PHOTOS: School Reform Commission Hearing on Imagine 2014

The School Reform Commission today held a presentation on the Imagine 2014 plan. There were few changes to the plan, and there remain many questions around the costs to implement Dr. Ackerman's proposal. Along with this parents and students are concerned about which schools will be affected as a part of the school closings and handovers to outside managers proposed in the "renaissance" portion of the plan.

A number of people gave testimony supporting the broad goals of the plan to lower class sizes and add additional resources to schools. Yet, they were still concerned about where their needs and participation will come in under this framework.

Below you will find the comments of Greg, a student at Masterman H.S. and member of the Philadelphia Student Union.

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Testimony for SRC Meeting – Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Gregory, Julia R. Masterman High School

My name is Gregory Jordan-Detamore. I am a junior at Masterman.  You might ask yourself: Why would a Masterman student be testifying about the strategic plan?  Masterman is supposed to be the best school in the city!I’m here today because the decisions the district is making affect everyone, including me and many other students that I care about. Thinking that I have no reason to testify about the plan is like thinking that anyone that isn’t from Philadelphia can’t help run our schools.  I hope that you will appreciate what I have to say.

The School District of Philadelphia currently operates under five core beliefs”: (1) Children come first; (2) Parents are our partners; (3) Victory is in the classroom and facilitated by a strong instructional leader; (4) Leadership and accountability are the keys to success; and (5) It takes the engagement of the entire community to ensure the success of its public schools. These are all excellent principles. I want to make sure that you, the members of the School Reform Commission, keep in mind these core beliefs when you are considering Imagine 2014.

Before I explain what my concerns are with the plan and the process, I should mention the positive parts of the plan. It rightfully calls for more counselors and lower class sizes. It expands Student Success Centers to all high schools. Another good part of the plan is that it recommends moving the teacher hiring timeline earlier in the year, so that there are not so many vacancies when the school year starts. Also, the plan recommends helping current Philadelphia public high school students become teachers, if they desire.

Let' take a look at the first core belief: children come first. I think that the School District has forgotten this for too long; it is therefore encouraging to see that this is now considered a priority.

If children really do come first, then surely the district will end contracts with outside providers that have shown that children do not come first. You will tell us what exactly a proven track record means. You will provide oversight and accountability around how public funds are used by outside groups. And you will demonstrate how everything that is being tried to transform low-performing schools is unlike what has been tried, and has failed, in the past.

Since we can all agree that the Renaissance Schools plan is the most controversial part of Imagine 2014, it needs to be separated and voted on separately, so that the public can express all their concerns.

The second core belief is that parents are our partners. I agree entirely that parents play an important role in education. Because of this, I think that it is important to take a look at the process behind the Imagine 2014 plan. The draft plan was released in February. Everyone was told that the plan was just a draft, and that there would be community meetings so that the public' input would be taken into consideration. Now, the community meetings have passed, and the SRC is ready to vote on the plan in a week. This meeting is supposed to be the meeting where people can comment on the plan, but… the new plan was released only yesterday. How can you expect people to testify on the plan with this short notice? Because of this last-minute release of the plan, it is necessary for the SRC to delay the vote on Imagine 2014, so that the public has a chance to comment on the plan that the SRC will actually be voting on.

As I was preparing for this meeting, it came to my attention that the District just decided to hold three community forums this week about Imagine 2014. The problem? They didn’t really tell anyone. I checked the District website and could not find anything about these meetings. So my question is this: how do you expect people to show up to meetings if you don’t tell people about them? Is the District just doings this so they can say that they had more meetings?

The third core belief is that victory is in the classroom and facilitated by a strong instructional leader. I know that at my school, we have a disproportionate number of qualified and experienced teachers.  We need to do something about the inequitable distribution of teachers across the district. If the plan ultimately does nothing to address this issue, it has not gone far enough.

The last two core beliefs are that leadership and accountability are the keys to success and it takes the engagement of the entire community to ensure the success of its public schools. As I have already stated, the District just released the final version of the plan yesterday, and suddenly, today is the last day for people to comment on the plan, with the exception of the last-minute meetings that the district only just announced. It almost makes it seem as this happened on purpose. But considering your commitment to the community, this surely cannot be the case. Therefore, in order to hear feedback on the final plan, the SRC absolutely must delay the vote.

In summary and closing, the key points of my testimony are as follows: While there are good parts of Imagine 2014, there are also some parts that the community has concerns about, including but no limited to the Renaissance Schools. Also, the final version of the plan has just been released. To resolve these two issues, the SRC must delay the vote on Imagine 2014, and separate the plan for the Renaissance Schools to so that it can be voted on separately.

Thank you.

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