Okay. Was there ever any time when the inactive/on-roll students were when the not counted as part of the daily attendance figures?
There was a time when there was a perception that they would not be counted, and we have corrected that perception in our schools.
So there was never a situation where inactive/on-roll 14-year-old, 15-year-old students were not counted as a part of attendance?
If that happened, it was in error, and we have gone back to correct it.
When was it 2317 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. corrected?
I mean, was there a directive that went out that said that you need to put these two groups together when you do your attendance figures?
There was a directive that went out sometime in December that reminded schools that all students enrolled in their building count towards their attendance.
Okay. If a child goes to school in the morning, a freshman in high school, and checks in the homeroom, and then after homeroom, checks out, is that child considered in attendance that day or absent that day?
Is there any roll that is taken throughout the course of the day? For example, if I start out in homeroom and my next class is physics or my next class is math, is each individual teacher responsible for taking roll that day? 2318 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
When that child shows up or doesn't show up in math class and is absent, what is his or her status for that day as either attending or not attending?
That child is considered in attendance for that day, but we track which classes they attended and didn't attend.
Right. Is that child counted in attendance that day a part of the daily non-attendance group? So, for example, I understand that each day, there's attendance records -- those children didn't show up for that day. But what I understand is if that child checked into homeroom that day and then left the school, that child is not counted as not attending that day.
So we don't really have a true picture all the time as to exactly how 2319 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. many children are in the school or not in school on a particular day.
Well, if the child is absent for third period and has blown school, is gone, but attended homeroom that morning, that child is counted as attended.
Correct. So that's not an accurate picture often -- or sometimes as to exactly how many children are in a particular school in a day. Do we have some way of either -- technology being what it is today, of having children kind of swipe themselves in or check themselves? I mean, is there some way we can make sure -- 'Cause I'll tell you the other concern I have in addition to them not being educated. Whose liability is it if, in fact, that child checks in, is registered as being in that day, blows school, and winds up in some tragic accident, is it our liability? Do we have custodial care for that child for that day? 2320 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. Should a parent expect that when the child goes to school and checks in and is counted as attending and then blows school, whose liability is that? I mean, do you have somebody from our legal department who could. . . (Unidentified person stands up and begins to respond off mike.)
I'm sorry, you're going to have to come up to the table, identify yourself for the record, and respond to the question, please.
My name is Jackie Sparkman, and I'm General Counsel. The child is counted when they check in in the morning in homeroom. If the child at some point later in the day leave school, he also leaves our supervision and/or if anything happened to the child outside of school outside of our realm of control, we would not be responsible.
But if our records indicate that the child is in attendance that day and there is no report that indicates otherwise, there would be nothing then to trigger notification of the parent or the court or anyone 2321 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. else that that child regularly comes in, checks in, and blows off. And then that would lead me to believe that if a parent wanted to -- a parent wouldn't be that responsible anyway if they're not tracking what their child is doing, but irresponsible parents are a part of our problem. How do we determine, how do we make sure that we know where our kids are in the system at any given time?
When the child leaves, we don't have any way of tracking that child. And you asked about the swiping also, which is one step in that direction, and we are examining specifically that. Miss Gubernick can speak to that how it might work.
We have met with people from companies who have put these swipe programs in schools in Baltimore and in other large cities. The concept is that each child would get some kind of I.D. card and, for each period, would swipe in, and if they leave, they'd swipe out. You would also swipe in to the lunch room so that you only go to one lunch rather than a few lunches, and that we could track attendance that 2322 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. way. We are piloting that program at William Penn High School this year. It is both expensive and it also has a lot of technological challenges in terms of getting each classroom appropriately wired, and some of our buildings are just not capable of that kind of wiring. We're also looking at alternative ways of collecting that information on a period-by-period basis.
The concept of leaving school at any given time when the wind arises is somewhat foreign to my own experience. Is there a period of time when this happened? I mean, I can be around the school, the high school in the morning and watch kids come and go as if it were a hotel. They go out for coffee, come back with McDonald's. I mean, they basically just leave and come and go as they please. Is there something we could reasonably do to ensure that the child, when he or she goes to school in the morning is going to be there until 2:30 and not just wandering around as they think appropriate? 2323 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
Well, there are a variety of initiatives that we've taken with respect to truancy. Two of them that have received the most notoriety are the truancy courts that we've initiated that have resulted in more than 2,000 kids, I guess, coming with something in the neighborhood of a 70 to 80 percent return-to-school rate. Secondly, one of the areas of cooperation with Commissioner Timoney is picking up kids when they see 'em on the streets and bringing them back to either to a central location or to school. So there are those kinds of initiatives. I think that it's fair to say that in terms of placing, for example, personnel at each of -- speaking of William Penn, William Penn has, if I remember correctly, 59 doors, and so there's no way to keep kids walking out from one of those 59 doors. In addition to the kind of truancy-related initiatives that I was talking about, I think the single best antidote to that is, in fact, to create a place where kids do 2324 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. well. And that goes back to a lot of things we've been talking about. Kids who can read by the time they're in the 3rd grade will an exceptionally higher attendance rate for the rest of their school career. And one of the most important things that could be done to have kids read at the 3rd grade is to have pre-kindergarten programs, for example. So there's both a positive and a negative, a kind of a punitive and a positive feature to this.
Yes, it is. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Superintendent, in reference to attendance, I've heard, read that sometimes the attendance is like -- I don't want you to misunderstand the word I'm using -- that the attendance are manipulated because of State subsidies, that a student could be missing from school 100-and-some days, but you still get the State subsidy. 2325 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. Could you explain how the State subsidy stops when a student doesn't show up for school?
After consecutive 9 days of absence, not 100 days. The child must be 10 reported as a non-attender, and we have to take steps, through Truancy Court or other ways, to get that child back to school for subsidy purposes.
So a student is out of school, let's say, 12 days. How do you report that to the State so the subsidy stops coming into this district?
Well, what we have to do is immediately get in touch with the parents, and hopefully, we've done that before the 12 days, to find out why the child is absent. If the child is absent for illness, we can still count the child. If a child is just hooky, then we must move in Truancy Court, and sometimes it's a criminal matter or in other courts, but we have to find out why that -- we have to take a step to get the 2326 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. child back into school and satisfactorily explain the absence before we can, in order to continue counting the child as an attender for subsidy purposes.
So you're telling me that we have a process in the District that every up student that is out more than days, that you 9 have a mechanism that goes to the State in saying 10 stop the subsidy for that child?
No, no, no, no. We're talking again of 10 consecutive days of unexcused absence.
We have to take steps to either justify the absence or to get the child back in school if the absences are not justifiable in order to continue the subsidy. If we don't do that, then the subsidy continues and the State audits, then it can subtract monies for the days of over-count, if you will.
Let me give you two examples. A kid's absent 15 consecutive days. It turns out that he has been absent because he is sick. After 10 days, we don't tell anybody to cut 2327 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. off subsidy because the student, under State law, is away permissibly, and we can continue to count them. A kid is absent days consecutive, 6 and we send a counselor, a parent volunteer, the 7 principal goes out, chases him down, goes and 8 knocks on his door, at 25 absences hauls him into 9 Truancy Court, and active work is underway to 10 reach out and capture that student. Under State 11 law, it is permitted to continue to count that 12 child for purposes of subsidy. Third situation is if it were the case that the kid was absent 50 days and he had been neither sick nor had we ever gone looking for him, then when the State auditor comes in, you know, four years later, that child could be identified as one for which we inappropriately received subsidy. There is not a date certain under State law before which subsidy is appropriate and after which subsidy ceases.
Back to the school security program. There was some controversy recently where magnetometer tests, the one 2328 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. specifically that I'm going to address now is the one where you had a position that random scans were done with the hand scanner.
I received letters that because of some work reduction, that that process has been either eliminated or cut back drastically. Could you please explain presently what we do in the area of metal detection, guns, knives, and other contraband, and tell me about this program that, apparently, the parents and teachers had a lot of confidence in, that's not in place at this moment -- or at least not in place like it once was.
We have historically used per-diem security officers in many instances to do these scans. And the security officers union took us to arbitration saying that it was not appropriate under the contract to use per-diems for that function, that we should hire some more full-time people, in effect, permanent people to do that. And the arbitrator agreed with the security officers union and ordered us to not 2329 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. use per-diems. However, we have neither eliminated nor cut back drastically; we have redeployed security officers. It is not quite at the same level as it was, so there is some reduction, but it is pretty minimal. And we are continuing to run an effective scanning program in the schools. There was a newspaper article that gave rise to that misunderstanding that you describe. And it takes a long time to undo those things.
And the workforce, the full-time workforce has been able to provide that service but not at the level that it once was.
Not quite at the level, but it's not -- you know, it's not a cut from 100 percent to 50 percent: I mean, it's still maintaining at a very highly level.
'Cause it's still a very 2330 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. effective program.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Superintendent, in terms of recruitment, I know that you have designated a series of schools as bilingual schools and if you're having problems recruiting teachers in different areas, I want to know what efforts have been done and what's been the success or failure of the efforts in terms of not having ESL teachers but the bilingual program to be instituted as such?
There have been a number of efforts to increase the instructional opportunity for kids whose first language isn't English. And in terms of teacher vacancies, bilingual teachers are one of those areas where we have a shortage, along with all those others we've been talking about. We have, in an effort to respond to 2331 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. that, we've had a bilingual recruiter on staff. We have also identified the schools as bilingual, which means that we can take a bilingual person and know that we can assign that bilingual person to a vacancy that occurs in that school. We don't have to follow those strict -- well, we still follow 'em, but there is an exception to them for those circumstances. One of the innovative things that we've done there, and it hasn't yet borne fruit because it takes a period of a couple years, but we started a program not this September, I think, but the September before that for paraprofessionals who already work in the system who speak Spanish -- in this particular instance, it's all Spanish -- and have some college. And what we did was to arrange a special program at Community College and at Temple so that those individuals -- and there were 50 of them as, I remember that started through that program -- can get their teaching certificate, and we sort of home-grow a group of teachers who are bilingual and who, in fact, live in the neighborhood and who, for the most part, actually 2332 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. have kids in the schools where they will end up teaching. But it still remains, along with all other teacher vacancies, a major issue.
At the bilingual schools, like, for example, at the Kensington and Edison cluster, are those schools that are designated as bilingual when they don't have full staffing in terms of that?
Okay. So that means that the programs that they want to institute are not being put into place.
And how far away are we in those clusters from achieving a goal in terms of teaching and --
Well, it's different in different schools. But, again, as I say, the vacancy problem with bilingual teachers is, along with math and science and special education and others, a very serious problem. And at this point, we have no evidence that in the foreseeable future, we will totally close that. I do hope 2333 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. that some of the initiatives that we've talked about this morning and that I hope arise out of joint efforts will close that gap further. But I think until we deal with issues, for example, of compensation and others, we will not eliminate that problem.
In terms of the Olney cluster, that has been an ongoing sort of epic struggle, what have been the changes? And in terms of that high school and the cluster, how are we getting organized so that half the student body of Olney High School is not absent daily?
Well, I want to emphasize that the issue is really the high school and not the cluster. In fact, the cluster --
I know we have Roberto Clemente, which. 2334 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
But the high school has been -- there's no question about it. I characterized it to some students from Olney the other day with whom I met as the single most difficult school out of the 259 to get on track in the City of Philadelphia. It is my hope that there are some signs that there is a greater degree of common effort there. One of the most concrete, being a decision in December by the faculty, in excess of 90 percent of them, to embrace the school reform strategy that has been working effectively in Roberto Clemente and Central East Middle and in Cook. And then all of these kids, then, would feed into Olney. And if, in fact, it proves to be the case -- and I hope, but I think the jury is out -- that the whole staff, the teachers, the leadership come together and do that, then I think we're going to begin to see some real changes. But it is that kind of cooperation around an instructional strategy that I think is necessary. 2335 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
One thing that concerns me at another high school -- Central High and the student organization from Central High has communicated to me and to Representative Ramos that instead of the numbers going up in terms of admissions into Central High, and they're very concerned that, actually, the numbers have gone down. And that many of the students that were admitted into Central High because of their achievements at the previous level have not gotten the same type of encouragement to remain at Central High and some have transferred and some have even been encouraged to transfer out of Central High. And that disturbs me greatly.
Those issues are important ones. And concern about that has led the Board recently to adopt a policy that will examine those admission statistics into the special admission schools with an eye toward how young people who fit into certain disaggregated categories, including issues of language, not only get in but, as you point out, stay in, and stay in successfully.
Well, what bothers 2336 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. me is the retention aspect, and what bothers me is the climate that some students are feeling that is being created. Now, I'm not saying this, but that's the words of the students themselves.
Right. Well, that's what I meant by staying in once they are admitted.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Superintendent, in going through your testimony and the selected issues book, the term "parents," was somewhat noticeably absent. Any mention of parental involvement in the furtherance of the educational agenda of the public schools -- and I seem to recall a couple years ago a discussion about student responsibility and then another discussion about parental responsibility, and at that time, the District was working on a program or a policy having to do with parents. Again, just going through the testimony and also the book here, I didn't see much mention 2337 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. of parents as what I would look at as really the strong third component of schools, kids, parents in terms of how children learn and how they perform and function, all of the discussion about non-attendance, truancy, absenteeism and the like. Can you tell me what we're doing in the area of parental involvement today that maybe we weren't doing a couple years ago?
Sure, but I would ask you to reread the testimony because you will find parents there with students and principals every time teachers and principals and students were mentioned.
Right. Well, I see them mentioned as a part of a phrase, but most of the discussion is either about what the District is doing by way of its efforts or what you're hoping that the students will do. So other than in that phrase, that four or five grouping of people, what is the general outlook from the District with regard to parents? What is our level of parental involvement? What support systems are we putting in place or have we 2338 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. put in place to make sure that parents are that strong third component of this process?
The two biggest areas are the ones that are mentioned on of my testimony, where we have provided strong parent engagement in school councils, which is, as you probably know, are made up of teachers and principals and a contingent of parents who are elected to the school council by at least 35 percent of the parents in the school under a system that is overseen by the Home and School Association. So that's one major structural way in which we engage a very large number of parents in that process. A second reference on are to the school volunteers, most of whom are parents, and the 15,000 new ones that we have recruited because of the really central role that we think that parents play along with teachers and principals in this process. So in a structural sense, volunteers and the engagement in the actual governance of the school are two of the big ones. In addition to that, we have defined our standards in a way that makes them, I guess 2339 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. you'd say, "parent-friendly" in identifying what kids ought to know in the 1st grade, in the 2nd grade and the 3rd grade and the 4th grade and the 5th grade so that parents don't have to guess about that; they can actually know. The forth thing I would mention is that we believe it's important for parents to know how their schools are doing and so that they don't have to think it up or make it up, and that's the reason that we've made such an effort to, at all levels of the school system, to really define your kid's school as doing this much better with reading, this much better with math, this much better with science, and so on. And so in terms of the information that is readily available, we've tried to give lots of emphasis to the that as well. We've had fairly extensive parent-training programs with parents, particularly those that have been involved in the school councils, because you don't just kind of waltz into that with and not have had any experience previously. So we've run training programs for parents. 2340 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. We will also, I expect by fall, have launched what we're referring to as a "Family Compact." There is being designed now with our parent partners -- the Parents Union, the Home School Association, and others, with the involvement of the Board -- a document, which we hope will be one that the parent signs and that the teacher signs and the kid signs, making a three-way commitment to one another of what each is going to deliver. So those are among the major things that we've done. 'Cause we do consider the parent as a very substantial partner.
How often are the parents required to come to the school for anything in particular? Are there required parent-teacher conferences? Does the parent have to come and pick up the report card?
The place where the most emphasis is placed on it is in picking up the report card. There are in addition to that multiple invitations in each school. And even with a report card, you can't quite require, but we come awfully close to that in that context. 2341 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
And at that time, is there discussion between the parent and the teacher about what's going on with the child? Or is it primarily just a picking up of the report card?
No. There's an opportunity at that time for there to be a conversation between teacher and parent.
Okay. I did this time hear the buzzer, so I will yield back.
Thank you. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to finish up questions on charter schools, Madam President. Again, I'm referring to hearing we had on December 8th about charter schools and how they affect public schools and education, etc. And one of the concerns was a teacher who works in a public school may have an extracurricular assignment, or let's say a sports teacher who has sports activities after school or arts or some other interest may in fact be -- assuming we have 2342 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. the funding, may work after school with a certain student body, or I guess like a coach or something like that. One of the questions was, and I quote, "Once I got my charter, I was told that if I worked for a charter school, I could not work for a public school on my own time during the summertime or any other time." And I've heard -- you know, during the hearing, we heard about double-dipping and that argument, but I can't reconcile that if you work after school for a charter, as you know, many of the charter people had friends in their former public schools who wanted to volunteer after school or work with them and they were told they can't do that, that it's double-dipping, when it's all public school. And that I can't reconcile. Can you clear that up for me?
Well, I think it's fair to say they can certainly volunteer, so I don't think that's an issue. But in terms of being paid by two different public entities, it is my understanding that that's prescribed by law. It's like -- the first time I 2343 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. encountered that issue or instances in which some of our coaches wanted to work on Saturdays for the Department of Recreation, for example. And that kind of dual employment with two parts of government is apparently illegal.
Miss Sparkman said at that time they do not work for the School District; they work for the charter schools. So, again, we said, the charter schools are public schools, but here we're saying that charter schools are not public schools. It's really a dual system, and that I still don't understand.
Well, as the Superintendent told you this morning, charter schools are, by law, separate local education agencies. So it's as if the City of Philadelphia has two separate public school systems. We do, and they are separate. And because charter school teachers work for that separate organization and public schools --
But you approve them; that's why it doesn't make sense. If charter schools did not have to be approved, they have to go to the Board, and the Board has to 2344 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. approve them in order for them to exist. So they're not a whole separate an equal entity.
Councilwoman Blackwell, we said this morning -- and this is another example -- that there are many ways that the State legislature could have drawn this law differently. This is not --
That's right, it's part of the law. The School District did not come up with this; this is a part of State law.
Well, it makes absolutely no sense to have different rules and then -- it's unfortunate that they keep the two entities in battle, blaming one another, if the State did this. And certainly, I will tell them your response. Two more questions. Will their funding be cut? In other words, if it's 5200, I understand it was -- it started out being -- it's been going down like $100 each year. Where are they now and where will they be in September in terms of their funding? 2345 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
The per-pupil calculation is based upon the previous year's adopted budget, and the School District will revise the budget in May. When we adopt the new 2000, we'll also revise the 1999 budget. So it depends on how that budget is adopted, but the budget is $55 million less than it was last May, so it will drop.
The further it drops, the charter schools will receive the same per-pupil payment as we do. Our per-pupil payments still be the same.
Dr. Hornbeck answered that this morning. His answer was easier than that because they don't end up getting the same per-pupil amount.
If you exclude things they don't have to do, then they do get the same.
See, none of that makes sense 'cause they don't busing. So that's not only something they don't have to do; that's something they're not permitted to do. So something they don't have to do sounds like they're absolved from having a certain 2346 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. responsibility, but it doesn't come out that way.
Well, let me give you an example. We have to transport kids ten miles outside of our school district. No charter school has to transport other people's kids to other schools ten miles from where they are. Now, that's something they don't have to do. It's not that they're not permitted to; they don't have to do that.
No, all of our schools do, in effect, because we are a school district.
But the majority of schools don't have to do that. That's some -- I mean, if you're going to Lee School at 47th and Locust, I'm sure you're not busing people from there to the suburbs.
The State law considers a charter school like a school district. Now, again, I didn't think that up, and that might not be an intelligent thing to do -- I don't know. But that single school is a school district just like the entire Philadelphia School District is a 2347 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. school district.
All right. Would you be willing to meet with them or their representatives to iron out differences in monthly billing, getting records, special ed., and registering students?
We have met many, many times, and our representatives will continue to be willing to meet with their representatives.
They said they're having a problem because whomever they have met with have been saying that they have don't have authority to -- they haven't been getting, in their opinion, direct responses to these issues.
Well, they've not been getting in all instances the answers they want, which is different from not getting direct responses. They have, for example, wanted transportation, and the School District personnel have been saying, Here are the circumstances under which transportation is permitted, and here are the circumstances under which transportation is not permitted. And there are some charter school 2348 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. operators who want us to say never mind what the State law is, give us transportation, we don't want to hear all this other stuff. And I understand that. If I were they, I probably would want transportation too, but it's not a question of not having the authority. Now, it. . .
What about the issues of monthly billing, obtaining records, special ed., and registering of students?
As each charter school is formed, we are giving them modems so that they can connect directly with our offices that have records and then give us their student counts and they can close their money. And so that process is ongoing. And, in fact, all established charter schools now have the modems installed. And as we are getting more technologically efficient, we're passing that ability on to them so they can directly get the documents they need through our system.
That is currently happening, or was that always in place? 2349 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
It's an ongoing process, and all the existing ones now have their modems installed.
All right, 'cause I got this from an existing charter school operator, but I will follow up with that.
We have to have, of course, continual training, and we've established that training and provided it free of charge on how to use the modems, and that's ongoing.
All right. Another question is bilingual testing assessment materials. Where are we with regard to that issue?
In the case of reading and math, we have been using a test called "The Aprenda," which is the SAT-9 in Spanish for our bilingual students. And in the case of science, there is no hard-core grace test so we translate it ourselves into Spanish. And at the moment, it is the only language where we have an alternative test in a different language.
Okay. So we're -- so that's -- you're in the process of 2350 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. doing that in science?
We have already translated the test in science and we've already used the test translated into science. Those are completed things in Spanish.
All right, because another charter school principal said they were admonished about calling and requesting those materials. Okay, so you have it in reading and math on SAT-9 and science. Science, we've done it ourselves. Charter school operators ask, are charter schools entitled to receive real estate tax money to run schools as other public schools do?
Well, correct me if I'm wrong. We get some of our money from real estate, and they get some of our money and, therefore, they do get real estate tax money.
We are, in fact, passing along the real estate tax dollars to the charter with the per-pupil subsidy.
All right. Now, let me as you about -- thank you on the 2351 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. information on Charter Fairmount. Now let me ask you about health emergency. This issue is about a yearlong issue. If I'm not mistaken, this is the same manual that you had last time in yellow. I can verify it if I could send my staff to my office. This is the Crisis/Safety Procedure Manual. I don't know that this is a new manual unless somebody tells me it is.
I don't that it is a new manual. It is our emergency procedures that we've worked out with the Health Department and which are proving to be effective.
All right. I will say this, and you notice as you came out, a young man, a kid dying of meningitis at McMichael School. And at that time, we called for hearings, and of course, we talked about how a health emergency can be a shooting, it can be a disease, it can be anything, anything, anything that -- any act of nature. So a health emergency can take a lot of forms. But this, for example, states under the role of the principal. /BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. 1. Immediate closure of specified schools and transportation of students either to their homes or alternate locations. 2. Placement of school buses at predetermined schools in readiness should the situation require. 3. Holding of students at school. . I mean, all of these are options -- acceleration of regular transportation schedule, all of these things. So, in other words, this doesn't give us -- we spent a lot of -- I guess it's been a year, maybe a year and a half, Madam President, that we've been talking about a uniform system for all schools. And this says the principal of whoever's in charge and they have all these options. They can, you know, they can close school, keep it open. They can bus kids home or someplace else. Obviously, there are choices that anybody can assume, but this doesn't give us -- and we said this at that hearing, we spent a lot of time. /BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. need one system for all schools in cases of emergency. This manual that was out before doesn't tell us what to do, and it was very obvious when we had the problem with the child with meningitis who passed that we don't have a system. There was a lot of chaos. After that, we had a problem at Lee School, and things were much better, the School District jumped on it right away, it only a few months later. But, you know, you have acting principals, there are all kind of problems. The principal could be out of the office, maybe they can call down the School Board and maybe you're out of town or your designee may be in another state attending a conference. We really need to have a tight system that says, In this kind of situation, you do this; in another, you do that. If there's a shooting, this happens. If there is a disease, if there is a storm, a tornado, a whatever. But this does not do -- this does not do it. All this talks about is options. And options are options. /BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. this whole manual in an emergency, it would surprise me. This does not do the job and this is why we had the hearing and fought so vociferously so that we would never have to go through that again. As you know, we had Children's Hospital come up with brochures that we gave out in the neighborhoods. The child -- McMichael School is across the street from a public housing high-rise. It was absolute bedlam. When we had a meeting in the school, we didn't know if we were safe, parents didn't know if they were safe, if they should pull other children out. And what happened was, as we said then, you had all the people from the board on the stage with the mike. And when people like me and all the parents were in the audience, we couldn't even talk. Nobody knew what to do. It was absolutely -- it was even embarrassing because nobody knew what to do and there was no leadership and there were no answers and everybody was frightened. So a lot of bad feelings came out of that. /BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. area that traditionally the Mantua area, that is traditionally one of the areas that would be hardest hit by welfare cuts. We've had a lot of -- this is an area where we've had a lot of problems with maternal death and just a rough area overall. And then if you have an emergency and nobody knows what to do, it's just unconscionable. And this just won't do it. We really, really need a form that says what you do in health emergencies, that parents, that students, that principals and all in charge can adhere to -- not something that gives you a hundred options and a whole lot of pages and what you can do and a whole checklist and all that.
That's fine as a secondary issue to try to see what your school is like and who's who and, you know. But you really, really need something specific to deal with an emergency saying that you do this, that or the other. You know, when you call the police, when they call the School District or the cluster leader or someone else. That really needs to be clear and that is not in this manual. /BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. gives you a lot of people and a lot of numbers. You know, but this absolutely -- this does not do it. It doesn't do it. Now, if you would like, we can ask some people to come up with something we would like to see; I would be willing to do that, but it seems to me that you have enough people there who can come up with a system, a one-page thing. If there is a shooting, you call the police. If a kid is really sick, you call the Superintendent's Office or the nurse at the Board, I don't know. But I don't understand why it takes a year to get to an answer to such a basic issue of health emergencies in public schools. I don't understand it. I really, really don't.
Well, this certainly does continue to be an important issue for us, and we will be pleased to continue to work with the Councilwoman on this. Happily, even in the hearings, Children's Hospital and the Health Department both testified that the school had to -- acted properly with respect to the medical condition of the child, and I was grateful for that. And then, as 2357 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. you say, some months later, when a similar issue arose, the level of concern was not nearly as great. There are different conditions that arise, and principals have to react differently. It comes to my mind recently that the Wagner School had an emergency and actually had to evacuate, and within an hour, through the Cluster Office, had worked out the movement of the children to another school just a little ways away. So there are different ones in different places. But kids have a right to feel safe, parents have a right to feel that there children are safe. And we happily have had very few instances in which there's been an actual emergency that has been inappropriately dealt with. But we've got to be ever vigilant to that and continue to look to ways to deal with it.
Excuse me, Councilwoman. At the request of the stenographer, at this point, we're going to take a ten-minute 2358 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. recess.
Thank you. (Short recess taken.) - - - (Proceedings resume.)
We are now back in session. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell to continue her line of questioning, please.
Thank you, Madam President. Yes, we were talking about this Crisis/Safety Procedure Manual, which has been around for I don't know how long but that doesn't really doesn't do the job. I again say that we need a system to deal with emergencies. We've had increasingly, as we've had crime in our cities and we've had shootings in school, and unfortunately, inside of schools, we have to have a manual that does the job. And I have no idea why I would be sent the same one over in a different color. 2359 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. And, Madam President, I would like to request that before we pass a budget that we have a -- I mean, we've been waiting at least a year -- that we have a manual to deal with health emergencies for all schools, all public schools in our city, and that the Board come up with one and that they submit it to the Chair for certainly our review so that we can say at least say, after all this time, that we have a solution that everyone can adhere to. We all know, Dr. Hornbeck, all of us know of some instances where some things have fallen through the cracks, where you have acting principals or where there's no one in the school, and we have to try to have a system as tight as possible when it comes to the health and the safety of children. I'm sure you'll agree with that and certainly would appreciate hearing a response in that regard.
I'm asking for us to have a manual or a form, whatever the 2360 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. District -- whatever form the District would like it to have, that will deal with health emergencies that every school principal and student and the School District, that everyone can have and refer to so that we don't have to continue to have this debate through a next administration before we pass our budget, then we know we'll have one.
We will take another shot at putting something together that deals with it in a way that's satisfactory to the President and to the Council.
Thank you. On another issue, Section 2 of this manual, Philadelphia City Council Briefing Papers, I thought this was quite a good manual. And we would hope that the School District would consider the suggestions mentioned on talking about recruitment and feeder patterns -- let me make sure I'm in the right section. That's , Focus Recruitment of Major Feeder Schools, and those kinds of things. 2361 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. Before we consider the residency issue, certainly I think all of us in City Council want to be comfortable because we're so opposed to it and we have so much unemployment here, we would like to know that we've tried to deal with recruitment of major feeder schools, which is an excellent idea, job fairs, college visits, etc. etc. So we really, really feel that's really important, and the President has mentioned every year our concerns about residency as long as I can remember. So we're glad to see that you mentioned other options that we can do before that even has to be considered. With regard to Section 5 dealing with the school safety and these truancy centers, my question is: Are these truancy centers in place now and how do they operate?
Excuse me. The truancy center is in operation. There's one of them -- this particular initiative is one that Commissioner Timoney and I launched some months ago in which if the police or SEPTA or the Housing Authority police pick up a student who is truant, they are to bring them to one of three places: in 2362 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. Center City, to the former Palombo School; if they are if the vicinity of the their home school, to that school; and if they are neither in Center City nor in the vicinity of their home school, to the nearest age-appropriate school. And they have been in place since I believe October. And as the document says, between October and February, about 7,000 students were picked up and escorted to one of those three places. And out of the 7,000, about 600 were taken to the truancy center at the former Palombo School.
I know that program. We had the discussion because I was concerned about a child who lives in West Philadelphia being dropped off at Palombo School and having a gang war or a fight with the officers about going into unfriendly turf, and I have no 20 idea how that hasn't created a problem as of yet, and I'm really, really concerned about that. I still think it would be easier to have a child dropped off at a police station and wait for parent than have the child dropped off, in their view, enemy territory where they could end up 2363 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. being a victim of other violence. But I suppose if you haven't had a problem to date, but I would hope that you would consider that. What is Cluster-Based Truancy Court?
Earlier in the fall -- historically, when a child is brought to Truancy Court, it's been at 1801 Vine Street, and given the number of personnel, etc., we brought kids to Truancy Court after they had had 100 absences. And Judge Pennapinto and we launched a new initiative in about October, September -- sometime in that time period -- in which we have now set up -- I believe it's four Truancy Courts in four of the clusters. And we are able to bring students with 50 absences or more into court, and the master there, in effect, has all the powers that the Truancy Court would have had at 1801, but to have it on-site in the cluster means that school personnel can get there more easily. The design of some program for the student can take place more effectively and so on. And parents can be there. 2364 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
All right, I remember -- I didn't realize this was the Judge Pennapinto model. I think he and those concerned have done an excellent job in focusing on this issue and in trying to come up with a good program. A drug-free zone sign. Now, what penalty -- what's a drug-free zone and what penalty is attached, do you know?
John, excuse me. Why don't you come up to the table, identify yourself, and respond, please. (John McLees comes forward.)
John McLees, the School District. Good afternoon. The drug-free zone, it's a federal law anything -- anyone dealing with drugs within a thousand feet of a school, upon conviction and sentencing for the violation, the judge has the power to inflict added sentencing to the violator.
Okay. And that's up to the judge then, but he does have that 2365 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. option? This gives him an option to --
Yes, Councilwoman Blackwell, it's up to the discretion of the judge upon conviction and at sentencing.
Excuse me. I believe Councilman Rizzo would like to follow up on that.
This is a follow-up, but it's not directly tied to that question. I just had a quick question while Mr. McLees is here. Mr. McLees, can you tell me how many Philadelphia police officers are assigned to all of the public schools?
Yes, sir, Councilman Rizzo. There aren't really any school police officers assigned to public schools. What it is, there are several community beats that the Police Department has out and assigns their officers to, and quite a few of those community beats encompass our schools.
Excuse me. I think that has to be clarified. It's not inside of the school. 2366 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
But those officers are committed. Councilwoman Miller brought up the point that there was a community outcry when commanders and Superintendent Hornbeck said he discussed with the commanders, when those officers were -- the captains got to the point where they could barely staff the cars in the districts, and they had police officers committed to these communities. If you want to use a trick word to say that we've got Philadelphia police officers tied up policing our schools when 911 calls don't get answered in other communities, you can call it whatever you want, these officer are tied up and can't be utilized for very little than a block each way of the school. So how many police officers -- do you have any idea of how many of these community beats that we have where they've, you know, manipulated the words?
Off the top of my head, I 2367 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. really don't have a number I could respond to you with, sir. What it is, the officers -- this has been ongoing for the past couple of years. The Philadelphia police officers spend time in our schools. The officers who walk those beats certainly stop in, they talk to the principal, they talk to our school police officers, and the provide one heck of a service to the school system.
But the captains in the districts got to the point where they almost went to battle with their superiors because they didn't believe that this assignment of police officers to the schools was an appropriate assignment because they couldn't -- there were some districts where they didn't have enough -- they had more police officers at the schools than they had in the district, controlling the district.
Well, I don't know if that was the case. I think that's kind of a stretch saying they had more police officers inside of the schools. 2368 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
I'm not saying inside; I'm saying tied up on some of the community beats to the point where these cars couldn't be -- and I apologize, Councilman Nutter, I wasn't supposed to get this involved. I mean, there's no secret here, that the captains of the districts pulled those officers and had to be ordered to put them back.
Thank you, Madam President. I think to add to what Councilman Rizzo is saying is that in many schools in our district, whether the officers are assigned to what you're calling a "community beat," however, some of those officers are in schools pretty much most of the day, physically in the school. And in the 8th District, with Germantown High, Gratz and some other schools, when the officer was really assigned to a community beat, walking around the external area 2369 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. of the school, coming into the school, like a beat, starting on the top floor and working his way down, then there was an outcry when pretty much staff thought and parents thought that they would lose the presence of a police officer physically in the school. And I can remember as far back as the '70s when police officers were in schools. I know at Germantown High, when it was the gang war era, they were physically in Germantown High every day 'cause my mother went there and volunteered there every day and my brothers were going there then. So the number of community beats is what you're really looking for.
What I'd like to know is who's the requester for a community beat is? It the School District of Philadelphia that says -- I'm sure the captains don't just tie up their folks and say, Well, we should have a community beat at Germantown. Who initiates the request for a community beat at a Philadelphia school? When I constantly run into Philadelphia police officers 2370 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. -- sergeants, lieutenants, and captains -- they tell me that they wish that they had those officers back.
Let me take a shot at responding, Councilman Rizzo. As Councilwoman Miller suggests, years ago, there were a lot of 8 Philadelphia police officers that were literally 9 assigned to schools. Somewhere between then and 10 now, it's my understanding that there are no 11 longer any police officers assigned to schools. 12 But what they are assigned to are these community 13 beats that are bigger than the schools. 14 The practice is -- and as far as I'm 15 knowledgeable of it, the issue has only been 16 raised in one district. There may be others, but 17 I was only involved in one, and I think it was the 18 39th. 19
Okay, the 39th and the 23 14th, where there had been a long practice as part 24 of this community beat process of the officer and 25 a couple of these high schools particularly going 2371 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. and being a physical presence in the high school for a substantial portion of the day. And it was the view of parents and teachers and principals and the Superintendent that that presence in those places had a positive impact. There was a decision by the -- or at least a tentative decision by the captains in, I guess, the two districts that the deployment of his officers would serve the larger good of public safety better by saying to the officers, Don't go and spend a substantial portion of your time in the school buildings. And as in any community, when police officers are redeployed, whether it's a school or anything else, there were parents and teachers and principals who said, We don't want you to do that. And so there were a group of people like there are in any community who said, We do want you to do that. And a group that said, We don't want you to do it. And captains, like principals and cluster leaders and superintendents and teachers, are faced with two good things, and they can't serve both masters.
Superintendent, you 2372 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. call it what you'd like to call it. We have police officers in schools. If we had to come up with this tricky term, "community beats," to say we don't have police officers in some school.
And we're not saying that, so whoever's saying it, they may not be honest, but it doesn't have to do anything with anybody sitting at this table. We didn't come up with the term.
But who requests these community beats? Who came up with the term?
If the captain didn't want it, is this something that your school security force asks for?
No. What I'm trying to say to you is that this has been there for quite a long period of time. In fact, it used to be that these people were actually assigned there by the Police Commissioner. And what we asked for was that they remain there; we didn't ask that they be 2373 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. there in the first place.
It's an appropriate assignment for the School District police to handle, and give us back the Philadelphia police to do other things.
Well, what we have found is that public safety, from our perspective, which includes the school, where there's the greatest concentration of people anywhere in the School District, that the big issue of public school safety, in our judgment, is best served by having a policeman disproportionately in the school. Now, clearly, the Captain has the power to take that person out of there. But just as you all sometimes come to me and say, Would you please spend money over there rather than over there, we 2374 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. go to --
We believe that our kids and our parents and our teachers and our principals were well served by this, and so when that decision started down a different pike, we went and said, Please don't pull the policemen out of these two or three different schools, leave them there because they serve a great public good there. That's all.
And with that, the captains were overruled and told to put the police officers back. I mean, we can say it however we want to say it, but they were overruled and were told to put the police officers back.
Well, it could be. I don't know what the chain of command is or who gave the orders --
Thank you. I just wanted to -- Thank you, Madam Chair. 2375 3/1/99 WHOLE COMM./BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST.
You're welcome. Councilwoman, I think you've had your five minutes. Can I go before you for just two seconds? Mr. Hornbeck, are substitute teachers being trained before they're being assigned to special ed. Classes? I know that this was a very important issue because of several incidents last year. And we suggested that substitute teachers, particularly those who have probably never been in the classroom before, at least have some training.
Please respond to that (addressing Marjorie Adler). (Marjorie Adler comes forward.)