COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING BEFORE THE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 21, 1998 1:12 p.m. - - - RESOLUTION NO. 970368 - Memorializing the Education Committee of the Philadelphia City Council to hold hearings to investigate the school system's response to health emergencies in Philadelphia public schools and what, if any, Citywide approaches can be implemented to improve them. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL, Chair COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 I N D E X Paul Hornbeck, Superintendent . . . . . . . 4 Philadelphia School District John J. McLees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Executive Director for School Safety Bernard Trent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Family Resource Network Eric Shapiro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Administrator of Facilities Thelma Peake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Peake's Day Care Vernard Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Healthy Life 3 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 P R O C E E D I N G S.
Good afternoon. We would certainly like to thank everyone who is present and to certainly convene the Council Committee on Education to hear testimony and, hopefully, to resolve the issues with regard to two bills -- two resolutions, the first one being Resolution 970368. And we will have the clerk read the title of the first resolution.
Memorializing the Education Committee of the Philadelphia City Council to hold hearings to investigate the school system's response to health emergencies in Philadelphia public schools and what, if any, Citywide approaches can be implemented to improve them.
Thank you very much. The Chair notes that this is our fourth hearing to date on these issues. I have transcripts from May 29, 1997, June 12, 1997, March 25, 1998, and I hope today, April 21, 1998, I hope that this will be the day that we can record that we have finally resolved these issues 4 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 so that we can meet our responsibilities in terms of letting everyone concerned with the School District of Philadelphia to know how to respond in health emergencies. With that, we will certainly call on all of you to testify. We thank you for being here. And first we have superintendent David Hornbeck. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Thank you very much, Madame Chairwoman. It is my pleasure to be here this afternoon to respond to the remaining questions about how the School District manages emergency situations and crises that arise from time to time with respect to the schools. As well, we are prepared to answer additional questions regarding the work that we've been doing with the Health Department over facilities inspection issues. It's our understanding that the primary focus today is on the safety issue, but we can certainly turn to facilities as well as. And Mr. Eric Shapiro is here to answer any questions on that. 5 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. That's the second. And as soon as we do this, then we will return to that. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Okay. Today we are providing you with the documents concerning our safety crisis management effort. With me today are Bernard Trent, from the Family Resource Network; and John McLees who is Director of School Safety, who will provide you with additional details of our emergency policies and crisis management procedures. Our safety program deals with prevention, intervention, and crisis management. With respect to crisis management, the District has developed a set of procedures that govern the roles and responsibilities of staff at the school cluster and central administrative levels. And these documents -- which, incidently, are included in the documents laid out in this box, and we need to get those distributed to you -- will be explained by Mr. Trent and Mr. McLees. These procedures organize schools around effective ways to handle crises, including communication procedures for notifying parents and 6 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 the community of what is happening in the schools and who to contact for information. Additionally, as part of any emergency planning and preparation, all of our schools are required to conduct monthly fire evacuation drills. And these drills are a basic part of any emergency response that requires that the students and teachers leave the building. In the areas of prevention and intervention, there are several District policies which govern school safety procedures. These policies cover problems that range from vandalism to reporting bomb threats. In the context of school improvement planning, every school is required to include a safety plan in their school improvement plan. This school-wide plan is a required activity for every school and is updated annually. Last summer. The District conducted a four-day summer training institute on school safety because these things don't happen, as you can well imagine, automatically. The training was designed to help students develop and implement a school-based safety plan as well as a crisis 7 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 management plan. The program included identification of strategies to address safety and violence issues in schools and communications, and the identification of risk factors and available resources related those issues. About 700 of our teachers and principals, counselors, psychologists, nurses, and school community coordinators attended those workshops. A resource guide has also been developed by the Office of School Safety and the Family Resource Network for the future training of principals, administrators, and school safety teams. Finally, we have conducted what might be characterized as "pilot parent academies" in the West Philadelphia Cluster. These academies provided useful tips for parents on to how to keep their children safe while they're traveling to and from school. These academies are going to be expanded in the next school year, in'98-'99. And Mr. Trent and Mr. McLees are also prepared to explain those procedures in full. With your permission, and maybe I can 8 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 pass these out, let me turn this to Mr. Trent and to Mr. McLees for -- and walk you through these various pieces.
Thank you. The Sergeant-At-Arms will be glad to hand out anything you need and will distribute it. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Thank you very much.
Would you say your name and please spell your last name for the stenographer.
Certainly. John J. McLees, Executive Director for School Safety. That's M-C, capital L, E-E-S.
And pull the microphone a little closer. It's hard to hear you. Thank you. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: I think that I'm going to ask Mr. Trent if he will kick off the comments, and then we will turn, with your permission, to Mr. McLees. 9 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Certainly. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: And then when we get the second resolution, we'll turn to Mr. Shapiro.
Good afternoon. My name is Bernard Trent, and that's T-R-E-N-T. And I'm an advisor in the Family Resource Network, an advisor specifically for school safety. As the Superintendent stated, we have been developing a user-friendly safe schools manual, and I wanted to state for the record that safety and the procedures tends to be an ongoing process, so that what you have before you are documents that reflect what the School District has been doing and what we are currently doing. Again, keep in mind that this is an ongoing process. Inasmuch as when we talk about safety and specifically crises, crises tend to be events that cannot be predicted, although we need to be 10 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 prepared when a crisis occurs. To that end, I'd like to initially bring your attention to a document, which is dated November 1993, and it's titled "Disasters, Crises and Emergency Situations." And John McLees, the Executive Director, is the primary author of this document. I bring this to your attention because this is a document that indeed was distributed in 1993 so that all schools have this document at their disposal. However, what we have discovered is oftentimes when we send documentation out to the schools, because of the size of our district and because of the number of procedures that we have, in some instances, people may feel that they aren't present. What we're going to do, and if you would look to your right, you should you see in the folder a document that say "Crisis/Safety Procedural Manual." This is a document that we perceive to be user-friendly, and it's going to be distributed to every school. Now, an integral part of our safety and crisis procedure plan is for each school to have a 11 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 crisis/safety team. The members of those teams will have their roles clearly identified. The most important person on that team will be the building administrator and/or his designee, or what we are titling "the person in charge" so that at all times, there should be someone in each of our buildings who knows exactly what to do when a crisis occurs. Now, I'm going to digress a little and go back to this 1993 document just to have Mr. McLees give you some idea of what is in it and give you an idea of how we progress from this to what is before us. And, again, keeping in mind that we look at this document as being something that tends to be fluid and ever-changing.
Thank you, Mr. Trent. If I may, Councilwoman, if we open up to the first page of the '93 document, in the very beginning of the document, we talk about crisis and emergency situations. And we say very emphatically, employees of the School District of Philadelphia are --
This is the white document? 12 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Okay. Quite emphatically, we state in the very beginning as the document opening up, "Employees of the School District of Philadelphia are not employed or formally train as experts in all crises in emergency situations. The purpose of security personnel responding to a crisis emergency site will be for assisting and evacuating, isolating, visually searching a scene, and if requested, serving as liaisons between the School District and local law enforcement agencies." I'm not going do read right through this, but it goes on to say how we certainly reach out and engage the experts, other City agencies, federal agencies, if there was some type of catastrophe or some type of a specialized situation where we need expertise into our schools. Our people respond. When we get there, 13 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 we contain a situation, we isolate it, and we certainly bring order back to whatever conditions may exist in order that the experts can then move in and take over in managing the situation. In here, we refer to situations such as a barricaded person who may be with or without a hostage, and we lay out things that should be followed, guidelines with reference to those types of incidents. And then, you know, we go on to childnapping, and we'll go on to how we conduct situations at athletic events or on the fields and things like that if they become disorderly. The bottom line is the administrator on site and the school safety plan. And these are guidelines that we prepared and we sent out for principals to use when they're preparing their individual school safety programs, that they can rely on these guidelines to be followed.
And if I might follow up on what Mr. McLees has said, if you would reference the yellow document now.
And, again, open the yellow document to the next to the last page where it 14 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 says, "School Safety and Crisis Management Plans," and there you will find that there are three levels. And as I indicated earlier, the first level being the school level; the second being the Cluster level; the third level, the central office. We are attempting to have --
In the yellow booklet, the next to the last page. It should be divided into three sections. It says Level 1, 2, and 3.
Again, the document that is then before you has those three levels. As I indicated, we anticipate that each school will identify members of a crisis/safety team at the school level. That will be followed by having each of our clusters to develop a similar 22 routine, and then finally the central office. The person in charge, again, generally the building administrator, is the one that's really going to play a pivotal role because in any 15 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 type of crisis or emergency situation, he or she, along with the team members, will have to do an assessment to ascertain the exact nature of the crisis or emergency. Depending on what that assessment reveals, then they will have some guidance as to how they are going to respond. Now, if you will go back again to our brochure, the crisis safety brochure manual, and look at the steps that are listed on the very first page, where it says "Emergency Services," that individual will then set into motion some type of response. Again, depending on the nature of the crisis and the emergency, it will determine to whom the call will be directed. But we have listed numbers for our school police dispatcher so that the buildings will be in direct contact with them to get immediate assistance and intervention.
Are these kept in a central place where -- let's say the principal is out on some in-service training, then what happens? Are these kept and how will that chain of command be?
All right. What we have 16 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 indicated is that the primary reason for the size of this is that we want the schools to have these readily available in the main offices by the telephone. Now, once the school has identified its crisis safety team, one of the important tenets of the chain of command is that no one person has the sole responsibility. Again, the principal is the chief building administrator, but there has to be a person there also who knows exactly what to do if the principal is absent or incapacitated for any reason.
How does one know who that is, who that person in charge is?
Or how does the School District know if the principal's out who is in charge?
One of the things that we have decided is -- and, again, it governed our decision to use this document. Our policy and procedural manual itself, the one that has been used in the past, is about as thick as a telephone book. 17 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 If you look through this document, there is a crisis management school safety team page where -- what we're going to request the schools to do is to submit the names and telephone numbers of each individual member. Now, again, in looking at this document, you will see that the building principal and the assistant principal is at the top of the list. However, the team itself, as it goes through the training process, will designate an individual to be in charge, along with a chain of command. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Let me make one comment there, Councilwoman. In a sense, having nothing to do and everything to do with crisis management, when a principal leaves a building, there is a specific person who assumes the responsibility of being building administrator for all purposes. And the requirement is that before the principal leaves the building, the principal comes to that person and says, I'm leaving the building, you're in charge. That person would assume, in the context of the management crisis frame work, 18 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 the responsibilities of the principal. And then filling in behind that would be the team members that Mr. Trent is referring to.
And how soon will this policy take place such that the principal fills out this information? And then I assume this information -- if we start with -- and the principal fills out who the local district is and the police captain and all of that, then does the principal then submit a copy of this to you? Does it stay in the school? How will it work and when will the schools have this?
The process started last summer when we essentially had the summer institute. That document is also before you if you reference this thick book where we actually provided the training. Keeping in mind, again, that we decided that because of the thickness of that document, we came up with this. This document itself is currently at the printer. As soon as the printer bring us the copies, we will distribute them to 19 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 the schools. In conjunction with that distribution, we will then offer technical assistance and specific training not only to individual schools, but Mr. McLees's office and my office sat down, and we decided to look at groups of individuals that we are going give specific training to. Of course, at the top of that list, we had our building principals. And I might also add at this time, there are many new principals. I'm quite sure Councilwoman is familiar with that, that we have that turnover. But at the top of that list, we have our principals, and that will be followed by additional groups who provide direct services and support to children and families.
And would you make copies of all this available so that we can distribute -- the committee can distribute it to every member of Council? Would you make about 23 copies of everything available to us? 24
Most definitely. And I 25 also will check each document to make sure that it 20 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 is complete, as I understand your document, the yellow book did not have certain pages.
Thank you. Do the of the members of the committee have questions? Councilwoman Miller.
The pages aren't numbered. I guess it's about the fourth or fifth page where it says "Details of the Plan, Item No. 16 B., individuals having authority to execute a plan." I was wondering if the items you have listed in number 1, such as who a floor leader are, are these people going to be -- or are these issues going to be addressed in this safety plan or the crisis management school safety team? 'Cause I think that the fact that you said you have an emergency director and then there's a list of names with exact duties and you 21 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 have floor leaders, assistant floor leaders, first floor, second floor, etc., I think that kind of information is important for people to know. And when I think about large high schools that are like huge warehouses, then I would think that someone on each floor should be a part of the safety plan.
Yes. And one of the things that we are doing is looking at each school individually. We will meet with the schools to have them to determine specifically what their safety needs are. Now, if you go back to this other document, for example, in the back of it, you will find a copy of a safety plan from a school district -- I believe it's the Butler Area School District. They did exactly what you indicated, where they actually had someone draw up a physical map of the school, of every floor and every room 22 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 in that particular building. And then when the school moves into crisis mode, those individuals who have been trained should know exactly where they should be in terms of having responsibility for students in particular section of the school. And, indeed, what you're saying is very important because we have schools -- I don't know if you're familiar with William Penn and Martin Luther King, who -- these buildings architecturally are a nightmare, as far as security is are concerned. So in buildings like that, we have to pay especially attention to the physical layout, and as the school teams deliberate, the size of the team will vary as will the rules and responsibilities of those individuals in that building.
One other quick question. If this is going to be kept in the main office, I kind of wonder -- maybe it needs to be kept several places because you don't want someone to run to it and it's not there or try to remember. And I say this because I have a sick 23 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 child and I have a three-story house. By every phone in my house, I had an emergency plan because I didn't want people to be there helping and couldn't -- had to run to my bedroom or run here or run there. I just think for emergency situations, people should be able to find the information very easily.
I think that's a fantastic idea, and we will -- I'm sure that multiple copies of this document are distributed throughout the building because, as you know, many of our buildings now have small learning communities. And there are individuals that have responsibilities for those small learning communities. So we will ensure that each of those individuals have a copy of the document.
Thank you. Any other questions from members of the committee? (No questions.) 24 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Let me now pause to certainly thank my colleagues for being here. To my left, we have Councilman Dave Cohen; to my right, Councilwoman Donna Miller; next to her, Councilman Frank DiCicco; and next to him, Councilman Rick Mariano. So we thank the members of this committee for being present and note that we do have a quorum. Let me ask you another question. Do you think it would be necessary for you to have a copy of their document at the District level? Or do you assume that having a list of the police department captains, etc. would be fine, such that if you needed to intercede at some point that you could do that? What is your opinion on how this document would be used by you?
If you look at this document and look at step number 4, what you will see is, under "Strategic Support," you will find Dr. Harris's name. And further down, you will find crisis intervention, school support processes, school safety. Indeed, Dr. Harris now has responsibility for many crises. And point of 25 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 fact, if you remember a few months ago, there was a shooting up in the North Philadelphia section 4 where a teacher was injured. Dr. Harris was there on the scene, providing support from Central Office to manage those particular types of crises. So we have documentation from the Police Department. We try to work closely with the Police Department. And, in fact, I believe -- well, no, I do not believe -- it is a fact. The captains in the police districts, all of the districts, were told to contact the schools at the beginning of the school year to introduce themselves and find out what each individual principal's needs were as it related to safety. This is a way of codifying that information so that it is available. And as the other Councilwoman said, once we get these in the buildings, then it will not only be relegated to the office, but all the offices that have responsibility for our children.
And will -- by September, will distribution and training be in place? Or when can we expect that this will be a system that we can depend on? EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
My answer to you is yes. As I indicated, we will begin distribution this school year immediately followed by the training. And, in fact, last summer, we had the summer institute. What we are attempting to do this summer is to have the individual clusters decide what type of training they are going to implement. And, of course, safety is one of the primary goals of the School District, and that should be included.
Thank you. Are there any other questions for members of the committee?
I have one question as it relates to safety. And this is the issue of Philadelphia Public Police and the School District security. Some principals want armed police in the schools, and others don't. And I know that the School District and the police were supposed 27 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 to begin to meet to work out taking the police out of schools. Have those meetings started? And I don't really want to ask you your personal opinion, but some schools feel very strongly about keeping the police in, and others don't express it as strong as some of the others. I know Mr. McLees knows about this a little bit 'cause we've been working. Many of the schools in my district are those --
Yes. There was a meeting, and it was attended by the Police Commissioner, and it was attended by the Superintendent. This was Commissioner Neal prior to his leaving. And I think the decisions at that point were, we were going to leave the situation as it is now throughout the City. And we're looking forward to the continued support of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Okay. Thanks. 28 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
And, Councilwoman, if I might add one more thing to that. To elucidate on our collaboration with the Police Department, we also have a pilot program in the 17th, 19th, and 23rd District, where a group of psychologists, psychiatrists, other mental-health professionals, and policemen have been trained to develop what we have called a "children's emergency response team" so that when police officers in these three districts go to a crime scene, if a child is involved, they will get immediate mental health intervention for that child and his or her family. And then the School District will be notified, and we will provide follow-up supports. If this project is successful -- and I don't see why it should not be -- then we will be looking towards replicating it. And there's a document in here that describes that.
Are there any other questions from any members of the committee? (No further questions at this time.) 29 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
If not, then we will go to the second resolution, and we will ask the clerk to read the title of the second resolution, Resolution No. 970466.
Calling on the City Council Committee on Education to hold immediate hearings regarding the possibility of requiring the Department of Licenses and Inspections and the Health Department to conduct two inspections per year in all public school bathrooms and food preparation service areas to ensure that minimum code standards are being met.
Thank you very much. This is also another resolution. It's almost companion to the first, and this is also our fourth hearing on this issue. And this is a very -- more specific kind of resolution. We talked about in our initial hearing, the Health Commissioner was here, her deputy was also here, and we talked about even coming up with a program where students could be used, whatever it takes to try to get it done. It was not our goal to try to cause an added expense or work for the District or for L&I; 30 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 but, certainly, to try and do something about this program, especially after we had a youngster named Collin Tyler, who died of meningitis. And although the health authorities, from the Center for Disease Control on down, and the local authority said that it was not created by any school conditions and could not be spread by filth in the school, the whole issue of cleanliness arose during that time And we thought it very, very important that we discuss this as an issue and come up with a plan to deal with how we deal with cleanliness, how we deal with health issues in kitchens and bathrooms in schools, and what we can do to make it better. And with that, certainly let me call on Mr. Hornbeck again, Dr. Hornbeck, to testify. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Thank you very much, Madame Chairwoman. With me today is Eric Shapiro from our facilities office. And it's been under his direction that we've taken a number of new initiatives directed specifically to this issue. And so, with your permission, I would 31 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 like to turn to Mr. Shapiro and ask him to share with you that set of activities.
Thank you, Superintendent. For the record, my name is Eric Shapiro. I'm the Administrator of Facilities. And, as I previously stated Councilwoman, we like coming here and talking about the problems that we have at the schools. As long as we get the help and the cooperation of the community, we believe that we can solve these problems. After the last hearings, my office met with the Department of Public Health to review a process that could expedite the remediation of the violations that they have been writing. And with added oversight, more eyes in the buildings, we get a better idea of what things go wrong and how to fix them. In the last hearing, I alluded to a serious problem, vandalism. And I have a letter that was written to me from the Public Department of Health that outlines the process that they believe needs to be in place to curb this problem, 32 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 especially at the high-school level. I've brought copies, and I'll share it with Council. Basically, what we are trying to do now is to make the buildings safer and make the people in them more accountable for what's going on by keeping better records and by meeting with the community, with the staff, with the administration of the buildings, to try to make them aware of the problems that we are incurring because of the violence and the vandalism in schools. So we have met with the Department of Public Health. We have agreed to develop a mutual priority for all the violations that are recorded. We are going to exchange information electronically so that we can get our information from the Department of Public Health quicker. And on that exchange of information, they will code whether or not this is an immediate, you know, right-away problem or a problem that can wait hours or can be somewhat 22 deferred. And we will react accordingly, with the 23 transfer of this information and very timely. 24 We've also agreed to talk to the schools about the various problems that we're 33 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 becoming aware of and to try to form more PALM committees which seem to be very effective in a number of high schools. "PALM" is the Philadelphia Area Labor Management Group that coordinates the meetings in the schools that include the cafeteria, the building engineer, the administration, the local community, Home and School, and they try to meet very often at the beginning in order to come up with a plan for each school in identifying problems. They have been very effective in the Franklin Learning Center and Lincoln High School, and we are going to share the best practices in the things that we've learned from these meetings with other schools. And, hopefully, we will alleviate some of the problems. Gratz High School, West Philly have just formed PALM committees, and we're hopeful that this will help in curing this problem. There are a number of other things that we're doing, and I have prepared something to leave with you so that you can read about some of these things. We have developed pilot programs to help rest room cleanliness and safety. 34 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 We are putting in liquid soap dispensers as opposed to the powdered soap that has been used in buildings before because the powder becomes a problem when people put their wet hands in the dispensers and the dispensers don't work. Liquid is a much better use. And it costs a little bit more but, hopefully, it's something that will be more effective. We are installing electric hand dryers into the bathrooms in high schools. The electric hand dryers will take away the problems of rolled towels being stuffed in toilet and thrown out windows. We have put that program together in Franklin Learning Center. It was very successful, we didn't have any problem with kids that knocked these things off the walls. And it seemed to be very accepted, and we're getting to proceed on that.
And we also, in the elementary schools, have decided to go to a problem where a solution is to install liquid hand sanitizer in each of the classrooms. So that teachers, before releasing their students to go to the cafeterias, this is a -- it's not in place of soap and water, but it's 35 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 a liquid hand sanitizer that they can take a little squirt of and rub it on their hands. They don't need to use water, and it's an easy way for them to sanitize their hands before going to the cafeteria. We're piloting that in elementary schools. And we're getting very good press from the faculties and the administrations of the buildings. In closing, it's something -- we encourage more oversight and more help in trying to resolve the problems. We take very seriously our charge to keep our bathrooms safe and healthy and open. And I thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you. What about the issue of bathrooms? In fact, Mr. Vernard Johnson, whom I saw walk in, testified at one of the hearings that a school urinal was broken so, in fact, the youngsters were urinating on the floor. What about materials in bathrooms, in, you know, a bathroom where you have four sinks and maybe only one works and that sort of thing? What 36 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 about the other equipment in the facilities themselves?
With the prioritization of repairs that need to be done, we will react to those very quickly, and there shouldn't be a situation where a stall is not working. I mean, that shouldn't go on for very long at all. One of the things that I neglected to inform you is that we have increased the number of supplies that we are keeping in inventory in each school. So there is more soap, there's more rolled towels, and there are more supplies available so that we don't run out of these things. And if something occurs, we can fix it quickly. Also, we have more parts for materials for the building engineers to quickly fix the problems that occur in a building on a daily basis.
We also talked at earlier hearings about a prioritization list in terms of a -- we know that you can't do everything tomorrow, but we know that if you deal with schools in terms of where it's worse and some list 37 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 of priority, we also requested that list.
I have brought with me a list of the violations that have been written over the pass year and what has been completed, where they're at, the number of them, and I'll leave that with you today.
Thank you. Let me tell members of the committee that I will -- we, in fact, out of these hearings, we will ask for a motion that we issue a report. And we will make all of this information available so that you know what's going on in your district schools. And it gives you a better handle on how you can help the principals in the communities that we represent. Do we have questions from members of the committee?
With respect to the bathrooms, how often are they inspected in the course of a day?
The building engineer, 38 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 who's the building manager for the facility, is instructed to, on a daily basis, walk the building, from roof to basement, at the beginning of every day, after he gets the physical plant running. So they're inspected daily. And then during the course of the day, if things occur, there's emergency calls that come to the building engineer's office.
May I suggest that the inspections ought to be much more frequent in the course of a day. Suppose a stall ceases to function at 10 o'clock in the morning till it gets to somebody as an emergency, and I don't know who would report the emergency. It seems to me that there ought to be some system set for -- I think in a school with a lot of youngsters, I think these bathrooms ought to be checked very frequently. I would think -- you know, on the turnpike, for example, when you ride, and you use one of their washroom facilities, you find on the wall a check sheet, and the rooms are inspected hourly. And the manager has a notice there that a 39 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 patron sees that they're not being inspected hourly. Because where there's heavy usage, I'm just wondering whether some system -- maybe you can't do it every hour, maybe it would be every hour and a half, but I think you've got to have more than a daily inspection. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: I think the thought is a very good one, Councilman Cohen, and I think that it is probably not possible to have the building engineer do those inspections all the time.
Right. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: But I think what we need to do -- and we will do that -- is to initially do a piloting of it, but with a view toward figuring out a way that other members of the staff, at least one other time in the morning and one time right after lunch, when there would be more movement, would be assigned the responsibility, or would assume the responsibility, for ducking in and seeing if there are any stopped-up toilets.
Right. 40 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: And that sort of thing. And work out a way where it takes, you know, 90 seconds just to duck in and duck out to make sure that --
Right. It doesn't have to be a long trip if everything's in order. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Exactly. I think that's a good thought. Thank you.
But if there were a problem, it would be caught quickly, before it gets out of bounds. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Exactly. It might prevent a wore problem.
Mr. Shapiro, going back over the testimony at the last hearing, I'm not clear with respect to the question of lead paint. Councilwoman Miller raised the question indicating that paint was chipping a school. And then you said it was chipping all over the place. You said this -- if you have the notes of testimony, on , "It's not an airborne 41 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 contaminant. It doesn't travel through the air. You'd have to take one of the chips and actually ingest it in order for it. . ." And that thought ended there, and there was other conversation between the Council and yourself. And I'm not quite sure. I've gone through other pages to see if I could find out what you mean. Because we've spent a lot of time in Council on lead paint during the 30-year span of time that I've been in Council. And lead paint -- and I don't know what you mean. It's not airborne in the sense of the asbestos?
But what happens, is the paint chips into small pieces. It's very easy for a youngster to touch it, and then in the hand to mouth, which is common to everyone, I guess, particularly with youngsters, although adults apparently also do that. 42 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 It's very easy for the child to get a spot of paint dust even on the finger and transmit it into the mouth. That's the reason that I didn't know the point that you were making when you said it's not airborne. Isn't it a serious problem?
Absolutely. I didn't want to minimize the problem with lead paint, and we have an extensive inventory of the paint in the schools that is lead. And after the hearing, I went back and discussed the issue with our environmental experts. And the situation is that lead is a very heavy metal. Lead falls quickly through the air, so it doesn't stay in the air, as asbestos does. And, as you said, a child would have to go to the sill and touch his hand on the sill --
Correct, it could be there. 43 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Right, peeling. We react to any lead paint that is peeling or chipping quickly. We will eliminate the problem, we will remove the children from harm, and we will have our specialist go in there and do that. And, as I said, we have a process whereby we have to inventory all of our environmental-unfriendly's every three years so we know where they are and we know the condition of 'em. We know exactly where are problem is, and as they occur, we handle them. Now, with lead paint, our building engineers are trained on what to do with the problem. If they have to remove small areas, they know what protective clothing to wear and how to remove it and when to remove it and how to discuss with the principal what the issue is so that there isn't any children that come to harm. We bring in behind the engineer a skilled environmental staff that will do the removal on the abatement of the lead.
Well, is there any 44 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 method that you have for making certain, say, if paint begins to chip, particularly in the older schools where the paint will have lead in it, how soon does the engineer learn about it?
Is there any system set which would require personnel to report the first evidence of paint peeling anywhere?
The primary responsibility of the building engineer, after he gets the physical plant running in the building, is to walk the entire building every day and to observe any change in any condition from the previous day. So it's the responsibility of that engineer to identify that problem as it occurred, if it was different from yesterday. If it's a small problem, he has the tools, the mask, the suit to wear to reduce the problem. If it becomes a major problem with rain overnight that got into the building and the wall, you know, being really bad or the paint peeling really bad, then we will call on the environmental people and take the necessary precautions. 45 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Without wanting to step on anybody's toes, would it be possible, for example. In the instance that Councilwoman cited at the Fitler School to submit to this committee the reports on that condition and what happened?
Because I got from her testimony at the hearing that this appeared to be a long-standing condition at the Fitler School, and that nothing was being done. Now, I'm aware that there can be so many problems that a little paint peeling may not seem like a very serious thing. But like the washroom area that we discussed, little things grow into becoming very serious very quickly if not attended to. Could we get the reports on the Fitler School?
Before I call 46 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 on Councilman DiCicco, you mentioned that a district engineer would make these inspections daily, but doesn't a district engineer have several schools?
All right. And I understand, from dealing with emergency shelters that if you have lead paint that you have to have either vinegar water or some kind of Calgon soap to wash, after it's being removed and after that, that all of that area has to be washed so as to make sure that it doesn't spread. Is that true? And is this also available this the school? I assume it is.
Okay. Councilman DiCicco. 47 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Thank you, Madame Chair. I'd just like to go back for a minute to the issue of the inspection of the bathrooms during the course of the day. And I understood that, you know, that the building engineer will do a thorough inspection of the building, from top to bottom. And maybe during course of the day, a reinspection would be made. And a reference was made that maybe some of staff might even be doing that. I was wondering, are any of the programs in the schools where the students may be involved in those kinds of things? I remember as a kid, it was really exciting when I was chosen to be a safety to cross kids. I was even more excited when I was the guy that had to deliver the pretzels and the milk during the day. Is there a kind of program -- and I see a lot of the heads shaking "yes" -- where maybe some of the kids could be put on the safety sanitation patrol? Not to obviously do any of the physical labor, but to go during the day and do a checklist of what is going on in the bathrooms? 48 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
'Cause I think kids like to get involved in that. I think they really -- they feel important.
I think we need them involved in order to keep the problem to a minimum. If they buy into the program, I think it's a great idea. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Actually, I'm just informed that, in fact, there are some schools that have, in some instances, formed clubs. And in other instances, the student council has assumed the responsibility for making those kind of inspections -- not, as you note, to do the work, but to consistently take account of the conditions themselves and to report them to the appropriate people.
I think it really prepares them for a lot of other things; you know, let them know that things have to be taken care of and what it takes to eventually get that job done. And it just kind of prepares them for other things. 49 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 So that was just a suggestion, and I'm glad to hear that some of that is already being done. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: That's a good one.
Certainly, at our first hearing, when the Health Commissioner was here, she talked about trying to establish some kind of program, along with the board, and I don't know whether the Deputy Commissioner has any information today with regard to that. But she talked about meeting with you and trying to come up with some kind of program where students would be monitors much as Councilman DiCicco just mentioned. Do you have any information? I called her many, many times in September because I thought we would have been finished this, you know, back then. But, you know, we talked with her many times about where it was, and her remarks were that she was talking to the Board. And I'm just interested in knowing where that is. 50 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: I'm not directly aware of it arising there, although it may have been provoked by that. But, as I say, I do know that there are schools in which that is the practice. And it's one that we ought to take the initiative to press.
I would also recommend prom committees in each of the high schools to take that as a part of their plan.
Superintendent, last night, a number of the Councilmembers were present at a community meeting at a church at 56th and Chester. I think it was the Most Blessed Sacrament Church. There were several hundred people there. At the end of the meeting, a group of people came and approached Councilwoman Blackwell and myself and said that at the Bartram High School and at the Mitchell -- I believe that's an elementary school in the area -- there are no 24 books available for the children. I'm wondering if you have any such information. 51 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 We quizzed to make certain that it wasn't -- the person was very active. She said -- I don't have her name. She said she was very active in the Home and School Association and had tried everything to remedy it, but had not been able to. We'd really appreciate it, if you don't have any information, to look into both schools very thoroughly and see if there is any merit. And if there is any merit to the complaint, to take steps to remedy it. And we would like to have a report, if we could, within the next couple of days. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Sure.
If you address it to the Chair, Councilwoman Blackwell, she will see that we will all get it. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: I will be glad to do that. I do have a sense that there may be an issue at the high school. I just got a report literally this morning of a concern of that kind. And whether it emerged from last night's meeting or not, I don't know. 52 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 I think it was before last night because I was told that the individual who has just be appointed as the new principal at Bartram High School has been informed that there may be a problem and to have that be one of the early things that she looks at, and that we are in a position, because of this ongoing effort that we have to make sure that every kid has a book and that every kid can take a book home, to provide additional support from the initiative that Council and we have pursued together. The Mitchell School, I do not have any information about. But on both, we will certainly give you feedback.
Thank you. Certainly, at our last meeting, we talked about several issues that are not related directly to this but that were mentioned, and that the 53 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 representatives of the District agreed to look into. One, for example, was Barry School, where we've been getting complaints because there's no lunchroom, auditorium, or gymnasium there. And I wondered if anybody came prepared to respond the to issues we brought up last time. I see Mr. Armbrister's coming. While he's coming, they also mentioned the overcrowded situation there and made suggestions that maybe the fifth-grade classes could be reassigned to Sayer or even leasing part of Our Lady of Rosary School. As Mr. Armbrister knows, they suggested home school, but we're not interested in having that considered in this equation. (Mr. Armbrister comes forward.)
Clarence Armbrister, Managing Director for the School District. Councilwoman Blackwell, I think I came in at the very end of the last hearing, so I'm not specifically attuned to what the questions were with respect to the Barry, but I know Barry has 54 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 been on our radar screen, the Superintendent and mine, for over a year. We've met with a community, and we were asked to look at the possibility of whether or not we could put an addition on the building that would incorporate a cafeteria/all-purpose room. We conducted a feasibility study. One was done, and the biggest problem with that particular school is just the size of the lot; that it is just so small, that to add anything to it would probably wipe out any outside play area that's at the school now. So at this juncture, although we have a feasibility report that says it's possible to be done, the real question for us has been, Should we in fact do that? and maybe look at additional alternatives for that area; i.e., the possibility of trying to identify a location for a new school possibly. Because to put money into an addition and then wipe out the rest of schoolyard is probably, at this juncture, not a wise choice. But we have looked at it and have done a feasibility study. 55 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Certainly, because it impacts on the resolution. When there is no lunchroom, then, of course, the students have to eat in the building. So that impacts on inspections severely.
Exactly. We were told in fact when we met with the community group, that there was a problem with vermin. We have sent our people out to try to make sure that we get that under control, and I think we have it under control. I know Mr. Shapiro's folks are out there on a continuous basis to try to deal with that problem. But you're right, it results -- it's a cumulative effect that results in other problems in the building when the kids don't have a central location to eat. So we are very aware of that problem, and one of the things that we quite frankly need to look at is the possibility of maybe a new location.
Would you keep the committee informed, Superintendent? SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Yes. 56 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Would you keep us informed about the progress in that area so we'll know what to say? We get it from the parents, of course. And, in fact, parents who also volunteered at Bryant School and with all the problems we had there and with the crossing guard issues, the parents came there to certainly complain to us and stay in touch with us about that. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: We will be glad to do that.
In fact, another suggestion was that an additional family center site be opened at Huey because the location is easier and because of the medical center there. That was one of the suggestions too from the people who are concerned about Barry School. Let me also mention that we got suggestions about Wilson School, the overcrowding again. And their suggestion was that the fifth-graders be assigned to Comegy School. We mentioned this at our last hearing, so you have a record of that too, but we ask you if you would check into that. 57 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 And at Lee School, in fact, as you know, I always hold a special place for Lee 'cause I taught there in my first life. They say that the portable buildings there need to be condemned, so there's also a site issue there. Do you have any information with regard to that? SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Ms. Blackwell, Mr. Armbrister does, in fact, have some information about that. I was wondering if it were possible, I've got a real schedule problem, as I had indicated to you before. And I'm wondering if there are issues about which you think I might have some particular information, because I want to stay to answer all of the questions. Or if the issues are primarily facilities ones to which I might be excused and ask Mr. Armbrister and Mr. Shapiro to pick up on them.
Let me ask members of the committee, do they have any direct questions for the Superintendent?
Well, I assume the facilities person reports to you 'cause I have a question concerning in the Northeast. It's been 58 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 told it doesn't have room for the preschool kids. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: That's correct.
And they haven't been able to meet to the School Direct's satisfaction, they haven't been able to acquire any church or any other public institution that's available. And if we don't get satisfactory results, may we go to you, Superintendent? SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: You certainly may. Although Clay certainly knows one heck of a lot more about where those things are.
One more question. We have two people, Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Peake are you here to testify? We have two people here to testify. I don't know what that testimony will be but, certainly, we will ask that you be responsive through your folks to whatever their concerns might be so that they might be addressed. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Absolutely. Members of my staff will remain. And if there are still outstanding issues, I'll get a copy of 59 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 transcript, and we will respond to the Chair in writing on each one of the issues that may still require our focus.
Thank you. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Be glad to do that.
Thank you. Councilman Cohen, you had a question about another school?
It's in the Northeast, and I've been wracking my brains. Unfortunately, the staff member who has the information is not in the office. But I think the designation of it may be unusual, and you may know of it. It's in the near Northeast, not far out in the Northeast. It's always had for the last or 30 years 19 provisions for preschool children. But 20 apparently, the number of children going into the kindergarten is such that it is going to occupy the space that the pre-care area formerly had. The pre-care area is also the area that was used for after-school care. And we're wondering -- we were told -- 60 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 we raised the question of a trailer. We were told that a trailer is not satisfactory for preschool children, which raises the question, and I wondered why it hadn't been raised. How about switching another class into the trailer and making room in the school? It's the Sullivan School.
It's the Sullivan School, in the Northeast. I would appreciate it, if you haven't been looking at it, if you could look at it. And in that case, if it's all right with the Chair, I'd like to ask that the report be sent directly to me.
Certainly. We'll certainly do that. 61 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 As you correctly point out, a number of our schools, because of increased population -- particularly at the lower levels, many of our day-care programs are being squeezed out. And what we try to do is keep the kindergarten together with the primary grade programs. And oftentimes, the day-care centers are the first to have exit the building. So I will get a report on this one for you and get right back to you.
If you would. And to suggest that an older class might very well be able to go into a trailer.
We don't like those -- we don't particularly like those options, either. We understand that because --
I know, but with your help and support, particularly if we get complaints from the community, that would be very helpful to us if we were able to put a temporary classroom out there. If I could, I was going to address the 62 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 Chairwoman's question regarding the Lee School. I am too aware of the temporary structures out there. And they are, in fact, deplorable. And I recently had a conversation with a staff member and made a recommendation that we include in the Capital Program funds to construct what we call "the little schoolhouses." I don't know if you've seen them. We've built them armed various portions of the City. But the Lee School, among some other schools, would be in the next wave of those to come out. So we will begin to look at the possibility of that. It may be not be identified specifically for the Lee School in capital budget, but we are going to include funds for the construction of another three or so of the little schoolhouses, and they've been quite successful. They are self-contained buildings plumbing and air-conditioning units and things like that. And we're going to look at the feasibility of constructing those at the Lee School, among others.
Would you respond to these issues so that we can include 63 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 them in our report to the entire Council body?
I certainly will. And if I could ask, I just asked Barbara Grant, our communications person, if we had copies of the transcript. If we could get a copy of not only this transcript, but the last meeting's transcript to make sure that we cover all of your concerns, that would be very helpful.
Certainly. We will make copies of all of the transcript.
And we will get them to you so that you will have every line that was mentioned.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of the committee?
I just wanted to mention, in the last meeting we talked about the Willard School. Councilman DiCicco had an interest in the Willard. Mr. Armbrister has scheduled a walk-through with myself and the Capital Budget 64 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 Chairman for next week. We will, upon completion of that, prepare a report for the Council.
Thank you very much. And would you wait so that you can hear the other testimony?
The Chair calls -- should we have ladies first? The Chair calls Miss Thelma Peake. She's the owner and director and principal of Peake's Day Care an Peake's Educational School. I'm proud to say she's in my direct. In fact, she's at the heart of the business district at 52nd and Baltimore, and we certainly welcome her here to testify before City Council. Would you identify yourself again where for the record.
My name is Thelma Peake. And prior to my day-care center, I worked in the school system for 15 years. I have several concerns. One is the response to the pilot program with the hand sanitation. I am familiar with the hand 65 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 sanitation, liquid. And my concern is if there's one place in any class -- in every classroom, what's the step before the sanitation? If a child comes to school and their hands are dirty, they have handled a lot of materials, why can't there be a time allotted so that the child can wash their hands in a systemic way? There's also a problem that sometimes children just are not allowed to go to the rest room when they need to go to the rest room. And who's accountable with the rest rooms now while they're developing these pilot programs with the liquid soap and the electric hand driers? What's happening right now? Because of germs right now, there are schools that have large kind of epidemics with chicken pox and other kind of diseases and germs that come right in the school. What's happening right now? Also, there's an issue with me about who's accountable for the building engineer? Children are supposed to be in the classroom, learning. I have a problem with children looking 66 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 over what people are hired to do. Now, I don't know if there needs to be a building manager to make sure the building engineer's accountable for that one-day inspection. But being a school teacher myself in the school system, I know how dirty and filthy the rest rooms are. Sometimes in some schools, when you walk in and you walk by the rest room, you know it's a rest room because of the stench. And what kind of sanitation methods can we come up with right now to sanitize these rest rooms? And to get children to respect the rest rooms is one thing but the actual sanitation, daily sanitation, of a rest room is not happening now, it's not happening right now. My other issue is centered around, What are the non-teaching assistants doing during the day so that maybe there could be some kind of system built up so that a non-teaching assistant can oversee of the rest room issues?
Those are excellent issues. If Mr. Armbrister or Mr. Shapiro would be able to respond to those. 67 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 As you know, she mentioned three issues: about the soap and about the system and about children coming in with dirty hands and being able to wash them and use the rest rooms overall? She also mentioned about who's responsible for the building engineer and her concern about children doing adult work, and also NTAs and their role in all of this.
Yes. I'll let Mr. Shapiro handle the hands-sanitation issue. I'd like to address, if I may. The issue regarding the accountability of the building engineers and the possible use of children to help manage and maintain the cleanliness of the bathrooms. And I did hear, I think, Miss Peake mention that we certainly want to encourage children to have a stake in the bathrooms. And one of the things that we found in these PALM committees, the PALM committees, which include representatives of the school administration, representatives of the unions, including the building engineer, the PFT, and also, when 68 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 appropriate, students. And one of the things, if I could just digress for a moment, one of the things the Superintendent asked many of the senior cabinet members to do is to go out to schools. And one of the opportunities I had was to shadow a principal for a day. It happened to be at the Picket Middle school. And on that day in particular, it just so happened that they had one of these PALM committee meetings. And attending the PALM committee meeting that day, where the principal, the vice principal, who actually ran the meeting and set the agenda, the PFT representative, the building engineer, but more importantly, they had two students involved in the meeting. And I found it just a fascinating program and endorse the program immensely because what we have found is that it is imperative that if we are going to maintain any kind of sanitary conditions in the bathrooms, that we need the cooperation of the people who use them, which are the students. And that they have to buy in and help maybe self-police themselves to a great 69 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 extent -- not to clean up the bathrooms. We're not asking them to do that. But they have to take some responsibility, along with the paid staff of the building, the building engineer and the custodian to make sure that we can maintain the order of the building. So I understand your concern about using kids in lieu of, but that is not the proposal. The proposal would be to get additional assistance and make sure that the kids actually take responsibility, because this is their bathroom. They wouldn't do it at home; why should they do it here at school. And we want to make sure that the kids are involved. And in those committees where we have good leadership in the school, good leadership in the union, and good leadership, quite frankly, from the students, those are the places where you find we have very good success. So I wouldn't want to cavalierly exclude the students. It's a very, very important factor in this process, and I can't emphasize it enough. 70 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 With that -- and to address your specific point about the building engineer, he is ultimately accountable up to the superintendent and me. But through Mr. Shapiro and Mr. McLynch, your of Head Facilities, he's supposed to work in conjunction with the principal to make sure that things get done in the building, to make sure that the building is in operating condition. Mr. Shapiro.
Certainly let me note that all of us realize that when schools -- we know it requires a uniform effort. But when buildings look nice, when they're clean, when we fight the graffiti, kids have pride and adults have pride in it. And, you know, it's just like looking at a pile of debris. If you walk by, people throw things there, although they know shouldn't, because they don't have respect for it. And that's what happens in our schools, too. Our students have no pride in some of these buildings. And, quite frankly, I will admit that I don't visit schools like I used to because finding the problems and identifying them over and over 71 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 and over through so many of these neighborhoods only puts us at odds. The principals are afraid they'll get in trouble, everybody becomes intimidated. And it serves no useful purpose because some of our neighborhood schools are really in terrible shape. I mean, they almost mask what you would see in third-world countries. And, certainly, our children and students and all those who work there deserve better, so we've got to do it. And I'm glad we're getting to a real discussions about it today because we have to do a better job, all of us collectively.
And I'd also like to add, just as I think graffiti -- which still is a major problem but to a much lesser degree today than it was five years ago. We believe that by our constant battle with graffiti on a daily basis, we're that starting to make inroads in defeating it. Our number-one priority at this point in facilities is the cleanliness and condition of our bathrooms. And I'm not just saying that 72 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 'cause we're sitting here today. We have designed a rest room cleaning program that is very specific in what the cleaners do on a daily basis in each of the bathrooms, how many times they do it, with what equipment and supplies they use. And if there is any bathroom that is unsanitary or smelly, we need to know about it so we can change that condition and make sure that it's corrected. My statement earlier about the pilot program on the hand -- the sanitizer, by no means do I want to indicate that this is any replacement for soap and water and good cleanliness habits. This is an item that helps the classrooms on occasions, when they're running late on testing, and the kid can't get to the bathroom in an organized fashion. In the elementary schools, it takes a while to run all the children through the bathrooms before the cafeteria, before feeding time. And this is just another item to help the teachers, and not to replace good soap and water an cleanliness habit.
I have two items on safety 73 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 if I could present them.
One of the main things on safety for me is the playground, the schoolyards. They're chaotic. I pick up children at ten area elementary schools in the southwest area. It is chaotic. There is no system. Children are just coming out of doors. There is no supervision at the end of the school day in the schoolyards, and it's just a very, very hazardous type of situation. And I would like to see some kind of order to any elementary schools in the schoolyards. As well as fire drills. In the area high schools, for example, there could be a fire drill, and the children go out to the food truck. What's the accountability in an emergency situation? What kind of role is taken? How do you know everybody's evacuated out the building? How do they how get back in? What's the accountability? And that's the real safety issue to me. And I'm done. 74 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368
Absolutely. We will ask the Board to please take that into account and respond. And, again, Miss Peake mentioned school safety at dismissal time, especially with elementary-aged children, and fire drills. So we would appreciate hearing from you specifically on that regard. And if you would make a special focus in that area. Especially as the weather gets warm, that could be a big, big issue. We've had hearings in the past where talked about dismissal time even for high school children -- students, and maybe staggering them so we don't end up with the fights that happen in the spring between the Catholic schools and the public schools and all of that, especially in areas where you have traditional race problems or gang problems and that sort of thing. But this kind of is in that whole area of what we can do to make school dismissal as smooth an operation as possible and minimize problems with that.
Thank you very 75 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 much, Ms. Peek, thank you. We appreciate your coming out today. The final person to testify this afternoon will be Mr. Vernard Johnson, Healthy Life. I'll get it right.
I've been doing this for the last three years? I've got half of it right. It's -- Healthy Life is the second part.
My name is Vernard Johnson. I'm the Executive Director of Healthy Family Healthy Life.
And let me add, if I might, that that's "Vernard," with V, as in "Victor," for our stenographer because sometimes they report it as a B, as in "boy.".
And what I'm trying to give you is just some information on the dangers 76 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 of lead poisoning, how it is communicated, and the risks of lead poisoning in American schools, and a list of videos that we would hope the School District would consider, and our own monthly periodical that, this month, focuses on lead poaching. And there's a listing of videos that the Environmental Office of the School District, that's the Environmental Office of the School District's past requests to purchase videos to show the school family the dangers of lead poisoning. The School District didn't purchase the videos.
Excuse me one minute, Mr. Johnson. My colleague has to leave, and if you're going to be a while, it will fine. We just want to do something up here to allow you to testify as long as you need to but to formally recess our hearings, if that's okay. All right, we will now formally recess the Council hearing on education. - - -
And now we will enter the public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen 77 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 for the purpose of making -- we're now entering into the stated meeting, and the Chair will recognize Councilman Cohen for the purposes of making a motion.
I move that the Chair of the Education Committee be directed to prepare a resolution -- a report with recommendations to be presented to the City Council based upon the hearings on Resolutions No. 11 970368 and 970466. (Duly seconded.)
All in favor aye? Any opposed? All right, thank you very much. So we will now -- now that stated meeting is ended, and we will now reconvene our hearing. Mr. Johnson, please continue.
Councilwoman Blackwell, while we're talking about the environment as it relates to the School District, I would also like to make available for you something I just happened to have with me. There's a conference in Philadelphia, a 78 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 national lead conference in Philadelphia this week, out on City Line Avenue, so we were pulling together on our positions on lead and the experiences that we've had with the Philadelphia School District as it related lead, and talking about that in a national forum. And I'd like to just make available to you this April 15, 1996 -- I guess this is a School Board resolution that talks about the purchase of a piece of land at Sixth and Duncannon, where all of the environmental inspections and corrections were not made before the land was purchased. I'd just like you to have that. And my point here is that sometimes the School District, in an effort to do things -- in an effort to accomplish some things, goes about it maybe in a way that brings concern. I think that there needs to be -- someone needs to take a look at the property at Sixth and Duncannon that used to belong to Conrail; that you can see there, by the School Board's own, resolution if I'm reading it properly, was purchased without the proper, in my 79 EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Resolution 970368 opinion, environmental inspections. And I'm wondering how the land -- how the environmental situation if -- I'm wondering if there was an environmental inspection done after the District purchased the property. And if the environmental inspection showed that there was environmental risk there, how the School District dealt with the risk. And I think it's the Board's own resolution. They put it in writing.