Every Voice. My name is Julie Krug. I'm a parent of two children, one at Albert Greenfield Elementary and one at CAPA. I'm also a member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black-led parent organization advocating for all children in Philly schools to have what they need, including joyful and developmentally appropriate policies and programs. I'm speaking because there is deep inequity among K to 8 schools. Some schools like ours have fundraisers to address needed resources. But what about schools where families cannot afford to do that? We can't have kickstarter campaigns for schools. That's not a solution. I'm also speaking because I see policies at my son's school that are based on punishment as control as opposed to creating a classroom where everyone belongs or focusing on empathy. I'm speaking about punitive discipline. Entire classes being denied recess for the actions of a classmate and rules that don't even allow snack breaks, even when lunch is scheduled as late as 1:00 p.m. These are not isolated incidents. They are systemic. They're part of what over 600 parents have named the Dirty Dozen, 12 widespread harmful practices that we can and must end. My son loves recess. It helps him focus, but he's often hungry by noon and earlier this year he got in trouble for eating during class. When I asked about snack breaks, his teacher told me their bodies will adjust. That's simply not acceptable. He's been given yellow cards for talking in class, warnings that lead to losing privileges, including recess. The times he struggles most, right before lunch and recess after sitting for hours. We need district-wide standards rooted in child development. Kids need to move. They need play and they need dignity. This is why we at Lift Every Voice Philly are asking City Council to fund our schools and we are asking the District to prioritize a framework that addresses the schools that are hurting the most and to hire a Chief of Joy to make sure all schools are living up to the actual needs of all Philly kids. Thank you. (Applause.)

Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)

I just feel compelled to call on my colleague Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke because he's been a champion regarding the Joy campaign and the Chief Joy Officer and he's been on the front line speaking about this particular issue. And so, I just feel compelled to offer the floor to you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just will add my voice to the great voices that are being lifted here behind me in their advocacy, to remind us that if we want to realize joy, not just talk about it, not just call out that it's missing, but if we want to realize joy in the life of our students in the culture of our schools, we have to give it a job. We have to prioritize it. We have to give it a role within our administrative structure. And I thank you all for actually coming here and being relentless in your advocacy and saying, regardless of how foolish or silly some people may think it is, saying, hey, no, joy matters, we want to change -- we want to lift their spirits in our schools. And I think it doesn't just help the students. It helps the teachers as well. Everyone is impacted by this. So thank you. We know that joy is also an act of resistance and I thank you for resisting any negativity towards this effort and continuously putting your voice forward to make sure that we see this in our schools. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. (Applause.)

And just wrapping up before we break for recess, when I think about the culture of our schools, when I think about having a joy-based climate, I think about and I say this sincerely when we think about the state of our city, the actual trauma that our young people are dealing with, not only as a result of the significant gun violence that they're seeing in terms of losing friends and loved ones to gun violence on a daily basis, and although we are at a 30-year historic low when it comes to homicides and shootings in the city of Philadelphia, we are seeing an increase, a significant increase in juveniles being charged as adults for shootings in the city of Philadelphia. And as a direct result, we have young people dealing with the issue of trauma of seeing their friends and loved ones being murdered in the streets of the city of Philadelphia. And so, when they're going to school they have a decision to make, even if it's a decision they can even make at all in terms of how do you process that trauma in a school-based environment. And so, this is something very serious that we have to consider. And I know we've had conversations with Dr. Watlington, and he kind of hinted or danced around if they have a support for it. But at the end of the day, you prioritize your budget what's important at the end of the day. And so, we will continue having conversations with the Administration, at least to express from our perspective as this body that this is something they should strongly consider as they continue to move forward. And so, we just want to thank you for your advocacy. (Applause.)

With that being said, Council will be at ease. And thank you very much for your testimony. Council will be at ease until 2:00 p.m. (Council at ease.)

Members, please take your seats. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next person for public testimony.

Barbara Dowdall, and if we have Lilianna Sand. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

I want to thank you for being here today. Just, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony. MS. McDOWELL DOWDALL: Thank you. My name is Barbara McDowell Dowdall. I'm a retired teacher retired from A. Philip Randolph Career Tech High School. One-time State Representative and Pennsylvania Cabinet Secretary John White told PFT members, Every day in every school something good happens. This remains true, true in the three privileged schools with fully-resourced professionally-staffed libraries, true in the 200-plus schools without and especially true in the underresourced schools currently on the secret hit list of the secret facilities review group. Once announced, communities facing loss will have no time to fight back. The process here directly mirrors nationwide strategies to close schools, claiming seeking equity or cost- savings, as reported in one session at the recent Network for Public Education in Columbus, Ohio. The Board hires consultants to do utilization study packed with euphemisms right-sizing is a favorite for closing neighborhood schools. Real motive, developers want to get their hands on school buildings. See (inaudible) in Germantown. Board launches Superintendents Facilities Task Force early in one year to give recommendations to the board to a set date with plans to ram through closures soon after. Factors leading to this situation, desegregation, redlining, white flight, disinvestment, privatization and gentrification. Research confirms that majority Black schools are more likely to close. No more profound evidence of disinvestment than the relentless closure of our school libraries. Let us seize the moment. Reject the Trump Musk DOGE strategies of secrecy, shock and awe. Implement the work of (inaudible), our Director of Library Services and the PFT contract proposals and pending legislation in Harrisburg. Direct the first cohort of new librarians to the schools on the secret hit list. Pause school closures, engage communities, plan for growth. Do not sell school buildings. Strongly recommend that Council rotate assignment of at least one staff member to attend Board of Education meetings and report back to Council. This will provide much of the information you were seeking yesterday when questioning Board President Streater and Superintendent Dr. Watlington. Please read my cousin Iris Rodberg's article on the myths of test score comparisons. And join POWER Interfaith in Harrisburg on May 13th to speak to legislators and rally on the Capitol steps. I am also a member of the Alliance for Philadelphia, Philadelphia Public Schools. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. My name is Lilianna Sand. I am a student at Central High School, as I hope is obvious by my T-shirt. And for the past few years, I've been a member of our Robotics team. These opportunities have absolutely 100% changed my life. I've become a leader in engineer, and next year I'm going to be studying my dream career at my dream school and I would not have been able to do that without robotics.

What's your dream school?

What was that?

What's your dream school?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I wanted to go there --

Okay. That's what's up. I do want to acknowledge in City Council we do have our own -- we have two doctors.

Do you really?

Dr. Councilmember Nina Ahmad and Dr. Councilmember Anthony Phillips.

We've met. We've gotten the introduction. I appreciate it.

Awesome, awesome.

I wanted to be an astronaut since I was 5 years old and I'm going for aero astro engineering. So I just want to build rockets.

Okay. Just don't fly with Elon Musk. That's all.

Hey, no, no, don't worry. Trust me. My team and I beyond Central, we work to make sure that every student has access to the opportunities that I've been given. The access to be able to go to your dream school to follow your dreams in the way that I have absolutely been able to do shouldn't just be restricted to Central High School. And we fully trust in that belief. Over the course of my high school career, we've started and supported 140 robotics teams across the city, giving thousands of students coming from every single one of the Districts that you represent the opportunity to participate. Last year, as some of you hopefully know by the billboard, Central won the first Robotics world championship. (Applause.)

Thank you. We competed against -- that's competing against 600 teams from around the world out of the 3800 that exist in total. And we were competing against some of the best most-resourced teams in the country and we showed them the Philly spirit. Philly loves an underdog and we won. But coming back from Houston, we were told that the City or that the School District of Philadelphia was cutting all funding for extracurriculars, including our team and the 140 teams across the city that we had worked really hard to create. Many of these teams didn't survive that cut and we're back to basically where we started just a few years ago. So we began showing up at the Board of Education meetings and asking the District to restore the funding that had been lost. After a couple of months, the Superintendent announced that they were restoring $1.2 million for this year and $1.8 million for next year. We were told that our voices mattered and our advocacy gets things done. On Monday I saw the Fiscal Year 2026 proposed budget, which includes a 22% decrease in funding for extracurriculars. That's about $1.3 million which is what we gain through advocacy and then some. This time most of the money is coming out of funding for extracurricular pay for teachers, which means that most of our teams won't have coaches. This is the second time in a single year that the District has cut this money without warning. I should absolutely be focusing on school right now. I rushed here on SEPTA directly from an AP exam. I also don't really know how all of this works. I will be completely honest. I don't know who makes the decisions or what decisions and who influences what, but I don't know what else to do. I fully believe that extracurriculars are essential in building the students and the culture that we all want for the city. And I just want to stop this pattern. It's unsustainable. We've proven that when given access there is demand for these programs. We've shown the profound impact that extracurriculars can have on students' lives, including my own. And we've seen how the attention of District and City officials can change access drastically. Please, please help me make sure that no 23 other student has to be in my shoes and fight this fight again. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. I just want to say that your voice does matter and we thank you for taking time and really just showing up and speaking truth to power. So I do have some members that do want to comment. We want to say thank you for your leadership. I want to thank you for mentioning one of my mentors, John White, Jr. And so, thank you for keeping his legacy alive in terms of his public leadership to the City of Philadelphia from the work that he has done as a public service. I want to say thank you. With that being said, the Chair recognizes Chairman of Education Councilman Isaiah Thomas. And then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier and Councilmember Landau.

Thank you so much for your testimony. It's truly inspiring and it means a lot. I want you to know that when you all did your advocacy-based initiatives to fight for the program that you're talking about, especially the robotics program, it landed on the elected officials. It landed on the Education Committee, so you can hear some of my colleagues who are on the Education Committee. Your advocacy became the talk of the group texts. We got those things too, right. And because of your advocacy, it inspired us to step up our advocacy. And that's why together we were able to see those funds restored for that program. So when you come down to City Hall after testing -- my son is testing today as well too -- so when you come down to City Hall after testing and you provide testimony like this, know that it resonates with all of us because it doesn't happen often, but the most important thing I want you to know is that you can be the change you want to see. You and your voice alone is enough to make a difference. And when you hear us telling you that, know that we're not just saying it. All of us are ready to get out of here, right. But we don't mind taking a couple extra minutes just to not only give you your flowers, but also to make sure that every young person who hears this after you, all of your friends and all of the people you end up teaching, mentoring and inspiring, that they understand that this does matter and advocacy does matter. So thank you so much. And congratulations to that amazing robotics program. You put a lot of pressure on them. Make sure y'all keep bringing home the gold and representing Philadelphia.

Oh, we'll keep on getting those trophies. Don't worry.

Oh, I know you will. Thank you. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. It really does mean -- it makes such a huge difference in our lives. If every student could have the opportunities that I have had, we would have an even better city. And it really does -- it changes lives. So we appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

Thank you, Council President. Lilianna, we talked earlier. I want to thank you for being here and thank you for your efforts. I am a proud Central graduate 255. And you said in your comments that you didn't know how these things work, you didn't know how it happened. This is how it happens, right. As our Chair of Education mentioned, we heard your advocacy. And when we recognized what was going on, we took up that mantle while you were still advocating and it was due to that advocacy that we got a win. But you make a good point that the win can't be for one year, right. Students don't just need extracurricular activities for one year. They need all the time to be able to learn and explore through arts and music and extracurriculars outside of the classroom. And the thing that I love most about the Central robotics program, which we honored here in this chamber, the thing that I love most is that it's for the whole city. I love how you all are approaching equity and making sure that so many students across the city get access to what you have access to. And I think a decision not to include this in the budget is what they call I think penny wise and pound foolish. $1 million is a drop in the bucket of a several billion dollar budget. And we need to make sure that extracurriculars are funded and included and you will have our support for that this year and every year. So thank you so much for being here because this is how it happened. And we wish you the best and we are so proud of you.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman. I appreciate it so much.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you so much. Absolutely brilliant testimony and I agree, this is how you make it happen. Two particular points I want to bring up right now. One is you are graduating --

I know.

You did not have to come here. Thank you so much for thinking about the juniors, the sophomores, the freshmen, the middle schoolers and the little kids who are going to come after you. You're making sure you're here to advocate that these programs exist for the future so that all of the kids get access to it, and that is so extra special about you. And then the second thing is that I really appreciate how you're highlighting what we heard all morning here today, is that we cannot continue having these arguments and these fights every year. It doesn't make any sense. We need consistency. We need to know what are the core things we need in a school and in a classroom. Let's fund it. Let's make it predictable. Let's fund it for the future and that way you guys get to go do what you need to do best. You need to learn. You need to study. Thankfully you're picking up all of these extracurriculars and then making Philly proud by going off to MIT. My gosh, that's unbelievable.

Thank you.

But we do have one request for you. Not only that you pass this down and tell folks how you came here today to talk to us and how they have to keep fighting the fight, but we're very greedy here in Philadelphia and we want you moving back after college. Okay. We want you back here in Philadelphia. Best of luck to you. So happy for you and can't wait to see all that your future holds.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Go ahead. MS. McDOWELL DOWDALL: I would say that we also saved the robotics teacher at Girls' High last year.

Okay. MS. McDOWELL DOWDALL: The students, the students.

Awesome. We have one more Councilmember. Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.

Thank you, Council President. So good to see you again. I echo everything my colleagues have said. I wanted to ask how Leonardo Da Pinchi is doing and who's going to take care of that robot. I saw it in action when I was there congratulating you on your win. So that was one question. The second one is, how do we take what you have at Central and the group you had and invite more people to actually see value and interest? I would love for you, the graduating class who was so instrumental in this win, to leave behind some kind of a blueprint for us to say what things we should be doing in other schools to pique people's interest?

Absolutely.

I so appreciate you and all of you for doing what you do. Thank you.

It's so good to see you again. Leonardo Da Pinchi is being used as a teaching tool for all the kids to come, so they rewired it, redesigned it and that's what we do every year. And I invite every single one of you to come up to Central. We love having guests. We love showing off what we love to do. You can drive a robot. Don't worry, you won't break it. And if you do, we'll fix it. It's more fun for us anyway. So please, please come anytime. We would love to have you and show you around. The thing with this program, the part about robotics and about these extracurriculars which make them so special, is that we're teaching students to be able to do the work in creating new programs. Part of our process is not only the students learn how to wire the robot again from last year, but they learn how to teach the next generation of students to do the same. And that's not only the new class that comes up from Central. That's all across the city. Part of our program is learning how to make an impact and mentor students from around the city. And that means that the motivation is there, the knowledge on how to both start but also sustain to train teachers, to train students, to recruit, all of that is institutional. It just requires time. There are absolutely steps that can be taken to make sure that every school is more prepared to accept that. But what it really takes is consistency and time and the ability to build up those skills in a set of people so that they can teach those skills in somebody else.

Well, thank you. And that's really the value add to make sure that the budget takes account of all this, because the indirect impact on what you do is vast outside of just the direct impact. So thank you so much. And thank you, Council President.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Continue to keep up the good work. Good job.

Thank you.

At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for a motion that the public hearing and the meeting on the bills and resolutions before the Committee today stand in recess until Friday, May 2, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. in this room.

So moved, Mr. Chairman. (Duly seconded.)

It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the Committee today stand in recess until Friday, May 2, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Committee will stand in recess until Friday, May 2, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Thank you very much everyone for your attendance. (Committee of the Whole concluded at 2:30 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL