Your turn to grill Philly schools chief
If you would like to ask the new head of Philadelphia schools a question, here's your chance: Hite will appear with Second District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to talk about schools and take audience questions at 6 p.m. Dec. 12 at Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th and Delancey Streets.
Your turn to grill Philly schools chief
Miriam Hill
If you would like to ask the new head of Philadelphia schools a question, here’s your chance: Hite will appear with Second District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to talk about schools and take audience questions at 6 p.m. Dec. 12 at Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th and Delancey Streets.
The Center City Residents Association and the South of South Neighborhood Association, which are sponsoring the event, are asking that people submit questions ahead of time. You can do that by e-mailing your question to centercity@centercityresidents.org. Put “Dr. Hite” in the subject line.
I’ll be out of town, but if I could go, I would ask:
1) Per-pupil spending is much lower in the Philadelphia School District than in surrounding suburbs. What can you or anyone here do to change that so that city children might be on more equal footing with those in other cities?
2) For decades, parents have fled to the suburbs once their children reached school age. In some parts of the city, that appears to be changing, but the trend will last only if more middle-class families see district schools as a good option for their children. What would you do to make Philadelphia schools more appealing to families who can afford to move out of the city?
Let's face the facts - poverty and education don't go hand-in-hand. There are just too many other concerns for single-mothers raising families on their own to make education a top priority. Middle-income parents break their backs, wallets, pocketbooks, and retirement finances to ensure that their kids have a fighting chance in this world by providing good educations. They have a vested interest in making sure their kids work hard in their academic pursuits. Educational administrators know that this is not the case for poor parents but political correctness and a lack of guts prevents them from admitting the truth.— Boru- Here's my questions-
1- Dr. Hite, How can you justify giving raises to 25 people at administration headquarters when the rest of the district has been so drastically cut? You have fired people, and demanded givebacks and have recently borrowed $300M just to keep the lights on. Our students are suffering from these austere measures yet you and your staff are well paid and living like fortune 500 executives. How can you justify these raises?
2- Dr. Hite, How can you justify keeping 440 Administration open? Many have recommended closing that we close and sell that expensive building and move existing staff into more humble quarters in empty spaces that exist in our neighborhood schools. Especially now that the building is a hot commodity due to the casino speculators. When are you going to stop acting LESS like a fortune 500 corporation and MORE like a bankrupt school district?
— DarnelX - 3- Dr. Hite. It has recently come to our attention that your Deputy Chief of Finance, Christina Ward merely holds a 1960's 2 year jr. college diploma. If she were to apply for an entry level file clerk at 440 today she would unlikely be considered for that position due to academic deficiencies. How can you justify giving her a promotion and 17% raise and pension hike during this financial crisis? Her associates report that she is ready to retire. Why give her this lucrative going away present at this time? — DarnelX
- 4- Dr. Hite. How can you justify bringing your former cronies from Prince Georges here. You must be aware of Arlene Ackerman's Antics. How are you any different? — DarnelX
- 6- Dr. Hite. How can you justify keeping Thomas Knudsen on staff? You have hired Matt Stanski that was fired from Prince Georges at $154,710 and now you pay him $175,000. Additionally you have promoted the jr. college graduate Christina Ward to a hefty $138,420 salary. So what is Knudsen still doing hanging around - Parking cars?
You sir were supposed to come here and restore integrity to our district but it still looks like you are raping and pillaging Ackerman Style. How can you justify this?— DarnelX - 7- Dr. Hite. Again, just like during the disasturous Ackerman years, you and your 440 staff are sucking the air out of the room. Shouldn't we be focusing on teaching and our students? What are you doing about that? — DarnelX
- 8- Dr. Hite. Another looming crisis that is conveniently being swept under the carpet is the PSSA Test Cheating Scandal. Before you came the District attempted to pin the blame on one lone rogue Roosevelt Principle. That failed. We have since learned that test cheating was widespread and was condoned by administrators in the district right up to the Superintendent's office. Much like Watergate. Penny Nixon has been implicated and is on some kind of phony sabbatical. Rumors abound that other implicated cheaters are systematically and quietly being removed from their assignments. The State Dept of Education has yet to conclude it's investigation. Dr. Hite, Why can't you deliver on the promised transparency policy? This just looks bad. Why not come clean, fire Penny Nixon, and reveal the names of all guilty cheaters and reveal their punishments? How can us parents trust our school employees when you are hiding the truth and harboring criminals in our schools? — DarnelX
- Dr. Hite. In our modern history, our School District has been managed by one misguided carpet-bagger after the next. Ask any office manager - How long does it take a new hire to fully learn the ways of the office and become a full fledged valuable member to the work team? The answer is usually 8 months, regardless of previous experience. And that is just for any office not the manager of the whole enchilada like you. That being said the average lifespan of our recent CEO has been about 36 months. That doesn't leave much time learn the job and make any substantive changes does it? You, Dr. Hite have only been here a couple of months and you already have had several eyebrow raising character concerns. And...This is still your honeymoon sir. Your future looks grim judging your predecessors history. Additionally you do not come to us with the high level of initial professional credibility as did Dr. Hornbeck, Mr. Vallas and even, believe it or not, Dr. Ackerman. Lets face it, you sir are doomed for failure. Dr. Hite, What are you going to do to alter this collision course? — DarnelX
- 10- Dr. Hite. Lastly, we call on you to realize your early mistakes and reverse those 25 pay raises as a symbol of your awakening. Then announce your intention to seriously cut staff and costs at 440. We call on you to:
1-Reduce Non Union Staff
2-Cut all remaining Non Union salaries by 12%.
3-Close and Sell 440 and move staff to cheaper existing space already owned by the District.
Sir, we need to start acting more like a bankrupt school district and less like a fortune 500 corporation. Please stop this insanity.— DarnelX - Correct. Such is what the entitlement culture of progressive black liberalsm hath wrought in Philadelphia.— jverlin
- Very sensible questions.— Behan01
- Yes, I want to know about those 25 raises when we are being asked to take cuts and give backs.
— Magistra® - Right. Parents went to Harrisburg and begged Corbett to slash the education two years in a row. They made sure that the Mayor and Council propped up one incompetent superintendent after another. They went to the SRC and lobbied them to close down neighborhood schools and open more charters. They made sure that the teachers union stayed silent on education issues for years. They asked principals to keep disruptive students in their child's classroom.
Bad parents!— brinsley - An open forum to see a disaster in the making.— anti-tax
- Don't worry, they bring the goon squad with them and intimidate the audience. — Magistra®
- Why do you ignore Union contracts and give raises to the already highest paid and unneeded top Administrators?— charleycarey
- Yes, the way I hear it is that HR is so inept that they thought Mrs. Ward was two people. Just ask those that work with her. They'll tell you that she is two-faced and she is so big and round that it's conceivable that she could be seen as two different employees. — Magistra®
- too poor to learn. great. let's stop wasting $2.7 bil/yr.— pointguard
But only one topic has become a passion: the pleasures and challenges of raising a young child in the city.
Not too long after her son was born four years ago, she started hunting around for day care, which triggered her ongoing search for a good primary school. Public, private or charter? Stay in the city or move to the suburbs?
And then there are the more mundane questions, such as how many games can you play while sitting on a stoop?
Please join her in the conversation about raising children in Philadelphia and about making this city better for kids. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, but her only personal obsession is not football, but Bruce Springsteen. As he might have said, it’s hard to be a parent in the city.
You can also follow Miriam on Twitter here.
