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From Yorktown to Templetown?

What’s done behind closed doors can be undone with transparency – and a lawsuit. The William Penn Development Coalition (WPDC) has filed a lawsuit to block the School District of Philadelphia from selling William Penn High School to Temple University.

In a blatant land grab, Temple agreed to pay $15 million for a property with a market value of more than $32 million.

WPDC is a nonprofit organization whose members include Yorktown homeowners and residents, William Penn alumni, North Central Philadelphia community members and supporters of quality public education.

In 2009, William Penn was temporarily closed. Then-School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman promised the community the school would be refurbished and reopened in 2014. Instead, the School Reform Commission put the school up for sale. The School District has not engaged the community in discussions about community needs and priorities. Nor has it communicated market and property realities.

The Public School Code requires the School District to hold a public hearing on the question of the permanent closing of a public school building at least three months prior to the decision of the SRC to permanently close a school.

That didn’t happen. In a single resolution on June 19, 2014, the SRC voted to suspend the public hearing provision, permanently close William Penn and approve the sale of William Penn to Temple.

WPDC member Tyrone Reed said:

We do not want anyone to think that Yorktown is for sale. We are out to let everyone know that we are not going to stand idly by and let Temple University, or anyone else, come into our community and dictate what they want to do.

Temple and the elected officials who remain silent in the face of community opposition should have seen this coming. North Central Philadelphia has always been the launching pad for movements of resistance by black Philadelphians. So it’s not surprising the strongest opposition to the displacement of indigenous people is coming out of North Central Philly.

Yorktown residents are highly organized. After all, they are fighting to protect their homes and their community’s peace and quiet. They have fought Temple before. And won.

Temple has refused to meet with Yorktown homeowners and residents who live less than 200 feet from the property. Yorktown residents will not be bamboozled and allow Temple to determine who speaks for the community.

This lawsuit is Temple made.

It’s Always Shady in Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s traditional public schools are in a death spiral. While public school children are warehoused in schools with no nurses or guidance counselors, school leaders and City Council are throwing shade on each other over who’s to blame for the financial crisis.

At a news conference, Philadelphia School Superintendent William Hite Jr. threw down the gauntlet:

Let’s stop acting like these are other people’s children. They are our children. Today we’re asking City Council to save the children of Philadelphia from significant budget cuts.

City Council President Darrell Clarke posted his response on Facebook:

For the fourth consecutive year, City Council has voted to increase funding for the School District of Philadelphia. But instead of talking about how best to utilize new revenues to improve education outcomes, the District is dealing with a current-year budget deficit of its own making. Last fall, City Council authorized an additional $50 million at the request of Superintendent Hite. The School District then proceeded to leave that $50 million on the table.

[…]

Considering City Council is the only funding authority that has consistently increased revenues for the state-controlled School District of Philadelphia over the last four years, this disrespect toward City taxpayers is disturbing and unfair. While other large cities are enhancing services and infrastructure following the Great Recession, the City of Philadelphia remains in perpetual recession thanks to the School District’s ongoing fiscal challenges. Instead of improving core City functions like public safety, we are looking for more ways to squeeze money from our residents to send to a School District that feels it is not accountable to us.

Methinks Clarke dost protest too much.

Clarke has said nothing about the School District leaving $17 million on the table. He shows disrespect for Philadelphia taxpayers who deserve to know why the asking price for William Penn High School is less than half its market value.

In fact, leaders of the William Penn Development Coalition (WPDC) were told the School District is under “political pressure” from City Council to accelerate the sale of William Penn.

WPDC President Inez Henderson-Purnell wrote on Save William Penn High School’s Facebook page:

At a June 12th meeting with the School District of Philadelphia, WPDC was suddenly informed that the sales process has been accelerated “only” in the case of William Penn High School stating “political pressure” by City Council as the reason behind the accelerated process. WPDC aims to communicate to the public the unacceptable shift in process as well as the community’s protest of the William Penn High School being developed without community participation or consideration to the future of our beloved neighborhood, history or future.

Clarke has refused to meet with WPDC, which is comprised of Yorktown homeowners and other stakeholders who would be directly impacted by the development of the William Penn campus. Yorktown is in Clarke’s district. They are his constituents.

In this pay to play city, elected officials are playing their constituents for fools. As blues legend Bobby “Blue” Bland would say, I “pity the fool” who thinks they will not be held accountable when they come seeking votes in 2015 and beyond.

Education Not Incarceration

The school to prison pipeline is increasing being fueled by zero-tolerance policies. AlterNet reports:

It’s a pipeline that consumes some students more than others; students of color and disabled students are being suspended, expelled, and sent into the justice system at much higher rates than their white, nondisabled counterparts. Growing criticism of zero-tolerance policies has highlighted the way they ruin lives, burden the justice system and create more work for everyone, with experts like the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) noting that “research [on such policies] indicates that, as implemented, zero tolerance policies are ineffective in the long run and are related to a number of negative consequences, including increased rates of school drop-out and discriminatory application of school discipline practices.”

The chronic school funding crisis in Philadelphia is putting more students of color, particularly black boys, at risk. Meanwhile, the state Department of Corrections is constructing a $400 million prison complex in Graterford, which is located less than an hour from the headquarters of the School District of Philadelphia.

Guess who will fill those seats?

Justice for Laporshia Massey Update

At the candlelight vigil for Laporshia Massey, I shared a few words with her father, Daniel Burch, and his lawyer.

As the family grieves and weighs its options, the outrage over the death of the sixth grader grows.

In an open letter, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry ripped Gov. Tom Corbett a new one:

Your office made sure to let Philadelphia parents know that your decision to release the 45 million dollars was based on quote “improvements” to the district – which closed 23 schools this summer. You made sure Philly’s parents knew that your decision had nothing to do with the death of 12-year-old Laporshia Massey, who died in September after an asthma attack.

Her family claims that she may still be alive if there had been a nurse at the school to recognize her symptoms and get her medical help. We may never know what would have happened if there was a nurse there that day. But the case brought our attention – the nation’s attention – to the sad state of Philly schools.

The money will not be used to rehire any of the more than 100 school nurses the district has let go in the past two years. As your administration said, Philly schools meet the minimum allowable by state law – one nurse per 1,500 students.

And that’s enough, apparently.

This is in a city where 22% of children have had asthma in their short lives – and more than half have ended up in the emergency room because of it. It’s the highest rate in the state. And asthma rates are worse among black children and poor children and inner city children across the country.

Governor, open your eyes to the fact that kids in Philly public schools – disproportionately black and poor – are needier than most. That means they need. More. More from you. And not just the bare minimum required. If we want these kids to have a chance at becoming happy, healthy, employed, taxpaying residents of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, shouldn’t we acknowledge that they need more to get there?

At a bare minimum, we need to know what happened at Bryant Elementary School. Without knowing the facts, the School District of Philadelphia exonerated its staff:

Because we want to ensure the safety of all children, it is paramount that we find out what happened to cause this tragic death. We are doing what is necessary to investigate what happened, and we are cooperating with all involved city and state agencies, as we always do, upon the death of one of our students. From our review to date, we are certain that our staff at Bryant are not the cause of the student’s death, and we will continue to address all concerns arising out of this tragedy.

Bryant is in Sen. Anthony Williams’ district. In a letter to Superintendent William Hite Jr., he called for a formal inquiry and public accounting:

Given that this is the second disturbing and high-profile circumstance to strike this school community within the past year, as the representative of this area – and as a neighbor – I am now asking you to formalize the inquiry and report out the results publicly.

My expectation is that such an investigation, coordinated with the police and district attorney, would reveal what issues and circumstances resulted in the child’s death, detailing if there are any elements of negligence, or, even criminal culpability. These are questions swirling around this community, throughout Philadelphia, and beyond. At a bare minimum, the community should be made abreast of the findings, for it certainly deserves answers, within the bounds of the law. While I recognize this is a somewhat unusual request, based on how things are normally conducted, the level of scrutiny in this matter warrants it.

Somebody’s watching.

Justice for Laporshia Massey

Three weeks ago, 12-year-old Laporshia Massey suffered an asthma attack while at school. That should be the end of the story. Sadly, it isn’t. There was no school nurse on duty that day. Laporshia was sent home. Within hours, the sixth grader from West Philly was dead.

While the family and the School District of Philadelphia dispute the circumstances leading up to her death, the fact is we’ll never know whether a school nurse would have recognized the severity of her condition.

It’s also a fact that more than 30 percent of children between the ages of 5 to 12 in West Philly have been diagnosed with asthma. So it’s reasonable to expect another child will suffer an asthma attack or otherwise get sick while at school. If there’s no nurse on duty, will school officials rely on a child’s own diagnosis of her condition to determine whether to call 911?

Later today, the Philadelphia School District Nurses will hold a silent candlelight vigil for Laporshia.

Justice for Laporshia Massey dictates that we remain vigilant lest her tragic death is swept under the rug.

Roar for Your Right to a ‘Thorough and Efficient System of Public Education’

It’s Week Four of Philadelphia’s school funding crisis. The fight for equitable funding of traditional public schools is rooted in the Pennsylvania state constitution which provides for a “thorough and efficient system of public education.”

The fight for full funding is being waged online (hashtag #phillyeducation) and offline.

Students at Roxborough High School “got the eye of a tiger.” They created video to express their concern about the state’s failure to provide a “thorough and efficient system of public education.” Since 2001, Philadelphia’s public schools have been run by the School Reform Commission, which is controlled by the governor.

At last weekend’s conference at the Church of the Advocate, Bishop Dwayne D. Royster, executive director of P.O.W.E.R., said he’s raring to go. P.O.W.E.R., Philadelphia’s largest faith-based organization, is an interfaith movement that uses prophetic voices to “fight for the least, the last and the lost.”

He said “interposition and nullification are dripping from the lips of political leaders in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. It’s time to hold them accountable:

We must be the source of their nervousness; make them tremble when they see us coming.

Bishop Royster added:

We have to do something that’s going to be transformational.

If we work together, they will hear us roar.

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