Click the picture and go to timestamp 30:02 to view Lisa’s testimony.
So tonight the SRC continues its Worst Practices of keeping essential information about charter votes as secret as possible. There are four resolutions labeled “quasi-judicial”. The SRC came up with that designation about two years ago but never explained why that prevents them from including descriptions of the charter renewal, charter amendment, and charter application approval votes. APPS has asked that question many times, but like so many others, it remains unanswered. The SRC has decided that the less the public knows about what it does with charters, the better.
There was a public process previous to the votes in February on seven new charter applications, six of which were denied. The reapplication process is not a public one. We now have a different SRC approving new charters which the previous SRC had denied.
Ad Prima Charter has two schools: a K-8 in Overbrook and a K-8 in Kensington which for some reason the district considers one school. Ad Prima is asking the SRC to approve an amendment which would permit them to move its Kensington school to a new location in East Mt. Airy. As indicated in the CSO report, that is 8 miles away and would mean an addition hour of travel time for children in the Kensington neighborhood. The CSO report says that parents at the school for the most part are OK with the move.
Here is my question: has the East Mt Airy community been asked whether it wants another charter in that neighborhood? Have the parents at Edmunds or McCloskey been asked whether they support a new charter? When a charter company applies for a new school, they must show that there is community support. Has the SRC and the district gotten community support for Ad Prima to move into the East Mt. Airy community?
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 