Board Must Respect the Rule of Law

Board of Education Budget Hearing, Board of Education Action Meeting: April 24, 2025

by Lisa Haver

Shawmont student advocates for keeping librarian at his school. (Photo: Lisa Haver )

“I am not just a statistic, and neither are my peers.”
Academy at Palumbo student to Board of Education

Parents, students, educators and community members came before the board to testify on the many issues facing our children and our schools: mental health supports for struggling students, filthy bathrooms, outdated textbooks, restoring school librarians, the need for air filters in classrooms. President Reginald Streater assured speakers, as he does at every meeting, that the board is listening. As one APPS member said in her testimony, “Students will know you are listening when they see that their bathrooms are finally clean.”

Ilene Poses contributed to this report.

Board Meetings Must Be Fully Public 
Because APPS members have attended Board of Education meetings for years, we knew that the board would be holding two meetings on April 24: the monthly action meeting and the hearing on the next annual budget. But anyone who may have been attending or testifying for the first time would have seen only one meeting for 4 pm posted on the board’s website calendar. Two agendas were posted, but both gave 4 pm as the starting time. At the beginning of the meeting, President Streater said that the board would hold a 15-minute recess after the conclusion of the hearing…”perhaps”. But just after the final speaker on the budget was heard, Streater said “we are going into the action meeting” and began to narrate a slide presentation. It was unclear what was happening as the board did not vote to adjourn, nor did Streater declare the hearing adjourned. General Counsel Lynn Rauch, who serves as the board’s parliamentarian under the board’s by-laws, did not call the roll for the action meeting.  When Streater took office, he promised that the board would be following Robert’s Rules of Order. After her testimony, Lisa Haver filed a formal objection to the board’s violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. The board did not give proper notification of the proceedings on the website or at the meeting itself. Haver pointed out that these are not legal technicalities, that the public has a right to know what the board is doing. People who are just leaving work or school often text APPS members to ask where the board is on the agenda and whether they can make it in time to testify. The board must honor the rule of law.

Continue reading here

Board of Education Must Actively Defend Public Education

Board of Education Action Meeting: March 27,  2025

by Lisa Haver

Ilene Poses testifies at March Board of Education Meeting (Photo: Lisa Haver)

As far as the Board of Education is concerned, there is no “good trouble”.  In fact, anything that makes them… uncomfortable…seems to be bad trouble. Just standing in the aisle to show solidarity with public speakers–as people have done at board meetings for years–is verboten. Board President Reginald Streater repeated his erroneous statement that people standing in the aisle violate the fire code. Actually, it is the board’s making the aisle narrower, and its blocking one of the two fire exits, that compromise the safety of the people in the auditorium. APPS members distributed flyers reminding people of their first amendment rights: you don’t have to wear a badge to enter a public meeting and you can stand with signs. We showed people that when we fight we win: APPS members stood in the aisle in solidarity with students, educators, parents and community members who came to defend public education. We will stand at every board meeting.

Continue reading about March 27, 2025 action meeting here.

Board Denies Applications for Two New Charters

Board of Education Action Meeting: February 27, 2025

by Lisa Haver

Students, educators and community members demand safety for immigrant students. Photo: Lisa Haver

The Board of Education that implemented unprecedented speaker suppression policies, that now issues ID badges for admission to a public meeting, that forbids people to stand in solidarity behind their allies and has threatened those who do with arrest,  that meets in secret with district vendors, that approves contracts worth tens of millions at every monthly meeting with no explanation or deliberation–that board now exhorts you to exercise your civil rights. They want you to speak to those who hold office in Washington, to demand that Congress stop cuts to education. But they expect you to sit in your seat and behave yourself if you have an issue with them. The board that conducts all charter business in secret, that remains silent about charter CEOs paying themselves hundreds of thousands annually–wants their constituents to stand up and speak out. The board that shuts the public out of meetings in which the closing of an indeterminate number of public schools is being discussed now wants your voice to be heard. Somewhere else.

Continue reading about February 2025 action meeting here.

Board Must Deny New Charter Applications

by Lisa Haver and Deborah Grill

The privatization of public schools over the past 25 years has had more to do with real estate and investments than educating children. By any standard, the privatization of public schools has been a failure. Data collected over the years, in Philadelphia and in districts nationwide, shows that neighborhood public schools consistently out-perform charter schools. Charter schools are not public schools; they do not accept all children in their neighborhood, and many have been cited for lack of service to students with special needs and English Language Learners. Charter expansion in Philadelphia has not improved education for the city’s children. It has, however, resulted in an entrenched financial and political patronage system. 

Both applications submitted to the district this year also promise educational superiority. Years of data show that the majority of charter schools in the district have failed to perform at even a satisfactory level, let alone out-perform the district’s public schools.  The district’s evaluation system, in effect, equates an “approaches standard”rating with a “meets”. Thus, a charter needs only to rate above 45% in Academics to be approved by the board for a 5-year renewal. One of the most common violations cited in charter renewal reports is lack of due process for students in expulsion or other disciplinary cases, along with barriers to enrollment.  In recent years, the board of education has routinely renewed charter schools without the legally mandated child abuse clearances and criminal background checks. 

When a charter school fails to fulfill the promises it made in its application, a common occurrence, the school should admit failure and voluntarily close its doors. But most charter administrators take their case to the state-appointed Charter Appeal Board which has the power to overrule the locally elected or appointed board. If CAB votes against them, they take their case to the state courts. All of this paid for by taxpayers. 

The district does not need, nor can it afford, any new charter schools. In addition to the substandard academic performance, over half the city’s charter schools are presently under-enrolled. 

The Board of Education must deny these applications.

Lynda Rubin contributed to this report.

Clink on the links below to read our reports on the new charter school applications:

Early College Charter School of Philadelphia

Pan American Academy Charter School-Pathways High School