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
We actually looked at the data for those who have been site selected already, and the majority of the teachers that have been site selected are already teachers in our system. They're not new teachers. It was a very small percentage, maybe of 10 those site selected were new teachers, 11 but the majority were internal teachers 12 already. 13
Can I say 15 something? Because I know there was much to be made about the fact that we've had these job fairs, and I think they have been fantastic. We had fewer teachers retire this year also, much fewer, about 400 teachers so far. Usually we'd have 1,000 in the course of -- now, maybe the economic times and people aren't willing at this point to retire. But, again, looking at all the data, we had those two goals in mind. We wanted to be fair to 68 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 those teachers who have a right to work here and interview and to be fiscally responsible, on the other hand, while at the same time making sure we had enough teachers in our pool so that we could open school like we did last year with very few openings.
That needs to be commended and should not go unrecognized. Could we please have your professional speak about this new -- first of all, is this a new department, Institutional Advancement and Strategic Partnerships?
Yes, it is a new department. Actually, we've had it as an isolated department under Strategic Partnerships, but we wanted to bring all of our abilities to garner inside the District -- I mean, outside the District resources. So this is an opportunity for us to put all of our grant writing together. It's now all over the District 69 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 and there's no coherent strategy for how we go for or write grants. (Witness approached witness table.)
This is Lee Nunery, and I could have him tell you about his job.
It's been about five weeks, I guess, since I joined the District, so I've got a little bit more tenure than my other colleague, but it's been terrific to be with the District and to run this newly formed unit, Institutional Advancement and Strategic Partnerships. We're concentrating, as Dr. Ackerman said, on a number of different things, including how to gather resources efficiently, how to build our alliances and our relationships and maybe, more importantly, to create some 70 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 new programming that will attract new resources. To date, we have accomplished about $67 million in total funding against the $60 million goal.
Those are new dollars and/or repeats of grants that we compete for. And increasingly, as Mike Masch said yesterday, the world of grants is becoming competitive either from the federal government and/or from private sources. So we have to be much more organized and well-placed in terms of how we go after those sources. What is great about the folks that I've come to work with is that they already have a satisfaction rate of 85 percent from principals and from central office based on survey in terms of being good or excellent resources. Our hit rate is about 75 percent, so --
What kind of rate? 71 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Our hit rate, our success rate, is about 75 percent. So three-quarters of the time that we go after a grant, we are successful in obtaining those funds. But that means that there's a lot more that's expected in order to make sure that Phases One and Two of Imagine 2014 get accomplished, and we're well on our way.
The parent ombudsman initiative, how -- are those Title I dollars, or no?
So that suggests then that there is no end window in the continuation of that program?
Was that not a new initiative under your leadership, Dr. Ackerman? 72 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Well, the parent ombudsman position, because I really believe that parent involvement is to critical to sustain change in a school system, was -- what we found in our lowest performing schools, and we call them our empowerment schools, we found that those schools had very low parent involvement and the parents weren't engaged. We wanted the parents to be engaged, and we believe that having somebody on the staff of a school or in a regional office or even in my office -- I have a parent ombudsman in my office -- somebody who can reach out to those parents, visit them in their homes, take them to the place that they need to go to get glasses for their children, these -- the people who work in schools as parent ombudsmen are extraordinary people. Their jobs are hard. They don't work in 73 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 a traditional 8:30 to 3:00 job. They're in those homes in the evening, on the weekends. And I can't say enough about this program, but neither can the principals in schools. And, in fact, we see that some of our other schools are now hiring parent ombudsmen out of their funds, because they've made such a tremendous difference in engaging parents.
Well, I need to underscore that and report that I'm very much aware of that, having spoken with principals who have them in their school, and they -- you could easily equate them to social workers that become extended eyes and ears for the school in trying to wrap your arms around young people who are lacking some of those supports.
And the parents will share with the parent ombudsmen, who are often parents, things that they won't share with the staff, the principal and 74 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 the teachers because they're embarrassed or they don't want -- they don't want anybody to know their personal situations, but they will share it with the parent ombudsmen and they see that person as really somebody there for them.
So is Title I a stand-alone entity or will it also fall under your leadership?
The Title I, the compliance piece, will fall under -- the compliance piece, making sure that we are following the rules and regulations, will fall under --
Mr. Nunery. I thought you said Nutter. But the actual program piece is in another part of the organization. The ombudsmen actually fall under our Parent and Community Engagement.
Okay. Councilman Green, you raised 75 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 questions yesterday about the early childhood centers; is that not so? I don't want to repeat if you already covered that topic.
Are there plans to extend the offerings of the child care?
Well, there are two. The parent -- I mean, the child care centers, I believe there are five scheduled over the next five years. We've opened one last year -- or this year. We'll open another one this year. One every year we'll open. Those are our plans. They're regional early childhood centers. And then we'll have the Parent Resource Centers where parents can come in, get their children assessed 76 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 if they're immigrant children, families who don't speak English, and then the whole enrollment process will take place at the Parent Centers. Then we have Parent Resource Centers where parents can come in and pick up books and other materials to work with their children at home.
Well, to follow up on Councilwoman Sanchez's interest raised around the fact that the seams of her district are exploding, is one, when you look at strategically, in her Councilmanic District as well?
There will be one in that district. We are looking at where there are demographics that show that there is a growth of population or there is a high need.
Previous testimony, your young professional said that there are 176 schools of a total of what? The young lady that was there prior to Mr. Tomas. She said there were 77 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 176 schools. What are the total number of schools?
So in instances where you have extraordinary programs and that they're not systemwide, what are some of the factors that you consider that help those schools gain that opportunity, and what role do principals have in that process?
Successful as it relates to the additional programming.
I'm trying not to answer the question while I ask it. 78 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Is it fair to say that where you have exceedingly strong leadership in the school; i.e., principals, that you have less incidence of young people in the principal's office, you have stronger parent associations there? There are other indicators that might reflect that but for this strong principal, these things might not be happening.
Absolutely. I think that -- my third core belief is that victory is in the classroom, but it's facilitated by a strong principal. I really believe that. And I show you a good school, I'll show you not only good teachers, but I'll show you an extraordinary principal who knows how to work with those teachers and the school. So you're absolutely right. One of the things we've done is, in the School Performance Index, 79 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 we've not only identified our lowest performing schools, we've identified our highest performing schools. We call them vanguard schools, and we're using those schools as examples of what good schools look like. And they're not all the special admit schools, believe it or not. They're actually schools -- a lot of them are schools that look like the Renaissance schools, or they used to, and I think that's important. And when we took our parents on their bus trips in the District, we took them to some of those schools to say, These schools have the same student population as your school, but they're achieving at higher levels, what's going on in those schools. And we actually gave parents a little script to check to see what they saw. What did you see, was it strong in that school. So we gave them a cheat sheet so they would know what they were looking at. I think we have to continue to 80 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 do that to show schools and -- to show the parents what schools look like that are really high-achieving schools, what the principals are doing, what the teachers are doing, what the children are doing in those classrooms. And it was interesting, because parents have said to me that that was a fascinating process, to get a chance to go into a school that's really working, with young people who look like the young people in their child's school, but they saw a very different school. Even when they took the tours of the charter schools, I think they went to Aspira, they went to Mastery, they loved those tours, and I have found that they just don't know because they've not seen what great schools look like.
Well, I believe that covers all of my questions. Let me ask that you continue to keep Council informed about opportunities to be engaged and what's happening 81 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 throughout the District, and I personally commend you for the enormous mountain you have climbed with the 2014.
Thank you. You're very welcome. Councilman Jones.
Thank you. And you show great endurance. Two days of this is more than I think I could bear. A couple of quick questions. Last year we talked about joint developments, and in context it was about better planning between your organization, the City of Philadelphia and other organizations on how to develop capital buildings, infrastructure and put programs where people are. To that end, I wanted to find out -- you had mentioned in your 82 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 testimony that there would be a committee looking at that, and I do know that you're going into your capital formation planning phase. What I would love to look at is areas where we could get more out of capital investment, both in the City's point of view, whether it is a school that shares space with a college where adults are educated at in evening hours and young people are in the day, or a health center, recreation centers, and to kind of, in these tough economic times when the public is looking to us to be creative and be resourceful by way of spending their dollars, how that has progressed.
Well, I'm going to ask Tomas to talk about some of the City collaborations, but we are still very much supportive and want to be engaged in how to use joint uses of space. We have 43,000 extra seats. I think there are things that we could do without closing schools. There are 83 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 combined spaces that we can use for the City services. My thoughts are, as yours, if you have those services in the schools, then you have a captive audience, and we're serving the same clients. I also want to talk about the fact that we are working with PHA on the development of the recreational center, the Lucien Blackwell Recreational Center. The District is -- but it's come a long way. We now finally have -- we're moving forward, but it's a great project for what we can do if we work with other agencies. And that's not -- that's the first big project that we're getting off the ground with PHA, but we have -- the City Recreation will help us with it, but actually the building of it is going to be between the District and PHA. And that's not the -- that's the first, not the only project that we're going to undertake with PHA. They're actually going to help us with one of the -- with 84 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 University City as one of the models -- I mean, the partners in their turnaround. So it can happen. It is happening. I know we have some other things that we've done that Tomas will talk about, because we have been working with the City on some of these joint collaborative opportunities, these opportunities to collaborate together.
Before you start, this is in conjunction with my earlier question about the vo-tech schools and as we look at areas like Randolph Skill Center that has an aging infrastructure, outdated probably a bit, not as techie as it should be, as we design new vo-tech schools, that we can incorporate, inculcate these services in our design. So as you speak to these collaborations with the Health Department, rec centers and others, PHA, 85 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 we should keep in mind a couple of things. One, where populations are growing, where they are shrinking, and keep demand where it is growing and where it is shrinking in our planning phase.
One of the other things I wanted to say in relationship to our focus on CTE schools as we are -- for next year we have in our budget a new position and it's a Deputy's position, a Deputy Chief position that will look -- will be there specifically to guide us into the next decade in developing and modernizing and updating our career technical high schools. So that's a new position that's going to be in the District for next year.
Again, Tomas Hanna, Chief of Staff. Thank you for the question. There are a number of areas where we've been working with our partners with the City. I'll give you a couple of examples that were at a high level, sort of made 86 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 it to the middle part of the organization, and now we're sort of diving into schools. Recently, the District hosted with DHS a town hall meeting where we were able to bring our ten Regional Superintendents and their key staffs, their regional parent ombudsmen and other positions in their offices that support parents regarding human services and other types of supports. And we started a very good conversation around how stuff should work, right? What we learned shortly thereafter during a principal's roundtable with the Superintendent was that while that discussion was very rich and important, we need to figure out if we're figuring out how to get those folks to talk to principals and lead teachers and other folks in buildings to ensure that the connection happens. Because we know that change happens in schools. That's where the young people are. So we've, over the last three years, talked 87 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 at the Commissioner's level, at the Superintendant's level in terms of what needs to be happening around the Department of Human Services, what needs to be happening with the courts, working much more closely with Judge Dougherty in terms of attendance and truancy. But the bottom line is, how does change happen at the school level, and we need to have the conversation going north-south. We've gotten to a much better place with the data sharing and things of that nature, so we're very encouraged there, but, again, when we met with our principals and realized that some of the information wasn't filtering down, we realized that there was a step we're missing. We're working to correct that. Within the next few weeks, we're going to a sampling of our school principals and their key staff to come to the table and talk to the leaders of our City partners so that we have a sense of what needs to be happening. 88 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 Another area, the Superintendent mentioned Summer Learning and More, our expanded summer opportunities. We're working closely again with the City to align the work of the out-of-school-time work that's happened, so that the after-school opportunities being offered during the summer are aligned to what we're doing in the District, so that summer doesn't have to end at o'clock. Summer in fact could end at o'clock as we ensure that the specific sites, families are aware of everything that's available. So that's been strong in terms of collaboration. Yesterday, there was a discussion around the PSAs in the 24th and the 25th -- 24th and 26th District where in the East Region of the City, we've been partnering with the Police Department, we've been partnering with the probation officers, and we've been partnering with schools, so that a young person who may be on probation and is 89 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 truant is returned to his or her school, and we make use of the in-school suspension option to work with the young person to ensure that we're supporting them and meeting their needs, so that that collaboration is happening, and we're looking forward to expanding that as well. So we see a lot of work that, again, may not be newsworthy, but certainly we believe as we learn more about it is helping families and young people in our city.
I understand that line of thinking by way of programs and application of service. I'd like that to extend as well to physical planning. As we -- as I traveled in the district and we went through an exercise a couple years back about our libraries and our infrastructure there, and in that exercise, they talked about the proximity between a library and a rec center and a school, library, rec center and a school, 90 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 and that many of those constituents were the same, young people. And in our future design, not that we're going to get rid of libraries, but we could imagine a day with a library, which is a capital project, is connected to the new school, which is a capital project, which is connected to the recreation center, which is a capital project, and in so doing, design savings that could come from that. And as we start to think a little more collectively, maybe we can do that. And I think that as you start to plan your capital projects, let's see how creative we can be, because, again, a community college that is educating some of the at-risk young people that managed to find their way out of your system, find their way into their system in the same building. That could be a novel approach.
All right. 91 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 I think the City Planning Commission should also be in that group of thinkers to do that, and obviously we need to involve our District Councilpeople and maybe even one or two at-large. All right?
Thank you very much. You mention in-school suspension. How is that working out?
We have it now in 90 schools, I believe -- 54 schools, and the goal this next year is to expand that program.
Yes. It is working well. It got off to a slow start, but now they're up and running in the schools, and our goal is to expand it next year. 92 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Thank you, Madam Chair. I pretty much covered the field of my questions yesterday. There were several items that -- questions that you were going to answer and provide to the Chair. I'm not asking you to do that now, but I would just like to know how long you think it will take to put that information together. Is it realistic to expect it by the middle of next week, Wednesday or so?
We'll try to get everything in a week. Our goal is to try to get everything that you've asked for within a week from this hearing today. If we can't, we'll give you everything that we've done and give you a date certain for the remaining work. But the overwhelming majority of it we should be able to do. 93 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120
Thank you very much. Are there any further questions? (No response.)
Excuse me. Before you recess, I wanted to just make a comment.
Councilman Kenney is gone, but yesterday he brought up South Philly, and then last night -- a comment that I made about South Philly and the cameras, the fact that we spent almost a million dollars on cameras, I want to put that in context just for the record and not let the news media spin this story into something that it isn't. We did install 114 new cameras, 94 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 but there were only cameras at that school, South Philadelphia High School. And if you --
We installed 114 8 inside of the school. So now they have 9 137 new cameras. And yesterday this 10 issue of equity came up, so I want to 11 tell you that if you compare 23 cameras 12 that they had before we put in the new 13 cameras to the other schools, Lincoln 14 High School, which has the same -- about 15 approximately the same square footage, 16 had 160 cameras. Fels High School had 17 160, and Sayre High School, which has a 18 smaller square footage, 200,000, had 118 19 cameras. 20 So putting in 114 new cameras 21 shouldn't have outraged or made anybody 22 upset. We should be, to me, happy that 23 we are addressing this issue of equity for South Philly, which at that time certainly needed to have those cameras, 95 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 surveillance cameras, put in place. And the building is 54 years old. It's more than 300,000 square feet with five floors, and cameras was simply not 6 enough. 7 So I wanted to make sure that 8 that was addressed and it was on the 9 record, because I heard something was on 10 the news last night that we spent a 11 million dollars. We had already spent a 12 million dollars on at least three other 13 schools or more that were comparable 14 sizes. 15
Thank 20 you very much. 21 If there are no further 22 questions, then this hearing will be 23 recessed until 1:30. We still have two people we're trying to reach to see if we can't get the 5:30 group to come to 1:30. 96 5/11/10 - WHOLE - BILLS 100119 & 100120 The other handful are there. So if we can get in touch with them, that would be our last public testimony, and then the entire bill will be voted out when the other tax bills are, which is 5/13 at noon. So after the public hearing, we'll recess that until 5/13 at noon when all tax bills will be considered. So then we'll see folks at 1:30. We thank you all.
Thank you. (Luncheon recess.) * * * 97 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET (Second-shift stenographer Josephine Cardillo relieves first-shift stenographer Michele Murphy.)
Thank you. Good afternoon. The hearing will be reconvened, the hearing with regard to the School District budget concerning. Bill No.'s 100119 and 100120 dealing with the School District budget will be heard. This is our public hearing part of this issue, and we are happy and welcome everyone who is here to testify. The first person is Sheila Simmons, Education Director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth. We welcome you, please come forward. Thank you for being here. When you testify, please give your name for the record and begin your testimony. Again, thank you all for coming. (Witness comes forward.)
Thank you. Good 98 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET afternoon, Councilmembers and Chairwoman Blackwell.
My name is Sheila Simmons. I'm the Education Director for PCCY, Public Citizens for Children and Youth. I'd like to start by saying that there is much for the School District to celebrate among increased resources and systemic improvements, from smaller class sizes to more counselors and liaisons, to a new teacher-evaluation system, to expanded arts and music, to centers taking targeted approaches to early-childhood education, to immigrant students and English-language learners. Finally, a summer of enrichment at neighborhood schools in collaboration with the City hopefully awaits thousands of students this summer. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET support Bill No. 100120 authorizing real-estate taxes for School District purposes. However, in terms of budget items, we would like to bring your attention to a decrease of 27 positions in the area of climate and behavioral support. I am admittedly unsure of the reasoning behind this decrease, but I am sure that climate and behavioral support remains areas in which we, as a school system, have not turned a corner. In the month of March alone, the School Reform Commission voted on 37 expulsion recommendations; and even with these recommendations, PCCY continues to field weekly phone calls from parents whose children have been bullied and their cries for help ignored. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET should operate based on agreed-upon expectations and appropriate and graduated consequences for misbehavior. We agree that kids respond to modeling reinforcement and positive acknowledgment of good behavior. But how to implement such a framework remains an unmet challenge in most of our schools. I hope the District and the future directs more resources towards how to implement steps to achieve environments productive for learning and teaching. We are thankful that school officials are increasingly aware of the negative results of missed learning opportunities in the third grade, in the sixth grade, but we call on everyone to recognize that we have many 9th-, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-graders for whom the system has already failed. They're approaching graduation while performing at a 3rd-grade reading level. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET in our older grades PCCY would like to call attention to the work of multiple pathways to graduation. This work, certainly helped along by a broad citywide collaborated termed "Project U-Turn," acknowledges that too many of our kids are overaged and under-credited for the classes they occupy, and it does provide them with the accelerating learning academies Multiple pathways to graduation and the District's alternative schools acknowledge that some students need smaller, more personalized environments but do not need to be completely removed from a familiar setting, and this worked resulted in the Oasis programs inside our neighborhood schools. This work acknowledges that juveniles returning from detention need an education but have a 70 to 90 percent chance of dropping out. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET hands-on, skill-based training programs run by personnel familiar with the challenges of these young people. And when young people who have dropped out, or who are on the verge of dropping out, don't know where to go, the Reengagement Center welcomes them with up-to-date academic records, counseling, literacy and numeracy assessments, and a school placement as closely tailored for their skill sets as much as possible. Among young people, the Reengagement Center is a hit; among other school districts across the country, it's a hit. We commend the District for expanding the Reengagement Center work to another satellite office, and we would love to hear the new center being promoted. In accelerated programs, nearly 97 percent of students have zero out-of- school suspensions and zero serious incidents.
10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET first place in which they have found someone who cares about them and who cares about whether they learn. I encourage you to visit these programs. Philadelphia shouldn't be the last ones to know when we have a good thing going. Thank you for your past support of our school children, and I hope that you'll continue to invest in them. Thank you.
Thank you, Miss Simmons. We note that Councilman Greenlee and Councilwoman Sanchez, Councilwoman Miller, Councilman Bill 18 Green is here and Councilman Rizzo is here. And they have been here for all of our hearings and we say thank you to them as well. Are there any questions for Miss Simmons? Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank 104 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I want to thank the whole team at PCCY. I wanted to ask you something that you mentioned here because I was recently approached, and I know since you do such great work in Harrisburg around bullying legislation; New Jersey has it, Oregon.
Have you done any work on that? Is there any appetite at the State for it?
We certainly advocate for a number of prevention programs, and so long as schools have a prevention program, we generally are supportive of that. There is the Olweus bullying prevention program that I know is in a number of our local schools.
It's called the 105 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET "Olweus." O-L-V-Y-U-S? I don't know.
And it is a nationally-recognized bullying-prevention program; research-proven, it has a lot of stats behind it. And we certainly have that in place in some Philadelphia schools, but we certainly need that program and other types of programs in our schools. We have not advocated for it at the State level. We have advocated for positive behavior support, which is also a national framework; it's in more than 10,000 schools nationwide. PCCY works with the School District to co-convene a PBS citywide leadership team, and we are working with a cohort of 90 schools on implementing that. But we support PBS, Olweus bullying prevention. There are other models: Responsive classrooms, restorative practices. Sometimes schools need to 106 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET choose which one is right for their school and their population. But there are certainly a number of them that have shown that research shows them to be effective.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for all your work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you too. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Any other questions? (No further questions.)
Next is Miss Cecilia Thompson, the Philadelphia Right to Education Local Task Force. (Witness comes forward.)
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I didn't get a chance to make copies of my testimony, but I can leave this for individuals to view when I'm 107 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET finished. I'm sorry. I was coming from an IEP meeting for another family, so...
My name is Cecilia Thompson, and I'm the Chairperson of the Philadelphia Right to Education Local Task Force, a State-mandated organization which provides systemic advocacy for students with disabilities attending public and charter schools in Philadelphia. I am here today in support of those aspects of the budget which have promoted parent involvement, training, and extra resources, particularly those relating to special education. As of this year, the District has a dedicated special education liaison part-time and elementary schools at full-time and the high schools. These individuals are the point person in the schools regarding special education. They have also been made available 108 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET reading and math interventions. The staff in the Office of Specialized Instructional Services has been available promote trainings so parents are empowered at their IET meetings. Extended school year has been restructured, where reading and math are mandatory, and enrichment is included for our students. There have been more efforts to train staff to identify those students deemed as high-incident students, which are learning support, emotional support, speech, et cetera, for extended school year services. Additionally, at every school open for the summer, there will be one person trained in special-education instruction and State and federal law to ensure special-education students attending summer programs have the supports and services needed to be successful. I do need for you to be concerned about the potential school 109 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET closings based on the now 44,000 extra spaces. Last year, it was 33,000. How are these numbers derived, and who is leaving the District? While it is true students are attending charter schools, there are a number of children in your districts attending schools which are full to capacity. Also, the District still has annexes. I know of two schools -- Samuel Gompers and Thomas Morton -- who have annexes and have witnessed parents upset and children teased by other children because they are not in the "real" school. Before schools are closed, let's close these annexes, which are often smaller classrooms, than those in the schools. Lastly, there will be a need for self-contained classes for students with disability whose IEP dictates this need. We need to have enough schools to have room for these classes and all of the other wonderful classes for students 110 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET in the District. As to the families moving out the City, this does not pertain middle- and low-income families, which is the majority of the City. Most of us cannot afford to move, so we have to stay here to have our children educated. I would suggest either waiting the upcoming census report or a consultation -- or the District having a consultation with those members of City Council where the school is potentially being closed, to ensure children will not be placed in a overcrowded school, and there is a discussion about impact on the community. Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak and for your continued support of the School District budget.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for Miss Thompson? 111 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET (No questions or comments.)
Thank you again. Miss Jamira Burley, Chairwoman, Philadelphia Youth Commission. We welcome you and again offer our congratulations. (Witness comes forward.)
Feel free to identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Good afternoon, members of City Council. My name is Jamira Burley, the Chairwoman of the Philadelphia Youth Commission. As I mentioned, I am the Chairwoman of the Philadelphia Youth Commission as well as a senior at Temple University. And for those who may not know, the Philadelphia Youth Commission was voted into the Home Rule Charter in 2007 by three-fourths of the voters in Philadelphia. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and a group of young people, who saw that there was a need in Philadelphia to have a voice in city government. The Youth Commission, which represents ages to 8 23, with 21 members, 17 whom are 9 appointed by City Council members and 4 10 appointed by the Mayor. 11 I would first like to thank you 12 for your continuous support on the 13 development of young people and allowing them to be at the table of discussion when decisions about their future are being made. "No Decision About Me Without Me" is the model that the Youth Commission continues to stand by. As I'm testifying before you today, it is evident that that model has been brought to full fruition. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET well the need for a quality education system to take place here, in Philadelphia. Being the first of one of 6 children to graduate high school and to 7 attend college, I have witnessed the 8 damaging effects when resources for 9 educational opportunities are not readily 10 available for Philadelphia youth. Where 11 positive options are scarce, many 12 Philadelphia natives are forced to look 13 for alternative ways to feed and 14 financially support their families. 15 The work of the current 16 superintendent, Dr. Arlene Ackerman, has shown me that there is hope for the betterment of our school system and the development of our young people. Dr. Ackerman is doing the job that few would volunteer for and that few would be successful at, which is to educate the very people who will one day fill the seats that I now see before me. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET brighter future. Dr. Ackerman, with the collaboration of Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Director of Office of College and Career Awareness, has worked to give our youth a voice in the decision process, which has taken place through the work of Citywide Student Government and their Attack Truancy Campaign, their census initiatives, and their many different initiatives that focus on youth problems. This leadership opportunity has allowed for students to be at the forefront of issues that affect them directly, issues such as violence in education. Over the past year, the implementation of the School District's Imagine 2014, a five-year plan, has taken hold of our district and has started to reshape the very idea of education in our city. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET generation I personally have a stake in this because I have five younger brothers and sisters who are either in elementary, middle, or high school, who, like many other Philadelphia students, they not only want an education but they deserve a better education. Why should the fundamentals of their young life hang in the balance of a price tag. The strides the School District has made over the last year is largely due to the amount of funding that they have received through federal stimulus, funds that are only good for a two-year time period dealing with the Fiscal Year 2009 to 2010 and Fiscal Year 2010 to 2011, funds that will need to be supplemented if the District continues to provide quality education to our youth. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET sometimes go unfulfilled.
And, lastly, think about the legacy of the City and where it will be in twenty years if we don't first educate our youth We respectfully request that you vote yes for Council Bill 100120, which authorizes the imposition of an annual tax for School District purposes on real estate within the City of Philadelphia and Council Bill 100119. We thank you for your continuous support of young people across the City of Philadelphia, and we thank you for your continuous support of the Philadelphia Youth Commission. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Congratulations again. Are there any questions? (No questions or comments.)
117 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET Miss Danita Bates. Is Judith Robinson here? Oh, I see you now, yes. (Witness comes forward.)
Please identify yourself for the record again and begin your testimony.
Yes. My name's Danita Bates, and I'm a parent and youth advocate and a community activist for the (indiscernible) Duckery and the surrounding schools in North Philadelphia. May I also give you copies of what I last gave at the SRC meeting?
Yes. We would be happy to receive it. Feel free to identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Yes. Danita Bates. 118 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET I'm a parent and youth advocate for North Philadelphia youth and schools and a community activist. I just had a few issues. There are a lot of issues that's going on in our district. Mostly what I hear is that it's not enough funding or funds for our schools. Particularly, we're only funded by how many youth are in a school. We now don't have a librarian in our school, and there are librarians in many schools. So I'm really just asking for the resources to go back into our schools and into our communities for all schools. The resources, what I mean is music classes and math and reading and literacy, phonics especially so our youth can start learning again and reading at 3rd grade or 4th grade. Kids are starting to read in pre-K class, believe it or not, and now it's not happening because the resources are not there or they're not providing them with the 119 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET resources for our youth. Also for our special needs and special-education students, they don't have the resources that they need, so we need all of the monies to go back into the resources in our schools for our students and to our community. It's a lot of schools that are being sold for dollars and being torn down. At the end of the day, our community is not getting anything, the schools isn't getting anything, nor are the youth. So my basic complaint and my presence of being here is for our youth in our community.
Thank you very much. We appreciate all your work and your advocacy on the part of parents and children. Are there any questions? (No questions or comments.)
Thank you very much. 120 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET
My name is Judith Robinson, and I'm here today to hopefully find some money for the School Board; I know it's much needed. But before I get to that very important point, even with all of the money that has been spent so far, I'm really shocked to find out that after eight years of our governor, who I was always under the impression had an emphasis on early-childhood education, I just got a Governor's Report, where out of all the 52 counties in Pennsylvania, Fayette County and Philadelphia County are the worst as it relates to our childhood getting -- our children getting a good education, preschool education. 121 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET There are seven risk factors, they say, and Philadelphia has the highest, along with Fayette County. I just couldn't understand how we could compare to this small county as it relates to these risk factors, when we have a governor who was focusing on this early childhood. So I really think we need to focus, because if a child starts off negatively wrong, out of order, and are not learning by the time, you all keep saying, till they get to 4th grade, if they don't read by 4th grade, then they are not going to be able to -- they'll be eligible are for prisons. Well, it looks like we are creating this environment. You know, it's like we are allowing this to happen. According to documents and information in the Philadelphia newspaper, 60 percent of our youth are not reading on grade level. I want to put this in the record because this is a document that 122 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET our State Representative Jewell Williams came to our community with. He had it for two years. It's about the children at Duckery School. We came to a meeting, trying to find out about the land deal that we'll discuss a little later, and he brought this information to us, showing that school children at Duckrey School are not reading on a proficient level. And it's disgraceful, with all this money being spent, that we are not doing a job now. It's truly unfortunate. But so, I'm going to leave that there and let you all deal with that because I think you all really need to focus on why our children are suffering from these seven risk factors that make Philadelphia and Fayette County the highest in childhood negativity, let's call it, okay, where our children are not taking advantage of early-childhood education. As it relates to funding -- funding, funding, funding -- after the 123 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET stimulus dollars are not here, what are we to do? Well, I could tell you what we could do: We could stop selling land for one dollar, stop selling buildings for less than fair market value, because according to the documents, the resolution at the SRC that they passed back in October of 2009, when they sold, or were attempting to sell, land at Tanner Duckrey, behind Tanner Duckrey School, for New Courtland, they were trying to push that deal through. I'm glad it did not go through. But nevertheless, they were trying to push that deal through for $1. Here's an organization with over $110 million in assets, and the School District and the City Council Public Property and Public Works Committee were trying to move that deal to sell the land for $1. Sell it at fair market value, put that money into educating our children. 124 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET (Applause.)
There are a lot of deals going on as it relates to real-estate land and buildings. I think somebody needs to focus in on land and building sales to make sure that money is going back into the School Board budget. I love the way the resolution 10 was written for that. I would encourage you all to go get a copy of it, because every one -- every deal should be written like that, because the money would go back into the school system for our children. So I just want to make sure you all are focusing on that. No more dollar deals. Sell the land, sell the building, get the most you can. If you need help, I'll be glad to put my years of real estate experience 21 on the table to show you how to can get 22 the most you can. 23 Land and real estate in 24 Philadelphia is a value, even in the 25 poorest neighborhoods. Get the money, 125 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET give it to our children; and then with the money, teach our children. Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else to testify at this time? (No response.)
Seeing none, this committee will be recessed until 5:30. We have two people on the list who staff could not reach; therefore, we will have testimony again at 5:30 p.m. After that, again we will have hearings on the 13th, at noon, with regard to all budget bills. Thank you again. (Committee stands in recess.) (Proceedings resume at 5:40 p.m.)
Good 126 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET evening. This is Jannie Blackwell we're in Council chambers for any Councilpersons who are in the building. We are ready to begin our evening testimony on the School District budget. Thank you very much. Again, if you're interested, please report to the chambers. Thank you. Good evening. We will resume our school budget public testimony portion of our hearings. We will now invite Ms. Carol Heinsdorf. We welcome you and invite you to introduce yourself and begin your testimony. (Witness comes forward.)
Thank you very much. And because you don't see people in the chambers doesn't mean they're not in their offices. They're watching Channel 64.
Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell. 127 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET
Yes. Councilmembers, I am Carol Heinsdorf, do President-Elect of the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians. of your handout states that strong library programs increase student test scores and academic achievement. Certified librarians teach critical thinking and research skills. They co-teach and with classroom teachers and manage the library. Strong school libraries require a full-time certified librarian, current and adequate resources, open hours, an inviting facility, and a budget adequate to purchase all of the above. Now, 76 percent -- out of Philadelphia public schools -- do not have a certified librarian, usually are in poor condition, have outdated resources, and may be closed and locked. On of the handout, there 128 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET are 70 Philadelphia public schools with librarians out of 284 schools; meaning there are 214 schools with anywhere from 94 to 118,000 students each year without a library or librarian. quotes Imagine 2014, which says, "District resources will be allocated equitably during the annual budget process." That did not happen for school libraries this year, and at least three high school librarians have been force-transferred for the upcoming school year of, which I am one. quotes research supporting the role of school libraries in student academic achievement, one study, having been completed by the Research Department of the District itself. You also have a booklet of supporting research, "School Libraries Work." lists the necessary components of a maximized school library 129 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET program required for the full benefit of student academic achievement. shows Roberto Clemente Middle School Library when it was fully funded: 23,000 items were used 78,000 times. continues with Clemente, where an annual investment of $10,000 resulted in $468,000 worth of use, an excellent return on the investment. suggests that when 110,000 students each year do not have access to a school library and do not borrow books, there have been 26,400,000 missed opportunities for books to be read in the 12 years. This is happening now, and we wonder why our graduates can't read. quotes Forbes Investment Magazine, which states: "Before parents accept the wisdom of a school board to cut school librarians, they should ask, Will my child graduate with a 21st- century rรฉsumรฉ or a 19th century 130 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET transcript? When a search engine returns 105 million results, can the student find the that will set her paper apart? Why 5 does a school district want to abandon its certified librarians, its professional guides to the complex information landscape." indicates that Council President Verna's district has the least proportion of high school librarians of any district in the City -- one librarian, five high schools. indicates that Councilwoman Miller has the worst ratio of elementary school librarians: 1 librarian, 24 elementary schools. With research fully in support of increased academic achievement through maximized school library programs, how could you not want them for the school children of Philadelphia? To increase academic achievement, a certified librarian and adequate resources must be line items in every school's budget. 131 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET Thank you.
Thank you very much. Your testimony is so invaluable. And, obviously, we agree. What can we say. The Chair also recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez. We thank her for being present at each and every hearing, and we really thank you for your testimony. Any questions? Councilwoman Sanchez.
You're saying that the cuts -- you were at Roberto Clemente?
Okay. And then this was a recent decision that was made at Roberto Clemente?
The charts that 132 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET you have are from the last year that I had a library-supportive principal and a fully-funded library. So those figures are from that time.
Okay. Well, we'll verify that. That's very unfortunate. I remember when we were building that school, and some of the -- the new school. I'm a graduate of Roberto Clemente, so this is personal. We were building this school, and we had a whole discussion about the accessibility of the library to the public because we had a lot of dreams about using that library and making it 133 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET multi-functional, so I'm --
Well, Mrs. Mazzucca did have many events in that library, including a wedding, but it went from 8,000 old books, when I was there, to 23,000 with a copyright date of years. 9 And we had fabulous use. We 10 had open access and flexible scheduling, which meant that I was there. And I wasn't covering preps, which meant that any student that needed to do come in was able to come in on a hall pass; and also, the teachers could sign up. So my last year, I did 50 collaborations with teachers.
I have yet to go to a school recently where that's still the option. I remember, when I was in school, libraries being open for that exact reason, so the kids could just go.
And now, 134 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET you know, between using it for other types of classroom -- for other types of classes, the library's open time is more and more limited. So I'm sorry to hear that.
My son goes there, and there lies -- yes, I am very much aware of -- he stays there -- he's upstairs actually doing his homework. He usually stays after school, till 4:30, to do homework and provide tutoring support to his classmates. So it's very unfortunate. There was a robust discussion earlier, when Dr. Ackerman was here, and my Council colleague Curtis Jones, and we were talking about libraries. So I want to assure you that it was a topic of our discussion here earlier. And, you know, one of the innovative ideas was the need to ensure that as we're building new schools and 135 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET the importance of the libraries, and how do we co-share facilities better so that library time is available not only to the kids at the school but the whole community. Those of us who grew up visiting them understand them and appreciate them. I think in the last year, the City has come to understand how important libraries are to folks. We need to send the same message around the School District. And it's so tough 'cause, you know, we talk -- we also had a robust discussion about healthy eating, and you watch principals cut physical ed teachers or music teachers, and it's a very difficult situation.
But I want you to know that that was an issue that we brought up earlier.
The return on investment is excellent in your school 136 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET library when it is staffed appropriately and used appropriately.
We agree and we appreciate your testimony and definitely appreciate the information that you just shared with us.
Councilwoman Blackwell, may I please say thank you very much for meeting with us. It was in January or February, and we really appreciate the time that you gave us then.
Oh, thank you. Kind of you to say. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Miller, for being here as well. Any other questions? (No further questions.)
Is 137 5.11.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - SCHOOL BUDGET Mr. Bennett here? (No response.)
That is Mr. Henry Bennett. Is there anyone else who would like to testify before this committee today? (No response.)
Seeing none, this committee will stand in recess until noon, on 5/13/10, 12 o'clock noon, when all tax bills will be considered. Thank you all for coming. Thank you to those who are visiting. And thank you, colleagues, thank you. (Proceedings end at 5:51 p.m.) * * * 138 C E R T I F I C A T E WE HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings of the City of Philadelphia Council Committee of the Whole are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by us on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, and that this is a true and correct statement of same. ___________________________________ MICHELE MURPHY Registered Professional Reporter ___________________________________ JOSEPHINE CARDILLO Registered Professional Reporter (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)