A grass-roots organization of parents, community members, and school staff, fighting to defend public education. We work together to provide analysis and demand accountability from the School District of Philadelphia to provide students with a high-quality education.
Two weeks ago, APPS members sent a letter to the officers and members of the Nominating Panel appointed by Mayor Kenney to choose candidates for the new school board, demanding that the Panel open its meetings to the public.
The letter, reprinted in its entirety here, was signed by fourteen others representing student, labor and community organizations.
The Nominating Panel had announced that it would hold only two public meetings: its opening meeting and its second and final one, at which it would announce the names to be sent to Mayor Kenney. All other meetings would be closed to the public. No students, educators, parents or community members would have the opportunity to weigh in on any part of the process or to raise concerns about any candidate.
APPS sent the letter along with a press release to several news media outlets. None of them covered it.We were told that it wasn’t a significant event and didn’t rate a separate story. However, when the media covered the dispute between the Mayor and City Council over language in the resolution to change language in the City Charter amendment on selection of the new school board, the community’s demand for an open selection was ignored once again.
APPS continues the fight to make sure that the community has a say in who represents us in the governance of our schools.We will fight until the disenfranchisement of the people of Philadelphia ends and we have the same rights as every other Pennsylvanian to elect our school board.
Charter CEOs and supporters held a rally at City Hall on Tuesday January 30 to ask for a “seat at the table” when the new school board replaces the School Reform Commission. Several City Councilpersons attended the event, held in the Mayor’s Reception Room.
APPS members have said consistently that district budget problems stem not just from a lack of funding, but from the spending priorities of the SRC which keeps resources out of classrooms. Consulting fees, faux graduate school, training by outsourcing by unqualified and inexperienced people: Teach For America, The New Teacher Project, Relay Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Boston Consulting, Jounce, Institute for Student Achievement, etc.
But the biggest waste of money in the SD budget is the funding of malfunctioning charters. Report after report, including the latest from Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), shows that district schools outperform charters. Charter supporters say that they only support “high-quality” charters, that they want the failing charters closed. But when they have the opportunity to prove that, they are nowhere to be found. Some examples:
Even traditional public school advocates, who had long sought to eliminate the SRC, expressed concerns about the transition process. Lisa Haver, of the Alliance For Philadelphia Public Schools, said her group had authored a recent op-ed expressing similar dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency within the nominating panel and issued a call for a directly elected school board.
“We’re calling for some transparency because there’s none right now. It’s a whole question of, why is the mayor being so secretive,” said Haver. “If someone ran a charter school that closed and they’re applying to be on the school board, I want to know about that. I think people who don’t believe in traditional public schools shouldn’t be on the new school board. And we really believe we should have a locally elected school board like every other county.”
One City Council staffer described the current situation as “a mess.” Others said that the Mayor’s Office and City Council were not on the same page regarding a timeline for the creation of the new local school board.
Philadelphia Public School Superintendent William R. Hite and Mayor Jim Kenney talking before a program at Hartranft Elementary School. (Photo by Raymond Holman, Jr/Philadelphia Inquirer
The nominating panel convened under the rules of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter for the purpose of selecting candidates for the new school board held its first meeting last week. That should have been cause for rejoicing, an event to usher in a new day for the city. After a 17-year reign, the state-imposed School Reform Commission voted last November to dissolve itself. A nine-person local school board, nominated by the panel and appointed by Mayor Kenney, will be seated July 1.
But the manner in which the panel has conducted its business so far, including its announcement that it will conduct deliberations in private, left advocates wondering why we fought so hard to bring back local control of our public schools.
The panel turned its back to the public. No remarks were addressed to the public, and there were no introductions of the 13 panel members chosen by the mayor. The agenda included no time for public speakers. Chair Wendell Pritchett announced that there would be only one more public meeting, when the panel would vote on the final 27 names to be sent to the mayor, from which he would choose the final nine.
Over the past couple of months, the Mayor’s Office has sent surveys to some residents, asking (via multiple-choice questions) which qualifications should be set for board candidates; applications were posted online. Staff members have hosted town hall meetings to explain the transition. But the mayor is trying to shut the public out of the decision-making process.
This is what pseudo-democracy looks like.
Why the secrecy?
The mayor should ensure that selection of a public school board is as open a process as the law allows, given that the people of Philadelphia are the only residents of Pennsylvania unable to vote for school board representatives.
Members of this panel, and members of the future school board, are city officials. The people of this city have a right to know who will be making decisions that will affect them and their children for years. Placing this public body under a cone of silence does not lead to a formation of trust, an essential element of leadership. It only raises suspicions. Any person who does not want to ask questions in public should not be on the nominating panel. Any candidate who objects to answering questions about his or her background, experience, political associations, and views on public education should not serve on a board overseeing a $3 billion budget and making decisions about our children’s future.
The Office of the Chief Integrity Officer instructed members of the panel that as city officials they must observe all ethical standards. That means obeying the law, not just declining lunch dates with potential candidates. It is the panel’s legal and ethical duty to comply with the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, which requires that all deliberations be conducted in open session.
The mayor’s staff has cited the “executive session” provision of the Sunshine Act to justify directing the panel to meet in private.
Section 708 of the act lists the only reasons for which executive session can be held, and “deliberation” is not one of them. Nor is the “nomination of candidates” for appointment to the position of school board members listed as a reason for executive session. School board members are public officials, not employees of the school district.
Trading in one unelected, unaccountable board for another is not a progressive solution to the problems facing the district.
The stakeholders of the system — students, parents, teachers, and community members — must be able to express any reservations about nominees and be assured that there are no conflicts of interest. They must be part of an open process. Or does the mayor expect us just to gather in the City Hall courtyard waiting for the puff of white smoke to rise up from the tower?
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 