Another example is -- and I've said this before -- is the fact that the City is installing a new communications system, a mobile communications system, and I know that the School District spends a substantial amount of money each year for our communications system, and I believe that you rent. I don't believe that you own it, it's a rented system. This would be a perfect opportunity for you to join into this communications network and possibly be able to save a substantial amount of money. So for things like that, sometimes I think people -- 2670 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
And the Procurement Department -- I'm pleased to hear that maybe you're going back and forth and utilizing those opportunities. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Superintendent Hornbeck, we've got several -- we've received several calls from parent, particularly those parents of high-schoolers, and issues around the lack of a math teacher, algebra teacher, etc. We all know that algebra is very important. It impacts a student's ability to do well on SATs, on your standardized tests and to perform well in college. Can you tell us what the need is just 2671 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS in regards to algebra or math and science teachers? And if there is a shortage, which I believe there is, is there going to be some type of mechanism in place to help these youngsters gain the competencies that they need to gain in math in order to go forward?
There is a shortage. And our thinking goes in three ways. One is to try to approach this in just a continuing, traditional way to increase recruiting. And it goes to the issue -- of vacancies like this will inform some of our conversations with the Federation, for example. They certainly will inform our need to achieve pay parity. So the normal straightforward way, we've doubled our recruitment staff in the last year in that way. But we're also looking at some, I guess you'd characterize it as non-traditional ways, too. For example, we've been exploring with the Retired Teachers Association the -- we started by asking retired teachers -- they can work 95 days a week without affecting their retirement. So we said, Would any of you like to work halftime, which would be 95 days, to do this? And the 2672 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS answer basically was, We're retired, we don't want to work 95 days. And so we have gone back and said, What about one period a day? Because if you get down to an individual algebra class, you can take care of a problem with 30 kids just by one period a day. And I don't know what the answer to that is, but we're coming at it in that way. The second non-traditional way that we're looking at it is that I -- think it's the University of Kansas that actually has developed a full-fledged virtual high school; that is to say, developed an electronic way of teaching courses that lead to credits. And so one of the things that we're looking at is the content standards -- are the content standards that are reflected in such courses in hard-to-fill positions to explore, at least on an interim basis, whether we can bridge this gap. And we're looking at places like this university-sponsored virtual high school because they've already gone through the accreditation process that has led to a determination that the 2673 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS quality of what's going on in there is up to standards, as opposed to -- and they've put a fair amount of money into it and to the, you know, the TV settings and that kind of thing. So we're looking at every level that we can. A third non-traditional way that the H.R. Department is looking at is going to some of the universities and colleges where they have graduate-level programs and exploring the possibility of bringing, for like one period a day again, a graduate student who is studying for his Ph.D., for example, in mathematics, into that kind of setting. Those are not all that satisfactory. It's not the way we want to do that business, but the situation you described is forcing us to look at every possible avenue, and we would welcome from you, Councilwoman Miller, or other Members of Council any additional ideas of how we might meet that need.
Yeah, because right now, the need is not being met. And I just wonder what's going to happen to these young people when June comes and they get a report card 2674 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS and maybe they fail, maybe they don't fail, but they're going to move onto next grade and still just have that deficiency. And math is so important and, of course, so is science. But I know specifically most of our calls have been from parents whose children are not receiving adequate instruction.
Well, I think you underlined something by referencing June. One of the reasons -- not one of the reasons, the reason that the Fair Opportunities to Learn, including issues of pay parity with teachers, are so important is that we -- the Board has increased the requirement for math and science, just in terms of the number of credits kids have to accumulate. They've also increased the rigor of the content inside of the credits. And we simply can't say to kids, Well, you guys have got to jump over this bar that we've raised up, but we're not going to help you to do it. And so that's the reason that there is some emphasis on what we're referring to as "Fair Opportunities to Learn."
Well, I'd be 2675 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS interested in being kept updated on where we are, particularly as it relates to math. I mean, kids in middle school -- math is important everywhere but, you know, maybe they time for the research with the university project to be completed, but the high-schoolers that are there now, trying to get out of high school and go on --
Thank you, Madam Chair. Superintendent, I'd like to go back to what I left off with in the last go-round, which had to do with the state of the buildings and any plans for significant upgrades and improvements. Councilman Ortiz had raised the issue of the Perks-Ruder (ph.) study. This was from August of 2676 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS 1996, which laid out the age of the buildings, at least at the time, and the condition and the dollar amounts and the like. Now, it's my understanding that of the estimated $765 million that Perks-Ruder estimated at that time to get the buildings up to a minimum standard, all of those dollars weren't necessarily capital dollars and that some were actually more in the line of maintenance; is that correct?
What's the estimate on the actual capital dollars that are needed to get the buildings up to a minimum standard?
Okay. Now, you responded to a question earlier and I thought I took the figure down, but I'm not sure. What was last year's capital borrowing?
What I referred to was the average of 117 million per year in each of the last five years, but last year -- that was spent, yes. Do you remember last year, Tom? It was 2677 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS higher than that. We've grown from below 100 five years to about 150 last year, 1-5-0.
And is there a long-term plan to, in a relatively short period of time, get to the kind of numbers that we know are needed to get the buildings up to standard? We know that what you borrow generally takes care of more recent things, and as you fix things, other buildings get older. And, I mean, whatever you fix is generally broken somewhere else. What's the long-term game plan?
Well, we have, as we've moved from average $42 million up to this average $117 million, pretty well maxed out our ability to do two things. There are two things in combination that control this level. One is our ability to go to the market.
Right, and that was going to be next question. What is your debt limit and what is our capacity that's used at this point? (Superintendent Hornbeck confers with colleagues off the record.)
We have -- we have about 2678 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS 800 million left of capacity. But the other piece is bringing these projects on line, and --
Numbers of -- getting the design, the architecture, the whole nine yards done.
Is that a function of how many people you have doing the work?
Yeah. Being able to pay for it on the one hand and then just getting the work done. And as I say, we've tripled it. But I think it's fair to say from the paying-for-it point of view that it's going to be very difficult unless or until the President's construction initiative, which they've repeatedly tried to do, the $8 billion nationwide thing and/or the change in State formula around construction were to take place, we would be very hard-pressed on our own here in Philadelphia to do what needs to be done.
'Cause we don't have 2679 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS enough money. I mean, it's mostly a money thing. The other thing that I should share with you is that I truly believe, although we haven't -- in the last year or so, we've been sending people to places where they've been doing it and we're doing the initial planning, and I personally think we're going to have to go there, but it's going to be a heck of a culture change for people to go to year-round school, which is, as you know, if you do a certain approach to it, each kid would go to the same amount of school that he goes to now, but you would, in effect, increase your capacity by a third by extending --
Let me for a second, though, go back to the borrowing issue and the work issue, and this is not a comparison on performance of two different school systems, but a comparison by way of activity. And from some research in the past and a package that I've been waiting for that literally just came in about an hour ago, in the city of Chicago over the last 2680 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS four years, they embarked on a capital improvement program that has resulted in $2 billion in construction activity in the Chicago schools. We're, I think, a little less than about a half the size of Chicago. I think they have 491,000 students, we have 213?
The result of which has been 10 new schools, 23 additions, 309 new roofs, and 1,000 other renovation projects, and they've borrowed these dollars either on the school district by itself, some in conjunction with the city of Chicago and the school district, and taking advantage of some alternative financing opportunities as well developed by their financial as advisors in Chicago. And I'd be glad to share any of that information, if the District doesn't already have it. Who is the financial adviser for the School District?
The financial advisor? 2681 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
Okay. And do they work with the District on alternative financing proposals --
Okay. But this is n what you've normally done, the normal borrowings?
Both capital and other borrowing, and they've helped us triple the amount that we've done in the last five years, but I would be delighted to see what Chicago has done.
Yeah, as I said, this just came in about an hour or so again.
That would be great. 2682 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
I don't -- I know that their state, when they changed the law, did give them a fair amount of extra money in the process, and maybe there's something in that book that tells us how to get that done, but in any event, I'd love to see the book.
The wonders of books. And what did you say your percentage of debt capacity is used at this point?
Percent used? We were talking about unused, which is 800 million. The percent of debt capacity is not an issue, if I understand it correctly. I'm told that is not the issue.
But I think as a legal matter, that's true, but I think as a practical 2683 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS matter, I think it's a little bit different.
We may have the credit line, Councilman, but I don't know that we have the cash to pay off the credit card.
I understand. I've been in that situation, too. Lastly in this particular area, is there a detailed analysis specific to the various recreation facilities that the District owns and operates -- football fields, baseball fields, if we have any soccer, basketball?
We can certainly put that together. I mean, we know what we have. Whether there's a thing labeled "baseball fields" or not, we can put that together for you.
And an assessment of present status or condition -- good, fair, poor, or decrepit.
Well, some of that would 2684 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS have shown up even in Perks-Ruder, I think, and we've been attending to some of those things too as we've gone along, as we are attempting to, as you know, in creative ways at Roxborough.
But some of our facilities are also related to recreation and not good shape as well.
Lastly, Madam Chair, in that regard, I'm sure some of the discussion over the past few months has not necessarily escaped you. I know you try to primarily stay focused on education, but with regard to facilities and who has what facilities and what the condition of what those facilities are, and Councilman Ortiz asked some questions in that particular area. But as an educator, I would have to ask you, in this particular debate, is it more important to have world-class school facilities versus world-class sports facilities?
Well, in my view in terms of the fundamental health of a city, there is nothing more important than all of the 2685 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS necessary elements of public education. If you have a good, solid, quality public education system that has the characteristics that Councilwoman Miller framed a little while ago, whether it's books or facilities or otherwise, all the other things in the city -- issues of violence, issues of jobs, and the whole nine yards, I think, by and large, will take care of themselves. And if you don't have a quality public education system, including facilities, then you will end up with a soft underbelly that will finally do you in.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to direct these questions to Secretary Kahn. Superintendent Hornbeck and I have had this conversation a number of times, probably more than either of us would like to have, but I want to see if I can get some new 2686 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS views from, I guess, the freshest face at the table and the person most responsible, I would assume, for the line of questioning I'm moving towards. On through 21, "Realities Converge, Meeting Major Goals," there's a number of things, many of which I would agree with, regarding some of the improvements to the school system. The one thing that's noticeably lacking is our relationship with Harrisburg. And I know that's going to be one of your, or should be one of your major, major efforts. On , which is Chart 2-C, there is a graph that depicts the gap in per-pupil expenditures in Philadelphia, with a suburban average, then highlighting Jenkintown, Lower Merion, or Radnor. Believe it or not, I won't even argue with the number presented in the gap, I think the gap exists. My question, I guess, is, what do you think creates the gap? And how do people in Lower Merion, Radnor, or Jenkintown provide the extra revenue necessary to get themselves and their students above $6969 per year? I mean, where does the extra money come from in those communities? 2687 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
I think that's two questions, and I'm not going to tell you that I'm an expert on municipal finance, you know, or in those areas. But we do have -- and there's other charts in this document that look at Philadelphia's tax burden and the comparison between Philadelphia and the other areas, and I think, you know, that accounts for a portion of it. The other very important thing, which I know that you know about Philadelphia, is that we share the county burden in addition to the municipal burden.
Correct. But I guess my question to you is, do you believe that the gap in those suburban communities comes directly from the difference in real-estate taxes that are paid in communities like Radnor and Lower Merion as compared to real-estate tax levels in Philadelphia? If you're funding -- my point is that if you're funding -- if the basis of your funding of the schools is support from Harrisburg and the 2688 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS real-estate tax portion of each community's contribution to the system, I would think -- and I may be wrong -- that the larger numbers of real-estate taxes paid in those communities is what directly affects the real gap between Philadelphia per-pupil spending in those communities.
It also has to do with increasing property values, I think, as well.
I have honestly not personally looked at what goes into each of these and looked at the varying contributions from the varying tax sources.
Harrisburg -- people in Harrisburg claim -- some people in Harrisburg, the Governor, the Secretary of Education claim that Philadelphia receives about 60 percent of its budget from Harrisburg. Is that a number that disputed or a number that we all agree with?
How then and what 2689 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS strategy do we employ to convince those legislators -- not only just the Governor, but those legislators who live in the surrounding suburban counties and in other areas of the State and those Senators that, in fact, there exists an inequity that they need to resolve, that they need to fix?
Well, I think the first response to that is, not everything can be captured in one statistic or, you know, on a chart. And so I think that the dialogue that we have been having to some extent and that we will continue to have and that we will broaden is going to be necessary.
With the various -- whether it's members of the Governor's administration and members of the legislature.
Have there been meetings with leadership in the legislature and the Senate over this issue of school funding?
There have been some conversations, but they will now pick up steam, no 2690 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS question. I mean, we had to do some homework ourselves in order to -- and I certainly personally needed to do that, and to identify certain specific maybe funding sources and to identify principal needs in the system that we think that we can go to them with.
I think just a year ago, and maybe longer, but I think it was about a year ago, State Representative John Perzel sat where you're sitting and was asked a question as to whether or not the School District of Philadelphia should expect large amounts of additional funding over the next year or two years. And I think his answer -- and I'm paraphrasing -- was, "Not a chance." I think Councilman Ortiz asked the question. I believe it was "not a chance," so to speak or whatever terms he used. If we have to convince 76 legislators from outside of Philadelphia, if you look at the 102 votes needed to pass any budget bill or any bill in Harrisburg, if we need 76 votes from outside of Philadelphia, and we haven't been able to convince the Majority Leader of the House that 2691 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS we need additional dollars, we have our work cut out for us. And why isn't that one of the goals we've been working on? And, again, I'm asking you this at your disadvantage 'cause you just got here, but why isn't this something we've been working on over the last numbers of years? I mean, shouldn't we have made more progress to date?
Well, whether it's been worked on and whether there's progress that's been are two different things. And I don't know whether Mr. Perzel would say the same thing right now sitting here or not. But I think that there have been some changes in the environment. I mentioned in my testimony that this is not just a Philadelphia problem. Needless to say, our numbers are larger simply because of who we are, but the fact that it is increasingly being recognized as a statewide issue, you have communities across the State, there are now at least two pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the legislature that each have bipartisan support that would, in fact, raise the State's share of funding for schools, 2692 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS and to some extent, give the ability to change the way in which schools are funded. So the environment, I believe, is changing.
What are we doing, or what have you done differently in -- directly differently or specifically differently in dealing with these legislative leaders and people from outside of Philadelphia?
Well, first of all, I think, number one, that -- and again, not just me personally, but that the position exists that the Mayor's Office and this administration intend to be personally involved in that and in this team approach. I, for example, one of the things that I have done is, I coordinated, I guess it was last week, had a meeting in my office of the various representatives of various State associations that have been involved in the school funding issue over a number of years, to try to get an update. We intend to find out what the schedule, the hearing schedule is on some of these bills and to go and testify, and to do that in a way that's, again, not just Philadelphia, but to do that in 2693 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS partnership.
Have we made a formal and specific request for additional dollars from Harrisburg? Have we told them exactly what it is we want?
Okay. And what happens if we don't get what we're asking for? What happens in September?
That's one of the questions on the table. As the Board President identified, it is our objective to be able to maintain and certainly keep schools open and operating. And that's what we're going to try to do.
Okay, I'd like to come back. Thank you. Is my time up?
Your 2694 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS questioning's so interesting that I didn't want to interrupt you.
Mr. Hornbeck, on the information that we received Friday, I see that there's to be an assignment of a facilitator for each school. How does that position differ from the position of a principal or a vice principal?
The hope downstream for an instructional leader, a coach of that kind in each school, would be an individual that is devoted exclusively to improving instruction in the school. And the duties of the principal and the vice principal are far, far broader than that.
Do we have facilitators in any of the schools presently? If so, how many?
Well, originally, the Children Achieving Action Design called for one in each school, but we've not had the money to do that. And as a consequence, we have an average about three in each cluster now. And that's made a major contribution to this dramatic improvement 2695 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS and achievement. But evidence from around the United States where there have been facilitators located in the school tell us that we can get even more powerful results if we're able to do that.
I know there was a great furor about three years ago about children not having school books. Today, can we say that the children have ample books that they need?
Well, we can say two things. We can say that there is no financial reason that children should not have school books. As you can see from another chart in the book we gave you, we've grown during these years we have been having this discussion from an expenditure level of, if my memory serves me right, $9 million, when I first came here, to in excess of $23 million now. Again, that ability is arising out of grants we've received and administrative savings that we've been able to take. So the issue now is not so much the money; it's getting people to use it correctly and 2696 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS to break a culture that has been decades in the making. And we've been doing lots of thing things to that end, including a survey that we have recently done and which is being compiled now and which we can make available to Council within the next week or two, of the parents throughout the City. We decided that in addition to the surveys we had been making of administrators and others of teachers, that we were getting to reach out to parents and say, How much do you know about what books and other instructional materials your children ought to have? And do your children bring the books home, do they have enough, do they have homework each night? etc., etc. And we have returns of that from about 25,000 parents across the City representing something in excess of 30,000 children, and something in excess of -- I don't remember the numbers for sure 'cause we haven't gotten it all together yet, but something in excess of 75 percent of the cases, parents attest to knowing what the kids are supposed to have, and that it's their belief that they have it, and that, in fact, homework is being assigned and so on. 2697 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS Further analysis will begin to -- will begin to identify some of the deeper reasons behind both the good and the bad. I mean, it's good that 75, 80 percent do, but that still means that or percent either don't know and/or 7 believe that their children don't have what they 8 need. And we need to get behind that, even though 9 we've made lots of progress. 10
Madam President, there are 11 probably a couple of other noteworthy 12 developments. One is recent Board policy enabling 13 schools to hold parents and student accountable 14 for the book supplies and materials that they 15 receive. 16 And the other is that this board, 17 although only a business day old, at the 18 installation of the Board, committed to visiting 19 schools in some systemic way. And I would ask 20 Board members as we visit schools that one of the 21 things on our checklist be to take the next step 22 of doing our own book checks, just as we've asked 23 parents, we're holding parent and teachers 24 accountable, we've provided the money, and I think 25 it's important now that all of those supports are 2698 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS out there that eventually we turn up the heat a little bit when those books are either not being provided in the classroom or being provided and students are not being allowed to take books home.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to get back to the CEP Program and -- well, really not the CEP, the Providing Fair Opportunities for Learning Program, where it's included and the whole issue -- Councilwoman Brown spoke about it too -- about students who are well behaved but not good achievers. How do these students really not end up in the CEP Program? I know that you said they would be well screened, but what's being done to acquaint parents with the requirements for promotion and graduation. And also, why aren't we doing more publicity on that, especially if we want to open a school or schools like this in September? And the third part of that is -- I'm 2699 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS doing three parts so I can get something in. (Laughter.)
Are teachers preparing students for the new requirements?
These -- there have been massive mailings and publications to parents, including the really wonderful calendar that you may have seen, that got sent home to every parent this last year, the first time we had done that, and we sent them calendars before, but these are things that frequently get put up in homes, and we included the various standards that kids are supposed to meet in that for the first time. But there have been repeated efforts to outreach on the graduation promotion front. Many of those Fair Opportunities to -- all of those Fair Opportunities to Learn are directed toward giving kids the kinds of supports -- giving teachers the kinds of supports that they need to equip the kids to graduate and be promoted. And very, very -- just a small fraction of it, in fact, goes to the kind of disruptive child, the CEP-eligible child, if you will. More importantly, for example, is the 2700 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS fact that last month, every elementary school identified those 4th-graders that they thought were in danger of not being promoted this summer, which is the first class that is facing the elimination of social promotion. And the reason they identified them last month is that they are focussing increased attention on them between now and June, in an effort to try to avoid their failing. We want them to succeed, not fail. But then, in that Fair Opportunities to Learn list, looking to next year, are three different things that respond to those youngsters. One is the reference to summer programs in there, and so they would be available to those kids who are judged to only need a little bit to be up to speed by September, and they can go ahead and be passed. The second thing that's in there, it's called "Transition Programs" in the little piece of paper that you have there. And that's a -- that's a new initiative that would place youngsters who are facing really serious academic deficiency problems of the kind that the two of you have been referring to, never mind disruptive 2701 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS kids, just kids who can't read well or do math or science.
And what we would do there is, they would begin their 2000-2001 school year not in September but in July, and they would be assigned to the teacher that is going to be their teacher for the whole year in July, and that teacher would only have, on average, to 12 kids. So we would be offering them something 13 radically different in response to their academic 14 needs than has previously been the case. 15 Then the third thing that is in that 16 same list that speaks to this issue is what is 17 referred to as "an extended time program," and 18 that's sort of our educational jargon for giving kids like extra tutoring help. And what we have estimated is that because of the higher standards, because of the more rigorous graduation and promotion requirements, that about 30 percent of our children will, in fact, need that kind of extra assistance that may come during the daytime, but it also may come before school and after 2702 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS school. And, as you all may know because you're so deeply involved in the community, it's even already beginning to mean Saturday classes, in some instances.
So we're talking, then before, in the summer, possibly before and after school and weekends for children? And during the school year, a smaller class as opposed to other kids who are on up to --
Correct, and year-round. An 11-month school year and smaller classes, that's correct, for those youngsters that are most challenged academically.
Madam President, I want you to know that I only got one question in, a three-part question.
Thank goodness I asked it a three-part question in one or I wouldn't have gotten one in. Okay, I'll wait for the next go-round.
No, please proceed. 2703 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
Thank you, thank you very much. Where are we on the school bus attendants? Even for -- I know this is an ongoing issue and I know that I've talked with you twice personally on it, but it seems to me, in some areas especially we have had problems, in schools where we have had problems, that we really, really do need to revisit the issue.
Two things. The Board just authorized last meeting or the meeting before that, at a recent meeting anyhow, the installation of 200 more cameras in buses -- real ones, not the black boxes.
And, secondly, we are presently looking at the issue not of putting in any sense bus attendants back on all of the buses, but recognizing that at any given moment, there are only six or eight routes that are serious problems, of looking at the possibility of having a, I guess, an itinerant bus attendant, a group of individuals who, under certain circumstances, can, for an indefinite period of time, be put on buses 2704 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS in those small number of cases where they might be necessary. That would, if we are able to do that, permit us to continue to secure the very substantial savings that have resulted from not having bus attendants on every bus but still maintaining a focus of attention in the handful of areas where there is a problem.
That's great. As you know, we had hearings, I guess before you were here, though, in the early '90s on Ritalin and on behavior-altering drugs before the issue was discussed as widely as it is across the country. And I believe that part of this program is to have nurses in every school, which is very, very important. Will there be some special training or focus or training on these behavior-altering drugs? They're a real, real issue. And as you know, when children reach middle years, middle school age, a lot of times the drugs have to be 2705 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS changed or altered or they could flip and do just the opposite, make kids more hyper. It's a really, really important issue and one that even the CEP Program doesn't address. Is there any special programs with the nurses or anywhere in the District to deal with this serious issue of behavior-altering drugs?
Well, we've tried, in part, in consultation with your own interest in this over the years to increasingly emphasize how important it is that we not make the determinations about the administration of drugs and dosage, but that we really look to the child's own physician, or wherever it is he's getting medical assistance, for that, and that that includes our not going to the physician and saying, Please prescribe drugs for this child. That that ought to be a medically-derived judgment that is good for some kids and not good for other kids.
Yeah. A report -- it's 100 percent better than it was than when the issue was first brought up by this Council. I believe that we still need a focus. I 2706 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS agree that we've done much better in terms of who prescribes it and that a kid has to go to a doctor or to a health center. But we still need a real, real review of what happens in schools and how kids behave and how that fits into education. Because still, where I've met with grandparents who've said they don't want their children to take them, and then, of course, the School District says, I can't help you and that's your problem. So we still have problems in that area, and I would hope that we could focus again on behavior-altering drugs. Auditors. I understand that the Board has considered to fund auditors again. Where are we on that? Internal auditors, where are we on that issue?
One of the things that the Board has decided -- in one sense, it was the old board, but it was the Board President, and I think that it makes eminent good sense to have an audit committee that reports directly to the Board. As any well-run institution in the private or the public sector, that's an important thing to have. And as soon as the Board gets organized and 2707 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS so on, that's going to be put into place.
All right. I see that and I'm glad to have this board now dealing with the issue of books. Will we be able to get an update before we get past the budget on just what the plan is to deal with books in the School District?
We can give you an update that includes most notably these two new things that Mr. Ramos and I have each mentioned. One is the new policy that the Bored adopted about student responsibility for taking care of books and the responsibility for -- the financial responsibility for them. And, secondly, we will get you a copy shortly of this survey to which I referred.
Great, great. Two last questions. Academies. She said I could have one. High school academies are really exciting programs. I've learned that in my area, West Philadelphia High School has won national awards for their aviation and the automotive program and are on line to do another. Do students know -- do we advertise 2708 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS them well when they get ready to enter high school and do parents know that they exist? Because I think that these are very, very exciting programs, especially -- and also do a great job since they reduce -- reportedly, they reduce the dropout rate by a third of those students who would have been considered dropouts.
Yeah. One of our proudest accomplishments is our School-To-Career Program, of which the academies play a role for about 5,000 of our kids, and then there are another 12 or 15,000 youngsters in school-to career programs that are literally the national model in the United States. And what we find is that youngsters that are in these programs, both the academy ones and the non-academy ones, do attend at a higher rate, graduate at a higher rate, make higher grades. And one of the wonderful examples is the Automotive Academy out at West Philadelphia. I was just reading another thing about it this morning. It's been featured recently in a national magazine called Techniques, because as you probably know, they literally built an 2709 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS electric car last year. And if you haven't ridden around in their electric car, you haven't lived.
Well, we want to honor them in Council. I'm waiting for details.
It's really quite a wonderful thing, and they are hoping this year to build another one, and there's apparently an electric car competition nationally, where they race these cars that they want to be able to do that. But, no, there are some -- there are outstanding programs of that kind. And the U.S. Department of Labor routinely sees to it that we get at least our fair share of the funding because they know that what he we do under the leadership of Mary Jane Clancy and Cassandra Johns is the best there is in the country.
If the School District, Mr. Hornbeck, will publish the SAT-9 scores in the newspapers, could we not also publish the requirements for promotional graduation, do a big thing as we do the SAT-9 scores? 2710 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS
I think that might be a really good idea. We've put it out there a whole bunch of different ways, but maybe having some kind of -- maybe we could get the Inquirer and the Daily News and the Trib to do a special insert or something that would not only address the requirements but would also address these supports that we need to help kids meet the requirements.
Absolutely. And my last comment, Madam Chairwoman, is regarding the language program. I understand that -- we talk about the ESAU (ph.) programs and also native English speakers learning foreign language both ways, but I've been advised that the 20-minute experiences 3 times a week just won't do it, won't make a big difference. If maybe we could make maybe 45 minutes or in some way change the time another way for -- use the same amount of time and break it up in a different manner, it might make a difference. But the way it is now, it just won't make a real, real difference in learning a foreign language.
That's an important observation. And you are clearly right when you 2711 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS get to secondary school. And twenty minutes a day is --
At the elementary school, as this program, as directed, this pilot program --
-- there is some evidence that those introductory opportunities for kids back in the early grades do begin to set a good stage. But unless we follow it up with 3-, 4-, 5-day a week, 45 minutes, then it won't go where it needs to go.
Sure. Even in charter schools where I've seeing that they start out with the youngsters learning a second language, they really focus on it. And even if you focus on it longer periods or a shorter period more often, they're like sponges at a young age when it's -- everything's harder when you get 2712 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS older.
But I think we could make a big difference if we want our kids to learn a second language if we do a little more focus on it. So I hope you will consider that.
Thank you very much. Back on the issue of textbooks. Your answer to the question that there should be no 15 financial reason for children not to have school books would suggest that principals have a responsibility and a stake in this as well. So is there a policy in place where not only students, rightfully so, and parents, rightfully so, should have some accountability? What exists for principals to do the right thing and make sure books get in these kids' hands?
Well, it has increasingly emerged as one of those things that between cluster leaders and principals and between 2713 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS us and cluster leaders is a focus. And it involves not only the purchase of books, but the issue around the policy of being able to take books home.
One of the strongest cultural barriers that we have faced is that because there was such a long period of time where there was not enough money, the culture in the schools grew to the point where kids didn't get to take their books home because the teachers were afraid that they wouldn't bring the books back 'cause they would lose them.
And then there would be no way to replace them and so, therefore, they sorted of hoarded them. And now the reason for that no longer exists, but it's tough to break people out of that process. And principals have to take a strong role in helping their faculty break out of that historic sort of position.
Transportation, SEPTA. You should be aware that a number of questions were raised around SEPTA's role in 2714 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS moving towards a solution regarding tokens. And a discovery we learned was something called "PennPass," so we've made it clear to SEPTA that we expect the stakeholders to come to the table and stop talking about it and move into some alternative where we answer the question and who pays for it, and we're looking to the Chair of Transportation, W. Wilson Goode, who has it on his itinerary to pull those stakeholders together to that we can do something different next year.
We will participate in that enthusiastically, and there are not only those of us who are sort of agencies and have official responsibility, but one of those creative thinkers in all of this is Ms. Yanoff, who's sitting back here too, and she has persistently put, I think, really creative thoughts in front of us for how we can approach this. And I just have to believe that there is a way in which we can arrive at a point where Philadelphia's children are not the only children in this state that have to pay to go to school.
Thank you. Lead in drinking water. I got a lot of 2715 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS discoveries during the Budget hearings of other City departments, and one revealed by the Health Department and the Water Department is that lead continues to exist in the drinking water of some of the school buildings. Could you speak to that and what strategy might be in place to address that?
I can. There's actually quite an elaborate strategy in place.
And it's my hope, and I think my conviction, that there is not a danger at this point because of the steps that we've taken.
The Health Department and we have entered into an agreement three months ago, I think, in which -- and we've been working with the EPA on this too -- in which every morning, all 289 facilities that are in use, schools plus administrative facilities, all of those facilities used by the School District, every single one of them that has -- that was built before 1991, the pipes are flushed every morning through a process that -- where you begin 2716 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS on the top floor and you turn the water on and you go all the way to the bottom floor, and by the time you get there, it will have been at least 30 minutes in small schools and, frankly, in some of the larger schools, as much as three hours. And then you go back and you start turning them all off, and by that time, you've flushed out the lead that has been contained.
Now, about two weeks ago or three weeks ago, we began a sampling process of every school built before 1991. The reason for the 1991 is that after 1991, the kinds of pipes and so on that are put in schools, it's not a problem. And the sampling will result in either a determination, we hope, in most instances, that there's not a problem. Or it will result in the identification of the problem, and then we would take the remedial steps that are necessary to correct the problem. And we are doing this under the monitoring oversight of the Health Department, so that we're going forward --
So something is in 2717 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS place.
Excellent. A couple more questions on school violence and school safety. Another positive discovery that the Human Relations Commission currently has a model pilot initiative in place in South Philadelphia around this notion of conflict resolution and that type of thing, and I've already registered that I think we need to look at how and if we can do that in an incremental way, from grades K through 12, if we want to dramatically change how young people think they ought to solve problems. So the relationship with the Human Relations Commission, the extent of that and other City departments, that can help the School District do its job.
This is a very important arena. And, in fact, we have conflict resolution 21 programs in 60 of our schools in what are referred to as "peer mediation programs," which are a form of conflict resolution in about 60 of the schools. And one of the things that I want to take a look at is whether there are embedded in 2718 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS our health curricula standards a provision for issues that relate to issues of disruption and violence. And I say "health" because we consider violence a health issue.
But we've been -- we've been quite aggressive about putting in place the conflict resolution and peer mediation programs because we know that they work.
And that becomes an internal mechanism that has a benefit. Externally, we discovered that the Managing Director's Office has Town Watch programs, and I know personally that there schools trying to pull together safe corridor programs, so there's an opportunity to bring those two worlds together so that we can maximize safe corridors around our schools.
I think that's a great suggestion. We now have safe corridor programs in 69 of our schools.
And I think the notion of at least asking the question around the Town 2719 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS Watch might permit us to expand that significantly.
I would hope we can do that, be it in a different place, 69-plus a year from now.
Finally -- COUNCIL MILLER: Excuse me, Councilwoman Brown.
It's my last question and then I'll be completely done -- I think. Arts and music in the schools. There's a tremendous amount of research that shows to the extent that young people are involved in arts programs, they're less disruptive, they do better in math and SAT scores, and we know that financial resources limit the extra riches that you can provide the young people. I'm curious to know to know -- and if not now, later, by way of a summary report -- to what extent do we have arts in our schools? To what extent are we linking up with arts and cultural institutions who have the experts who 2720 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS live and breathe that, that can bring those kinds of skills in our schools so that we can respond to what research says already, that young people do better to the extent that we have those kinds of things in our school?
We will put together a little report for you on that. Philadelphia has a very long and rich tradition of art and music programs in the schools. I don't remember the exact number right now, but there are, for example, in the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra today, a sizeable number of the musicians were graduates of Philadelphia's public schools, just by way of illustration. We have not been able to expand music and art programs in the last years due to the financial constraints, but it was in some ways, the art-music programs that led the Mayor and the Board and me, three or four years ago, to this so-called line-in-the-sand position, that we weren't going to cut anymore programs because every spring, for some number of years before that, among the first things on the cutting board were instrumental music teachers and art teachers, 2721 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS and we realized that we just couldn't continue that practice if we were going to have any pretense of being a good school district. What we need to do at some point is to be able not to just hang on to what we've got but to expand those opportunities for all the reasons that you suggest.
The only thing I would add to that in terms of thinking outside the box is, recognizing the limitations the School District has and the priorities you have on how you spend your money, thinking outside the box might mean going to the University of the Arts and having young people who are about to graduate tie in, link up with schools in the Philadelphia school system, and we still achieved a goal -- just differently.
No, that's very good. And in this little report we'll give, we'll give you at least examples of that going on across the City in a whole variety of ways. The one that leaps to my mind at the moment, for example, is a very extensive program that's a partnership between the School District and the Settlement 2722 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS Music School and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in which members of the Orchestra, in a structured, supervised kind of way, are going, I think, into 50 or 60 schools just this year, to give opportunities of learning to the kids in our schools.
And so if that's working, the ultimate goal is all of schools throughout the system.
Absolutely, that's right. And the arts community is rich in -- I don't mean in money.
They would say that they're not rich at all, but there is a depth of talent there that we have a lot of partnerships with, and we will share some of that with you as well.
Thank you. 2723 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS Councilman Ortiz?
Thank you, Madam Chair. To set the record straight, Mr. Superintendent, Councilman Kenney said that we get 60 percent of the budget from the State, sort of the implication being that the State is already doing enough of its part or what it should do. The other part of that is that if we also comprise 44 percent of all the kids and children who live under poverty. Is that true?
And what type of problem does that create for our educational system?
Well, the challenges educationally that arise from a child living in poverty are very significant. It means, way back at the beginning, that in the absence of books, for example, in the home, there's less reading done to the child, which we know is one of the things that starts a child out on the right path. There is significantly less opportunity for pre-kindergarten programs. And then the 2724 3/6/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - SCHOOLS challenges that arise out of health and social service challenges are really great, as they go through. So poverty -- poverty is -- has been demonstrated over and over and over and over again to be the single greatest factor in -- that correlates with a child's academic achievement or his lack of achievement. So we have a great leap there. And that's true, even with individual kids. Where you have concentrations of poverty, the impact is even greater. And that, of course, is something that we faced here, with 80 percent of our kids eligible for a reduced-price lunch.
So when you have poverty, doesn't that mean that pre-kindergarten and preschool education is not as widely given to this population as students in other counties across the State?