Dungee Glenn to lead the SRC

Gov. Rendell yesterday named Sandra Dungee Glenn - a Street appointee with strong connections to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah - as the next chairman of the School Reform Commission.

Dungee Glenn, 49, the primary force behind the Philadelphia district's decision to require all students to take an African American history course to graduate, will officially take the helm next month.

A Democrat, she will replace James Nevels, 55, a Swarthmore businessman and Republican who announced Friday that he would step down after schools open Sept. 10. Dungee Glenn is expected to chair her first meeting tomorrow, in Nevels' absence.

"It is very much an honor to have been asked by the governor to assume this responsibility," Dungee Glenn said in an interview yesterday, moments after the Rendell administration announced her appointment.

Rendell cited Dungee Glenn's track record as "a constructive and visionary commission member" and said she "offers the experience and leadership skills the commission needs at this critical juncture."

Dungee Glenn, president of the American Cities Foundation, which works on urban policy issues, was appointed to the Board of Education in March 2000 by Mayor Street. After the state takeover of the district in 2001, Street named her as one of his two mayoral appointees to the five-member School Reform Commission.

Zack Stalberg, president of the Committee of Seventy election-watchdog group, called the appointment a compromise on Rendell's part. The district stays under state control but is led by a mayoral appointee.

"I view it as picking a person who can represent strong local control and perhaps tamp down that desire in a way to have the schools move back into hands of local officials," Stalberg said.

On Saturday, Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter questioned whether it might be time to return control of the district to the mayor. He was responding to speculation that Rendell was poised to gain more control of the commission by naming a new chair.

As it stands, if elected mayor, Nutter will not get any appointments on the commission until January 2009. Both Dungee Glenn's and Martin Bednarek's terms expire then.

Reached yesterday evening, Nutter said he remained focused on making sure the commission delivers quality education to the city's children. He added: "I look forward to working with the next chair of the SRC.

"The governor is to be commended for taking full responsibility for public education in Philadelphia," he said. As part of that commitment, Nutter said, he expects that the state will provide more funding to the schools as well.

Dungee Glenn also said she hoped to work closely with Nutter.

"I very much agree with the priorities he made in City Council and in his proposals as mayor," she said.

Dungee Glenn said she intended to continue the commission's national search for a chief executive officer to replace Paul Vallas and efforts to balance the budget, which still has a $80 million deficit. Teacher recruitment and retention also will continue to be top priorities, she said.

Bednarek supported Dungee Glenn's selection.

"She certainly has a passion for education, which I witnessed many times, publicly and also privately," Bednarek said.

Street's education secretary, Jacqueline Barnett, also voiced support for Dungee Glenn, who Street once said had the makings of a mayor.

Rendell still has a commission vacancy to fill. Any appointment would need Senate confirmation, which cannot happen until after the legislature returns in September.

Among those being considered is former City Solicitor Ken Trujillo, said sources close to the governor and the commission.

Nevels said last week his decision to leave the commission had nothing to do with his group's efforts to locate a major-league soccer franchise and stadium in Chester - an endeavor in which he needs Rendell's support, as the group needs state funding to help with the project.

Other officials also said yesterday that while Rendell did speak with officials of the soccer effort this month, no deal was struck.

John Estey, Rendell's senior adviser, said there was no connection between Nevels' departure from the commission and his push for soccer funding from the state.

"Absolutely not," Estey said, adding that the administration was "interested in continued discussions about bringing major-league soccer to Southeastern Pennsylvania."

A graduate of the district's Girls High School and the daughter of a Philadelphia public school teacher, Dungee Glenn speaks eloquently and knowledgeably about education issues in the 174,000-student district. Besides pushing the African American history mandate, she also has backed single-sex schools.

She has a 13-year-old stepdaughter who attends a district school, and she often takes the side of residents who show up to address the commission at its monthly meetings. She has been one of the most vocal critics of privatizing schools and has called for the district to reclaim control of schools from six outside managers, including Edison Schools.

In a 2002 Inquirer interview, Dungee Glenn said she believed that, historically, the funding of public education had been racist.

"The problem is there are many people who don't believe that our children, who are predominantly children of color, deserve the same investment as children five minutes across the county line who are predominantly white," Dungee Glenn said.

Dungee Glenn, who is black, wrote and proposed the resolution in February 2005 that called for African and African American history courses to be offered at all high schools the following fall. From the beginning, she wanted the courses to be mandatory, although district administrators were reluctant.

She persuaded other commissioners to back her position, and the course became a mandate in the fall of 2005.

Dungee Glenn cited the district's two-thirds-black student body and said at the time that those students needed the self-awareness and self-esteem that learning about their culture could bring. She also said that Africans were unfairly stripped of their culture when they came to this country and that it was time to restore that culture to them.

Dungee Glenn attended Barry Elementary in West Philadelphia, then Conwell Middle School, and finally Girls High. Her mother taught at Bryant School, and her father, James, was a pharmacist who ran Dungee's Pharmacy at 54th Street and Girard Avenue.

She said she still lives by her high school motto: "Vincit quise vincit" ("She conquers who conquers herself").

After earning a bachelor's degree in health, planning and administration from Pennsylvania State University, Dungee Glenn held a variety of jobs in environmental health and union advocacy. She worked on Democratic political campaigns, including Fattah's successful 1988 state Senate run. He made her his chief of staff.

After running Fattah's congressional campaign in 1994, she left his staff and became president of the American Cities Foundation, founded by Fattah.

She also hosts a weekly radio program, School Days, on WURD-AM (900), which serves a largely African American audience. On the show, airing at noon Thursdays, she explores broad educational issues affecting urban children and explains the often complex and sweeping decisions being made by the school commission.

From the archives: Sandra Dungee Glenn has been on a mission to improve Phila. schools. Read more at http://go.philly.com/srcEndText