Today's Inky has a story about new School District CEO Arlene Ackerman's recent hires:

New Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman has surrounded herself with a diverse inner circle of educators picked from far and wide, shaking up a historically inbred district with fresh faces.

The 14 people Ackerman has tapped are seven women and seven men, most with classroom experience. They include a former Army colonel and a handful of ex-principals.

They come from around the country - New York, Detroit, Louisiana, Arizona, California.

Most are her former doctoral students from Columbia University or graduates of prestigious national programs she's attended herself.

"I am trying to put together a team, and I do get to pick my team," Ackerman said in an interview. "I'm bringing together a team that can work toward the vision we have for this school system."

A couple of clarifications to the Inky story:

• The Inky may be jumping the gun in saying that Dr. Ackerman's team is smaller than Vallas'. The Inky list doesn't include, for example, at least two new positions created with existing district personnel. At the very least before making such a claim, the Inky ought to have looked at a full list of new hires and compared them with what we knew from Vallas' time.

• While Dr. Ackerman is entitled to her team, the Inky could have pointed out that new hires were made without a search. People are still jittery and wary of the district's lack of transparency, and a search could have alleviated some fears about whether we're getting the best candidates for the position.

• Parents United specifically raised questions about the four special assistants, four new positions that earn $92,500, $90,000, $85,000 and $65,000 apiece.

Any thoughts?

Today, 200,000 children carrying Philadelphia’s future with them head back to school. Last night, my children were full of anticipation (if not necessarily excitement) as they packed up their supplies, talked about friends, and wondered what to expect from their teachers. For them, the night before school is always full of hope.

Conventional wisdom has it that this is the year of opportunity.

We have a Mayor who has put education as his top priority, a governor and legislature that delivered on hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding (though it backed off a new funding formula), and a city council that kicked it all off by throwing in more than $20+ million annually through a transfer of real estate tax revenue. We’ve got a former state budget secretary as our CFO, and an SRC, state and city leadership that’s politically aligned for the first time since the state takeover. We’ve got a new CEO who’s trying to refashion the role back into “superintendent” and has the vetting of the Governor and Mayor.

What this can’t be is a year for folks to say, “Hey look at how much we gave the schools” and walk away. After all, look what happened to the hundreds of millions Vallas and the SRC got at the beginning of the state takeover.

This also can’t be a time for extended media honeymoons with a new CEO or reading in the papers endless reports and announcements made by various talking heads. As Amy Goodman said, the media wasn’t created to be a megaphone for people in power. In the past few years, we’ve shown what happens when we demand responsible and relentless scrutiny of the District’s budget and build public outcry around our schools. A lot of that has come from community groups and independent media like the Public School Notebook; until recently, not enough from our mainstream papers. A few notable exceptions last spring has led however to a rather dull summer of reading.

Parents United for Public Education has been working for months to stop a District proposal to cut thousands of students off from free transpasses as part of a deficit-reduction plan.

Last fall, Gov. Rendell, Sen. Vince Fumo and SEPTA officials held a big press conference announcing that, for the first time, students in Philadelphia would get what students across the state already receive – free transportation for grades 7-12. For all students living more than 1.5 miles from school, the state and SEPTA would fund free transpasses. This applied to all parochial and charter students as well as public.

Unfortunately, after the media headlines the cost issue was a lot different. Because of the expansion of passes, the District’s transportation costs tripled to over $30 million. But the state refused to reimburse about $7 million in the District’s transportation costs, partly because they are reneging on the 1.5 mile requirement. State minimums are supposed to be two miles or more. So now the District is weighing how to save about $4.2 million by either instituting an 85% attendance requirement on transpasses (an issue that would impact only Philadelphia public school students, not parochial or charter) or extending the mileage requirement from 1.5 miles to 2 miles. Either way thousands of students lose.

The good news is that parents have gotten the attention of city and some state officials, but apparently not SEPTA. From today’s Inky :

Not so fast, said SEPTA general manager Joseph Casey. The agency already gives the district a discount for TransPasses, and it has agreed to pay the district $3.5 million for administering the program, per a deal cut with the state last year.

"If they have an issue with the amount of money or the distance, it's really between them and the Department of Education," Casey said. "They can go anywhere they want to, to try to get the money, but it's not our issue."

City Advocate Lance Haver pointed out to me that 80% of SEPTA’s local match is funded by city taxpayer dollars, and that SEPTA is sitting on a $130 million rainy day fund.

Yesterday the School Reform Commission terminated contracts for six education management organizations (EMOs), and put another 20 on one-year probation with plans to closely scrutinize how money is spent. The District formerly had 38 schools in a “multiple” provider model with for-profit companies, non-profits and universities in the mix.

Edison Schools, Inc., the largest provider with 20 schools, lost 25% (four) of its contracts, and saw another twelve put on probation. Temple University lost one contract at Dunbar Elementary; and Victory Schools lost its contract with the all-boys school Fitzsimons.

Interestingly (or predictably), local providers Foundations Inc. and Universal Companies lost no contracts, although Foundations saw three of four of its schools placed on probation. Universal has one of its two contracts also on probation.

Only 12 schools, less than a third of the EMOs, received a multiple year contract from the District.

Although at first glance, the effort is a modest one, it’s potentially a blow to the privatization movement nationally and marks a rethinking of the role of EMOs in Philadelphia under the administration of new CEO Arlene Ackerman. More important, it should highlight the work of grassroots parent and student groups, like the Philadelphia Student Union and Parents United for Public Education, who have kept this issue on the front burner as a question of quality school choice vs. multiple school choice.

Sunday’s Inquirer laid out one of the best reasons for why reform in property taxes has to go hand in hand with school funding.

In a study of more than 500,000 tax records, the Inquirer reports that “wildly disparate property tax rates are widening the economic divide between have and have not towns.”

Consider this:

For instance, in some economically distressed parts of eastern Delaware County, such as the six towns of the William Penn School District, the tax rates are nearly six times higher than those in West Conshohocken, a Montgomery County borough jam-packed with office towers. Just five years ago, the rates were 31/2 times higher.

Those poorer communities also tend to have lower-achieving students and far fewer resources than wealthy neighbors. The William Penn district - composed of Aldan, Colwyn, Darby Borough, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne and Yeadon - spends $12,701 per pupil. West Conshohocken is in the Upper Merion district, which spends $18,158.

Between 2002 and 2007 in poorer towns in the suburban counties, increases in millages - the taxes per $1,000 of assessed property value - were double those in affluent communities.

So the famous line touted by Philadelphia Student Union organizers in 2001 during the state takeover was that the quality of a child’s school system shouldn’t have to depend on their zip code. But that is indeed what happens here.

As daunting as the School District’s 552 page online budget is, it’s funny how much it can reveal about ingrained systems that cost our society -- things like say, patronage.

For example, consider the BRT:

Buried at the bottom of page 385 under the category “Undistributed Budgetary Adjustment/Interfund Transfers/Other,” it shows 85 BRT employees on the School District’ payroll for a cost of $4.7 million in FY08. That’s 18% more than it was last year. Next year at $4.9 million it will be almost a million dollars more than just a year ago.

Parents United for Public Education requested a list of the BRT employees (who are listed as real estate assessors). A review found that 74 employees are currently on the District’s payroll. Over 40% of them hold political positions, including two ward leaders and committee leaders.

What’s wrong with this picture? A lot.

• First, what specifically do these people do on behalf of the schools and why do we need so many of them?
• Second, the fact that such a large percentage of them appear to hold political positions and are outside the scope of both the city (even though they’re doing city work) and the School District (since they work offsite at the Curtis Center) raises concerns that all the jobs are as necessary and efficient as they ought to be.
• And finally, $4.9 million may not seem a lot to some people, but it would almost double the arts and music programs in the school that were allotted this year. It would buy back 50 teachers, a third of the number cut this year. It would more than buy back the 25% librarian losses we suffered this year.

Conventional wisdom has been that since the schools receive 60% of the real estate taxes, the District should therefore assume a similar portion of the BRT expenses. However, there’s a big difference between billing the schools for real and actual expenses, and putting 85 employees on the District’s payroll who are outside the supervision of the District.

This isn’t a new struggle. A few years back, former School District CEO Paul Vallas tried to remove the 31 employees from the City Controller’s office who also sit on the District’s payroll (page 362) as well as highlight the BRT employees. It was apparently a lonely and unsuccessful battle.

But it is, as they say, a new day, and it remains to be seen whether things could change under a new administration.

Last week Parents United for Public Education sent a letter to the Board of Revision of Taxes asking them to remove BRT employees from the School District payroll and to justify expenses that compete with the education of kids. It’s not that we want to second-guess the work of the BRT, but we do need some accountability from agencies that park their expenses on our kids’ dime.

For more information, the list of employees, and to read Parents United’s letter to Charlesretta Meade, chair of the BRT, check out Parents United’s website.

In yesterday's Daily News, the School Reform Commission reported that it would not approve new charter applications, but instead intended to ask charter applicants to take on the city's 70 failing schools listed as being in corrective action 2 status. These include most of the comprehensive high schools as well as dozens of schools throughout the city.

In addition, the School District has said it will open up all the 70 schools to Education Management Organizations (EMOs). Edison Schools Inc. has already said it intends to apply to all 70 schools.

What's wrong with this picture?

Tomorrow a small bill, that slipped out of Council’s Streets and Services committee with barely any notice, will get its first reading. Titled “Towing And Immobilizing Of Parked Or Abandoned Vehicles,” few knew what Bill 080406 was about until the people benefiting showed up to testify on its behalf:

From KYW1060:

The Parking Authority is promising smoother rush hours in Center City, if it gets final City Council approval to expand its towing operation.

The Authority currently can tow and impound a car only in an area that is bounded by Vine Street on the north and Spruce Street on the south. A council committee has now given a preliminary okay to expanding that border north to Spring Garden, south to Bainbridge, and also on Broad Street itself all the way up to Hunting Park Avenue.

Parking Authority Executive Director Vince Fennerty says to goal is to get illegally parked cars out of the way in rush hour . . . .

Fennerty says this will particularly help around the I-95 Vine Street ramps.

The Parking Authority?

This is the first time (that I’m aware of) that Council has had a crack at the Parking Authority since parents launched a campaign against them last fall. Now is not the time to expand the Parking Authority’s powers. If anything, City Council should restrict the PPA’s activities until it first proves it is a more responsible steward of its money and activities. It’s also an important opportunity to squeeze that agency about why it isn’t giving more to the schools.

From today's Inky:

New School CEO Arlene Ackerman kicks off her first day with her 20-member blue ribbon panel, whose main job will be "to listen to parents, teachers and other district participants."

The transition-team effort will cost $75,000 to $100,000, which was negotiated when she was hired, Ackerman said. Each panel member will be offered a $1,000-a-day honorarium for the work, which is likely to span four days, she said.

As a parent I am flattered to be valued at so much, $20,000 a day? Usually I'm happy to give my thoughts for free.

To put $20,000 in perspective, a parent who testified at the District's budget hearing noted that her school was trying to choose whether to buy a librarian or a special ed teacher for $18,000 -- that would be less than one day of this panel to serve 250 kids for a year.

The Philadelphia School District is pulling all beef items off the menu after the District learned today it had received shipments from Westland/Hallmark Meat Company. Last month, the Humane Society released a video showing Westland/Hallmark employees using forklifts and electric shocks to forcibly bring diseased and sick cows to slaughter. Westland/Hallmark provides meat to the national school lunch program. As a result of the video, the USDA issued a recall – the nation’s largest – of over 140 million pounds of the company’s beef products.

Interestingly enough, I had called the PA Dept. of Agriculture Monday to inquire about Philadelphia’s status. The told me know more than 170 school districts across the state had received Westland/Hallmark meat shipments and he would get back to me about Philadelphia.

From Jeff Gammage’s excellent article on whether the Chester stadium deal is yet another snake oil sale for a town that's suffered way too many broken promises:

The prospective team owners, leading a St. Louis group in the contest to secure MLS's 16th team, predict a huge financial impact:

More than 2,600 temporary construction jobs and 800 permanent full-time jobs. About $19 million in annual tax revenue. An estimated $670 million in personal earnings and $335 million in taxes over time.

Those are giant numbers to a city where half the households get by on less than $25,000 a year.

And they leave sports economists shaking their heads. Whether it's Kansas City or Charlotte, Chicago or Chester, they say, the argument is always the same, and so is the result.

"Plopping down a stadium," said Temple University assistant dean Michael Leeds, coauthor of The Economics of Sports, "does nothing for a city."

It’s hard to put my finger on what rankles me most about the Chester stadium deal.

Of all the things that public schools in the Commonwealth need, what wouldn’t be on this list?

A. increased state funding to address the 95% of PA districts which are considered underfunded by nationally normed averages, according to a recent state study ;
B. focusing on a statewide school capital plan so districts aren’t left to their own devices to come up with the millions to repair or build new schools;
C. a teacher recruitment initiative to build incentives and retain quality public school teachers;
D. more tests

Well, thanks to the State Board of Education, more tests is indeed at the top of the agenda.

It's hard to imagine that the Parking Authority could get any lower but they sure know how to bottom out. In today’s Inquirer story, the Parking Authority blames a decline in ticketing as a major reason why they can't meet their financial obligations to the City and the School District. Never mind the doubling up of a padded payroll; more than $46 million in largely unaudited cash reserves; unconscionable perks like fat pensions checks, free cars/gas; six figure salaries including an Exec. Dir. who makes more than the governor and a board chair who earns $75,000 a year for showing up once a month. Nah none of that could have anything to do with their failure to meet their goals.

Now, they blame the police. Had enough?

Come on down to the Parking Authority Board meeting this morning where:

Parents United for Public Education, the Philadelphia Home & School Council, Germantown Clergy Initiative, JUNTOS, Philadelphia Right to Ed Task Force and the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians name --

The Philadelphia Parking Authority

the

2007 Inductee into the Grinch Brotherhood

Yesterday, in a sneak move, the PA Senate re-authorized the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s red light cameras . The bill stripped away an earlier effort by the House Appropriations Committee to designate all new revenue to the public schools and provide minimal fiscal oversight to the Parking Authority. This new bill which passed unanimously in the Senate and the House (with the opposition of about 50+ representatives in the House), now turns over all money to PennDOT and has no reference to the need for public oversight on the PPA.

Symbolically, though, it provides yet more light on the struggles and hurdles we face to bring any new revenue to the public schools, make any reforms in the patronage heavy PPA, and bring to light the backdoor deals cut by Dwight Evans (whom it was recently reported has a brother at the Parking Authority) and Republican legislators who are deeply vested in the agency.

It’s also a demonstration of the failure of state takeovers: the state took over the public schools and the Parking Authority in 2001, the results of which have both lost public trust and remain largely out of the realm of public oversight, responsibility and accountability.

If you think that the City of Philadelphia is in desperate need of ethics reform, try the School District.

Last year parents raised concerns about the most basic ethical violations, including no-bid and/or sweetheart contracts for politically established firms, a School Reform Commission (SRC) chair with a penchant for regular dining at the Four Seasons on the School District dime, an SRC budget padded with consultants who duplicated extant district services, a CEO who wrote a letters to public school parents explicitly supporting a state legislator during election season (Perzel), and a budget process that appeared secretive and back door.

Including the capital budget, the School Reform Commission is in charge of $4 billion a year, almost comparable to the City of Philadelphia. As we discuss bringing more money to the public schools, the District needs ethic guidelines to prove that it is a responsible steward of such money.

With a politically appointed commission, some of whom run their own businesses and move in highly political circles, keeping business above board is not always a given. Outgoing Chair James Nevels, for example, ran one of the nation’s largest private equity firms, but had no responsibility to divulge any conflict of interest as he signed off on billions of dollars in questionable contracts some of which didn’t even require open review. One consequence was the revelation that Edison Schools had received a contract which guaranteed enrollment and paid them for almost 20% more students that they didn't even have. Every month the SRC meets for hours in “closed session.” In June, parents pointed to the closed sessions as violations of the Sunshine Law, especially after Commissioner James Gallagher was quoted in the media as admitting to “probably” having violated the law.

So how do we create a basic ethics agenda for the School District? Post your ideas here, and expect to see us raise them with the District in the new year. Our initial suggestions:

1. Eliminate no-bid contracts;
2. Eliminate pay-to-play: if you contribute politically, you can’t bid;
3. SRC Commissioners, district leaders required to file statements of financial disclosure, including conflict of interest statements, financial interests, as well as political contributions;
4. Guidelines re: gifts, meals, credit cards, etc.;
5. Two-year lobbying restrictions on ex-employees;
6. Conduct School District business in public and avoid the appearance of secrecy and back door deals.