Outsourcing – Page 6 – Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools

This month’s Board of Education Action Action Meeting featured administration PowerPoints that again failed to reflect the experiences and needs of those on the ground. Many of the seventy-four registered speakers testified to this lack. The Hite administration now requires Pre-K to Grade 2 staff to return to buildings on November 9th to prepare for the return of students on November 30th–in spite of still incomplete ventilation reports. COVID’s main form of transmission is through the air. People of color are statistically more likely to contract and to die from the illness. Many older District buildings with asbestos, mold and lead were unsafe for children and adults before COVID. Now staff, students, families, and community members are being asked to trust that the District gets this right. The neglect of the District has caused the illness and impending death of one teacher (that we know of) from mesothelioma. Failure this time will have immediate and devastating consequences.

Present

The Board is down to six of the nine required members. Chris McGinley resigned in April, 2020, but Mayor Kenney has yet to reconvene his Nominating Panel.

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Eyes on the Board of Education: October 22, 2020

by Karel Kilimnik

With rage over the devaluing of Black lives still simmering in the city and across the country, we should look at the continued underfunding of the city’s schools, whose students are primarily Black and Brown. The pandemic has laid bare the inequities our students have experienced when they walked into crumbling, dirty buildings often with mold and sometimes asbestos; no toilet paper or hand soap; teachers having to purchase basic supplies; limited after-school activities. Now those students experience inequalities in technology and internet access; availability of school supplies and food; evictions amid housing uncertainty; loss of jobs ; cutting off of healthcare at a time when covid-19 remains active in our communities; and a general escalation of trauma and anxiety on every level.

The Hite administration has created an Equity Coalition, yet when an opportunity arises to actually pay participants the District overlooks those who have worked on these issues in favor of awarding contracts to consultants (Item 29) such as Steppingstone or creating an Equity Partners Fellowship (Item 2). Dr Hite, a 2005 Broad Fellow, has instituted a welfare system for private entities seeking business opportunities in public education.

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