Absolutely. So we're looking at Cheyney. We're looking at Lincoln. For example, one of the successful strategies we know Lincoln has worked with is preparing our teachers to successfully navigate and pass The Praxis, which is one of our impediments. So we want to build on their best practices. It's also looking at the career changers. The economy is tough out there right now. What are we doing to reach out to career changers? We're in the process of finalizing an agreement with the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation for 50 slots that are going to attempt to bring in career changers. And we've made it very clear to them that we're looking at targeted recruitment. Are we bringing in teachers that look like our kids, that understand our kids, that are part of the community.
Correct. Correct. Another sourcing area is also our 405 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE para-professionals. We have a number of NTA's, school police, secretaries who have gone back to school.
We need to support them as they come in. They are committed and vested in our community. So it's a huge issue. Sandra Dungee Glenn has clearly made it one of the most important points in our work, in recruiting and retaining teachers. I mean, as we talked about the career switchers, as we look at our alternative certification areas, also Troops to Teachers is an organization that we want to work with to bring in our retired military. In fact, one of the original meetings that we had back in November of this year, most of the folks we attracted were men. Many of them were men of color and many of them from the Philadelphia area. So there's an area that we need to bring them in and be sure that we support as they come into our schools. 406 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
I'm extremely encouraged to hear that. And next year I would like to hear some results, as a result of the effort, some benchmarks you've met with regards to actual recruitment and retention of male teachers of color.
Absolutely. We were a bit at a disadvantage in that as I was putting the team together the bulk of the recruitment for this year had already been done. In fact, we kind of inherited a nightmare. It was amazing. By mid July when I had arrived, I was told that there were 600 vacancies that hadn't been committed or filled yet. I mean, the pattern had been to wait for people to show up rather than to go out and recruit people. But as Tomas pointed out, you've got to go to where the teacher candidates are. And if you want a diversified work force, you've got to go to the schools where you can access a diversified work force. And that's something that we have not been aggressive about doing, but we will be. I'll also point out the Troops to Teachers program is a fabulous program because the military remains one of the most integrated branches 407 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE of the federal government. And the quality of the men who emerge with their full pensions in their forties and the men of color is significant. So we hope to take that program up another level. It was great. The first time we had meetings with them, they were on time. So it was just perfect. So we feel very optimistic. And we will have benchmarks that we will set and that we will present and be judged by.
Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you, Madame Chair.
Point of order, point of information from Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you. Mr. Vallas, let me first congratulate you and the school district on the ROTC program. God knows today we need leaders, young men and women. And I just want to remind everyone that our military academies, Annapolis, West Point, the Air Force Academy, those are great places to get an education. And if you can prepare any of our young men and women for entry to any of those great, great institutions, I think that this is -- I personally thank you for this because this gives an opportunity 408 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE for our young men and women from this region to enter what we can see when we watch television today, a very, very honorably professional, to defend the country, to defend the United States of America. So great job, as far as I'm concerned. Keep going. And I'd like to see a lot of Philly kids in Annapolis, West Point, the Air Force Academy, et cetera. Thank you.
Thank you. The Committee will stand in recess until 1:45. Thank you. (Lunch recess.)
The Committee of the Whole is now back in session. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Good afternoon. In your testimony you state that you're looking to consolidate the administrative offices and bring them to one place. And I believe you stated that you're spending a million dollars a year on one lease. 409 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Which lease is that? Which place is that?
That's our human resources office at 22nd and Arch. The law department and human resources are in that building. The other three buildings we have are obviously buildings that we own.
Can you tell us a little bit about the search? It's my understanding that one place that you're looking is in my district. I guess I'll just put it on the record. It would sure be a boost to North Philadelphia.
Well, I'm going to ask Karen Burke to get into the details of the search process. But if I can just explain the goals. Our goals here are to consolidate our operation, central office operations, which are in four facilities, not only the private facility, but also obviously the Parkway, the Kennedy Building and the Stevens Building, which is right off Broad Street, right kitty corner to Stanton and to the Benjamin Franklin High School. Our goal is to consolidate all of our operations into a single building. We feel if we do 410 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE that we will save about three million dollars a year in operating costs. We also feel that we should be able to raise about million dollars just from the 5 sales of those buildings themselves and through a 6 dropping of the lease. 7 Of course, any building that we lease, 8 access, rehab, move into is going to require some 9 investment in order to make that building adaptable. 10 But our goal here is to consolidate all of our 11 functions in a single building in an area that is 12 accessible, that is reasonably located in terms 13 of -- you know, it's not too far north or too far 14 south, but nevertheless is a facility that can house 15 our operations. 16 We're looking for -- right now, we have 17 about 900,000 square feet in all of our buildings 18 combined. We don't need any more than 500,000 19 thousand square feet -- thank you -- 350,000 square 20 feet. I keep on getting changing numbers. But the 21 bottom line is we have far too much space that we 22 currently have. 23
The building that 24 I know that you're looking at is not too far south 25 and not too far north. It also has off-street free 411 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE parking.
Karen Burke, chief operating officer. We have a firm that we've engaged through an RFP, Studley. And they are charged with looking out there, into the communities out there to see buildings that are available, whether to lease or to purchase. They're putting the scenarios together now. Each of the opportunities out there has different costs associated with it from build-out even versus lease versus buy. It's my understanding that the recommendations or at least a series of recommendations are being put together within the next couple of weeks and then it would go to the SRC for deliberation on that. So as far as I know, all buildings are still in the running and they are doing the pro formas on each of them now.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Mr. Vallas, I would like you -- consolidation is great. But in the society that we 412 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE live in today, I hope in your part that there is -- part of that plan is an alternate location to run the school district. In the event of a catastrophic event, I would hope that you would have an alternative location that day-to-day operations of the school district could continue.
First of all, your point is very well taken. Our objective would be to identify other buildings, and in some cases, schools where we could simply shift our operations to. And the way that could be done is not to shift all of your operations to a single building. But you could shift police and high schools to the top floor of one high school. You could shift operations to another location. So the objective here would be to have backup sites.
The important thing is that in the plan that -- you know, just moving bodies from one location to another is fine. But technology has to be available, telephone communications. So if you do make a move, that the infrastructure is there to run efficiently, fax machines. In most corporations today, that is considered in the event of a disruption of the main 413 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE headquarters.
Your point is well taken, and we'll certainly focus on that. I will tell you at present, even though the system has multiple buildings, I would not be comfortable that we could actually move any of our operations to like one building or another because, first of all, the data systems aren't equipped, the technology isn't equipped. Any new building or existing building that we go in and we renovate, we will make sure that that district -- that those buildings are state of the art in terms of technology and information systems. But you're absolutely right. You need backup storage of data, backup storage of technology. Right now, this system, when it comes to personnel records, we don't have a database. Everything is on paper files. So when we put the new technology systems in, we'll be putting a lot of information on computers for the very first time, if you can believe it.
Mr. Vallas, don't feel bad. There's a lot of index cards still left 414 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE in this building. (Laughter.)
I have to leave because I have a parent/teacher conference.
Thank you. Speaking of the human resources department and information, we've always heard -- and I guess it's still not automated. I'll call it "automated." I'm not all that technical with the computers and all that. But is the data still in boxes and all around? Is it a shorter length of time now when people apply for teaching positions?
Yes. We are significantly streamlining the process. And I'll ask Tomas to articulate very quickly how that process is being streamlined. 415 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Hi, Thomas Hanna. What we're working on is we're trying to move into the age where we go from paper to more automated. What we expect to do is, through the relationship we've created with New Teacher Project, they have an applicant tracking system. It's something we're really looking forward to so that you would be able to apply on line. We would be able to get back to you. It has an applicant flow to it that would, within a matter of days, weeks, someone would get some type of response, whether it be E-mail, telephone call, letter, indicating that you applied, we hear you, here's what we're doing, here's what you can expect. That would be on the teacher side. One of our goals is to try to branch that out to positions beyond teachers. So we're trying to catch up. There are issues where we get numerous calls saying I applied, where is it, what happened. We definitely have to get better at that. But we think we're going to take a bite out of that through the new teacher applicant -- the applicant tracking system that we expect to have fully operational during this recruitment season. 416 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Because we have lost teachers in the past. We have lost applicants that just went to other districts because the application process was so cumbersome and lengthy.
So it's really good if you're getting back went to people and letting them know where they are and whatnot.
To go back to the -- well, not to go back. But in this day, with the war in Iraq, and here at City Council we had a session a few weeks ago. We were briefed by the police department and the city's emergency management team. One of my friends said that she heard -- and she may have gotten something from the school. I'm not really sure. But what is the plan? She said to me that if I guess an incident occurs while children are in school, that the doors are going to be locked and children will not be able -- she's not complaining. I guess I just want to have information about an evacuation plan or an emergency plan, 417 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE whatever it is that you're putting together. I know you've thought about it.
I'm going to ask Dexter to very quickly outline the provisions of that plan. And if this memo explaining what we've done has not been distributed to the committee. I know we've distributed this material to the city and we've been meeting with the various city departments to coordinate our efforts. But we'll certainly provide you the materials on what we've done to date along with a copy of a letter that we sent home to the parents. But let me let Dexter take you through a quick summary of what our plan is.
The city has not shared any of that with us. And when we had our briefing a few weeks ago, two weeks ago, I think, two Fridays ago, there was nothing in the materials regarding the school district.
Dexter Green, Madame Councilman. In the event that there's some kind of incident, there are two things that could happen. One is an evacuation. And since 9/11, the district 418 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE developed a standard safety and crisis plan for the entire district. All 264 schools have the same plan with their own evacuation process in that plan. But also in that plan is what we call sheltering in place. In the event there should be an incident, one of two things will happen. Either there will be an evacuation. And those sites are selected ahead of time. Either there will be an evacuation or there will be a sheltering in place. And basically what sheltering in place is, is that in the event something should happen, the school would go on lock-down, exactly what you just said. No one would be allowed in the building. No one would be allowed out of the building except for the first responders. And those responders are coming either from the police department or the fire department. We have been working through the last five months with the Philadelphia police department, the fire department, the Archdiocese, the schools in Center City, whether they're EMO schools, charter school, private schools -- it didn't matter -- developing a special plan for Center City. And 419 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE that's where we are today.
So you are going to give us copies of the letter you sent home and also safety crisis?
Safety and crisis plans. Every school has a copy of the safety and crisis plan, and we can provide that to you also, which includes the sheltering in place.
Mr. Vallas, Dexter Green, could I suggest it would be real helpful to we, as members of Council, getting copies of these things simultaneously or even before you send them to our constituents so if we get calls we're not blind-sided by information that is being distributed throughout the city to the parent population. So if you could at least put me on the list -- I'm not speaking for my colleagues -- I would like to get this as a matter of routine so we're not surprised in hearing about this stuff at budget hearings.
We'll make sure you get that. 420 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
I think all members would probably routinely like to receive the information. The city briefed us. They gave us a copy of a tape called Shelter in Place. And that pretty much was talking about our homes, how to do shelter in place at home. Then they recommended that we look in the back of the White Pages for an evacuation plan that's on the last two pages. But it's not on the last -- and I have to talk to the city about this. It's not on the last two pages of the new White Pages.
We'll make sure that we send the material to you directly. In fact, any time we're going to be sending something to the city, we'll send it to the President and then we'll coordinate the distribution to the Council members because, as a matter of rule, we've been doing that when we have our press announcements and we put out our various educational initiatives. But we'll begin to do that when it comes to anything regarding public safety or emergency. Rather than go through a single channel, we'll make sure that all the Councilmen get copies of letters 421 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE that we're sending home to parents.
Could I appeal to the President? Madame President, your office is a very big place and I know that there are certain documents that you would like to go through you for distribution. But I think it would be more efficient, Mr. Vallas, if you could have this faxed to us directly. Things that are like press releases and information that's timely, rather than put a burden -- and I'm respectfully asking the President to allow you to communicate. You can send it to the President's office. But I would appreciate not knowing about something a week after.
Right. Okay. No problem. I see no problem. We'll make sure we give you copies of all the materials that are being sent.
And I appreciate your courtesy to the President. But again --
That's fine. We'll make sure you get a copy of it. Absolutely. From our office.
Are schools supposed to be used as I guess a shelter if there is 422 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE some bombing? We're in this time of war. So people have to start thinking about this in advance.
In this whole sheltering in place piece, our schools are equipped with enough snack foods, food for the kids and water for the kids assigned to that building. At this point in time we had not planned to use schools as a shelter for the entire community. But in the event that something happens while kids are in school, that would be -- now, can school buildings be used on a weekend or something like that when kids are not in school? The answer is absolutely they could be.
We've also been following the federal guidelines, and we've been stocking the schools not only with water and food to last a day, at least a day, but also duct tape and things of that nature because a lot of times the protocol being if there's a biological agent or some sort of a chemical strike or whatever, you want to secure the buildings. You want to basically secure -- you want to make sure that the buildings are not ventilated from the outside. So that's the reason why you have the shelter in place contingency. 423 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE But any decision that we would make, any decision that we would make, we would make only in concert with our public safety officers, like the police department, like the fire department. In other words, we would basically follow the city's lead and we would do what we were directed to do. But, of course, having the buildings equipped, because in some of the scenarios they talk about the need to be able to secure your building, keep people indoors for X amount of period of time while someone assesses the danger. And obviously we're only talking about the unlikely -- the most unlikely of eventualities. But the bottom line is we are taking those precautions. Better safe than sorry. And we are following federal guidelines. And let me point out that in doing this, we've really been able to get a lot of donations. For example, like Coca-Cola has donated the water. We've really had a lot of people stepping forth, and they've been stepping forth to assist us. Given the fact that there's not a grant that we don't pursue under any circumstances, we are going to certainly try to take advantage of 424 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Secretary Ridge's proposal that federal money be set aside to school districts to assist them in this type of public safety preparation.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Good afternoon, Mr. Vallas, Mr. Green and Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris, why don't we take care of a piece of information that we were working with yesterday. This was the matter of the moving columns from yesterday's five-year plan discussion, the August plan and the March plan. You have been kind enough to put together a new document. Madame Chair, if we could have the sergeant-at-arms distribute a document that I received this morning from Mr. Harris to the members. Mr. Harris, would you explain -- there are two sheets here.
One has three columns of different five-year plans, and then the 425 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE another has as a title Real Estate Taxes. Why don't we start with the five-year plan discussion and then we'll talk about the real estate tax issue from yesterday.
I'd be happy to. Again, I need to apologize for any confusion that we may have caused or I may have caused between Friday and yesterday. What I felt might rectify the issue and clarify what happened was to put -- these documents, the top two tables were contained in the package distributed yesterday. However, they were on separate pages. So what we did this last evening was put both plans on one page for you. The top plan represents the original five-year plan.
The second plan is an update to that going from '04 to '08. And we will continue in the future to update the five-year plan. Next year you'll see '05 to '09. Given that there are adjustments, as any 426 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE plan is going to continue to be worked on and adjusted in crafting this year's budget and the realties of the state budget that we were working with, we adjusted the FY '04 and have a current FY '04 plan as opposed to the original plan. That was the point of confusion. And that was the point at which on the first -- where the wrong column was inserted in the wrong sheet. So at the bottom I wanted to take the other step of clarifying the differences that occurred between the adjustment to the '04 plan, and laid out there for you I believe what has changed and why it has changed.
So why don't you now tell us for the record -- first, early this year, late last year there was discussion about what your end of the year balance would be for FY '03. You sent to Council correspondence initially indicating that you anticipated ending this fiscal year with a 10.7 million dollar surplus. Subsequent correspondence either late last year or early this year indicated that you anticipated ending the fiscal year with a two million dollar surplus or slightly more than two 427 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE million dollar surplus. Can you tell us now, for the record, first, what do you anticipate the fiscal condition to be at the end of FY '03?
My current assessment and best information is that we will --
I don't know if you want to use the word "assessment."
We know some people who do. I can introduce you to about 85 of them. They do a very good job. As a matter of fact, they work for you. (Laughter.)
I figured you guys needed a little late afternoon respite from all the tough questioning from earlier. What does your analysis tell you? 428 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Our projection currently is that we will maintain what we believe to be a two million dollar surplus at the end of fiscal year for '03. I would note that this is in comparison to the adopted budget of '03 which had a 28 million dollar deficit as approved last May. So while the number did change from the initial estimate in August, we're confident that a two million dollar surplus -- which is, in my opinion, nominal within the whole budget. But it does represent a substantial progress I believe in achieving --
Mr. Harris, look, as hard a time as I can give you about things, I mean, don't be shy about recognizing the fact that you walked into a budget that had a 30 million dollar deficit projected for the end of the fiscal year and now you're projecting a 2.6 million dollar surplus. I mean, that's something to talk about. And it's something that should be recognized. You walked into a situation and you turned it around. Let's just call it for what it is, because I can assure you that if you walked in with a 2.6 million dollar surplus and you were sitting here today with 429 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE a 30 million dollar deficit, I'm not sure how long you'd last at the table. So we give acknowledgment where it is due. It is a spectacular job and you should be commended for it.
We're all working very hard on a difficult situation. So thank you, Councilman.
I understand that. On his way over to the SRC and the pension system. (Laughter.)
Okay. So now let's talk about FY '04, the comparison between 8/23/02 and 3/23/03, the variance between the two. And lastly, before you do that, any of the materials that we have received to day, there was also a data request for a listing by category and dollar amount of the 48.5 million dollars in cuts. Do we have that?
I believe that was in the package that was distributed first thing this morning at the opening of the session. There was a page in there that had the cuts detailed. 430 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
We'll get to that. We'll get to that, because I don't think I have that. Let's talk about the variance in the '04 numbers.
No. Let's just kind of get right down to the bottom line.
I think the key components to the differences between the original projection of '04 in August and where we stand today, I would say that while we are trying to -- while we are launching a number of new program initiatives, they are costing somewhat less than we had originally anticipated in some of them. So our costs did not go as high and we originally thought. However, the revenues is probably the biggest issue. And that reflects the loss of 65 million dollars from the state under the current budget scenario. Again, I imagine that will change as of today. But at this time --
It's going on right now. 431 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Yes. But looking at it as of the information in hand, the loss of state and local funding, the vast majority of that being, the vast, vast majority of that being state funding. And then making up for that in cuts on down the line, an additional 50 million dollars in cuts that we will be pursuing.
Now, when you talk about -- did you say 65 million dollars in state funding?
Yes, Councilman. Yes, the 73.7 is made up of 65 of state funding. And the way we addressed that 48 million dollars, roughly 48 million dollars were handled through previously where we discussed the budget reductions.
That is a combination of -- 432 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE yes, it is.
Well, it was dealing with some funding that we were going to pursue and were planning on pursuing and working with for the after school.
In a nutshell, in the original five-year plan, we assumed that we were going to be able to secure some after school, extended day money as part of the Safe and Sound program. We were unable to do that. So, in effect, we adjusted our budgets accordingly.
In other words, when we laid out the five-year plan, we assumed that we were going to be able to apply for a number of after school, extended day programs that were funded obviously by other governmental agencies. And we were not able to secure that additional funding. So we took it out of the original five-year plan budget document. 433 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
But I thought Safe and Sound was working in conjunction with the school district on the whole after school program?
It is. We're coordinating our efforts. But we had come in under the assumption that we would be able to -- well, it was our hope that we would be able to be treated as a provider. But the city preferred not to, at least for this year's applications, because many of the applications were already out, the process was already beginning to basically put out the RFP and to continue to work with community-based organizations and neighborhood organization. So that doesn't mean that we weren't cooperating. Obviously, we provide a number of schools as Beacon sites, and obviously we work to try to coordinate our after school and extended day activities. But we had to adjust our revenue estimates to account for the fact that we were unable to secure money for after school, extended day programs from sources other than the federal sources and obviously our local indigenous sources.
So let me make sure 434 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE I'm understanding this, because I had not heard this before. Are you saying that the school district was trying to get money from the Safe and Sound organization?
And they declined or refused or didn't approve any funding for the school district for after school programs? I thought they were in the after school program business.
They are. But they're providing the funding to community-based organizations and neighborhood-based organizations.
But aren't some of those organizations providing those after school programs in your schools, in our schools?
For the most part, they're not. For the most part, most of those organizations are -- there are some. Well, the Beacon programs are being provided in our schools. But many of the community-based organizations, not all of them, but many of them provide after school, extended day programs in their own facilities. So I think the decision was made to stay 435 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE with community-based organizations for this year's application, in part, because a lot of the determination relative to the after school, extended day programs, awarding grants to community-based organizations was made before we laid out our five-year financial plan. So the decision was --
I can understand that. But I think we help to fund the organization. I mean, my recollection I think off the top of my head is upwards of about 30 million dollars of city money went to Safe and Sound. And now we're hearing that the school district is not participating in that. There's something I'm not understanding here.
I'm going to ask Nilsa. Nilsa Gonzalez is the director of our Office of Schools and Regions. She, of course, has responsibility to oversee our nine regional superintendents. She runs the after school, extended day, summer school supplemental programs, and I'll let her articulate that.
Nilsa Gonzalez. We are in partnership with the city in Beacon schools and in 21st Century schools for this year. 21st Century schools is a grant that we 436 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE received, and what has happened is that we are using that monies to run the academic piece of the after school program in schools throughout the city. 5 Right now, we have 31,000 children in 6 our program. The city has slots for 60,000 7 students. 8
We have 31,000 students 11 in our extended day program in the Grades 3 to 11. 12 The city has 60,000 slots. 13
Additional for after 15 school programs. What we are now doing with the 16 city is meeting in partnership to see how we can 17 support each other's programs for next year as the 18 providers have lost many of their students to our 19 program because it's an instructional program, 20 solely an instructional program. 21
We don't have to go 22 into all the details at the moment. But I have to 23 tell you, Ms. Gonzalez -- and you're just trying to 24 do your job. I guess hearing about our programs, their programs, so-and-so's programs. I mean, 437 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE they're all the same children from the city.
I mean, it's almost a level of -- I mean, I believe in as much competition on many things as possible. This is possibly not one of them where we should be in this kind of competition. And I guess what I'd also like to know is for the eight million dollars that at the moment you believe you're not going to get, what would you have done with it? How many more sites either would be opened or how many more children would be served? I mean, did they run out of money? Is that why you didn't get any funding?
Let me explain where we are cooperating. Number one, the city provides the Beacon programs. The city pays for the Beacon programs. They house it in the schools. We, of course, do not charge the city, because the old board used to, believe it or not, charge the city for having after school programs, kind of an idiotic thing. But we don't charge the city for that. The second area that we cooperate directly on the funding is we have jointly applied 438 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE to the federal government for this 21st Century grant and the 21st Century learning center program. So this is a joint application between us, the city and community-based organizations. Now, the third area is the Safe and Sound program and our respective after school, extended day programs. We have not been allowed to access Safe and Sound money. Now, that doesn't mean that the city is not coordinating those programs with us. It just means that the city has preferred to work through community-based organizations and other organizations to provide the services. Some are provided off campus. Some are provided on campus. We are coordinating our efforts. And I will tell you this. We hope that next year we will be able to apply for Safe and Sound money and secure some Safe and Sound money to help supplement our after school, extended day programs. The main reason, the principal reason that I was given that they would prefer to do the coordination approach rather than just the direct funding approach was the fact that we were kind of entering the competition for grants business late in 439 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE the game and that while we should cooperate on Beacons and cooperate on 21st Century, the federal grant, and while we should coordinate our efforts, we should come back next year and apply for actual direct funding through the Safe and Sound program.
All right. Thank you. Mr. Harris, on this last chart, the comparison, let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly.
You're anticipating that we'll have 206 million dollars left over from the deficit financing?
Now, how did the number go up? Because the last correspondence I got from you was that it was at 187 million dollars.
That's correct, Councilman. And I'm glad I have a chance to clarify that. It is -- the balance at the time and before the closing of the 2002 books will end, assuming that we would have to draw down based on the 2002 budget, was that we would start this year 440 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE with a 187 million dollar deficit.
Let me be very cautious. For the record, 187 million dollar --
You are going to be sitting at that table by yourself if you keep that up.
187 million dollar proceeds remaining out of the original 317 million dollar deficit bond. When the books closed for 2002, it actually was -- we did not have to draw down 15 million dollars that we anticipated we would have to draw down. So the balance actually shifted up to about 203 million. Then if you factor in what we anticipate being the salvage this year, in round numbers, we'll start next year with 206 million dollars remaining 441 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE out of the 317, which is a better position than we originally expected to be in. That allows us -- if you follow the five-year plan through, that does assist us, along with the other cuts, to stretch the deficit financing, in part, beyond '07 and actually carries it into '08.
So the two key numbers are you're going to start '04 with the 206 deficit financing bond remaining funds.
Which you then anticipate in FY '04 a fund balance of 159.2 million dollars. Is that what I'm reading here?
That's correct. We'll have to draw down about 46 and a half million, leaving us with roughly 160 million starting '05.
Okay. Now, let's talk about taxes. We had a discussion yesterday about your estimates versus the city's estimates on real estate tax receipts. Your estimate, I believe, was a 2.8 percent growth. The city's estimate was a 2.4 442 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE percent growth. And you were going to tell us why the variance.
Yes, sir. That is the one page on real estate taxes. Primarily, it is the due to the transfer of millage, of the 2.71 millage from the city to the school district and it's reflected as a full year of this transfer. The transfer of the millage translates, as you see at the middle of the page, that for every dollar of real estate taxes collected by the city, the school district actually receives in excess of that. It receives 1.379.
To that end, when you multiply the current real estate taxes expected from the city by that 1.379, it gives you the 460.7 that we had listed in the book, creating that difference of the 2.4 to 2.8.
Let's talk a little bit about the 48 and a half million dollars. You've got a freeze. 443 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Now, what happens with these kindergarten -- and tell me that acronym, SSA. What's an SSA?
First of all, because we're going to be reducing class size and classes will have -- instead of 33 kids, they'll have students 8 per teacher, we feel that we don't need three people 9 in the classroom, that we can basically cut down the 10 SSA's and use -- 11
An SSA is a supportive 14 service assistant, a teacher assistant in the 15 classroom. They're three-hour teacher assistants. 16 So they spend three hours a day in the schools. 17
And that was 18 technically giving you three people in a classroom 19 of 30? 20
At the kindergarten level, 21 you'd have three people in the classroom. You'd 22 have a teacher, a teacher assistant and an SSA or a teacher and a literacy intern.
How many students are in our average kindergarten? 444 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Well, the class size ratio is 33 to 1. And sometimes if you're fortunate enough, you may have a parent volunteer. Let me also indicate that while there's SSA's in the schools, they're not always in the kindergarten. SSA's can be doing all sorts of things in the schools. They're not NTA's, which the NTA's are for security. There's like 1500 SSA's in the schools. There are also what we call literacy interns in the school. These are basically prospective teacher candidates who get paid close to a starting teacher salary who are also in the classrooms. The feeling here is after we move -- rather than just try to put more and more personnel in a single classroom, we said what we need to do is we need to reduce the size of that classroom. We need to get those classrooms down to students for 21 every one teacher. And that means you hire more 22 literacy interns -- you hire more teachers rather than literacy interns and SSA's. Let me just give you an example on the literacy interns. A lot of schools have -- most 445 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE schools have a literacy intern for 2nd grade. Well, if you have three 2nd grades in your elementary school with 33 kids in every classroom and you're assigned one literacy intern, then one 2nd grade teacher benefits from that literacy intern. Now, if you take that literacy intern's salary and an SSA's salary and you use that money to hire a full-blown teacher, you have class size reduction in all three of your 2nd grade classrooms. All the classes suddenly jump down from 33 to like or 24. So, in effect, all the 2nd grade teachers 13 benefit. 14 So any time you hire one teacher, you're 15 benefiting, in effect, three classrooms. You're, in 16 effect, reducing class size. Instead of having 17 three oversized classrooms, you have four small 18 classrooms. 19
Let me make sure 20 we're also being clear for the record. Are the 21 children, when you go from 33 to 23 or 22 -- 22
Where are the 10 or 11 children going? Are all 33 kids still staying in 446 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE the room and you're just putting an extra teacher in the room?
Because we're challenged by space in many of the schools.
-- we will stay with the literacy interns. We will stay with the present formula. If we do have the space, we'll hire the additional teacher. So what's going to drive this is space. And we feel fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, about 75 percent of our schools roughly have additional space because enrollment has been declining. There are about or percent of the schools that are 18 at or near capacity. So the availability of space 19 will dictate. 20 In those schools that don't have the 21 classroom space, we'll stay with literacy interns. 22 In those schools that do have the classroom space, 23 we'll hire teachers. So the actual number of SSA's 24 may fluctuate depending on what the final outcome 25 is. But again, the financial amount can be adjusted 447 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE because obviously it's not a budget-breaker.
The last item on this particular page, tell me what this means on the SEPTA tokens and transfers. Is the cost going up to the students? Is the cost going down to the students? Is the school district cutting back on what it's covering for students? What does this actually mean?
No, it's looking at the rates and talking to SEPTA and having negotiations with SEPTA regarding the rates because our transportation costs are increasing. However, we do not intend or plan at all to cut back on services or provision of services or access to students. So we will continue to work on rate issues.
Tell me about this. There was a proposal out of the Mayor's budget speech back in January for a million dollar 20 school-based facilities improvement fund. 21 Is this something that the city is 22 providing to the district or is this a district 23 initiative that we're helping to support or what is 24 this about? 25
It's my understanding that 448 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE the 25 million was to be used to support the infrastructure improvements in schools that help facilitate the Safe and Sound programs and the Beacon programs. And what we're doing -- and I wasn't sure how that was going to be funded, whether or not it was going to be through a bond or a through a direct appropriation. But what we're doing is as we look at our after school and extended day programs and as we lay out our plan to expand those programs, we're going to be identifying what we feel to be eligible expenditures that we could then access those proceeds for. But right now we haven't factored it into the budget because if these revenues are realized, they will probably be realized against the capital budget rather than the operating budget because it's not so much an operating fund expense as much as it's a capital expense, to go in and to make the physical improvements that need to be made to accommodate after school.
I assumed that it was a capital expense. I think what I'm trying to understand is whose capital. 449 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Your capital, the city's capital. But again, we have not finalized any -- we haven't decided what we're going to be seeking those capital subsidies for. So it's nowhere in either our operating budget or our capital budget. It's a proposal of the city, and we've got to wait to see how the city budget process takes its course.
Do you know if the million dollars has been identified in the city 12 capital budget? 13
We had capital 15 budget hearings, and I don't remember this item 16 being specifically identified. Okay. You can't 17 answer that one. 18 Yesterday I raised a couple items and 19 I'd like to follow up on them today. First, with 20 regard to -- I think one of the last items we 21 finished with before the break was ROTC. 22 I know my colleague, Councilman Ortiz, 23 who I believe has committed generally at least for 24 the next couple of months to try to restrict his 25 thoughts and concerns to the contiguous 48 states -- 450 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE he is not allowed to even talk about Alaska or Hawaii -- expressed some concern about our ROTC and he's been very active on issues related to the war. I bring a slightly different perspective. I'm certainly concerned about the war, and I'm also concerned about our military personnel and their safety. But with regard specifically to the ROTC, Councilwoman Tasco and I, within the past year, offered a resolution in support of the Roxborough High School ROTC program, which is a spectacular program at that particular school. And I'm sure that there are others throughout the city. We just may not be as aware of them. It would seem to me that any legitimate, appropriate program that works on character-building and leadership training, discipline and creating a sense of responsibility in our young people is more than appropriate and greatly needed for many of our young people. It's probably more than appropriate and greatly needed for some who are not so young, but we don't have any programs for them. So I certainly believe that having good ROTC programs or if there was or were a school that was created that had a, quote/unquote, military 451 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE focus, as long as we're careful I think about curriculum and the kinds of things that the young people are being taught -- let's not fool ourselves into thinking that some of our young people are not going to go into the military service. And on I think most days and nights some of us are rather appreciative that some young people actually go into military service because if they ever had to call on most of us here, you might as well learn another language. (Laughter.)
So there is a great deal to be learned in these kinds of programs. We obviously again have to be careful about how the programs are structured, who has access to the young people. They should not necessarily be recruiting pads for the different military services. Not because that's a bad thing, but they're young and impressionable and there will be enough time for that kind of activity if they decide to pursue it through college and become of an older age. But I would like to at least be on record as supporting these kinds of programs. I 452 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE think our young people benefit from them. And I would encourage you to continue to pursue that kind of option because one of the things that I think some of our young people have lacked and has not encouraged some to go to school in the first place is that maybe we're not offering the kind of things that are attracting their attention. There is no one size fits all. There is no one program that's going to keep everyone's attention. And if that's what encourages someone to go to school, then God bless them. I guess I probably shouldn't have said that since we're having public school hearings. I'm sorry.
It wouldn't be the first time I got in trouble. You did talk about something earlier which I was slightly confused about. And Councilman Rizzo and I kind of looked up at the same time. And maybe I wasn't paying as close enough attention. You were talking about -- you were in the area of sexually transmitted diseases. You were talking about testing and treatment. And something you said 453 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE struck a bit of a nerve. It was something along the lines of if a student is tested and found to I guess have something, that treatment was subsequently optional. And again, maybe I missed a part of that. So could you at least clear that up? Because I didn't understand the process or procedure.
Well, I should probably have our health care expert here or someone from the Department of Health. But let me point out -- and please jump in and correct if I'm not -- are you familiar? Creg can answer that question.
What we did was made an opportunity available to all of our high schools on a scheduled basis to have any young man or young woman who wanted to be tested the opportunity to do so. If indeed their test results came back positive -- all of the students who were tested were actually given a secret pass code where they could call in to find out the results of their test. In indeed those tests were found to be positive, the young people were given the opportunity to go to neighborhood clinic health facilities based on recommendations to receive 454 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE treatment or indeed make arrangements at that local school site to receive treatment from trained personnel from the health department.
Let me ask a couple questions. One, all students were given the opportunity to be tested?
Do you know of that population what percentage of students actually participated?
Actually, the testing is concurrent as we speak. So we haven't completed the opportunity for all of the schools.
And because you want to encourage them to be tested and then because you want to naturally encourage them to find out the test results, assuming that then it's difficult to either keep certain data -- and obviously, you have confidentiality issues. But then I guess that further complicates your efforts. If a student were found to be positive, I guess, one, you don't know it. Only the student knows it. And then you have no ability to follow up 455 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE on it to see whether if you had a positive, whether they actually sought treatment or not.
That is correct. That information is confidential. But the health department, who is conducting the testing process, they're the agencies who have that information. Obviously, we cannot share that information, because of confidentiality, with the administrators at the schools. But most certainly the health department can have access to the information.
Do you know what the follow-up process is for the health department?
Well, the health department has a couple of options actually. They can actually contact the student on an individual basis if they were to come back out to the school and to do some follow-up sessions for young people to let them know that in fact your results did come back positive and you have an opportunity to get free assistance to cure any problem that you may have. That is a process that we do have in place as a result of follow-up if a young person decides that they don't want to, obviously on their 456 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE own, go into it.
Do you know whether there's any contact with the parent or guardian?
Actually, the law allows a student's rights in terms of the testing to be held confidential. A student can, however, share that information.
Just at least at 13 these younger ages, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown and 14 I -- and Councilman Ortiz has a couple younger 15 children. Now, I know that my daughter has to basically -- I think they have to bring a note to school that she has -- I don't know -- had a physical or had some series of tests. This is an elementary school child. Are there any physical exam requirements of older students on an annual basis?
Yes. At the 9th grade level students are required to enter high school with a current physical. 457 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
No. With the exception of students who participate in particular activities, such as sports.
Has there been any 14 thought or is there a discussion in the academic 15 community, the pediatrician community about any of this kind of required testing for slightly older young people who I would hope -- who I would think might be involved in a few more activities than a 9th grader?
There is talk about not mandating such testing, but making the testing -- just a general physical examination available. In fact, in the budget we're looking at the whole issue of health care support system-wide. There's going to be major efforts to 458 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE register young people for the comprehensive health insurance program so that we can get them physicals. And there is money in the budget right now, in this budget for our healthy kids, healthy minds initiative, which focuses actually on the zero to eight kids. But we have talked about using this unprecedented partnership with the Department of Health and the STD testing and treatment, we have talked about using this as a vehicle for providing more comprehensive health care out-reaches to our students. In fact, we've talked about in all the new high school designs there will be health care clinics. And in many of the major high school renovations, we'll be also contemplating literally having health clinics. Not having health clinics for the dissemination of anything controversial, but having health clinics where kids can go in and get physicals. One of the things that we did in our previous life was we would always identify high schools and health clinics in high schools and then we would partner with the hospital and the hospitals 459 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE would come in. And as long as we built out the clinic, the hospitals would willingly run the clinics because they get medicaid reimbursement for the majority of the cases. With area hospitals 6 and medical institutions, we think that we can very 7 easily establish that same relationship. 8 So that's a long answer to your short 9 question. But the answer is yes. We're not looking 10 at mandating, but we are looking at making those 11 services available. 12
Two last questions. 13 Maybe three. This is not a question. 14 The information you provided us on the 15 capital improvement plan, at least as a part of my 16 request from yesterday -- and I know you provided us 17 with a listing by Council district. What I think 18 might be helpful to all of us is if every school in 19 the district -- not your district, but our 20 respective districts -- are listed with whatever the 21 capital improvement plan is or is not. 22
But that there is a 24 full and complete listing of, again, all the 25 or 25 so schools that I have in the 4th District. And 460 03/25/03 - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE other members have probably about the same number. But that you could see every school on a list and what is anticipated to happen in that school over the next few years. On the capital improvement plan, what's your anticipated debt service for that?
We won't peak out until -- when is it? In terms of maximum debt service, in either 2007 or 2008.
Because you have a sliding scale, starting low and going high.