Board of Education Action Meeting: November 21, 2024
by Lisa Haver
Parents, students, educators and community members came to November’s board meeting to be heard on many issues: student censorship, funding to save extra-curricular activities, school closings, renewal of substandard charter schools, restoring school librarians, and the board’s vote on tax breaks for developers of the proposed arena at Chinatown’s door. They hoped to find a board that would be open to their concerns and respond to them. They found, instead, a board that had built a wall around itself, ramped up security measures, and attempted to intimidate public speakers. Outside the auditorium they encountered a table for people to sign in and be issued an identification sticker to be worn during the meeting. Inside had been erected a barrier between the audience and the board, with security staff positioned on both sides of public speakers. Board members now enter and exit through a door on their side of the barrier. There was no opportunity for any contact between board members and their constituents. All of this was an apparent reaction by the board to the protest at the October meeting, during which the board left the meeting and re-convened in a locked room. The board’s bunker-like mentality violates its own Guardrail 2: “Every parent and guardian will be welcomed and encouraged to be partners in their child’s school community.” Never in the decades that many APPS members have attended meetings of the School Reform Commision and the board have we seen any act of violence or even threat of violence. We have seen peaceful protests like the one last month, but not this kind of overreaction following them. Rather than treat their constituents as people to be feared after one disruptive but peaceful protest, the board could have reassured them that they will do more to hear them and respond. President Reginald Streater could have crossed the barrier and come out into the audience to make a statement and take some questions. He can restore the 100 seats that the board removed from the auditorium and stop sending people to the first floor to be relegated as observers, not participants. President Streater and the board can rescind the speaker suppression policies enacted in 2021. The barrier brought to mind the wall built around the White House in 2020. In her testimony, APPS member Robin Lowry decried the board’s “undemocratic, Trumpian tactics”. The board must tear down the barriers and face the people they took an oath to represent.
Ilene Poses contributed to this report.
Attendance at Facilities Meetings Dismal
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Oz Hill reported that over the past three weeks a total of 225 people have attended the community and virtual meetings on the board’s plan to close schools. APPS members were not surprised at that low figure: we have attended meetings in the Northeast and in Chinatown with fewer than 5 parents. Just days before the action meeting, APPS sent a letter to Hill, Superintendent Tony Watlington and his staff, and board members about some issues that have arisen in these meetings. The biggest problem is the misinformation in the presentation, including a fictional figure on how much the district saved after closing schools in 2013. We pointed out that the words “school closings” are not uttered by the staff at all, only euphemisms like “repurposing” and “co-location”. We asked why there had been so many conflicting lists of meetings on the district website, and why several had been canceled without explanation or adequate public notice. BM Joyce Wilkerson turned to the audience to urge more people to attend. Neither she nor any other board member questioned why the Brownstone consultants, hired at an annual cost of $430,000 to facilitate this process, have turned out only 225 people in a district with over 116,000 students. District teacher and APPS member Kristin Luebbert told the board in her testimony, “You cavalierly create a process to close schools, even as you gaslight us by calling it something else, then pay consultants almost half a million dollars to stifle public participation in the process.”
Board Votes for Developers, Against Community
APPS member Lynda Rubin testified that while the board claims to be “child-centered”, its actions show it is actually “billionaire/developer-centered”. For the second month in a row, the board has voted to represent the financial interests of wealthy developers over those of their constituents. (Last month, the board voted to approve extensions for Keystone Opportunity Zone tax abatements.) Just two days before the meeting, the board added an item to the agenda to lift the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) on a parcel of land now part of the Fashion District (formerly The Gallery) that would be used for the proposed 76ers arena. One day before the meeting, the board added a presentation from Sam Rhoads from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), whose website identifies itself as a “public-private economic development corporation”. What the board did not explain to the media before the meeting, or to the public at the meeting, was that their vote would guarantee significant tax breaks to the developers of the arena. Without those tax breaks, it is unlikely the arena would be built. Several speakers urged the board to vote No. In a letter to the board sent the day before the meeting, signed by several organizations including APPS, Asian Americans United (AAU) and POWER, we told the board: “The Sixers have negotiated a sweetheart proposal that guarantees them a state of the art facility, but it cannot be at the expense of leaving Philadelphia’s school children behind. That is why we are asking you to either postpone a vote or to vote NO on any resolutions procedural or otherwise involving the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district with regard to the Sixers Arena, without a larger commitment to the students of this city and the generations of graduates to come.” Students and members of AAU, holding signs that said “Don’t Get Played”, urged the board to vote no on the TIF item. The board did not explain that PIDC’s role in the arena development was to ensure that it got built and with all of the possible tax breaks, nor did they disclose that Rhoads was there (as he was in City Council that same week) to bolster Mayor Cherelle Parker’s pro-arena campaign. After his 35-minute presentation, APPS members stood up and asked why those against the arena, including district students who live in Chinatown, get only two minutes. No time to talk about the devastation of Chinatown or the darkening of Market East Station. BM Chou-Wing Lam and Board VP Wanda Novales were the only No votes on the TIF item. Lam said that she was “uncomfortable” with the board’s not having the full picture of its effect on the arena proposal or how it will affect long-term district spending. She urged the board to at least postpone the vote until the December action meeting, which is only a couple of weeks away. Novales concurred that the board did not have the full picture of the effects of lifting the TIF. None of the seven board members who voted Yes gave a reason. Students and AAU members became visibly distraught after the 7-2 vote. Cries of “Shame” were heard after every Yes vote. No one–not Mayor Parker, not the developers, not City Council–refutes the fact that the arena will be devastating for the people of Chinatown. The board left no doubt which side they are on.
Students Win Funding for Extra-Curriculars
Students from Central High and other high schools returned to present their case to restore funding for extra-curricular activities including robotics and debate. They spoke eloquently on how these activities keep them coming to school, how they develop skills they didn’t know they had and make them feel welcome in a special community. One Central student told the board how participating in robotics was helping him to achieve his dream of becoming an engineer. None of the board members responded, but Watlington, in later remarks, announced that some funding would be restored: $1.2 million for the remainder of the 2024-25 school year and $1.8 for the 2025-25 school year. Dividing $1.2 million among 60 high schools allots approximately $30,000 for each. Watlington said that schools could apply for grant money to supplement that. Credit to the students who came back month after month until they got results.
Northeast Students’ Podcasts Broadcast
Several students, parents and teachers testified in support of the Northeast High students whose podcast had been censored. They played excerpts of the podcast in order to prove that the allegations that it was anti-Semitic were false. They also called for the reinstatement of Northeast High teacher Keziah Ridgeway, who has been suspended indefinitely as a result of complaints from an outside organization whose board of trustees includes BM Joan Stern. Stern did not answer questions posed to her last month from speakers about a possible conflict of interest. The board has refused to respond to the testimony of Ridgeway supporters for months, claiming that they could not comment on a personnel matter. When a district staff person violates the code of conduct or causes harm to district students or staff, that is a personnel matter. When the district caves to pressure from an outside organization who objects to a district employee’s social media postings, that is a political matter.
Board Renews Another Charter Lacking Personnel Background Checks
New Foundations Charter has been operating without a current charter agreement for the past 5 years because they have refused to accept conditions to improve their performance. That didn’t stop the board from voting unanimously to renew the charter this time…with more conditions. The Charter School Office, in its renewal evaluation, cited New Foundations for failing to have all personnel submit child abuse clearances and background checks. In September, a teacher at Christopher Columbus charter was arrested and charged with sexually abusing an underage former student. BM Sarah-Ashley asked CSO representative Mariel Ziegler about the missing background checks. Ziegler responded that several were missing, but the CSO and the board did not consider that an “egregious” offense. There was no follow-up from Andrews. Ziegler also posted the names of four applicants for new charter schools. The board has stated its intention to close more district schools. It is hard to see how they could then approve any new charters, especially since half of the district’s current charters are currently under-enrolled, some significantly.
More Sunshine Act Violations
The board voted unanimously to pass the remaining 14 items which amounted to spending of $177,172,033. That does not include the cost of the 5-year renewal of New Foundations Charter. APPS stated its objection for the record to the board’s taking a secret vote on the renewal agreement without disclosing its full terms to the public. We also told the board that all votes taken in the October meeting that was barred to the public should be retaken at this meeting.
Next action meeting: Thursday, December 5, 4 PM at 440 N. Broad Street.
Public hearing (no speaker limit): Thursday, December 12, 4 PM at 440 N. Broad Street.
City council bi-annual hearing with board members and Watlington administration: Monday, December 9, 2024, 11:30 AM, Room 400, City Hall.
The meeting adjourned at 8:01 PM.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 