Category: In The News: APPs media

APPS Calls on the SRC to Rescind Its Illegal Vote

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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 “That alone means that the action is not valid and must be rescinded.”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.

The Unelected, Unaccountable SRC Tells the People of Philadelphia: “Just Trust Us”

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The hallmark of the School Reform Commission , since its inception, has been its contempt for the stakeholders of the district.  For years, the SRC held public meetings on weekday afternoons,  a time when most of the public was unable to attend.  They abolished their Planning Meetings, when actual deliberation took place, and went to one meeting a month.  At the same time, much of the real decision-making shifted to private venues including the boards of the Philadelphia School Partnership, the William Penn Foundation, and the Great Schools Compact Committee. That Committee was formed for the purpose of enacting the mandates of the Gates Compact, enacted by the SRC without any public vote or discussion.
 
This year, with no announcement or explanation, the SRC stopped holding its monthly Strategic Policy and Planning Meetings.
 
The rules, such as they are, for listing speakers for each meeting, have always been nebulous and secretive.  No matter when you called, or what your topic was, there was no way to know where you would appear on the list until you arrived.  Many times our members, who called well in advance, would end up at the bottom of the list.  Questions to SRC were routinely ignored; the only answer being: we do it how we do it and you have nothing to say about it. The most egregious example of this abuse of power was APPS member Lisa Haver placed at the bottom of the list–# 65—at last month’s meeting, even though she had called weeks before to register. 
 
At the December 2015 meeting, Chairwoman Marjorie Neff announced that rules for speakers would be changed. The SRC wanted to give priority to those who had not spoken before.  The new rules,  posted on the district website, stated that speakers would be grouped by topic and that topics would be listed “in the  order in which they were registered.”  Those who had not spoken at the previous meeting would be given priority “within each topic area.” But when our members asked where there topic was on the list when they registered to speak, the SRC staff refused to divulge that information.  In other words, you’ll just have to trust us.  Even worse, some members found that their names were not on the list at all. 
 
After a series of fruitless emails, phone calls, and in-person visits with SRC staff, APPS co-founder Lisa Haver sent the following letter to Chairwoman Neff on Wednesday, January 13, 2016:

Hite Administration Escalates War on Public Schools in 2015

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Observations from APPS member Karel Kilimnik
about how privatization is being advanced in the School District of Philadelphia as 2015 ends.

December 24, 2015

Three Neighborhood Schools to Be Turned Over to Charter Operators

In early October Superintendent William Hite announced that three neighborhood schools would be turned into Renaissance Charter. Those schools are Cooke in Logan, Wister in East Germantown, and Huey in West Philadelphia. The school communities were given no say in this. They were told their only choice would be which charter provider would be chosen. Hite learned last year that when parents have a real choice, they will reject being charterized. Teachers, parents and students fought to keep Steele Elementary in Nicetown and Munoz-Marin in North Philadelphia public; the parent vote was overwhelmingly against going charter. This time, he decided to impose this on parents through what turned out to be a very murky process. Teachers were shut out of the process altogether. The district set up an Evaluation Committee at each school and chose five parents to participate. That committee would make its recommendation to the district and the SRC on the future of the school.

What the Hite administration actually did was set up meetings run by District staff to “inform” parents. Parents and teachers at all of the three schools were purposely misled as to the location and time of these meetings. For some reason, none of the meetings was held at the schools themselves. At Cooke, the parents had to become detectives to find the meeting. At Wister, community members showed up at the announced location only to find that the meeting was being held somewhere else. People piled into cars and raced over. Yes, seats were empty at the actual district location simply because they were deceived about the correct place. Are parents supposed to trust the people who deliberately lied to them about the location of a meeting to make an honest decision about the future of their children’s school?

The too-small room overflowed with participants. The District staff was there to sell this plan to parents. To do so they enlisted a parent from Cleveland Mastery charter school. Wister parents were respectful and listened to her story and when she finished questioned district staff for specifics. They had no answers. People saw through their manipulations and sales pitch. District staff seemed taken aback by the opposition to their “wonderful plan.”

See the article Lies, Lies, Lies: Wister School is Another Chapter in Privatization and Locking Out Parent, Teacher, and Community Voice

APPS member Coleman Poses presented testimony at the November School Reform Commission showing how inaccurate the District data was for Wister. An SRC staff member admitted to Coleman that they used the wrong school’s data for Wister. Despite being told about this mistaken data the District continues to sail ahead with turning Wister over to Mastery.

Mastery Marketing In Full Force at Wister

Click here to read the rest of this article.