COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, November 18, 2025 11:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. RESOLUTIONS: 181014, 250612, 250613, 250820 - - -
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Resolution Nos. 250612, 250613, 250820 and 181014. I want to thank all of you for being here. Mr. Christmas, please call the roll.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of this committee is present. This hearing is now called to order. Mr. Christmas, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Resolution 15 250612, appointing Nicole Conrad to the Board of Directors of the City Avenue Special Services District of Philadelphia and Lower Merion. Resolution 250613, re-appointing Nathan Muchnick to the Board of Directors of the City Avenue Special Services District of Philadelphia and Lower Merion. Resolution 250820, appointing Mark Graefe to the Board of Directors for the Old City Special Services District. And finally, Resolution 5 181014, calling for the Council Committee of the Whole to convene public meetings and public hearings pursuant to the Educational Supplement of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter to review the administration, management, operations, and finances of the School District and adopt plans to coordinate the activities of the Board of Education, the Mayor, and the City Council for the improvement and benefit of public education in Philadelphia.
Thank you very much. This morning, we will first consider three resolutions to appoint and re-appoint Directors to the City Avenue Old City Special Services District. After considering the City Avenue Old City appointment resolution, we will hear testimony on Resolution 5 No. 181014, to review the administration, management, operations and finances of the School District of Philadelphia. Before we call our first witness, I would like to recognize Councilman Jones for any remarks he would like to make concerning the City Avenue Special Services District resolutions. Councilmember Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want you to understand that we appreciate the neighborly interaction that the City Avenue Special Services District provides. I will also acknowledge that Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who is the At-Large member, who happens to also be the Ward Leader up there, plays an integral part and gives input to the Services District. And so, what do they do? They are the business-related arm for organizing City Avenue. They were around when it used to be called City Line Avenue. And the reason that changed was that the relationship between Lower Merion and the County and Bala Cynwyd was an important place that should not have as much division. What happens on one side of the street impacts what happens on the other side of the street. Shortly after that transition, there was a study done to see what things could we do to improve the quality of life not just for the businesses, but the residents of the communities. They took on fights such as traffic calming, people speeding up and down the Avenue. They took on issues of pill mills that were locating on City Avenue. They took on the issue of medical marijuana and commented on recreational marijuana. It's very different in other parts of my district than it is received there. And they have always been a champion for good. They provide security for businesses and residents that participate there. They co-represent with St. Joe's University and make sure those students that attend that university are safe. I want you to know that we appreciate these individuals that are appointed to the Board that give up their time freely. They don't get paid to do this. They get paid in other ways, by being a part of a good, solid neighborhood that has set the standard for other business districts throughout the City of Philadelphia. And I want them to know my sincere appreciation for what they do. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. I'm going to also acknowledge Councilman Mark Squilla to speak on his appointment for the Old City Special Services District.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. And sort of on the lines of Councilmember Jones, we appreciate the service and effort of all our members from the Old City District. And we know that it's a position that is held highly, but also is a volunteer position that really helps the community deal with the concerns, not only with the Old City District BID, but also with the community efforts. So thank you so much and look forward to their appointments.
You're welcome. Mr. Christmas, can you call both witnesses to the actual table to testify.
Will please Mr. Bryan Fenstermaker and Job Itzkowitz please come forward. Mr. Fenstermaker, please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. My name is Bryan Fenstermaker, President and CEO of City Avenue Special Services District of Philadelphia, Lower Merion. I'm here in support and I submitted my written testimony for Resolution No. 250612 in support of Ms. Nicole Conrad of Presidential City and the re-appointment of Resolution 250613, the re-appointment of Nathan Muchnick who owns property on City Avenue. Like I said, I'm happy to -- I did submit my written testimony and happy to address any questions you may have about the potential candidates or the work that we're doing. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Mr. Itzkowitz, please begin your testimony.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, Council President and all members of Council. My name is Job Itzkowitz. I'm the Executive Director of the Old City Special Services District. I'm here to testify in support of Resolution 5 250820, appointing Mark Graefe to the Board of the District. Similarly to my colleague to my left, I've submitted written testimony and happy to answer any questions in the interest of this very full room today.
Thank you very much. Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones.
I've noticed on the other side of City Avenue we're experiencing a lot of residential development. Can you tell us what that impact will be for the community businesses and Wynnefield and Bala Cynwyd?
Sure. We do have some -- as you know, the Lord & Taylor has been taken down and will be 217 residential units, but along that will come around almost 20,000 square feet of retail space. But what is also interesting in the work that we're doing on that side is that we are taking down the super blocks and making sure that we're increasing the accessibility for multi-modal use, so pedestrians and bikes. So every new project will have bike and walking lanes as well as new roads incorporated into those as well as we did a retail study, an MSC retail study, for both sides, and have stressed for the development partners that we look at those retail leakages and make sure that we bring the right and proper uses of retail and commercial use to the district as a whole.
That is the million-dollar question. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible).
I mean, always a great location for a bank, right. But we're working on that as well, but we will see some development on One Belmont, which is the old GSB Building. That will be redeveloped probably starting in December, and that'll be more of a retail play with public space. But every new project coming on will have public space and amenities that will serve the communities.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you to my District Councilmember and my colleague Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr., who represents the 4th Council District. I want to thank you too, Bryan, for the opportunity to meet with the individuals who are slated, not only for re-appointment but also Nicole from Presidential and other representatives from their company. We appreciate the work that you are seeking to do to diversify the Board. I have to continue to get that on the record. We are thankful that you did appoint Serena Quick, who is the owner of the Chick-Fil-A. She's soon to celebrate her anniversary. I think it was this week. I think was yesterday, Monday --
Yesterday. She just celebrated her anniversary on City Avenue. We are thankful that she is serving on the Board and I wanted to just uplift your efforts to continue to diversify the Board. I had to put that on the record because there's not much diversity on the Board we know for reasons relative to who owns property on City Avenue, but also who has businesses on City Avenue as well. But as we continue to look for additional re-appointments, I am imploring that we consider community members who may be able to serve on the Board who are minorities. Particularly, we do not have a lot of Black women representation on the Board, so I just wanted to put that on the record. But Bryan has done a really good job in working with our community and coordinating with us and ensuring that there is increased diversity, like looking through the couch cushions for folks. So I just wanted to uplift and support the effort you are doing and particularly recognizing our concerns on the Philadelphia side regarding being the repository for marijuana and liquor stores. While they're getting residential development and new business development on the Montgomery County side, we're getting liquor and marijuana. And I appreciate the work that you're doing to help us combat that as a community, and particularly the work over the summer that was happening. I am very appreciative of it. I just wanted to thank you on the record for that so that you hear that directly from me to you. And again, thank you to my District Councilperson, my colleague Councilman Curtis Jones. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. I know that's not my area, and I respect the leadership of my member, Councilmember Jones, as well as Councilmember Gilmore Richardson. I do want to ask a follow-up question to Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, because I think the diversity of the Board came up the last time we were in this very same room about the appointments. So is there a strategy and a plan so when you do come back in front of Council there may be some level of progress, because I'm pretty sure the same questions were asked the last time we had you here?
That's true, yes. We've been working on it. So we definitely try to do a youth movement as well as working to diversify the Board. Presidential City is our largest property owner on the Philadelphia side and they did not have representation on the Board. And we did ask to try to get the best candidate possibly we could at the time. And this is, you know, Nicole serves that and has experience with Philadelphia and the Bellevue and other places. But we do, do that and make sure -- I think we will be back hopefully with a replacement. And I want to thank you for recognizing Bernie Prazenica, who was our long-term Board Chair. We're hoping that his replacement will be announced sooner than later and that would come before you as well. So we are making moves on that, but we will continue to look as well.
Thank you very much. I just want to acknowledge Job Itzkowitz just for your artwork and dedication regarding Old City. And just briefly, what is your role in terms of the New Market East Plan?
The New Market East Plan, well, there's two, right. We're wrapping up. The City is wrapping up construction on Market Street in Old City. They actually just paved my block, the 200 block today. So paving is almost complete. I think the City will be announcing shortly that the project's probably 80% completion. And then I was invited to sit on the Market East Committee. So we've had one meeting and the press conference. I'm waiting for more meetings. And Bryan is also on that committee as well.
Keep up the good work. And it's also in the great part of the city known as South Philadelphia. And it's always good to see you, Job.
Any other questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Hearing none, thank you very much. There being no further questions for members of the Committee and no other witnesses on the list to testify on Resolutions 250612, 250613 and 250820, we will now go into our public meeting to consider the action to be taken on those resolutions. Mr. Christmas, will you please take the roll.
Present. The Chair thanks Mr. Christmas. A quorum of the Committee is present. The Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones for a motion on Resolution Nos. 250612 and 250613.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill Nos. 250612 and 250613 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that Resolution 3 Nos. 250612 and 250613 be reported from the committee with a favorable recommendation. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. Resolution Nos. 250612 and 250613 shall be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. The Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla for a motion on Resolution No. 250820.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Resolution 250820 be reported from this committee with favorable recommendation.
The Chair notes for the 9 record that Councilmember Gilmore 10 Richardson and Curtis Jones seconds 11 the motion. 12 It has been moved and 13 properly seconded that Resolution 14 No. 250820 be reported from this 15 committee for the favorable 16 recommendation. 17 All those in favor of 18 the motion signify by saying aye. 19 (Aye.) 20
The ayes have it. Resolution No. 250820 shall be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. We will now resume the public hearing on Resolution No. 6 181014.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. Can I be recorded as aye on the vote I missed.
It shall be duly noted. Mr. Christmas. We are now officially in our public hearing on Resolution No. 181014.
At this time, I will call the 100th Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker to testify. (Mayor Parker approached witness table.)
Madam Mayor, welcome back home as always. But please state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.
Thank you very much, Council President. My name is Cherelle Parker and I am Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Council President Johnson, Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson, Majority Whip and Education Committee Chair Thomas and all members of Council, thank you for having me today in Council chambers and thank you for your unfailing commitment to public education. Our students, both district and charter, deserve our absolute best. And together, we are working to give them, Mr. President, exactly that. I also want to acknowledge Board President Reginald Streater and members of the Board of Education who are with us on today. On a personal note, I want to say to President Streater and Vice-Chair Sarah Ashley Andrews and all members of the Board, I am proud that you are the governing board for our School District of Philadelphia, and I am unapologetic about supporting you 1,001%. Thank you all so very much for your leadership. Mr. President, you've heard me and members of Council have heard me joke a lot when I'm out, particularly at a national conference, whether it's the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, some Bloomberg event, and everyone is always talking about I hear three things. I hear people talk about our Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, our Superintendent Dr. Watlington and now our Chief Public Safety Director Adam Geer. And while I'm nice and extend my hand and say, oh, it's an honor and privilege to meet you, whenever they bring up one of those three names, you know, my Philadelphia comes out of me and I usually take my glasses off and I say, thank you very much for your compliment, but don't you come near our Police Commissioner or Superintendent or Public Safety Director. And it's with that spirit in mind I want to say to our Superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington, thank you, sir, for your vision and leadership. We know the progress made by our district, Mr. President. It would not be done without him. Impossible. And I want to say give him a round of applause. (Applause.)
Thank you, Superintendent Watlington. I start with mentioning the Board and the Superintendent because I want to affirm to the people of the City of Philadelphia that our partnership is strong. It's aligned, and we're delivering for our students. With that in mind let me begin, Mr. President, with some good news. The School District of Philadelphia continues to make steady, measurable progress. Test scores are rising. Attendance is improving. Dropout rates are declining. And these gains reflect the dedication of our educators, our school staff, our families and, of course, our students who continue to show us what they are capable of when we invest in them. This year's state budget also brought significant support for our district. I want to thank wholeheartedly our Governor Josh Shapiro and our Philadelphia Legislative Delegation, especially Majority Chairman and House Appropriations Committee Leader Jordan Harris, along with our Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair Vincent Hughes and all members of the Philadelphia Delegation for insisting that public education funding was non-negotiable and for fully delivering on the Governor's budget request. With this budget, the General Assembly acknowledged its obligation to comply with the Commonwealth Court decision and live up to its constitutional obligations to our students. And so, now there is no turning back. We expect nothing less than continued bipartisan support to fully close what we reference as the adequacy gap and to fairly fund our schools. Together with the school district, charter schools, higher education and nonprofit leaders, we are also making progress to strengthening our educator workforce. And I'm really proud about this. We have set out to build a stronger teacher pipeline, support new teacher retention and ensure our education workforce reflects the diversity of our students. And together, we are showing results. And every time I get a chance to come here, Mr. President, it's always important for me to affirm that an issue like ensuring the diversity of our teacher pipeline, it's a great opportunity for me to remind people that I am no Johnny come lately and/or new to this advocacy. And so, when I think about the work that we are doing here now within the school district and the city, it makes me reflect on the data. 5%. That's the highest rate that has been since 2001 and this is largely driven by recruitment of teachers of color, who represent nearly 57% of new hires citywide last school year. And so, it makes me reflect on our partnership with the Center for Black Educator Development, led by Sharif El-Mekki. The school district and charter schools, they are helping to provide a pathway for high school students into the teaching profession quickly. Just have to give this some context and connect the dots. The Governor, in a very innovative fashion, created a stipend for student teachers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a certified secondary English teacher by profession, and always remind people that I am NTE-passed and Praxis-passed -- and when I say that to educators, they know what I'm saying is I'm a real certified teacher -- when the Governor decides that he's going to give a stipend for student teachers, I reflect back to my time at Coatesville High School. That's where I did my student-teaching when I was at Lincoln. So you give me a stipend while I'm going through that. Last year you helped me get through that, that season. You really have recruited me and gained my interest that I could potentially stay in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So the Governor gives the stipend. Then we, as the City of Philadelphia, invest in this Center for Black Educator Development and their partnership with Dr. Watlington, President Streater and the school district. So now, we have laid on the line in a tangible way -- not a word about, oh, we have to strengthen the pipeline.
But when I say we, that means the City Council of Philadelphia too, because that budget process that we go through, none of that is possible without the appropriations that the City Council of Philadelphia provides for the City of Philadelphia. I want you to know I'm absolutely clear about that. So when we talk about this success, Mr. President, you, Education Chairman Whip, Majority Leader and all members of Council, you have to acknowledge that we're moving the needle in this direction as well and we all have to talk about that together. I also want to affirm that thanks to a generous grant from the William Penn Foundation, we are creating a new debt-free pathway to a four-year teaching degree for 40 Catto scholars at the Community College of Philadelphia. I'm talking about debt-free. )
I know sometimes when we talk about student loan debt and to people it's not important, but if you look at the uncertainty that we see happening at the federal level and the restructuring of all of the student loan debt relief programs that we have in existence in our nation, particularly those that teachers were most likely to take advantage of, this becomes essential. This is how, in a very tangible way, an integrated and intentional approach with government, public sector, local government, the private sector and the philanthropic community, this is how we make a difference without giving a speech, but we let our work and operationalize in this program speak for itself. And I'm proud, Mr. President, that we are well on our way. They shared with me in preparation for today that at our very first recruitment session, more than 100 Catto scholars expressed interest in becoming teachers. Now, to me this proves something that is simple but extremely powerful. When we respect the profession and make it affordable for our young people, they will continue to choose. I know we're here to talk about education, Mr. President, but that student loan support, being able to get access to funding to get that four- year degree with Governor Shapiro's stipend, man, if they had access to some housing, I can only imagine what the pipeline would be like for somebody choosing to be a teacher and an educator in the City of Philadelphia. (Applause.)
Next, Mr. President, I want to provide an update to the great progress of our Extended Day, Extended Year initiative now speeding ahead in its second year with vitality. And the great thing about the second year is that you have proven impact. And I can't, Mr. President, move forward without saying a special thank you to my team in the Parker Administration. Our efforts are led by our Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett- Harley, our Chief Education Officer Dr. Deborah Carrera and Deputy Chief Education Officer and longtime Data and Research Analyst Sharon Ward. I want to say a special thank you to each of you for your work and I'm grateful. To members of Council, I want to say thank you too for your support of this initiative. In just 18 months, we have opened 40 Extended Day, Extended Year programs in schools. I've heard people say, well, what's different here, isn't this just another afterschool program. This is nothing. You've just funded after school programs and put a fancy name on them. I would say those people aren't reading, Mr. President. Because if they were, they would know that Extended Day, Extended Year is a comprehensive reimagining of how we use Out-of-School Time to support working parents, strengthen children's connections to school and help students discover who they are. Each Extended Day, Extended Year school offers before and afterschool care, high-quality enrichment in areas like robotics, dance, digital media and music. And this year, we have added something that any parent who's here today knows how essential this is. We have added tutoring for individual students, new academic programs to support their student support and learning. And why is this important? If you've ever traveled to the Main Line and looked at the structure of Main Line, even public institutions or private institutions, and sometimes we would say, well, how does it appear that one group is performing extremely well and another group isn't. Mr. President, the extra support that those parents pay for those programs, like Kumon, right, it's a wonderful program. And here I was thinking that, you know, why are you not picking up the math as quickly as I would like to see. And I'm thinking about all the young people who are performing. And finally, the parents who've been engaged since their children were 2 and 3, I said, wow, I'm behind here. He said, oh, well, John and Mary have been in the program since they were years 2 old. I said, I've never heard of Kumon before. So whenever someone is attempting to affirm why would you even add tutoring to this Extended Day, Extended Year program, that's exactly why. What does this mean? These schools are open all year? Yes. So, wait, all year? This sounds a little bit about your promise to the people of the City of Philadelphia when you talked about your year-round educational model. You're absolutely right, Mr. President. I couldn't stop people from trying to politically weaponize, you know, when I said year-round access to year-round public education and they were saying, oh, she wants to keep teachers in the classroom and students locked in classrooms yearround, they weren't paying attention and/or reading the specifics about what we were recommending. So with schools being open all year, six weeks of summer programming that combine academic instruction with certified teachers to prevent Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes because he, you know, I never suffer from that know-it-all. I've never had the know-it-all syndrome. So it was Appropriations Chairman Senator Vincent Hughes, who told me about this concept called the summer slide. And it is what happens to our children who weren't engaged in formalized, structured activity during the summer to help them retain what they've learned throughout the school year. But it also includes some fun, because fun and happy, happiness and joy, even joy, Mr. President, joy should be a part of that process as well and engaging in camp programs.
So it's important to affirm -- now, here we are. None of these programs are mandated. We just want to repeat it for the record, Mr. President. None of the programs are mandated. Every program is free and voluntary. Now, we've had good success in the first year. The data shows that Extended Year Extended Day students are attending school more often than the non-Extended Day, Extended Year-enrolled peers. Additionally, parents are expressing satisfaction with our programming. And, Mr. President, you and I have worked together long enough to know and you know that I'm not just reading data and stats that they give to me as a report. You know I'm going out to those programs and I'm meeting those principals and teachers and program operators and the students to see exactly what is happening here. So of our 40, 6 10 of our 40 Extended Day, Extended 7 Year schools are charter schools 8 because my administration is 9 committed to supporting all of 10 Philadelphia students now. Members of Council, I just had to stop right here for a second because I want to affirm to all of you that I was really shocked when we were developing this program and people told me what backlash I was going to feel, Mr. President from the public because this would be the first time that the City of Philadelphia has actually appropriated and sent funding for programming to charter schools. Usually we can only invest in our traditional public schools. And, Mr. President, I tell them about the first crisis that we had about that mass shooting. I can remember being at Five Points. It was a charter school engaged and a traditional public school engaged. And it was the first time that I had to face parents who had actually lost children and then their friends who had all been impacted. And when I went to the one school, the traditional public, and then I went to the charter, I said to Tiffany, Sincere and my team during that time, I said, Dr. Carrera, Sharon, these are all our children. They all live in the city of Philadelphia. Their parents work here. These are our stakeholders too. So we should be working hard to make sure that they have access to this opportunity as well. And I stand toes down, Mr. President, about that decision- making today. I won't allow people to pitch traditional publics versus charter schools. It shouldn't be in the city of Philadelphia. Beyond that, Mr. President, beyond the numbers, I do want to speak to the heart of this initiative. Because I remember -- well, I don't remember specifically the language. It wasn't my baby. But when we rolled out this program, I think somebody, I don't know, they called it my little toy or just like it was just a little initiative that didn't mean anything. I want them to think about this: When a child builds a robot, choreographs a dance, learns to play an instrument, creates a video game or shines on the soccer field, something transformative happens, Mr. President. They begin to see themselves differently. And that is where I was reminded of Dr. 's teaching on -- the first time I heard this word, I thought somebody was going to attribute it to our great civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson -- prayer out to Reverend Jackson and his family during this time -- but it was the first time I had heard the word somebodyness. And I was like somebodyness, somebodyness is not a word. I've never heard anybody say that before. But Dr. King was teaching and giving a presentation at a high school. And he was talking to the students about the importance of having something that no one could take away from you once you have it. And he described it as being a sense of somebodyness. That's what those things allow our children to have. We are helping students no matter their race, class or socioeconomic status, zip code, religion, sexual orientation or identity. We are empowering them to have a sense of somebodyness and I'm really happy about that.
When I visited an Extended Day, Extended Year school last week, one young student while showing me how to use an electrical current to move a fan told me, I like this project because I'm good at STEM. I said, well, why? They just affirmatively said, I like this project because I'm good at STEM. And it said to me, this program has already helped to plant that sense of somebodyness within that young person. Because through their ability to make this science project work, they felt that naturally. That's what we call helping to put people on a path to self-sufficiency. In addition, Mr. President, I have set out in our administration to close what I reference as the enrichment gap. I want our students to have the same opportunities that children enjoy in the suburbs. And some people say, well, is that competition? I don't care what you call it. If it's good enough for the Main Line, it's good enough for students in the School District of Philadelphia and we should all be working to close that enrichment gap. It's extremely important to me. Why? Because every student deserves a fair chance. Groundbreaking new research confirms what I know in my heart and, that is, that the opportunity gap prevents our young people from accessing their potential and closing that gap. It's one of the best tools available to support student success. We also continue to evolve the Extended Day, Extended Year model to meet the needs of families. I will never forget meeting with Dr. Watlington about the program. And Dr. Watlington, every time we finished a quarter in the school year, he would say, well, our principals, they're talking to our parents, they're getting feedback about our parents. They're saying they want more of this and less of that and this will help them more than that would. That is how operationalizing a program should work. So this year, we launched the expansion of the One Philadelphia Produce Project. What is that, Mr. President? That's bringing fresh, high-quality produce directly to families at their children's school. Now, somebody is saying, yes, we just dealt with a SNAP crisis and we're still reeling from it right now. But I want the record to reflect that Dr. Carrera, Sharon, Vanessa Garrett-Harley, Superintendent Watlington, Board Chair Streater, all of the building of this program, this was in the works long before we got to crisis mode, because we were talking directly to parents and they were telling us about what they needed. And the public-private partnerships. I know sometimes if my administration is working to build something out, Mr. President, people say that we take too long. And it's because we know that local government, we have limited revenue-generating capacity. We can't do it all by ourselves. We need local, state, federal government working together, but public-private partnerships is where it's at, Mr. President. And so much of our work can be strengthened by having those public-private partnerships. It's with that in mind that I want to say thanks to a generous donation from Aramark, because they didn't have to. That bridged the funding gap. The One Philadelphia Produce Project now reaches 43 Extended Day, Extended Year and community schools across the City of Philadelphia. And I want us to give Aramark a huge round of applause. )
Thank you, Aramark. You didn't have to, but we thank you for your corporate leadership. Mr. President, when I served in the State House, when we served in the State House, I know I had the opportunity to visit many schools. And, Councilman Driscoll, you probably took those tours with the Policy Committee when we were traveling across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to different counties, both urban, rural and suburban. But I do remember asking myself from time to time why not us, why not us? Why shouldn't Philadelphia children have access to the robotics, the sports, the music, the science, the world-class tutoring and, quite frankly, modern school buildings. So with this Extended Day, Extended Year program, we are bringing these opportunities to Philadelphia families free of cost directly. We're not asking any questions. If you were there, if you are in the schools and you want to participate, you can just sign up to participate. And it's this part, Mr. President, that brings me to our facilities. We are about to engage in an important but challenging conversation about modernizing Philadelphia public schools and we know that some change will have to occur. As Mayor of this city, I will tell you, Mr. President, when the lens requires that you see things holistically. I know that change is hard. And I want every parent to know that I want what every parent wants for our children, to have something better than what we had. I love my schools, William Rowen Elementary School at 19th and Haynes, Austin Meehan Middle School at Ryan and Sandy Ford Avenue, The Parkway Center City Program at 1118 Market Street. I love those schools. Because they, along with those educators and the administrators, they helped to shape me, Mr. President. They helped to build the woman who sits here before you as Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. Were it not for those teachers whose work became a part of my village, I wouldn't be sitting here today. But we are not dishonoring the past by admitting that we can and should do better for the next generation. We honor them and we lift them up to prepare our students for 21st century careers. They need 21st century facilities, buildings that they can be proud of -- (Applause.)
-- schools that can offer them the education that they need to succeed. And just because a building may no longer be suitable for school, it can and should still have a purpose. Councilmember Bass and I recently sat together in an emotional public meeting following the reported death of one of our Philadelphia daughters, the late and dynamic Ms. Kada Scott and her family. And we listened, and I ask us all to keep them in prayer because now is when the real grieving process will begin for them. And we promised as the City of Philadelphia that we won't leave them. We will continue to be here to support them and we make good on that commitment, Mr. President. But when we were in Councilmember Bass' District for that meeting, Senator Art Haywood was there, Philadelphia Delegation Chairwoman Morgan Cephas was there. We did a whole lot of listening and we listened to a community grieving but expressing clearly grave concerns about vacant buildings that have been left idle for years without a comprehensive plan to decide what would happen to these vacant buildings. I want to state for the record so that everyone is clear about where I, as Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, stand. And I really want to send here a special shout-out to our Appropriations Chairman in the House, Jordan Harris. He and I have talked. We've had lots and lots of conversations about this along with Senate Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes. I pledge 1,001% to work with Dr. Watlington, President Streater, all members of the Board to ensure, Mr. President, that in partnership with you, and you and I have talked about this, working together to ensure that we have a comprehensive plan. And I know, you, Education Chairman Thomas, have been laser focused on this, and I want to recognize the role and the space that you have been in and the work you've done calling for us to address this issue. E. program. So, Mr. President, for anyone again who wants to pigeonhole this facilities conversation as just being President Streater of the Board and the School District of Philadelphia, I would argue that that's narrow-minded thinking, Mr. President. Now is the time for us to take a comprehensive approach. This Council of the City of Philadelphia, we just passed and invested in dollars for housing. We did that together. Not just Cherelle Parker, Mr. President, not even just you, but we did that working together. Now, the school district will have to play a role in it for members of the public. I want to affirm this: I support Dr. Watlington and President Streater enough that I'm going to fight tooth and nail to make sure no one attempts to bring them into any political fights where they are choosing this over that. I have said to Dr. Watlington, I have said to President Streater, you manage the school district, you lead the governance of the Board. I don't do that work on a daily basis. And I won't attempt to micro manage you. That is not my style. It's not what I do. But where I will put my foot down is I won't allow anybody to manipulate our Superintendent and/or our School Board and/or School Board President to tell them you have to endorse this strategy this way and/or this or else, we're going to find a way to create mayhem and havoc in your lives on a daily basis. I will stand up and denounce that kind of bullying whenever I see it, Mr. President. And it was incumbent upon me on today to put that on the record. That's not Dr. Watlington. That's not President Streater. That's what I, Cherelle Parker, as Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, want to make sure that I've owned. Finally, I want to leave us with this: We've made real, real progress, but we are not done. We are a city united for our children and every student in Philadelphia, no matter their background or their circumstance. They deserve our very best. And I want to make sure and, Councilman Driscoll and Councilman Jones, I've been overall -- and, Mr. E. program. Mr.
President, we want to make sure that we're answering every question. We're getting where we need to go so that we can work on getting this done now. But, Councilmember Driscoll and Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Phillips, who represents the 9th District, I want to say this -- and, Councilmember Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who is now the Ward Leader, the political leader of the mighty 52nd Ward, I am unapologetic about making sure that constituents represented by you, and I didn't bring it with me today because Joe Grace told me I couldn't bring it with me, but I was going to call out the zip codes and the names of the neighborhoods that each of you represent in those communities. And what I wanted to say to them is that just like with our children here in the School District of Philadelphia, we won't leave those zip codes in those neighborhoods out. Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, residents of the mighty 52nd Ward, they should not be left out of any investment that we make in the City of Philadelphia. I don't care if we're talking about public education and I don't care if we're talking about housing. We have to find a way to make sure every community can be lifted up with the work that we are doing. So I won't let us pit one against the other. That goes against the spirit and intent of that thing that everybody laughs at me about because I'm so laser- focused on building it and, that is, One Philly, A United City. So, Mr. President, I want you to know, sir, I want to get the yes in everything that we do. And, Mr. President, I can't do it alone. I've said yes to a whole lot, Mr. President. Sometimes I wonder if you tell members of this body how much we actually really say yes, but I know we can't get anything accomplished without you and without this body. There are people right now -- I don't care if we're talking about education. I don't care if we're talking about the school facilities plan and what the next steps are going to be. I don't care about the issue that's now been raised because of the tragedy associated with Kada Scott. Like, what are you doing with these buildings that have been vacant for and years? What are you 4 doing, School District of 5 Philadelphia? And why don't you 6 get that debt off of your balance 7 sheet? All of it, Mr. President, 8 requires us to be together. 9 There are some folks who 10 for political reasons -- and I got 11 to say this on the record, I 12 wouldn't be me if I didn't -- they 13 want to weaponize this. Now is the 14 time. Let's find a way to pit the 15 Council and the Mayor against each other. This is the time when we can show the deficit of what's not happening in the City of Philadelphia. Mr. President, I respect you and your leadership. I've said it 1001 times, and I don't care who's been in the audience when I've said it, you've been there, and sometimes you've not been there, as Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, I will fail the vision, the agenda, everything that I've said I'm committed to doing as Mayor, none of it is possible, Mr. President, without you and I working and walking in lockstep. And I understand for you the way you make clear to me every time I come up for our meetings, that we can't work together and be successful unless the interest and the needs and desires of the 15 other members of City Council who 16 you represent, unless their needs are being met. Mr. President, you stay true and authentic to what you do. I'm doing my best to do that along with my team. And I want to see us get to yes, public education, housing and any and everything that we're doing. Thank you so very much for your time, Mr. President. )
Small question or two before we do the clapping. Well, one, obviously, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for being here today. And I wanted to just acknowledge, one, your leadership when you do public-private partnership. And wanted to acknowledge Joe Neubauer, the Neubauer Foundation, the partnership that you have with him regarding Philadelphia, the work that you are doing regarding the Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders, particularly with principals. And so, wanted to acknowledge and affirm that. And also, just a small question, and I think my team will get into a deeper detail as we go throughout the hearing, when we talk about the tutoring with Extended Day, which I think is a great model, so I like how you made Extended Day comprehensive --
-- of all schools. I just want to say that for the record, because all parents should have the opportunity to have choice. Give me an idea of -- could we make it mandatory in the future? Just wanted to ask as a part of the expectations of our educational culture here in the city of Philadelphia. And then also, in terms of the tutoring component, which I think is awesome, right, what firms are we utilizing to provide the tutoring to our young people? Those are the only two questions that I have.
So where's Dr. Watlington sitting? Let me look at Dr. Watlington. I want to be very, very clear, Mr. President. We worked through a collective bargaining process with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. So I want to leave here in affirming that we are not attempting to mandate that our teachers are mandated to do anything associated with sort of tutoring, because we know the great work that they do throughout the day. But I want to affirm what you said this way, and I hear you, I would love, Mr. President, and I think parents in the School District of Philadelphia will welcome mandated tutoring and homework help after school in every school in the city of Philadelphia. (Applause.)
The one thing I would say, Mr. President, and Rob Dubow and Sabrina aren't here. But I know the one thing if they were here, they would probably be giving me the side eye because we'll be saying we need to talk with the district about costing out what the President just requested. And I know Dr. Watlington when he gets here, you ask him the same question, I'm sure I know what the answer is going to be: Yes, yes, yes and yes. Because even before we began to build tutoring into our Extended Day, Extended Year, Dr. Watlington already had access to tutoring as a part of his goals for the School District of Philadelphia. So I would love to explore that fiscally. And, Mr. President, maybe you just laid out the next meeting between yourself and Chairman Harris and Speaker McClinton and Chairman Hughes and Senator Picozzi and Representative -- Representative White -- I'm sorry, it was a brain freeze, charge to my head and not my heart -- maybe, Mr. President, you just laid down nicely for these Extended Day, Extended Year schools, but homework help and tutoring. And people might laugh at that until they -- you and I have young children. And if anybody thinks that the math coming home is the math --
If you think it's the same math, it is not. So we will cost that out. Another thing, Mr. President, you just said, I don't have that list and I'm going to ask our team, Dr. Carrera and Sharon Ward, right now while this meeting is going on, if they will get back to their offices and get a list, Mr. President, of all of the vendors who are providing the services because we should get them on the record. But this is something I was shocked at. We were in your District, Childs --
I was there for the first time, Mr. President. I got a chance to see the young people in action and meet the providers. It was amazing. It was technology. They were, you know, My Set of Champions was the name of the provider there. The children were role-playing with who was conducting the interview and then who was the sports athlete. They were learning about how to use the technology and get the microphone set up. And then I talked to teachers, the principal. But the parents who were talking about the program and how they used to have to try to run from work to get to the school before it closed, without causing the principal and the administrators any challenges, because they would usually be late. So they were telling me about how valuable it was. But something magical happened at another school. I think we were at Richard Wright in North Philadelphia. Legacy, now, we remember Legacy when it was first started. I remember it as Arthur Ashe, you remember. And then they changed their name to Legacy. So Legacy is the provider there. I'm getting ready to leave and walk out and the principal says, did you know that some of our parents, parents of the children being served by Extended Day, Extended Year are now employed by the providers. (Applause.)
Did you hear what I just said? Students who are getting services from Legacy, the provider at the school providing the before, afterschool winter break, summer break, spring break programming, their parents are now employed with Legacy to assist in operationalizing the program. So, Mr. President, I think this could be something that is access to economic opportunity for all. This is putting people on a path to self-sufficiency. This is supporting our young people. So as usual, you're pushing the envelope and we have to make sure that we are exploring it. We just have to cost it out and let other people know that we need them. Finally, Mr. President, I want to leave on this: You mentioned a gentleman that we've relied on in the city of Philadelphia for a great number of years. And for those of you who are familiar with Aramark, when you heard Council President Johnson mention Joe Neubauer, there are some who still associate Joe Neubauer, who was our longtime leader, corporate leader at Aramark, who exploded its market share and turned it into a global firm. So thank you for affirming the work with the school district and the investment that Joe Neubauer, his wife Jeanette, the Neubauer Foundation have made. Both charters, traditional publics, I see some of the Academy Principals, folks who went through that program in the room. But, Philadelphia, if you never understood why public- private partnerships are essential, talk to Police Commissioner Bethel. Look at the stats in our improvement in reducing homicides and violent crime in the City of Philadelphia and the different way that you see our police department governing itself and the leadership, and it's due to a great deal of investment from the philanthropic community. Why? When detectives had that huge caseload, something people don't talk about out loud, because we usually never lift up the good, is part of the reason why they were having challenges is because they weren't even issued cell phones. They were using their own personal cell phones. It was the Neubauer Foundation that funded that technology and supported them. In addition to that, the guardians-not-warriors mindset that people have often connected and tied to policing, Commissioner Bethel would often state that I need professional development for my managers, my leaders in the departments, captains, inspectors. Well, thanks to the generosity of the Neubauer Foundation and Joe Neubauer, the University of Pennsylvania created a master's level program so that our law enforcement leaders in the Philadelphia Police Department can get the professional development necessary to see their roles outside of the traditional policing and law enforcement model. And it's a perfect example of anyone -- even when I begin to think about the facilities process and how we're going to have to move forward and the tough decisions that we'll have to make in the future, Mr. President, we will need the philanthropic community along with the private sector to assist us. And I don't apologize, Philadelphia, for saying to you that intergovernmental cooperation and planning local, state and federal along with public-private partnerships are the foundation for Philadelphia's future success and Joe Neubauer and the Neubauer Foundation. Thank you for being --
And one last part is that my team and your team are working to make sure, because you mentioned it, it's not an either or, but an and as we address H.O.M.E. so we can make sure districts such as Jones and Phillips and Driscoll and Gauthier are addressed comprehensively. And so, we're working on an and so we can get to a yes. But most importantly, we thank you for your leadership. We thank you for your hard work and working on behalf of the children as we address the issue of academic achievement here in the city of Philadelphia. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
So at this moment, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and welcome our School Superintendent. Thank him for being here. Dr. Tony Watlington. Let's give him a round of applause. (Applause.)
And I also want to acknowledge the hard work of our Chairman Reginald Streater and his Board members. Give them a round of applause. (Applause.)
At this time, Mr. Christmas, can you please call the first panel.
Would Board of Education President Reginald Streater please come forward. And also Superintendent of the School District, Mr. Tony Watlington, please come forward. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for being here. Please state your name for the record and you may begin with your testimony.
My name is Reginald Streater. I'm the President of the Philadelphia Board of Education, joined by other Board members. Before I get started, I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you to you personally, Chairman Thomas Majority Whip as well. Your advocacy and your willingness to put skin in the game is very much appreciated. You've helped us with Project Rise. You've been on the project team for our facilities. And you meet with us once a month. And I can affirm for the public you do so in good faith, in a way that's pragmatic, seeking to address issues and not just throw rocks at them. So I want to say this publicly, thank you for the role that you've played as Chairman of Education of the City of Philadelphia. So with that good morning, everybody, Mayor Parker, who's here in spirit now, Council President Johnson, Majority Whip Chairman Thomas, Education Chair Thomas, Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson, Minority Leader Brooks and the rest of City Council and City Council leadership. I bring you greetings from the Board of Education. Thank you for inviting the Board of Education and Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Sr., our Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia to share key updates on our work since the last time we were together. I'm joined today by our colleagues on the Board, Vice-President Sarah Ashley Andrews to my left, Board member Crystal Cubbage, Board member Cheryl Harper, Board member Whitney Jones, Board member Chau Wing Lam, Board member Wanda Novales, Board member Joan Stern, Board Member Joyce Wilkerson. And again, I'm the President of the Philadelphia Board of Education. Thank you again for taking the time to be here with us today. We truly appreciate your partnership and ongoing commitment to Philadelphia students and families. Meetings like this is an important opportunity for us to come together, reflect on our shared priorities and continue building, Chair Thomas, on the progress we made together. Before we begin our update, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the tragic loss of Kada Scott. On behalf of the Board, I extend our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. I personally made prayers to the ancestors, to the Creator, to send whatever energy that they deem necessary to help that family with their grief. So I just wanted to do that on the record. In the wake of the heartbreaking situation though, I want to certainly thank Mayor Parker and our city partners for their swift and coordinated response. The City worked closely with the district to ensure the grounds at the former Ada Lewis School building were cleaned and secured as quickly as possible. We are grateful for that collaboration. Our Mayor just talked about intergovernmental collaboration. I think we saw it in action and for the sense of urgency that everyone brought to this work, this is a powerful example what we can achieve when we act together, and we look forward to building this partnership as we address future challenges across our city. As a reminder, the Board of Education is made up of nine volunteer members who dedicate countless hours to serving our students and school communities. Each Board member brings unique expertise, lived experiences and perspectives, and the diversity of thought makes us a stronger, more effective board. I would like to take a moment to thank all of our Board members for their service, leadership and commitment to keeping students at the center of every decision. I truly believe that this Board's work is positioning the school district to reach new heights in our 207th year, launching our district into the stratosphere. Next slide and I will pass it over to my Vice-President Sarah Ashley Andrews.
Thank you, President Streater. Here's a quick overview of what we'll cover today. We'll begin by grounding ourselves in the Board's vision, mission, goals and guardrails, the foundation to everything we do. Then we'll highlight recent progress towards these goals. We'll share updates on our Parent and Community Advisory Council, which continues to deepen engagement across our city. Next, we'll provide a look into the work of our Charter School Office and how we're strengthening our authorizing practices. And finally, we'll close with an update on the Board's advocacy efforts and our ongoing push for equitable funding for our Philadelphia students. Next slide please. Before we dive into the details, it's important to ground ourselves and why we're here. The Board's vision is to prepare students to imagine and realize any future they desire. The Board's mission is that all sectors of public education in Philadelphia will work with urgency to provide every student with the opportunity to achieve positive life outcomes, in partnership with diverse families, educators and community members who are valued and respected. The vision and mission guide everything we do, from the policies we adopt to the way we monitor progress towards our student outcomes. Next slide. The implementation of goals and guardrails has made the Board more efficient and effective by sharpening our focus on student outcomes and how we govern toward them. This framework clearly defines what we want students to know and be able to do. It also established a consistent process for monitoring this progress. Each month the Board reviews data on key indicators to understand how students are performing and whether we are moving closer to our desired outcomes. This regular monitoring is an investment in accountability, ensuring that our conversations and decisions remain grounded in evidence and aligned with our goals for our students. And with that, I'll pass it back to President Streater.
Thank you, Vice-President. This is a part of the presentation I'm exceedingly excited about. There are many who say our babies can't learn. There are many who say our babies can't do math, but I think we have proven that our babies can do anything. And by leading with goals and guardrails, we're already seeing results. Grade 3 math proficiency has increased 12.9% percentage points over the past three years, including a 6.3% gain this past year alone. Across Grades through 8, math proficiency is up 8 to points over three years, with a 3.1 increase this past year. College and career readiness is also improving, with 57% of students scoring got competent or advanced on the NOCTI exam, surpassing our annual targets, Chairman Thomas. And while literacy outcomes are not yet where we want them to be, we've seen stability and slight growth, even as national data shows decline. All of this demonstrates that the goals and guardrails are not improving how -- the Board is not just improving how the Board governs, they're driving real, measurable progress for Philadelphia students. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to some of the people who this could not happen without. I believe we have some principals in the room, Dr. Robin Cooper who's here. Can we give them a round of applause? (Applause.)
And while these are increases, there's more work to do. But for every child that is on the road to being proficient, there's one more child who, Mr. Neubauer we discussed about, children who can potentially gain access to jobs such as ship building and ship welding. If a child can't do math on grade level, if a child is not proficient in ELA or doesn't have a working understanding of science, they may not be able to get jobs, such as those high-paying jobs that don't require college degrees. So this work matters. Now, I'll pass it on to Board member Harper for a few Board updates.
Thank you, Reverend President Streater. The Board's Parent and Community Advisory Council has been hard at work strengthening our connection to families and neighborhoods across Philadelphia. The advisory members have been attending community meetings, setting up tables at events and actively listening to families, educators, stakeholders to gather valuable insight. They bring this feedback directly to the Board, helping us to better understand community perspectives and use that input to inform our decision-making. Thanks to the work of these 14 dedicated members, the Board is able to deepen our community engagement and ensure that our priorities reflect the voices of those we serve. We look forward to continuing to activate this group as our ears on the ground, helping to service surface community needs and ideas that guide us in making the best possible decision for Philadelphia and our students. Next slide please. Since our last meeting, the Board has continued to commit to visiting schools across the city. We recently visited two charter schools, Universal Creighton Charter School and Keystone Academy Charter School, to see firsthand the work happening inside this classrooms. These visits allowed us to observe curriculum in action, see how educators are engaging students and experience the learning environment of our young people that are thriving. Each visit deepens our understanding of both the successes and challenges within our schools and helps inform our decision-making at the governance level. The Board looks forward to continuing school regular visits to the district and charter schools because being in schools, talking with educators and engaging directly with students keep us grounded in the reality of the work and centered on student outcome. Please advance to the next slide and I will pass it back to President Streater.
Thank you, my fellow Germantown alum. Thank you for that. So ensuring that the School District of Philadelphia is adequately funded remains paramount for this Board. Over the past several months, I've personally begun convening with other School Board presidents from across the Commonwealth, including those from Pittsburgh, Erie and Johnstown, just to name a few. What began as a conversation to ensure we are aligned in our advocacy for fair and adequate school funding has grown into an ongoing network of leaders committed to advancing the resources our students so desperately need to thrive. This coalition of Board presidents is invaluable and together, we are working to ensure that the voices of our students and communities are heard by state leaders who are making critical decisions about the future of the public good and the personal right that we all know as public education in the state of Pennsylvania. As you all know, Philadelphia currently faces a $1.2 billion adequacy gap and that doesn't count for inflation or what it will be the longer we wait for adequacy. Again, we appreciate the increases this year from the state. But that said, the difference between that, between what our students have today and what they need just to meet basic educational standards is still there. That gap translates into larger class sizes, fewer STEM and career-training opportunities, outdated textbooks and technology and limited access to support and extracurriculars that help students thrive. Despite real progress in recent years, this lack of stable and fair funding threatens the district's ability to sustain improvement and requires us yearly to do what we call trend borrowing, which requires us every year to pay back a debt service, which could translate into some of the same resources I just mentioned a minute ago. And while the Board has worked diligently to strengthen financial stewardship, I think there might be some good news on the horizon about our management of the public's dime, including advancing a balanced budget and moving the district away from the structural deficits it once faced and in the past was the impetus for a state takeover. We cannot close the adequacy gap through reasonable budgeting alone. Without fair funding, Philadelphia students in both district and charter schools will continue to shoulder the burden of an unconstitutional system that undermines their potential in our shared progress. And again, I restate this public good and personal right that all of our babies deserve, not just here in Philly, but in this state. Please advance the next slide. As we begin our charter schools update, just a reminder that the Board of Education remains committed to ensuring that every public school option in Philadelphia, district and charter, prepares students to imagine and realize any future they so desire. Now, we'll hand it over to Board member Jones.
Good morning. Thank you, President Streater. As a Board, we are committed to student prioritizing student outcomes and assuring that every child, whether attending a district school or charter school, has access to educational opportunities that enable them to thrive. The Board continues to support expanding options that increase access to high-quality seats and help students build strong academic foundations. Earlier this year, the Board voted to approve the addition of seats at Green Woods Charter School and approve the opening of Early College Charter School. Green Woods has demonstrated its ability to provide high-quality education to students and Early College's model is designed to expand opportunities for young people across Philadelphia, preparing students for college and career success, beginning in middle school and offering the chance to earn college credits and industry- recognized certifications before graduation. It is also important to acknowledge that we are preparing for the closure of Universal Vare Charter School. The School's Board of Directors made a difficult decision not to pursue charter renewal following the 25-26 school year following a comprehensive review of enrollment patterns, demographic shifts and the impact on their ability to maximize programming for students. We commend the school's leadership for taking a proactive student-first approach and remain confident in the school district's ability to support students and families through this transition. Next slide please. In September, the Charter School Office, led by Chief Peng Chow, hosted the 2025 Fall Charter Schools Convening, bringing together charter leaders from across the city. This convening introduced participants to the National Charter Schools Institute, which is partnering with us on the development of a new charter school performance framework. This is a part of the Project Rise initiative. The Board was pleased to attend, hear early- year accomplishments and engage directly with charter school leaders on how we can strengthen our authorizing practices. Next slide please. Through Project Rise, the Board is building a stronger and more transparent system of accountability for all charter schools in Philadelphia. In October 2024 at the Board's direction, the Charter School Office launched reimagining school excellence or Project Rise, a multi-phase initiative to refine the charter school performance framework, which evaluates the academic, organizational and financial health of all brick-and- mortar charter schools. We know that accountability metrics must evolve over time. Project Rise is designed to help us reimagine how authorizing should evolve to best support students and to strengthen one unified system of public education in Philadelphia. Since launching this work, we moved through Phase 1, which focused on gathering insights from charter leaders, school communities, partners and national experts to clearly define the goals and needs of the next iteration of the framework. We are now in Phase 2, which includes a comprehensive landscape analysis, continued stakeholder engagement and the involvement of our external consultant, the National Charter Schools Institute. The Institute will study national charter authorizing best practices and develop recommendations for an updated performance framework. Surveys of focus groups with students, families and educators are currently under way to assure that the voices of those most directly impacted will shape this work. If all remains on track, the Board anticipates adopting an updated charter school performance framework by spring 2026, a significant milestone in advancing accountability, transparency and excellence across Philadelphia's charter sector. After an updated performance framework is adopted, Phase 3 will begin.
That phase will focus on ensuring that all authorizing policies and procedures are aligned with the updated framework and continue to emphasize transparency and consistency. Thank you and I will now turn it back over to President Streater.
Thank you, Board Member Jones. The work of educating our city's young people is complex and collaborative. It requires alignment, trust and shared purpose across every level of government in every corner of our community. We are grateful to the Mayor, City Council and all of our partners for ongoing support, advocacy and partnership in advancing educational equity and opportunity. Together, we are building a stronger foundation for Philadelphia public education system, one that ensures every student can imagine and realize any future they so desire. Thank you for your partnership, everybody, your leadership and your shared belief in our potential of our students. With that, I'll hand it over to Dr. Watlington.
Thank you, President Streater. Good morning, Council Education Chair Thomas and Council Whip Thomas as well as to all the members of Council, including Minority Leader Brooks, Minority Whip O'Rourke and all members of Council. It's a pleasure to be here with President Streater and Vice-President Andrews this morning. Next slide please. We'll be as brief as possible, Mr. Chairman, so we can get to the feedback and questions. Today we'll provide you with an overview of the district results that President Streater referenced. We'll tell you how we're doing with regard to Mayor Parker's priorities in education as well as an update on the budget process, upcoming Fiscal Year '26 budget process as well as an update on the Facilities Master Plan before we take your feedback and questions. Slide please. I want to begin by acknowledging that we are absolutely in this together, and we appreciate that partnership that Mayor Parker talked about between the school district, government, City Council, public and private partners. Together, we've made some significant progress relative to the Board of Education's vision and mission that Vice-President Andrews so eloquently talked about earlier. So let's get right into the results and next steps. Slide please. I want to begin by noting that every two years in the United States of America there's one test, and only one, that's given across all 50 states in the United States and 28 urban districts, and that's the Nation's Report Card, specifically known as the National Association of Educational Progress. It's given every two years as mandated by the U.S. Congress since 1969. Based on the district's -- we've looked at our performance for the 10 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in March of 2020 and for the four years since the pandemic hit all 50 states, and what we found is that in 4th grade reading, the School District of Philadelphia has held steady over the past four years. When we look at 4th grade math, 8th grade reading and 8th grade math, it's a very promising story. Our children, our scholars in Philadelphia in the school district have outpaced the growth over the past four years as compared to the years prior, 7 outpaced the Commonwealth of 8 Pennsylvania's average. We've 9 outpaced peer districts. 10 In fact, if you go to the next slide, I want to show you one example in the interest of time, Mr. Chairman and members of Council. From the 10 years prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic into March of 2020, if you look at those 28 big city, what we call NAEP TUDA districts -- and by the way, this is not internally created data. This is data provided by the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents the 78 large urban districts in the United States. You can see that in 8th grade math scale scores for the period of 2009 to 2019, years 4 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, 5 you can see that the District of 6 Columbia, Washington, D.C., 7 schools, Detroit, Chicago and 8 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 9 North Carolina led in terms of 10 scale scores. And you can see that unfortunately Philadelphia was last among the NAEP TUDA large city school districts. In 8th grade math scale scores on the next slide, if you fast-forward to post-pandemic, four years after the pandemic, you'll see Jefferson County, Kentucky, Boston, Duval County, Florida and Charlotte-Mecklenburg at the bottom four and you'll see that the School District of Philadelphia made more progress than any of the -- our 8th graders made more progress in 8th grade math than any other big city school district in the country, short of the Los Angeles Unified School District. And we're really proud of our young people. If we go to the next line -- (Applause.)
I think that's worthy of an applause. And the story is a positive one with our State Report Card. And so, we joined these very fine principals who are running the schools in this school district, and their fearless leader Dr. Robin Cooper, who's leading the charge, because all the key work occurs at the school building level because schools are the unit of change. I just want to note that enrollment is increased, student attendance, reading and math scores have increased appreciably. Our career readiness exam scores have increased. Graduation rates have gone up and the dropout rates have gone down significantly. We're very proud of those results. Slide please. In terms of Mayor Parker's initiatives, I want to note that she already talked about it so I'll just take one moment on the next slide to talk about the Extended Day, Extended Year pilot. You can see that 93% of the afternoon seats are filled. Not as many in the morning, but 93% in the afternoon. You can see the other data points up there. One thing I want to highlight, relative to the Mayor's points earlier, we're pushing to have 90% of our young scholars in school every day because that's really important to improving student outcomes. 4% of our young people were in school 90% of the year. 4% in those pilot Extended Day, Extended Year schools. The regular student attendance rate kids coming to school 90% of the year was 75%. 4 compared to 75, we absolutely are thrilled with the outcomes that we're seeing with our Extended Day, Extended Year schools, particularly related to attendance. Next slide. On this slide, you'll see the 10 new pilot schools this year, and I won't read them to you in the interest of time. But should you have questions about those, we're happy to share them during the questions and answers. On the next slide, we continue to be pleased with our partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia. I want to congratulate Dr. Alycia Marshall, the new President at the Community College of Philadelphia. Just like Dr. Generals, she's a strong partner with the school district, and we are working together on Mayor Parker's initiative around the City College for Municipal Employment. Last school year, we had 41 students who participated in CCME. This year we have 86 students who are participating, and they are located at Dobbins, George Washington, South Philadelphia and Roxborough High Schools. They're getting Act 158 credit. And, Mr. Chairman, members of Council, we are going to come back and share with you the data on each one of these young people and the extent to which they are hired by the city after they graduate from high school. Slide please. Let me just share now about our priorities for this school year and beyond. Next slide. Three big overall priorities that we're driving toward. Not surprisingly, we're going to keep our foot on the gas to accelerate academic achievement. We're focusing on continuing to improve our customer service and to partnering with our families as equal partners. Slide please. I want to note, relative to customer service, we implemented a two-way communication system entitled, Let's Talk. If you go to the district's website, you'll see this nice yellow button on the front page of that website that gives anyone in our community an opportunity to share feedback, ask a question, report a concern. And we track, one, how long it takes us to get back to those individuals. And number two, we give our public an opportunity to give us a feedback score. Since this was launched on January 1, 2024 through the end of the year, June 30, 2025, so for last school year we received over 64,000 inquiries from our community. 2. I certainly want to thank our Chief of Communications and Customer Service, Alex Coppadge, and her team for their leadership. Next slide.
I want to say a word about our work around partnering with families, not just for parent engagement or parent involvement, but to be equal partners with our parents and families because our parent and families are our children's first teachers. We were very pleased that we were able to bring this initiative back. That was a big priority during the administration of the late Dr. Arlene Ackerman. We are providing free supports for parents and families across neighborhoods in four big bucket areas. First, student attendance and joy. We want our young people to be in school 90% of the school year and to experience joy on a daily basis. Second, we're focused on health and wellness, to include physical health and wellness as well as social and emotional and mental health, wellness, civic engagement. We're encouraging young people and their families to be involved in public service. And since Dr. Clayton was one of -- the School District of Philadelphia was one of the first school districts in the nation under the late Dr. Constance Clayton to make African American Studies a part of the required part of the curriculum. We're very pleased that under this civic engagement area, we are committed to helping and to ensure that every young person who graduates from the School District of Philadelphia over time, we teach them how to think, not what to think, but we are committed to preparing every single one of them, except folks who choose not to for some reason, to educate each and every one of them and to assist them in registering to vote as an adult citizen. The fourth bucket involves financial literacy. And we continue to receive very positive reviews from our families regarding some of the supports we're providing for both our students and their families. Slide please. Chairman, I want to provide an overview of the upcoming budget process. I do want to note that we have negotiated two collective bargaining agreements with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the School Police Association, or SPAP. We are in the process and look forward to working with President Dr. Robin Cooper to get a collective bargaining agreement completed in the near term with Teamsters Local 502 CASA union. Slide please. I also want to note that President Streater had talked about good news. We are really pleased that the federal, state and local dollars that this district has had over the past few years has been put to good use. We're pleased that we have the best investment grade credit rating that we've had in a half century at present. In fact, this week will mark the third increase in our investment grade credit ratings by either Fitch or Moody's ratings, and we're really excited about that. I want to thank the Board of Education for a strong fiscal stewardship. Slide please. It's equally important when you look at this slide, because the bond markets, like the rest of us, know that over time, our revenues -- excuse me, over time our expenditures were outpaced by revenues in the School District of Philadelphia, largely driven by required increases in salaries, benefits and health care costs. We are absolutely focused on addressing all of these challenges. And by Fiscal Year 29-30 we are committed to taking the structural actions that are necessary to eliminate our structural deficit by Fiscal Year 29-30. More to come on that in the coming weeks. Slide please. I also want to give you a quick update on where we are with the Facilities Master Plan. On the next slide, you'll note that we've been hard at work for the past couple of years, moving in earnest through seven phases of an eight-phase process to get the facility's master plan completed. While we intended to bring some facility plan recommendations, comprehensive recommendations to President Streater and Vice-President Andrews and members of the Board in December, we pushed that timeline back just a bit.
We are still committed to bringing recommendations this winter, but we want to take a little bit more time to do some final engagement with our communities in the spirit of nothing for us without us. On the next slide, you'll notice the problem we are solving with our facilities plan. As Mayor Parker mentioned, we want to provide something better for our future generations, number one and number two. The other part of the other problem we're solving for is to better and more efficiently use our limited resources, our time, our various budgets, our buildings and our school facilities, to drive more high-quality academic and extracurricular programming into our schools. Because at present, the resources and the academic and extracurricular programming is very disparate based on your neighborhood or school communities. And so, these six outcomes we're driving toward. Slide please. Fall of 2024, the Board of Education passed a resolution to direct the Superintendent and team to complete Phase 8 of this facilities planning process, and to do so in a manner that involves widespread, deep and transparent community engagement. So on this slide, you can see a number of work opportunities that we completed in 2024. On the next slide, you'll see January through December of 2025 on here. I want to call your attention to July of this year. In the spring, we developed our framework and data categories that would govern the next steps in the process. Over the summer, we engaged communities in refining the data, both qualitative and quantitative. In the fall, we continue to refine the data and we began putting together our current thinking scenarios and a draft plan, although no formal plan is prepared yet. And certainly, we continue to be committed to robust community engagement. Over this time period, we've had more than 47 public listening sessions. We've had over 35 data verification sessions. We received over 5700 survey and other inquiry responses from our public and this week we're launching a survey with some key themes that we've been talking with and getting feedback over a number of months. This survey will launch this week and we will share the results of that feedback survey next month. On this slide, you can see that the themes for that survey include reinvesting in neighborhood high schools which has been a positive, strong thing and we believe we're committed to that. In fact, when the district grew by 1841 students last year, they didn't come at the elementary levels or the middle grade levels. The lion's share of the new students came in our high schools. And the good news is they came in both our neighborhood catchment high schools as well as our criteria-based schools. So it's a good opportunity to grow our district enrollment. Second major theme is expanding access to choice in Grades 5 through 12. The third theme about reducing the number of transitions that our students make in their K-12 careers from 13 down to 6. And certainly, it will come as no surprise to you that the fourth theme is around increasing building utilization rates because we have a number of underenrolled buildings and a number of overenrolled buildings. Mr. Chairman, members of Council, thank you for the opportunity to present this morning. This concludes my presentation on behalf of the district. Happy to join President Streater and Vice-President Andrews in receiving your feedback or questions.
Thank you so much. I want to just take a moment as Chair of the Education Committee to thank all of the members of the Education Committee, specifically Councilmember Gauthier, Vice-Chair Phillips, Councilman Squilla, Councilmember Lozada, Councilmember Brooks as well as Councilmember Ahmad. When Board President Streater spoke about those monthly meetings, those are the members of the Education Committee who meet on a monthly basis with Superintendent Watlington as well as Board Chair Streater as well as their staff and other Board members and team members. So I want to say thank you to those folks. Thank you to Mayor Parker as well as our Council President for being here to kick us off today. I also wanted to say thank you to the Finance team over at the school district who participate in quarterly meetings. Dr. Watlington, you said something that caught my attention around 2030. I hadn't heard that before. So I'm looking forward to hearing more information around that. I also want to thank all of the members of the School Board who aren't here. I just want to remind everybody that School Board members aren't paid, so anytime I get an opportunity to advocate that needs to change the structure of the School Board, it's one that I feel should allow some level of compensation, and that's something that I personally believe in. Last but not least, colleagues, before we jump into questions I'll just ask that we limit questions around facilities. I just want to remind everybody we're doing a facilities hearing in January. So in January, next month, clearly the district has some information around facilities, but it was communicated to us that they did not have all of the information that I know a lot of members have questions around leading up to today's hearing. And in our January meeting, we will do a meeting just around facilities alone that will be before the Committee of the Whole. It will not be just the Education Committee. So I just wanted to make sure I provided that context before we jump into questions. And so, with that being said let's start with the elephant in the room. Clearly, there's a lot of principals here representing a lot of different schools from across the city of Philadelphia. I've seen some of our favorite principals here today, so I'm not going to start naming names because I'll get in trouble if I do that. But principals are here and they've decided to not be in their buildings today, and that's because they're concerned around a contract. You all have been in negotiations with CASA and the union since the summertime. It's now November. We're right around the corner from Christmas and they still don't have a contract. In the midst of the PowerPoint presentation today, you mentioned the PFT as well as the School Police Officers Union. Both of them have received a contract. During my time as the Education Chair, we also had issues with UNITE HERE and them not getting a contract. So help myself and members of the general public as well as members of City Council understand why are these principals taking off from work today to be down here because they don't have a contract, instead of being with our children?
Mr. Chairman, we are absolutely optimistic about the successful conclusion of a contract with Teamsters Local 502, absolutely optimistic about that being completed in the near term. Thank you.
Yeah. So I mean, they're here and they're here probably because they're not optimistic. So help us understand your perspective compared to theirs? Well, clearly you're in contract negotiations so there are some things that can't be discussed. But I know I'm hoping it's not about money, right. So help us understand what's different from your perception of what's going on compared to their perception of what's going on? Because I would assume, if they were as optimistic as you were, they would be in the building with our children right now instead of being down here in City Council advocating for a contract.
You're absolutely correct, Mr. Chairman. The terms of negotiation are not public. (Inaudible) will tell you that I'm optimistic about a successful conclusion in the near term.
Okay. So you know there are other questions from other members and people are not going to just sit here and let that go. I got Mr. Overbrook to my right. I got a bunch of other public school graduates and a bunch of principals here who we all know personally. So we will continue to ask what the issue is there. Let me word it this way. I listened to a lot of success that the district has achieved, and I do commend you as well as the leadership at the school district, for that success. How much of that success do you contribute to the principals and the people who lead these facilities? And if we do contribute that success to the principals, why are we in this limbo phase as it relates to their contract?
Mr. Chairman, I'll answer it this way within one minute or less. 50 years of research in the United States clearly tells us that the top two factors in improving outcomes and whether students grow academically, irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, etc., number one, highly- qualified, well-supported and stable teachers over time; and number two, the number two factor is highly-qualified, well-supported principals over time. Principals play a unique role because they're the people who recruit, onboard, develop support, and retain the teachers. It's why I'll say again we are absolutely optimistic about a successful contract negotiation in the near term.
Okay. Thank you. Do you think you have a timeline? Is there an estimated timeline? Because again, they haven't had a contract since August. We're in November. Is this something that we think will settle by the end of the calendar year? Is it something that we think will settle before we come into budget next year? What's your anticipated timeline to get this addressed?
Mr. Chairman, I don't think it's appropriate to speak about that from the (inaudible), but we're moving with all delivery. Thanks.
Clearly, I have more questions, but I know members have been sitting for a long time. Let me do this. I'm going to first recognize Vice- Chair Phillips, but then I'm going to turn it over to Councilman Jones. Now, before Councilman Jones goes, because I don't want your answer to be I don't know, I'm 100% sure that one of Councilmember Jones' questions is going to be around why do community-based organizations have to pay so much money to use school district spaces, right. So you have Dr. Phillips who's going to go next, and then Councilmember Jones. Councilmember Jones has been on me and this school district about this issue for months. Let's please assure when Councilmember Jones comes with that specific question, which I know he's going to ask, that we have a direct answer for him as it relates to why community organizations have to pay so much money to use school district space, specifically looking at the track and field organizations as well as the football organization. So with that being said, Chair recognizes Dr. Phillips, who's the Vice-Chair of the Education Committee. And then after that, I'm going to recognize Councilmember Jones.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Thomas. Chairman Thomas has been doing an incredible job for years leading the Education Committee, and it's been great to serve alongside them. I also want to thank Board President Streater and also Dr. Watlington, especially you, Board President, for showing great improvements with the relationship with City Council. It deserves to be on the record that improvement has been made. I just have a few questions. First question I have is regarding the old Fels High School. As you want to put on the record that as you're doing your facilities plan, hopefully you can come back in January with some answers on how we want to utilize the old Fells High School. Okay. We did visit that towards the beginning of my term on city high schools. And I just want to know if there's any commitments available on that question?
Yes, sir. We will have something to say about the old Fels High School. We're closely reviewing that property. It's on our radar, sir.
Excellent. And then I want to follow up about some things around the district around truancy. Some principals in our district have cited that there's a lot of issues with of course truancy, attendance. How is the Central Office providing real support to schools, students and families to address chronic truancy? Are there incentives being offered to encourage attendance? And are you helping some of the school leaders with completing the overwhelming amount of paperwork that we're learning that they have to complete?
Thank you, Councilmember Dr. Phillips. First, I want to note that truancy is getting better. More than 4000 young people in the school district improved their regular attendance to 90% of the school year. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10% of the school year. Yes, there are incentives that various schools offer. I've been in a number of our schools to see them. I was at a Final Four opportunity I believe it was at Forest School last year. It was really fun to watch that. They did a March Madness kind of competition and lots of different incentives across schools. One of the things that President Streater, the Board of Education does every meeting is they require the Superintendent to bring a report on what our attendance looks like month over month. And for the first month of this year, we're really pleased that we've got better attendance than we have had the first month over the past two years. Third, schools dig deep into the data and we've developed a live data dashboard where our academics team under the leadership of Dr. Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jermaine Dawson and his team will be able to work closely with members of Council and Ward leaders and others in the community to include faith-based leaders and the Parent and Family University to work with communities to help to improve truancy as well.
Yeah. And then the paperwork that a lot of the principals and assistant principals have to fill out for the truancy, what's the process to make that -
Correct, there are required letters that go out on the third absence, I believe, the fifth and ninth absence as well as phone calls to make sure that parents and guardians are well aware of what's happening with their children.
I also have a question from other principals in our district that I've observed and seen this. We have a lot of growing ESL students in our district, multilingual students. What type of support are we providing for schools that are growing, Central Office support and English learning office services? Are they getting more emotional support people, intensive learning support? How can you make that a reality as English as second language grows and some principals are talking about this?
For our ELLS, as we call them, English language learner students, first, I want to note we track the data very carefully and intentionally across race, ethnicity, across socioeconomic status, across neighborhoods. And certainly, we also look very closely at our English language learner students. We were really concerned last year because of the national incidents that were occurring in other districts related to immigration or origin status, etc, and we found that we did not have any major impacts in terms of what regular attendance looks like in the district. Under the leadership of our Chief of Special Education and diverse learners, Dr. Nathalie Neree, there are a number of supports and services that are intentionally provided to schools to provide support to this population of students.
Thank you. I just want to add that every school is unique. I'll go off record to talk to you later on about specific schools that are in my district that need support particularly. But I do want to ask what is the district doing -- we just had a whole conference about this -- you weren't here, your representatives were here -- about the food options? How can we find ways to improve food options, nutrition and freshness for some of our districts? Is there a way in which we can contract out with a very strong caterer in the city of Philadelphia that can provide food for our masses? It doesn't have to be these government agencies that we typically work with. Has that been the sport before?
I do know that under the leadership of our Deputy Superintendent for Operations Colonel Oz Hill, they get lots of student input. In fact, they bring a number of potential school vendors into the school district to sample foods and to give our young people opportunities to weigh in on what they like in terms of menu options. And to the extent they can within the budget provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, they try to make the food as appealing as possible. If time permits -- I won't take too much time, but if time permits and you need some more information, I'm happy to have Deputy Superintendent Hill speak more to that and more specifics.
That's my time. But I just want to say thank you for your questions on the meal, on your responses. On the topic of Extended Year, Extended Day I think it's a wonderful program. I think it needs to be something that is before and aftercare at every school in the city of Philadelphia. You have a great partner in Sunrise Philadelphia. I think Sunrise Philadelphia can be an option for us to fund. It's in South and Southwest Philadelphia. And I just think it's an opportunity for us to figure out how do we get that program in every school. And whatever we can do, I want to figure out how to make that happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Vice-Chair Phillips. I also want to just take a moment of personal privilege to thank you, Vice-Chair Phillips, for your leadership around Olney Field. I think that's a victory lap that we didn't necessarily discuss today, a field that has been struggling for some time. And if you're anywhere in the Northwest, you know that that field means a lot to that community. So you, Colonel Hill, the entire Operations team, Superintendent Watlington, thank you all for the great work that you did around Olney High School. That's definitely a huge accomplishment. I also want to take a moment to remind folks that you guys promised to feed us school food. We had a hearing and we said that you would bring us food from the schools so we can eat it ourselves so we can assess it ourselves. So I'm going to take a -- after Councilmember Jones it's going to be Councilmember Young. So he's going to talk about the fact that we all agree that you would bring us food --
I don't think it was any of you that were here. But somebody didn't do their job in getting that information back to you, because we want to taste the food ourselves, right. We were in a hearing and you gave us some surprising information as graduates of public schools that we never knew excised and we wanted to try it ourselves. So thank you, Councilmember Phillips, for bringing that up. And I just want to remind everybody that that's the case. And before I turn it over to Councilmember Jones, I also want to put in a shameless plug for Freedom Schools. We talked about the Extended Day program. I know I got Principal Ames over there who very much knows about Freedom Schools. This is a program that I come from, that I've been advocating for. I even give a shout-out the State Rep Amen Brown, because State Rep Amen Brown is probably the only other elected official who actually has been in the Freedom Schools program and it helped shape our perspective of leadership. So along with the program that Vice- Chairman Phillips mentioned, I'll add Freedom Schools to the list. With that being said, Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones followed by Councilmember Jones will be Councilmember Young and then Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you so much for your leadership in education. It does not go unnoticed by the other members that you have taken on this mantle and are doing an excellent job, and I want to put that on the record. So thank you for that. Good afternoon. Board Chair Streater, Superintendent Watlington and Vice-Chair Allen, right?
Andrews. I'm sorry. So I had an opportunity to talk to the Superintendent about things and I gave them a theory I call the sandwich theory. So what I'm doing is it's like a sandwich on the top, slice of bread, you give a really good compliment and then you go into the meat of the sandwich, where you get your concerns raised, and then you end on a good note with another slice of bread. So I intend to do and follow that model today. So let me start with the compliment. Thank you, thank you, thank you. One for you being retained. This is the first time in my tenure that I actually get a vision from the school district that I can follow and see the steps of progress for, so I am truly indebted to you and your leadership, the Board and the Superintendent, for that vision that the Board has. I actually follow it. I want to also thank you as Chair of Public Safety. We started after the death of a young man at Overbrook High School. I see Dr. Johnson, formerly known as Lee, here. m. and talk about what's going on climate-wise, who's beefing with who, what's going on, how can we intervene? We enlist cameras, police, school district personnel, coaching and SEPTA police working with your administrators to try to kind of quell that. And it isn't perfect, but it is trending in the right way. The Police Commissioner worked with the district to spread that Safe Corridor program around the city. And thank you for being partners in that. I truly appreciate that. Outside of City Hall from right where we sit, there are about 10 schools within walking distance, a mile from here, and they use City Hall's courtyard as their playground and they sometimes get into physical altercations. When we brought that to your attention, you didn't ignore it. You got on it. The appointee from the Mayor's Office for Education, along with Will Mega, her staff, along with the members of your respective schools got together and came up with a plan, and it has dealt with the issue. So your responsiveness, I'm truly, truly appreciative of. And so, thank you for paying attention. Now, the meat. We went past the slice. Now, we're going into the meat. I'm grateful that we are working on one of my issues, which is disciplinary actions. We did a resolution a while back that showed student-to-student violence, student-to-teacher violence, parent-to-teacher-and-student violence, and that is a pervasive issue. It resulted most recently at Overbrook, where an irate uncle came up and had a gun. The gun went off, shot the officer, almost killing him over high school beefs that have been around since the Flintstones. It's always going to be some drama in somebody's high school and some of those hallway fights spill out to the streets that result in violence. When I brought it to Superintendent's attention, he didn't sweep it under the rug. He jumped on it and we had a conversation about methodologies on how to deal with it. I am appreciative of that, that when we give concerns, you don't just nod in the appropriate places and say we'll wait until budget time to pay attention to them again. So thank you for that. Where we need to work on some improvements: I don't believe in public public schools, public charter schools, one being better than the other. I believe in good schools. I'm agnostic when it comes to that. I want the best education options for the kids in my 4th District and citywide. We are not comparing apples to apples. When we talk about charter and public schools, you can't convince me that that is true. And sometimes you're very polite. When I come down and I want to testify on behalf of one of my charter schools, you bring me right up. I really feel important. And you give me my three minutes and then you say, thank you very much and you ignore everything I've said. So what I am saying, along with Chair of Education, we don't want to just sit here and nod at the appropriate place when you give testimony and then ignore everything you say.
You need to take into consideration what we know boots on the ground about the schools in my district, in our districts. I don't have to look at your reports to tell which schools are performing better. All I have to do is measure the number of calls I get from parents that want to get out of one school and get to the other. It tells me everything I need to know. It tells me that they vote with their feet. 30,000 middle-class Philadelphians fled to the suburbs because they didn't have that mobility and optionality to be able to go to the schools they really wanted to get to because of lack of seating. We have closed a number of charter schools that, you know, if you were doing the apple-to-apple comparison -- I asked the former appointee from the Mayor's Education Committee, if you had this school that's a charter and that school that's a public school, both of them were in my district, I said you had one kid to go through that door, which one of those doors would you go through? And you can't say nothing slick to a can of oil. He danced around that thing so hard like, well, it depends. No, it don't depend. You want the best for your children just like the rest of people in here. So when I see schools like KIPP and Global Leadership that want to expand, want to be renewed, I'm paying laser-like attention to that because that optionality for parents that took off to come down here is of importance to them. Probably the number one decision- maker of where they live is where I send my kids to school. Now, you're doing a good job on a lot of the grading system. You're doing a lot of good work and I'm truly grateful for that. And this is the sandwich part, right. But I'm going to hold you to a higher standard. The teachers I remember at Overbrook were the toughest on me, the ones that didn't let me get away and mark my grades upward. They made me earn that B or A, and I'm appreciative to them today. So I say to you that you don't have to answer most of these questions right now. I'm going to give you a pass. But when you come back for the budget, I'm going to need some answers now. The one I would like an answer to is about facilities costs. I have track teams. I have basketball leagues. I have people that volunteer their time to take at-risk young people to track meets, to tournaments and they're great athletes, but we are charging that nonprofit, that coach that volunteers thousands and thousands of dollars to use our facility. And even more egregious, in my opinion sometimes the Recreation Department, who is not here, will make you pay for a facility. Y'all do this out of this pocket into that pocket game. Just straight tell my Chairman what you need to operate so that our nonprofits, some of our volunteer organizations and coaches can benefit from these facilities. I realize there are real costs. For every time they open up after school, there's a maintenance person or security guard that has to get paid. I get that. But you cannot be anti- violence, guarding at-risk young people and overcharging the very people who are the lifeguards giving our kids an opportunity so I need an answer to that.
Thank you, Councilmember Jones. Most school districts will have some kind of community use process or agreement because schools are part of communities and belong to communities. I'm going to ask Deputy Superintendent Colonel Oz Hill to come and speak specifically to our process. It's called Facilitron, and our expectation is to be good partners with our community. And I'll ask him to speak specifically to that. Colonel, are you here? (Witness approached witness table.)
Mr. Chairman, I can't say nothing bad about him. That's not fair. Y'all bring my favorite guy up here to take this ass whooping.
It'd be a pleasure, sir. And I hope I remain your favorite guy after this response. First of all, the fees associated with the use of our facilities do not generate revenue for the School District of Philadelphia. It is not intended to make money on any level. There is a community-used component that's done in collaboration with Parks and Recreation through the use of our Facilitron system where reservations are recorded and approved. The fees that are charged right now, and it's $55 per hour, offset the cost associated with staffing primarily. Most recently, there was a request to use one of our super site athletic fields or an all-day football event by a community organization. Our first priority is the safety and well-being of the athletes as well as the community participants. In that particular instance, the assessment, the security assessment required a number of officers that resulted in the increased cost associated with providing services, security services for the event. In that particular instance, every measure was taken to reduce the cost. But at the end of the day, the number of officers required based on the number of participants that were projected, not only based on the reservation but what had occurred historically for that event at the site. And so, every measure is always taken to support community organizations with the use of our facilities. The district often absorbs costs associated with those events that the organizations cannot pay.
And that's all right. If you ain't cheating, you ain't competing. I get it. But let me say this to you in all candor. Every summer the United Age Group Track Club Association sends 1000 youth up to I think it's Northeast Peace(ph). Out of those 1000 young people, not a curse word, not a fight, just cheering for kids running their hearts out for these little pieces of tin that they just think the world of. That happens all day. That's all day that they're not playing little video games. That's all day that they're not fighting or standing on a corner or getting shot at. And guess what, not a police officer up there, not one, okay, because it's not really needed because the coaches and parents have that thing locked down tight. For $55 an hour, put it in the budget and we'll figure it out. Because for every ounce of prevention is more worth a pound of cure. We got to save these babies any by any means necessary. And some of the necessary is your facilities. I got kids running right now or later this evening that'll be running outside because they can't get in a warm hallway in one of your schools.
I'm not going to -- I'm going to let you go back, Councilman Jones, but I want to give Councilmember Young and Councilmember Phillips an opportunity just to chime in on this particular subject for a point of information --
Okay. All right. I did warn them. Point of information from Councilmember Young. Then Dr. Phillips and then we'll go from there -- oh, I'm sorry. Before we do that, before you go, Member Young, I just want to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Quetcy Lozada of the 7th Councilmanic District. Thank you for being here. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I listened to the questions asked and then the answers provided, right. So I think I want to ask the question a different way to maybe we can get to an answer. And essentially it is, how much does it cost the school district to allow these outside organizations to operate at the facilities? And how much does the school district -- I know it doesn't produce revenue for the school district, but how much does the school district essentially take in from these outside organizations? I think the point of that is to try for us as members of City Council to get that number so we can just put it in the budget, right, so we can just pay for it so the outside organizations don't have to be scrambling around looking for funds to utilize the school district facilities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
While you guys huddle, Member Phillips, Dr. Phillips, did you want to add anything to that?
I do. I just wanted to co-sign with Councilman Jones because he's right. I get calls as well. And my point information is on I got a call from a parent that was livid, and she was on the phone with me for 40 minutes about how her organization at the Germantown Super Site, they got to pay this money and then they're getting kicked out by a certain time of the year because they can't continue their practice. They got championships coming up and they just could not understand why they have to pay all the additional funds and I also didn't understand it either. So here's my thought. If you're concerned about hundreds of organizations utilizing this space, all right, that's fine, but maybe we could have a process where there could be community involvement maybe with Councilmembers where you could say, provide a list of suggested groups that could basically have these fields that are beneficial to the community for free, right. And then maybe some other external groups that don't use it as much, they can get the fee or the idea could be had that we just cover that cost because it's becoming too much of an issue about this usage of space. And I think there's a way that you can work with Councilmembers to really identify what are the groups in each councilmanic district that can really utilize this space for free upon your recommendation. And I think that could be really helpful to solve a lot of these issues.
Councilmember Dr. Phillips, Councilmember Young and Councilmember Jones, thank you for the question. I'd like us to take two homework assignments as staff. One, to give you the numbers you've asked for and I'd like to propose that we, Colonel Hill and I, work with you to develop a working group to work through these thoughts, suggestions or recommendations. I think you've got some good points here and we can figure all that out.
Thank you. And so, I guess in closing I just want you all to understand that when these are the people who hold us accountable, right, like the people we represent, especially the District Councilmembers, right, they're not going to say it's Dr. Watlington's fault or Board President Streater's fault. That's the District Councilperson. That's Anthony Phillips fault. It's the District Councilperson. It's Curtis Jones' fault. It's the District Councilpeople, Quetcy Lozada, Jay Young, Kenyatta Johnson. They're the ones that people blame for this stuff. How do I know? Because they don't blame me and I'm the Chair of the Education Committee. It's not my fault. And so, for me the reason why I'm so rapid and aggressive in my response is because I try my best to support my colleagues. Councilmember Brian O'Neill is not here. I got more phone calls on this issue from Councilmember Brian O'Neill in the last three weeks than any phone calls I've gotten from him all year. And it's not because he's not a present and active member of City Council. It's because he is accountable to the constituents who are advocating for this stuff nonstop. So for the people that's watching, we understand that there's a lot of issues that we have to discuss today. But as elected officials, we always respond the most aggressively to the things that the constituents bother us the most about. And I shouldn't have even used the word bother. I should use the word advocate to us about. So that's why you see so much attention being paid to this, is because constituents really care. They want their young people to be able to play, participate in positive extracurricular activities, right, and we talk about the Extended Day initiative. On one hand, we're going to brag about what we've done because we've accomplished some amazing things. On the other hand, we got to figure out how to fix this issue with extracurricular activities. Speaking with the Mayor's point around public-private partnerships, this is probably the best example of public-private partnerships we have in the City of Philadelphia and we got to figure out a way to get it right. With that being said, the Chair is going to recognize Councilmember Young. After Councilmember Young, I'm going to ask that the finance team come on up and be prepared to answer questions about the fiscal health of the City of Philadelphia, where we are financially. Dr. Watlington, you said in one slide that you anticipate getting rid of the deficit by 2029-2030. That's the first I've heard that. So we would like an explanation as to how you see that being accomplished after Councilmember Young goes through his line of questioning.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll save my budget question for last then, and good afternoon. Thank you for being here. First question or comment rather, is we were talking about the school lunch I would say issue, right. Because when I talk to students, talk to parents, we get a different story from them than what we get from the school district regarding the quality of the food. And I would want to put it out there that our school, our public school in Center City is Ben Franklin, which we can walk up the street there. So I would love to schedule lunch at Ben Franklin, invite all the colleagues there, literally right up the street, and then we can see what type of meals they're providing our students --