Recommendations issued on city charter schools

A task force yesterday issued a series of recommendations to improve charter schools in Philadelphia, including providing parents with more information about the schools and naming an advocate to help them resolve disputes.

The task force of parents, charter administrators, and representatives of community and educational organizations presented its report during yesterday's School Reform Commission meeting. The leaders of the study group urged the commission to make sure that charter school families know their rights under state law and to adopt a policy to deal with complaints.

The group, which held a series of public meetings in the spring, was the follow-up to a 2008 task force that made recommendations for improving relations between the district and its charter schools.

The latest task force also urged the commission to streamline the process for renewing operating agreements; to offer charters chances to undergo mini-reviews halfway through their five-year terms; and to provide timely feedback to schools that are late filing annual reports and audits required by law.

The task force called for increasing the size of the district's charter school office, saying a three-person office is not sufficient to handle the responsibilities of working with the 67 charter schools.

And parents who cannot resolve problems by dealing with charter administrators and charter boards should be referred to an advocate or a voluntary mediator, the task force said.

In the past, frustrated parents have come to the SRC to complain they did not know where to turn to resolve charter disputes.

The SRC will take the recommendations under advisement.

Also yesterday, three representatives from the New Media Technology Charter School voiced support for the school's chief executive officer and urged the SRC to renew the school's charter.

Lynda Hicks, a special-education teacher, pointed out that the school had met federal academic benchmarks for two years in a row and that all of its 2009 graduates were heading to post-secondary schools.

"With results like this, we are doing something right, and it can be attributed to our leadership team," Hicks said.

The commission is scheduled to vote next week on New Media's charter. The SRC has twice delayed a vote to give district staff additional time to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement.

The staff may recommend the SRC require the school to replace its board and chief executive officer as conditions for remaining open.

The school, which opened in 2005, had 484 fifth through 12th graders on its two campuses in the city's Stenton and Germantown sections in 2008-09.

The SRC also heard passionate testimony about the planned opening of a new alternative school campus in East Falls.

Delaware Valley High School, which educates students with behavioral problems and others at risk of not graduating, plans to open a 400-student campus on Ridge Avenue in September.

Some neighbors oppose the plan, saying using that space for the school would ruin the chances of redeveloping a commercial corridor with shops, offices, and luxury apartments.

"It's not that we don't want this school," said Barbara McCullough, a resident of a senior complex nearby. "It's that we don't want any school."

Residents said that the school failed to keep them in the loop and had been unwilling to consider nearby alternative sites they've suggested.

But Mark Sherman, an East Falls real estate developer who said he was once an at-risk youth himself, said Delaware Valley would be a boon to the area.

"It will have a positive impact on the commercial corridor of East Falls," Sherman said.

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