District report a study in disarray

The results of a management study that cost the Philadelphia School District nearly $700,000 have languished unread by top officials for almost a year, The Inquirer has learned.

In fact, it took district officials about a week to even locate a report by the consultants involved after The Inquirer requested the information.

The report was the end product of more than a year's study of the district's management and organizational structure. It had been commissioned by the School Reform Commission.

Two commission members - Sandra Dungee Glenn, the chairwoman, and Martin Bednarek - say they never saw a report from the analysis. Other members either could not be reached for comment or declined to be interviewed. Former district chief executive Paul Vallas also says he never saw the results of the study, which was designed to identify - and offer remedies for - poor management practices and inefficiencies.

As of Monday, in response to requests from The Inquirer, Dungee Glenn said that a "preliminary report" from the study was located but that she had not had a chance to review it.

"It was not clear to me until today what exactly we had received under this contract," Dungee Glenn said.

But Frank Siefert, the commission's chief of staff, disputed even calling it a "preliminary report."

"It's not complete. It's missing large sections. It's not dated. . . . It's hardly anything we could benefit from," he said.

District officials declined to give a copy to The Inquirer.

The study was conducted by Noreen Timoney, a management and organizational consultant, and Evergreen Solutions, a Florida-based consulting firm. Timoney is the wife of former Police Commissioner John F. Timoney. She has done consulting work for the Miami-Dade school district in Florida and smaller districts in New York.

The consultants produced the report and provided other work products from the study to the district after the commission declined to continue to fund the project last November. By that time, the cost to the district - $541,000 for Evergreen and nearly $156,000 for Timoney - was equal to the salaries and benefits of 13 beginning teachers.

Timoney, in an interview last week, said she had found the district's organization was in disarray.

"They couldn't answer very basic organizational questions," Timoney said, "where people were located, where certain people reported."

Timoney said that over the contract period, she had given district officials several reports and guidance that she felt could help them assess every position in the district. She and Evergreen had reviewed transportation, food services, safety and security, governance, financial management, and technology.

Evergreen developed a list of ways to save $150 million, Timoney said, acknowledging that some of the suggestions would need changes in union contracts.

The study was commissioned in 2005 after Daniel Whelan, then a member of the commission, pressed for a management audit.

Whelan, a lawyer and former head of Verizon Pennsylvania Inc. who left the commission in December, said in an e-mail to The Inquirer that he asked for the study because the district could not answer "basic questions" about its management, things as simple as whether there were job descriptions for all positions and whether employees received annual performance evaluations based on objectives they were to achieve.

"These are all pretty basic management questions that most organizations - large and small - could answer. Certainly any $2B+ organization could. The [district] could not," Whelan wrote.

The five-member commission agreed unanimously to hire Timoney in July 2005 to begin developing a process for evaluating its management and operations. In June 2006, the commission agreed to bring on Evergreen to conduct the analysis.

The commission - facing a $73.3 million budget deficit - ended the project in November 2006. Dungee Glenn and Bednarek said they voted against spending an additional $465,000 - $205,000 for Evergreen and $260,000 for Timoney - because they were not satisfied with the progress of the work.

Former chairman James Nevels, who left the commission last month, also voted no. He did not return calls for comment.

Whelan and commissioner James Gallagher voted in favor of continuing. Gallagher did not return calls.

Dungee Glenn said she had received only verbal reports from Timoney over the contract period.

"It was a large scope of work, with the end result to be a series of recommendations for the revamping of district operations. From what I was able to glean . . . I didn't have the sense that they were close to getting that done," Dungee Glenn said.

Bednarek said he was never clear on what the study was trying to accomplish and saw nothing worthwhile from the consultants.

"I supported it the first time because it sounded like a good thing," he said. "We got some verbal [reports], and then you would walk out of the room and you'd be scratching your head, wondering what's that about."

Whelan, however, said the reports he saw from the consultants before he left the board were of "good quality." He did not see their final reports, which Timoney conceded were not "final" in that the work was terminated early.

Both Whelan and Timoney said that by ending the project, the district missed out on a chance to run the system more efficiently.

The audit, Whelan said, "would have paid for itself in less than a year and yield substantial ongoing benefits."

Timoney said: "This was their best shot. It's unfortunate for the children and other stakeholders in Philadelphia."

Dungee Glenn agreed that organizational and management problems persisted in the district but maintained that the consultants' work did not seem to be the answer.

"I'm anxious to look at different ways to approach it," she said.

Dungee Glenn said that under her leadership, the commission would look more closely at contracts before approval and follow through: "We will have a very clear scope of work with well-defined deliverables and a schedule of payment."