Board of Education Action Meeting: November 21, 2024
by Lisa Haver
Parents, students, educators and community members came to November’s board meeting to be heard on many issues: student censorship, funding to save extra-curricular activities, school closings, renewal of substandard charter schools, restoring school librarians, and the board’s vote on tax breaks for developers of the proposed arena at Chinatown’s door. They hoped to find a board that would be open to their concerns and respond to them. They found, instead, a board that had built a wall around itself, ramped up security measures, and attempted to intimidate public speakers. Outside the auditorium they encountered a table for people to sign in and be issued an identification sticker to be worn during the meeting. Inside had been erected a barrier between the audience and the board, with security staff positioned on both sides of public speakers. Board members now enter and exit through a door on their side of the barrier. There was no opportunity for any contact between board members and their constituents. All of this was an apparent reaction by the board to the protest at the October meeting, during which the board left the meeting and re-convened in a locked room. The board’s bunker-like mentality violates its own Guardrail 2: “Every parent and guardian will be welcomed and encouraged to be partners in their child’s school community.”
Continue reading about the November board meeting here.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 