Board of Education Action Meeting: February 27, 2025
by Lisa Haver
The Board of Education that implemented unprecedented speaker suppression policies, that now issues ID badges for admission to a public meeting, that forbids people to stand in solidarity behind their allies and has threatened those who do with arrest, that meets in secret with district vendors, that approves contracts worth tens of millions at every monthly meeting with no explanation or deliberation–that board now exhorts you to exercise your civil rights. They want you to speak to those who hold office in Washington, to demand that Congress stop cuts to education. But they expect you to sit in your seat and behave yourself if you have an issue with them. The board that conducts all charter business in secret, that remains silent about charter CEOs paying themselves hundreds of thousands annually–wants their constituents to stand up and speak out. The board that shuts the public out of meetings in which the closing of an indeterminate number of public schools is being discussed now wants your voice to be heard. Somewhere else.
Ilene Poses contributed to this report.
Board Denies Two New Charters
The board voted to deny both applications for new charter schools in this year’s cohort. The vote to deny Early College Charter School of Philadelphia (ECC) was 6-3; the vote to deny Pan American Academy Charter School–Pathways High School was 8-0, with Wanda Novales, the founding CEO and former principal of Pan American Charter, recusing herself from both the vote and the deliberations. Board Member Whitney Jones, before voting to approve the ECC application, said that he was “excited” about ECC’s model that proposes having students graduate with a diploma and some college credits. None of the board members who echoed Jones’s approval of the ECC model mentioned the existence of the district’s Parkway Center City Middle College, which through its affiliation with Philadelphia Community College, has students graduate with a diploma and an associate’s degree. There was a consensus among the board members who voted to deny that ECC was relying on fundraising from outside sources that were not reliable. Several of the board members cited the deceptive way in which PAACS-Pathways, although applying for a new school, would actually be operating as one school sharing the same board. Deborah Grill wrote in APPS’s analysis of PAACS-Pathways: “The application for this new charter high school begins on a disingenuous note.” Most of the board members seemed to understand how PAACS-Pathways was trying to game the system. Rather than apply for an amendment that would allow grade and enrollment expansion, PAACS submitted an application for a new charter. If the application were denied, they could appeal to the state’s Charter Appeal Board (CAB), but they couldn’t appeal a denial of an amendment. Several board members cited the high suspension rates at PAACS, in particular those of Black students. Some also cited PAACS’s poor performance at its existing elementary school. APPS member Lynda Rubin reminded the board that PAACS had been operating under an expired agreement since 2013 because they refused to accept any conditions that would improve the school. “I don’t know”, Rubin testified, “I’m trying to imagine if I were renting a house from a landlord and I refused to sign renewal leases for years and still expected to have a right to continue to live there.” Not to mention being granted a bigger house. Unfortunately, none of the board members raised the underlying issues of the present charter system: the rampant under-enrollment, the substandard academic performance, the draining of resources from public schools. Or the exorbitant administrative salaries (Pan American Charter, enrollment 750, has 8 administrators making, according to most recent IRS information, over $100,000; the CEO salary/compensation was $250,314). Board members talk only about the pros and cons of the individual applications, ignoring the larger issues. How absurd would it be to burden the district with another privately managed charter school while threatening to close an unknown number of neighborhood district schools?
Ilene Poses contributed to this report.
District Needs More Guidance on Protection from ICE
Superintendent Tony Watlington, in his remarks, said that the district has an established protocol for responding to ICE. Principals are not to admit anyone who identifies as an ICE agent; they must ask for documentation and immediately notify the Office of General Counsel at 440 and wait for direction. Watlington also said that the district has an “Immigrant Toolkit” on the website.Several students returned to ask the board and Watlington what they will do to protect students who may be targeted by ICE. They repeated the concerns that have been brought to board meetings in recent months: there is poor communication to parents from the district, there are no welcoming centers in North and West Philadelphia schools, and lack of action on this matter is affecting attendance. Students who don’t consider themselves ICE targets are worried for their friends whose families may be. Several parents and educators echoed the students’ concerns. Laura Petty, an attorney with Juntos who has experience in this matter, said that compared with districts in other cities, including Chicago, this district has fewer resources and less than adequate training for staff.
Censorship of Students and Teachers Censorship Continues
A number of students and educators returned to demand that the district return Northeast High teacher Keziah Ridgewayto her classroom. She was placed on suspension early in the school year after her students gave a presentation on Palestine that unknown persons from an outside organization found offensive. As usual, there was no response from any member of the board or from Watlington. They seem to have no solution and are just hoping the situation somehow resolves itself without any leadership from them.
Board Silent on Approval of Large Vendor Contracts
President Reginald Streater has normalized voting without any board deliberation. At this meeting and many recent action meetings, there was no discussion of any item, even those with multi-million dollar price tags. Item 9 approves a multi-year contract with Tetra Tech, Inc. for removal of toxic substances for $27,940,442.26. There has been no deliberation on the pluses and minuses of overhauling Math and Reading curricula until after they approve the contracts. The same board that sits in silence throughout the testimony of students, parents, educators and community members gives their constituents no opportunity to hear their views on anything, with the exception of the two charter items. And though there may be deliberation on charter items, the vote is in essence one taken in secret, as the items contain no content. Midway through the public speaker portion, General Counsel Lynn Rauch announced that BM Cheryl Harper, who was not in the auditorium and was marked absent during the opening roll call, was now present but was “too polite” to interrupt to announce her presence. Harper was neither visible on the screen nor heard by those in attendance, except during the voting, which took about one minute. In that meeting, the board voted unanimously to spend $67, 662. 303.20 in taxpayer funds.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 