Click on timestamp 12:27 to view Barbara’s testimony
Good afternoon. The air of excitement in the room, the building and throughout the city is palpable. As you, the newly-appointed LOCAL Board of Education commence your duties, and as Dr. Hite continues as superintendent — but with the opportunity to focus his energies in new ways – we citizens: parents, students, working and retired school staff, and voters – all sense your dedication and commitment to restore, revitalize and rededicate this school district (the one I entered as a 4-year-old in 1950 at Edwin H. Fitler and retired from as English Department Head at A. Philip Randolph Career Tech High School in 2010) where the best of the old system – music for all from early grades in every school; districts based on neighborhoods, not networks based on test-score-based labeling; professionally-staffed and fully-resourced school libraries; home-grown inspiring staff conducting professional development for their peers; adequate numbers of nurses and counselors; respect for institutional memory; attention to physical conditions in all buildings with no need for newspaper investigations and exposure; and equity in provision of resources — meets the new.
I am reminded most powerfully of current Board Member, then SRC Chair, Joyce Wilkerson’s admonition to the Alumnae Association of the Philadelphia High School for Girls at our 2017 Meeting and Luncheon: “Remember to care for and about all our schools, not just yours.”
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 