Click on the individual’s name to read a transcript of his or her testimony
Topic: High School of Health Sciences Leadership Charter School Application (HS2L)
Topics: HS2L and Joan Myers Brown Academy
Tag: PSP
New Charter Application Hearing: Friday, December 20, 2019
by Lynda Rubin
This hearing presented two new charter applications to the Board: Heath and Science Leadership Academy Charter (HS2L) to be located at 5210 Broad Street, and String Theory/Joan Meyers Brown (JMB) Charter School to be located in Wynnefield.
Despite the fact that this was the first of only two hearings on these applications, and that this was the only one of the two at which public testimony will be heard, the date for this hearing was set for Friday, December 20th, at 4:00 pm–for many the last day before the extended Christmas holiday. APPS members, in testimony at the December Board meeting and in emails to the District, protested this date. The Board did not accede to this request, stating that they were hemmed in by the State’s deadline and that public testimony could be submitted in writing.
Community Fights to Be Heard
Real public engagement means not only allowing educators, parents and community members to attend meetings and speak on important issues, but encouraging them to do so. Putting a banner on the website (2 clicks in) is hardly a substitute for real outreach from the Board. Being heard and seen as a unified force is far more powerful, obviously, then sending in written testimony seen by a few people. Organizing by APPS and others brought out local school principals, District staff, neighborhood organizations and others who spoke in opposition to both new charters.
Defenders of Public Education Speak Before the BOE, December 12, 2019
Click on the individual’s name to read a transcript of his or her testimony.
Nimet Eren on Proposed Health Sciences Leadership Charter School
Jenifer Felix on Proposed Health Sciences Leadership Charter School
Lisa Haver on the Board’s Gifts to Charter Schools
Karel Kilimnik on Community Disengagement
Kristin Luebbert on Anti-Racist Training
Maddie Luebbert on Proposed Health Sciences Leadership Charter School
Barbara McDowell Dowdall on Board Practices
Diane Payne on the Corporate Influence in Action Items
Robin Roberts on the Access Program
Lynda Rubin on the Outsourcing of District Responsibilities
Susan Wienand on Proposed Health Sciences Leadership Charter School
Ears on the Board of Education: December 12, 2019
by Diane Payne
Once again APPS members stood in unison and exercised our legal right to object to the Board’s violation of the PA Sunshine Act under Section 710 (c). The Board fails to post in advance or to read the full text into the record at the time of the vote, in effect voting in secret. The full text, although dated 12/12/19, did not appear on the District website until 12/14/19. That is a falsification of the public record, as is reporting in the official Minutes that the Board voted on the full resolution at the meeting.
District counsel Lynn Rauch had consulted with APPS co-founder Lisa Haver before the meeting about whether APPS would be objecting again and how. Lisa told her that, as we had in the previous two Action Meetings, we would be making one objection before the votes on charter Items, that it would take about one minute, and that the objection had to be noted for the record and reported in the Minutes. For some reason, Board member Chris McGinley began to speak over us, moving to approve the first Mastery charter. President Wilkerson said nothing, but Rauch interrupted him to explain the procedure. For the third month in a row, not one member of the Board addressed the objection. McGinley again moved to approve Mastery Charter High School (aka Mastery Lenfest Charter).
Click here to read the rest of the report
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 