Author: appsphilly.net

The Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools is a grass-roots organization of parents, community members, and school staff—including teachers, school nurses, librarians, counselors and safety staff—dedicated to the preservation of public schools. APPS is an independent organization with no political or union affiliation. We are entirely self-funded and do not take financial donations from outside sources. All members donate their time and receive no salary.

APPS Scores Victories for Public School Advocates

Board of Education Action Meeting: August 17, 2023

by Lisa Haver and Deborah Grill

APPS members scored a significant victory in its fight against the Board of Education’s speaker suppression policies. APPS, joined by the student advocates of UrbEd, filed suit against the board in 2021 after it capped the number of speakers at board meetings and cut speaker time from 3 minutes to 2. The case was heard in court earlier this year, and the judge issued a split decision earlier this month. The judge agreed with the position of APPS and UrbEd that the board should keep a waiting list for those who signed up to speak but didn’t make it onto their limited list of 30. Board President Reginald Streater announced that in keeping with the judge’s ruling, the board would allow anyone attending in person to sign up to speak;  in the event that one or more speakers did not show, they would be called up. One community member did sign up at the meeting and was able to testify in favor of the community garden at Steel Elementary School. 

In another victory for APPS members and the community, the Board of Education announced that it would no longer be spending two hours of every monthly action meeting to analyze the data collected that month in its Goals and Guardrails program.  APPS members had asked the board several times–in meetings, in letters and in testimony–to conduct the G & G analysis in a separate venue. Last year, we lobbied the board to place public speakers before the G & G; the board finally relented. The board still needs to hear from speakers earlier in the meeting: in both June and August meetings, speakers were not called up until 9 PM. And even without the G & G,  neither meeting adjourned until 11 pm. 

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Philadelphia’s school board must take charter school standards seriously — and act when they’re not met | Opinion

Some charter operators continue to rake in six-figure salaries — higher than the district superintendent — despite documented failures.

The following commentary was written by APPS co-founder Lisa Haver and published in  Billy Penn on August 16, 2023

The playground at Universal Daroff Charter School, which closed just before the 2022-23 academic year began. (Aubri Juhasz/WHYY)

At its action meeting this Thursday, the Philadelphia Board of Education will vote on whether to approve 5-year renewals for up to 19 charter schools. 

Unlike other local districts, Philly’s school board holds no public hearing to review the performance of charters before deciding whether it’s beneficial to students and the community to fund them for another five years. Rarely does the board vote for non-renewal. 

The projected cost of renewing all 19 schools up for a vote, based on the district’s 2022 budget, is more than $470 million over the next five years. Of the 14 charters the board has already indicated it will renew, eight failed to meet academic standards. Instead, their rating falls in the Charter Schools Office’s middle category, “approaches standards,” which allows schools that score above 45% to squeak by.

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Board Must End Practice of Renewing Substandard Charters

by Lisa Haver, Deborah Grill, Lynda Rubin, Ilene Poses

At its August 17 action meeting, the Board of Education will vote on the renewals of nineteen charter schools. After just one brief presentation by the Board’s Charter Schools Office at the June meeting, Board President Reginald Streater announced Board recommendations for fourteen of the19-school cohort, directing CSO Director Peng Chao to negotiate renewal contracts with the operators of those schools. Thus, without any Board vote or any public hearing, the Board decided in effect to renew most of the charter schools, despite the fact that only one had met standards in all three major categories. Streater made no recommendation for the remaining five, all of which had received a “Does Not Meet” rating in at least one category. 

Should the Board vote to renew all nineteen, the district would be spending approximately $470 million over the next five years.  Of that, approximately $20 million will be spent on CEO salary and compensation. Review of the CSO renewal evaluations shows that:

  • 13 did not rate “Meets” in Academics
  • Board recommending renewal for 8 of the schools rate below “Meets” in Academics
  • 5 of the 19 schools have been operating under expired agreements
  • 3 of the 4 schools in their first term rate “Does Not Meet” in academics
  • 9 of the 19 are well below authorized enrollment

Continue here to read information on each school up for renewal


Board Blocks Students and Community Members from Speaking

APPS and PARSL members urge Board to bring back Certified Teacher Librarians. (Photo by Lisa Haver)

Board of Education Meeting:  June 29, 2023 

by Lisa Haver and Lynda Rubin

During this month’s meeting, APPS member Barbara Dowdall was detained by district security who told her she couldn’t go into the auditorium because she wasn’t on the speakers list.  (In May it was Lisa Haver, in April Ilene Poses.)  The board set up 96 chairs for this meeting in an auditorium with a 240-person capacity. When APPS wrote to the board about their setting up only 82 chairs in April, President Reginald Streater replied that they were “working with building management to address it”, as if building management staff could overrule the president of the board. When we wrote to him again in June because the board had barred people from attending because of the current speaker suppression policies, we received no reply. No matter how the board sets up its arbitrary number of chairs,  forcing people to stand, they cannot bar people from attending a public meeting. That is illegal. 

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