Parent voices concern over school changes

Some parents whose children's schools will be radically restructured in September have a message for the Philadelphia School District:

Don't turn us into a charter school.

That was the message one mother carried to the School Reform Commission Wednesday.

Stetson Middle School mother Vilma Cartegena said she spoke on behalf of a group of concerned parents whose children attend the school, on B Street in Kensington.

"They are not very happy when they hear the rumors that the school is going to be turned into a charter school," Cartegena told the commission through a translator.

The district's Renaissance schools initiative will dramatically restructure 14 of the district's lowest-performing schools in September. The schools will open with longer school days and years and Saturday instruction. Teachers will have to reapply for their jobs, and no more than half can be rehired.

Five schools will be under the direct supervision of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. Nine, including Stetson, will be run by outside managers.

All but one of the outside managers eligible to run the schools plan to turn them into charters, though they will have to accept all students currently eligible to attend the schools.

The prospect of a charter upsets Cartegena, who said parents were confused and unclear on what the model would look like.

"We understand that our children have been through many changes that have affected them," she said. "If we continue changing the situation, we're going to keep them unstable."

For Stetson and some of the other Renaissance schools, this will be the third major shift in school management in less than a decade.

Ackerman assured Cartegena that the community would have a say in which company ran the school. One, Johns Hopkins/Talent Development, is proposing to use district teachers and not turn its school or schools into charters, and the Stetson parents favor that option.

Each of the Renaissance schools has a school advisory council made up of parents, staff, and community members, and those panels will make final recommendations for provider matches. Ackerman said that some of the councils didn't have enough parents.

"We've added more parents," she said after the meeting. "No school advisory council will vote on anything until they have enough parents."

Final matches between schools and providers will be made next month.

Another speaker expressed frustration with a recent commission vote to sell a prime parcel of district land to the city for $1. The land, at 15th and Susquehanna near the Duckrey School, will ultimately be used by a nonprofit to build senior-citizen housing.

Community activist Judith Robinson said the district should have notified neighbors before declaring the land surplus.

"We're just concerned that this process is very disrespectful of our community," she said. "I don't want anyone else to be in the position that our community is in."

Robinson's complaint got no immediate response from commission members or district staff.