Category: APPS Media Articles

APPS Letter to SRC Chairwoman Marjorie Neff about turnarounds

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March 6, 2016

Dear Chairwoman Neff:

The members of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools call on you to halt the placement of four more neighborhood schools into the Turnaround Network. This latest plan will only lead to further destabilization of schools already struggling to survive in conditions caused by both financial and managerial crises.

Three of the four schools targeted—Roosevelt, Rhodes and Munoz-Marin—have recently undergone major transformations. Roosevelt and Rhodes were converted from middle to elementary schools. Munoz-Marin lost the majority of its staff when the district attempted to hand over management of the school to Aspira Charter Schools two years ago. The decision to place Mitchell, a school with a new principal who was praised by Dr. Hite in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story, is truly baffling.

What is the point of inflicting more trauma on students who need the safety and guidance of teachers and staff who are working to build strong school communities?

The teachers and staff are working under appalling conditions and are now being blamed and punished, along with the students whose relationships to them will be severed.

Community meetings have been scheduled this week, beginning Monday, even though there has been inadequate notification of parents and community members, if any. The district has not disclosed the cost of the program, how it will be carried out, or what criteria were used to select these schools. It is difficult to understand how the district can afford any extra expense of this kind, especially since it plans to spend $15-20 million to place Cooke, Huey and Wister into the turnaround program as Renaissance schools. Dr. Hite has stated publicly that he cannot guarantee the district will not run out of money before the end of this school year.

As a former teacher and principal, you know how important it is for children to feel that school is a safe and stable environment. Instituting a plan whose essential feature is the severing of relationships between adults and students can only add to the trauma many students already live with.

We understand that the SRC is not required to vote on internal turnarounds. But the SRC is responsible for the financial and academic success of every school in the district. Recently, the SRC overruled Dr. Hite’s decision in the Wister case. The SRC should do the same in this matter.

Sincerely,

Lisa Haver, Co-founder

Deborah Grill, Secretary

Also see:

4 elementariness added to Philly district schools slated for closure | Newsworks – March 4, 2016

The above letter to Chairwoman Neff was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 7, 2016 along with her response.

Lisa Haver was interviewed on The Solomon Jones Show on WURD on March 8, 2016. Click here for audio of the interview.

On Thursday, March 10, Superintendent Hite formally announced the four school turnarounds. He included the announcement with an announcement about budgeting a full-time nurse and a full-time counselor in each school next year. Council President Daryll Clark: “It’s hard to be excited about anything that comes out of that building, because more often then not it’s not real.”

Emails show effort to sway SRC on Wister charter conversion
The Notebook – March 17, 2016

 

To Good to Be True?

Texas

By Alison McDowell
Alison is a parent of a public school student and a member of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools

February 17, 2016

On February 16, 2016, Diane Ravitch’s blog promoted a vision statement for the future of Texas public education that had been developed by a group of 35 Texas superintendents between 2006 and 2008. If you simply read the excerpted portions quoted on the blog, you’d likely find the sentiments expressed sympathetic to those who oppose the test and punish system. However, if you continued past the first twelve pages of the document, you’d have been abruptly confronted with “Article 1: The New Digital Learning Environment” that is at its core essentially a pitch for online learning. As a parent involved with opt out in Pennsylvania, I found many elements from these pages and the more-detailed tables available in a companion document, eerily similar to changes proposed for the PA school code that are now under consideration in my home state.

The corporate interests aiming to “transform” our schools know what we want to hear. They know we are weary and looking for hope wherever we can find it. They are not above manipulating our emotions to get what they want. They will distract us. They will speak our language, while at the same time sowing seeds like this “Article 1” that are meant to destroy neighborhood public schools. Pay attention and stay on your guard. If it sounds too good to be true…dig down until you find the real truth.

APPS Calls on the SRC to Rescind Its Illegal Vote

SRC 1-21-16

February 1, 2016                                                              For Immediate Release

Members of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools have called on School Reform Commission Chair Marjorie Neff to nullify the vote taken at its January 21 meeting on the fate of Wister Elementary School in Germantown. In a letter sent Monday (click here to read the letter) APPS co-founders Lisa Haver and Karel Kilimnik list a number of reasons why the resolution introduced from the floor by Commissioner Sylvia Simms, and approved just minutes later by the SRC, is not valid.

Commissioner Simms, in an unprecedented move, introduced a resolution from the floor asking the SRC to proceed with pairing Wister with Mastery Charter Schools, thus overruling Superintendent William Hite’s decision to remove Wister from its Renaissance Program.   “Ms. Simms said she heard from parents on both sides, but she didn’t attend any of the meetings held by parents at Wister to keep the school public,” said Kilimnik.

APPS claims that “deliberate deception” was used by “district officials at all levels” to keep Wister parents from attending the January SRC meeting. Resolutions were posted to approve two other schools’ placement into the Renaissance program, but none was posted for Wister. District officials had already begun to hold meetings at Wister to develop an alternative program.

“The message from the district and the SRC was clear: we are taking no action on Wister,” said Kenya Nation, a Wister parent. “The Wister parents have been meeting every week over the past three months and came to the last three SRC meetings. I would have come to the January meeting if I had known the SRC was going to take a vote on the future of our school,” she said.

The letter also points out that no resolution was ever presented to the public at that meeting.   “Neither Commissioner Simms in her speech, nor Head of Counsel Michael Davis before he called the roll, gave anything other than an interpretation of what the resolution was supposed to be about,” said Haver. “That alone means that the action is not valid and must be rescinded.”

The letter also states that Neff’s refusal to allow the public to speak before the vote was taken is a violation of the state’s Sunshine Act. APPS filed suit against the SRC and the district in November 2014 on similar grounds after its vote to cancel the PFT contract the previous month.

Also see:

The Battle for Wister Elementary School
The Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools – January 20, 2016

‘Sunshine’ questions loom over SRC’s surprise resolution
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook – February 8, 2016

Plan to privatize 3 schools is inconsistent and a gross overreach
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook – February 10, 2016
Nine Philadelphia academics use the SRC’s much touted data to show their is not basis for privatizing Wister Elementary.

Kenny asked to investigate why Wister went charter
February 10, 2016

SRC’s decision an assault on democracy

Lisa Haver SRC 1-21-16

by Lisa Haver

(This post appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on February 1, 2016.)

When Superintendent William Hite announced that he had changed his mind about placing John Wister Elementary School into the “Renaissance” program and turning it over to Mastery Charter Schools, the school community rejoiced. He cited new data that showed the school had made significant growth. But at last week’s meeting, School Reform Commissioner Sylvia Simms introduced an eleventh-hour resolution, approved by the SRC, to override Hite’s decision. The resolution had not been posted before the meeting, and Chairwoman Marjorie Neff denied requests from members of the public to comment before the vote. It was a stunning abuse of power, even for the SRC.

Simms read a statement in which she expressed the “emotions” she felt after meeting with parents and Mastery representatives just days before the meeting. Wister parents fighting to keep the school public, who did not see Simms at any of the community meetings held over the past three months, were shocked. Some questioned why Simms was moved to action in this case when in 2013 she voted to permanently close 24 schools, even after hearing the pleas of their students, parents and teachers.

The SRC’s blindside has nothing to do with giving parents more choice; in fact, Wister parents now have fewer options. Students at the future Wister Mastery would attend Mastery Pickett for middle and high school. Children whose parents do not want them to attend a charter school from kindergarten through 12th grade would have to travel a longer distance each day, assuming that a school outside their catchment area would admit them. When parents were given a true choice, as those at two other elementary schools were two years ago, they voted overwhelmingly to stay in the district. What parents want their child’s school placed in a failed program? The 2015 PSSA scores show that, even with additional funding, none of the 21 existing Renaissance schools achieved a math score over 20 percent; only eight topped 30 percent in reading.

Nor does the SRC vote have anything to do with facts or data. Commissioner Feather Houston acknowledged the district used faulty data when it chose Wister as one of three schools to be turned over to charter companies.

The SRC’s latest assault on democracy leaves little doubt about its determination to move forward with the privatization of the city’s public schools. That agenda was rejected by the city’s voters in the most recent gubernatorial and mayoral elections. But the five SRC members, three appointed by the former governor and two by the former mayor, apparently have no intention of respecting the wishes of the voters. The SRC’s action leaves little doubt that the disenfranchisement of Philadelphia’s voters must end so that those with a stake in the district – that is, every resident and taxpayer – can choose a school board accountable to them.

No governmental body, whether appointed or elected, is permitted to rule by fiat. Sufficient time for consideration by both legislators and the public must be provided if we are to maintain a democratic system. An action with far-reaching consequences like converting a public school into a charter should not happen without notification or public discussion. The mayor and the governor cannot allow this action to stand.