Will local control be different?

I attended the first School Board meeting at the School District of Philadelphia on Monday, July 9, 2018. The set up looked very similar to the previous School Reform Comission meetings, but the energy in the air was different, it was expectant.

It opened with the appointment of the President pro tiemp, Dr. McKinley. Then after some quick introductions we started hearing the over 30 speakers. The constant theme across most of the speakers focused on the lack of democracy and transparency regarding the status of Strawberry Mansion, the demand for more Black Educators, funding for female sports, and most importantly, the hope that this new local control will be different then before.

The standout testimony was given by Tonyah Bah, who compared the state of public education to Willie Lynch. Her truth about the harm to Black and Brown bodies and minds struck a chord with the listeners, and the new School Board.

The board only nominated a single person for the role of President, Joyce Wilkerson. She was one of the last appointees of the now dissolved SRC. She is the Senior Advisor for Communication Relations to the President at Temple University. Her resume includes the Philadelphia Housing Authority and Executive Director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority after Hurricane Katrina. After she accepted her nomination she stated, “This is a time to not squabble but to look at more fundamental issues facing us.”

The board then nominated two individuals for Vice President but, Wayne Walter won 5-4. His background is predominantly in the restructuring of businesses. And it is no mere coincidence that on 12th and Market Street, there was a NFTE Entrepreneurial Teacher Summit occurring at the same time as the meeting. Dr. Hite was in the program, but he could not be at two places simultaneously. But, Mayor Kenney did go there immediately after the start of the board meeting.

This meeting also featured the awardees of the Model Teacher Challenge. This awarded six finalists with $20,000 and an additional $6,000 for their school. One of the schools is a Big Picture School, which focuses on project based learning and entrepreneurship for students. And all of the sponsors and attendees were corporate entities.

The committees were announced and who was interested in being a part of them were garnered, but actual decisions of chairpersons will occur at the next meeting on August 16 at 5 pm. The applications for students to play an advisory role only are due on August 13 and a decision will be made by August 30.

The committees will be the following:

• District and community partnerships
• Finance and Facilites
• Policy
• Parents and community engagement 
• Student achievement and student support

Did you notice that educators, labor, and curriculum are not included? They mentioned that the public is encouraged to participate, but not what that will look like. There should be a push for these committees to be fully transparent and for the meeting to be open and inclusive of the public. And at times that people can actually attend. 

After this nearly 4 hour marathon, most of what was said did not leave me with a great deal of hope, but it definitely reminded me that the status quo can be disguised in a cloud of fictional democracy. The district will have to borrow money to mostly pay charter schools, in other words there will be a deficit by December. School libraries and music programs will continue to be eliminated. And corporate vendors are still a constant presence. And many of our school facilities continue to be unsafe with lead, asbestos, mold, rodents, and more.

The need for more robust partnerships with Human Services was mentioned, but the study conducted by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia several years ago that stated the benefits of providing trauma services and approximately the cost associated with it was not. It sounded more like a sound byte than an actual commitment. It also reminded me that some of the most important studies and research that offer actual solutions are not common knowledge of the main stakeholders.

So continue to sign up and have your voice heard.

Of course, I hope that we can get it together and finally put the children first and work toward rebuilding a public education system that we all deserve. But, I also realize we can no longer reform a broken antiquated system that needs to be destroyed at its core and then hit the rebuild button. Local control was a start, but it’s already starting to look like business as usual.