Mid September. And we would anticipate an award roughly a month, say mid October.
So you know, when we identify these projects advertised, the only thing that will hold these projects up, only thing, is zoning. Because these projects are ready to go. The reason Willard is not on the --
Well, 178 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. it's not just zoning. Apparently if the bids come in over, I think that would be --
But we'll rebid that. But we have some projects that are held up in zoning right now. For example, the Brown addition has been delayed because the Zoning Board has asked us to air condition the old building as a condition for getting the new building approved, and that's held up Brown.
Do you see any reason why this would be held up?
For zoning? Is there an issue that we should be looking at?
If we're asked to air condition the old building as a condition for getting the new addition approved, it will be held up.
Are 179 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. we air conditioning all of our schools?
We're not air conditioning our old buildings. We don't have the money to air condition the old buildings.
So it's only when we go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment are we required to air condition our schools?
Well, we've been requested that on a couple buildings. At the Lincoln High School building, we have been asked by Zoning to wrought iron fence the entire campus. So they did not approve the school that's ready to be built because we won't put a fence around the campus. And at the Sayre School building where we've requested that the building where we want to do a play lot and all-weather athletic field, they have 180 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. told us that they will not approve the playground unless we replace the Cyclone fence with a wrought iron fence. So we've had a couple of these where basically we've gone beyond simple zoning approval and they said air condition this building, put a fence around this building or, in the case of Lincoln, change the facade of the building, after we've had our community hearings, after we've done our networking. So what I'm saying is, these projects, the only thing that will hold up these projects, the only thing besides an overbid, the only thing that will hold up these projects will be basically an entity like Zoning telling us that we have to do something more than we have agreed to.
That's why I think it's very important then that parent/teachers associations get involved and go to the Zoning 181 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. hearings.
So that they could talk about the importance of what they're attempting to do to improve the school.
Please state for me again the number of charter schools that you have.
And within the total system, how many of those schools are what we call single sex?
Yeah. Well, there's the Rhoads -- I'm sorry. My mistake. We have two EMOs that are single sex. No charter schools are 182 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. single sex. We have one charter school proposal before us that's single sex.
No. Well, we have some charter middle schools, but no 8 single -- the single-sex schools that we have are the single-sex high schools, Rhoads and Fitzsimons, and, of course, we have Girls High.
Help me better understand what bump or challenge the charter school applicant ran into. What's the status of that and where's the School District philosophically with regards to single-sex education?
I will tell you this: My team is very supportive of single-sex education, and I believe the majority of the School Reform Commission members are supportive of single-sex education. In fact, one of our members is a graduate of Girls High. So we support in principle 183 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. single-sex education. We don't think it's for everybody, but we think that it provides a high-quality option, and I personally think that the research supports single-sex education in certain circumstances. The charter in question was not approved because it was not of the quality that we felt it needed to be in order to be approved. But we are working with the proponents, because it's a good coalition and they've got broad support, and we're going to work with them to get the proposal in good enough shape to be approved. So it wasn't held up because it's single sex. It was held up because there are deficiencies.
Yeah. Now, there's obviously going to be the legal challenge, but my old saying is, what's worth doing is worth getting sued over. 184 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. That's why we hire lawyers and that's why we do things as carefully as we do. I think there are enough single-sex schools across this country, including Chicago where we had a single-sex charter school, all girls school, and I think they will withstand the legal challenge, because they're choice schools. You have a choice whether to go or whether not to go.
Okay. For the record, your School Reform Commissioner and I were there as classmates. So I'm a proponent of single sex as well.
For all the reasons that research has repeatedly provided. Talk about, if you will, the $4 million roll-out for the African-American history course.
It's actually not 4 million just for the African-American 185 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. history course. That million includes all the remaining curriculum reform. So it includes the 12th grade curriculum reform. But that 4 million includes standardizing the 12th grade curriculum, the only remaining grade we have not standardized, and it also includes the roll-out of the African-American curriculum. Greg, why don't you take them through the roll-out.
The roll-out, when we took a look at the high school course study, we basically deemed the African-American course as a 10th grade course. It is our hope that it will be a prerequisite for graduation.
Effective the class going into 2005-2006. They will graduate in 2009-2010.
So is it optional or is it required? 186 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC.
For youngsters who entered high school in the year 2005-2006 in order to graduate in 2009-2010 must complete the African-American history course.
Okay, then. Much discussion has been given to the budget, and you indicated in your testimony that you're anticipating a contribution from the federal government and were optimistic about, quote, the anticipated boost from Governor Rendell. Locally we do what the City does, what it's obligated to do by way of property taxes. Dollars aside, are there other ways, other opportunities that are not pure dollars where the City can be helpful with the School District, and by being "helpful," that eliminates the dollars spent on that particular service, 187 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. which then allows you to spend those dollars elsewhere? Can you cite a couple of examples where if we want to rise to the occasion, if we can make a difference that way in certain areas?
Let me say that there's a lot of areas that I think we can continue to work together to enhance services. Let me give you an example. One is, the Mayor's Safe Schools Initiative has been very constructive in having us work with the Police Department to more effectively deploy our school safety resources in a way to secure school campuses. Ever since the shooting in Gratz, I think we've really improved our working relationship and our coordination. The Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on behavioral health is a big -- I 188 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. think that Task Force has the potential to really produce something incredible. I think the proposals out there are solid. There's been heavy discussion about having more school-based services, even if those school-based services are provided by City agencies. I think that Task Force has the potential to lead to a lot of improvements. We have a lot of behavioral support resources out there, and they're scattered in terms of the way they're deployed, and effectively coordinating those services I think can bring about change. Just to give you really a couple examples, the C&E program and the behavioral support programs that we have in 60 of our schools where we've created these behavior support teams, those were programs that emerged out of old City programs that were revamped. For example, the TSSs, the transitional support staff in the schools, we cannibalized those positions and we 189 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. created these professional behavioral supports, support personnel who are in the schools, teams of Master degreed behavioral support therapists who are working in schools on behavioral support issues. So that's another area where I think there can be improved cooperation. So not everything requires a dispensing of additional funds. Not everything requires more money. I think those are a couple areas. We also want to continue to work with the City to more effectively coordinate how we provide after-school and summer school programs. We've talked about a way -- what we've been doing in early childhood is really terrific, the way we standardized early childhood services, even among private providers, so that they're now teaching early literacy, they're now teaching early math. They're just not providing babysitting services. 190 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. We've talked to the Mayor's people, Safe and Sound, about doing the same thing. So that if community-based organizations through non-School District-funded programs are using our schools, they're providing support services that are in line with our academic standards. So that's a third area where we can, I think, make improvements without necessarily investing more money. When I say that, it's just not me saying, Oh, they can improve. It's me saying, We can improve collectively, because there's improvements we need to make, too.
Let me do a quick follow-up on that. It is my understanding based on budget hearings over the last several weeks the Free Library has after-school programming, the Rec Department we know has after-school programming, DHS is running after-school programming, there's faith-based after-school programming. My question to 191 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. a couple of those departments was, is there a thread of consistency in terms of all those worlds talking to each other so that the standards of the provision of those services for the young people are consistent as well. Does that exist?
The answer is we're moving in that direction, but it doesn't exist at the level that it should right now. What we've been able to accomplish in early childhood is to set standards for early childhood care, whether it's School District or out of School District. We're working to do the same thing with our after-school programs. So I think that's the next frontier. It's the same thing with behavioral supports. If we really go in and set standards for how we provide behavioral support services collectively, not just the City but us collectively, and with the state coming in, I think whether it's behavioral support or 192 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. after-school and summer school programs or early childhood programs or public safety programs, I think we can improve the delivery of those services.
When it comes to the placement of young people, what are the numbers currently as you know them to be? What percentage of those young people stay within Philadelphia County for the needed services versus those who have to leave the county for the support, behavioral health or services related because of delinquency? My question is, how many of those young people are staying in the county?
Right. There's a program, a residency program, for students who pose behavioral health problems that involve the transporting of students to suburban institutions, so to speak. I don't know if "institutions" is a bad word to use, but let's call them institutions or facilities. And there 193 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. are some controversies involving those placements.
There are some controversies involving those placements. First of all, they're very expensive and a lot of kids that have been assigned to those facilities have been assigned to those facilities without, I think, proper or thorough or comprehensive IEPs. I think there's a lot of children being classified at special ed, the majority of them, incidentally, African-American males, who are being classified as special ed who may not need to be classified as special ed. You may have a behavior problem and not be a special education student. We've embarked upon -- we've begun to audit -- since all the bills for those services have, in effect, been sent to us, we've put together a task force to audit all of the IEPs of the 4,200 194 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. students who are in suburban residential facilities, and we are examining all those IEPs individually. In other words, we are going to reevaluate and reexamine and, in some cases, reconstitute those IEPs, because you can't suddenly get a bunch of kids and suddenly reclassify everybody in the worst special education category, because what that does is, it allows you to keep them in the residential facilities without allowing them to go to the least restrictive environment, which is the suburban schools, and it allows you to maximize your reimbursement request. So that process is continuing, and that process will be completed within the next month or so. And we've been working with the state and we've brought in some -- we've contracted with a law firm to come in, who specializes in these areas, and we'll have something to say about this within the next month or so.
The 195 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. troubling part when you mention the plight African-American males have to endure already, once they're labeled that way, trying to reverse that kind of assessment with parents who often can't navigate the system becomes another disservice to the young people that Councilman Goode was focused on, African-American boys.
Well, these institutions have never been challenged and they've literally had the run, the run of the mill, so to speak. They've been able to do what they've wanted. They've been able to do whatever they've wanted. They've been able to ask for reimbursements. And this will be the first ever comprehensive evaluation of the student population that they're servicing. And it's long overdue, and I think it's going to reveal some very interesting things. Because what you may have here is, you may have here a violation of 196 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. IDEA, you may have a violation of least restrictive environment, not to mention questionable IEPs. But we're going to be going through the process school by school, IEP by IEP, and within the next month or so, we'll have something to say about it. And we've convened a group of special education parents whose children have these services. So that we're not just doing this in a vacuum. Our special education coalition have some of the most aggressive, most knowledgeable parents you'd ever want to encounter as working with us. Because if we find that there are problems there, we won't hesitate to file a civil suit.
At the appropriate time that you decide, members of this body might be interested in those findings as well.
We would love to come back to this body or to come back to the Education Committee and submit those 197 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. findings. In fact, we'll give you a date on when we will have completed our work, and then we could perhaps set a date to come in and to give you a presentation on those findings. We would welcome a public discussion of those findings.
Very well. Thank you. I have to come back around on the next round.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Vallas, if I can just finish very quickly a request for data which goes back to a topic that I had explored earlier. With regard to the bus services, could you enhance the request that I made earlier with regard to not only getting a listing of the companies involved but how much?
I don't know how you break this out, whether it's by routes, number of students or percentage of the overall contract, but if you could show what you anticipate the different companies will receive in terms of -- do you categorize it as a percentage of service?
We'll give you the contract, the number of routes -- we'll be able to give you the number of routes and obviously the compensation. So we'll do that for you. No problem at all.
Okay. And I don't know if you'll be able to get this overnight, but --
We can. My trusted Transportation Manager said we will have that material overnight. Go on.
That's a guy not getting any sleep tonight. Could you compare the wages and benefits of the School District employees 199 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. who provide these services -- you mentioned they were 1201 employees -- versus the private sector --
That could take a little more time. We don't make them specify the wages that they're paying their employees. They give us a price per bus per day. So they don't specify how much each employee is making per hour.
We give them a template. In other words, it's an allocation. I don't know if it's per bus or per route. And, of course, then they have to not only provide the transportation, but they have to provide the compensation. Some bus companies may provide more compensation than others, but we don't require that they submit the compensation for their employees. We just establish kind of the financial 200 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. parameters. It's like the charter schools. We don't tell the charter schools how much they have to pay their teachers or how good their health insurance program should be. We just give them an allocation, and they make that determination. But we'll give you the allocation that we require.
That would be helpful, because I don't know how this has evolved over time, the 54/45, 55 to the privates, 45 with School District employees. Was there ever a time when those numbers were reversed or was more of the service being provided by the District?
He's not 201 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. the math guy. He's just the transportation guy. I understand.
We put routes out like in sets of 50 routes and we let the contractors bid, and then we went back to 1201 and said, Here's what the outside vendors can do it for, can you come back and do any better, and the contractors won, so that they have the higher percentage now.
I understand. And just so that we're all clear, you understand that if you've gone through, over whatever period of time, a shift from the public side at whatever those wages and benefit standards were to now a majority of the work being done on the private sector side and you're not insisting or demanding a certain wage and benefit level and it has flipped, what I 202 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. am concerned about is -- because many of those individuals hopefully are Philadelphians. What I really want to know is, how are they faring at those particular companies? What kind of money are they making? And are they getting a decent wage and any healthcare benefits as a part of that as they provide service to a public entity?
We can certainly get that. I may not be able to get it to you by tomorrow morning, but we can certainly get that.
I understand. Very good. I think I've pretty much exhausted that one for the moment. Let's talk about the budget itself. Mr. Vallas, there's been discussion over time about the internal 30 percent cut. There was a story in the paper this morning about it and then there was another story about a student 203 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. newspaper at Roxborough High School in my district. The budget as presented, I know you've indicated both in testimony, Sade has as well, and the document will lay out, it is balanced. Can you give us your evaluation of the impact of the constraints under which you're operating, the decisions that, I guess, the principals are making at the school level, not being told what to cut by central administration, but somebody has got to make that decision. And in some instances, it seems like we might be cutting into some things that while we don't operate in a perfect world, in a better world we would keep some of these items.
Well, one of the reasons that -- well, first of all, we won't know the full impact until the schools get back to us with their individual budget responses, and that will probably be within the next couple 204 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. of weeks. And I might add that we would be more than happy to return to the City Council next month to give them an update on how the schools have responded. And I didn't hear any groans in back of me, but I'll be more than happy to come alone if I have to, but we'll be more than willing to do that.
They were all smiling. I think they look forward to monthly returns.
You know, I'm going to be beaten with a sack full of oranges when I get back. But let me point out that we will do this year what we did in past years. Once we get a response from individual schools, once we've determined what the individual impacts have been, we will likely do a hold harmless. We've done that every year. We load the budgets. We expect the schools to do their best to hit their numbers. If there are individual schools 205 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. who are hit with a hardship, we'll do the hold harmless like we've done in the past. We did with the 30 percent cutbacks. Let me point out that when we did the 30 percent cutbacks, we told schools to cut back on 30 percent of unspent, uncommitted discretionary spending, which isn't a very large amount. We, at the same time, told the schools we would pick up the remainder of their book purchase financial obligations. The net effect of that cutback was, most of the elementary schools actually picked up money. They didn't lose money. Some of the schools, particularly the bigger high schools, lost money. A number of the schools easily met their savings. Some of the schools didn't. So we made adjustments. So we'll go through that route. So the true budgets, the true individual school budgets, will not be fully determined until probably early May. 206 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC.
Many parents don't get this kind of opportunity, so I'll transform myself out of my official position and speak more as a parent of a public school student. I know in today's article there was mention made of a particular school in West Philadelphia that I've developed a very fond affection for. I think the word was "potentially devastating" in terms of their hit. And when my daughter attended that school, we went through some of the same scenarios. And I guess as I experience this and my colleagues do as well in the City budget process, whenever the -- in your case, you're the head of the operation or if the Finance Director or the Budget Director for the City, when they come to the table and they talk about hold harmless, rarely have I ever seen a department head smile when someone says their department is going to be held harmless. That usually means you're going to get what you got 207 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. last year, which was probably not enough last year when you were going through this process. And some of the schools, and in some instances some that may be performing slightly better than others, often end up, for whatever reason, sometimes on the short end of that stick. I mean, you had in your testimony, you talked about robbing Peter to pay Paul. I mean, you have on paper a structurally balanced budget.
We are probably still not going to do some of the fundamentals that we want.
In a previous briefing, you laid out some concerns about additional costs that the District has had to absorb even related to the City of Philadelphia. I mean, what's going to happen differently in this year's budget process that will have less of this, a program here, a service 208 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. there and whether it's a school newspaper or some other kind of thing -- I mean, I understand we operate with a finite amount of money, but it's really all about what we do with the dollars that we have. Where is this going?
Well, where it's going, let me go over what we've asked the schools to do. We've asked the schools to cut five percent -- or we've budgeted schools at 95 percent of last year's discretionary spending. Incidentally, that constitutes one-half of one percent of the budget. So I just want to put it into perspective. And we've asked the schools to pick up the cost of their SSAs. Let me point out that we will be able to replace every SSA with a university intern, who, I don't care what anybody says, are much higher qualified and they are full day, they are full day employees, not three-hour-day employees. 209 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC.
School staff assistant. So those are the big cuts that schools have been asked to impact. And we'll be able to use university interns who are close to degrees and, in some cases, degreed candidates or are already in graduate school, and we'll be able to replace individuals, many of whom don't even have Associate's degrees. And these are individuals who are trained for the classrooms, and they will work six hours a day, not three hours a day. So any time we cut, we look for ways to offset the impact of that cut. But ultimately what the schools do or how the schools respond will determine how we do our hold harmless. Like, for example, the Powell school, first of all, I don't know where the $190,000 number came from. I don't think it included the hold harmless. 210 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. But four years ago when I prepared my first budget, I increased the amount of guaranteed Title 1 funding per school from 75,000 to 250,000. That means that year Powell got $175,000 more than they got in the previous year. And as you remember, under threat of legal challenge, we had to, over the next two or three years, reduce that hold harmless somewhat. So if you're going back and you're counting -- if you're subtracting from the 250,000 minimum funding level, I guess you could probably come to that number. But I'll be more than happy to bring you some numbers on what schools have been most adversely impacted perhaps by tomorrow in the second round of questioning and then talk about how the hold harmless might benefit that. But I can't tell you right now. I mean, schools are going to have to make their own decisions. I will tell you this: I've 211 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. been here now for four years. I have never come to this body and said, I need more money. I have not done that. Now, maybe that's my mistake. I've certainly done a lot of lobbying at the state level, although I don't publicly rebuke people for not adequately funding schools. You don't want to criticize people who have control of your finances.
It just didn't seem to work too well. I think that's probably one of the reasons you're here.
Any additional resources that we are able to secure, either at the state or at the local level, we will put back into the school budgets. In addition, I've already been very specific in committing that if the federal earmarks are restored -- and I 212 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. believe that there's going to be at least more money put in the federal Title 1 budget, because it's an election year in Congress and there's strong support for restorations in both the House and Senate -- that money will specifically go towards programs that a number of you have talked about, the drop-out intervention programs, the middle grade programs, the high school transition programs. So the next couple of months will kind of tell the tale. But we're going to try to develop a hold harmless that ensures that no school comes close to experiencing the cutbacks that the Powell School assumed that they were going to get, and we'll be more than happy to discuss that in more detail tomorrow.
And I appreciate it. Just so that we're always clear, that may be one example. I have certainly interest beyond one particular school. That one was mentioned in the 213 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. paper today and, as I said, I've had a personal experience in that kind of situation.
I know the thing went off. Is there -- okay. I'll be back.
Madam President, I want to point out in this budget, we've cut contractual services across the board, central office, percent, and 14 we've also done a cut in other 15 extracurricular services, our own departmental discretionary budgets. We've also imposed literally a permanent hiring freeze, and the hiring freeze we imposed this year, we eliminated all the vacancies for next year. So believe me when I say that about, I would say, close to 75 percent of the cutbacks have actually been central office and regional office cutbacks. Although I'll tell you those 214 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. cutbacks impact the local schools, too, because our central office does provide those services. So we always go to the schools as a last resort.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thanks, Madam President. I just have a short question. I've gotten some communications about Rhoads School. Could you explain the current status of Rhoads and are there any teacher issues there? Where there's smoke, there's fire, and I've gotten three different letters, anonymous letters, teachers, from the school describing it not a very good situation there. Could you please tell me what 215 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. that's about? First tell us about the school.
Sure. I'm going to ask Greg, because both Greg and I have been out to that school more than once this year. And, incidentally, I got a couple anonymous calls about Rhoads, but then I also have received a number of very positive inquiries about Rhoads. And any time we receive an anonymous inquiry, we will always, either Greg or I or Shively Willingham, will go out and do an on-site surprise visit in that school. Very quickly, Rhoads is an all-girls school. Victory that runs Rhoads and Fitzsimons separated. Fitzsimons became the all-boys school; Rhoads became the all-girls school. When I've been out to the school, I've been generally impressed with what I've seen, and both times I've been out to the school, it was unannounced. So I just walked in and walked the campus and basically did my 216 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. own assessment. But I'll let Greg make -- because when I've gotten these complaints, I've asked Greg to go out and to get his own opinion.
Thank you so much. I've had an opportunity to review the data from Rhoads. The concern that was brought to our attention, that we had an inordinate number of folks leaving the school, teachers leaving. I don't know if that's the same concern that's been shared with you. I ran the numbers for the school approximately two weeks ago, and we've had seven retirements and two folks leave. What we tried to do was benchmark that against kind of what are other schools doing in the system, and they were consistent with all other schools. A look at their academic performance -- I mean, we've had that conversation with respect to gender 217 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. separate. The youngsters are exceeding expectations with respect to the boys being separated versus the girls. The girls are certainly outpacing the boys significantly. There's been a lot of discussion in the newspaper lately around gender and gender growth and gender gaps. So we've been very, very pleased, other than the resignations. And one of the things I've seen with the resignations, unfortunately, when the person comes of 30 years or 35 years, if that date is February 7th, they leave. Unfortunately, they don't finish out the school years. But I was unable to identify anything exceptionally different than at other schools. So we watched it very closely.
Well, I'm pleased that you're on top of this, because, again, I sometimes discard anonymous communications, but in other cases, I think that they are valuable, and I appreciate you following up also. 218 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. Do you really think you can show up unannounced?
Oh, yes. Yes. What I do is, when I visit schools in the morning, I always visit the school that I'm scheduled to visit and then I drop by any school that's along the route. So if people know what area I'm going to be visiting, they should be on guard. But, yeah, I show up, and then sometimes you see things that are quite different. I will tell you this with Rhoads: I like the all-girls/all-boys model. When you, though, force an all-girls/all-boys, where you take a school with a catchment area and then you create an all-boys and all-girls school, it's going to create more tension than if you just open an all-boys and all-girls school and allow people to voluntarily go. So that's why this is kind of a unique experiment here, because these are kids who were in the catchment area and 219 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. suddenly you did all boys and all girls. So that's why both schools bear closer focus. With the boys school, Fitzsimons, we are going to be -- when we move the Barry children to a location closer to where their new school is going to be built and we free up Walton, we will then give Walton to Fitzsimons so that they can take the overage high school kids and open a transition school specifically for those kids, and we think that that's going to really help settle that school down. The girls school I think is making progress, but one of the challenges is the building. That building has no windows. That building is the most impossible building to navigate. The building becomes a security nightmare, because it was one of these -- it looks like a pillbox literally, and I think sometimes the physical structure undermines our ability 220 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. to really create an environment that's really ideal for learning. It's part of the generation of schools built in the '60s and '70s where they didn't believe in building and opening any windows, and it's a very confusing building to be in. Sometimes it can be a very depressing building to be in. So we're physically challenged in some of our locations, which is why the small schools are, I think, having the results that -- we've had a 13, 14 percent reduction in serious incident reports. I think it is, in large part, due to the fact that more and more kids are in a smaller learning environment. So we're keeping an eye on both the all-boys and the all-girls school.
Well, thank you. One last point, and if you covered it while I was out of here, forgive me, but I've never heard of a school district acquiring City land and having to pay a 221 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. premium price for it. Are you being gifted the land by the City of Philadelphia that you require to continue your program of additional schools? Because I would think that's a burden on you if you're paying market for it.
Yeah. I think you're referring to the articles in the newspaper about like the Willard School and the Lamberton, where basically these are closed rec centers, where we've been asked to pay for those closed rec centers, about a million dollars a piece. Let me point out that the Willard School is on -- as you know, the much-celebrated Willard School, that location is now a cemetery. The rec center was built on a cemetery. So despite the fact that if we locate it on that site we would have to relocate 165 remains, they still want to charge us a million dollars for the land. So, yeah. We're being asked to 222 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. pay for property. And the inability to secure property is delaying our projects, and I think that is -- I mean, we would love to get the property for free, particularly if it's a closed rec center. If it's a closed rec center, why not let the school build the school there. Then we can have a gym, we can have a multi-purpose room, we can have a facility that the community could use for its own extracurricular activities.
Where are you with the Administration on that, and is there anything that Council can do to help you with this? We don't want to start a fight, but I think your logic is very important to me. To be able to build a school on a closed rec center and give back some recreational activities to a community that has lost it makes a lot of sense to me. So where are you with that? Because a million bucks is a million dollars. It's a big chunk out of your 223 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. budget.
We've been discussing with the -- we've been negotiating with the Administration to try to secure the property. We don't have resolution to it yet. I mean, the price tag on Willard, for example, is still a million dollars, despite the fact that there's 165 remains. And I don't know. I saw the movie Poltergeist and I'm a little nervous about building anything on top of a former cemetery. Hopefully we'll get these issues resolved, but in all honesty, I came from a place where basically we didn't buy city property. We were given city property. And we're going to be building a school, and when we build that school, we're going to build the school to serve the community in more than just academic ways.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. Two questions. Number one, I was looking through articles with regard to drug arrests, and I see that it looks like about 85 percent of the kids were referred to the Smart Program, those who had small amounts, and that's for data, I guess, back to, was it, '05?
And I wondered if that is still the way we're dealing with it. And at that time, I think they had arrested or referred about 8,000 children to the program.
Yeah. For non-violent offenses, we will try not to 225 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. expel, in part because we want to secure the spots in the disciplinary schools for the kids who really pose dangers to other kids. So if there are drug offenses or alcohol offenses, a lot of times the child will be suspended or they will be referred to the Smart Program, which means it's the Saturday discipline program, where they have to come with a parent.
Excuse me. Does the parent go with the child to the Saturday program?
Yes. The parent and/or guardian must go with the child. Now, the consequences are, the child can be expelled, because the Smart Program 226 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. is, a lot of times, an alternative to expulsion. And so we get the parents come or the guardian comes or the grandparent comes. Or I remember literally the guardian was an older brother or sister. So the Smart Program is an alternative to expulsion for --
Truthfully, I think that's the way it should be.
If you have a youngster in the first grade and they're going to school with marijuana --
-- you want to blame the parent more than the child.
Also, if we have an incident where we have a child -- where we confiscate drugs or a gun, we 227 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. will refer, without hesitation, we will refer that child and the family to the Human Services Department for investigation, not to mention the Police. So if we have students bringing drugs to school, we're going to go beyond just investigating the child's locker. We're going to make a home visit. So parental accountability is important, and if we have to bring cases before Family Court, we will. We bring cases of parent neglect, family neglect before Family Court. So we've tried to be very aggressive. We've actually set up an office in Family Court to navigate our way and also to work with Family Court with students who end up in Family Court so that they can get them back into school or back into the appropriate alternative school programs.
So it should be. Councilwoman, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I was rather curious. 228 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC.
Not at all. My last question is, with regard to youngsters who live in shelters and who don't want to go to neighborhood schools but want to go to the school of their initial neighborhood, are they transported back and forth? How does that work with regard to transportation? Or I know some are given tokens.
This is Brenda Taylor. Brenda Taylor is our Director of Specialized Education Services.
She is also heading the task force, the homeless initiative, but she's also our representative on the Mayor's student behavioral Blue Ribbon Commission, and she's also heading the investigation into the out-of-City residential providers. So I'm going to let her answer that question or any other questions on 229 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. homelessness.
Good afternoon. Brenda Taylor. Our homeless students who are in shelters, they have the option to attend their neighborhood school or the school that is in close proximity to the shelter. So we allow them to have that option. That's the law.
Are they transported? Well, I guess the token issue depends on the grade; am I correct?
The grade level. If they're elementary school, they are actually transported. If they're middle or high school, they're given tokens.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Ramos. 230 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC.
Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Vallas, an observation that your office agrees with me is that the increase of your Hispanic student population from percent of the 8 population to possibly as high as 16 9 percent of the population over the last 10 few years has to do with new immigrants 11 from Latin America. 12 As we all know, over a million 13 people of Hispanic descent have taken to 14 the streets in America in a very peaceful and dignified way opposing a bill in the Senate that would lock you up if you were to assist in any way particularly undocumented immigrants. I think we're all against that type of unjust piece of legislation. I'm glad that over a million people, not just Latinos but other people in our great society, have joined the Latino people and other new immigrants from all over the world opposing this piece of 231 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. legislation. How are you handling this immigrant population into your School District? Although your population, your student population, has decreased in the last few years I assume through charter schools and other alternative schools, but you correct me if I'm wrong, am I correct in assuming that new immigrants are probably going to the public schools?
Because to get into a charter school, it will become that much more different for them. How are you handling this? How are you handling the undocumented parent that comes to a school and wants to enroll their -- and what does the law say? Can you educate us a little bit about this new immigrant situation in this country and how it's affecting your School District?
My position has always been that if a child comes to our 232 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. door and they provide proof of residency, we enroll in a school. So I don't ask.
I don't ask and I'm never going to ask. If there's a child in the City who lives in the City, I'm not going to ask whether or not they have immigrant status or whatever. I'm going to provide them with educational opportunities. As a grandson of Greek-American immigrants, I feel as an educator we have an -- it's like a doctor. If somebody comes to your office with an illness, you're not going to ask whether or not that person is a resident or whether or not that person is from the City or from your county or whatever. You're going to provide the treatment. So that's the approach that we're taking. And insofar as aiding and abetting immigrants, I don't think providing -- or illegal immigrants, I 233 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. don't think providing children with educational opportunities is a violation of the law. And if it is a violation of the law, well, then I'll be just one of those conscientious objectors or something like that.
It might not be the first time you're a conscientious objector.
But, yeah. That won't be the first time that I've demonstrated or I've protested. But that's the approach that we're always going to take. We're going to provide whatever supports that that individual student needs. That said and done, I will tell you the immigrant population in the School District is growing. It's going to continue to grow. 234 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. When I took over in Chicago in '95, the immigrant population, particularly the Latino population, was something like 16, percent and now 6 constitutes the largest student 7 population in the Chicago public schools. 8 So I think the immigrant 9 population is going to begin to grow. So 10 establishing programs that address the 11 needs of the immigrant population -- and 12 let me point out that the Latino children 13 have the lowest graduation rates among 14 children in the school system. I think 15 that was probably going to be one of your 16 questions, too. Clearly, there is a need 17 to provide the appropriate interventions. When I say the "appropriate interventions," you can provide support for immigrant children not at the expense of other children. Dual language programs are great programs for majority children, for other minority children, as well as for immigrant children. So I don't view -- the move to 235 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. have a more diversified workforce is beneficial to all children. So I don't view focusing on efforts to help immigrant children as something that is any way taking away from our efforts to address the needs of some of the majority children who are in our School District. That said and done, as you know, we have begun to open up newcomer centers. We have revamped our after-school and summer school program to have what we call after-school immersion and summer school immersion for children who have English language deficiencies. And our move to create local school councils and home and school councils, we've been aggressive about recruiting parents and bringing parents in and bringing parents on the payroll as parent truant officers, stipend parents who man the parent help desks. So that in schools where we have large immigrant populations, there are representatives at that school who have the language skills, 236 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. the communication skills, to interact with those parents, be they Asian parents, be they Latino parents to provide the interventions, to provide someone at that school who can translate, who can communicate, who can reach out. Our Parent Home Program right now, if you read the story in the newspapers last week -- in fact, the cover picture I believe was of a Latino parent who was being visited by one of our Home parents. We're building a cadre of home instructors who will visit the homes of parents who have young children who have not been enrolled in school yet, who have not been put in pre-school, and this is a program that over the next two years we're going to look to take to scale. So we have parent advocates and parent trainers, be they -- when I say majority, I mean African-American, because the majority of kids in our School District is African-American, 237 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. whether they be white parents or majority parents or Latino parents or Asian parents, who can make the home visits, make the home contact, help the parent get their child in daycare or pre-school and then provide the parents with the social service supports that they need. So that's where we're going. And as someone who lived through a dramatic increase in the percentage of immigrant children in Chicago -- over a period of ten years, the whole demographics of the city dramatically changed -- I think we're well equipped at least from a strategic standpoint to implement the type of programs needed to help the immigrant population thrive.
I will tell you, the Latino population in Chicago made dramatic gains, as did really all of the disaggregated groups, but the Latino population was much higher in Chicago than it was at the national level, both in terms of attendance, academic 238 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. achievement and the graduation rates. And I'm confident within the next two to three years that we'll achieve -- we have the capacity to achieve that same stature.
Mr. Vallas, do you see any correlation -- there's an increase, again, in the drop-out rate of our children in our School District higher with African-Americans and Latinos, and the last numbers I have is looking at around 44 percent of Latino males and 42 percent of Latina females drop out of school before the 12th grade. This is the one issue where I've had almost a lifetime of involvement when it comes to the area of education, which is why I'm not one that sees the charter schools as a threat to our public school system. I know you share that thought as well. At one time, I just got fed up with people waiting for pie-in-the-sky solutions while the drop-out rate was very, very high. The 239 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. bottom line is, we got to get our kids educated and in schools where they're taught properly and where there's discipline. So I'm all for just educating the kids and trying to relax the burden on taxpayers of having all of our kids just go to public schools. But do you see a correlation because of lack of being proficient in English with it being a major reason for the increase in the drop-out rate? I know that before the new wave of immigrants -- not just from Latin America, but now I live in a neighborhood where new immigrants are not just other people from Spanish-speaking countries, but they're coming from Arabic countries. I got Serb neighbors. I have Albanian neighbors in my community. And when the big flow of people from Puerto Rico where I'm from, I always notice tracking that over the years that that drop-out rate was caused by all the social and family 240 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. factors that hits our society, but also there was a trend of some families moving back or moving somewhere else, but the language was always at the heart of that issue. It was a kid that felt less than. His self-esteem was bad and didn't want to go to school because he or she could just not understand or communicate. Do you see that as a principal cause of our drop-out rate going up again?
I think that's a principal cause why anyone drops out. I know there's been some recent studies that have said that a lot of kids drop out and yet they're one or two courses short of graduation. Let me tell you, in Philadelphia, kids drop out, the overwhelming vast majority, because they're falling behind and they don't feel they can make it up. And I think many Latino students are at a further disadvantage because of language barriers. 241 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. I'll be honest with you, this School District has never had an effective ESL program. It hasn't had an effective bilingual program and very, very few Latino educators. We talk about the shortages of African-American educators. Very few Latino educators in the system. And, of course, we've tried to change that, and I think we're making progress, but I think English language deficiencies complicate, added to all the other social problems or social challenges, is probably the principal reason why children are dropping out. My philosophy on bilingual problems and dual language programs is, I believe -- I'm a strong supporter of transitional bilingual, which means you begin to immerse children in English. Within three years, the research will tell you that children who are in transitional bilingual ed and leave under three years do far better than children who have never been in bilingual ed, and 242 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. that children who are in bilingual education beyond three years do significantly better. So this idea of having kind of like a gradual immersion program I think is the most effective thing to do. Also, dual language is a program that if you put it in the schools, it's of benefit to the non-Latino and Asian children, but it also gives the Latino and Asian children another reason to stay in school, another reason for the parents to be involved in school. And I'll tell you one other thing that can help the Latino children, too, and that's a more flexible school schedule. The alternative schools, the transition schools, the twilight schools, the late start schools, there are a lot of children who drop out because they work, honest to God. They drop out because they're going to work, and especially among many of the immigrant children who are sometimes working with 243 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. their families. So having the flexible high school schedule that allows children to go to school late start, that allows children to make up for credits over the summer, to take a lighter schedule during the year, then make up for the hours that they lost during summer, this, I think, gives children a reason -- they give the children the flexibility to work and at the same time stay in school. But I think there's a multiplicity of solutions that are required to help us serve the needs of our growing immigrant population.
I know that we have a number of programs to address the language issue, but wouldn't it be simple -- and I know you're doing this in some places -- that wherever you see an increase of people of another language coming into our school system, that we automatically either during the regular day curriculum or after school have 244 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. English classes, and that child maybe has one hour less of the regular school but has to stay around after school for another hour of just English? I mean, regardless of some of the people all over the place on this immigration debate, people that come from other countries, like you and most of us come from other languages, we know one thing for sure, that if you want to get ahead in this country, in this city, you better learn English soon, because if not, you're not going to get anywhere. You're not going to get a good job. You're not going to get a good education. You have to make it your priority as wanting to be an American, or as an American that comes from a Spanish-speaking territory like Puerto Rico, for you to make it, you have to learn English. So I think that if we can just continue to simplify it. If you see at the McKinley School -- McKinley School is 245 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. in North Philadelphia. A high percentage are predominantly Hispanic, that we make sure that there's no reason for that child to drop out outside of other social family factors, because we have a class there, either during the school day or after school, in English so they become proficient in English.
I think it's great. Let me tell you, the schools that are predominantly Latino have an easier time than the schools that have a small number of immigrant children, because if you're a predominantly Latino or immigrant school, you can restructure your benchmarks and you can -- the two hours that you spend on reading can be reading immersion. You see? But the kids who fall through the cracks are the kids -- is the immigrant and migrant children who constitute a minority of children in the school, because they fall through the cracks. That's why we piloted last year after-school, 246 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. extended-day immersion and summer school immersion. And just like our gifted and accelerated, we're looking at doing after-school and extended-day immersion and summer school immersion for our immigrant children. So what that means is, at the end of the school day, if children are academically struggling and they're regular school children, under the CSAP program, they're provided with one hour to two hours of intervention four days a week for consecutive weeks 14 to help get them to benchmarks. 15 Well, if I have a child who 16 can't speak English, wouldn't it be 17 better for me to spend that four hours a 18 week or that six weeks over the summer 19 immersing them in English language 20 courses, in English language programs? 21 So that's what after-school, 22 extended-day and summer school immersion 23 is about. It's about taking children who 24 have English language deficiencies and 25 spending that extended day trying to help 247 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. them master English, giving them that additional hour a day in the form of an after-school program. So it's exactly what you're talking about.
That child is identified by the teacher that he or she needs this type of immersion program. How does the teacher communicate with the parent of the need of that child? Is it your weekly envelope to the parent?
After six weeks, after the first six-week benchmark, we're identifying children for extended day. In other words, we're recommending children who need to be in extended day and we're communicating it to parents, because the six-week benchmarks go to parents. And that begs the next question, do we actually make contact with all the parents and translate to all the parents? My answer is, that varies from school to school. That's something, though, that we have to do and that's something that we have to make the effort 248 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. to accomplish. What then happens is, when we get the TerraNova test scores in, we then determine CSAP intervention around December, and that's when the -- the extended day begins as early as October, but we do the CSAP, the mandatory intervention, in November. And that's when not only we have -- we would have had at least three benchmarks, three benchmarks in, but that's when we get the previous year's TerraNova test results in, and that allows us to assess where the children are coming from. So the bottom line is, children who have deficiencies -- and let me tell you, if a child is not fluent in English, they're not going to hit their benchmarks and they're going to be in after-school, extended-day immersion. So we begin to identify the first group of children in October, and then in late November, early December, we kind of expand the definition of children 249 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. who need intervention and then we put them into the 120-hour CSAP program. If a child has English language deficiency, that 120 hours should be predominantly helping the child master English. And the 120 hours is a lot of hours. It's a mandate. It's a requirement. It's almost like an IEP, only it's not a special education IEP. It's a special intervention IEP. So if children have math deficiencies or reading deficiencies or children have English language deficiencies, you're supposed to provide the appropriate intervention, and you have to provide 120 hours, and that child has to complete that 120 hours in order to be promoted to the next grade level.
Thank you, Mr. Vallas, and thank you for joining me on at least two occasions where I've asked -- one of them, I believe, was last year in South Philadelphia, St. Thomas Aquinas, where people I think mostly from 250 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. Mexico and a couple other surrounding Central American countries, they were holding their children at home. They didn't know if they could send their children to our public school, and you came out personally. And I got a number of calls from people thanking me, and I wanted to extend that thanks to you and to the School District, because you brought along also some of your folks. I think it was a Sunday also. But I want to thank you. Keep on reaching out. This population of immigrants in this City is a very good thing for the City. I've seen what it's done in Chicago. I was there just recently. I was there for the day where there was 100,000 people protesting the Sensenbrenner bill. And whatever we can do in this Council to better the lives of our children and keep them safe and keep them getting an education, regardless of what language they spoke back home or their parents, I think we're all 251 4/4/06 - WHOLE - BILL 060001, ETC. committed to that, and thank you again. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. Are there any other questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Seeing none, I thank you. The Committee will stand in recess until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.
We'll have that information for you, Madam President, tomorrow morning.
Thank you. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 3:30 p.m.) - - - 252 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on April 4, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (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.)