District doubts value of management audit

Philadelphia School District officials yesterday finally released a $700,000 management audit - delivered nearly a year ago and only recently found - and declared that it might have little value.

The document detailed nearly $150 million in savings, which district officials said would be difficult to achieve, were unrealistic in the short term, or had already been undertaken.

It also included 188 recommendations to improve operations, many of which have already been adopted, officials said.

The nearly 300-page draft document was found and released more than a week after The Inquirer initially asked for it.

"It's not the Rosetta stone. It's not the Holy Grail. It merely is a very detailed look a year ago at the organization called the School District of Philadelphia," interim chief executive officer Tom Brady said, adding that circumstances had changed since then.

"I would say it is a 'fair' work and has some recommendations that had validity," he said during a media briefing at the district's North Broad Street administration building. "So, not bad."

But some say the document is worthy of closer scrutiny.

"It raises a large number of serious questions about the management operations of the district," Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter said. "There needs to be a fuller public discussion about the issues raised in the report."

If officials had read the report last year, they would have seen recommendations for improving how offices were organized and decisions made.

For example, consultants recommended requiring programs to demonstrate effectiveness before renewing them. They said district staffers had reported that officials often did not use evaluations in decision-making.

The report was prepared by Evergreen Solutions L.L.C. and management consultant Noreen Timoney, wife of former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney.

Neither Noreen Timoney nor Linda Recio, president of Evergreen Solutions in Sarasota, Fla., returned calls for comment yesterday.

Brady was especially critical of cost-saving tips.

He said $120.9 million of the $149.6 million in recommended savings would need to be negotiated with the five collective bargaining units. The consultants, for example, recommended that the district save $100 million by not paying the full health insurance premiums for district employees' families.

Brady said the district would get no saving from the suggestions in the short term. "That was not a shining portion of the work," he said.

And no suggestions were new, he said.

The district has already made changes to save $20.7 million, including offering a light-duty program for injured employees and reducing some bus service, both recommended in the report.

But Brady and School Reform Commission Chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn said the report contained some recommendations that could improve operations.

Faced with a $73.3 million budget deficit, the commission voted to halt the project in November before a final report could be completed or recommendations implemented. A rough draft that the consultants issued in late December sat unread for months.

Brady and Dungee Glenn received their copies Friday.

Dungee Glenn said it was clear the consultants had spent "hundreds of hours" talking to district administrators to produce the document.

Asked whether the audit was worth the money, Dungee Glenn said: "I think ultimately the true value of it will be [determined] after we are able to implement all the recommendations worthwhile in the report."

Dungee Glenn said the report contained some useful suggestions for contract negotiations, which are set to begin in January.

Brady found worthy of consideration recommendations for improved information-technology efficiency across the district and a suggestion to move to self-insurance for health coverage.

Some of the suggestions, however, were items that former chief executive officer Paul Vallas had harped on for years, such as axing city controller employees from the district payroll and asking the city to pay for its use of school buildings.

The district did win kudos in several areas for its management practices.

Through a spokeswoman, Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, declined to comment on the report last night because he had not read it. Mayor Street and Gov. Rendell could not be reached for comment.

The five-member commission hired Timoney and Evergreen in summer 2005 to conduct the audit of district operations at the urging of then-Commissioner Daniel Whelan.

Timoney, whom Whelan recommended, was hired to oversee the project. Evergreen was among 10 applicants to conduct the audit.

The Evergreen consultants compared the Philadelphia district with six other large, urban districts: Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami-Dade and Memphis. A 21-member team of consultants visited the district and interviewed staff.

After the district refused to spend more money, the consultants put together the draft and submitted it to the district on Dec., 31. Whelan left the commission in January, and the document was not reviewed.

The district released the report in response to a request The Inquirer filed under the state Right to Know Law. Parent advocates and Nutter also pressed for copies.

Dungee Glenn and Brady decided to release the material even though the district's legal counsel said the draft did not meet the definition of a public record under state law.

Dungee Glenn and Brady said the district was trying to be more accountable and open.

"I'm not here to make any excuses for the commission or the staff," Dungee Glenn said. "I was unaware of this report until last week, at which time I distributed it to the commissioners and Mr. Brady."

Parent advocates were angry yesterday that the district had spent so much money on a report that went unused.

"It makes our blood boil because you spent $700,000 of our kids' money," said the Rev. Paul Weeks, who has children at J.S. Jenks School in Chestnut Hill and Central High School.

Greg Wade, president of the Home and School Council, the district parents' group, questioned Brady's assessment of the consultants' work.

"Tom Brady said it was 'fair.' How is it fair if $100 million of the savings is based on something that was a no brainer?" Wade asked.

Read the management audit for the school district at http://go.philly.

com/evergreenEndText