School Reform Meeting September 15, 2016 i Spoke For Strawberry Mansion High School and Educators of Color

Wow, as i title this blog i'm feeling the irony of Strawberry Mansion and Educators of Color. Not sure if i won't to go that deep with this blog. i really want to know what and who is running what goes on in my community Blackberry Mansion. 9/15 i spoke during a School Reform Action, expressing my concerns about Strawberry Mansion high school and the Need For Educators of Color. i didn't get to finish my testimony but did get my point across and met Mr. Eric Becoats Ed. D. the Asst. Superintendent for our community he can be reached at 215.400.5824 office 2143 ebeacoats@philasd.org. Would like to get him to speak to our community about what public education looks like for us and how we can keep our resources in our community.

There was so much going on at this SRC. Vaux high school is schedule to reopen as a contract school. A contract school is a privatized public school and Vaux would be run by "The Big Picture School" grades 9-12 total enrollment 500, starting with 125 in freshman class and adding grades each year. The district propose to open 2017-18 school year if approved by Pa. Dept. of Education. Vaux would be a non selective community based school that will also house pre-k and social services much like the community school model. A "The Big Picture" is a partnership with PHA and k-8 investments will be made at existing neighborhood schools.

Aspira Charter school had several speakers advocating for their school including State Rep. Angel Cruz. The advocates for the school failed to mention all the abuse of staff going on at the school. i personally witnessed non english speaking staff being manipulated at a United Way training. At the end of the training their certificates were taken from them and the feel of rape took their face. Ugly how they treat their staff, please do the research for your self. The advocates for Aspira also mentioned that Aspira is mimicking the community school model by opening community health and support centers which i'm sure will be full of data mining. All the agenda items for Aspira was taking off the agenda pending their financial issues get resolved or they will not get a renewed charter.

Parent advocate Tonya Bah of Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools spoke on childhood trauma and how our families and communities are put through trauma daily with the school district school closing. Tonya was asked if she considered the closing of our schools a hate crime? Tonya's response was yes.

Community Members from Point Breeze spoke on how they are also upset about what is going on with their schools. The district closed Walter George Smith school three years ago and planned to sale the building to Concordia. That sale is now in court and the community would like for the school district of Philadelphia to drop their appeal and re-open Walter George Smith school as a community school. Haley Dervinis from the Save Smith School Committee made her remarks but was giving no answers to her concerns. Some how our culture of holding on to our history is fading away. This school like William Penn High school are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Public school advocate Karel Kilimnik of Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools spoke about the need for a quality school district.

Testimony at SRC 9-15-16  Karel Kilimnik

We need a high quality school district.  We need a school district where every school receives the necessary resources not a patchwork of under-resourced schools. Where is your plan for a high quality school district?  

Déjà vu again. After the massacre of 23 schools in 2013 resulting in vacant school buildings in some of our most vulnerable neighborhoods the district is revisiting that failed policy from 2001 called Educational Management Organizations or EMO’s.  To speed up the privatization cycle and eliminate unionized staff Dr. Hite, with the blessing of the

SRC , is reopening Vaux high school as a “contract school”,with Big Picture, a non-profit operating over 60 schools in the US with varying degrees of success.  What is a “contract school”? Is it a charter school? Is it a private school? Why isn’t Vaux being reopened as a neighborhood public school?

Is this your new game plan to close schools and then reopen them as a contract school bringing in a private management agency? According to resolution B9 this project is a partnership with PHA so obviously planning has been going on for awhile…just out of the public’s view. Who knows maybe closing Vaux in 2013 was part of this PHA plan for its redevelopment of the Sharswood community.

In 2013 Vaux was deemed to be under-enrolled so where are all these new students coming from? Who is going to monitor this new entity? Who is going to hold them accountable? Presently the SRC has a terrible track record with both transparency and accountability. Witness the Aspira debacle. If the SRC was unaware of the atmosphere rife with sexual harassment and intimidation at Aspira why didn’t they know? Or did they simply choose to ignore the situation?  Why are you repeating a failed policy of using EMOs to manage schools?

Dr. Hite has stated that he plans on closing 3 schools a year. Does that mean actually closing the school or turning them into Renaissance charters or placing them in the Turnaround Network. My question tonight is tell us which schools are targeted and for what specific changes?

Karel like those who spoke before her received no answers to their inquiries.

Here is my statement to the SRC:

Alicia Dorsey aliciadorsey2@gmail.com 267.428.1303 Good Day SRC, I’m here today to express my concern for the future of Strawberry Mansion high school. I sit on the Strawberry Mansion Education committee and would like to request members of the SRC to meet with our community to discuss what is going on with public education in our community. At our last Strawberry Mansion Action Community meeting we were informed that there is no principal at the school and that the enrollment at the high school is so low that the school will probably close next year. Our community cannot afford to lose resources, we have been under resourced for decades. We are organizing because we are tax paying citizens who want access to our tax dollars via public education. My request to have a community meeting with the SRC in Strawberry Mansion comes also with the request to have Strawberry Mansion high school become a community school and keep high school open enrollment an option for our community. We are starving for the resources the community school model could bring to the Strawberry Mansion high school and community. I would also like to request information and resources for our current school year for all the schools in the Strawberry Mansion and Philadelphia residents that the SRC serves. My Second concern is the treatment of educators in our school systems, with a focus on educators of color. I advocate with our educators who are concerned about our families and communities. Way too often i’m hearing that the school district of Philadelphia and charter schools makes life difficult for educators, especially educators of color. I beg these educators to stay in our schools for there is a demand for educators of color and not just for students of color. October 2015, Ms. Rosalind Jones-Johnson, Education Director, PFT Health & Welfare Fund shed some light on the decreasing numbers of educators of colors in the teaching profession. "About 25% of the population goes to college period. That would mean that every African American would have to major in education in order for African American students, Hispanic Students and White students to have access to a black teacher, so it does not workout mathematical. So we have to find a way, regardless of the race, ethnicity or economic level of the teacher. They have to develop a sense of making sure our children are safe socially, emotionally and academically and that can be taught. Intervention needs to take place before educators step into the classroom." "When we look at the teacher population in Philadelphia, African American or black teachers in the public schools differ significantly from black teachers in charter schools. The retention rate for black teachers in charter schools is horrific. They are losing about 35% of their African American teachers as oppose to the public schools who are losing about 10%. Why such a dramatic difference between retention of black teachers in charter schools versus black teachers in public schools. It is because charter schools don't have strong teacher induction programs for novice teachers. They are not preparing them to work with students in that classroom environment. Philadelphia public schools do just that we work with them intensively over the summer before they step foot in the classroom and offer support throughout the school year." "There can be a lack of synchronization between the teacher and the student that has nothing to do with race. A middle income African American teacher may not be able to relate to an African American student who is living in sub poverty, unless you teach them to have the conversations with those students. To be empathic to understand so we have a responsibility regardless of the race, the ethnicity, the sex of the teacher. To make sure that they are dealing with all of the issues not just academics. We have to make sure they are well prepared before stepping into urban classrooms." "All of the reasons why we don't have black teachers isn't negative. I have a black male sitting next to me that maybe eighty years ago his only option would have been to go into education or preaching. But now so many black college students have many options in terms of careers so it is not all negative. That's why we have to get back to the discussion when we look at the numbers, we have to make sure that all teachers have what we call culturally responsive teaching. That they are able to teach black students, hispanic students regardless.” Ms. Rosalind Jones-Johnson Education Director PFT Health & Welfare Fund

If you have concerns about public education in your community please reach out to me or https://www.facebook.com/Phillyapps/ and we will help as best we can!!