School District of Philadelphia Board of Education Action Meeting Testimony
September 22, 2022
sung by Ilene Poses
Choices, like voting, matter and have consequences. With the district’s limited amount of money, the community has made it known they want money spent directly on the students. As the Listening Sessions showed people want more support staff, smaller class sizes, assistant principals, more certified teacher librarians. Recently, NYC schools reduced class sizes. Instead the Board chooses to spend 2 million dollars on the California company Flo Analytics to work on feeder patterns for schools using information that it could have acquired free of charge from Philadelphia City Planning Dept. The Board chooses to spend $450,000 for the Tennessee consulting company Joseph & Associates to help Dr. Watlington transition to SDP. Common sense would dictate that people in Philadelphia know more, than an out of town consulting group – especially a firm that has experienced multiple problems such as: no-bid contracts for preferred vendors, using Shawn Josephs’ mentor, a former Baltimore superintendent who was later indicted and sent to prison, and other concerns. Did the Board do its due diligence and research this company first before hiring him?
sung to “If I had a Hammer”
When the Board had the money
They spent it on new contracts
They chose Shawn Joseph’s-
for 450K.
Could have used it for more aides
Could have chosen libraries
Instead they helped the corporate
consultants from all over this land.
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 