COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:30 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN MARIA D. QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL 100119 - An ordinance amending Chapter 15 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization"... BILL 100120 - An ordinance amending Chapter 17 19-1801 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Tax"... - - - 2
Good morning. Can we have your attention, please. We would like to resume our public hearing on education that we started yesterday with regard to Bill 7 Nos. 100119 and 100120. The plan is to respond to questions. We have a few Councilpeople who have questions. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown will be the first to raise the questions, and we'll ask Dr. Ackerman and Mr. Archie if they would again come to the witness table. After the questions are asked today, we will recess until 1:30 when we have the public hearing. Now, the staff is trying now to contact those who were scheduled to come at 5:30. There's only a half dozen of them, and they're trying to get them to come at 1:30 so that we might just have one public session time for 1:30. That is the plan at this moment, to have again a public hearing at 1:30 and not the one at 5:30, if we're 3 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 able to reach that handful of people who want to testify. After that, the plan will be to recess until 5/13, which is Thursday, at noon, because that is when all bills will be heard and all budget bills will be heard. And we expect then on 5/13 at 9 o'clock, they will be reported out of 10 Committee. 11 So that's the whole process for 12 education. Anybody have questions on that? I guess that's simple enough. And, again, like yesterday, I know that you all were sorry to leave, but today we expect that we won't be very long. All right. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Good morning. Good morning again. 4 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Madam Superintendent, first I'd like to ask if you would forward to the Chair the listing of the professionals that were here this morning and yesterday to accompany you and their positions in the school administration.
If you would. And just a review of two issues raised at length yesterday. On the issue of charter schools, it was reported in the April 10th edition of the Philadelphia Tribune that 51 of the 63 schools have filed incomplete information and -- let me not misrepresent. What will be the new policy going forward with regards to financial audits of charter schools, if you could address that issue again for the record?
Yes. Moving forward, we as a district will take ten percent of the charter schools each year and do unannounced audits. In addition, 5 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 we'll ask that they turn in their financial records, their ethics documentation every year for all of the charter schools, because we don't have those on file for all of them, and every year all of us have to turn in our information, our ethics and -- what's the other document? I'm sorry.
The financial disclosure. We don't have those on a consistent basis turned in by all the schools. So every year we will ask for those documents, and ten percent of the schools will be audited unannounced.
So that will be the new standard operating procedure going forward?
Yes. And that's 6 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 ten percent of those schools that are not on a five-year cycle for renewal.
Okay. Then my second question, which was touched upon briefly yesterday, has to do with MBE, WBE activity. I don't see -- who is the direct report for John Byars?
Well, then this line of questioning will be then for you, Mr. Masch. Where are my questions? I'm going to have to work from memory, which is never a good thing. What is the School District's policy with regards to contractors who do not honor the contract in terms of payment to subs? What happens?
Councilwoman, first 7 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 of all, it's important for us to enter onto the record the fact that our Small Business Unit within the Procurement Division requires every construction contractor to report to us, and then we also do audits and site inspections to make sure that all payments to subs, including MBE, WBE subcontractors, are being made in full and in a timely manner. If we were to find a consistent problem -- and we do not believe that we have a problem with payments to subs, because we are monitoring it and insist on its being one of the contract terms that prime contractors must abide by, but if we were to find a persistent problem and the contractor were not to rectify it, then we would take them off of our qualified list.
So the remedy is that they would be removed from the qualifying list?
That's right. But 8 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 as I say, we do not believe that that's a problem in the School District, because -- we know that this was a problem with some MBE, WBE programs in some small business contracting programs in the past with other governmental units, and that's why we have an active program to monitor payments, to make sure they're being made.
And then what assurance do subcontractors have that suggest that they will ultimately be paid? And let me give the back story on this. Too often small business people come to Councilpersons because they view us as the last remedy of hope with regard to getting paid because a contractor, a prime, has not honored up, and we do what we can to advocate on behalf of those small business people, and one prime example was around stadiums. It was two years after those stadiums were built that subs came to us to complain, 9 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 rightfully, that they were not being paid. Similar circumstances have come to my attention with regards to the School District, which is why I raise the question what remedy exists to ensure that the contractor -- whatever the remedy is, to know that, but then more importantly, what is in place to ensure that the sub, typically female or minority, gets paid?
Councilwoman, if you encounter constituents who are having those kinds of problems, please contact us immediately. We want to know about it. As I say, we are monitoring -- we both monitor the actual payments through our automated systems and we do site visits to contractors on site to make sure that payments are being made. I assure you, if you alert us to a problem, we will act swiftly to remedy it.
I'm 10 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 encouraged to hear that. Here's the reservation in citing specific individuals: If there are not standard operating procedures in place to remedy it, there are small business people who are reluctant to complain openly to the School District for fear that they will be ex-communicated, if you will, or not considered in future opportunities. So that's why I'm asking about standard operating procedures within the system to handle those types of circumstances.
That's why we welcome your presenting this line of questioning, because we do have standard operating procedures in place. We are aware of the kinds of problems that have occurred with other subcontracting problems in the past. The reports that I receive regularly indicate to me that our system is working the way that it's supposed to. But if there are instances in which there are problems with particular contractors and subs, we want 11 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 to know about it. But I'm happy to get on the record so we can make it clear to subcontractors that they should come to us. We would encourage them to do that. We do have the systems in place. We will enforce payments to subcontractors. We will make sure that that is complied with or that, if it is not, that we will take that into consideration in terms of whether we're going to continue to do business with the prime or not.
For the record, could you please state what the School District's anti-discrimination policy is?
Yes. The goal of the policy, first of all, is to ensure non-discrimination in the award and administration of contracts and insist in the development of more minority and women business enterprises that can compete for contracts and the -- we require that every contract that is over $100,000 should be competitively bid, 12 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 unless there is some reason like it's a sole source and there is no other vendor who can provide the service, and we are reducing the number of sole-source contracts. For all others, the Program Office is required to go to the Procurement Office and get a participation range that we believe that they ought to be able to meet. We work with the City's Office of Economic Opportunity to establish those participation ranges, and then we -- and then the key is to competitively bid the work. We have been moving many more categories of professional services into competitive RFP since Dr. Ackerman has arrived, at her direction. So bond counsel, underwriters, appraisers, brokers, insurance, lots of professional services that weren't in the past always subject to a competitive RFP process are. We take MBE participation into consideration as one of the -- as a 13 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 significant qualifying factor in who gets the work. Our goals are, in professional service contracts, to achieve no less than a percent participation rate, 7 percent for procurement services; that 8 is, materials, supplies and equipment, 9 and 30 percent for our construction 10 projects. And we have actually, as we 11 noted -- and the overall goal for the 12 program is 20 percent, and as we've 13 noted, for the first half of this fiscal 14 year, our actual participation level is 15 27.3 percent. So that is significantly 16 in excess of the target that we've set. 17
Indeed, 18 and I congratulate you for that and 19 applaud the leadership for making it 20 clear what the new paradigm is. It takes a leadership that's committed to that to make it happen, and I thank you for the response to the question. So let me be specific. What is the status of the S-O-D-E-X-O contract 14 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 with regards to them honoring up?
I'm happy to report that Sodexo and their subcontractor, Team Clean, informed us last week that they are going into binding arbitration to resolve their outstanding dispute. This was a contract entered into four years ago with Sodexo and the School District before our current management team arrived. Since we arrived, we have audited this contract and found two things: good news and bad news. The good news is, Team Clean, which is an MBE and a WBE firm, has a 77 percent participation rate on this contract, which is one of the highest that we have and one of the highest for local public-sector agencies. However, Sodexo committed to an aggregate 83 percent participation rate when they made the initial proposal for the contract. Now, there have been a series of contract amendments. Again, those all occurred before Dr. Ackerman and our 15 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 management team arrived. What we confronted was a situation where this contract is up for renewal and our administration informed Sodexo that we would not proceed with the next contract renewal unless they had resolved their dispute with their subcontractor, and the parties have informed us that they have now come to a mutually acceptable way of resolving that dispute, and we're delighted to see that result. Consistent with what I said on the record before, we had notified Sodexo that if they could not resolve that issue, we would not extend the contract further.
I see. Well, thank you for the update on that important matter. Let's move now to science programming. In an April 11th article 23 posted on philly.com, and I quote, "Science is gaining momentum in American schools," end quote. It cited the School 16 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 District has transformed a number of high schools to focus on science. We live in a region for sure that has a high concentration of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. That's the good news. What are some of the other efforts being made to increase student achievement, particularly in the area of science, but if you broaden that to include involvement in STEM-related programs?
We are in the process of reviewing our science curriculum and looking at some new career tech academies that are STEM related. We have somebody now working on a curriculum that would focus on STEM-related instructional materials for science classes. And as we are anticipating the redesign through the Promise Academy of at least two of our high schools, we're looking at science or science-related academies in at least two of those high schools. 17 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
University City and we're in partnership -- are developing partnerships now with interested community organizations and health-related fields, and Vaux.
That's okay. Okay, then. That takes care of that. You and I both had the good fortune to be in the company of First Lady Michelle Obama when she unveiled her Let's Move program across the nation. What are any additional steps the School District is taking to further assist young people around better food choices, and if you could answer that as you speak 18 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 about what the School District is now doing around healthy school initiatives around the lunch program, if you would.
Yeah. I want to ask Wayne Grasela, who is our Director of Food Services, to come up, because we have some good news in terms of some new grant awards that we've just recently received that are going to be focused exactly on this initiative.
And while Wayne is coming up, Councilwoman Brown, I want to thank you for sponsoring the bill that labels foods in restaurants. I think I want to thank you, because now I don't want to go to restaurants, because my favorite restaurants are places now that some of my favorite foods are there for me to see the caloric intake, and it's a little frightening. So I think I thank you. 19 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Well, I thank you for the acknowledgment. Let me just seize the moment again to thank my colleagues who thought that a good measure, and I appreciated the position that other colleagues had to take around that. At the end of the day, we got it done, after months of work. And a 10 little back story on that that you may 11 not be aware of is, my second year here I 12 looked at the fact that there were sodas 13 in schools, and Councilwoman Jannie 14 Blackwell and I introduced a resolution 15 suggesting that they need to come out of 16 schools, and after much conversation with 17 that industry and your predecessor, we 18 were able to make it happen. So that was 19 a precursor to the menu labeling bill. 20 We have more work to do. 21
I even notice now when they don't have it. You want me 20 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 to tell you the restaurant I was in over the weekend? Not on camera, but I'll tell you. They don't have the caloric intake on --
Wayne Grasela, Senior Vice-President, Division of Food Services. First of all, I'd like to say that the School District has probably the most comprehensive wellness policies in the nation currently. We only offer 100 percent fruit juice, milk and water as 21 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 far as beverages, and if there's any sodas in the schools, we're not offering it. The children are bringing it in, but we're working towards that. Our snack guidelines are the most restrictive in the nation currently right now.
Our snack guidelines are the most restrictive in the nation right now. In terms of what -- we're doing a lot of good things, but more recently, we just entered, in concert with the Philadelphia Department of Health, we received a -- the Department of Health received a $10 million grant for -- approximately $10 to $15 million grant for childhood obesity prevention. Part of that, the District received approximately 1.8 million, and some of it is related to physical fitness and those type of things and health-related issues, 22 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 but the Food Service Division received $695,000, and a good portion of that is going to go to menu labeling. And how we're going to do that is, we're going to install LED monitors over the serving counters in all our full-service schools initially and then eventually in all our schools. And the purpose of that is to not only to help the children understand what it is we're offering and why we're offering it, but, more importantly, to encourage them to make healthier choices when it comes to what they consume, life-long eating habits in general. But we did a couple other things this year. Obviously we're offering -- we're integrating more fruits and vegetables in our -- we offer them daily, fruits and vegetables. This year we discontinued the use of our deep-fat fryers, totally discontinued the use of our deep-fat fryers. So we substituted those products that we fried with oven-baked type prepared products. So 23 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 that's -- we're also sourcing a lot of whole grain products, reduced fat products, breakfast breads, pastas. Even our pizza is a whole grain pizza, flour.
The grant is for two years, but the majority of it will be front-loaded. We'd like to see those monitors in place by Christmas.
And that would be systemwide or for specific segments of the school system?
Well, we'd like to put them in every school. There's currently enough money do all our full-service schools where we have a broader menu.
I see. Well, thank you very, very much for your testimony.
We also have the grant for the four schools for the fruit and vegetable augment, which we also hope 24 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 to expand.
Thank you. Every year we apply to Pennsylvania Department of Education for fresh fruit and vegetable grants, and what that basically is is they give us $40,000 to $60,000 to offer, in addition to the meals we serve, cut-up fruits and vegetables. We do it like a snack and we distribute it throughout the school. Last year we had two schools, Bluford and Turner and J. Rhoads. Next year we have four schools, Reynolds, Willard, Blankenburg and Welsh. So that's another $160,000 that we got to provide fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition, the ARRA stimulus grant, we received $345,000 to replace serving lines, refrigerations and ovens in four schools. So that's all -- and that's to provide a better -- hopefully provide a better meal.
Yes, 25 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Councilman Green. Point of information.
Thank you. I recently had occasion to meet with some people from the School District, including Mr. Masch, and one of the issues that came up, we were talking about the TV show with that British guy, Jamie, and I asked about whole foods in the schools, and I guess what I was told was that it's all pre-prepared, and so you just put it in the oven. In other words, nothing fresh is being made at the schools anymore. Is that correct?
Well, we do a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, but most of your proteins are pre-prepared, yes, your beef products, your poultry products, et cetera, yes.
Okay. And with respect to fruits and vegetables, how much would it cost you to expand that program to basically every low-income school in the District?
We currently 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 offer fresh fruits and vegetables daily.
In your full-service schools, we offer it for breakfast and lunch, yes.
So in the non-full-service schools, the fruit that people are getting in the morning is juice?
It could be juice, it could be yogurt. Our menus follow the USDA patterns for grades 4 27 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 through 12.
And do you do any kind of nutritional educational programming within the School District --
The District has the most nationally recognized nutrition education program. We receive $10 million from the federal and State for doing nutrition education in the schools. We have nutrition education programs in 176 buildings. It's all funded through grants that we applied for. We have at least a dozen partners, all the local universities, Drexel, Temple, University of Penn, The Food Trust, PCCY, and it goes on and on, that help us with our nutrition education, where they actually go into the classroom and do that. It's a nationally -- the USDA has recognized it as a nationally renowned program. 28 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
So we are training our young people to stay away from sugar-sweetened beverages?
We try to encourage it as much as possible. What's being taught in the classroom is reinforced at the menu that we serve at breakfast and lunch.
By the way, under Dr. Ackerman's guidance, we offer breakfast to all students District-wide at no cost every day.
If I could, Councilman, I don't want to let one thing go by in the discussion. I understand that there's a concern about pre-plating and moving away from food prepared on site, and I want to commend, to those who are interested in this issue, a recently published book about school nutrition programs called Free for All. It's written by a woman named Janet Poppendieck. She said the following, I 29 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 assume that central kitchens and satellite systems were inherently inferior to food cooked on site, but it turns out that central kitchens are far more likely to be able to make at scale fresh foods, control the use of preservatives, sodium, coloring agents, and they also have the purchasing power to be able to buy nutritious meals within the limits of what the federal government provides to us, which is challenging, because we do have basically a self-funding system with federal grants under the Child Nutrition Act. So we do not accept the premise that we have to have a contradiction between central kitchens and healthy food, but we do recognize that there is a challenge to us to push our vendors, and we are pushing them harder every year, to do more to move in that direction. And we do expect to see further improvement in that area. We think that we're not done yet. 30 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
This is my final question on this issue, and then I'll punt the ball to others who might have questions. Chicago is light years ahead of us, recently unveiling a model to transform concrete schoolyards into green spaces. My office has actually already begun to do some research on this area to see how we can have garden clubs -- well, actually there's some schools that already have garden clubs, including my alma mater, Girls High. So what is the School District doing around urban gardening and transforming spaces in school grounds to gardens or green spaces for children to play?
I'm going to ask Pat Henwood to come up. I can tell you again that with our new Promise 31 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Academies, we're going to start there on the green spaces initiative. We're going to start with those schools, but there's some other things that are planned in the long term. And then, remember, we have the master facilities planning process that's coming up also.
For my own understanding, the Promise Academies are for elementary, middle and high?
There are right now five of them that have been identified.
Good morning. Pat Henwood, Capital Programs. We have instituted a campus park program modeled after Chicago from a 32 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 previous administration. We completed about campus parks throughout the 4 City, and we are working currently with 5 the Eagles Youth Blitz to provide some 6 green space at a selected location 7 annually in conjunction with Mural Arts. 8 Also, every major renovation project that 9 we do and every new construction project 10 that we do has designated campus space. 11
Green space, yes. 14 Also, with the Philadelphia Water 15 Department we are working collaboratively 16 to provide green space at all of our 17 locations. They have some funding 18 available. We don't have the full plan 19 yet, but we are working towards that full 20 plan. 21
So you're 22 working with the Water Department? 23 Because I know Councilman Jones is keenly 24 aware of the dollars that have come to 25 the Water Department. You're part of a 33 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 think tank team on how the Water Department is going to use those dollars?
Correct. We've been working with them for about a year. Our first location I believe is Northeast High School, which happens to be one of our largest sites that will be affected.
You should know one of the prevailing concerns about the expenditure or use of those dollars is making sure that neighborhood people get opportunity to dig trees and plant trees, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So as you have those conversations and discussions, that needs to be present always. It's unacceptable for non-residential, non-Philadelphia folk, to start with, and folks who don't live in the community to miss out on that opportunity. Of the campus park schools, 23 how do they become the lucky 25? What 24 reasoning goes into the identification of 25 those schools? 34 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Well, the 25 -- the plan for the 25 was handed to me to implement --
-- four years ago, but the plan now is, we have to get community input. We need the principal's buy-in. We need the neighborhood, the community to take ownership, and when we get that commitment from the community and the principal, we move forward, and, of course, the funding.
Councilwoman, I think you may know that the City Water Department is under an EPA requirement to develop a citywide storm water runoff plan. I mean, our problem right now is we've got too much storm water that hits concrete, can't be absorbed into the ground, winds up creating sewer overflows and pollution in terms of the water supply. So our Capital Program Office is a partner with the City, with the Water 35 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Department taking a lead, but this is a School District component of that overall citywide storm water runoff plan. But the City and the EPA and the State Department of Environmental Protection believe -- and we think that they're right -- that one of the quickest hits we can do in the City to improve our absorption capability and reduce the amount of concrete for runoff is to target schools, because we're in the neighborhoods.
And so we're going to partner with them in an aggressive way to try to help implement that plan as quickly as possible.
We'll look forward to the updates, if you will, as that plan shapes itself. Thank you for your testimony.
Madam Chair, I'll punt the ball and I'll circle 36 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 back on the next round.
Thank you very much. May I note that at Sulzberger School, for years there's been a storm water project with students, and we have wanted to expand that in a big way. It's one of our RDA, Redevelopment Authority, issues, because we would like to give them land right next to the school to expand that and allow them to take the Mill Creek Farms on Haverford Avenue, move them next to Sulzberger and expand that program. So that's one of our RDA issues, because that program has gone on for many, many years and it does work well, and we can only expand it if it's right across the street, right next door to the school. So that's an idea whose time has come. It's important, and youngsters really like learning about it and it's such a hands-on kind of thing, because it's right outside their school. 37 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I was intrigued about some of the possibilities of Success Centers and wanted to find out if that was a career guidance test that people take and how you ferret out which careers are better for which students and the mentorship component, if that was a part of it. And I had a follow-up to that, saying that we have proposed Bill No. 100223, which is an intern tax credit that might accompany that, where interns might be even compensated for experiences within companies in the City of Philadelphia. So we're going to make sure you get copies of that. We can look forward to any input that you might have on that, but I wanted for you to spend a little 38 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 time talking about those Success Centers and which schools have them and what happens if you're not in one of those schools. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning. My name is Majeedah Scott, and this is my second day as Interim Director for the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation at the School District.
Second day as Interim Director for Multiple Pathways to Graduation at the School District. We manage the Student Success Centers. Currently, there are 11 Student Success Centers in the City. They are at Bartram, University City, West Philadelphia, Overbrook, Ben Franklin, Simon Gratz, Lincoln, Germantown, Fitzsimons, Edison and -- I'm forgetting one. I'm sorry. It escapes me. 39 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
I'm sorry. And these centers are funded through the School District of Philadelphia and also the Department of Labor grants. The Student Success Centers are a part of the Imagine 2014 plan. It is our goal that we would have a Success Center or some resemblance of a Success Center in every high school. The centers do provide career counseling, college preparation, academic support, mentoring and social supports by licensed social workers.
So as you take -- give me a little better example of the process. A young person comes in, takes an assessment test, and what happens?
Absolutely. And so the Success Centers work with all the students in a high school. What they would do is, they would do activities in 40 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 the classroom as well as in the actual center. So around sort of career exploration, there are a number of different tools that we'll use to help a young person determine what their strengths are and what their passions are, and then we match those inventories such as the Holland or even for younger students, we'll use something like the Career Game, just inventories that help them make that assessment on where their strengths and their passions lie. We match that with the database of jobs that are available through the Department of Labor, and we give students the opportunity to sort of look at all those options. They look at how long it takes to prepare for those careers, if it's a college degree that is in order, and we look at the salary for those careers, and we sort of look at the whole occupational background on a career. So what it takes to become that career, how long it takes to prepare, what the 41 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 working conditions are for the career and what kind of salaries they can expect. So it's a full exploration. We allow young people to really do the exploration on their own, with some support from a career specialist.
Okay. I think when you first came on board, it might have been right around that time, we talked about this concept and also how the Germans have a mentorship program where kids from actual high schools actually sit with people in auto engineering and actually work under them as apprentices, half a day school, half a day practical knowledge, learning, and they matriculate right into the workplace at the bottom rung of the totem pole, but they do get the practical work experience that is attractive to the employer. I think with this and some monetary incentive if we can compensate young people, that this may go a long way of doing two things. One, pairing 42 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 workforce with a feeder from your public schools that allow talent, skilled talent, to stay in Philadelphia, which might be a novel, novel, novel approach. So I'm encouraged by this and want to kind of pursue that going forward to see how and track this to see how that translates quantitatively into young people that may not all go to college, that may be blue collar, green collar folk that wind up staying and having wage-earning, family-supporting jobs based on the educational experience. So we look forward to that. And with that, how are we doing with the blue collar component of our education process? How are we matching folk to jobs that are, as I understand, becoming hard to fill by skilled, with-your-hands, get-dirty-every-day kind of workforce? How are we kind of maturing that?
The District in our Imagine 2014, we have put in that plan upgrading our career technical 43 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 programs, and we're already in the modernization program at -- see, I couldn't even remember the one.
Dobbins. Sorry. She did 12. She named schools. I 9 couldn't get one. 10
Frankford was the other one. She just remembered. And we are -- in the plan we also have plans for at least three more technical high schools between now and the end of 2014. We're also in the process of revisiting our compact with the labor unions so that we can get more opportunities for our young people, project-labor agreement, the project-labor agreement. That's up now for renewal, and we want to make sure that there are more ample opportunities for young people to work side by side 44 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 with some of our labor unions and to be clear that we're looking at young people who are in our schools, not just graduates of our schools. Because we've had some difficulty in making some of those internships and apprenticeships available for our students who are in school now.
My concern on that is that I understand the State budget drastically cuts vocational education by about $5 million, and every kid isn't on their way to Duke. Some kids are on their way to a construction site, and we need to prepare both tracks, and I don't want that to be lost as an opportunity for some young people. There's some young thundercats that are standing on corners that know they will never wind up at Morehouse or Duke, but they do know if I could work with my hands, I could choose a life that is respectable.
I just don't want us to throw that out -- that baby out with the bath water. I will yield on this round and come around with another line of questioning, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilwoman Sanchez.
I wanted to ask a few questions around the Renaissance schools. And first I must 46 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 start with commending the School District team. Having lived the restructuring process at Olney, I could tell you that this is a whole different ball of wax, and so the road show is pretty intense and I've had the opportunity to sit through the road shows in my district, and really feel very encouraged by the level of commitment by the outside providers and their sensitivity to the parents. So I just really want to put that on the record. I was not -- I was a little scared about what we were going to engage in in that process, but I feel very encouraged. My parents feel very supported in this. And even though I may not always agree with their premises, I think the process is very important. So I want to commend the staff, Ben and all the team who put that together. I wanted to ask you, this is the first phase of Renaissance schools, and I know we talked about there's a lot 47 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 of schools. I'm very concerned about the high schools, because the Promise Academy or the Renaissance schools doesn't address the high schools. We had hearings about high schools when you first came on board. What's our plan for high schools and will that be the second phase?
Well, we have actually three high schools in the Renaissance school.
Yeah, we do. Vaux, University -- is it Vaux? I'm going to try to pronounce this the Philadelphia way. Vaux and West Philly. So we have three. And we imagine -- well, we intend every year to have high schools in our -- so we'll have another round next year of Renaissance schools and we'll see some more high schools.
What was the determining factor? All of my 48 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 schools are in Corrective Action III or empowerment schools, all my high schools. I was wondering why none of those were selected. Is there a thought?
We took the lowest performing schools. They were 10's on the performance index. So we admit that being a 9 is low performing, but we started with the 10's, and you'll probably see us move to the 9's and you'll probably see some of your schools, your high schools, at that point as we move to the next level. But we started with the 10's and we're going to go up to probably 10's, 9's and 8's. We're hoping all the other schools are moving up.
Right. Can you tell me what the difference financially is between the Renaissance and the Promise Academy for the schools?
The financial amount for both will be the same. Whatever we do for all of those schools will be given -- if the schools become 49 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 charter, they'll get the same monies that these other schools are getting.
What's the additional resources you're looking at at the schools?
Well, facelift facilities-wise. Certainly we'll be working on those schools so that they're conducive to a strong instructional program. As we talked about before, Saturday school, longer school days, longer school year, more opportunities for enrichment, not only -- Parent Universities will be in all of those schools, so the parents will be engaged. We're actually asking parents to sign contracts for service and volunteerism in those schools. That doesn't cost anything, you know, in terms of a dollar sign, but it is a different take on how we want parents to be 50 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 involved. They will have programs in -- instructional programs that have been proven in terms of research based. They will have next year, along with the empowerment schools -- they'll get all of the resources that they got as empowerment schools, the parent ombudsmen, all of those things stay. What we'll look at is intensifying the instructional program and adding programs in that work. But it's looking at the entire school, the schedule. The high schools will have a zero hour as well as an extra hour at the end of the day, which has a price tag on it also, but we're trying to give young people an opportunity to catch up and to accelerate forward, which means that they'll get an opportunity to take extra classes also.
In terms of the teaching piece, there's some concerns that I wanted to clarify for the 51 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 record. You have a teacher freeze now. I mean, congratulations on those two teacher fairs. I thought that was great, and I know Tomas Hanna, you worked on recruitment for so many years, it was a major achievement. As it relates to the Renaissance schools, does that mean that we're going to -- the providers are going to be able to do -- because I heard in the different presentations, every provider has a different goal. Some said we're going to keep 50 percent of the teachers. Some people said everybody has to apply. How are we going to ensure that with the hiring freeze we just don't recycle some of the low-performing teachers?
The hiring freeze is for all of the schools outside of the Renaissance school or Promise Academies initiative, and so we're talking about five or six schools. We 52 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 believe that one school may come back. That's Potter Thomas.
Yeah. Can we talk a little bit about that? Again -- and I attended Potter Thomas. I don't know if Tomas' mom was the principal then. That just tells you how far back we go. I have a little concern about the option. And from this perspective, I mean, again, those parents, incredible group of folks. I think there's a difference between giving people choices and giving them a responsibility around making that type of choice. Potter Thomas, post the dismantling of the bilingual program, just went downhill, but prior to that, particularly during Tomas' mom's leadership there, was a good school. So I'm a little concerned that because of the lobbying that happens between principal -- and I met the principal. She seems very 53 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 well-intentioned. A lot of great teachers there that I personally know. I'm a little concerned that the lobbying one way or the other from the teachers and parents feeling like if they vote for Renaissance, then they're voting against their teacher that they like. And so I really want to caution us that we give them choices, but not a responsibility and then a year later, we're having the same conversation about the other way. I know that we want to be as democratic as possible, but sometimes some of these decisions --
Well, it's tough, and all of the schools have had to go through that, believe me. I just met last night with one of them. And most schools aren't used to parents having real authentic autonomy and decision-making. They're used to -- and so the reason that I insisted that Potter Thomas go through this process is, I really did want them to look at all their 54 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 choices, because I felt that tension that was there that to become a Promise Academy without looking at others. So I hope that they will, the parents in particular -- that's why they're 51 percent of the School Advisory Council are parents. I hope that they will look at all of them. That's what I've said to them, because they've tried to pressure me to go back, and I said, I want you to look at all of the options, because there's some good options for you there. So we'll see what they -- it goes back and forth.
They've been through four principals in five years, so there's this issue around every time they start liking their principal -- because the first six months, they're doing a song and dance, the courtship. So, again, they're very well-intentioned. I think the principal there is very good, and I thought last year's principal, as I expressed to you, had a lot of potential. 55 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 It's always about the supports and the pieces that you put around it. So we'll be looking at that particular one, because I think what we do or not do in there could put us back a year or two.
And the strongest component again of the success at Potter Thomas will be the bilingual education piece. That's the largest concentration of first-generation Spanish speakers. So that's a challenge. Again, this is -- it's a whole new ball game, but I did want to put on the record how different this whole process has been than when we went through the restructuring of schools and how important that is. I think -- I don't want to minimize that importance of that 56 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 initiative. I wanted to add one thing as it related to that, the healthy initiatives. Clearly, I'm very pleased at what Welsh has been doing and Fairhill School, which is where the First Lady visited. I was wondering about how we are spreading that throughout the curriculum. Was there anything different? I know we've always had a health initiative at the School District. I'm very curious to see how that's being infused in the curriculum to support it.
Linda, who is Linda Chen, who is Deputy for Teaching and Learning.
Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, most of these initiatives are being piloted in the 7th Councilmanic District, I want you to know, these healthy initiatives. We're very proud of them.
The rest of the City will follow your lead. 57 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Good morning. I'm Linda Chen. I'm Deputy Chief of Teaching and Learning. And can you just restate your question again?
I wanted to know how the healthy initiatives is being infused throughout the curriculum.
We have -- it is infused through the regular health curriculum that's taught by our health and phys ed teachers. In addition, we have health educators, as Wayne Grasela mentioned earlier, in about 176 of our schools, and that has been a nationally recognized program. Most recently, we've partnered with The Food Trust and the National Dairy Council around an initiative where students were leading the charge in terms of nutrition education in their buildings. So they worked with cafeteria 58 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 staff and their teachers and their peers to really promote healthy eating and physical fitness.
I want to encourage us to continue that. I think as we talk about your capital plan, just having water fountains and the importance of water, it's really basic, simple stuff and it doesn't cost a whole lot of money, but it really goes a long way. So thank you. One last thing. Any updates -- I know that we did some school closures around our feeder patterns. Again, I'm busting at the seams all over the district, so I have a great concern about our future feeder pattern. Have we made progress on that?
That's an important part of our master facilities planning process, and as I said, our goal is to have this completed by December. We'll come back to you. And we'll also -- I'd like to invite you to have 59 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 members of your staff be a part of this committee also.
On feeder patterns, okay. One last thing as it related to the Success Academies. As a successful participant of a career exploration program and having the opportunity to do that as early as Year '14 --I know that Councilman Jones has a bill around the internships -- I'm really interested in any other ways we can help support that. I know I have students in my office all year long and in the summer too, figuring out what other things we could be doing here in Council to help promote that.
You're quite welcome. 60 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Councilman Kenney.
Two things I'd like you to check out for me. First, as it relates to capital projects and the worthwhile goals of minority inclusion and female inclusion, majority firms often run into the problem of not having enough minority firms that are pre-qualified by the District. I don't know why that is the case, whether it's a very difficult process, whether people aren't aware of it, but when firms are calling around trying to find their minority partners to make their goals, a lot of them tell folks that they're not pre-qualified. So I don't know what the reason for that is, and I'm sure you don't know the answer right now, but if there's some way to expedite that process to do some type of outreach, fairs, 61 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 whatever, to get these firms, architecture, engineering firms, involved in the process, it makes it much easier to meet the goals. And I think it's been very difficult to meet the goals because there's just not enough of them around. That speaks to a whole other problem of STEM and what we're doing getting kids science, technology and all that stuff, and engineering, and that's a longer-term goal.
But the firms that are available for use now to partner with and to mentor are not pre-qualified, many of them, and it's really difficult to find them. So if you could ask your folks to take a look at that, that would be helpful.
And half of Councilwoman Blackwell -- I didn't say anything to her about this yet, but while I recognize that West Philly is a 62 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Renaissance school and you're going to do what you need to do to get that school straightened out, within the school is an extremely, as you know, extremely popular and well-known, nationally recognized club, hybrid automotive club, and I really want to make sure you protect them, because -- I mean, I've -- when I first met those kids, I was knocked over. I went there on a Saturday in the summer and the place was filled with kids wanting to learn, telling me about things that they've been doing. I had no clue what they were talking about, but I was just nodding my head and thanking them for exposing me to this. And they've been in here before and been honored nationally, and I know within the process of Renaissance school, whatever happens there is going to happen, but I really need you to make sure that you shelter them as best as you can.
They're on my radar screen. 63 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Thank you very much, Councilman. Councilwoman Brown, you're next.
Thank you. I was not following closely enough regarding the hiring freeze. What was your response to the question where does the hiring freeze apply?
It applies to all of the schools but the Renaissance schools or the Promise Academies, because the Renaissance schools -- the other schools will go under a charter provider.
And so what is the recourse for principals who may have already made a commitment to teachers?
Well, what we've asked them is to put that on hold right now. The problem that we have is with 64 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 the -- until we stabilize and know where the teachers are going to go, they all have to be interviewed to go to different positions. Some of the principals -- sorry. Some of the teachers in our Renaissance schools are great teachers. So I don't want people to assume that because they're in a Renaissance school, that they're not a great teacher.
Some of them are going to want to come back. Some can't because the new schedule for the longer day and the longer year doesn't work with them. These are great teachers. They're going to make other choices. What we want to do is that those young people get a fair -- I mean, those teachers get a fair opportunity to interview for jobs that are open first. And they have to interview, so nobody has to take them, but we want them at least to get the opportunity to interview first, and then we'll open it up again. 65 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 But that would be a problem if we just -- we didn't -- because people just have a tendency to say all those teachers are bad. They won't even look at them. So we wanted to protect their right to be given an interview, to be given an interview first, and then we can open it up. So we've asked principals to -- we've put this hiring freeze in. And the other thing we don't want, especially in these economic times, is to have a lot of teachers, an overage of teachers because people didn't pick them because they thought they were tainted by the Renaissance label. So that's what that was about, trying to be proactive on behalf of those teachers who work in those schools and deserve an opportunity to get an interview for open spots, but to be fiscally responsible also.
Surely. (Witness approached witness table.) 66 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
My name is Estelle Matthews. I am the Chief Talent and Development Officer. We're also going to hold a job fair for the current teachers in the system, just for them, and that job fair will probably take place on the 21st, if that's a Saturday, Saturday after next.
When you say currently in the system, you mean currently teaching, not have applied?
Current teachers in our system that have been force transferred.
Oh, in the Renaissance schools, okay. Thank you for your testimony. 67 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120