February Newsflash
At the SRC . . .
At its January 17 meeting, the School Reform Commission:
-Approved contracts totaling $65 million for the construction of a replacement building for Fels High School in lower Northeast Philadelphia, to serve approximately 1,200 students.
-Accepted a federal grant of $20.5 million to support the creation of a five-year pilot program establishing a pay-for-performance system for principals and teachers at 20 District elementary schools.
-Accepted a $1.7 million state grant for the District's Parent Volunteers Program and renewed contracts with nine organizations involved in implementation of the volunteer program at schools.
-Accepted a $646,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to carry on the operation of the Parent Leadership Academy at three sites through June 2008.
-Authorized an agreement with the city to transfer to the District the Franklin Recreation Center property in Kensington as a site for the new Willard Elementary School.
The SRC considered but ended up voting to table a resolution to sell pieces from the District's collection of valuable artwork that had been removed from schools over two years earlier.
Commissioner Daniel Whelan's resolution suggested that art be sold only after obtaining an estimate of how much money the most valuable pieces would sell for at auction. Whelan proposed that the schools where the artwork once hung receive reproductions of the works. Two other commissioners expressed interest in selling artwork, but the resolution was tabled at the urging of Commissioner Martin Bednarek, who protested that there was no advance notice of its introduction and hence no opportunity for public comment.
The SRC also voted down another Whelan proposal banning District employees from taking part in any partisan political activity.
Whelan said the resolution was aimed particularly at senior staff and city employees on District payroll, and said Philadelphia was the only district in the state to not have such a ban in place.
The January 17 session was the final SRC meeting for Whelan, who was one of the three original appointees of former Governor Mark Schweiker when the body was first constituted to replace the city's school board in January 2002. Governor Ed Rendell has nominated Denise McGregor Armbrister of Philadelphia, who heads the Wachovia Regional Foundation and is a public school parent, to fill Whelan's slot on the five-member commission.
The commission also heard from representatives of 20 organizations concerned about program cuts in language access services. In recent District central office cutbacks, two employees from the Office of Family Engagement and Language Equity Services, including office director Mary Yee, were laid off. Other departments absorbed the rest of the office. Coalition spokespeople said that recent progress in providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services to immigrant families was endangered by the cuts.