COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FY26 BUDGET City Hall, Room 400 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 29, 2025 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE-RICHARDSON COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS HELEN LOUGHEAD, CLERK - - -
I got this. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. COUNCIL MEMBERS: Good morning.
This is a public hearing and public meeting of the committee of the whole regarding Bills No. 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212. And Resolution No. 14 215, 250214, and 1811014. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll to take attendance?
Councilmember Landau. Councilmember Brooks. Councilmember O'Rourke. Council President Johnson.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the title of the resolutions?
Bill No. 24 250195, an ordinances amending Chapter 19-1500 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Wage and Net Profits Tax by revising certain rates, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250196, an ordinance adopting the operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026. Bill No. 250197, an ordinance to adopt to Fiscal 2026 capital budget. Bill No. 250198, an ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2026 through 2031 inclusive. Bill No. 250199, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-2600 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Business Income and Receipts Taxes to revise tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12-1000 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Traffic Code to revise a fee for the use of parking meters, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of the Philadelphia Code entitled School Tax Authorization to provide for an increase in the tax the Board of Education of The School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate and amending Chapter 19-1300 entitled Real Estate Taxes to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the City Real Estate Tax, all under certain Terms and Conditions. Bill No. 250202, an ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and Conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Section 10-1001 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Fees of Commissioner of Records to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds and mortgages and related documents to be used for housing trust fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250211, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1400 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Realty Transfer Tax by revising the rate of the tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 19-4400 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Development Impact Tax to end the imposition of the tax, under certain terms and conditions. Resolution No. 250214, a resolution providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a revised five- year financial plan for the City of Philadelphia covering fiscal years 2026 through 2030 and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2025, which is to be submitted by The Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an intergovernmental cooperation agreement by in-between the city and the authority. Resolution No. 181014 calling for the Council committee of the whole to convene in public meetings and public hearings pursuant to the educational supplement of the Philadelphia Home World 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, Ms. Loughead. Today, we continue the public hearing of the committee of the whole to consider the bills read by the clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2026, a capital program and a forward- looking capital plan for Fiscal Year 2026 through Fiscal Year 2031. Additionally, this meeting meets the requirement of the educational supplement of the Philadelphia Home New Charter to renew the administration management operations and finances of The School District of Philadelphia on a biannual basis. This morning, we will hear testimony from The School District of Philadelphia and in the afternoon, we'll hear testimony from the Community College of Philadelphia. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify?
The first person to testify is the Honorable Cherelle L. Parker, Mayor of City of Philadelphia.
Thank you so much. I want to have another dental emergency. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. President.
I'm coming along, Mr. President. Thank you so very much for having me.
That's good. Just state your name officially, for the record, Madam Mayor, and you can please begin your testimony.
Good morning, Mr. President and members of Council. My name is Cherelle Parker, a forever member of the City Council of Philadelphia, who happens to be The Mayor of the city of Philadelphia. Thank you.
You're welcome. Somebody playing biggie. That's what we doing this morning? Okay. At least I know you got some, you know, some swag, whoever that is out there.
Okay. Thank you. So I'm sorry, before I get started, to my team, if somebody could bring me some tissues now, that'll be good. It's allergy season for those of you who don't --
-- don't know. Let me start by saying thank you so very much, Council President Johnson, Majority Leader -- thank you. Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, Majority Whip in Education Committee Chairperson Thomas and all members of Council. Thank you for having me here today. I want to acknowledge Board President Streater, and members of the Board of Education and our superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington. And I want to thank them for their continued hard work on behalf of our city and our students. I also, Mr. President, want to start by thanking all of the members of the City Council of Philadelphia who are present today for your continuing commitment to our Philadelphia public schools. We all have high expectations for our students, both district and charter, and together, we will give them the support that they need to succeed. We also share a vision for our schools. A high quality, well compensated educators, strong academic programs, modern facilities and playing fields, enrichment programs, and academic supports that rival our suburban neighbors. The ambitious path set out upon us, it has challenges, but together, we have made progress and our momentum is building. As you will hear from Dr. Watlington and the school district's team, test scores have improved, student attendance is up, and the dropout rate is down. It came as no surprise then when District Leadership Development Institute named our superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington Sr. the Nation superintendent of the year. Can we all give Superintendent Watlington a round of applause?
Madam Mayor, he was also honoring this body for achieving such a significant accomplishment.
Well, thank you. Thank you, Council President. So I use the language that no 14 surprise, it's no surprise because we've seen with our own eyes that Dr. Watlington is a leader of vision and principle, who not only faces the most difficult challenges ahead, but finds the best solutions, and then moves quickly to address the next one, and then the next one. That's why I often refer to him as the best superintendent in the country. Last year, Mr. President, together, this administration along with the City Council, we made critical investments that affirm the city's financial commitment to the school district to meet the district's needs and priorities. I also have to inject here as a matter of personal privilege, I want us, the Council members along with the administration to always be proud of the fact that no one had to mount a campaign or organize to advocate against us about that increase in the millage that we made last year, or what we introduced in our budget that was presented to this Council, Mr. President, because we did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. I also want to affirm that we made investments that support parent priorities, and that their children are inspired through quality enrichment programs, find interests that keep them engaged in school. And that part is important to have an -- increase their sense of belonging, and to also simply bring them some joy. Our first budget, this Council, along with the administration included that increase of $250 million over the five-year plan in direct funding to The School District of Philadelphia. And that was on top of the 284 million in annual general fund support. And again, it's like thinking about the argument right now and the battle that we're in for mass transit. I want the people of the city of Philadelphia, our taxpayers, our residents, this legislative body, the administration to realize we didn't need anyone, Mr. President, to tell us to do the right thing. Philadelphia is already paying its fair share and continues to as we invest in public education. So that's why it's important to note that last September in very close collaboration with Dr. Watlington, the Board of education, we launched the Extended-Day/Extended-Year pilot initiative across schools to 11 support our families and shrink the 12 enrichment gap. That's 20 13 traditional schools and five charter 14 schools. Now, this initiative, 15 Mr. President, has added 7,000 new 16 seats in before and aftercare 17 winter, spring, and summer camps, 18 all featuring new art, science, 19 sports and other enrichment programs 20 designed to engage and inspire our 21 students. 22 I am proud to state for the 23 record, and Mr. President, I was a 24 little excited. So I, like, made them go back and check these numbers like five times because I was so proud of them. But I am proud to state for the record that our spring break camp that concluded a little more than a week ago was a great success with almost 1,660 students enrolling and a utilization rate of almost 90 percent, Mr. President. So what are we doing here? We are modeling for students to meet the goal of having them attend 90 percent all-year round. So no, I haven't given up on that idea of having year round access to educational opportunities in a structured learning environment, and the stats here affirm that it is not only desired and unneeded as it relates to parents and families, but the children had an amazing time. In addition to that, I want to pivot now to the partnership with the school district and the Community College of Philadelphia, where we launched together with Philly Works, the City College for Municipal Employment or CCME, that we refer to it as it's a national first, Mr. President, to create pathways to careers in public service. Where did the idea come from? Mr.
President, I kept hearing even when I left this body, people talk about the vacancy rate of employment opportunities and positions that were in existence here in the city of Philadelphia. And I remember the day that I had a John Lewis good trouble moment, and I said, we shouldn't look at that as a negative, that is that right now we can find a way to capitalize on that, since we know all of our young people are not going to college, that's not the path they desire, we can talk about the building trades, but don't you ever forget to talk about city employment. When I grew up, the police commissioner, cops, firefighters, teachers, they all lived in our communities. Why not work to plug our students? Imagine graduating this summer or spring from The School District of Philadelphia with a high school diploma, and walking directly into entry-level training and the employment opportunity with the city of Philadelphia that pays a living wage, retirement security, and healthcare. That was a very important moment for me, Mr. President. Again, real jobs, city government that pay good wages with healthcare and pensions. That is the pathway to self-sufficiency. And for all of the people who love data, who had -- who have been reading Raj Chetty's research relating to economic mobility and you can relate to Philadelphia standing and we are not proud of our standing. We are glad that before that data was released, we had already introduced our city college for municipal employment concept, but it's amazing when the data affirms work that is already being done and we'll get to the private sector in a minute. It is important for me to note that CCME is not just for adults, because I was at the Catto ceremony. The Penny Ceremony took place yesterday at the community college, and I'm looking at the young people who are there and I was talking to some people who were observers and they had never heard of it before. Can I get my young person engaged in that program? Absolutely. Together with the Mayor's Office of Education and the Chief Administrative Officer, Camille and Dr. Carrera have done an amazing job and I want them to know I'm grateful. CCME started what we are referencing as Serve Your City. it's a program designed to increase awareness of city jobs among high school students and to give them credit that counts towards graduation. So now while we're creating that pipeline, consider it like work study almost. So we're really happy about that. Our collaborative work with the district, and nonprofits, and colleges, and universities to strengthen the teacher pipeline, it has also gained momentum and Mr. President, we've talked about this as an aside about the number of teachers that Philadelphia needs to recruit and have in the pipeline. In February our city joined with our partners to establish, and this is important for everyone to note, for the record, to establish a five-year goal to increase new teacher retention from 79 percent to 85 percent and to work together to meet that goal. We reaffirmed our commitment to building a diverse teaching workforce, one that reflects the diversity of our city and our student population. We are currently right now working with Sharif El-Mekki and other partners to create new programs to achieve this goal. In addition to that in my budget proposal for the next five- year plan, it continues to support these priorities. 5 percent in FY30, generating an additional $12 million per year for schools. Now, Mr. President, I know and I have heard, you know, some members of Council affirm that we should be doing more, we should be doing more sooner. And, you know, I agree, I love the idea of doing more, but this is what we can achieve given all of the other demands on our city. And those are needs also that we -- that we must address. In addition to that, Mr. President, I have to note for the record, for those who said they wanted to do more, again, I say don't listen to what I say, watch what I do.
I was the candidate on the trail who committed to moving the portion of our property taxes dedicated to public education from 55 to 58 percent. So I'm on the record as making of that commitment, and I've never been one to try to shy away from any commitments that I've made. But we have to do it in a fiscally responsible manner. We'll negotiate and work in partnership, first of course, with you, Mr. President and all members of the leadership team and members of Council, but I just needed the record to reflect, because sometimes people, when you communicate messages to people, they might not get the whole -- get the whole picture. So again, no one had to force us to make an investment in public education. We believe in it because you and I wouldn't be in the roles that we're in now without it. In addition to this, I want to note that I have made the commitment and I plan to stick to it. So with your agreement, Mr. President, and members of Council, our hope is that we plan to expand the Extended-Day/Extended- Year program to include more 4 district schools in September as 5 well as five more charter schools 6 increasing the number of Extended- 7 Day/Extended-Year schools from 25 8 schools to 40. 9 In addition to that, there 10 were some members at a meeting we had last week, and while we haven't done it directly here, I know the school district, I remember hearing Dr. Watlington talk about something that a former -- the late superintendent, Dr. Arlene Ackerman, I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, parent university. I think that was it. Something that she worked on. And while we -- while we were in the meeting talking about our new program or proposal to go from to 40 schools, 24 Mr. President, is nothing like having the public check, there was a woman who said to me, that's nice, but what about a focus on the parents? We need to do more for the parents, because if you want to take treat and support the whole child, it's not just the child, it's their caregivers and their providers. So I wanted to acknowledge that we don't -- we don't have it. It's not perfect, Mr. President, but we constantly attempt to move the needle. In addition to that, I want to say this, and I think right now our legislative leaders in Harrisburg, along with members on both sides of the aisle, I think they are watching the City of Philadelphia, that means the school district, this Council and the executive branch, they are watching us very carefully about what I'm about to mention. Mr. President, since I was here last year, we have done a significant amount of work to identify and vet members of the Mayor's School Facilities Advisory Group. And Mr. President, I plan to announce, and my hope is that you'll be standing right by my side along with Council's leadership, the members of Council to announce that membership in a few weeks. This group will be co-chaired by Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley from my team and John Christmas, chief of staff to the President, Council President Kenyatta Johnson. I will continue, and I know you will and members of this Council will continue to advocate for new state funding. The school district is facing a deficit and needs new state dollars. But make no mistake, the General Assembly does have a constitutional obligation to make up for two decades of underfunding, and we will remind them of that responsibility, Mr. President, and for you and I, Councilmember Driscoll, I'm not sure or who else who served in Harrisburg, reminding the legislature about that responsibility is not new to any of us. We did it when we were in Harrisburg and we continue to do it now. So, you know, let the record reflect that those of us who served in Harrisburg are no Johnny-come- lately advocates to advocating for and securing, that's important to note too.
And when we did it, we did it with a Republican governor, a Republican-controlled house, and a Republican-controlled Senate, and I'm looking forward to continue working with you and members of this body, and working with our legislative leaders and Speaker McClinton, Appropriations Chairman Harris, Leader Bradford, Appropriations Chairman Hughes, Governor Shapiro, and our colleagues on the Republican side as well to continue to push for that support. Finally, let me say this is not Mayor Cherelle Parker speaking, this is what the Commonwealth Court has noted as it relates to the Commonwealth investment in public education. Finally, I also need to acknowledge that we are facing a new level of national uncertainty and that I know it is troubling to our residents. We are crystal clear here in the city of Philadelphia because we are a city united for our children, that every child in our schools is deserving of our very best efforts every day, Mr. President, and they deserve our care, our respect, and our support. And that is what I promise to continue making a priority. I look forward to working with you, sir, to adopt a budget that builds upon the progress we've made together, that reflects our goals and supports those values. Finally, I want to say this, because I've been thinking about this, Mr. President, I was thinking about this last night. As an aside from public education, we are working on the $2 billion housing plan right now. For the people of Philadelphia, I want them to truly understand what I meant when I said, in no way, shape, or form would I ever support policy- making and/or financial investments being made in the city of Philadelphia while I'm The Mayor that pits the have nots against those who have just a little bit. And I'll tell you why I don't think that makes good economic sense and why it's not worth taxpayer dollars. That is, we need to fill the teacher pipeline. We need to have police officers, firefighters, nurses, correctional officers, and we want them all living in the city of Philadelphia when and where possible. We want to train the next generation of skilled workers in the building trades who can become our dedicated workforce to help us with home preservation. With that being said, we have to find a way to incentivize them to want to choose Philadelphia. So, Mr. President, the best way someone described it to me recently is that, you know, Cherelle, you've got to have a giraffe lens when you're looking at the city of Philadelphia and you don't get the opportunity to just think about one thing in isolation. You've got to think about how employment in the city of Philadelphia, housing in the city of Philadelphia, tax policy in the city of Philadelphia, public safety, public health, how does it all seek to incentivize people to once again choose our city? And if we're going to have a citywide housing program that is supposed to have a citywide impact, Mr. President, and that means people from all places and spaces. And so my hope is that on the day members of the City Council of Philadelphia will take that, even housing, we're here today to talk about public education, but couple it with what the governor was brilliant enough to propose in his budget. He didn't pull that idea of providing stipends for student teachers as education majors across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, of giving them a stipend while they're doing that student teaching, that came from him talking to subject matter experts in higher education and people who are doing the job. Mr. President, that says you need to incentivize folks to choose education as a major because it's not lucrative, particularly with student loan forgiveness seeming to be running away as a potential for everyone. It may not be available. How do you encourage people to choose a industry in a -- in a career that doesn't make them a millionaire? Well, I think about housing in the same exact way.
Municipal workforce, teachers, nurses, let us lure them and tell them to choose Philadelphia because we implement public policy from a holistic perspective. Thank you so much for your time, Mr. President, Leader Gilmore-Richardson with Thomas and all members of the City Council of Philadelphia. My name is Cherelle Parker, Mayor of Philadelphia, and I want us to be one Philly, a United City. Thank you, Mr. President.
You're welcome, Madam Mayor. Let's give our -- let's give our mayor another round of applause, please. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next person to testify?
Yes. Reginald Streater, Philadelphia School Board President and Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Superintendent.
We'll have testimony from Dr. Watlington then Chairman Streater. Okay. Streater, you want to go first?
Sure, Mr. Chairman. Before you get started, I just want to acknowledge Dr. Dawson. Can we give him a round of applause please? Special academics. For those who don't know, Dr. Dawson is the deputy superintendent for Academics. Dr. Dawson has worked with me in our 2nd Councilmanic District, my most important position as a district Councilmember supporting schools where young people had perfect attendance. I worked with some partners in the neighborhood to provide them free bicycles as a way of encouraging them to stay on the path of getting a good-quality education, but most importantly, focusing on academic achievement. So I want to personally thank you for your hard work and your dedication, and as always, it's good to see you, Dr. Watlington, and you are no 5 stranger to being out in the community, rather as child elementary school, rather as talking to me about how we can improve the conditions of John Bartram High School. You're always out and about making sure you're on the ground running and addressing the issues. And I tell you privately as well as -- as well as me telling you publicly, I do thank you for staying on the job. Usually when there's a new administration, there's a new superintendent from David Hornbeck to Dr. Arlene Ackerman, to Paul Vallas, but I thank you for sticking and staying on behalf of our young people. I know Philly could be a little rough, you from down south, so I thank you for sticking it out. And so I appreciate your support and I mean that sincerely good brother. Thank you for your hard work and to Chairman Streater, we talked this about just being dads beyond just us doing our work as public servants. So always thank you. I know you're celebrating Alpha anniversary this past week, and so congratulations as well. And with that being said, please start your testimony.
Thank you, President Johnson. So good morning, everybody. Good morning to Mayor Parker, who is here. President Johnson, Chair of Education, Isaiah Thomas and Whip Vice Chair of Education, Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, Majority Leader Gilmore- Richardson, and Minority Leader Brooks, and to the rest of City Council, thank you all for being here today for this very important ritual that we engage in every year around the budget time. Thank you for inviting the Board of Education and School District of Philadelphia to share key updates on our work since the last time we were together. I'm joined today by my colleagues on the Board and force, Vice President Sarah-Ashley Andrews to my left, board members Crystal Cubbage, Cheryl Harper, Whitney Jones, Chau Wing Lam, Wanda Novales, Joan Stern, Joyce Wilkerson, and I'm Board President Reginald L. Streater. I'm going to ask the Board members to please stand to be recognized. Thank you all for your service. And on behalf of the Board, I would like to begin by taking a moment to thank Mayor Parker and all members of City Council for your continued partnership and commitment with the Board of Education in our school district. Madam Mayor, thank you for your steadfast commitment to public education and our shared focus on student success. We look forward to continuing our partnership with you and your team to advance key education initiatives. We also value our ongoing collaboration with the education committee led by Chairman Thomas and co-chair Dr. Phillips -- Councilmember Phillips, I appreciate the opportunity to provide monthly updates that keep you informed and your members informed of our progress and priorities. Thank you so much for spending some time with us monthly doing so. And seated to my right is our superintendent, Dr. Tony B. , and members of his leadership team who will share important updates on the district's progress toward the Board's, goals and guardrails, facilities planning, and the current budget cycle. Please move to the next slide. Over the past four months, the Board has been hard at work expanding our village, bringing together leaders, advocates, and allies committed to propelling our school district to ever new heights. Together as a nine-member board with diverse perspectives, we've learned, leaned into healthy debate knowing that our differences make us stronger and lead to more thoughtful student-centered decisions. We remain focused on educating the whole child, prioritizing access to the mental, physical, and emotional supports students need to thrive in and beyond the classroom. While we are proud of the progress we've made, we know the journey isn't over by no stretch. Still, we feel confident, we are on the right path and remain committed, Council President, to pushing forward with urgency and care. Even as we face uncertainty, including around federal funding, our commitment is unwavering. We will not be pressured into decisions that compromise student safety or our wellbeing. We stand firm on our values and our responsibility to serve Philadelphia's children with courage and integrity. Please move to the next slide. As we get started, I would like to share a brief outline of our presentation today for the Board. We would like to start by reviewing our vision and mission, which the Board adopted alongside the Accelerate Philly Strategic plan to improve progress toward our goals and guardrails. We will then provide some updates on the work of the Board and recent progress it has seen aligned to those goals and guardrails. Next, we will share an update on the Board's recent progress, including our community engagement efforts, ongoing work with charter schools, and recent advocacy initiatives. We will close with brief updates on facilities and the FY26 budget. To be clear, our presentation will provide a high- level overview of progress while the district's leadership team will offer a more in-depth presentation. Thank you.
And at this time, I would like to pass it to the Vice President of the Board of Education, Sarah-Ashley Andrews for first set of updates.
Thank you, President Streater. The Board's vision to prepare students to imagine and realize any future they desire, grounds every decision we make in the limitless potential of our young people. Our mission calls for -- calls on all sectors of public education to act with urgency and in partnership with families, educators, and communities reminding us that student success is a shared responsibility. Whether we're -- whether we're approving policies, allocating resources, or evaluating progress, the Board's vision and mission serve as our anchor, ensuring every decision is rooted in equity, opportunity and respect for all students. Please move to the next slide. Our goals remain clear and ambitious, and focused on educating the whole child. And our guardrails, keep us focused, ensuring every decision, censors, student achievement, equity, and the voices of families and the communities that we serve. From early literacy to college and career readiness, we are driving towards significant gains in student proficiency across ELA, math, Science, and CTE by the year 2030. We know our goals and guardrails are working. Early progress shows student outcomes are improving, and we're building on the momentum to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed. The Board will continue to operate with a steadfast focus on its mission and vision, using its goals and guardrails as the foundation for all decisions to ensure increased student achievement. Please move to the next slide. Our students are making real measurable gains, especially in reading and math, demonstrating the strength of our recovery and then instructional focus. Our strategic investments in academic recovery and acceleration are showing results with students steadily regaining ground, and exceeding state and national trends. These early wins affirm that our long-term goals are within reach, and we remain focused on sustaining this progress across all grade levels. To ensure that we are indeed headed in the right direction to meet our long-term goals, the Board remains actively engaged, whether celebrating staff at the IAMSDP's pet rally supporting early learning through the Thrive by Five campaign, participating in video production for one of our CTE programs or visiting schools to connect with students and educators. The ongoing presence reflects our commitment to staying connected, accessible, and grounded in the real experiences of the communities that we serve. Because our best decisions are made when we listen, when we learn, and when we lead together. Next slide, please. The Board continues to conduct regular school visits to stay closely connected to what's happening in the classrooms across the city. These visits give us firsthand insight into how students are engaging with the curriculum and how school communities are supporting learning. So far during the 2024-2025 school-year, the Board has visited 12 district -- 12 schools, eight district schools, and four charter schools. In October of 2024, John H. Webster School, Amy at James Martin; January, 2025, Sadie Alexander School and Paul L. Dunbar School; February of 2025, math, Science, and Technology Community Charter School, and Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School. In April, 2025, we visited Roberto Clemente Middle School, John H. Brown School, Baldi Middle School, Belmont Charter School, and the Jacqueline Y. Kelly Discovery Charter School. By observing instruction and action and speaking directly with educators, principals, and support staff, we're better able to understand the opportunities and challenges schools face each day. Our visits also help us assess building conditions and facility needs, critical insights that inform our planning and resource allocation decisions. Please proceed to the next slide and I will hand it over to our board member, Cheryl Harper.
I got it. I'm good. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Board Member, Vice President Andrews. Next, I will give you an update on the individuals who bring feedback and perspective to the Board: Our Parent and Community Advisory Council, as well as our student board representatives. Next slide. Okay. During the January action meeting, the Board introduced its parents and -- introduce 14 11 parents' community advisory council 12 for the '24-25 and '25-26 school- 13 year. This iteration of Parents 14 Community Advisory Council represents a broad range of voices, including parents from the district and charter schools, community members and staff who reflect the diversity of Philadelphia schools, communities, and neighborhoods. The Council will provide valuable feedback on board policies and initiatives to ensure that they align with the goals and advancing student achievement, and they will continue to share monthly reports during the Board action meetings. Please go to the next slide. Okay. Our student board representatives: Our student board representatives are Charles Rinker, Kenzie Ahmed, and Alternative Board Member, Jake Benny. They play an essential role in evaluating the student's voice, particularly their own involvement on the facility planning project team where they ensure students' perspectives, shape, and the district and long- term planning. Please proceed to the next slide and I will introduce Board Member Whitney Jones.
Good morning, and thank you Board Member Harper. Now we'll move to an update on the Board's work as it relates to the Charter School Office. Considering that we've received new charter applications this year, and we'll start the renewal process within a few weeks, we thought it would be helpful to review the Board's role as an authorizer for charter schools in Philadelphia. The Board's responsible for overseeing all brick-and-mortar charter schools in the city. Our role is to oversee outcomes, not operations. We do not run charter schools, choose charter school curricula, or make staffing decisions for charter schools, but we do ensure transparency, responsible use of public dollars, and strong results for students. Next slide please. The Board's responsibility expands the entire life cycle of a charter. At the start, the Board considers and authorizes new charter schools' applications. Once the school's approved and receives its charter, it is evaluated annually in partnership with the charter school's office. Then at the end of the five-year term, the school returns to the Board for a comprehensive renewal review. Annual charter evaluations and continuous monitoring conducted by the CSO and charter school leadership take place during years through to determine if the schools are on track culminating in a comprehensive review in year 5. Next slide, please. In October 2024, at the direction of the Board office, the charter school's office launched Reimagining School Excellence or Projects RiSE, a bold three-phase initiative designed to reexamine how we evaluate charter school performance in Philadelphia. At the heart of RiSE is a simple but essential question: Are the tools we are using to assess charter schools still serving students well? Phase 1 of RiSE focused on listening. The CSO engaged with charter school communities, elected officials, education advocates, and other stakeholders to gather diverse perspectives on the framework. Their input helped shape a request for proposals or an RFP, which drew eight submissions from potential external partners for Phase 2. Currently, as part of Phase 2, a scoring committee made up of representatives from the district, including the Board Office, the Charter School's Office, the Office of Research and Evaluation, Office of DEI, Office of Strategy, and Assist -- and an assistant superintendent are conducting interviews with the applicants. The next step, committee members will complete detailed scoring rubrics to help select the most qualified partner. The goal is to bring a contract to the Board for consideration at the May action meeting. Central to this work is clearly defining and setting parameters around what constitutes a high-quality seat and how that is measured. This reimagined framework will not only guide oversight of charter schools, but also foster a shared understanding of high-quality education across the city. Ideally, this new framework would better position the Board to consistently measure performance and ensure all students, regardless of district or charter, have access to the excellent educational opportunities that they deserve. We can move to the next slide and I'll hand it back to President Streater.
Thank you, Board Member Jones. The Board continues to advocate fiercely for our students, both in Harrisburg and on Capitol Hill, ensuring that the voices of Philadelphia's young people are heard where decisions are made. Most recently, I joined Dr. Watlington, our superintendent and the district's government relations team for a series of meetings with members of Congress in Washington D.C. We shared stories of our students' Academic progress highlighted the critical role the Federal funding plays in sustaining that momentum and call for continued investment in public education, especially for high needs urban districts like our great city of Philadelphia. In addition to direct advocacy, the Board has also passed a formal resolution opposing resolution -- opposing proposed federal education funding cuts that would significantly impact services to low income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. We're urging our community to get involved, write your representatives, raise your voices, and stand with us in demanding the resources our children need and so deserve. Additionally, while in D.C., I attended the Council of the Great City School Legislative Conference, along with board member Joyce Wilkerson, Dr. Watlington, and members of the Board and district teams. During this convening, the Board gained insight into how other large school districts are navigating the political landscape as it relates to education and how they are addressing student needs. While the information presented an insight from other school districts reminded us -reminded us of the challenges and opportunities in public education today, board members were encouraged to hear repeatedly that our school district -- our school district has become a model for student achievement, one that districts across the country aspire to emulate. I would also like to recognize Board Member Wilkerson, our representative to the Board of directors of the Council, who has been an indispensable connector between the Council of the Great City schools, and the city of Philadelphia, and the Council's nationwide strategy as it relates to advocacy on this topic. We are better for it, we're all better for it. Please move to the next slide. The Board recognizes that student achievement does not occur without providing students with the necessary conditions to succeed. That is why one of our guardrails is to make every school a safe and welcoming place, where our students, staff, and community want to be and learn each day. Next slide, please. As a reminder, to support this guardrail, at the September action meeting, the Board adopted a resolution formally directing Dr. Watlington to complete Phase 8 of the facility's plan by engaging community stakeholders in a robust process. As we pass that resolution 15 unanimously, we handed the baton to the district. They have been doing the work, and then they will hand the baton back to the Board of Education to continue moving this work forward. You'll hear more from the district during their presentation, but I will say that we are on track. Please move to the next slide. The Board is currently in the midst of the budget process. Next slide, please. This includes the adoption of the lump sum budget, which occurred during the March action meeting, a budget hearing held last week, today's hearing in the adoption of the operating and capital budgets scheduled for the May action meeting. Again, the district will provide a more comprehensive update on the budget. Next slide, please. So with that, I thank you for hearing me and my fellow board members, and we look forward to answering any questions that you may have. And I believe Dr. Watlington will go right into his presentation unless President would see otherwise.
Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening. Good morning, rather. The day's not afternoon yet. I do want to thank you for the opportunity to join President Streater, Vice President Andrews, and members of the Board of Education.
Tony Watlington Sr. Thank you. Council President, Majority Leader Gilmore- Richardson, Council Whip Thomas, and Education Chair Thomas, Majority Leader -- Minority Leader Brooks and Minority Leader O'Rourke, good morning. On the next slide, I want to just highlight for you, I have seven fairly brief updates, Mr. President. And they're outlined here today, we'll certainly want to thank the Council for your support of the district, and we'll get into the district results. I'll provide you with a brief update on the initiatives that Mayor Parker referenced earlier. I will share with you the priorities that are driving the district in School Year 24-25, and we'll continue those in school year '25-26. Then we'll get straight into an overview of the budget, development for Fiscal Year '25-26. And as President Streater said, we'll share a bit more details about the facilities master plan pursuant to the Board's resolution in September, directing the staff and myself to get this wrapped up by December. And then we'll certainly thank you and be happy to receive any feedback or questions. Slide, please. Before I go forward, just want to say a very special thank you to City Council and Council President. You'll see in that picture in the center, you're all over the place and you as well as other Council members, and we very much appreciate the active support. It sends a very visible message to our young people that the City Council is on their side and rooting for them. I would like to take a moment just to ask members of The School District of Philadelphia team, who are here to please stand and be recognized. I'll start with Dr. Jermaine Dawson, Deputy Superintendent of Academics, Deputy Superintendent Colonel Oz Hill, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Chief of Staff, Sarah Galbally, Chief of Communications and Customer Service, Alex Cubbage, Chief Financial Officer, Mike Hersman, Chief of Evaluation Research and Accountability, and she insists that you say it just like that, Dr. Tonya Wolford, Deputy Chief Edwin Santana, and someone you see fairly regularly, Director Laura Garback, good morning. Please give them a round of applause. They work really hard. Thank you,
Dr. Watlington, yeah, I do just want to go on the record also to acknowledging Edwin Santana and Laura. Edwin will respond to my text messages, rather is in the morning, late at night, Sunday. I know he got a family, like, dude, what you doing? But I do thank him just for being responsive, for being patient, as well as when I'm looking for different data and so forth and I'm reaching out to Laura, as well. I just want to acknowledge them publicly.
Well said. Thank you, sir. Slide, please. I'm going to get straight into the additional results. Slide, please. I want to report that, again, I want to say when lots of people work together under the leadership of the Board of Education relative to the Board's goals and guardrails, as I believe vice President Andrew said, we are making significant progress. And so we want to thank the Council and our full community for the team effort. Slide, please. In terms of the outcomes that we're receiving, as in, in large part, because of the Board's goals and guardrails and focusing on student achievement and Council and mayoral support, we're pleased to report that our student enrollment increase this year for the first time in a decade by 1,841 students. The number of students who are coming to school, 90 percent of the year has increased by more than 3,500 students over the past couple of years. Third grade reading performance is up, 3rd through 8th grade. 5 percentage points. 6 percentage points, and our graduation rate is up, and the dropout numbers are down significantly, as The Mayor mentioned. We're really pleased with that. Slide, please. I also want to note that every two years, the Nation's report card comes out and there are four tests given by the -- this was established in 1969 by Congress. Basically, there's a subset of kids across the -- children and young people across the United States in all 50 states and 26, what we call Nate Tudor (CHECK) districts. We're one of those districts. But 4th grade reading, 4th grade math, 8th grade reading, 8th grade math, it's the only test in the United States that's consistent across all 50 states. And when the data came in earlier this year, our 4th grade students achieved a seven-point increase in our performance on the -- this national normed 4th grade math test. It's important because the children in Philadelphia outpaced the national public-school average. Our children in Philadelphia outpaced their improvement, outpaced the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania average, and it outpaced all but four other big cities in the United States as a part of the Nate Tudor district. So we're really pleased with our young people. Next slide. I also want to provide an update on the initiatives that Mayor Parker referenced. Slide please. I want to thank The Mayor for her vision around Extended-Day/Extended- Year schooling. As The Mayor noted, this year, we have district 8 operated Extended-Day/Extended-Year 9 pilot schools joined by five charter 10 pilot schools, and next year we'll 11 be increasing that number by an 12 additional 10 in the district and 13 additional five in the charter 14 sector. 15 The programming and the 16 enrichment is free. m. , and there are thousands 19 of kids who are getting the 20 opportunity to experience everything from intramural sports to chess, to dance, and lots of other great things. Now let's talk about what the results look like so far with our Extended-Day/Extended-Year performance. We have six goal measures to evaluate how the Extended-Day/Extended-Year goal measures are working. So far, we've noticed that 38 percent of the before-school slots are filled, and 81 percent of our after-school seats are filled. Clearly in year 1, there's been a stronger demand for the after-school than before-school. We're working closely with the mayor's education staff and Dr. Carrera and others to make the morning options well known for our parents, and we anticipate to get more participation in the mornings next year. Seventy five percent of the pilot schools are offering intramural sports. One hundred percent of the pilot schools are offering intramural -- are offering enrichment programs, some exciting enrichment programming, and 80 percent in The School District of Philadelphia, we're pushing hard Council President and Council members to get our kids to come to school 90 percent of the school year.
Because part of what hurts our achievement over the past decade is our kids just don't come to school at the same level as the average for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, although that's increasing. I'm pleased to report that 80 percent of the students who are enrolled in extended day or extended year schooling are coming to school 90 percent of the school year so far. So the average 90 percent attendance rate is 65 percent. So 65 percent of our students this year are in school 90 percent of every month. As compared to the students in Extended-Day/Extended-Year, they are coming 80 percent. So this is a good trend to see, and we're really pleased with that. The last two items we will have data at the end of the year relative to the percent of students reporting a sense of belonging, and the percent of parents and caregivers who report satisfaction will have a survey at the end of the year, and then we'll get that feedback. Slide, please. I also want to note, The Mayor talked about CCME, the City College for Municipal Employment, and we're pleased to be partners with the Community College of Philadelphia. The long story short, this provides a free workforce training program and a pathway to employment right here in the city of Philadelphia. And at present, we have 30 high school students who are enrolled and representing five high schools. And under Dr. Dawson's leadership, we will continue to grow those numbers next year. Slide, please. I also like to share with Council our priorities that are driving our budgetary expenditures and our CFO, Mike Herbstman and the Strategy Office that reports to our Chief of Staff, Sarah Galbally, works hard to make sure that all of our expenditures are aligned to our priorities, and there's a high bar for how we spend resources in the district. Three broad areas that we are focusing on, and that we are aligning all of our budgets to: state funding, local funding, and federal funding. First priority is accelerating academic achievement, the second is improving customer service, and the third is to partner with our families as equal partners as Mayor Parker mentioned earlier. So on the next slide, how are we're doing with accelerating academic achievement? You've seen this slide before, I just want to put it back up and say we're doubling down to drive even better and faster improvement in these same areas. I do want to note that you see a lot of green arrows here, but one area where we've fallen down and we've not hit our mark is Algebra. And we look forward to coming back next year and telling the Council that we've gotten better at Algebra. Next slide. Relative to customer service, how we're doing under Chief of Communications and Customer Service, Chief Alex Coppadge, we are pleased to announce that our -- according to our Let's Talk system, which is our two-way communication system, if you go to the District website, there's a nice yellow button that says, Let's Talk. And anybody can hit it any time of day, hours today to report a concern, 4 a complaint, or a commendation, and 5 sometimes people give the District's 6 commendations. What we found is 7 since the -- since July -- from 8 the -- from July 1 until April 25th 9 of this year, we've had over 50,000, 10 almost 51,000 messages and concerns, 11 commendations, complaints, et 12 cetera. And we track our response 13 time. 14 Our response time is down 15 to one-and-a-half days, which is the 16 industry standard. We always want 17 to respond within 24 to 48 hours. 18 And on a scale of 1 to 10, our -- 19 anybody who interacts with the 20 district has an opportunity to fill 21 out a survey -- a short survey, and 22 give us a feedback score. 0 out 24 of a 10, and I want to thank Chief Alex Coppadge and her communications team for the great work we're doing there. Thank you. Slide, please. The other big priority is around partnering with our families as equal partners. We're doing several things this year.
Later as we get into the summer, we'll be relaunching Parent & Family University. The Mayor was correct, Dr. Arlene Ackerman started this initiative years ago, and we've heard such fantastic feedback about it. We figured out how to reallocate some district work resources and, in a budget, neutral manner, I want to be clear that we're not adding any additional dollars to the budget for this. And by reorganizing other district resources and pursuing some external resources through the fund for The School District of Philadelphia, we will relaunch Parent & Family University later this year, Mr. President. We also are launching a Parent & Guardian Superintendent Advisory Council. We're taking a page out of President Streater's and the Board's book, where they have a parent council and we think it's important to emulate that so that we'll get some additional feedback along with the Teacher Advisory Council and the Principal Advisory Council, and the Student Advisory Council. And Chief Coppadge's team are also going to launch a family engagement app so that we can begin to communicate with our families on cell phones this year. Slide, please. Next, I want to provide a budget update in March. We presented the lump sum budget for Fiscal Year '25-'26, and I'm happy to provide a brief overview. Next slide. First, I want to note that if you go to the District website, you can get a detailed accounting for the district's overall operating budget. Chief Financial Officer, Mike Herbstman, has done a wonderful job making sure that this is very detailed, well laid out. So if you have any questions about the budget, it's a very open transparent process. And you can also, on their website, see that school budgets, the district operated school budgets on the left, and you'll see the consolidated district budget on the right. Just find those two pictures, click on the link and you can get right into the details. Slide, please. As shared before we are operating under our aggressive strategic plan entitled Accelerate Philly. There are five priority areas. The first is related to ensure safety and well-being of students and staff. And certainly, we're doing some work as directed by the Board with regard to facility improvements and continue to focus on safety, both school safety, physical and emotional safety and the like. Area 2 involves building stronger partnerships with our families. And as I shared earlier, we're going to relaunch Parent University -- Parent & Family University later this year. We're also going to launch something called Parent Ambassadors, where we are going to connect with some people who normally wouldn't be at the table, but we're going to pay some key parents and key community members a stipend to meet with the District, to help us to connect with families and communities, and they don't have to be degreed, they don't have to have a teaching degree, they don't have to have a certain pedigree, we're just going to be looking for people who have that. There are some people in some communities and you just know they have these relationships with everybody. They have a better -- a different kind of relationship than any teacher, principal, or police officer, whatever have. And we want to figure out how to make them a part of the school district team and pay them a stipend for their time to do that. In Area 3, our core business, we're going to continue to drive faster improvement. I'm pleased to announce that last year we allow -- we launched a new state- of-the-art math curriculum. This year we launched a new state-of-the- art Reading curriculum, and that next year we are going to launch a new state-of-the-art Science curriculum. So that all our kids in Philadelphia, regardless of your zip code have the very best instructional materials. What kids learn in the classrooms matter. This is really important. All of our students now have the same math curriculum that Penn Alexander has had for years.
And so we feel like that's going to help us to lower the level -- not lower, level the playing field. Area 4 involves recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff in a number of areas. We're really appreciative of the partnerships with The Mayor around building the teacher pipeline and working with groups like Sharif El-Mekki in particular, because we've got to continue to recruit more Black, and Latina, and Latina males in particular. An area that we are making some progress in, I think we've got about a two-percentage point increase last time looking at the numbers. And then finally, we want to have focus on efficient and effective operations, how we manage the District and priority Area 5. Slide, please. Chief Herbstman and I have had an opportunity to share some of this with individual Council members, but there are five major considerations as we bring forward to President Streater and his board the budget. One, we're in the process of negotiating three labor contracts with the teachers union, PFT, administrator's union, CASA, and with our school police officers union, SPAP. We're also focused on driving faster and harder improvement in our strategic plan, Accelerate Philly. The third thing you'll see on this slide is that adequate and equitable state funding is an issue. And we are very thankful to Governor Shapiro and members of the legislature who provided some additional resources this year for the first time in some years. We're very thankful for The Mayor and the Council for the change in the millage rate by one percentage point that would result in up to 230 plus million additional dollars in the school district over the next four to five years. We still have a gap, though, and right now it looks like the Commonwealth is on a 10-year plan to get us to -- us to adequate funding based on the recommendations that the bipartisan commission in Harrisburg represented. So we'll say more about that in a moment. Item Number 4, I just want to remind the Council that the COVID dollars that we got from 2020 to 2024 all went away in September of 2024. We had a shortfall and a deficit before the pandemic. The COVID dollars helped us to get our heads above water and stay steady. We're going to stay steady above water through this year and next year we'll have some challenges, we'll say more about that in a moment. And Number 5, we know there's a lot of uncertainty about what's happening in Washington. As of today, the only district funding that we have definitely lost that we are aware of is 115 -- $150,000 grant that was rescinded by federal officials earlier this month. $150,000 grant related to libraries. And as hard as we're working to improve libraries and grow them, that was not a good thing. But to date, that's the only impact. Next slide. You've seen this slide before. Council members, the dark blue line shows our revenues and the lighter blue lines shows our expenditures. You can see that our expenditures were out, what grow our revenues over the next five-years. I want to be very clear that is happening, not because we're not being -- not because of any problem with financial stewardship. In fact, under the Board of Education's leadership, our investment credit -- our investment grade credit rating has been -- has improved twice. The best we've had in 40 years. The credit outlook for the District has been upgraded twice by food Moody's and Fitch services. What's driving greater expenditures than revenues, two big areas: One, the school districts are people intensive organizations, 8zero percent of our budgets are people in benefits. And so salary increases in benefits and health insurance, et cetera, are driving that, number one. Number two, another big driver is the payment -- the charter school payments. And so it's not inefficiency. The District is very lean and efficient. You'll also see the yellow line that shows our fund balance going down over time.
We will get through this year, our recommendation to -- the staff's recommendation to President Streater and the Board is to dip into the fund balance this year. The Board has been very good stewards of that -- of those dollars, and we can afford to do it this year with no 19 cuts, no personnel cuts, no 20 programming cuts, because what we're doing is working in the District. The good stuff is going up, and the bad stuff is going down. After this year, however, we won't have that level of fund balance and we'll be dependent on some additional resources when we come back next year talking about the budget for fiscal year 26-27. Again, we'll get through this year with no impacts to people and programs that are working. Slide, please. And then finally, President Johnson, I want to give a quick update on the facilities master plan update. As President Streater mentioned, the Board directed me and this team -- me and the staff to get Phase 8 of this facilities master plan completed by the close of this year. And we were -- we are on schedule to do that. President Streater and the Board also directed that we have a very strong and robust engagement process to get our community involved. On the next slide, I just want to note, again, the problem that we're solving for on the left end of this chart is that we have some old schools approaching nearly 74 to 75 years old, and we've got a problem because we have under- enrolled schools, and we have some schools that are just bursting at the seams and not enough room for the children. As a next step, we developed a cross-functional project team that went to work. We commit -- we put together nine advisory groups, and we know The Mayor is also -- mentioned her work around some additional advisories to provide The Mayor and the Board some additional context. And the outcomes we want to drive to are on the right. We want to better utilize our facilities, better use our budgets so that we can schedule schools differently, so that we can support -- have the conditions there to improve student achievement -- continue to improve student achievement. I want to be clear, new buildings by themselves do not improve student achievement. You can build a Taj Mahal School and not have the right staffing, and you can get worse, not better. It's about creating the conditions and how we use the resources. We can use our resources more efficiently if we don't have very overcrowded schools, and then some schools with a very small number of children. So we'll maximize our school buildings. We will be able to, if we do this -- when we do this well, we'll be able to have more Pre-K opportunities available and where kids need them, we will have more rigorous course offerings in all our schools that no matter what your zip code is, for example, some of our schools don't have Algebra in the middle grades and others do. Well, we have a plan to do -- when this process concludes to put algebra in all of our middle schools and to make sure that all of our high schools have access to advanced placement courses, or international baccalaureate courses, or dual enrollment opportunities, depending on where they're located. Slide, please. As I get almost finished here, I just want to note, there are eight phases to this. Eight-phase facilities plan. Phase 1 through 7, you'll see green. They are complete. We're in Phase 8 now. And if we go to the next slide, I just want to quickly walk you through where we are on the timeline. And I'll be bright, brief, and gone, as they say. Well, maybe not gone, because I'm sure you're going to ask some questions. So this is a timeline of what occurred in the fall following the Board's direction that we get this work completed. And if you go to the next slide, Ms. Garback, this is the slide that shows the work that's happening now through the end of this year. Right now, we're focusing exclusively on testing.
While we're in the testing season, we've decided that we are going to put a pause on everything and focus on optimal testing environment. Right after we finish testing, we'll be coming back to the Board with next steps in terms of what we're finding in the data now that the data warehouse is complete. But make no worries, we are unscheduled to still complete this process and to bring President Streater and the Board of Education some draft recommendations early to late fall. The Board will then go back above the line, and the Board will deliberate make some decisions. I would imagine have some community engagement sessions, and then by December, we will be in a place for the Board of Education to make final decisions about what was specifically happened with all of our 300 buildings in the school district. President Johnson, thank you very much. That concludes my remarks, I'm happy to receive any feedback with President Streater and answer any questions. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for your testimony. I do believe, though, if we have more Taj Mahal like schools for our youth, it won't solve everything, but it does do something to the psyche to be able to go into a high-quality building on to receive your education. So as we make some tough decisions on how we right-size but invest in making sure our young people get a chance to go to a high-quality school building, I think that'll be something beneficial for all of us. I have brief questions, but actually, the Chair of Education is going to take the lead during these discussions. And so I just want to get an idea of, particularly a school in my district, where I received several calls from students, parents and teachers expressing concerns regarding cuts of seven full-time teachers at the CAPA, School of Creative and Performing Arts, express their concerns. I just want to get an idea of the reasoning for the decisions. Will these decisions be reinstated in the near future? A very high-quality top school. We want to make sure we continue being one of the best schools that produce some of the best and brightest entertainers.
Yes, sir. President Johnson, it's no secret there have been some -- as the new principal who's at CAPA has been there, I think Year 2, if I'm not mistaken. And some several parents who were at the last school board meeting and registered some concerns, we're fielding those concerns as we speak, and we're reviewing that staffing. Our intent is to get to the bottom of each of those concerns. And we're going to make sure that CAPA continues to be a pride and joy for the city of Philadelphia. Of course, a fantastic school like CAPA, we never want the enrollment to go down, and -- because we've got -- if there's any city in America that has some talented artists, it's here. And so we'll attend to all those issues.
Okay. Thank you. Staffing for teachers, councils, and food service workers have been improving. However, one area that have declined is the area regarding specialist education assistance. And so how are we addressing it to make sure the most vulnerable population individuals who may have special needs are having their issues addressed from a resource standpoint?
Yes, sir. Almost every hiring category, we've hired at a better rate this year compared to last year, except in the area of some of the special education staff. For speech language pathologists, there's a national shortage. And so there's a big conversation about when you have such a huge shortage, should salaries be higher to drive, you know, supply and demand. The supply is not as high as it needs to be. And I was just on a call yesterday with Dr. Dawson -- with members of Dr. Dawson's team and our Human Resources Department with Cheyney University's president -- provost. And we were highlighting two of the biggest areas that we need more partnership support on special education, both teachers and on support staffs as well as math teachers. Those are two areas that we are just beating the bushes as best we can, but we are experiencing a significant state and national shortage.
Okay. And last question before I turnover to my members, filled several different emails or concerns regarding, I think I saw something on social media. How are you managing the Jewish-Palestine environment inside the school district? I've saw different teachers deciding to put lawsuits against the school district. I know you can't speak on the lawsuits.
But also, you know, people from the Jewish faith feel like they under duress in terms of certain freedom of speeches, in terms of presentations, curriculums and so forth in the school district. How are you managing that?
Under the leadership of our Chief of Equity Dr. Sabriya Jubilee, we're doing several things. On the one hand, because we need some additional help in the school district to understand the complexity of the Middle East, a very old part of the world, and we want to make sure that our students and also some of our community don't just get their information from social media or other non-historic, or a historic and not reputable sources. So we partnered with the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and a group called Facing History & Ourselves. We meet on a monthly basis, and they're providing professional development for teachers, they're providing professional development for members of our curriculum department in the central office, and under Dr. Jubilee's leadership, they're also fielding some community dialogues so that people who have a lot to say can have a chance to talk about those issues totally voluntary, instead of showing up at the Board meeting. You can still come to public comment, and the Board can hear that.
Okay. There you go. I'll stick -- I'll get back in my lane there. And we feel like we can help educate folks with those resources.
All right. Thank you, sir. I thank you for working in partnership with the leadership of our Chair of Education regarding, what's that room called, Councilmember Thomas? Chairman Thomas, what's the room 15 called? The rubber room, what is it called?
The reassignment room. And so we thank you, your leadership, Dr. Watlington for working in partnership with our Chair of Education and addressing the reassignment room and making sure that that's an issue that we can work in partnership on in alleviating the issues and concerns around that particular issue. So with that being said, the Chair of Education is going to begin kicking off the question session. And so Chairman Isaiah Thomas, God bless you.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for all of your service. Similar to you, Council President, I just want to take a moment to just do a couple thank yous, because we do a lot of work on a consistent basis with the Education Committee, members of Council monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and that's outside of the regular concerns and advocacy. So, of course, Dr. Watlington, your leadership, Board President Streater, thank you both. To all of the Board members that are here, I'd just like to always remind the constituents of Philadelphia that it's a voluntary position. I personally think you should be paid. We can have that conversation about governance later, but your service is definitely appreciated.
He said board members are paid in other states, so, Dr. Watlington, thank you. I also want to say a special thank you to Laurel. She probably hears from me more than anybody and other members of City Council, so thank you for your patience. Dr. Dawson, the work you've done on the academic aside, I definitely appreciate it. And your visibility in the school is definitely appreciated. Similar to Council President, Edwin Santana, the great work you're doing, thank you so much. And then to Mike, the CFO, I very much appreciate you. You might as well come on up, though, Mike, because you know me and you, we're going to do a little dance today and talk about the finances, so definitely we looking forward to our conversation. But thank you for everything, Mike, to you and your entire team, especially around the procurement side. At some point, Mike, I definitely want you to talk about what we've done around local procurement for the district, for Philadelphia-based businesses, and how those numbers have grown. And last but not least, Colonel Oz Hill. Dr. Watlington, you know, Colonel Oz Hill is one of my favorite people in government. And what he's done as it relates to changing the climate and addressing issues with the district. The Council President talked about the reassignment room. We give him a lot of credit for that. I have several questions, but I want to start with the finances. I think that one of the biggest issues that we have in the city of Philadelphia is schools, quality schools. We understand we have issues around facilities, we understand we have looming contracts coming up for different union representation, but none of this can happen if we don't have the money to be able to take care of business. And you talked earlier about the fact that the school board approved stepping into your reserve to be able to get through the operating -- to get through your operating costs for this year. Mike, can you take a minute to break down to the listening public as well as my colleagues, not just in City Council, but really more important, my colleagues in Harrisburg, so they could understand what type of fiscal cliff is on the horizon for the School District of Philadelphia. And Mike also, where would we be right now have, we not had that reserve? And the reason I want you to explain that, Mike, is because former Councilmember, now, Mayor Parker, was a part of the legislative body that made several decisions over the last couple of years anticipating this fiscal cliff being on the horizon. And here we are today, thank goodness we do have the reserve in place. But help us understand a better picture. We all looked at Slide 21, but, you know, a lot of us are audio learners and not just visual learners. So please give us the breakdown of where we are financially, the state of the district, and what your -- what our vision is to rectify this problem.
Yes, sir. And thank you for the recognition, Councilmember Thomas. To begin with as we are in the current year, we are already beginning to start to spend in deficit. We project for this year that our deficit spending will be relatively small to future years, but about $35 million. As we move into next year, we see a deficit of just over 300 million, about 306 by our projections. And that will require us to use a lot of that fund balance that has been mentioned that we've been able to build up as we have had federal funding over the last four years. In all that, 306 million represents about 4zero percent of our current nearly $800 million fund balance that we were able to build to this point. Getting back to your earlier question, when we were here about four years ago, we faced a similar deficit right around $300 million that was before COVID 19. And that funding has been able to sustain us in recent years. The $1.8 billion in total that we received in all federal COVID 16 relief funding, that of course is no 17 longer available going forward, and 18 we are dependent really on the state 19 and city funding overall to sustain us from this point.
So, Mike, just so people understand, how important is it that we pass Governor Shapiro's budget based on the recommendations he has, and what is the fiscal impact around his recommendations, specifically looking at allocations to cyber charters per people?
Yes. So it is critical that this budget is passed at this level. What we already have built into that projection that still shows a $306 million deficit is the governor's budget proposal. So less than that being funded would reduce or would increase our overall deficit even going into next year. For the charter proposal itself, the governor proposed really two things. This is specifically for cyber charters. It is to cap the rate paid for regular education at cyber charters at $8,000 per pupil. That would have an impact of about $70 million overall to the district. And that is also, as the rest of the governor's budget is, built into our current projections. In addition to that 70 million that is partially offset by what would be ending a grant that provides about $20 million to the district and other school districts around the -- around the state for help with supporting cyber charter schools, so it's a net impact of about $50 million.
And Mike, listening to all of this, as far as the fiscal status of the city of Philadelphia, none of this includes the capital deficit that we face. We've only talked about the operating deficit. Can you take about 30 seconds to talk about where we are as relates to the capital deficit? We listened to you talk about the idea around a plan, but let us know where we are and listening to both the capital and operating deficits, where will we be in five-years? Because you do five- year projections, where will we be in about five years, if these looming deficits are not addressed?
So I would say that for the capital side, most of that is separate from the operating budget. The exception to that is our debt service, where we annually pay out of the operating budget, not for capital projects just coming up, but for the last 14 plus years of capital budgets that 15 have been spent. And that equates 16 to about eight percent to nine 17 percent of our budget right now. We 18 do have a substantial capital 19 backlog and that, of course, 20 increases each year and is one of the major reasons that the Board of Education has directed the superintendent and team to begin this capital planning project -process. On the operating budget itself, as we look five years out, our deficit does increase each year, and the annual deficit alone in five years would be about 774 million.
So we, in five years, if we don't act now, we can be looking at a deficit of over 500 million on the operating side, and several billion on the capital side. Would you agree with that?
Now, Council President, I just wanted to provide context to lay out today's conversation because it's important that we recognize while we have some things that we've accomplished and some things that we've done well, all of those things can go in the trash if we're not putting up the dollars that we need to make sure that we can keep the lights on to address issues within our facilities, and to put us in a position to be able to say we want to stabilize the ship. Now, you have a couple contracts coming up as it relates to union negotiations. Listening to all of this fiscal uncertainty, how are you going to handle the contract negotiations that's coming up with several unions whose contracts are about to expire?
So I think as we look at our collective bargaining agreements and we look at our overall deficits coming up, we know that we need to be focusing our funding on where it matters the most. And Dr. Watlington and the Board have repeatedly talked about the major levers that move student achievement. And the top two in those areas are a well-supported stable teacher over time and a well- supported stable principle over time. We know that as we look to prioritize very limited funding going forward, that our -- all of our employees are a priority in that area.
Okay. So we got a lot of work to do, because one of the issues that we know that exists, and I could get to this in my second round, it's issues around teachers and paid sick leave, and how we handling some of that stuff. So we'll get into that a little bit. I want to shift directions if I can, Council President, in just one more minute. Earlier in the testimony you talked about, and this is specifically looking at school board related stuff, earlier in the testimony you talked about the project RISE initiative. And we know that Project RISE is something that came out of a number of advocacy-based efforts, where are we at with Project RISE and how are we doing as it relates to assuring that there's a transparency communication and input from our black and brown- led institutions?
Yes. And thank you so much for that question. And the Board understands that, the Board has heard the community loud and clear. The Board has heard you loud and clear, Chairman Thomas as well. The Board created a process through Project RISE on the first part of the process as it relates to engagement for -- from third parties, such as charter leaders, advocates, as well to be inclusive of our black founded -- our black and brown populations as well, and that's going to continue. So the process is designed to continue that through the next part of the process. I'm going to ask the CSO to come up here real quick. Chief Chao to come up and add some more context, because he's much more in the weeds on this right now than the Board is.
Thank you for the record. Peng Chao, Chief of Charter Schools for the school district. Thank you for the question, Chair Thomas. As the Board President mentioned, we are being very deliberate with this process in Project RISE to make sure that we are engaging with very many stakeholders that you already referenced that were part of the advocacy to help -- to help get us here. In the presentation, we referenced an RFP that we are in the middle of right now. And so we are eager to get through the process and have the Board take action on our partner for May, 2025 and on.
So the school board reversed the decision around laboratory charter as well as Southwest Leadership Academy a little while ago. In the midst of several conversations that we've been a part of, one of the things that we talked about was that when the Board decides to make a decision to close the institution, it begins to have impact on staff, students, and parents, and all parties, all stakeholders involved even before the school is closed. So if you go to appeal or if the decision has changed, the impact from the original decision is lasting. So looking at what happened with those two institutions and collaboration with your vision around Project RISE, how are we supporting those institutions based on a decision that was changed, right, because those institutions are suffering. They suffered from a decision that we made. They lost teachers, students left the school, they got hit pretty hard. So what are we doing to kind of support those institutions post the reversal of that decision?
Thank you for the question. You are right that these processes are in some ways disruptive to school operations, and so we're mindful of that. I think coming out of both of those situations with the schools that you've referenced, we have stronger relationships with both of those school leaders and their boards. We have been supportive of them through the various conditions as a result of the renewals that they did receive from the Board of Education. And so we are in closer contact to them -- with them today than prior to those initial actions.
So I'm sure those institutions and folks who represent them are watching right now, do you think they would say the same thing? Do you think those institutions feel like they're getting the support from the school board and the charter office based on a decision that was made that did -- that was beyond their control, that helped, you know, kind of expedite some of the problems that they were already having in the institution? If they were sitting here, do you -- do you think that they feel the different level of communication and supports based on some of the goals and objectives that we have through Project RISE?
What I'll say is all those concerns are definitely understood and the Board hears you. And all I can say is that the Board of Education through our -- and the CSO, we've directed our CSO to improve processes going forward. We're all in the learning of environment where we're trying to do better as we go forward or to address concerns as we go forward. Understanding the Board does have a duty under the law to ensure that we go through the renewal process and look at the things we should, we do know that our CSO has improved, so increased -- improved some improvements in this process, such as increased transparency, streamlined accountability, and targeted supports for charter schools, as well. It's also my understanding that the Board -- that the superintendent through the school district also supports charter schools with things such as trauma supports with our CSO and also supports charter schools as it relates to transportation. And for schools that are in our district operated buildings, we've also tried to be better at -- not better, but be better partners at ensuring that we can meet charter schools where they are, so we can help improve student achievement and support students.
Thank you. Council President, I'll come back for a second round, but before I close out, I do want to say thank you to The Mayor. I did hear The Mayor talk about going from 55 percent of real estate taxes to 58 percent of real estate taxes going to the district. She's absolutely right. No one had to twist The Mayor arm for that. It's something that I'm extremely supportive of, and I listen to her go from 56.5 percent now and doing it in 2030, and she's right. I'm one of the people who are pushing for us to do it a little sooner than 2030 based on some of the numbers and the information that we heard. Before I --
It was about me. It's okay. She was my Councilmember -- my council person, representative of town. Before I close out though, Council President, I think it's really important, and I know the members of City Council know this already, but one of the things that we've been advocating for, and I thank all of my colleagues for being supportive is just safe travels to and from school. That's a big thing. And when Commissioner Bethel was in charge of the Safe Corridor program, we talked a lot about safe travels to and from school, we talked a lot about communication to crossing guards. Actually, hopefully at some point today, someone can give us an update on where we are, where communication to crossing guards when emergencies take place. But I just want to offer my condolence and the condolences of the entire legislative body, while we were here today, a man was hit in a wheelchair and unfortunately lost his life in a car accident involving one of our school buses. So I do want to offer my condolences to the -- to the victim, all of the people who had to witness that trauma, and I also want to thank my colleagues here at City Council, as well as the mayor's team, and the school board, and the school district for all of the coordinated effort around safe travel to and from school, and constantly being willing to come to the table to think about what do we do to make sure people are safe. It's unfortunate and it's heartbreaking when we get these text messages, whether it's a 11-year- old, or a 70-year-old, or whoever it is, but I do appreciate the fact that everybody has an appetite to try to rectify what we all agree is a problem. Thank you, Council President. You can tee me up for the second round. Thank you, Dr. Watlington. Thank you, Board President. I very much appreciate it.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Vice Chair of Education, Dr. Anthony Phillips, then Councilman Curtis Jones, and then Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Council President. I too just want to echo the work that The School District of Philadelphia is doing to continue to approve. I've seen a lot of -- I've witnessed a lot of your leadership over the past several months, and I feel like improvements are making, so thank you Board President Streater, and also Superintendent Watlington. I just want to quickly just go to just a couple questions and I'll turn it back to our colleagues. One, anti-bullying is something I brought up in meetings, and I want to thank you-all for responding to having a meeting with me about anti-bullying. I just want to learn more about how much funding is allocated in FY26 to comprehensive anti-bullying initiatives, including staff training, student workshops, peer- led super -- peer-led support programs, and additionally, what district -- what strategies is the district implementing to proactively prevent bullying?
Thank you, sir. I think that the way I answer that is there are -- there are a number of required trainings that we're doing around harassment, bullying, and discrimination. And they occur through a lot of different funding sources. I think we'd love to take as a homework assignment to put a detailed report back to you itemizing where -- how that fits in the budget. In terms of what the outcomes are, I can tell you that the training and the support that we're providing is resulting in a modest decrease this year in weapons. There's been a modest decrease in assaults, robberies, thefts, drug and alcohol offenses and the like. There's also been an uptick in some of the -- what you would call more like disrespect kind of issues and things of that nature. But I'd like to be able to come back and just -- or just put in writing to you the more detailed report on harassment, bullying, and discrimination, because we are doing required training across all schools.
That would be helpful. And if you can care to share more about the results of Parent University, how many people have attended Parent University, what are some of the outcomes of the Parent University program from this year, and also, what is your intentions for the Parent Ambassador's program? I know you mentioned the type of people we want there --
With Parent & Family University, we're in a pre-launch phase, and I'll ask Chief of Communications Coppadge, Alex Coppadge, if she'll come and say a few specifics about it, because she's closest to it. Long story short, her staff and Dr. Dawson's staff have been engaging in community forums across Philadelphia to try to make sure what we think we heard parents say that they want to be parts of Family University are indeed going to be the work that we're doing. And we wanted to make sure that we tie the loop on that so we can go back to President Streater and the Board and say, okay, this is what we thought, this is what we've heard, and this is where we're going. I don't think we've gone back to the Board yet, but Chief Coppadge?
Good after -- or Good Morning. Just in terms of Parent & Family University, we wanted to take an opportunity to reintroduce it to the city. So we had about -- over different 10 listening sessions that took place across the city to introduce Parent & Family University. And then we also introduced what it could look like in the fall, where we introduced four key topics: So student attendance and achievement, health and wellness, financial literacy, and adult learning. We're continuing to refine those topics, but we're really trying to find ways to not only engage our families, but bring students along too that can help them with achievement, but also having a healthier lifestyle, doing more with either civic engagement and financial literacy to help empower our families and their communities, and we look forward to bringing more information to the Board before the beginning of next school year.
I look forward to it. Just for the record, seconds, I just think 12 that also, I want you to consider in 13 this budget aftercare. Not every 14 school in the city of Philadelphia 15 has aftercare, and a lot of families 16 are paying for that out of their 17 pocket, you know, when it -- from 18 kindergarten through 5th grade. You 19 know, if we could find ways to 20 extend that through the Extended-Day program, maybe get buses, you know, from one school to that Extended-Day population. I'm not sure how we do that, but I think that's something that's important. And I'm also supportive of, and I mentioned this to your team about anti-bullying ambassadors. Students and parents and staff who could be trained around anti- bullying to notice it, and -- but also to figure out how to report it properly. And they don't necessarily have to be people that you know -- that are known as being anti-bullying, they can be secretive, like, you know, but at the same time, I think it's important that we have anti-bullying ambassadors that report cyber bullying, bullying in schools and so forth. But I do want to mention the aftercare thing in the budget, I think that's really important. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Dr. Anthony Phillips. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones, then Councilmember Bass.
Thank you so much, Mr. President, and welcome back. I want to narrowly focus my questions on the area of public safety. Public safety student-to-student, public safety student-to-teacher, public safety parent-to-administrator or a teacher. As you know, we do a roll call every 7:00 a.m., you've been on that with various schools. And as we try to get our babies to and from school safely in those Safe Corridor programs, we started to find out that the issue was not just student- to-student, it was parent coming up showing a type of aggressive love for their children that actually threatened teachers, that actually threatened other students. And I wanted to find out, A, about that aspect of it, but the second part of this is the vast majority of our young people graduate going to live productive lives. A small percentage of those scholars are disruptive. And I wanted to understand how our educators are allowed to safeguard the minority -- the majority from those minority of students that act out. I was told in one instance that there was an annual -- not annual, bimonthly freak-out, where this young person is going to lose control and start to throw things, and everybody was conditioned to take cover and allow that to work itself out, allow people to isolate that individual. But there was no kind of permanent movement of that individual. And I just don't -- I'm not allowed to do that in this body. When I want to freak out, Katharine Gilmore- Richardson and Cindy Bass to my back are designed to make sure that I don't violate protocols. How do we do this for our educators?
Thank you, Councilmember Jones. I'll say three things. Number one, it is absolutely unacceptable. We take a -- the position it is absolutely unacceptable for young people, or young adults, or grown adults to come into schools and to behave in an unacceptable manner. Chief Craig Johnson and Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill regularly communicate with Commissioner Bethel and members of his team, so that we can -- when we need support, we can draw on it quickly without hesitation. Number two, we are explicitly teaching kids how to behave and how to comport themselves in schools regardless of what they may or may not do outside of schools. And this whole notion of code switching and the like, I will tell you, there are times that there are some kids, I'll just shoot you straight, who can be a bit hard to love. And we've got a -- and there's some of the kids who need some love the most. Now for kids who are endangering others because of physical assault and things of that nature, there's one caveat that doesn't get talked about a lot, but the federal law requires that students with a diagnosed disability, we are required by federal guidance to do what's called a manifestation determination. So if Curtis Jones has a diagnosed --
Dr. Anthony Phillips has a diagnosed disability, there are some controls where Principal Streater, esquire, can't just suspend him out of school three days, and then four days, and then five days when it comes back. We have to conduct a manifestation determination review by law. And sometimes the behavior is found to be a manifestation of the disability, which requires us to do something other than or different from a suspension. It gives principals a headache. I've been there as a principal three times and, you know, I've seen that happen a couple times myself, and sometimes you'll hear about that, but I do want you to know that we're following the letter in the spirit of the law at the same time. Sometimes it can be a pain in the neck for an administrator.
So to your staff's credit, we are having a meeting with that disciplinary rights and responsibilities group coming up to kind of talk about where are the rights of a student and where are the responsibilities up to make sure that the climate is such that the other 98 kids don't get penalized, because this individual cannot control themselves or emotions. So I'm going to stay tuned for that. And we need to get a little more, and I'm going to end on this, Mr. President, like, you know, it's incredible to me that you as a parent may not know your biology, your student -- your kid's biology student's name, a teacher's name, but you feel that it's okay to come up school and threaten that same teacher because you didn't like the way they talked to your child. I kind of sense that we have to have rights, but there got to be some responsibilities because in that group of educators, you didn't come to school to get a cell phone thrown at you or to come out to the parking lot and be afraid looking over your shoulders. We have to protect the teachers as well because otherwise they'll go find another job.
That is going to be a part of Parent & Family University. How we build a much stronger, and better, and partner relationship in some of our school communities that need some work.
Thank you. And I also just want to add that part of that also is having a teacher climate and administrative climate that also meet people where they at.
You're in low-income communities and some of the teachers, and some of the administration doesn't come from that type of background, therefore, that level of interaction sometimes can be one sided, at least from me talking to constituents and then no 8 type of violence or reaction is acceptable under any circumstances, right. But I also recognize as an institution, right, you got to meet people where they at because if you're not meeting them where they're at, and understand the conditions and environments where they coming from, right, and a lot of that, this could be tone, right, and just also more listening and not accusatory, right, just based upon the frustration you may have dealing with little bad behind inside the class all-year round, right?
I mean, we just having a real frank conversation, but there's a level of sensitivity. So I concur with the Council members experience and remarks, because I have seen folks come up to the school and I'm like Commissioner Bethel have told me times where folks will show up and kind of incite the whole riot. And a matter of fact, getting involved with the fight with the kids against the other kids, right? But it's also de-escalation methods that can be used, because you are also dealing with a population of individuals in most neighborhoods, low-income, emotional intelligence may not be at the level of how we may think as professionals, so to speak. But with that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass, then Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young, then my Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson. You're raising your hand, sir, but it's not on the screen.
(Indiscernible) as soon as I came in, it was only me and Curtis here.
It's not -- I'm just letting you know it's not up there, sir. The Chair recognizes Councilmember --
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass. It's there on there now, Member Harrity. It is noted, sir.
How you-all doing? Thank you so much for being here. And I want to start out with a thank you for all the work that's done in the school district for our students. You know, listen, nothing's perfect and it, you know, like there's always work to be done, but I do want to take a second and just recognize that, you know, like if it was easy, anybody could do it. And it -- and it will be done. So this is not easy work, you have a great team assembled with you, and so I just want to tell you how much I appreciate as a school district parent, how much the work you-all do matters. And you know this. But that being said, I do have a few questions for you. And I want to -- I guess, part of my questioning really wants to tie -- figure out how to tie parents, families to the Parent University Concept or programming at the school district. Because there's a lot of sort of loose ends in my opinion at least, and maybe you can help me with some of those. So the first question I have for you is, I was over at TM Peirce last week, and it was a beautiful day outside, and so there were kids, you know, out and about in the neighborhood. It was in, you know, after school hours. And I noticed that the gym at TM Peirce at 22nd, 23rd and Cambria was empty. There was no 20 activity, there were after school activities going on. But how, and I hear this all the time, how do we make sure that parents, community groups, leagues, have access to school district facilities, especially ones as beautiful as that in the neighborhood. And there's two -- there's construction going on right now at the two neighboring recreation centers, Cecil B. Moore in Councilman Young's district and Panati in my district up the street, they're both on 22nd Street, but they're both not able to be used right now. So how do we better coordinate so that the community can use that space?
In the operations side -- on the operations side of the house, there's a process where community groups can go through the facilities department, I think it's called Facilitron, if I'm not mistaken, is that so, Colonel?
So and actually, I do know that that there's a process, but I guess the ease of the process is what I'm saying, because if you tell me, you know, if I got like my little basketball league in the neighborhood, and you tell me I've got to get insurance for 10,000, and you know, like most people don't -- aren't able to provide or fit the requirements that the school district lays out, so it just becomes a way to say no as opposed to trying to figure out how to say yes. So I'd like for us to try to figure that out.
We want to be on the side of trying to find a way to say yes.
Because when I go to some of our high schools that have a track, for example, I think it was Roxborough, and I was there one day, middle of the day, and saw some community folks just out walking on the track. And, you know, schools are community centers, and always have been. And it just makes sense that if I live in a community, I ought to be able to access within reason. Now, there are times where if a community group is going to go into a school and have a formal program, for liability purposes, we have to go through the facility trying to make sure that, you know, we arrange for their building cleaners, if some things has to occur to prepare for them, or to prepare when they leave, and to make sure that we're dotting the T's and crossing the I's in terms of insurance and safety at the same time. But to come into school to walk on a track, use the facility, but we hear that loud and clear. The best way to help us get better is when anyone wants to register a concern or thinks that something's not quite kosher, go to our website and hit that yellow "Let's Talk" button, because we track every single concern and complaint, and right now we're responding in -- within two days.
Okay. So I'm going to encourage anyone listening who wants to access school district facilities to reach out online and/or if you don't have access online, to reach out to our offices and Council, so that they can find a line of communication to try to make things happen. Because it doesn't make sense, especially as we go into warmer months, summer months, you know, times when the schools are closed, and, you know, again, we've got these great facilities, there's nothing else in the neighborhood and they're not accessible. So anything we can do around that would be -- would be fantastic. Also, I know I'm, you know, this time is moving really quickly. I wanted to talk really briefly about principals. And we did get a list of principals that you all were searching for, none of which were in my district, but going back to TM Peirce there without a permanent principal, I know the retired last principal has decided to or agreed to come back and act as an interim principal, but we have this, you know, great new facility without the vision and leadership of a new principal at its home. And so, you know, I've just wondered if you could talk about that and the fact that there's no computer teacher at the site as well.
Yes. Our intent is to not later than July have a new permanent principal at TM Peirce. By the way, TM Peirce is one of the Extended-Day/Extended- Year pilots that The Mayor referenced earlier today. The 5 current pilots. 6
I 9 would really like to see if it's 10 Extended-Day in my mind means -- 11 extended programming, it means more 12 kids in the building and not, you 13 know, like a big beautiful gym 14 closed off of empty on a day when 15 there's tons of kids playing 16 outside. 17
Thank you, Member Bass. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young and Councilmember Katherine Gilmore-Richardson, then Councilman Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Mr. President. And good afternoon to Dr. Watlington and President Streater -- Board President Streater. Sorry about that.
Member Young, could you speak into the mic, please?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So I noticed that on the presentation, you know, it was good to see that the numbers are going up, you know, in proficiency and things like that for the district overall. But I just wanted to point out some numbers and -- of schools in my Council district, because there was a constituent here from Charlotte White Mansion, he just left, Mr. Calvin, but I just wanted to point it out. So in Blaine -- at Blaine School, 3rd grade reading and math, zero percent proficiency. Richard Wright, zero percent proficiency in math, percent 6 reading. Gideon, zero percent 7 proficiency in math, 5 percent 8 reading. Meade, zero percent 9 proficient in math, 4.8 reading. 10 Hartranft, zero percent proficiency 11 in math, 18 percent reading. And, you know, these are all elementary schools in my Council district, right, these are my constituents. In 3rd grade, they do not know math. And it's -- so given these numbers and just to -- just to show that, you know, all these schools are economically disadvantaged, there are only 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 schools that are classified as economically disadvantaged that have at least a 20 percent proficiency rate in both math and reading. And so given these numbers, what is the school district's plan to, I guess, increase these rates? Like what -- how do you increase these outcomes given your, you know, budgets shortfalls and things like that? How do we increase the outcomes of these 3rd graders in North Philadelphia?
I just want to -- okay. Just Councilmember, just briefly as far as from the Board's perspective, goals and guardrails is that answer. And I'll just give you an example of how we are seeing movement, even though there might be zero percent proficiency at certain schools, we monitor 3rd grade -- math -- 3 through 8 math, reading, and Science. And what we are seeing is you may not see right now the proficiency numbers go up, but we're seeing students be right below that tier, right? So like at basic. So there's three tiers. There's proficiency, there's basic, and there's below basic, right? And then there's advanced. Those are the four tiers. We are seeing more students move from the bucket of zero proficiency or actual zero proficiency, which is below basic to basic. So while you might not see right now the data on the proficiency side go to be what we want it to be, we do feel like at some point the dam is going to break and more students are going to spill over from the cup of basic to proficiency. So I think our children are learning something, but I hear you. We want them to be proficient so they can grow up to be lawyers like you and I. So we understand your question, and Dr. Watlington is going to go into the weeds now of like what the district's going to do as it relates to the strategy.
And just one minute, I'm going to -- or last, I want echo what president -- what President Streater said. You know, I'm a runner, and let's just say you give me a test. And you say, now, Tony, you've got a PR, so we want you to run your 5K in minutes or 15 less. And at the beginning of my 16 training, I'm running that 5K at 35 17 minutes, I get it down to 30 18 minutes, 28 minutes. And on the day 19 of the test, I get my 5K, I run it 20 in 24 minutes and 30 seconds. But 21 my goal was to hit minutes. And 22 if the mark is either you met it or 23 you didn't, you could say, well, Tony failed the test. You know, he didn't make improvement. He didn't get to the cut score, he didn't get to his PR on the 5K, even though I've reduced my time by minutes. 5 It's the same point President 6 Streater is making. 7 There are children who 8 don't hit the cut score, but you can 9 track and see significant 10 improvement they've made in their scale score. Get it? They start here, they get closer to the bar, but don't cross the bar. But to be able to go to law school, medical school, graduate professional school, good paying jobs, all that's irrelevant at some point, because we need kids to be proficient. There are three key things. I don't care how much money you have or don't have, there are three key things that we know now from the research. Number one, the number one most important factor, particularly when you concentrate a lot of really poor kids in hyper segregated areas, the number-one thing we can do, it ain't switch out the parents, is number one is always you've got to saturate the school with highly qualified, well-supported, stable teachers. The poorer schools are, the more likely, for whatever reason, the turnover rate is higher. And so when we interview and hire people, we try to match people who have a disposition and who have the experience and who have moved the needle somewhere else. But if I've got a big, huge choice of 50 places to work, not everybody raises their hand and say, I want to go where the work is hardest and where the kids need the most. I might go there and work for, you know, a year or two until I can make a few car payments until the job opens at an easier place, even if it's outside in the suburbs. And so that's why it's so important that we've got to recruit, and support, and wrap our arms around teachers, because if you badmouth them and you, you know, just say they're terrible, you know, they don't feel like staying. And so we've got to support them, and that's number one. The research says the number two factor it isn't technology. And believe it or not, it's not AI. Although AI is important now and can be used really well, is a highly qualified, stable, well supported principal. And the third thing is what kids learn matters. And that's why we launched state-of-the-art green rated curriculum in math, reading and Science. But we know what keeps up at night is those schools that have zero to very low proficiency, and I can assure you, we will get better.
And I hear you -- so I hear that, Dr. Watlington. And I think-- so from the three things you mentioned, you are implementing the third one, which is the curriculum, but can you talk to us about what are you doing to support teachers -- better teachers and better principals, right? The first two are things that are necessary to bring up these, you know, these scores for our students.
Brief response. Long story short, what The Mayor said about the city support and recruiting teachers is so important because the percentage of teachers coming out of Pennsylvania universities is down by 71 percent, whether it's a public or a private university. And so we've got a lot of emergency-licensed teachers that don't have the background and a teacher education prep, so we have to give them more professional development, more support, and it takes time.
Thank you. I have to come back in Round 2, Mr. President. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, then Member Harrity, and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President, and thank you, Dr. Watlington, and congratulations again on your recognition. I had a national call Sunday night with elected officials across the country, including Congresswomen Kamlager-Dove and Tlaib, and we had another member of Zeta who is a part of the greats schools conference that you-all attended, and she mentioned both you and Board President Streater and members of the Board, and so I just wanted to congratulate you again. And to Dr. Dawson, thank you for always answering the call and for following up and following through. Of course, to Santana, we appreciate you. I saw him somewhere here, and Laurel. We couldn't do this work without your steadfast leadership and ability to help us navigate The School District of Philadelphia based on your experience here in Council. I have to also give a shout out to Michele Armstrong, Principal Argro at Girls High, Principal Lon at Mastbaum, Jonathan Jacobs who's a teacher, and working to stand up the police Science CTE program that we've been working on for like three years at this point, and then, of course, give a shout out to President Steinberg at the PFT. I have several issues that I'd like to get on the record today, but you know that I took the time to go through the spotlights for each of the school years, and I just want to start on this issue. And obviously, Councilmember Bass has already put on the record the schools in her district. But when I went through this spotlight and I saw the Philadelphia High School for Girls, you know that I was going to really focus in on Girls High based on all the in-depth work that we've been doing there over the past several years. And I will say that Principal Argro, I think, is doing an excellent job at Girls High. I watched via social media on how many schools she visited, how many middle schools she visited to increase the enrollment at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. I've personally been there twice already in the last several months even, and I see that their FY25 enrollment states 596. The FY26 projected enrollment is 603. And budgeted for the same amount of principals from FY24, 10 and 26, add one assistant principal 11 from FY25-26. But this is where I 12 have concern, and I'm -- I want to 13 put this on the record because I 14 need you to know early that I have 15 consternation regarding this matter. 16 Teachers for general 17 education for FY24 was 39.5, for 18 FY25, it was 36.6, and for 19 FY26 proposed is 31.6. So even in 20 all the work that we've been doing 21 to help increase the enrollment at 22 Girls High, and I give all the 23 credit to Principal Argro, and to 24 our dedicated alumni, and of course the teachers, and the staff at Girls High, I need you all to explain to me why they're receiving a decrease of five teachers in the general education category, and a decrease of one teacher in the special education category, and a decrease of a student-climate staff by one, which would total seven positions that the Philadelphia High School for Girls would lose from FY25 to the projected FY26. And I am going to come back on the second round, but I don't mind using all of my time in this first round for my beloved alma mater. The reason why I am a member of Philadelphia City Council.
That is of great concern to me, and I thought that we were holding Girls High harmless based on the conversations that we've had over the last two budget cycles, while they have an opportunity to rebuild and increase the enrollment, which they have been doing.
Thank you, Madam Majority Leader. I think you're absolutely right. We held the Philadelphia High Schools for Girls harmless last year. We were banking on a strategy of Principal Argro being able to get out there and beat the bushes and to, you know, recruit, recruit, recruit. I know she's been all over this city recruiting. I follow her on social media, as a matter of fact. And if you'll give us an opportunity to go back and review that information, my sense is I don't have the data in front of me, but I think that's old information. I'm happy to, on the record, follow up in writing about where we stand with the Philadelphia High School for Girls. I have every confidence that that school is not just going to -- not only will grow the enrollment, but will exceed the targets that we've set for the school under Principal Argro's leadership, it's just how much confidence I have in her. So may we follow up on the record?
Please. Please. And I did hear the bell, and I want to honor the clock. And I am going to come back and start here in the second round. But I cannot -- I cannot support a budget that showcases a decrease to this, you know, effect for the Philadelphia High School For Girls. They would be down six teachers year-over-year, and then one climate staff person year-over-year. And I'm sure, you know, there's a bunch of changes for a number of other schools, right? And I've reviewed them all, but I'm very concerned about what's happening at Girls High. And the only way that I can be supportive of this school district budget is of Girls High is kept whole. And I want to be clear about that from the beginning of this process. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Majority Leader. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, and Councilman Jim Harrity, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Rue Landau. I actually --
I thought there might have been someone before me.
Harrity, Gauthier, Dr. Ahmad. And I'm sorry. It's Nicholas O'Rourke after that. Sorry.
Yeah, I apologize too. My thing doesn't seem to like me, it acts up every once in a while.
Hey, man, you're in laborer, you got to figure it out.
You know how laborers figure it out. We throw them against the wall, yeah. I'll use the shovel on them.
His buttons keep getting stuck, so they going to be down here picketing us.
I think it's my guy on the switchboard. He don't like me, I don't know. I got peace, brother.
I'll put it up for you over there. No, seriously, and it wasn't that deep. I already have a few questions. As usual, you know, my concerns are on the mental health of our children. I'm still trying to figure out what we're doing to provide these services, not only when trauma happens, but, you know, I just feel that if a kid that's going through something is able to talk to somebody in-person, not just on the internet, that it's kind of, you know, I get it, anything helps, but nothing beats that personal contact with a mental health person. And I, you know, last time you guys were in, I read the numbers out from the study. I don't remember it offhand, but it was really awakening to actually see numbers of the mental health of our children in our school system and how they were feeling and how many kids were suffering from some form of depression or who had actually thought about suicide. I just want to make sure that we're doing enough, because, you know, I see firsthand every day in the neighborhood I live in, the trauma that our kids see every day. So I just want to know how we're doing with staffing for the mental health's workers, or therapist, or whatever we're doing inside the actual schools to talk for these kids.
Since I know Council President's going to say be brief, I'm going to yield my one minute to Dr. Jermaine Dawson, Deputy Superintendent. He just did a fantastic presentation. And he and Dr. Jayme Banks are Chief of Student Support Services summarizing the need and the specific aggressive actions he and his staff are taking. So, Dr. Dawson, could you say a word about that?
Sure. Good morning. Jermaine Dawson. To answer your question quickly, number one, we do have counselors that support in all of our schools. Secondary to that, we have a STEP program that supports mental health and supports for our students in a number of our schools where we are seeing that there is an increase desire and need to support our students. And then a third tier of that is now we have mental health supports called Hazel Health that is supporting in a number of our schools where we are looking to increase the support. So we have it at different tiers of support from the counselor as the first level with the teacher, then to the STEP program, which is those who have recommendations, who need some additional support, can go to some of those managers and support to get that help. And then in some of our schools for that high-level of tertiary support we now are implementing a national program called Hazel Health to support those students.
So you're saying we're fully staffed on counselors in every school?
That's not what I -- you have counselor supports, or you have counselors in every school? That's -- there's a difference there.
Yes, we do have counselors that support in all of our schools, yes.
Is that me or is it -- that's -- what I'm asking is not that supports every school, I get that. Is there a counselor in every school?
Yes, there is a counselor in every school, and maybe in some cases where a counselor position may be vacant. But yes, we do have counselor supports for all of our schools.
Point of information, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
I thank you, Mr. President. Point of information. How many school counselors do we employ?
We employ over -- I don't -- I have to get that number to you, but definitely is over 200 counselors that are counselors.
Okay. So we don't have exactly the number of counselors per school. So some counselors are sort of, you know, doing double duty, it sounds like.
So yes, all the schools do have counseling support. Some of them may support --
But I think what Councilmember Harrity was asking is, is there a counselor on site at every school every day, and the answer to that is probably no. 12
No, because they do share and support in other schools as well.
We'll prepare a detailed breakdown of the counseling positions, as well as any vacant positions in the district at present.
That's great. If you could also just throw in everybody for me. Teachers, support staff, counselors, let's see where we're at. Okay.
And it's not -- I'm not -- I get it that we don't have employees either, you know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to get some real numbers to figure out, like, what are we doing and what can we do to help whether it's advertising. I mean, we got to start thinking outside the box. This is our kids, this is our future for sure.
And in April of 2024, Councilmember Harrity, my best reference says that we had 393 counselors and a fill rate of 95.9 percent. Fast forward, one year later, April of this year, 420 counselors and a 98.1 percent fill rate. So we increased from a 95.9 percent fill rate in April 2024 to a 98.1 percent fill rate, which is a 2.2 percentage point increase, and an increase of 27 counselors. And to Dr. Dawson's point, that's not 100 percent, because some positions apparently are vacant at the moment, but 98 percent of those positions are field to the tune of 420 counselors.
Okay. I just got confused even more because that was two different sets of numbers. He said there were 300, some schools with 200 and something counselors.
-- that you just said 393 counselors at percent and then 420 now at 98.1 percent.
There are 200 -- probably 250 district operated schools. There are a few that are programs -- programs as versus having a official school charter. Anyway, long story short, we'll put this in writing so it's very clear.
You're welcome, Member Harrity. Councilman Jamie Gauthier, Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, Nicholas O'Rourke, and then Rue Landau. And then we'll officially be in our second round.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, and thank you so much for being here. I want to start by commending both of you. Every time I hear about the progress that is being made on many, many fronts and about the national recognition that we are receiving, it makes me feel inspired and proud. And it's due to your leadership and the efforts of your team. So I wanted to thank you for that. And also I wanted to give a shout out, like my colleagues to Laurel, because she's amazing and make sure that we get our questions answered and get what we need here in Council. I do have some questions about threats to our city and school district from ICE, given the large population of immigrants in my district and across the city. And I want to get my questions on record before you answer. We all know that under the current administration, ICE has been targeting our immigrant communities with new vigor, and our children are the most vulnerable if their parent or guardian is arrested, or if ICE comes on campus. So a few questions. What do you train school staff to do in the event of an ICE interaction? What exactly does your training consist of, and is it virtual or in-person? How long is the training, and how frequently are staff required to take the training? And next, I have a question about family preparedness plans. Family preparedness plans, which set up a contingency plan for loved ones, dependents and personal property are critical for families who face a risk of targeting or a detention by ICE. What efforts has the district made to communicate the importance of creating a family preparedness plan in the event someone in the family is detained? What efforts beyond posting a link on your website has the district made to disseminate plan templates and make sure all families have access? And what guidance has been given to school counselors to help them support families who may be under additional strain in this moment?
I just want to -- I just want to start out first of to speak for the Board. That the Board has policies in place -- a resolution in place. And I'm proud to say we're one of the school districts that didn't need the current actions from the federal administration to have those. These predated that. So I'm very proud of our city and our school board for putting those into place. And our expectation is that the superintendent and Dr. -- our superintendent in the school district will implement those policies with fidelity. But we do understand that our commitment to our values and success of every student in Philadelphia is paramount. Regardless of shifts in the federal landscape, Councilmember Gauthier, the Board will continue to uphold those policies. I don't see this board taking -- doing the moonwalk so easily as it relates to our safety, academic achievement, and obviously the values that you up raised. So we do have a resolution around safe and welcoming schools that I think touches and concerns this, that directs the superintendent to do certain things, and I'm going to ask the superintendent to follow up with those -- with that response.
Absolutely, I'll just piggyback on the Board -- on the Board president. The Board had clear guidance in policy, codified in its resolution 2 as early as I believe 2021. And second, we've had multiple trainings, at least three for school leaders to include principals and key other members of their leadership teams, with me present and with Dr. Dawson present, and with the chief of special education, diverse learners, playing an important role, Dr. Nathalie Neree. Third, and as part of that training, all of our schools have been well coached on how, if there's any issue whatsoever, any visit, we've had none of those visits to date, but should they occur that they are to immediately contact the Office of General Counsel, the School District's Attorney's office, and they have clear guidance about the next steps. Number three, in addition to that, three, we develop an online training for everybody who works in a school and require everybody, including myself to take that training. It takes about 30 minutes, if you're pretty good on a computer. If you're not, it might take you a little bit longer. And then finally, we also created a website of community resources so that we can not bear all the brunt of this, but can partner with community organizations that do everything from helping parents know their rights, knowing how to understand these events and how to protect their children, and we've made the schools available for any of these set groups who want to use them for trainings and parent and community support.
Quick -- super quick follow up, Council President?
Okay. When was your last training for your staff on this? When -- and when is your next training? And do you feel compelled to do something more on family preparedness than put something on your website?
I think that I don't remember the date of the last staff -- the trainings -- in-person trainings have been with the school administrators, not -- I want to be really clear, school staffs, we've not done in-person trainings with 19,000 employees, because the 19,000 employees would not be the people who would be responsible for facilitating any kind of visit from any kind of federal entity. We focused on school administrators because we expect them to be the port of contact, and we want teachers to be in the classroom teaching, going on with their core business. But because this is so important, we wanted everybody to know their roles. That's an online training for staff. In-person, three, for principals and school leaders. And I can follow up and get you the date of the last training. I was there, I just don't remember the date. And we can never do enough. We should, yes, continue to be diligent in this area, yes.
Councilmember O'Rourke, and then Councilmember Rue Landau, then we are officially in our second round.
Thank you, Council President, and thank you to all of you for giving us an update. Just to echo what my colleague Jamie Gauthier said, it is really heartwarming to see the progress. However the devil is in the details, and I wanted to ask a question particularly about the three things you mentioned for success. Teachers -- supporting teachers, qualified principals, and the curriculum, and how that is reflected in that facilities plan that you beautifully laid out in terms of making progress in those goals. I appreciate the fact that you said just doing a facilities upgrade is not enough to turn a school around in terms of proficiency. So on , you have the facilities planning program process, and I would like to know those three things you mentioned, how that is fed into this plan that after improving the actual physical facilities, how these other things are rolled into it, including the three things that make a school successful for students.
Doctor -- Councilmember Dr. Ahmad, I just want to start off by saying that's an excellent and amazing question. And I think that ties right into the Board's theory of change that we decided to do as it relates to this facility planning process. This facility planning process isn't something that is done in isolation, it is based upon seven other steps and phases that seeks to direct and drive the superintendent to not just close schools, or repurpose schools, or reimagine schools, or this, that and the other, or different grade bands for grade band's sake, is so that we don't do what we did before when we had to reimagine our facilities, where the children, from my understanding, based upon a University of Pennsylvania study, the children who were relocate or relocated actually didn't improve in their student achievement, and actually declined in -- and actually, the schools that received those children, actually declined in their student achievement as well. So I think that that alone has driven the Board of Education to think differently about facilities and to ensure that we think about the academic programming. That's why goals and guardrails Accelerate Philly are the foundations of what the superintendent, and the team and the project team are looking at to ensure it's not just about a facility, it's also ensuring that the facility is aligned with a world-class education, and that the conditions inside the building can exist, and with the help of City Council, the conditions outside of the building can exist for students to achieve as well. So -- and that's some people were saying, why didn't the Board just trigger a facilities planning process and just kind of do it quickly because we understood you got to go slow to go fast, and the one thing we did learn from the harsh reality of last time we had to think about our facilities is the student achievement actually got worse. Dr. Watlington.
Well said. I'll just take seconds just to 20 say that I don't want to overstate this, Dr. Ahmad -- Councilmember Ahmad, but certainly, a school where the heat works in the winter, where the air condition works in the summer months, where there's not raining in the classroom, where the toilets work well, and where it is aesthetically pleasing, where the appropriate light and a functioning gymnasium, and maybe some outdoor areas that kids can benefit from, they can have a positive impact on teacher and leader retention. However, I don't want to overstate that. It can have a positive impact on how kids think about themselves, and the extent to which they matter, the extent to which they believe their community cares about them. But even in old buildings, and it's one of the reasons why if you go to some of the non industrialized worlds, where people don't always have the best amenities, and sometimes outscore our young people, when you look at these international tests, that's one way to think about it. Thank you.
Yes. So I come from a place like that, where facilities did not determine the outcome, and so that's why I wanted to understand what is the approach that the school district is doing while it's making all these improvements, and how are we measuring that? Like, you've fixed the place, you've got all the facilities running, have you looked at all the other, you know, variables that would make student achievement improve? And are you grading yourself on it from the time that you had this new school -- you know, the school upgraded? So I just wanted to kind of tie it all in to see we need a report card on what it actually looks like to have proficiency go up while we are taking care of all these variables that produce that.
Okay. And I'll reserve my question for the second round.
Thank you. I just had a real brief question. So for the district as a whole, what is the theme of the culture of the district as a whole? To give you an example. When I go to Mastery Charter School, right, when I walk inside the school, their culture is around going to college, right? So in some classrooms on the top, you see Morehouse, you see Spelman, you see Hampton, you see Temple. I'm a first-generation college graduate, right? My dad is a laborer, mom, a homemaker. And so I was -- I was introduced to the thought process of going to college through my career counselor, Ms. Consortium at Edward Bok High School, right? What is the culture of academic achievement? Because, yes, I know I talked about what you just said. Even if you make a Taj Mahal, that still doesn't mean that you going to have academic achievement, right? I do believe that it still makes a young person feel loved and supported when you walk into a school and you don't have a classroom closed, because it's asbestos, right? You're shifting from one school to another school, that's why we always compare ourselves as young people growing up in Philly to schools, unlike Laura and Marion, but also recognize particularly in the African American culture, our best and brightest, right, leaders of the world, right, and our most door-provoking contributors have come from a time where we pretty much didn't have smart boards. We pretty much didn't have laptops, right? So you had to Mary McLeod Bethune, you had the Charles Drew, right? All them individuals that we all know about are contributed, particularly the African American community, didn't come from, well, finance backgrounds in terms of when it comes to education. But I did want to get an idea, one of the most powerful things that we can do that's more than money is believe in the child when they walk inside the school and have a level of high expectations that they can do anything. Just want to get an idea, what is the district theme just in general for every school across the Board?
Council President, I wanted to lead off here. I think that's another great amazing question. Understanding that one of our -- I think you and I share Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, who passed away this year. Became an -- this week, became an ancestor as well, from my understanding. But I think for the Board of Education, and I just want to speak to every student under our jurisdiction, our vision is very inclusive, right? It is to prepare students to imagine and realize any future they desire, right? So I think what we are not interested in doing is allocating resources that make -- and putting forth an educational experience that directs a student into one place in America -- into a society versus another, but to give them all the tools they need. And that's where the goals and guardrails come in, right? It's about -- it's about math, it is about Science, and it is about reading. You need those tools, but kind of surrounding and hugging those things are our guardrails, such as anti-racist practices, safe and welcoming schools. We consider those the conditions for success in addition to things like attendance that students have to have in order to be successful.
But in a kid -- you just gave me a whole lot, which is cool.
But let's just break this down in layman terms. If a parent or a child walk away from a school, any school in the city of Philadelphia, what is that common theme you think that parent or that child would just say, and I use Mastery as an example in terms of individuals that want to go to college, but I come from a trade school, so everybody that say don't want to go to college. But what is that one common theme in terms of -- in terms of academic achievement you think students walk away from when they leave -- when they leave any school in the city of Philadelphia?
It's to be -- it is to be in an environment that's conducive for learning, where they have all the tools to be whatever they want to be when they grow up, and for their future to not be dictated because we've decided to educate in one kind of unique way as opposed to a bigger and inclusive one, but Dr. Watlington can definitely add to the --
And I think that, at least going back to even before I came to the district, the district outside of the district had a reputation for driving hard on goals and guardrails. I can tell you that nationally, there's this -- the district is known for its -- the Board's goals and guardrails, saying we're going to make academic achievement the number one thing, and we're going to spend most of our time in our board meetings kind of talking about how that's going. So when I think about the culture around academic achievement coupled with being the fastest improving, I don't know if it's always lands as the most personal -- personable, the sexiest, but you're giving us something to think about there from a parent's perspective. Now, what do I want from my own kids? I'll be honest with you, first, what I want is I want my kids to be -- I want them to first feel affirmed in who they are and their culture, and I want them to feel validated, and I want them to be healthy and well, first. And that's a guardrail around that. So I think we could probably package that a bit more, but academic achievement is the North Star. We're pushing hard and I hear it when I'm in schools, schools are pushing hard. You'll see academic achievement up on the Boards, attendance as a condition to get there. But I think it could be more customized and more personal to families, absolutely.
Okay. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke then Councilman Rue Landau. Then we're officially in our second round.
Thank you, Mr. President. Superintendent Watlington, President Streater, the Reverend Vice President Andrews. Thank you all for joining us today. We are long in the tube, so Let me try to keep it tight. I want to start by asking a few questions about the school facilities planning process and school closures. Organizers in the education space, like minority leader Kendra Brooks, have fought hard against school closures for many years. So I'm interested in hearing more about how the decisions are being made during this cycle. And we've got four questions on this particular issue. Once the district identifies potential school's foreclosure or consolidation, what is the specific process for involving the individual school communities affected? Will there be guaranteed school specific public meetings before any final decisions are made? How will the district ensure that affected students, families, and staff have a real opportunity to influence the outcome, not just provide feedback on a decision that's already been settled, but really shape it. And how was the district prioritizing urgent health and safety repairs for schools that are not slated for closure to prevent unsafe conditions from persisting for years? Can you speak to any proactive measures to that end?
I'll just, again, from the Board's perspective as it relates to the resolution, I wouldn't call this a school closure plan at all, because the resolution 14 sets forth things that don't have nothing to do with closing schools such as pre-K, kindergarten in every school making sure there's algebra in every school, things like that. There's some discussions about repurposing and things like that, but also there could be other things like co-locations and things like that. So I would -- I understand the energy and I appreciate the question, but I don't think that this is a school closure programming, but obviously we're not going to hide the ball that this could lead to some school closures. But I did want to give that -- put that information out into the atmosphere and also want to put on the atmosphere that, you know, I don't foresee there being a plan day 1 to completely have a plan that's done in two or three years, right? I would -- I would assume, and this is just me putting on my lawyer hat, that this is likely going to be a phased approach as well. And I believe that the Board and the district will be very thoughtful about engaging the population in our community. Also, when you close a school, there's also state law that mandates how it's done, right? So I -- so there is a whole process after the process that will be considered by the Board of Education as well. But again, I just want to also just bring it back to, it's not about closing schools. It's about better utilizing our resources so that we can best deliver the educational experience that our children deserve, which could include some school closure. But --
President Streater, I want to be clear. Thank you, sir. I want to be clear. I don't -- I'm not trying to double down on the idea that there is a school closure program afoot. I am wanting to get clear on when you have come to a decision to close or consolidate a school, if there is a specific process for involving the school communities that are actually affected, whether or not there's a program or not on that is less the point. When you get to that point, is there a specific process? Will there be guaranteed school specific public meetings before any final decisions are made? How will the district actually ensure that effective students, families, and staff, have real opportunity to influence the outcome and not just provide feedback on the back end?
Absolutely. We're still early in the process, Councilmember O'Rourke. But to answer your question straight away and in tandem with what president Streater said about this isn't limited to a school closure plan. To answer your question straight away, yes, we'll be very transparent, very public in this process. We've got a little bit more work to do, but we'll be coming back to the Board of Education over the next few months with a clear -crystal, crystal clear framework and methodology for decision making about how would a team arrive at a conclusion about which school ought to be co-located, schools ought to be located, what's the methodology and the framework for decision making about which schools ought to be rebuilt or renovated, which ought to be repurposed for some other community use, and which, in some cases, ought to be closed. And we're taking our time to not repeat the pitfalls of the past. In 2012, we know when schools closed, kids got worse. Their academics went down, their chronic absenteeism went up, and the schools where kids will move to, those kids experienced negative outcomes as well. So we're not quite there yet, but we will publicly be able to share that through the Board of Education when we bring that to the Board. And folks will have an ample opportunity in the timeline of events for the Board. We'll do that in a timely manner, so the Board has the opportunity -- should it be the Board's pleasure to -- I'm certainly the Board will want to have public engagement once we bring them recommendations because ultimately these will be board decisions.
Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, President Streater. I heard the bell, so I'll let you ride. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Member O'Rourke. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rue landau, and then Councilmember Chair of Education, Isaiah Thomas, will lead us into the second round.
Thank you, Council president. Thank you, Superintendent, board, everybody, all the school district who's here. You know, we've been doing this for such a long time. It feels -- you have a little bit of hope that we are increasing in our numbers, and it still feels: One, scary to feel hope, and two, the pain that it's still not enough. And I know it's so hard to know how hard you all work to get these small gains. So I appreciate that so much. I think we all just want that magic wand, right, where we can just fix all this immediately. And it's so difficult. One thing I'm really appreciating is that it feels like we're no longer normalizing what was the status quo. And that felt for a long time that we forgot to question a little bit about it being outrageous that we were allowing our students to be in this situation they're in. So thank you for that. I want to do a little bit of numbers and then a little bit of policy. So for the numbers, I wanted to go back to 2013 deficit when we had teacher layoffs, class sizes increased, nurses and counselors were laid off, capital spending ground to a halt. Did those decisions create educational and capital deficits that we are still dealing with today?
I would say the impacts were longstanding. When I look at the nation's report card, we studied it carefully. The Nat data I shared earlier. From 2012, 13 or so, for a decade, we've had stagnant performance. So to get this bump in 4th grade math, I think is really significant. And it just makes the point when you have more resources, federal, state, local, plus the COVID dollars, and you have a good detailed plan to be really specific about what we're going to invest in, our kids get better. Now -- yes, longstanding impacts. I think I heard the buzzer.
I'm going to send an additional letter, too. Go ahead.
So thank you. If you could just finish that -- the answer there, and then I just have a couple of additional follow ups there.
Well, let me go to this question. Does the district, Council, Harrisburg, and The Mayor sit down to figure out a plan ever to get us out of the crisis that we're in, and if not, are you -- is that possible?
Yeah, I -- I think you, that's another magic question. Thank you, counselor. I'm saying counselor because I know we're both attorneys.
Councilmember Landau. There's so many threads that connect to this question. And I think what the Board's theory of action was during the pandemic was we invested in our facilities to the tune of five new schools, classroom modernization, but we also invested in our people to show that when you invest in public education in a way that is student centered, in a way that focuses on why we exist, you will see change. You will see our children get better. You will see the institution that was chartered to do the work do the work it was chartered to do. And right now, we do find ourself at a precipice, right? You know, understanding that the state has moved closer to adequacy, and we are so appreciative for every, every dollar, but understand that it's going to take years to get to the $1.2 billion 10 shortfall that the Commonwealth Court, flowing from the bipartisan commission on adequacy, understanding that 10 years probably is going to take too long. Also understanding that $500 million of our budget could be in jeopardy for -- to a board in a district that's actually complying with the law, that has complied with the law as it has been and complied with how the law is still being interpreted by courts every day. It's even going to touch the city of Philadelphia in the school district. We just got finished talking about facilities, but Board Member Stern would probably kick me in my ankle if I didn't mention this. Right now, the reconciliation bill, they're thinking about taking away tax exempt bonds from being -- municipal bonds from being tax exempt. That's going to hurt all of us. So I'm appreciative of the energy that I felt, I think the Board is feeling, and the superintendent is feeling that we're all in this together. And that I do think there needs to be a strategy, a coordinated strategy to stymie, so all of the work and energy that has been taken to lift us into the stratosphere. I'll just use one quick analogy. I think for School District of Philadelphia, for the city, often it takes a lot of energy to escape the gravity of the status quo, right? So, as you know, when we try to move, get something to the atmosphere, it takes a lot of energy to get it and propel it into the atmosphere. And at some point we'll be in orbit, but we're still getting into orbit. This is the worst time to defund or to lessen the amount of fuel that we need to continue with the progress. So thank you for that question.
So are you willing -- will you take the steps as the School District of Philadelphia to get the parties at the table to have these meetings that need to happen?
It is our understanding that we want to get through this school year. We are also very blessed that the Board of Education has a fund balance to stabilize an issue before it could have been -- earlier than it could have been. But I think that Dr. Watlington, the Board, we're looking to do some advocacy and some more coordinating after this school year.
Certainly, I think the Board under President Streater's leadership and our mayor are the people who are out, you know, leading the advocacy charge. As the superintendent, I feel like my job, and I've heard it said many times, is make the case. This is what we need -- these are the inputs we need to get these outputs. And we are certainly going to keep our foot on the gas doing that.
You know, briefly, also, I'll be remiss if I didn't raise up the Board members who are kind of leading the advocacy work. And I believe that's Whitney Jones, Wanda Novales, Joyce Wilkerson, and Joan Stern. So the table -- the quiet conversations are already starting to begin as well. And the foundation is being laid for us to hit the ground running when it is time to hit the ground. Actually, we've already started hitting the ground, running, to be honest, as well, going to DC and things like that. So thank you so much for raising this issue. It's a very important issue.
We have a hard stop at 1:30, so I want everybody to be direct with their questions and their response. But I will say, as a follow-up to Councilman Rue Landau, that Chairman of Education, Isaiah Thomas, will also be a part of our process in terms of the advocacy and also briefed on how we're getting the type of support that we need. So thank you. Great line of questioning. Chair recognizes Chairman Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. And along that same energy, we will be going to Harrisburg to do advocacy as well. And, of course, we'll be joining you like we've done in years past. So thank you for that. I'm going to do a quick round robin here. If I can get Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill, as well as our fiscal -- our CFO, Mike, to come on up. Quick round of round robin. I want to stay in line with the Council President's time for today. In the past, we've talked about local procurement and looking at the percentage of school district contracts that go to Philadelphia based businesses. When we started this conversation a few years ago, that number was in the single digits as it relates to the percentage of school district contracts that go to Philadelphia-based businesses. We talked about the deficit that's looming. Where are we now? What percentage of school district contracts go to Philadelphia-based businesses?
As these gentlemen are coming up -- well, I'll just let Chief -- I'll let Chief Herbstman speak. It's increased. Chief Herbstman.
Yes, sir. Currently, through the second quarter of FY25, we're at 32 percent for this year.
Where were we at when we first started this conversation?
So we have reliable data for this year and the last two years where we were at about percent, so 7 percent 6 increase. Prior to that, the data 7 is less reliable, but it was likely 8 within the teens. 9
So 10 we've at least doubled, but possibly 11 tripled. 12
I believe 13 that's likely correct. We don't 14 have the data to support it from 15 beyond -- to fully support it from 16 before 2023. 17
My 18 goal is to get that number above 50 19 percent. I'm looking at a lot of 20 your bigger contracts. I'm looking 21 at the Office of Athletics. I'm 22 thinking about cleaning. Cleaning 23 is my favorite contract. I'm sure 24 there's somebody in Philadelphia that can clean. What are we going to do to get some of them bigger contracts? Cleaning, substitute teaching, the food contract is another example. seconds, what's 6 your vision to get some of those 7 contracts to be Philadelphia-based 8 businesses? What's your plan and 9 how can we get that number, which 10 you've done a phenomenal job on, 11 from single digit to teens, from 12 teens to 32 percent, over 50 13 percent. What could we do? 14
I want to 15 -- I want to note, first, we're going to follow the ladder in spirit of the law, federal, state, local, procurement, and the Board's policy with a guiding principle to where we can to continue to move these numbers. Chief Herbstman.
Well, we can change the law, right? So if the law is the problem, as far as local laws, we can do what we need to do to change the laws. And let me be clear why. Because when you choose Philadelphia businesses, those dollars, as you know, goes back into the Philadelphia economy over and over again. So this is important not just for us as a legislative branch of government, but also for you with the deficit that you have looming. That's one of the things that we feel like the District can do to try to help invest in our local economy. Mike, if you can give me a quick answer because I got to move on.
Yes, sir. We continue to do everything that we have been doing in terms of reaching out to all of our vendors in various ways, working primarily with our operations team and moving into work with our academics team vendor fairs, vendor knowledge sessions, local and MWBE introductory programs that we've created, supplier office hours, trying to remove all of the barriers for small and --
So a lot of those things you said, I'm looking at council members' faces, they don't know what you're talking about. So when these events are happening, if you can make sure that my office gets them and we'll do a better job of dispersing this information, especially to the district council members so they can make sure that their local businesses in their districts are able to take care -- take advantage of these opportunities, I think that's something we can do better and I appreciate.
Mr. Chairman -- Chairman Thomas -- Councilmember Thomas, we also are working very intentionally with various chambers of Commerce, including the African American Chamber of Commerce, Latin A. Chamber, et cetera. And we recognize that school districts are usually one of the largest employers. So the spirit of what you're saying, we absolutely agree with, absolutely.
Fifty percent is -- over 50 percent is the goal. Dr. -- I'm sorry. Deputy Superintendent Hill, last time we spoke, specifically about the reassignment room, we had a number that I looked at, 87 percent backlog. For those who don't know, that means that when you are assigned -- when you are assigned to the reassignment room, your investigation should take place within 90 days. We had a large number of people who were there well beyond 90 days. And the last time we talked, you said 87 percent of those cases were clear. How are we doing with the reassignment room and where are we at with those backlog of cases?
Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. Since our last meeting and the providing the status of 87 percent of our backlog cases being reduced, we have, since that time in the last week, reduced another 30 cases that has raised that to well above 90 percent.
Thank you. That's great work. Let's keep up the progress. In the same spirit, we're looking at issues specifically related to safety. One of the things that you promised us -- I don't know who it is, but someone promised us that we would get a written plan, so when an emergency takes place, there would be a written plan that explains what communication, what happen with all parties, including our crossing guards. Where are we at with that written plan? So when an emergency takes place, communication goes to everybody, including our crossing guards.
Thank you, sir, again, for allowing us to come back and report that we do have a communications plan that provides or disseminates information, not only throughout our school safety office, but also, it incorporates communication with the Office of Civil Affairs at PPD as well as the crossing guards leadership. That plan is nested in our Office of School Safety with the chief of Safety. And then there's also our communications cascade that compliments the notification of key stakeholders in the community to include elected officials.
Got a lot more. I'll stop, Council President. I know that we're pressed for time. I'll put the rest of it in writing. I don't know if we'll come back for a third round, but just a lot more digging to do it around a couple other things. My last shameless plug, because you can't respond. I hate the start date for school, right? Like, I hate it. I don't know why we can't start after the September holiday --
I concur. But it's like a union issue. I asked them already.
But I got to go ahead and throw my cheap shot out there. I heard somebody talking about air conditioners and heat and things in that capacity.
And you can't respond, because we got to move on to the next thing. So let me go ahead and throw my sucker punch in. And hopefully we get to the point where we can do something about the start date of school. But add me as a member of the choir to that issue.
I want to lighten around and respond, because I asked that question already. It's regarding unions --
-- and dates and so forth. But yeah, it makes no sense that we say school is going to start. We know it's going to be hot. Then you got to say it's pushed back. But that's more of a union slash how many days they get. They're allowed at X, Y, Z. So hopefully --
Oh, I'm sorry. One more request. Council President, this is a request, not a question. I'm asking that the school -- this is important. This is for you. I'm asking that the School District of Philadelphia give us a breakdown by every councilmanic district as it relates to how much money is spent in every district. I want to see if we spend more money. I was listening to Councilmember Young's questions around literacy rate. And I'm curious to know, do we spend more money in his district than other districts? And is that reflective of some of the academic concerns that he has? Sorry about that, Council President. That question came from listening to members. So before we vote, at some point, we would like to see a breakdown of how much money the district spends for every councilmanic district to see if there's a correlation between academic achievement and dollar spent. Thank you, Council President. That's the real last one.
That's the request you can provide in writing. Councilmember Young. I agree.
Really quick. So in my district, we have a lot of the special admission schools too. So it might be skewed. I got Parkway, I got FLA, I got Maso, Masterman, right? So those numbers might be a little skewed. So I would ask if you can bring it down toward just the catchment area schools as well. That'll be helpful.
We understand what's being asked for, and we'll take that as a homework assignment. Thank you.
Thank you very much. So Councilmember -- actually, Councilmember Young, when you pressed that light, it went down. But Councilmember Young, Richardson, then Bass and Harrity, be quick because we're wrapping up at 1:30. Any other questions you want have to submit via writing?
So really brief, I do know it's been mentioned that you are all engaged in conversations with the union. So I want to take a point of personal privilege and give a special shout out to Bernadette Ambrose-Smith, President of SPAP, who's someone who I have known since I was eight years old, right? So I just want to put that out there in context of the type of conversations that we have, right? It's understanding what's really going on in the district. And regarding safety, as safety is the district's, you know, number one priority, improving safety, what are some things you can tell us about how -- some things you're looking forward to in this upcoming contract? I know you can't talk the details of it, but what can you tell us as Council that you're doing to improve the safety in some of the -- in these schools?
Quickly, I'll just say, I think we want to be careful about getting too deep into anything with the union negotiations, because those are underway, and we try to keep those fairly confidential. But I do think it's appropriate for the Deputy Superintendent Colonel Hill to talk about what we're looking forward to in the upcoming year, relative to school safety.
Relative to school safety, sir, and thank you very much for the question, Councilmember Young. Relative to school safety and our enhancements and improvements, we are focused on improving the facilities for our school safety officers down at the Schuylkill Garage, upgrading the facilities so that they have an acceptable environment to work in. We are looking at improving training opportunities, professional development and career enhancing opportunities, as well as their equipment issue and the fleet that our school safety officers have for patrolling.
Again, getting back on the numbers, Strawberry Mansion High School has a 2 percent 11th Grade proficiency in Algebra 1. Could you tell us what high schools -- what public traditional high schools have Algebra 1 before they get to 11th grade?
We'll prepare a report and get that to Council, yes, absolutely.
Thank you. Majority Leader Gilmore- Richardson, Councilmember Bass and Councilmember Harrity.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President Johnson. Quickly, I wanted to get on the record, and I have spoken with Dr. Dawson about this, my concerns regarding the enrollment system and ensuring that all families will really know and understand the process and that it's fair for our schools, particularly the special admission schools, when they have the opportunity to accept students but are unable to based on other outside competing factors that are internal to the district. And so I wanted to put that on the record relative to the enrollment process and how it really is a disadvantage as it relates to families that have siblings because of the way you have to select the school that you may be chosen for based on the rank, the ranking system in the system. It's no 24 opportunity for you to pair siblings if it's a first or second choice school, vice versa, per sibling. So I wanted to put that on the record that that needs to be really flushed out for next year. And then this is an issue that I brought up last year that I think is still important for dual enrollment students relative to their ability to receive an updated transcript prior to the college application process commencing because of the students, and I know you mentioned this in your paperwork here, that we have dual enrollment students that are at CCP, right, and that number is increasing per year. But many times because of the grading dates for CCP versus the district, it's difficult for those young people to get updated grades and GPA for the college application process. And I wanted to put that on the record. In addition to that, I have major concern regarding our career and technical education teachers. I've been hearing from a number of, and I hear the bell, of CTE teachers that have been unable to stay with the district for a number of reasons, including their inability to be reimbursed for certifications when most -- all other teachers across the Commonwealth are reimbursed for those certification costs. In addition to that, we have a different structure than a bunch of other counties here in Philadelphia relative to the CTCs. And so I think we need to look at that as an opportunity for us to get additional funding from Harrisburg as well as extend the CTE programs from three years to four. I'll submit the rest of my questions for the record for a written response. But again, I just wanted to put on the record about the Philadelphia High School for Girls. And if we can get a listing by breakdown of elementary, middle, and high school of every school that is slated to receive a decrease in teachers across the district and or secretaries and or climate staff from the FY25 to propose FY26.
Thank you very much. And we would like this information prior to us forwarding out the budget, just to be clear.
Oh, and Pres, can I just mention that I thought that the CoNSA conference was excellent, and I thought you all did a wonderful job. So we just wanted to shout out Dr. Robin Cooper and the CoNSA team. We thought you all did a wonderful job for the conference.
Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Harrity, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier and Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to jump right to it. So a couple of things I wanted to mention as per my -- your conversation with my colleagues. One was on the percentage of contracts that go to minority businesses. You said it was 30?
I don't know if we broke it out by -- any deeper than that, but we'll be glad to do it.
That was overall local participation, I believe. We'll be glad to break it down further if that's the request.
Yes, that is my question. If we could have a breakdown because it really makes a difference. One of the things that we talked about yesterday in our hearing was about the circulation of dollars in communities. And by far, the African American community has the lowest dollar rate circulation, which is about six hours compared to other communities. At the -- sort of like the top is the Asian community where a dollar circulates for approximately 28 days. In the white community it circulates for days. In the Jewish community for 19 days. And in the black community for six hours. And so that matters because you can't build wealth and you can't build a business if you can't get contracts. And so we hope that your numbers are reflective of, you know, what the need is for our communities. Also, I wanted to ask, as a district Councilmember, this is not necessarily related to education, to the schools, but it is kind of related. And that's about something that we hear about all the time, which is parking. Parking in the neighborhood where our schools are. Schools are located in neighborhoods. You know, folks come in, staff comes in, teachers come in, they park in the neighborhood. You know, we hear it. You know, I know I hear it. Because, you know, it may sort of clog up. I don't know what you can do about parking, but I did want to put it on the record that I heard the concerns of my constituents. But also ask that as you are making plans, as you are building new schools, that there really should be some sort of a thought process, at least, around parking for your staff and for, you know, teachers and whatnot as they come in. So that there's some dedicated parking somewhere or there's at least a plan for that. The other question was around -- I think there was a question around the listing of schools to make sure how spending was done by council district. I'd actually like a breakdown by actual school. So if you could, you know, like, not just 8th Council District, this is how much we're spending, 9th Council District, this is how much we're spending. I'd like a detailed breakdown by school as to how much we're spending. And one last thing real quick is the Marcus Foster pool and the Picket School pool. And I'd like for you all to elaborate on that so that, you know, because people think I own those pools and I don't own those pools. You all own those pools. And so what is your plan for those pools? If you could just speak very, very briefly to that.
And the Al-Ameen field as well. Speaking on behalf of Dr. Member Phillips. Al-Ameen field?
Yes, sir. As it applies to the Picket and Foster pools, we have completed a comprehensive facility condition assessment to determine exactly what the needs are. The cost associated with the repair, renovation of those facilities has been documented, but at this point there is not funding allocated in the capital improvement program that we can allocate to that work to be done.
And I'll just say those numbers, as I understand them, about $7.7 million for the Al-Ameen fields, 13.3 for the Marcus Foster pool, 8.1 million for Pickett. We know what it looks like. We don't have the funding for it.
Can I add briefly? I think there is -- I'm not saying that the -- this is -- I don't want to speak for the Board, how I would vote on such a thing, but there is precedent for things that we can think about to get to solutions. So I will use the Sayre pool as an example. Councilmember Gauthier was able to get additional funds. I think additional funds came from the state. And I also think the harder part is the MOU piece which is getting the city and parks and recs and all the interested parties to understand what role will they play and what role they will not play in a way that is conducive to a long-term strategy. Also, I don't want to speak too ahead of the Board right now because we still have a master facilities planning process and we're still waiting to see what comes through that. But I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time and think of other ways to get to yes. So we're not just stuck at a dollar and cents piece, but there could be other productive ways to get to yes, if possible.
Okay. I look -- I look forward to the conversations. And, you know, our office is all in with trying to, you know, put up whatever we can obtain. But we need some funds from the School District. Thank you.
You got other swimming pools in your neighborhood as well in that area?
That some of the children can still occupy and go swim again?
Well, we do have some -- we have -- we have five public pools in the 8th District, and we're getting ready to start a swim program. Can I talk about that? No.
We're 4 getting ready to start our ready for 5 swim program where we're going to be 6 paying our young people to take swim 7 lessons over the summer months. 8
9 I think that's great because there 10 was an article in the newspaper 11 recently about, particularly, people 12 think African Americans don't swim. 13
15 And drowning amongst them. I mean, 16 yeah, they think we don't swim. 17 Well, my boys at the Y, (CHECK) they 18 go swimming on the record, but 19 there's this myth -- I call it a 20 myth. Because I know we grew up 21 swimming, but according to the 22 newspaper, they say we don't swim. 23 So, good job. 24
Of course. But we don't have access in our communities to quality swim instruction. And that's what --that's what we're bringing.
Swim instruction. I come from modest beginnings. So, they just threw me in the pool --
-- but my children go to the Y and they get -- they get lessons.
All right. Let me keep it. Let me keep it. Good job, though, Member Bass. Councilman Jim Harrity, Jamie Gauthier, Nicholas O'Rourke, and then Rue Landau will wrap us up. I'm going to do the latter two, but we got to be brief and a brief response, and then we have to wrap up.
Thank you, Council President. I don't know, I was on the swim team at Finnegan's when I was a kid, and I could tell you I got my ass whooped by quite a few, and --
Slip, slip, slip. Apologize. Yes, respect for the institution. I got beat by quite a few African Americans on that swimming pool. So, I've never actually heard that African Americans couldn't swim. But, okay. Sorry, and again, I apologize. Momentarily lost my head. You're working on the RISE project for the charter authorization. Is there any relief for schools that are in the process of contesting closures from this framework if we know there is a problem with the process? Is there any relief for the schools while they work through solutions?
What I can say is thank you for that question. I understand the energy and where it's coming from. I can't speak to any issues that are in active litigation or an active process. But I would say that the Board of Education takes this authorizing role very seriously. I would also say that the Board of Education understands, just as in all government, we have to go through policy cycles so that we can continue to ensure that what mechanisms that we have in place continue to do the role that they're going to do. With that said, there are many schools that have gone through the same process. And I believe the Board believes we will hold to our processes as they are until and if we have a new framework. And that new framework might take a couple years to even be implemented. And to do so would be a dereliction of our duty under the state law to ensure that we are the authorizers that we have to be based upon the laws, our charter school law. So that's my answer, sir.
Yeah. And part of it is that there's different laws, right? The charters are held to the standard of what was done in that law. So, I guess that's part of it too. But that's state, right?
No framework that we create will conflict with the law, right? We are not -- we're not here trying to make new law and conflict with the law as well. What we're trying to do is ensure that the framework gets a look just as anything that the School District do. For example, we had Accelerate Philly as our strategic plan. That's a policy cycle where we ensured on the district side, our traditional side, that we are continuing to move the needle on academic achievement and evolving with the times and not being stagnant. What we want to ensure is that whatever framework that we as a community buy into impacts students, right? There's better outcomes. There's more quality in the sector. And I think that's one of the questions that we're trying to seek. It's not just about some of the issues that have been raised. It's are we doing a good enough job to ensure that we're holding charter providers accountable in a respectful way that is transparent, where there is no got you moments and things like that, or perceived got you moments, into a framework that's bought in by the whole sector to ensure that we are incentivizing the type of conditions for success that charter schools and district schools have to have for there to be what the Board is aiming at, which is a quality seat as well. You may see a framework that becomes even more stringent as it relates to certain things, but also it takes a different look at other things as it relates to student achievement and the conditions for success.
Yeah, again, I apologize and I will cut it there just for time. I do have questions, but I'll submit them.
Gauthier, O'Rourke and Landau, Dr. Ahmad. Please be brief.
Thank you, Council President. Last year, without warning, the district eliminated the Multilingual Assessment Center, or the MAC. The MAC was a centralized hub at the district where newcomer families could get support enrolling in school, learning about expectations in our schools, learning about services available to them in transportation. It was also a place where the district could identify the particular needs of new students and families, including language supports and interpretation. Given the fact that immigration is the main reason why our city has seen any growth over the past years, I find this concerning. And I wanted to ask you, what are the district's reasons for canceling this vital service? Where are newcomer families supposed to go to get these supports? And how much would it cost to bring back the MAC?
11 Councilmember Gauthier, I don't have 12 that -- all the details in front of 13 me. With your permission, I would 14 like to take that as a homework 15 assignment and respond on the 16 record. 17
18 It's a very important homework 19 assignment. Please. 20
Thank you. Councilmember O'Rourke, Dr. Nina Ahmad, and then Councilmember Rue Landau.
I echo -- thank you, Mr. President. I echo Member Gauthier's sentiments around the MAC and also want to know what investments the district will make to expand newcomer programming in immigrant neighborhoods in general. But I'll move on to this question kind of in the spirit of speaking about student supports and well-being. I was intrigued, as you may recall from last year's budget hearings, by the proposal from Lift Every Voice calling on the district to dedicate resources to advancing joy in our schools. With the same logic that affirms the need to make it a job if you want a particular thing done, so also, if we want to make something real, we have to name it before we can claim it. Whether or not it sounds unserious or silly, it's true that if we want more joy, we have to give a spot in our administrative structure to realize that. Has the district met with groups like Lift Every Voice recently to consider their chief of joy proposal? What are the district's reflections about the proposal? And I recall you answering positively to the concept last year, Dr. Watlington. Can you speak to where we are with that now?
Thank you, Councilmember O'Rourke. Yes, within the past three months, we've engaged with individuals who said, name it, and we ought to have a chief of joy. Given our budget situation and having to go into the fund balance, or recommending to President Streater and the Board to go into the fund balance, to balance the budget this year, which we won't have that option next year. We think that this is not the time to add new positions to the budget. Everything we've done here before has been budget neutral, but certainly I see my role as superintendent as being in part a chief of joy, and we are cascading that out through the other deputy superintendents and the chiefs, and we want that to manifest itself in kids not being denied recess. We want that to manifest itself, and we're going to follow up to make sure that it manifests itself in terms of us doing more celebration of our teachers and our students and families, i.e., the Accelerate Philly Awards celebrating our Lindback Award winners, and really being more intentional about cultivating a district where joy is manifested.
Thank you for your response. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Councilmember Rue -- oh, Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then wrapping up is Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. I just have a follow-up to the question I asked earlier. One, to make sure I'm on the record asking for that data. I wasn't sure you were clear that I wanted to get that information. And two is you mentioned there was uneven growth of students in different parts of the city that makes you have difficult decisions about closures. How transparent is that process with the community? How soon do they know about if there's an imminent closure or even if it's for either for closing the school because of low enrollment or because you're going to do some repair and rebuilding? What is the process of including community in that process so they're not left scrambling last minute?
Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. -- Councilmember Ahmad. We will have a very robust community engagement process. You won't hear much in the next two or three weeks because we are just knee-deep focused North Star on testing, having the optimal testing environment with the least amount of stress. We will be communicating more about that process. And I want to say that on the record to your point to Councilmember O'Rourke. Yes. And there will be no surprises to anyone.
Okay. All right. Thank you. And I'll submit my questions in writing.
Thank you. And last, before we take a break, will be Councilman Rue Landau.
Thank you. Two subject areas. One, SEPTA fare cards, and two, Policy 252. So for the SEPTA fare cards, can you detail what students are currently -- which students are currently eligible for student fare cards? What's the structure used to pay for these cards? What days and hours do they work? What would it cost to expand these cards to students who live within 1.5 miles of their school, ensuring they have access to all Philadelphia has to offer? And we know that grades are simply not enough to get our students into quality colleges, universities, and other programs. What would it cost to expand the hours the cards can be used so we can ensure the students always have transportation to work, study, and attend events, get internships, et cetera? Next one. I want to ask about Policy 252, which is the policy -- we're seeing an unprecedented attack on LGBTQ plus community, as you know. Please detail the commitments included in Policy 252 and how the effects of this policy are felt by students, teachers, and guardians. How are we communicating this policy, which is basically our anti-discrimination inclusion policy, and these commitments to our most vulnerable LGBTQ plus students, their guardians and teachers? And are we committed to using gender-neutral language on all school forms, including the terms parent and guardian instead of mother and father? And what barriers exist to updating and distributing these new forms?
Let me reaffirm Councilmember Landau, our commitment to diversity and valuing all of our communities. With your permission, I'd like to take the balance of your question as a homework assignment and make it a top priority.
Thank you. I'm with Councilmember Gauthier. Make it a very serious homework assignment. We appreciate that. Look forward. We will also give our questions in writing to Laurel and appreciate very much your answers.
Thank you very much. We thank you for your time today. Thank you for your testimony. Council, this hearing will be at ease until 2:30. (Council at ease.)
Good afternoon, everyone. We will continue our Committee of the Whole budget hearing. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next witness to testify.
Yes. We have Harold Epps, Board Chair, Community College of Philadelphia, Alicia Marshall, Interim President, of the college. And Jacob Epen, Vice President of Business and Finance.
Good afternoon, Mr Epps. Always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for the work that you're doing on behalf of chairing the Community College of Philadelphia thanks for the work that you're doing as the co-chair of the City Council task force on diversity, equity and inclusion and inclusion. And thank you always for and your leadership, your commitment to improving the quality of life for all the residents here in the city of Philadelphia. So with that being said, just state your name, for the record, and please begin your testimony.
Thank you. Before I begin my testimony let me introduce all three of the panelists with -- two of the panelists with me, and then I'll say a brief words. As already stated my name is Harold T. Epps, I serve as the chair of the board of Community College of Philadelphia. I'm in my second term so I am now in year seven. To my right is --
And to my left is the newly appointed interim president. She'll introduce herself. And that was held yesterday, you know, as stewards of the city some of the unfortunate situation we found ourselves in, but we feel like we're coming out of it in a positive way. And part of that positivity is the appointment of Dr. Alycia Marshall, as our interim president. And I'll let her say more about her background. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Councilmembers. My name is Dr. Alycia Marshall and I am pleased and humbled and honored to be serving in this interim role as the president at the Community College of Philadelphia during a time where I think there's a lot of opportunity. And I am deeply humbled to serve in this way and help the institution move forward during this transitionary period. I have years plus experience in higher education. I started my career as an adjunct faculty member in the mathematics department at Anne Arundel Community College, a large campus in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. And I've went up to full professor tenure in mathematics and the first African- American female mathematics department chair at a predominately white institution. I went on from there to be an associate vice president of Learning and Academic Affairs. And I found my people at the Community College of Philadelphia several years ago, when I started there as vice president of academic and student success. And now provost and currently now interim president. So happy to be here looking forward to working collaboratively with you to move the institution and the city forward. Thank you.
You're welcome. Congratulations on your appointment.
No, that's it. Just state your name and begin your testimony, please.
Again, Harold T. Epps, chair of the board. And so Mr. -- Council President Johnson on behalf of the Board of Trustees and the College Community, we appreciate and I want to stress we appreciate the ongoing support of Community College of Philadelphia and look forward to working with you as we continue to advance the city's college. Also, in attendance are members of the cabinet. If you would raise your hand who have worked cohesively in recent weeks as the college has experienced a transition in leadership. I am grateful to them for the collaboration and guidance during this very important time. Today we are eager to share information about successes and accomplishments related to the college including increased enrollment and retention of the city college for municipal employment. Our upcoming commencement ceremony, by the way, that is this coming Saturday and we invite any and all of you to be there. We more than willing to share information with you about that. And the finalization of a four-year contract with our faculty and staff federation. And let me also stop and say that many of you were involved in helping us get that across the finish line and we we very much thank you. We remain grateful for the funds provided last year. And of course, this conversation will not be complete if we don't already state that we'll continue to need funds for this year and the future given the challenges that we face along with the ones you face. And those will be helpful in covering the cost of this contract. And we're happy to answer any questions you may have after we conclude our testimony. We are not going to read everything that's in the book we sent to you. We recognize that you can read, but we want to get to the Q&A as soon as possible. You've already met Dr. Alycia Marshall, don't need to reiterate that. But let me just say that the board -there are a few board members in the audience, if you would raise their hands. We are in full confidence in support of her and let me say that she was approved by the board unanimously on Monday morning. You've heard her background. And with that since Dr. Marshall has already introduced herself, I'm going to stop and say that Dr. Marshall is going to give you some headlines, just headlines on five to seven of the categories we deem most important. We'll stop then and and go straight to Q&A. Mike, I was pointing to you. I was saying hello. Good to see you.
Good afternoon again, everyone. At CCP we've always been more than a college we're a powerful engine for economic growth equity and opportunity anchored right here in Philadelphia. Everyday we see that difference our work makes in our classrooms, in local businesses, in homes and in communities across the region. Our impact goes beyond our campuses from adult education workshops to cultural events to lifelong learning opportunities and we are deeply woven into the fabric of this community. As our students graduate many of them go on to serve as the educators, nurses, first responders and civic leaders the city depends on. They give back to their neighborhoods that have shaped them and build careers that make a difference. One recent example I just want to share with you is what's possible when talent meets opportunity. David Johnson, a 2025 graduate of our Art and design Program just received a fully funded scholarship to the California College of the Arts. His tuition and living expenses in San Francisco are completely covered. This prestigious award isn't just a celebration of David's talent, it's a powerful endorsement of the quality of our programs and the creativity we foster right here in Philadelphia. While many colleges across the country are struggling to retain students Community College of Philadelphia is bucking that trend. We've now seen three consecutive years of enrollment growth. This year we led all 15 community colleges in Pennsylvania with more than 18,000 credit students a four-and-a-half increase. Spring enrollment has rose by 8%, our summer sessions jumped by 17% and 20% and early fall registration already is up nearly 47% year-overyear our dual enrollment programs which allow high school students to earn college credits continue to grow now serving over 1,700 students. And the Octavio Kado Scholarship launched in 2021, just enrolled its largest cohort bringing the total up to 3,350 students supported. Yes. At our Northeast Regional Center enrollment surged 32% this spring showing real momentum across the city. What's more is that our students are staying. Our full- time, first time retention rate has risen to 60% a threepoint increase from last year. This reflects both our academic quality and the holistic support services we provide. Single Stop which provides financial support including resources for housing and food insecurity. Scheduling for Success, our center for male engagement. I Am More for justice involved students. Our Women's Outreach and Advocacy Center and the Veterans Resource Center are all examples of support services that we provide to ensure all our students receive what they need for their ultimate success. In collaboration with the city of Philadelphia, as the Mayor has mentioned, we've recently launched the City College for Municipal Employment, also known as CCME, to train residents for vital public service jobs. In just its first year of implementation we exceeded expectations enrolling over 100 students and creating direct pipelines into careers in public property, fleet services and other critical roles. We are currently working with the city on expanding our program offerings. Into the next year we're looking at offering public safety, behavioral health and human services opportunities, paramedics, and other high priority areas for the city. We look forward to continuing to increase enrollment and opportunities for city residents in CCME in the coming years. We are also excited to celebrate the graduates with the Mayor in a special ceremony this month. At our Career and Advanced Technology Center in West Philadelphia, we shine as a regional model for workforce training. Enrollment there is up 36% and we're now serving more than 1,100 students. S. Navy we are launching a groundbreaking Navy welding and non-destructive testing program this fall preparing students in high demand opportunities to build submarines.
Our students are currently being hired by top employers such as Holtech, Roads Industry and SEPTA. Having the only two-year program of its kind in conjunction with our collaboration with the Navy will allow the Community College of Philadelphia to be set up as a training center for upscaling Philadelphia residents for rewarding careers in building submarines. We're also leading the way in transportation technology at our Career Advanced Technology Center. We have the Toyota T10 program which is a work and learn program. We also have a new degree in medium and heavy truck technology and certifications in electric and hybrid vehicles. In healthcare and STEM we've expanded our programs to meet urgent regional needs. We've added accelerated nursing tracks, a new community health and wellness certificate and we're introducing an associate applied science in electrical engineering technology as well as a clinical trial certificate this fall to support this growth the college has invested. In making major facility upgrades including a new respiratory care lab, physics lab, a renovated dental hygiene clinic and soon to open healthcare simulation lab to provide hands-on and interdisciplinary training. Our innovation continues with a wide arrange of new programs including a paraprofessional partnership with the School District of Philadelphia to provide a pathway for paraprofessionals to receive associates degrees in education and work towards addressing the teacher shortage for the city. Additionally, I'd like to share that this Saturday as Chair Epps indicated, we'll be celebrating the culmination of all of this hard work at our 2025 commencement ceremony. We expect to graduate approximately 1,800 students at the Liacors Center. And we're honored to welcome Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis the youngest and first black Lieutenant Governor in Pennsylvania's history as our keynote speaker. Among our graduates is Fotimata Saka, a mother, an immigrant and a semi-finalist for the Jack Kent Cook undergraduate transfer scholarship. And CCP has five semi-finalists for this scholarship this year more than any other college in the state. Their stories reflect the grit, the heart and the ambition of this city and the power of public investment in education. To sustain this progress we've reached a new four-year agreement with our faculty and staff federation securing competitive wages smaller class sizes and continued access to the best in-class benefits that we can provide. These agreements help us to attract and retain the people who make CCP such a strong institution while staying fiscally responsible. We remain committed to sound financial stewardship and maintaining our 25% reserve in line with the accreditation standards for our institution. And now with that I'm going to turn it back over to Chair Epps. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr marshall so I will close by saying a question that many of you have asked and we find ourselves In constant negotiation with the administration about the question that is what is the dollars needed to make certain goals achievable and where's your shortfall. I will say that at this point where negotiations are incomplete with the mayor's office and negotiations incomplete with to the amount of money that we need to maintain certain thresholds that keep our accreditation avoid tuition increase which we have not done in seven years. And to meet the goals and objectives that have been approved through through the negotiations we need an incremental total of $8-million of additional funds. And we will then leave it to you and the administration to hopefully negotiate in a way that gives us the ability to make those goals. So that's where we are today and we are hopeful that we can answer any questions that will help you get comfortable with that reality. But no, as this college is celebrating its 60-year anniversary this year and we will do something next year to really culminate that, it's in solid shape. We believe that there's so much upside potential to this college. We are proud of the fact that all of our numbers are stable and going in the right direction, but the board, the faculty staff get tired of me saying the following: And that is we are -- yes, we are going in the right direction, but we think we've got another gear or two to go to deliver what Philadelphia needs and that is a more trained workforce and more skills and more education to take advantage of this attrition that's taken in the workforce as us baby boomers step out of it. So all that being said, I'll stop there and answer any questions that you may have for us. But, again, we want to thank you for your prior support and having talked with many of you, we are confident and hopeful that we can continue to count on your support. So thank you.
Thank you. Just a couple brief questions and then we will turn it over to my members. You talked about -- did you say you need 8-million?
This one and and for a few years into the future. The answer is yes.
Let me just say and the driver of that are two. We serve a low wealth community and we do everything we can to provide them the skills, the education for as little cost as possible and as much free as possible i.e Kato is one example of that. We have not raised tuition in seven or eight years, our budget says we don't raise it for another two. But in '26, '27, '28, we do have plugged in a 3% year- over-year increase because we don't know where else to get the money from.
Yeah. And I asked that question because in FY25 to FY26 from 56-million in his current proposal to 54-million in his current proposal. That's the Mayor's five- year plan and it remains flat to FY30, which mean the administration's proposal there is no increases from now into FY30. But however the numbers are showing that you are growing in terms of enrollment. And so elaborate on that.
Well, that is where we said that -- that we've not yet completed negotiations. We are part -- we are partially privy --
It seems like from the Mayor's proposal there's an investment --
We are partially privy to what goes on in this building not completely. And in our last conversations with the finance people they said we have heard you and we will be back to you with further input as to what we can do.
So for the record, what you're saying we're proposing a five-year plan, which is to remain flat, right, until FY30, you have had conversations that there's a possibility that that flat number will change based upon your conversations.
That is what we're hopeful of, yes. When we -- so yes, as we digested what that five-year said and we signed the contract negotiation deal, it affirmed that the price tag was rising. We went back to the administration and said we will hope that we will need more flexibility. We now find ourselves in front of you making the same statement that the affordability issue is -
I asked that question because if the five-year plan for CCP as it is proposed right now is a state flat and and there's a decrease from 56-million from last year to this upcoming budget to 54-million, which is a decrease in $2-million, but yet you're growing. And then also there's a $15-million investment on the workforce side. But I guess to me that don't make sense because if we're investment -- if we're investing 15-million for a workforce program, but we're not investing on the enrollment side of the young people that's coming into the program, then who are we investing for, in terms of the $15-million, in terms of the workforce initiative of the CCME program.
Let me just make one other comments so everybody is operating from the same -- look, you know, if you've got a credit score you have to maintain certain thresholds. Well, in the college, the Community College there are certain accreditations we have to maintain that require certain thresholds be maintained, and that is the other guiding principle, it's 25% of your annual budget.
Oh, we agree. I'm just saying if we talking about investing in CCP and we being fiscally responsible and investment-wise, it just boggles my mind why the funding for CCP in terms of the five-year plan is one decreasing by 2-million. And then it stays flat which means ultimately the investment is in the workforce program, which you are going to get $15 million for, but it begs the question, what about the actual children that are actually attending CCP, which will benefit from the actual CCME program. That's all I'm saying, for the record. So that's not really for you to make a response, but it should be on the record in terms of this is how the plan looks in terms of a lack of investment, if I could say so, in terms of on the enrollment side versus the workforce initiative. That's all I --
As I said, we have raised the issue with the administration and they have said to us, let's continue to talk so we can figure it out.
And at the same time make sure we all understand we believe that there needs to be -- inspite of the great growth, there needs to be more growth. And so the issue of affordability is going to continue to challenge us because we still got 20% poverity in this city.
So there's more of an issue of affordability as it relates to um supporting a population most in need, that's how you start out your conversation. Which means that as opposed to decreasing, we should be increasing because you're doing your part in terms of the increasing of enrollment at CCP. That's all I just wanted to state, for the record. If there's anything other than that, let me know, because we're not investing going in the direction of growth when it comes to supporting.
If I may add I know you all just finished with the School District which is K through 12. Well, K through is great, 5 but that is just the beginning. 6 You've got to have some license 7 certificate degree education beyond 8 that, and we are the best and most 9 affordable game in town. 10
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity, then Councilmember Dr. Phillips, Councilman Jamie Gauthier, then Councilmember Nicholas O'Rourke.
Yeah. Council President, I get you on that. It's -- it's -- if we notice we should be raising, is what he was getting at, instead of staying stagnant. If we know that the effects are helping our children and we're getting bigger enrollments, then of course, the number is going to go up to run it. But I got a couple just quick questions because I don't want to beleaguer everything. What does the current enrollment look like? And what trends do you see that give us insight into the next five years? Can you provide a brief update on the Kato Scholarship Program and how it has supported students? And given the federal policy environment, what is your strategy for keeping tuition costs affordable? Actually you kind of answered that it was going to have to go up eventually. I'd be remissed if I didn't mention my little co-ed that I have at home, my wife Marne, is enrolled in Community College. She is six classes away from her degree, parallegal degree, so very proud of her for that. But part of the reason she was able to go back was the affordability. As you said, you are the best game in town in terms of that stuff for certifications and others. So if you could just give me those three questions quick, brief, you don't have to really --
Well, you know, the good news is that we have a president who will answer the majority of that. But I will say that Kato is, I don't know, they're about year six or seven, and every year it sets new records of enrollment. Dr. Marshall can give you the exact numbers. We have not raised tuition in six or seven years. We'd like not to, but at some point we're going to have to.
Our total currently active Kato scholar enrollment is 1,650. The total number of Philadelphians served to date is 3,358. And our total number of Kato scholars that are going to graduate or have graduated to date is 322. And then just to give you a snapshot of the enrollment, we currently have 21,067 students for total enrollment 24-25, that includes non-credit students. If we look at our credit students for 24-25 we're at 18,326 students. And you can see that our trend has been increasing steadily.
That -- that's -- that's good stuff. Just one more followup because I don't see my colleague Quetcy Lozada here yet. What is the number of Latinos enrolled in CCP now?
So that's been steadily increasing if we look at our 24-25 enrollment by race, we're at 18.34% for Hispanic Latino students. And that is up over the past few years. We were about 16% last couple years, so it's steadily growing.
Let me also add to what you are inquiring about Congressman -- Congressman, I just gave you promotion.
Councilmember Harrity. And that is we have a breakdown and if it's not in the book, we'll get it to you, about the number of enrollees by each of your districts, those of you who have a district.
And what we want to do is to partner with each of you to have a person in your office that will help us go deeper into your districts to make the case why Community College. Again we got to dig deeper for the gyms because we all know that one of the best possibilities not a guarantee, but one of the best possibilities to change a lot in life is an education. And again with the example just shown including a road scholar you can come to this Community College and do anything you want in the world, you just got to have the gumption to go do it, but we're there to give you a start. And we want to -- we will need your help in every district such that that enrollment continues to go up so that poverty continues to go down.
Yeah. I know in this body here Community College is a sense of pride for us the fact that we're able to help so many other people like you said, have a come up, is good stuff. So thank you. Thank you for your service. And, doctor, congratulations and welcome to the game, I guess, or back to the game.
Before Councilmember Richardson leaves, so I just want to make this comment. Look, in spite of all the good stuff, I'm a numbers guy, the graduation number out of community college for the last 10 years has fluctuated between 1,800 and 2,000. The city needs that number to be 4,000. And so until we all lean in to figure out to get more people into the education pipeline, we're not going to impact that poverty number.
Thank you. And I just want to also acknowledge that y'all have one of the best, if not the best, nursing programs in the region. I think --
I think it's under the radar that most people may or may not know, but I know that that's one of the best nursing programs in the region.
One of the reasons I wear my CCP pen everyday and would encourage many of you, when you do that you will see people come up to you, many of them nurses and say I went through CCP that. And that's all over. But let me also say about it is an expensive--
Mr. Chairman, but I think the new president wants to chime in I'm going so can she have an opportunity to have the mic. You the chair, like we know you here, but you got a new you got -- a new president that people want to hear from.
It is it is one of our most expensive programs, but I will say our recent class had 100% NCLEX passing rates. So we continue to be an outstanding excellent example for nursing. And we are looking forward to improving on that when we have our renovations with our sim lab that we've also done for our students as well. And so we've modeled that after Miami Dade Community College which is a stellar place for healthcare. And we will have real life mannequins that the students can work on with crying and bleeding and all of that and a simulation technology lab. So that's coming online probably in the fall. So we're excited about that and that's going to just help us improve our outcomes which are really great for that program.
Thank you very much. MADAM CHAIR GILMORE- RICHARDSON: Thank you very much, Council President. I must concur with his assessment regarding the nursing program. When I worked at Pennsylvania Hospital, as a staffing coordinator, we frequently hired many nurses from Community College'S nursing program, which was one of the best in the region. So thank you very much. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you to Majority Leader Richardson. I just want to say thank you to Chairman Epps, and also congratulations to you, new interim president. This is an exciting time, I believe for CCP, and I want to thank you all for the work that you've been doing to for the best of the students. Just a couple questions that could help advance the student population in the city at this Community College. Question No. 1: How does the college intend to fulfill the bargaining commitment to free SEPTA passes for CCP students? So how do you intend to get that commitment. And how is the college approaching faculty hiring this year in light of the new contract that just took place? And also, I'm also curious, this is the third question. The 9th District is the host of the former Northwest Regional Campus. Can you just talk about plans for that as well? And my last question, I'm put them in all at once. I am concerned about capital improvements for the college. The times I've been there with the exception of the new buildings, the lights are dim, they're not as bright inside. There's -- I'm hoping that with this new leadership, there could be a lot more vibrancy and joy, a lot more excitement about the idea of going to Community College within the interior. So I just would like for us to see if there's any plans to work on that in this new vision. And hopefully with you, you can work more closely with government offices because that wasn't as present with the previous president, but we can also find ways to, you know, connect better with students to be more student-friendly in that way. So those are my questions SEPTA, hiring, lighting, capital projects, Northwest campus.
It's going to take all three of us. And Dr. Marshall, why don't you go first.
Okay. We are working with a cross -- I guess you could say cross-divisional team where we have representation from the federation, as well as administration that's working on and working with students actually our student government leadership with a committee that's looking at how can we make this possible for our students. So we're working with -- we had a meeting this past week already with SEPTA to see how we could possibly do that. We're looking at opportunities to possibly use financial aid in some way to support that or a transportation fee. But we are really cognizant of the fees and the cost to attend college. And as Chair Epps mentioned before we are always thinking about how can we keep costs down for students. So we're kind of going through all the different scenarios and thinking about how we can approach that and we do have a working group that's meeting regularly to look at the SEPTA passes. In regards to faculty hiring, we are hiring new full- 19 time faculty this year. The faculty 20 that are being hired in regards to the areas that we are hiring in are reflective of what the MOA said in the trans -- in the tentative agreement with the federation and the final agreement. So we're working towards that. I'm pleased to say that we have hired -- this is the second year we've done a large hire number of faculty. Last year faculty starting in fall were a part of 8 faculty that were hired in last year 9 for this year. One of the things 10 that we're trying to do is to be 11 intentional around diversifying our 12 faculty. So having an opportunity 13 to hire these larger numbers of 14 faculty, hiring 20 last year which 15 were more reflective demographically 16 of our student population. We have 17 implemented some strategic 18 initiatives around what we do in 19 terms of recruitment and what we do 20 in terms of diversifying the opportunity for our diverse pools to come to the table. So we are happy about the 20 new lines that we are going to get. This gives us another opportunity to diversify the faculty. And those numbers are reflecting the areas that were indicated with the agreement with the federation. And then I'll let somebody else do Northwest.
Yes. I do agree that we have to do a better job of lighting up the buildings. So we have three projects. One is the Mint front lobby, the historic renovation to the main entrance to the Mint Building. So that project is being designed right now. The second is Mint lighting, to enhance the lighting of the Mint Building on Spring Garden. Again, it's an historic building and we need to do a better job of lighting up that building. And we did a smaller project is the skylights. We have completely changed the skylights that is connecting the Mint building to the Bonnell Building so that project is completed. I hope you get an opportunity to visit us and I'll definitely take you around the building to show the improvements we have done in the library and the Bonnell skylights.
Yeah, and I see the -- I see the new flags, that's wonderful. I'm hoping you could do some more painting with the colors outside of the buildings, similar to what Temple has done to make some sort of more unification showing like, oh, you're at CCP. Like larger signs, poles that can show, you know you're at CCP. And the colors, you're like, oh, this is CCP. But thank you.
So we started a conversation with the School district how we can partner together to have a lease purchase agreement with the School District. So that's being worked on and they are interested in having follow-up negotiations on that.
Okay. Thank you so much the point I I'd like to make so you hear it from a member of the board is all things lead back to affordability. Right now Jacob, correct me, I think we're sitting on somewhere around $80-million of deferred maintenance. And so everyday he and his team have to make the choices as to what we do to maintain and resolve. I'm sitting on a bench yesterday and water leaks down on me and I'm inside. So we have to make those kinds of choices because we only got so much money.
Is it because most of your students are online now, right?
No, most of them are not online. And Dr. Marshall can say to you why that is not the best path or process for them to gain the knowledge, if you would.
So initially post-- post COVID, we did have a large number of our students taking online courses. And obviously they were used to that or they had been doing that. We slowly got more interest in in-person classes and we are moving in that direction. Particularly there's some areas and some classes where it's hands-on and that's required in order for them to learn. Our nursing classes, our biology, our STEM labs and those things, so we're definitely maintaining the in-class presence. We're also offering now HyFlex and I don't know if you're familiar with that, but HyFlex is an opportunity for a student to choose how they attend a class so it allows them to attend in-person the same class in person or asynchronously online or synchronously online, and that's the same class. So we've done that in certain situations which allows us to provide access to students who would not otherwise be able to take classes, but we continue to maintain that we will have in-person classes particularly in the areas and disciplines where it's required for the learning outcomes.
Thank you. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. So I had a couple of questions. Number 1, welcome. Welcome. I had a couple of questions and it's, you know, it's I think sort of like the elephant in the room, I'll say. Because CCP looks like it's doing really well based on everything that's presented today. So I think a lot of us are confused as to the change in leadership, the recent change in leadership. And, you know, we're hoping that you can give some sort of explanation that makes sense. Because you know someone did call me yesterday and tried to explain it. You know, it didn't make any sort of sense that I could, you know, figure out or no common sense. But I just didn't seem to really have an understanding as to, you know, what happened to the last president?
That is the elephant in the room and I knew at some point we would get to this point and I will do the best I can within the limits of the law that will allow me to respond. And that is every four years or so, you all have to go before your board to decide whether you will be re-appointed and that's called the electorate. In this case like many others there is a contract in place that requires either party to decide whether they will renew the relationship. And this board gave intent, a possible direction to the sitting president back in December that after two renewals we thought it was time for a change. And we were in the process of negotiating that in an amicable way, quietly and discreetly with a celebratory pathway to transition and the other side decided they wanted to take it to the public. We were surprised as you were surprised. We had no idea, no knowledge, no pre-signal that it was going to end up this way. We are saddened, disappointed, upset, frustrated by it had to end this way. Dr. Generals did a solid job --
But that has nothing but that has nothing to do with other factors that you would not see that we will see as the board because that's what we appointed to do. And we evaluated all of that and concluded that it was time for a change.
You know, again, based on what is presented here it doesn't seem like -- you know, it's almost like you know when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and then it's kind of like, there's all these changes and it's like, why are we making these changes? You know like we just won. You know we're at the top. We're No. 1. When I look at what was presented here, you know, it's all glowing, it all looks great. I, you know, for the life of me, I can't really understand why this would suggest that there was time for new leadership because this seems to be everything that a Community College would want. And I have no doubt that our new president is going to do a phenomenal job. But I just think you know the way we do things matters. The idea that we, you know, ended this relationship I think at this point when the end of the semester is here, graduation is here, we have all summer to you know try to figure things out. There's a lot of you know conversation, you know, like in in the neighborhood or on the streets, I should say, that in terms of what actually happened. And I won't go into the details here because I don't have a nickel in this dime. You know, I'm not a CCP student, I'm not, you know, vested except that I am a member of council and I care about what my constituents care about. And so, you know, it's very glaring, you know, this sudden change without any sort of reason or rationale. And I understand what you said that you felt like it was time for a change as a board, but it doesn't connect to what you have presented here today. And I would say that for whatever the successes are just like the board takes credit for it, you know, the leadership gets credit for it, too.
That is correct. You know, you talk about the streets and I will only say this, that on the streets one of the sayings is everything that glitters in gold. And so what I would say to you is you are we -- 15 of us were appointed by the Mayor to be the stewards of the college. And you talk about timing, we both were operating under a time bound contract that mandated through a certain period that we make certain decisions and we honored that contract.
Understandable. At the same time the contract did not -- it wasn't a term limit, so it's not as if that a decision had to be made --
And that period, right, no, I understand that, but I'm saying we had an option to renew or an option not to renew.
So we decided not to renew and, again, based on everything that's here it looks great. It looks like --
Councilmember, there are other factors that go into a human resource decision that what you can't put on a sheet of paper.
Okay. Well, you know, I'm not exactly sure, you know, where we are. Like I said I think Madam President will do a phenomenal job, our new president coming in. But it does uh trouble me to some degree that, you know, Dr. Generals was someone who seemed to be very thorough and effective. And, you know, you produced the results this is what you gave us that said that he was you know like doing a, you know, a phenomenal job. This report looks fantastic. And so to say that you know this isn't, you know, that this person wasn't doing a good job it's just really hard to understand. And I'll just say that one of the things that I heard during the conversation about, you know, some of -- some of the faults of Dr. Generals included, you know, like that he hadn't really reached out to members of council effectively, you know, during his tenure. And I have to say I represent part of Temple University which has a, you know, like a huge footprint. I talk to them when I need to. I don't like -- we don't need to be in conversation every single day. Now I don't know if that's was the expectation of the board and if that was communicated effectively to the leadership, but I just think that it just, you know, something here seems amist to me. It just -- it just doesn't -- it doesn't seem to jive. So thank you, Mr. President. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Bass. I appreciate your remarks and I would ask the board chair that maybe you take some time to have a conversation with the councilwoman off the record to clarify some of the questions that she had here today.
Happy to do so. CHAIR THOMAS: Yeah, I encourage that. So thank you, sir The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young.
So you've answered most of my questions from our briefing that we had, but a couple of years ago the college instituted a new CRM system that was supposed to increase enrollment and revenue. Can you talk to us about that? I believe it was called Slate or something like that.
That would be that would be Slate. I'll ask Dr. Rooney to speak to that. Dr. Rooney is our vice president over enrollment management, marketing communications and institutional research as well.
Hi. Good afternoon. It's nice to talk to you. We did implement Slate as a new CRM a few years ago, and I think it's part of why our enrollment has risen over the last eight consecutive parts of term. Part of what it was able to help us do was smoothen the way in which our students are able to go through the the application process. It's become a little bit more straightforward in the way that we're able to directly communicate with students who are part who have applied. And once they've applied to kind of pull them through that funnel and make sure that they make it to metriculation. We are still in the process of implementing it right now, but we're probably about 50% of the way there. And right now it is only in process for our credit students. Our plans are to expand it to include our non-credit students and also to bring it to a two-way texting platform as well.
Thank you for that. And one more question about some of the other programs that CCP offers. I know, you know, I offered, my office to help you with marketing, but can you talk to us about how you market some of your more hands-on programs not necessarily just, you know, the, you know, the English degree, right, but some of the other programs that CCP has how you are getting that word out to our Philadelphia residents?
Sure. So in addition to the overall visibility marketing that we do for the college, we do a significant amount of social marketing and Google keywords ad by so that we are targeting residents all over the city who do not have other educational credentials, specifically pointing them toward many of the non-credit, I think those are the programs that you're referring to. Many of the programs that happen in the CATC, for instance. And they are directing students to either interest forms where then somebody at the college directly reaches back out to them to make sure they're able to come out, do a tour, take a look at what the application process would be like. We also do host information sessions and do direct outreach to all of the Philadelphia high schools to make sure that counselors are aware of the programs that are available and can be on-hand to answer any questions that students might have. I would be happy to connect with you and make sure that you have any literature to Chair Epp's point earlier to make sure that you've got literature in your office to make sure you can help us in that regard.
No, thank you. I just, you know, I took a tour of the facility out West Philly. And you know those students particularly in the Toyota program are guaranteed a job working for Toyota once you finish that program. And so I think those are the types of programs that we need to highlight to let our, you know, future students know that there is a job opportunity at the end of the tunnel. The machine -- machinist program is there. It's awesome, like you're going -- you're almost guaranteed a job when you finish that program. And I think that that's a a disconnect that we have with our young people. And people in general, they want to make sure that there is a job at the end of the tunnel. You know I wouldn't go to law school if I didn't think I was going to get a job, right? So we want people to know that there is a there is a path to a life-sustaining career if you do decide to go to CCP. So thank you, Mr. Chair. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, Councilmember. Very much appreciate and agree with everything that was said there. A couple things. So first congratulations and welcome. Thank you for your service and the work that you're deciding to do with the children in the city of Philadelphia. When listening to some of the questions from the Councilwoman, can you take a minute to go on the record to communicate what your plan of communication will be to both City Council, as well as our state partners because I'm sure that they have questions, too, as it relates to the status of the leadership at CCP. And what we can anticipate as it relates to, I guess you could say, future outcomes based on the separation that took place?
We have a communication team led by Ms. Rooney at this point. Right now it's augmented by Co Mercardo, they're sitting in the right-hand corner. And so through this transition through press releases and announcements on a timely basis we have done and will continue to do. We've made phone calls and special reach out to those that have inquired, we will continue to do that. As it relates to the search, that search will start in June and it will take whatever it takes. Until the interim Dr. Marshall will be in charge and it is our job to ensure that you and all other stakeholders are proactively communicated with on key milestones. We will from today's learnings continue to be proactive in reaching out to City Council. Your office has been one that we've reached out to as Chair of the education committee, but others We will ensure that you are communicated to. And if there's any special needs that one has please reach out to us let us know and we we will ensure that it takes place. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, sir. I might have missed this earlier, but talk to us a little -- well, first of all, the transition that's happening talk to us a little bit about graduation and things of that capacity, do you anticipate any hiccups in traditional end of school activities because of the leadership transition. Not you, Board Chair, please.
So immediately. I mean, of course, this is an unfortunate and unplanned situation. And immediately when this happened in terms of the separation the communication that I had with my team and my division has been that we are going to continue the good work that has been done. There are students that are expecting to graduate, there are students and community members that need us to do our work. And despite what's happening at the leadership level, that does not take us off of what we're trying to do and what we need to do for our students in the city of Philadelphia. So I was happy to step in. Before this appointment was made I was asked to facilitate over graduation and I agreed to do that prior to even being selected in this position and I would have done that if the need had been there. I want the students to graduate. My colleagues are all here, they've stepped up in different ways and we're going to continue the work. So I don't anticipate any delay. We have some strong teams and we have faculty and staff that are committed to our students and people have leaned in and I appreciate that and I know the board and Chair Epps appreciates everything that everyone is doing. But we're going to have a wonderful day on Saturday and that's the goal and the intent. So outside of Council President, I know Councilmember Nina Ahamd has brief questions and you as well Councilmember Landau. Okay. So we're going to try to wrap this up real quick. Before we wrap up, I want to just give you an opportunity just to -- we don't do this often, but you're new. What do you anticipate being better? What do you anticipate being different? What changes do you anticipate? Give us an opportunity for what your vision will be as the new person leading the charge at CCP. And then after that we'll go to Councilmember Ahmad and we'll close out with Councilmember Landau.
So I would say day two as Interim President, I have some ideas and some goals about ways we can expand and build on our partnerships particularly in the areas of workforce development. Part of our efforts are going to be grounded in our strategic plan we are in the process of refreshing that plan and finalizing that plan. We have an aspiration to be one of the top tier community colleges not only in this region, but in the nation. That will require us to really push the needle towards our graduation numbers as well as our career placement numbers and employment numbers for our students, whether they're in the traditional programs or they're in our non-credit programs. Have had a conversation already with John Fry looking forward to strengthening some of our articulation agreements with Temple University which there's areas of opportunity for that. The other piece of that, I think is thinking about how can we build and so I want to underscore that over the past few years our graduation rates have moved. We're at 24%, but we need to be better. But since I've been here we've gone up 8% in a few years, a couple of years. So the momentum is there. For me it's about continuing to build and expand the work that means we're probably going to go into new programming and opportunities particularly with this Navy project, that's an opportunity we've never had. We're going to execute on that and be successful and possibly have more opportunities to build in that space additional other programming spaces as well. So that's the short piece of it. I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with this board. It is a collaborative effort where we are talking about where we want to see the institution go and my job in the interim is to make sure that we're executing on that vision. But nothing has changed in regards to success, completion, retention and placement and opportunity and employment for our students in the city.
But I'm sure some areas you you would say this is great that Dr. Generals was doing, but if I'm the new person, I would do these things differently. Anything else in terms of your vision that you would tweak and change and adapt to? Because if everything he did was great, I think he'd probably still be here.
So I think that it's important to recognize the seat that I have been in as the provos and vice president of academic and student success I had a certain lens and scope and area of responsibility being in this seat is a different lens. And so I did have opinions and thoughts about what I think should happen in the president's seat. There may have been things I agreed with may have been things I disagreed with, but I do think it takes a due diligence for me to sit in the seat in the time frame that I have and to talk to people in this new seat with this new lens and to get a sense of the whole institution, not just academic affairs, workforce development, student support, the whole entire institution which involves the areas of responsibility of my counterparts and colleagues and to understand where they see things moving where I see things moving in this new seat where I have a new lens, and then make some recommendations that the board can reflect and possibly support in moving forward.
I know post COVID the world has changed including academics and the role of the leader of an academic institution has changed requiring much more collaboration public partnerships and that is not something we do very well today. So it is one of the areas that we will have to get much more creative much more proactive with. We have a retreat in the fall and we will further reconcile giving the new president time to get with her cabinet and get her vision, but we will then reconcile that together with the board in the fall. But if you want to talk about one area that we will be calling upon, and then we will be calling upon you to help and that is to build stronger bridges with institutional partners in and around the city. And that's something that we don't do well today.
I know you do have Rhoads Industry, that's in my district so I'm familiar with --
-- of that partnership. I will say I think that the board made a smart decision for looking from within as opposed to without at least as we are right now at the interim president. A lot of times we look around, do national searches and so forth, but sometime I look at the individuals from within the actual institution that's actually doing the work that knows the culture as an added value and an added benefit to the position, at least for myself looking at it from the outside in. And so with that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here and I apologize for a bit of the popcorn effect we are having on you today. But we're happy to see you and so great to hear about CCP's accomplishments. I wanted to keep very focused on the issue of SEPTA. Students, faculty and staff need access to SEPTA to make campus and college-related activities more accessible. What SEPTA benefits are currently available to students, faculty and staff? What does it cost us per year? And what would you need to offer access to more people? And then the follow-up question is how does a college intend to fulfill the bargaining bargaining commitment to free SEPTA passes for CCP students?
You don't see anybody volunteering to answer that question, do you? I'm a little levity. I'll start and then turn over to Jacob, and then give Dr. Marshall the last. We -- this is something that we would love to do, we struggle with it because it is another component of cost in its present form that we have to resolve for. Prior to further negotiations, I don't know the number, but it ends with millions. Jacob and a team had a meeting yesterday trying to -- and we had the student representative and the collect -- collective bargaining reps in the room with us trying to negotiate and find a path forward. We will leave no stone unturned, but again, we sit there having to manage the lever of rising costs, the labor negotiations, tuition increase and SEPTA. So all of those have got to be factored into a way. We want to figure it out, we're not there yet.
So yesterday we had a meeting with SEPTA we included the union leaders, as well as the student leader and we started the negotiations. So we don't have a commitment to give transpass to the students or to the employees, but we have a commitment to make it work. So that's the first part of the negotiations. We're planning to meet with her again and continue the negotiations to come up with what is a feasible solution without really impacting the dollars of the college.
Thank you for that. Do you -- what SEPTA benefits are currently available to students? Any?
And correct me if I'm wrong, over the last few years some of the benefits that other more well endowed universities have had have been reduced. So it is an expensive benefit, everybody wants to have it done, but it's tough to pull off.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Councilman Jamie Gauthier, Richardson, and then we wrapping up with Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you all for being here. Congratulations on your interim position. This was a question I asked last year as well about foster youth at CCP and students who are either just finishing, you know, they're aging out of the foster care system. And when we I had met with them their concerns were about housing and resources while they were at CCP. I wanted to know if there are any provisions made to accommodate those students who really have no one and they are being aged out of a system with very little support. And so I wanted to know if CCP has any pathway to specifically, you know, look at their needs and how those needs are met? And if there's a budget allocation in here for that?
I'll speak to that. We currently don't have any programs specifically focused on foster youth students, but we do have connection to students for housing insecurity and we ensure that we go through our single stop program to accommodate that. But I'd be interested in looking more at that more closely and looking at some issues around that. That hadn't risen up to my level about that specific.
We'll follow up with you on that. And my second quick question is I'm very happy to see that as part of the career and advanced technology center it includes an electric vehicle and hybrid proficiency certificate. Can you tell me what -- about this certificate, what jobs or careers this certification prepares these participants for? And I also wanted to know if there is a pathway for them to be in apprenticeships in IBW, for example?
So this program does provide an opportunity for students to learn how to work on electric vehicles and it does allow them an opportunity once they gain the certificate and they gain the training that they can be employed directly, but I don't believe we have a specific relationship with that so we could talk about that.
Yeah, there's some requirements for them and I wondered if the certification prepares them for being able to need meet those requirements in order to be in the industry. We are looking to make Philadelphia hopefully in the in the nation a place where EV is democratized so that it's not just for the few, it's for everyone. And we, you know, this is a -- this is an environmental justice issue. So the more people engaged in this sector the more people who are ready to do this, this is a job creator as well as addressing our climate issues. So I just wanted to maybe we'll follow-up to have more conversation about what exactly this does and what could it do more in order for these folks to have good living wage jobs and contribute to our environment.
Before I give it to Dave Thomas to go back to your child care -- foster care. I think what you just said is a perfect example of the need for the public/private partnership between the college council and other and other legislators who affecting the outcome and the private sector. That's perfect example of where we got to be at the forefront and not at the back of the bus. Dr. Thomas.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Council President. Good afternoon, Dr. Ahmad. Great to see you. I'm so glad that you asked the question around foster care youth. Several years ago we started a program in partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to create a shared housing program for housing insecure students. Those individual students who have preference to those 16 units are students who have been in the foster care system. And the reason why we started that program is because several years prior to that we started working very closely with the Achieving Independent Center knowing that we had the line share of youth who are aging out of the foster care system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that were attending CCP. We were part of a collaborative organization and cross-sector collaborative that was happening at the University of Pennsylvania out of the children's policy practice and research center that focused on supporting students who were in the foster care system. When we created that shared housing program we received dollars from the college's own foundation, our own 501c3, as well as Sprinpoint partners under the leadership of Simron Sudu to support that work. We're looking to expand those program partnerships with the Philadelphia Housing Authority just recently I reached out to some folks over there to see how we could potentially identify additional units because we do not have enough units to meet the needs of all of our students who are in that space. And in addition to that we also created an on campus support program called Fostering Caring Connections. We literally have trained individuals in various departments across institution on the specific needs of young people aging out of the foster care system. We actually have foster care young people create an actual emblem so now it's on the doors for students, who if they go and see that emblem on the door of an office or an cubicle, they know that that individual has been trained to support students around the need for foster care support. So they can go in and have a friendly voice and an understanding voice to help them navigate their challenges.
Excellent. We can have an expansion of that. You know, they're at their most vulnerable at that time. All to 22-year-olds are vulnerable, 5 but to be coming aging out of the 6 system with no support is really 7 extremely vulnerable time. So I 8 appreciate anything and everything 9 you can do in that regard. Thank 10 you, Council President. 11
12 Thank you. 13 Councilman Jamie Gauthier, 14 Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, 15 Councilman Jim Harrity and wrapping 16 up with Council Quetcy Lozada. We 17 out at 4:00. 18
Thank you, Council President. Thanks to you all for being here today. Congratulations, Dr. Marshall. I've been very impressed with you during your tenure and I was really excited to hear that you were going to be the interim president and I look forward to working with you in this new capacity. The CCP initiative that I am most excited about is the Career and Advanced Technology Center or the CATC in my district. I had the chance to tour the facility and was very impressed by the various hands- on training facilities and the thoughtful way that you are creating a classroom to workplace pipeline. I think it is a model for workplace -- for workforce development. And I'd like to hear how things have been going since the grand opening. So first how many students do you have the capacity to enroll and how many are enrolled in your courses? Do you know how many students are from the immediate area in my district and how many are from broader areas of the city? Do you have information on successful program completion rates and on-the- job placement -- placement rate and do you continue to collect data about students after their graduation?
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm gonna have Dr. Powell who oversees the programs at the CATC speak to those questions. You might have to repeat. Dr. Powell --
Okay. Dr. Powell is currently serving as our associate provost right now.
Good afternoon. The CATC Center has a variety of programs that are serving the city. We have the advanced manufacturing emphasis that is the welding CNC and electromechanical, but in addition we have nurses aid and we also have the clinical medical assisting and dental assisting programs. These numbers -- we're running classes constantly. We also help with the Philadelphia Department of Transportation for their safety emissions. We're helping with Safe Serve in regard to food safety. So we're -- we're constantly running at any one moment in time we have a variety of classes going. Last numbers I looked at which probably I shifted out there's a new associate provost. We were well over 500 students that were enrolled at that moment in time, that was maybe about two weeks ago.
And how are we doing with completion? How are we doing with job placements? And um I'm going to channel my colleague Dr. Nina Ahmad, what kind of data are we tracking after people graduate?
The college has purchased software so that we can do some data analytics in regard to these students. The health and wellness side specifically have the students go through accreditation and they dealing with examination upon completion. So looking for placement in our local health care is part of the responsibilities of the employees at CATC. We have hired someone out of the Philadelphia School District about a year and some ago who has been taking the leadership in advanced manufacturing. There is very high placement in the industry areas that have been already previously recognized. And the students are going to be coming up on the ceremony when they have actual recognition by the employers that are hiring them. That is almost like an NFL draft that they they're picking their students and they're pulling them in. So it's been amazing.
My time is up. It sounds like we have some work to do on the data tracking side. I'm going to encourage us to put that in place when you do something groundbreaking. It's important to track the success of it so that we can grow it and and keep it going so I look forward to continuing that conversation with you.
Thank you. The Chair recognized Councilmember Majority to Gilmore Richardson and Councilmember Jim Harrity and wrapping up will be Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you, to Board Chair Epps and the entire board for your work during the contract negotiation process. And kudos and congratulations to you, Dr. Marshall, and welcome to your new leadership role at Community College of Philadelphia. We look forward to working with you. The President already put on the record my question regarding the funding increase based on the proposed budget that we received in council, and so I look forward to receiving additional information as we move forward in that process.
Point of information. That was a funding decrease.
Yes, yes. Agreed Mr. President. So that's going to walk me right into my next question. I think you were going here, Mr. President. Relative to the CCME program, you know I care deeply about workforce development and am very excited about the possibility around really expanding this work as it relates to city government and our internal positions, as well as external to the city of Philadelphia. So can you all provide us with an update regarding CCME, how you all are working directly with the district on the program? What is the current enrollment or projected enrollment for the program? And how the program would potentially be impacted, if at all, by the budget reduction or if that's okay based on the additional $15-million workforce development investment.
Thank you. Always great to see you, Councilwoman. So CCME has been a yoeman's job, right? We had a very short runway to get it up and running, but we successfully got it up and running in about three months. In our fall semester we had to essentially backwards engineer our enrollments because the ultimate goal for CCME is to ensure that individuals who successfully complete land jobs primarily in the city, right? You all understand how the city works. So very often the hiring department may only have their window of hiring open for a certain period of time, so we have to do a lot of backwards engineering. Which is why we established in partnership with the city of Philadelphia realistic goals in the beginning, right? So our goal all overall was to enroll 100 students in the first year, which we exceeded that number slightly. We also did a significant amount of outreach to the School District. Right now we have roughly 55 to 60 students in the school district who are taking classes with us under CCME umbrella. They're taking what we call our Career Readiness Power Skills courses. Those students are represented across six charter schools, as well as about three of the traditional public schools.
And that's separate from the dual enrollment students, correct, right? That's separate.
That's correct. And those students while they're having their connections directly to CCME high school we also work with them to look at the various pathways that they can go into that are career specific. We work, I think we probably meet weekly um with the city of Philadelphia on the progress of CCME, our goals, outreach, completion, you name it. The first semester, which was last fall, We had four students complete because they were on a pathway that could actually complete in one semester. Other completion pathways take much longer, but those four students were the only ones who were in that pathway. It was the office administrative professionals pathway. All four of those students successfully completed. All four of those students are in the process of getting jobs. As a matter of fact one just started on Monday and she's working with us at CCP. She's actually office administrative professional associate rather for CCME. So she's actually the front facing individual for the actual initiative. So we're excited about the opportunities again we are working with the city of Philadelphia to identify additional pathways based off of job needs. And we have also recently hired a manager of career and employment pathways. That is one job that will be in charge of actually tracking employment. Traditionally as an institution we have not really done job development. Career services is one thing, career readiness is one thing. Job development and job placement is something completely different. We've only done historically in my years under 15 our keys program which is state funded for TANF and SNAP, you can imagine why job placement is a priority there. So we're looking to do that as well for CCME to really track placement and count those numbers, and then also follow-up with students once they've been once they've secured employment to ensure that they can come back for additional training as well.
Okay. I heard the bell, I'm going to honor the clock, but I appreciate that response. And I just wanted to add here Because I did meet with the administration regarding this issue last Thursday. If there's an opportunity for you all to work with the city directly for individuals who are completing the program to adjust the job specification description under the city of Philadelphia, to ensure that that particular certification meets the requirement for the job, then you want to make sure that you all are doing that as well. Because we have a ton of job specs that need to be updated anyway. And finally, I just wanted to put on the record, relative to the School District of Philadelphia students and I mentioned this at the hearing earlier to Dr. Watlington, who are enrolled in a dual enrollment program particularly at Community College of Philadelphia, if you all could figure out a better way to work with the School District to ensure that when, as an example fall grades are available, that they go right over to the district so they can incorporate them in their grade or in their GPA, that would be helpful for young people who are applying to college. Because that actually happened to my daughter last year. She was dual enrollment at Engineering and Science and Community College. And because the grades were not updated between the district and the Community College she had a 374, I think she needed a 375 to apply to the honors college at North Carolina ANT. After her community grade updated her GPA was a 376, but it didn't matter she still couldn't apply because there was no communication as far as getting the grade in quickly with CCP and the district.
Okay. Yes, ma'am. I just let you know I'm well aware of that situation and I was on it. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Majority Leader. Chair recognizes Councilman Jim Harrity, then Councilman Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. Just real quick, I only actually have one question left, Council. My leader got a couple answers for me. Just trying to figure out what are the actual programs and skills that we're offering for the city employees for upskilling?
For upskilling at CCME, we offer I believe three programs. We have a surveyor program, we have industrial maintenance mechanic, and I believe there's one other one that's currently under workforce. I'm not too sure which one that one is.
Maybe customer support specialist, so those are the three for upskilling specifically.
Yeah. Thank you. That's that's all I had. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. I know that my colleague earlier asked about Latino enrollment. I'm glad that it is consistently going up. My question is the reason that it has gone up is because there was very specific Latino engagement outreach happening at CCP by individuals like Gale Gonzalez and others. Now that that leadership has changed, is there a plan to continue with that same outreach and what is the strategy that you guys are going to use to continue to engage students if that initiative is not going to continue?
I can speak to that a little bit. My mother was from Panama so I'm a Latina as well. And I'm interested in supporting and growing that Latina population, the Latino population. And part of the efforts that we have been looking at particularly is thinking about how to create a safe space and how to create support that's targeted to that population of students. At my past institution we had a program called Adilante and that program was an opportunity to create support structures wraparound holistic support, as well as community for our students, and that provided an opportunity for them to thrive and grow. And we also connected them with a Latino and Latina professors as well, who were interested in developing and supporting that population of students. So we know that things are happening in Washington, it's difficult to secure funding particularly for a certain demographic populations so there's a struggle with that. But I've talked a little bit with institutional advancement about how we might have a donor that might be willing to support something like that. I definitely see a need, as well as thinking about our continued growth in that population. We're at 18% now and that's been growing over the past few years. I think a couple years ago we were at 15% for that population. So I definitely think there's an opportunity there that we need to lean into and I'm looking forward to leading that effort.
Councilmember, if I could just add, I was in your district recently at Espiranza.
Espiranza, I was just about to say the same thing.
I was there with the Cortez brothers and walked away as Chair of the Board saying, there's got to be better ways to collaborate between ourselves and the great work being done to leverage your community to a higher level. And so as Chair, you could get a word that we will be adding that to our list of questions to get the answers to is how do we maximize the potential in your district between Community College and Espiranza.
And Espiranza have a state-of-the- art nursing program as well.
Is that nursing or pre-nursing, but I do know they have a state-of-the- art program that I visited some time ago. So I think y'all can figure out they have a partnership with Eastern, but we're CCP so, and we're homegrown. And so I just think that would be great. Rounding up for today is Councilmember Rue Landau.
I had one final question that I just want to clear up. I know that in your settlement agreement with your contract negotiations you agreed to increase staffing in certain departments. I just want to confirm that you are not freezing the hiring of the folks. I want to say this properly. Not freezing the hiring process for new faculty lines for the next academic year. The folks you've already given offers to or are very far along in the pipeline. I want to make sure those aren't stopped because of the increased staffing in certain other areas.
I'll speak to that. That's not happening at all. We had some faculty that were in progress and those were continuing to move forward and we've accommodated by adding the new positions in. So any faculty that had been made offers to are going to continue in the hiring process.
Thank you. We'll thank you for your presentation. We wish you much success. Mr. Chairman, as always good to see you, Mr. Epps. With that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Gilmore-Richardson for -- you are dismissed.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Gilmore- Richardson for a motion regarding the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolution before the committee today and stand in recess until Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 at 10:00 a.m.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m in room 400, City Hall. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying. Those opposed? The ayes have it. The motion carries and this committee stands in recess until Wednesday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m. Thank you all for participating today. (Public hearing and meeting on bills and resolutions concluded at 4:00 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me of the above case, and this copy is a correct transcript of the same. _______________ Samanda J. Rios