Board of Education Action Meeting: March 28, 2024
by Lisa Haver
Over the years, we have seen people come before this board, and before that to the School Reform Commission, in order to advocate for better public schools. West Philadelphia community members showed up for months, asking that the board provide funds for pools so that children could learn to swim. Parents have come demanding that the board do everything in its power to remove the lead and asbestos and to make schools less toxic. Students have come to ask for mental health services, as many are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic lockdown. Just last month, PFT members led a rally before the action meeting, then in their testimony asked for an end to the oppressive and unfair practice that punishes them for taking their contractually allotted sick days. Parents, students, educators and community members all come in the hope that the members of the board will hear them, respond to them, and do something to improve education for the city’s children.
Outgoing Board Member Mallory Fix Lopez, however, sees them not as advocates but as impediments. Fix Lopez, during a presentation on the district’s lump sum budget, launched into a diatribe against “protestors” whom she blamed for the state’s underfunding of the city’s schools. She claimed that when she attends “high-level” government meetings in Harrisburg, legislators cite news stories about the district as proof that the board and the district are “incompetent” and don’t deserve more funding. According to Fix Lopez, people who may be “well-intentioned” neither understand the issues nor know who they should be talking to about them. She said that when people “ask for things”–like pools, libraries, schools, better technology, the end of leveling, more art and music, better ventilation in classrooms–they are actually doing it “with the intentional intent” to make the board look incompetent.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 