Tag: Facilities

Finance & Facilities Committee Meeting: April 11, 2019

by Karel Kilimnik

Present: Co-chairs Lee Huang and Leticia Egea-Hinton and Committee member/Board President Joyce Wilkerson; Committee member Wayne Walker participated telephonically; Board member Chris McGinley attended; Board members Julia Danzy and Maria McColgan entered after the meeting began.

Huang began by thanking community members for their feedback. He invited the public to attend the District Budget meeting to be held on Thursday April 25 at 4 PM prior to the regularly scheduled Board Action Meeting. Huang stated that the Lump Sum Budget was posted on the website after being approved at the March 28 Action meeting. (APPS contends that that vote is not valid because it was taken in a private meeting from which the public was excluded following a disruption of the Action Meeting in the auditorium.)

Charter School Funding Overview

Chief Financial Officer Uri Monson presented his Overview of Charter School Financing. Highlights are listed below. (To listen to the entire meeting and see the Power-Point Presentations )

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Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting: March 14, 2019

by Diane Payne

Lee Huang and Leticia Egea-Hinton co-chaired this meeting; Committee members Angela McIver, Chris McGinley, Joyce Wilkerson, and Wayne Walker (via telephone) were present.  Board Member Julia Danzy joined about midway through the meeting. One APPS member testified on behalf of public education. This meeting was held at 10:00 a.m. and was sparsely attended compared to last month’s meeting held at 4:00..  February Committee minutes were approved.

Meeting agendas and powerpoint presentations can be viewed on the SDP website by going to the Board of Education page and clicking on “meeting materials.”

Follow-Ups

Chief Operating Officer Danielle Floyd narrated a presentation on three still unanswered questions raised at a previous meeting. Floyd confirmed that the sale price of West Philadelphia High School was $5.1 million.  When looking up the property, a sale price of $1 is listed. However, this was a developer transaction that happened after the SDP sale. In answer to a question from Lee Huang, Floyd stated that the only way to verify any sale price is to search through the past resolutions for the specific resolution which approved the sale.  Floyd failed to note how tedious that would be and how difficult it is for a member of the public to find that information without the actual date and number of the resolution. In this age of computer information with everything at one’s fingertips, District information only goes back a few years and is cumbersome to search for–the antithesis of user-friendly.

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Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting: February 21, 2019

by Diane Payne

Lee Huang and Leticia Egea-Hinton co-chaired the meeting; Committee members Wayne Walker and Joyce Wilkerson were also present. Board members Mallory Fix Lopez and Chris McGinley attended the meeting.  Two APPS members attended the meeting; one spoke in defense of public education. Minutes of the previous meeting were approved. This meeting was held at 4:00 p.m. in response to community requests for a more public-friendly meeting time.  Huang indicated that they would try to schedule “some” of the F&F meetings at this time. The meeting was well attended and featured seven public speakers. Once again, it was difficult to hear Board members and District staff. Several requests were made from the audience (as have been made at previous meetings) for presenters to speak into the mic, which went mostly unheeded. In addition, the wall speakers were on the lowest possible volume.  The PA Sunshine Act states that meetings are not public if the public cannot hear the official business being conducted. Is “transparency” just a buzzword for the Board or will they make sure that the public can hear and participate at all meetings?

(Meeting agendas and power-point presentations can be viewed on the SDP website by going to the BOE page and clicking on “meeting materials.”

Presentations by Chief Financial Officer Uri Monson

Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Update: This first presentation highlighted the 2nd quarter’s actual fund balance compared to the projected fund balance.  Unfortunately, the balance is 26.1 million less than projected.  The reasons for this difference, as explained by Monson, are two-fold: the revenue impact of the City’s “tolling bill” and increased payments to charter schools.  (More on the charter school payments under “Speakers Comments” below.) Monson reported that once the City and State release proposed budgets and revised revenue estimates, the SDP baseline budget will be updated, and either priority investments or potential cuts are added.

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