Tag: Eyes on the SRC

Eyes on the SRC – May 26, 2016

SRC logo

by Lisa Haver
May 25, 2016

Each month, APPS publishes our “Eyes on the SRC” in which we select some of the resolutions to be voted on at the next meeting for perusal and analysis. As of this writing on Wednesday evening, less than 24 hours before the meeting, the SRC has yet to post its Resolution Summary.

This shows once again that the SRC has only contempt for the public it is supposed to serve. To add insult to injury, the deadline for signing up to speak was 4:30 PM Wednesday. How can people speak on the business of the SRC when they SRC won’t tell us what it is? APPS has been trying for 18 months to settle our Sunshine Act complaint, filed in November 2014, to bring the SRC into compliance. What are they trying to hide?

Please come to the meeting Thursday, May 26th at 5:30 and demand transparency and fairness from the SRC! If you cannot attend, SRC meetings are broadcast beginning at 5:30 Thursday on Comcast Channel 52; Verizon Channel 20; and online at PSTV Live.

The only thing posted is the Resolution List below. A couple of things that should be noted:

Click here to read the rest of the post.

Eyes on the SRC: May 19, 2016

full SRC

 By Karel Kilimnik

May 16, 2016

Welcome to the 9th edition of Eyes on the SRC. We continue to shine a light on the SRC resolutions more than ever as both charter school renewals and the Renaissance Charter Program expands. This is a relentless attack on district-run schools that are starved of the necessary resources. The District continues to outsource jobs and services and the SRC approves these transactions.

Last month the SRC voted to table resolutions to renew four charter schools. They do appear again this month. Despite Commissioner Green’s assertion that the District Charter School Office staff are experts, he moved to challenge their recommendations of non-renewal for Aspira’s Olney and Stetson and for Universal’s Audenreid and Vare. Green’s motion to table was based on his claim that the City Comptroller’s office was about to issue its own report on the city’s charter schools. The SRC voted to pass the motion even though the procedure for renewals of Renaissance schools does not, and never has, included any provision for considering any information from any body, internal or external, other than the SRC’s Charter Office. Will the SRC come up with some other excuse to prolong the non-renewal of these four schools at the next Action meeting?

This month’s first Action Meeting is Thursday, May 19th at 5:30 p.m.

Please note that there is a second Action meeting this month: Thursday, May 26 @ 4:30 PM

To register to speak at either meeting, call 215-400-4180 before 4:30 the day before the meeting.

 Click here to read selected May 19, 2016 SRC Resolution
and APPS comments about each.

 

Eyes on the SRC: April 28, 2016

SRC 2-18-16

Welcome to the 9th edition of Eyes on the SRC

By Karel Kilimnik

Please note that the April 28th Action meeting starts at 4 PM instead of the usual 5:30 due to the large number of speakers the SRC expects to register. 

Also: There are two SRC Action meetings scheduled next month – Thursday May 19th at 5:30 and Thursday May 26th at 4:30. To register to speak call 215 400 4180 before 4:30 the day before each meeting.   

We need our Eyes on the SRC more than ever as it continues to change speaker policies and to add resolutions at the last minute.

The April 28th Action meeting includes the issue of the possible renewal of eleven charters, including two run by Aspira. You may remember Daniel Denvir’s 2013 City Paper article in which he reported that Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania owed large sums of money to four of its Philadelphia charter schools, according to an independent audit of the organization’s finances as of June 30, 2012.

The Charter Office, under the supervision of the SRC, has recommended Universal Audienried and Universal Vare as well as Aspira’s Olney and Stetson schools for non-renewal. We expect a large contingent of both Aspira and Universal supporters to attend the meeting.

You might also wonder at the scheduling of votes for a record number of charter renewals at the same meeting the SRC will vote on the Resolutions placing three more schools into the Renaissance Charter program, especially as controversy continues to swirl around these decisions.

Click here to read selected SRC resolutions and APPS comments about each.

 

Eyes on the SRC: March 17, 2016

SRC 12-17-15 #2

by Karel Kilimnik
March 12, 2016

Welcome to the Eighth Edition of Eyes on the SRC.

There are no resolutions directly pertaining to the district’s most recent assault on public education, namely the Hite administration’s placement of four more neighborhood schools into his “Turnaround Network”. This month, we simply follow the continual erosion of school staff and resources and the continued outsourcing of services.

At the Monday February 29 hearing of the Education Committee of City Council, Dr. Hite announced that he would be creating more Turnaround Schools by the end of the week. That Friday, the names of the four elementary schools to be “turned around” were released: Roosevelt, Munoz-Marin, S W Mitchell, and Rhodes. Principals and teachers would have to reapply for their jobs, and the district could eliminate the entire staff if it chose to. A series of community meetings were scheduled for the following week, the first one, at Roosevelt, to be held the following Monday—giving the parents and community minimal notification (shades of the October 2014 SRC last-minute/early morning meeting to cancel the PFT contract). APPS members have attended all four meetings, and the level of anger and frustration voiced by parents and community members is unprecedented. These schools have all been though some kind of conversion—or two—in the past five to ten years. Parents at every school said that they would fight to keep their teachers. District staff has been unable, or unwilling, to answer basic questions such as where the funding will come from, how the conversion would take place, why the decision was made before the community meetings, and why it is necessary to get rid of teachers and principals.

Next SRC meeting: Thursday March 17, 5:30 PM. To register to speak call 215.400.4180 by 4:30 March 16. It’s best to identify yourself as a teacher, parent, or community member as the rules stipulate that only “one member of an organization can register to speak.”(There is another SRC Action Meeting on March 24.)

Plan to attend the rally in support of all schools fighting any kind of turnaround, including the four schools just targeted and the three schools previously named as Renaissance schools—Cooke, Huey, and Wister:
Thursday March 17 at 4:15 on the steps of 440 (before the SRC meeting).

Click here to read the APPS analysis of proposed resolutions to be voted on at the March 17, 2016 meeting of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.