Tag: Charter School Renewals

Board Carries on Legacy of the SRC

Board of Education Meeting: September 19, 2024

by Lisa Haver

CASA President Dr. Robin Cooper testifies in defense of Philadelphia’s public schools. (Photo: Lisa Haver)

It was freezing in the auditorium during the September action meeting, so cold that they actually brought blankets out for board members. Was it an air conditioning malfunction–or the icy breath of the SRC past?

Board Begins Process of Closing Neighborhood  Schools
Following the legacy of the School Reform Commission, the Board of Education appointed by Mayor Cherelle Parker will be closing more neighborhood schools. No clear reasons were given by Superintendent Tony Watlington, Board President Reginald Streater, or any of the other board members, most of whom remained mute as they do in most meetings. Streater announced the board’s intention to close schools in an Inquirer story published the day before the meeting, but he avoided saying that directly in his remarks.  He used the euphemism “co-location” at one point, but people know that if you “combine” two schools that means you closed one of them.  We heard–from the president of the board that has enacted speaker suppression policies that keep people off of the speaker list and out of the auditorium–promises of meaningful community engagement. Streater said more than once that the board did not want to rely on outside consultants–just before passing a $4.5 million item to hire a consulting firm to begin the process.  We heard assurances that the board will be carrying on robust discussions about the Facilities Plan. Yet eight members had no questions for Watlington after his facilities plan presentation. Only one board member, ChouWing Lam, questioned the price tag of the $4.5 billion consulting contract (Lam later voted for the contract).  Any plan to close schools is a betrayal of the people of Philadelphia. The parents, students, educators, and community members who fought to end the rule of the state-controlled SRC believed that bringing back local control would change the spending priorities of the district and make education better for the city’s children. What we got is a board that protects the financial interests of charter investors and administrators, and now says we can’t afford to keep neighborhood schools open.

Continue reading about September 19, 2024 board action meeting here.

Board Blocks Students and Community Members from Speaking

APPS and PARSL members urge Board to bring back Certified Teacher Librarians. (Photo by Lisa Haver)

Board of Education Meeting:  June 29, 2023 

by Lisa Haver and Lynda Rubin

During this month’s meeting, APPS member Barbara Dowdall was detained by district security who told her she couldn’t go into the auditorium because she wasn’t on the speakers list.  (In May it was Lisa Haver, in April Ilene Poses.)  The board set up 96 chairs for this meeting in an auditorium with a 240-person capacity. When APPS wrote to the board about their setting up only 82 chairs in April, President Reginald Streater replied that they were “working with building management to address it”, as if building management staff could overrule the president of the board. When we wrote to him again in June because the board had barred people from attending because of the current speaker suppression policies, we received no reply. No matter how the board sets up its arbitrary number of chairs,  forcing people to stand, they cannot bar people from attending a public meeting. That is illegal. 

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Southwest Leadership Academy Charter Non-Renewal Hearing Report

by Lynda Rubin

Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School (SLACS) has had less than stellar academic and financial accomplishments for years. The K-8 school in Southwest Philadelphia was originally authorized by the SRC in 2007 as a K-6 at one location, but currently operates out of two rented facilities, (Gr. 3-8) 7107 Paschall Ave, 19142 (its original location) and (Gr K-2) 6901 Woodland Ave, 19142. It has a City-wide admissions designation, but students reside mainly in the local geographical areas and Delaware County (to which some prior students moved while attending SLACS and continued at SLACS). The school’s student composition is 89% African American, 7% Hispanic and 4% White. Asian Pacific and Multiracial. 13% have special needs, 4% are English Language Learners (ELL) and 69% of the population lives in poverty status.

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Transition Team Offers Familiar Promises

Ears on the Board of Education: October 20, 2022

by Diane Payne

The Transition Team appointed by Superintendent Tony Watlington and the consulting firm of Shawn Joseph and Associates presented its findings, compiled in a 29-page, multi-color pamphlet. Some of Watlington’s actions during his heralded “First 100 Days”  have raised concerns rather than hope for many, especially his failure to embrace a plan rooted in education research of the whole child in favor of retaining the status quo of privatization, outsourcing and standardized testing. Most jarring is Watlington’s demotion of parents and community members from that of stakeholders in the common good of public education to “customers”.  Watlington has even created a new administrative position, “Chief of Communications and Customer Service”; he hired Alexandra Coppadge to fill it.  This disrespectful action reveals Watlington’s lack of understanding of the role of parents, educators, students and community members as members of school communities advocating for safe and healthy schools; he sees them as consumers buying a product, which relegates educators to the status of store managers and students to commodities.

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