SRC – Page 9 – Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools

APPS members have called on Governor Wolf to remove Commissioner Farah Jimenez from the SRC for cause

On October 8, 2015, APPS sent a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Wolf asking him to remove Farah Jimenez from one of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s gubernatorial spots on the SRC.

After observing a number of irregularities by SRC member Jimenez, APPS sent a letter asking her to explain. We asked her to explain why she voted to approve a $300,00.00 contract with Mastery Schools for teacher training passed in August. We asked why she abstained from a vote to transfer management of Frederick Douglass elementary from Young Scholars to Mastery, and then admitted at a later SRC meeting that she took part in discussions on the transaction at SRC executive sessions. We asked her to explain her decision, and the SRC’s, not to disclose the fact that she oversees the district’s Charter Office or that she facilitated the application and approval process for 39 charter applicants last winter. These are all important questions due to the fact that her husband is on staff at a law firm that does extensive business with Mastery and KIPP schools.

Ms. Jimenez’s response was to have her lawyer send a letter, obviously intended to intimidate, accusing us of “defamation” and “malice” toward his client. We were shocked to see a public official, after being asked to respond to concerns regarding her actions as a public official, take steps to silence members of the public. If she does not resign, the Governor has more than enough reason to remove her.

APPS letter to Governor Wolf

On October 15, 2015 the Daily News reported on the APPS letter to Governor Wolf.

Advocacy group to Gov. Wolf: Get rid of SRC member

A local group of education advocates has sent Gov. Wolf a letter asking for the removal of Farah Jimenez from the School Reform Commission because of her husband’s association with charter schools.

On October 16, 2015, Daily News columnist Christine Flowers wrote a column attacking APPS because of the letter and defending SRC Commissioner Jimenez.

SRC’s Jimenez the one who really cares | Philadelphia Daily News – October 16, 2015

This is APPS response to the Flowers’ column.

We wish to respond to Christine Flower’s column (“SRC’s Jimenez the one who really cares”, Friday, October 16) comparing members of the Alliance of Philadelphia Public Schools (APPS) to the Taliban because we asked SRC Commissioner Farah Jimenez to explain actions she has taken as a member of the SRC.

The column makes a number of false statements. APPS is not “run by union leaders”. We are an independent grass-roots organization of teachers, community members and parents who believe that a public school system should serve the interests of the community, not private investors. We receive no outside funding. We do speak out at SRC meetings on those issues, and have done so long before Ms. Jimenez’s appointment last year. We are puzzled by Ms. Flowers’ position that this constitutes “harassment”. Members of the SRC have a responsibility to explain their actions to the public they have been appointed to serve. Public officials are accountable to the public, not the other way around.

APPS made no “personal attacks” on Ms. Jimenez, nor did we engage in any “name-calling”. The questions we raised in our letters to Commissioner Jimenez and to Governor Wolf were based on public comments made and actions taken by her at SRC meetings. As reported in the Daily News, we questioned her decision to vote to approve a $300,000 contract with Mastery Schools in spite of the fact that Mastery is represented by the legal firm at which Ms. Jimenez’s husband is employed. We asked why she abstained on a vote to transfer management of Frederick Douglass Elementary to Mastery Schools, then stated publicly that she took part in discussions in Executive Session on that matter. We asked why neither she nor the SRC disclosed that she had taken on oversight of the district’s charter office or that she facilitated the charter application process earlier this year in which both Mastery and KIPP, who is also represented by Ms. Jimenez’s husband’s law firm, had submitted applications. Contrary to Ms. Flowers’ assertions, we made no allegations. We asked Ms. Jimenez to explain why these actions do not constitute a conflict of interest. We have yet to receive a reply.

Ms. Flowers fails to point out that Ms. Jimenez’s response to APPS’s letter was to have her lawyer send a letter, clearly meant to intimidate us into silence, which accuses us of maliciously seeking to defame his client without citing any example of that. Ms. Flowers, an attorney herself and a journalist, knows that members of the pubic must be protected from frivolous allegations of defamation by public officials if we are to maintain a free society. Nor does Ms. Flowers cite the impartial legal opinion of Rob Caruso, Executive Director of the State Ethics Commission, as quoted in the Daily News: “If the public official is sitting in on discussions, weighing in on a matter, that’s an attempt to influence.”

She states that APPS sued the city and demands to know where the settlement money went. The fact is that that the suit was filed by individual members of APPS whose First Amendment rights were violated, a fact that was admitted to by Ms. Jimenez herself at an SRC meeting. Although they were under no obligation to disclose it, those members actually testified that the money had been distributed to schools and student programs at an SRC meeting when Ms. Jimenez was present.

Ms. Flowers’ loyalty to her friend is admirable. It is not, however, an excuse to attack members of the public for expressing their opinions and demanding that public officials to be answerable to those they are entrusted to serve.

Want to do something?

Call Governor Wolf at 717-787-5825 and request that Farah Jimenez be removed from the School Reform Commission.

Rushed reforms fail our schools

This column by APPS co-founder Lisa Haver was published by the Philadelphia Daily News on Wednesday, October 21, 2015.

The school formerly known as Roosevelt Middle School in East Germantown landed at the bottom of the list of Philadelphia schools’ Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading-proficiency scores this year. Math-proficiency scores are 0.3 percent. It pains me to say that, because I taught there for four years in the ’90s. It wasn’t a bad school then. We had a good principal who respected teachers, many of whom had been there almost 20 years. There was a full-time librarian, a full-time nurse and two full-time counselors. A committee of teachers developed a series of innovative project-based curricula.

Roosevelt has made it through serial budget cuts and district neglect. But the most recent, perhaps fatal, wound was inflicted by the School Reform Commission’s decision two years ago to convert it to a K-8. When community members protested that three schools in the same area – Germantown High School, Fulton Elementary and Roosevelt – were on the list of 24 neighborhood schools to be closed in 2013, the SRC came up with a last-minute scheme to add six lower grades in a matter of months. The district provided little support during the transition.

It appears, though, that disruption and failure are not a deterrent to repeating mistakes in the School District of Philadelphia. Superintendent William Hite unveiled a plan earlier this month to reform 15 district schools at an estimated cost of $15 million to $20 million. Some will be part of the Hite-created Transformation Program, in which curricular and personnel changes, including forcing out the entire faculty, can be imposed with no public hearings or vote by the SRC. Others will be placed into the Renaissance Network, which is the administration’s way of giving up on a school it has done little to improve and kicking it to the curb for a private company to pick up. Some will have several grades added at once, as Roosevelt did, changing its mission and climate overnight. Contrary to promises made by Hite at public meetings, two schools will be closed permanently. Enrollment and class size in nearby schools will almost certainly increase.

The hurried approval process will give parents little chance to have any say in the future of their children’s schools. Teachers and staff have been shut out of the process altogether, even though many will be forced out of schools whose communities they have been part of for years. But since the decisions about which schools will be overhauled, and how, have already been made at the top, what purpose do these meetings serve other than window-dressing – until the inevitable rubber-stamping by the SRC?

Hite cites reading and math proficiency scores, which hover around 30 percent, as justification for placing three more schools into the Renaissance program. But the latest PSSA scores show that none of the 21 current elementary or middle Renaissance schools achieved a math score over 20 percent; only eight topped 30 percent in reading. Three have come up for nonrenewal proceedings in the past year alone. The School Performance Rating of Audenried High School, placed in the Renaissance program in 2011, was among the lowest in the state.

If Hite’s plan represented real reforms, maybe it would be worth the $20 million price tag. But the facts show they are not. Overnight expansion has been a disaster for Roosevelt and other schools. Transformation schools, so far, show little more than cosmetic changes. Data on Renaissance schools clearly show that the whole program should be scrapped. Hite is a lifelong educator, and he knows what real reform entails: smaller class size; one-on-one reading interventions; a library in every school; full support staff including classroom aides for students with special needs, English language learners and kindergarten. They have always been worth investing in.

Lisa Haver is a retired Philadelphia teacher and co-founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools.

Email: philaapps@gmail.com

Lies, Lies,Lies: Wister School is another Chapter in Privatization and Locking out Parent, Teacher, Community Voice

by Karel Kilimnik
October 8, 2015

Let me start by saying we now have more confirmation that this District is being led by snake oil salespeople. Wister is one of the three schools slated to be turned into Renaissance Charter Schools by the School Reform Commission. Wednesday night, October 7th was the first “Meeting with Wister Families”. It should have been “First sales pitch to Wister families”. District staff were there to sell, not listen.

Wister parents and school staff were informed that the meeting would be held at a location in the 6700 block of Germantown Avenue. I arrived to find parents, children, and school staff milling around waiting for District personnel to arrive. One of the District Charter School staff ambled up just as we learned that the meeting was being held at another location. He brushed me off when I asked if he knew about this bait and switch. People ran to their cars and took off.

We walked into a small meeting room that barely held everyone. Leading the sales pitch for the evening was Karen Kolsky, Assistant Superintendent of Neighborhood Network 6. Audience members allowed Kolsky to drone on until she introduced a parent from Mastery Cleveland Charter School. Exhibit Number One in the selling of Why Wister Parents Should Be Drooling Over The Possibility of Becoming A Renaissance Charter.

Parents were respectful to the speaker and then the frustration and anger spilled over. The Wister principal stepped up to say that her own children attended Cleveland way before it was taken over by Mastery. They had a great education. Her daughter is a doctor and her son works as a long-distance trucker.

Kolsky was peppered with concerns about special needs students, preschool children, loss of teachers, loss of their beloved Wister community. Questions about lack of transparency, lack of any real choice, the list went on. These parents were articulate, well informed, and had valid concerns that were brushed aside by Kolsky and her team.

At one point SRC spokesperson Evelyn Sample-Oates rose from the back to say that, “The recommendation is from the superintendent for what should happen to this school.” My eyes were rolling around in my head. Parents pushed back saying why are we here as the decision has already been made. The Charter School staff member tried to allay fears about continuation of Wister’s regional special education programs by saying that “they would be taken into consideration”. Someone pointed out that his statement was meaningless so he added that it would “be written into the contract”.

Principal Smith was totally amazing. She talked about how Wister made AYP from 2008-2011 when she had the resources. She encouraged parents to use their voices and be heard. She and others raised the issue of charter operators getting more money that should be put into their school now!

Parents and Grandparents at the meeting spoke lovingly about teachers and other parents and how much love, care, and respect there was for their children. One parent said charter school teachers are all about the money. Our Wister teachers don’t make that much and they’re all about loving our children.

Kendra Brooks, who led the organizing at Steele School to defeat turning their school over to a charter operator, spoke briefly about how they’ve changed the rules this time around so that parents do not have a choice.

Kolsky reminded parents that they would be there (I asked in this same place or are you going to change it?) for weekly meetings until Nov. 24th. Charter management companies can apply for Request for Qualifications on Oct. 15th. The District is offering visits to other Renaissance charters starting the week of Oct. 12th. Parents were handed a schedule of visits that included – Birney Prep Academy (Oct. 13 ,20, 27 & 28) Mastery Pastorius (Oct. 14), Mastery Harrity (Oct. 16); Hite will announce the proposed school/charter provider on Dec. 14th and the SRC votes on Jan. 21.

I can’t write anymore. They are too disgusting. Sounds like Cooke parents had a similar experience and have pushed back and seems like Wister is pushing back too. They have a really solid principal who wants to fight back and keep their school. We shall see.

The next Wister Community Meeting is Wed. Oct. 14 at 6 to 7:30 at Center In The Park. Please come out and support the Wister School Community as they fight for their school.

The same games are being played at Jay Cooke Elementary:

Philadelphia School District Deceives Parents at Jay Cooke Charter School Hearing | Raging Chicken Press

APPS member Diane Payne responds to Hite’s Sweeping Changes

The story by Kevin McCorry of NewsWorks titled District proposes sweeping changes for 15 schools reads as though it was interesting news rather than an alarming catastrophe. The Philadelphia Public School District is being dismantled and it is being reported as though it is an interesting school feature by news outlets across the region. The dismantlers are shrouded in cloaks of double-speak and everyone just nods their heads as though these double-speak words are their true intentions.

Let’s start with Dr. Hite, a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy. An academy instituted by the uber rich Eli Broad who has a mission to dismantle public education across the country and thwart the democratic process. See Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education and More on Broad in Philadelphia at Defend Public Education!

Broad trains like-minded individuals in this academy and sends them across the nation to further these goals. Lucky for him, Dr. Hite secured a position right here in Philadelphia and has been furthering those goals of privatization ever since. There are many takers in this privatization grab because there are trillions of dollars in education. Where there are dollars there are grabbers!

Recently, Dr. Hite made a slew of new hires…did we notice they were out-of-town folks with strong charter backgrounds? One even came under a cloud of suspicion. Do we care?

Then there is Philadelphia School Partnership with a very influential seat at the school district table. PSP is shrouded in secrecy, most board members are not Philadelphia residents, they are pro-privatization and does anyone care?

Then there are the SRC meetings where teachers, parents, advocates and community members ask, beg, and yell week after week and never get answers. Does anyone notice or care?

Then there are the frivolous lawsuits that the district engages in to continue to thwart transparency and the democratic process (even when there is no money for basic necessities for our children). Do we care how much money the district spends on these lawsuits?

Then there is the very real fact that the two-tier, double standard system of charters and public is costing a sh$% load of money and at the end of the day has no silver bullet fix to show for it. Does anyone care?

Then there is the churn, chaos, disruption that is ever present in this two-tier system that sucks the life out of our district. Does anyone care?

This is alarming! We are watching the demise of public education and we are reporting it like it just another news story.

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