Tag: School Reform Commission testimony

Ears on the SRC–September 15, 2016

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by Diane Payne
September 25, 2016

Inside Track

Titles of resolutions for charter renewals of Aspira, Mastery, and Universal schools were posted–but not the resolutions themselves. This is a deliberate move on the part of the SRC to make sure the public does not know what they intend to vote on.

We expected a packed house of charter school families to support their respective schools but found a sparsely filled auditorium instead. It would seem that the charter schools had the inside track on that one – again.  (More on this later.)

Dr. Hite was absent due to a death in the family. His Chief of Staff, Naomi Wyatt, sat in for him.

APPS Speakers

Nine APPS members used their three minutes at the mic to continue to advocate for public schools against the ongoing assault by the SRC and the Hite administration: Karel Kilimnik, Diane Payne, Lisa Haver, Rich Liuzzi, Tonya Bah, Kristin Leubbert, Eileen Duffy, Barbara Dowdall, and Lynda Rubin.  APPS members spoke on charter renewals; support for early childhood teachers in light of the SRC’s decision on suspensions; lack of transparency from the SRC; the shuttering of a neighborhood and its reopening as a “contract school”; and the lack of respect for teachers and school professionals shown by certain members of the SRC. (Click here to  view or to read the APPS September 15th SRC testimony,)

If not for Lisa Haver’s testimony, there would have been no mention of the disturbing reports on Fox 29 News about the sexual harassment lawsuit against Aspira CEO Alfredo Calderon, which was settled by Aspira Inc. for over $300,000 plus attorney’s fees. The complaint, filed by a former Aspira administrator, alleged that Calderon bragged about “sexual conquests of parents, teachers and students.”

Who’s Out, Who’s In?

Click here to read the entire article.

APPS members testimony to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission – May 26, 2016

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The Philadelphia School Reform Commission (Commissioner Green participated by phone conference)

On May 26, 2016 the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s met to decide on non-renewal of four charters and to vote on the School District Budget for Fiscal Year 2016-2017.

This is the testimony of five members of the Philadelphia Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools to the Commission.

All five videos can be viewed here.

Click each picture below to view single videos. Speakers are in order of appearance at the meeting.

Lynda Rubin SRC pic

Video of APPS member Lynda Rubin testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hearing – May 26, 2016.

The transcript of Lynda’s testimony.

Coleman Poses SRC 5-27-16 pic

Video of APPS member Coleman Poses testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hearing – May 26, 2016.

The transcript of Coleman’s testimony  with a spreadsheet of relevant charter information.

Rich Liuzzi SRC 5-27-16

Video of APPS member Rich Liuzzi testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hearing – May 26, 2016.

The transcript of Rich’s testimony.

Diane Payne SRC 5-27-16

Video of APPS member Diane Payne testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hearing – May 26, 2016. Be sure to listen to the audio of the debate with Commissioner Jimenez at the end of Diane’s testimony.

The transcript of Diane’s testimony.

Lisa Haver SRC 5-27-16 pic

Video of APPS member Lisa Haver testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hearing – May 26, 2016.

The transcript of Lisa’s testimony. The last few sentences were not in her testimony because of the three minute time limit.

 

APPS testimony to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission – January 21, 2016

In the order of appearance at the SRC meeting.

Click here to see all of the videos.

Click the picture to view each video individually.

Lisa Haver SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Lisa Haver testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Lisa’s testimony (including the part cut off by the three minute time limit).

 

Karel Kilimnic SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Karel Kilimnik testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Karel’s testimony (including the part cut off by the three minute time limit).

Eileen Duffey SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Eileen Duffey testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Eileen’s testimony.

 

 

Diane Payne SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Diane Payne testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Diane’s testimony.

 

 

Carol Heinsdorf 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Carol Heinsdorff testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Carol’s testimony.

Debbie Grill SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Deborah Grill testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Deborah’s testimony (including the part cut off by the three minute time limit).

Alison McDowell SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Alison McDowell testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Alison’s testimony (including the part cut off by the three minute time limit).

Robin Lowry SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Robin Lowry testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

 

Richard Migliore SRC 1-21-16

Video of APPS member Richard Migliore testifying at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission meeting – January 21, 2016.

The full transcript of Richard’s testimony (including the part cut off by the three minute time limit).

 

 

 

 

Hite Administration Escalates War on Public Schools in 2015

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Observations from APPS member Karel Kilimnik
about how privatization is being advanced in the School District of Philadelphia as 2015 ends.

December 24, 2015

Three Neighborhood Schools to Be Turned Over to Charter Operators

In early October Superintendent William Hite announced that three neighborhood schools would be turned into Renaissance Charter. Those schools are Cooke in Logan, Wister in East Germantown, and Huey in West Philadelphia. The school communities were given no say in this. They were told their only choice would be which charter provider would be chosen. Hite learned last year that when parents have a real choice, they will reject being charterized. Teachers, parents and students fought to keep Steele Elementary in Nicetown and Munoz-Marin in North Philadelphia public; the parent vote was overwhelmingly against going charter. This time, he decided to impose this on parents through what turned out to be a very murky process. Teachers were shut out of the process altogether. The district set up an Evaluation Committee at each school and chose five parents to participate. That committee would make its recommendation to the district and the SRC on the future of the school.

What the Hite administration actually did was set up meetings run by District staff to “inform” parents. Parents and teachers at all of the three schools were purposely misled as to the location and time of these meetings. For some reason, none of the meetings was held at the schools themselves. At Cooke, the parents had to become detectives to find the meeting. At Wister, community members showed up at the announced location only to find that the meeting was being held somewhere else. People piled into cars and raced over. Yes, seats were empty at the actual district location simply because they were deceived about the correct place. Are parents supposed to trust the people who deliberately lied to them about the location of a meeting to make an honest decision about the future of their children’s school?

The too-small room overflowed with participants. The District staff was there to sell this plan to parents. To do so they enlisted a parent from Cleveland Mastery charter school. Wister parents were respectful and listened to her story and when she finished questioned district staff for specifics. They had no answers. People saw through their manipulations and sales pitch. District staff seemed taken aback by the opposition to their “wonderful plan.”

See the article Lies, Lies, Lies: Wister School is Another Chapter in Privatization and Locking Out Parent, Teacher, and Community Voice

APPS member Coleman Poses presented testimony at the November School Reform Commission showing how inaccurate the District data was for Wister. An SRC staff member admitted to Coleman that they used the wrong school’s data for Wister. Despite being told about this mistaken data the District continues to sail ahead with turning Wister over to Mastery.

Mastery Marketing In Full Force at Wister

Click here to read the rest of this article.