Category: Aspira

Eyes on the SRC – July 1, 2016

SRC

By Lisa Haver

At its June 16 meeting, SRC Chair Marge Neff announced that the June 30 meeting, posted for months on the district’s website, would be moved to July 1 at 10:00 AM—on the cusp of the July 4th holiday weekend. The last time the SRC held a morning meeting, it cancelled the PFT contract, so our antennae are up.

Responding to pressure from APPS, Ms. Neff promised last year to post resolutions at least two weeks before the meeting. But a promise is not a law, so it can be broken anytime—without any penalty—as it has for the last two meetings. In addition to the 130+ resolutions originally posted, the SRC added a significant number of resolutions in the days before the June 16 meeting. That makes it even more difficult to see how much corporate funding is influencing district priorities and how little is actually making it to classrooms. If a resolution is added the day before, there is no way to speak on it until the next meeting—after the resolution has been passed. As of this writing Tuesday, no resolutions have been posted for the Friday meeting.

Given the SRC’s recent action, or lack of action, on the Renaissance renewals, we believe that it is crucial for people to attend this meeting. The SRC has, in effect, rejected the reports presented by its own Charter School Office on the Aspira and Universal schools. The CSO recommended in April that the SRC vote not to renew charters for Aspira Olney High School, Aspira Stetson Middle School, Universal Vare and Universal Audenried. The CSO gave numerous reasons—academic, financial, managerial—why these schools should not be renewed. Rather than accept the CSO’s report, the SRC has entered into private negotiations with Aspira. The Universal renewals have not appeared on the list of the last two meetings, and the SRC has not said when it will vote on them.

We teach our children about democracy, but the SRC, once again, does not feel the need to practice it.

Note: Lisa’s commentary on the subject of the SRC and its failure to observe the rules of democracy is published in Tuesday’s Philadelphia Daily News:

Commentary: SRC is acting as if it’s above the law | Philadelphia Daily News – June 28, 2016

Resolutions were posted by the SRC on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. No mention of the Aspira and Universal charter reauthorization.

 

 

 

Eyes on the SRC – June 16, 2016

SRC pic 5-19-16

Each month, APPS publishes our “Eyes on the SRC” in which we select some of the resolutions to be voted on at the next meeting for perusal and analysis. As of this writing, the SRC has posted 129 resolutions for the June 16 Action Meeting. Eight of those resolutions involve charter school renewals or amendments to other charters. Two resolutions involve approvals of the charter licenses for John Wister Mastery Charter School and Global Leadership Academy at Huey Charter School as part of the Renaissance program. One resolution re-establishes Kenderton Elementary as a District operated neighborhood school.

There are too many resolutions in The Academic Payments/Contracts for APPS to investigate before Thursday’s meeting.   Many of these resolutions involve the outsourcing of services and involve millions of dollars.   We encourage you to look them over. You can access them on the School District’s website.

At its May 28 meeting, the SRC again tabled the resolutions on the non-renewals of Aspira Olney High School and Aspira Stetson Middle School.

This month, without explanation, the SRC has failed to post the resolutions on non-renewal of the two Aspira schools. In addition, non-renewal resolutions for two Universal schools, Audenried and Vare, have disappeared since being postponed two meetings ago. Will the SRC tell the public what is happening and whether or not the process is continuing? Or is this process taking place behind closed doors?

Please note: there is a second Action meeting this month: Thursday, June 30 @ 4:30 PM.

To register to speak at either one, call 215-400-4180 before 4:30 PM the day before the meeting.


Click here to read Selected Resolutions and APPS Analysis

APPS Calls on Mayor, Governor to Investigate SRC Actions on Renaissance Renewals

SRC 4-28-16 resize

Honorable James Kenney, Mayor
City of Philadelphia
Philadelphia PA   19107

Honorable Thomas Wolf, Governor
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
225 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA   17120

June 8, 2016

Dear Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf:

On behalf of the members of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, we request that you conduct an investigation into the actions of the School Reform Commission during its current renewal procedure of the charters for Aspira Stetson School and Aspira Olney School. We have attended all of the SRC meetings in April and May when these resolutions were considered, and we have serious concerns that the public has been denied the right to a fair and impartial process in these matters.

Aspira Inc. was granted a charter to manage John B. Stetson Middle in April 2010 and one to manage Olney High School in April 2011, after the district deemed each “low-performing” and placed them in its Renaissance program. The purpose of that program, according to the district’s website, is to “dramatically improve the learning environment in underperforming school district schools and to create highly effective schools that provide exceptional opportunities for student achievement and preparedness for success in college and the workforce.” The SRC’s Charter Schools Office (CSO) has cited several reasons—academic, financial, and managerial—which confirm that Aspira has failed to provide its students with a high-quality education and has failed to meet basic standards for proper school management. In addition, Aspira representatives admitted to financial irregularities enumerated in the CSO report.

Reasons cited by the CSO for non-renewal of Stetson include:

Click here to read the entire letter.

Eyes on the SRC: May 19, 2016

full SRC

 By Karel Kilimnik

May 16, 2016

Welcome to the 9th edition of Eyes on the SRC. We continue to shine a light on the SRC resolutions more than ever as both charter school renewals and the Renaissance Charter Program expands. This is a relentless attack on district-run schools that are starved of the necessary resources. The District continues to outsource jobs and services and the SRC approves these transactions.

Last month the SRC voted to table resolutions to renew four charter schools. They do appear again this month. Despite Commissioner Green’s assertion that the District Charter School Office staff are experts, he moved to challenge their recommendations of non-renewal for Aspira’s Olney and Stetson and for Universal’s Audenreid and Vare. Green’s motion to table was based on his claim that the City Comptroller’s office was about to issue its own report on the city’s charter schools. The SRC voted to pass the motion even though the procedure for renewals of Renaissance schools does not, and never has, included any provision for considering any information from any body, internal or external, other than the SRC’s Charter Office. Will the SRC come up with some other excuse to prolong the non-renewal of these four schools at the next Action meeting?

This month’s first Action Meeting is Thursday, May 19th at 5:30 p.m.

Please note that there is a second Action meeting this month: Thursday, May 26 @ 4:30 PM

To register to speak at either meeting, call 215-400-4180 before 4:30 the day before the meeting.

 Click here to read selected May 19, 2016 SRC Resolution
and APPS comments about each.