Category: Eyes on the SRC

Eyes on the SRC: May 25, 2017
by Lisa Haver

SCHOOL REFORM COMMISSION PUBLIC MEETING RESOLUTION LIST : As of 5/23/2017

SCHOOL REFORM COMMISSION

1. SRC-1  Adopts an amended Operating Budget for 2016/2017 and an Operating Budget for 2017/2018
2. SRC-2  Adopts an amended Capital Budget for 2016/2017 and an amended Capital Program for 2017-

2022 and Adopts a Capital Budget for 2017/2018 and a Capital Program for 2018-2023

3. SRC-3  Approves an agreement with the Philadelphia Intermediate Unit to provide an educational program and auxiliary services to nonpublic school students for 2017/2018
4. SRC-4* Proposed Action on Revised Charter Application – Deep Roots Charter School
5. SRC-5** Proposed Adoption of Adjudication – Laboratory Charter School of Communication and Languages (Added 5.23.17)
6. EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICES
7. A-1  Operating Budget: Amendment of Lease Agreement with 18 South Seventh Street Associates, L.P. – Constitution High School (Added 5.23.17)
8. A-2  Operating Budget: Amendment of Lease Agreement with 2130Arch Street Associates, L.P. – Science Leadership Academy (Added 5.23.17)

III. EDUCATION SERVICES
None Submitted

1. INTERMEDIATE UNIT
2. IU-1  Adopts an amended Philadelphia Intermediate Unit Budget for 2016/2017 and a Philadelphia Intermediate Unit Budget for 2017-2018
3. IU-2  Approves an Agreement with the Philadelphia School District to provide an educational program and auxiliary services to nonpublic school students for 2017-2018

*Consideration of the Revised Charter Application (SRC-4) by the School Reform Commission would be a quasi-judicial action. Please refer to the Charter Schools Office Renewal Recommendation Report available on the Charter Office website.

**Consideration of the Adoption of the Charter Adjudication (SRC-5) by the School Reform Commission would be a quasi-judicial action. Please refer to the Charter Schools Office Amendment Evaluation Report available on the Charter Office website.

***Please refer to currently available Budget Documents here.

---

Above is the Current Resolution List for the Thursday, May 25 SRC Action Meeting. It is the only information that the SRC has posted on its website for that meeting. As we searched in vain over the past two days for a Resolution Summary, we saw that items were added to the list almost hourly.

Up until Tuesday afternoon, the only items listed were the first three on the budget. As of Wednesday morning, there are ten. No information is given for any of them.

Two different listings are posted (Upcoming Resolution List, May 25 and Current Resolution List, May 25) with different information on each. This is not just confusing, but it seems to be a deliberate tactic to withhold information from the public.

The SRC continues to give lip service to transparency and community engagement. But it is clear that they will continue to vote on crucial issues with no regard to their responsibility—as government officials— to the stakeholders of the district.

APPS sent the following letter to the SRC Wednesday morning:

Dear Chair Wilkerson and Commissioners:

On February 8, 2017, after a lengthy public hearing process, the SRC voted to deny the new charter application submitted by Deep Roots Charter. The Resolution List for May 25, just posted today, indicates that the SRC will vote on a revised application from Deep Roots. No Resolution Summary has been posted, in violation of the Sunshine Act settlement agreement between the school district, the SRC and the Alliance. Thus, no details of the revised application have been provided to the public.

The district website indicates that the Charter Schools Office evaluation of the new application was posted yesterday, May 22, just three days before the SRC vote.  There has been no hearing process at which the public could be apprised of the contents of any new application or any opportunity for the public to comment on it.

We request that the SRC withdraw the resolution and schedule at least one hearing at which concerned members of the public will have an opportunity to speak on this major expenditure of district funds.

Sincerely,

Lisa Haver
Karel Kilimnik

by Karel Kilimnik
May 15, 2017

Outsourcing of professional development for teachers and administrators continues with this month’s resolutions. Relay Graduate School of Education, which received a contract just two months ago, will be paid to send three assistant superintendents and nine principals to a twelve-day summer program in Texas. Dave Levin, co-founder of KIPP, is also one of the Relay founders. KIPP has a large presence in Texas.

After four years, the district still has not reached a settlement with PFT members. That may be the reason that the district has had to undertake a large recruitment effort for the second year in a row. Resolution  A-2 calls for the Office of Talent to “develop, implement, and refine a pilot Teacher Residency Program for the District”. It’s ironic that this recruitment effort is being underwritten by the Philadelphia School Partnership. PSP has made the forcing out of teachers a condition for funding school transformations, including Blaine and WD Kelley elementary schools.

---

What If…?
Instead of paying $415,800 to a vendor to provide a summer school literacy program at seven schools, every school could determine what summer enrichment program to provide for its students. If we took all of the money from contracts going to corporate education vendors at this one SRC meeting, there would be over $1 million for almost 20 summer school programs.

Note: The next two SRC Action Meetings will be held on Thursday May 18 and Thursday May 25, both at 4:30 PM. To register to speak, call 215.400.4180 before 3PM the previous day.

Click here to read selected Resolutions for the May 18th meeting and the APPS analysis.

by Lisa Haver
April 28, 2017

APPS publishes its Eyes on the SRC before each meeting as a preview of what the SRC will be voting on and how much taxpayer money they will be spending.

This time, however, we can only tell you that the SRC has decided to not tell the public what they intend to do at a meeting just a couple days from now. No agenda has been posted. No list of resolutions. Just a list of the schools they might be voting on.

The SRC scheduled a meeting for Monday May 1 at 3 PM with less than one week’s notice. Newspaper articles have said that they intend to vote on renewal proposals for 26 charter schools.  To add insult to injury, the SRC passed a resolution last Thursday to cap speakers for this meeting at 24. There is no notice of this change of policy on the district’s website.

The PA Sunshine Act stipulates that the SRC must tell the public exactly what it is voting on. They continue to violate this law.  They are also violating the court-ordered settlement reached between the district and APPS just last year in which they agreed to post resolutions two weeks before each meeting.

We hope you can make it to this meeting, but we know that many will not be able to because it is at 3 PM.  We must demand that the SRC respect the rights of the public and obey the law.

by Karel Kilimnik
April 24, 2017

The Steady Stream of Public Dollars to Private Vendors
A recurring theme in every edition of “Eyes” is how much public money flows from the District into the pockets of corporate education reformers and vendors. The Relay teacher-training program, unaccredited in Pennsylvania, was approved last month for a one-year contract, but we predict that they will return for even more funding next year. Relay is closely affiliated with the Mastery Charter School district.

This month, the SRC proposes to extend its current contract with TNTP (The New Teacher Project) by an additional $1 million. One teacher who testified at the April 20 meeting asked why the SRC funds programs which produce poorly trained teachers while failing to pay their own teachers a fair wage. These companies only seek to profit as part of the program in which students are subjected to unproven methods like blended learning under the guise of innovation.

 APPS has developed a FAQ about these non-profits and consultants hired by the District as part of the privatization program Superintendent Hite was hired to carry out

1. How much teaching experience, if any, does the staff of these programs have? Were they appointed teachers or TFA-trained? Did they teach in an urban area?
2. Who sits on the boards of these institutions? Are any board members or staff affiliated with other corporate reformers or vendors? Are any graduates of the Broad Superintendents Academy?
3. Who are their funders? Any of the big 3 (Gates, Walton Family, Eli Broad)?)

WHAT IF… Instead of shelling out $1.2million to TNTP, the district used that money to hire 30 Bi-Lingual Counseling Assistants? Four students spoke eloquently at the April 20 meeting about the urgent need for more resources, including Bi-Lingual Counseling Assistants. Dr. Hite talks about supporting our immigrant students –now we need to see money going to meet those needs.

This Is Not Real Charter Reform
Please be aware that the state legislature is again attempting to revise the state Charter Law with HB 97, a fix with untenable conditions that propose even less accountability for charters and will certainly weaken public schools. Some crucial facts from the Education Voter website on HB 97 include:

*HB 97 fails to ensure that charters will equitably serve all students and does not address student “push-out” in charters.

* HB 97 fails to address critical funding problems with the current law.

* HB 97 does not address issues of education quality in charter schools or allow school districts to hold charters accountable if they fail to provide students with a quality education.

Please contact your state representatives and urge them to vote NO on HB 97.

Education, not Gentrification
In 2013, the district closed 23 schools including Smith School located in the rapidly gentrifying Point Breeze neighborhood. Save Smith School, a community organization working for over three years to have Smith School re-opened as a public school, is holding an Education Not Gentrification rally at 4 PM on Thursday, April 27^th just before the SRC meeting. Meet at 4 PM at the Thomas Paine Plaza (adjacent to the Municipal Services Building across from the North side of City Hall); we will march down to 440.   Come and support the parents and community members defending public education in Point Breeze and in all neighborhoods.

The next SRC Action Meeting is Thursday April 27 at 4:30 PM. To register to speak, call 215.400.4180 before 3PM Wednesday April 26.

---

Resolutions of Note

Click here to read selected Resolutions and the APPS analysis.