Click on the picture above and move the timestamp to 37:14 to see the video of Karel’s testimony.
Curriculum is a regular course of study. We have been studying the SRC and find it Below Basic in many essential ways. Handing money over to vendors ($24 million slated for tonight’s resolutions), approving charter schools as well as refusing to close those recommended for non-renewal such as Aspira Olney & Stetson . Tonight I join the chorus urging you to step away from these deficiencies and step up to deny the revised application of Franklin Towne Middle Charter School. Franklin Town views the district as a cash cow able to solve their financial woes in one easy step. Two Notebook articles (Franklin Towne to come back before SRC Thursday in Pursuit of third school and In the convoluted world of charter real estate, Franklin Towne is both landlord and tenant) detail specific problems including that they want to open a new school to solve their financial problems. Quote:
“A new revenue stream, such as the per-pupil payments from opening a new charter school with additional students, could help the company sustain the finances of the elementary school without having its assets seized by the banks.”
I sincerely hope that the four remaining SRC commissioners do not think this is a reason for approving their revised application that fails to address concerns raised by the district’s own Charter School Office.
Approving this money-guzzling charter with a primarily white student body strips resources from schools like Strawberry Mansion High School. Mansion was a Promise Academy with few to any resources provided as promised, then was placed in the Turnaround Network with the promise of up to $1million dollars extra a year. When do the promises stop and the reality of actually supporting the school begin? Over the past several years the District has closed Mansion feeder schools, removed staff positions, and is presently using a large number of substitutes to fill teaching positions… a starvation diet for a high school valued by the community. You keep hiding the closure of the Strawberry Mansion Comprehensive High School behind something you call the Strawberry Mansion Education Complex that is simply acover for bringing in vendors to run programs.
No Strawberry Mansion Education Complex. We want a comprehensive high school. Bring back 9thgrade for fall 2018. Restore all programs.
Also see:
SRC approves Franklin Towne’s third charter school and votes to close Eastern University Academy Charter | The Philadelphia Public School Notebook – April 26, 2018
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Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 