July/August Newsflash
At the SRC . . .
The School Reform Commission does not meet in July. In June, the SRC approved the following:
· $3.16
million to Voyager
Expanded Learning: Passport and $1.98
million to Princeton
Review for Extended Day Program.
Covers literacy (Voyager)
and math (Princeton Review) curriculum
materials and professional development
for Extended Day Programs for 2005-2006.
· No-cost contract
extensions for Princeton
Review K12 Services, Kaplan
K12 Services, ResulTech, and SchoolWorks
for District’s Small
Schools Transition Project
Extends from June 30 to September 30 the
timeline for each firm’s work with
their contracted small high schools. Princeton
Review’s $600,000 contract covers
Lamberton, Sayre, Vaux, and Parkway Gamma;
Kaplan’s $450,000 contract is for
Lankenau, Randolph Career Academy and
Carroll (Carroll replaces Parkway Northwest
as a Kaplan recipient in the Transition
Project); ResulTech’s $450,000 contract
is for Bartram Business, Bartram Communications
and Parkway Center City; SchoolWorks’
$300,000 contract is for Bartram Human
Services and Bartram Motivation. Schools
CEO Paul Vallas said the extension, at
no additional cost to the District, was
because specific deliverables at each
school had not yet been achieved. The
Transition Project aims to create 28 smaller
high school options for students by 2008,
by way of converting middle schools to
high schools, breaking up large high schools,
and making branches into separate schools.
· $75,000 to Next
Step Associates for project management
of Small Schools Transition Project
Following last year’s $60,000 contract
to the firm, founded by retired District
veteran Cassandra Jones, the one-year
contract starts July 1 and involves oversight
of the small high school initiative.
· $980 million to
Independence Blue Cross for health benefits
The amount covers insurance and benefits
for the District’s active union
and non-union employees from July 1, 2004
to June 30, 2008. Officials said the projected
rate includes increases of 9 percent the
first year and 12 percent for each of
the other years.
· Authorization for
renaming of Bartram High School branches
Four satellite campuses now operating
as individual high schools will be renamed
as follows: Bartram School of Business
becomes Philadelphia High School for Business
and Technology; Bartram School of Communications,
Communications Technology High School;
Bartram School of Human Services, Paul
Robeson High School for Human Services;
and Bartram School of Motivation becomes
Motivation High School.
· $2.35 million to
Philadelphia
Education Fund for Student Teacher
Pipeline
Project is to develop 1,000 student teachers,
as well as 100 student school psychologists,
counselors and
nurses, and covers July 1, 2005 to June
30, 2006.
· Three major school renovation contracts: $7.37 million to Daniel J. Keating for middle school conversion of Sayre Middle School; $12.98 million to Daniel J. Keating Co. for major renovations to Strawberry Mansion; and $2.29 million to T.N.T. Construction, Inc., for major renovations to Longstreth.
· Authorization to
establish cooperative sponsorship of sports
teams
Aimed at creating greater participation
in athletics, the initiative establishes
guidelines that permit students to participate
in a sport that their school does not
offer or cannot support. The effort will
begin with the Fall 2005 season and establishes
guidelines addressing insurance coverage,
team names and uniform of sponsoring school,
financial arrangements, staffing, operating
procedures, facilities arrangements and
transportation.
· $300,000 to Ross
and Associates for communications services
to the SRC
Ross will serve as the communications
agency for the SRC, implementing media
relations, community outreach, advertising,
public relations and general marketing,
at rate of $25,000 a month, from July
1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.
· $12.4 million to
Sodexho
School Services for custodial services
Covers 22 high schools, from July 1 to
June 30, 2006. Schools CEO Vallas cited
poor cleaning performance and high absenteeism
by union workers in the decision to solicit
bids by private firms for the services,
which union leaders protested.