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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Wm. Penn Foundation gives $1.5m for Philly SD turnaround

The William Penn Foundation is donating $1.5 million to help restructure the Philadelphia School District, officials announced today. 

Foundation president Jeremy Nowak said the money would go directly to pay for a contract with Boston Consulting Group.
 
Nowak also said that William Penn will help the School Reform Commission identify other private funders to help turn the district around.
 
“Frankly, [SRC Chairman Pedro Ramos] and I are going on a fundraising tour to see if we can be helpful,” Nowak said in an interview.  “I think this is a defining moment for the city of Philadelphia.”
 
Beyond William Penn’s own contribution, the move is significant because Philadelphia’s philanthropic community has traditionally been loath to donate on a large scale to the district, which was viewed by many as a bad risk, with management and finance problems and a lack of transparency in operations.

Before extending its offer to the SRC, William Penn “waited to see whether they were going to make moves that we thought were smart,” Nowak said.  “We see that they are making moves that are smart, and so we’re going to take that risk.  This new SRC has showed us that they’re serious about the future.”
 
The district is in dire straits — officials admit it is teetering on the brink of financial insolvency, with a $38.8 million budget shortfall to bridge by June and a more than $269 million gap already for fiscal 2013.  But they say they can right the system, and want to use this opportunity to restructure how schools are run, with more autonomy for principals and less bureaucracy.
 
William Penn liked the SRC’s hiring of Thomas Knudsen, the former PGW head, who was brought in as “chief recovery officer” on a short-term basis.  They also liked the Boston move, Nowak said - the group is a national firm with extensive experience working with troubled school systems.
 
The SRC last week approved the one-month Boston contract, which will pay for “professional managerial and financial consulting services and expenses.” William Penn and the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania will work together with the SRC to “structure and manage” the Boston contract and work.  
 
Nowak said that William Penn - and other potential funders - will have some say over the turnaround.
 
“I’d like to have input, but I’m not mandating they go in this direction or that direction,” he said.  “I’ve got a loud voice; I’ll say things.  But we’re not trying to dictate.  We wouldn’t have come in if we didn’t think they were moving in a direction that we think makes sense.”
 
The SRC has been clear that it means to "decentralize" its operations, ripping up a bureaucracy that's been in place for decades and giving schools much more say-so over how they run.  

And it's also said that it wants a new superintendent comfortable with managing a "portfolio" of schools - both traditional district schools and a network of charter schools.  

School leaders have committed to continue to explore non-district school options with their participation in the "Great Schools Compact," which promises that Philadelphia will move to eliminate 50,000 seats in low-performing schools in five years. 

Nowak has firsthand experience with charters.  For seven years, he was president of Mastery Charter Schools' board of trustees.  He was particularly impressed, he said with Mastery's turnarounds - taking tough existing district schools and keeping their students but hiring new staffs and putting new policies in place.

"What came out of that for me was a belief that it was possible to close the achievement gap and bring violence levels down in a few years in some of these schools," he said.  

Nowak said he also supports expanding district schools that work.

Even with what he believes is a strong SRC in place, William Penn is still taking a risk, Nowak acknowledged.
 
“The biggest risk is will they will be able to come out with a plan, and will they be able to implement the plan that gets us to where we want to get to?  And will they be able to implement it, given the complexity of the politics of education?” Nowak said.
 
But it’s necessary work, he said.
 
“I know the word turnaround is a loaded thing, but I think we’re at a place where we can all agree we’ve hit rock bottom in terms of information, financial capacity, and to some extent, faith in the future,” Nowak said.  

Mayor Nutter, in a statement, praised William Penn's involvement.

"The William Penn Foundation has always been here for the city of Philadelphia and its children; there is no stronger advocate for reform and transparency. Their leadership and partnership tells me that as a city we are ready to take on the hard collective work of increasing high-performing options for our students and ensuring the school district is the most effective organization it can be," the mayor said.

Ramos, in the statement, agreed.

"We know the difficulties in front of us, and we are hopeful that with help from the private sector, philanthropy and civil society, we can begin to see real progress."
Posted by Kristen Graham @ 8:25 AM  Permalink | 29 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:46 AM, 02/22/2012
    donanation, I'm always up for one...gimme gimme gimmee, so can play on the internet all day..wolf.
    — wolf 4
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:47 AM, 02/22/2012
    If you ever wondered how 1.5 million dollars could become instantly worthless, now you know.
    — jmc
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:12 AM, 02/22/2012
    Now there's a waist of 1.5 mill..........LOL Philly! you are comical.
    — phillysdead
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:14 AM, 02/22/2012
    $1.5 million to BCG...here's a summary of what they'll recommend: 1. recruit better teachers and principals; 2. increase parental involvement; 3. devise and implement a short-term and long-term plan for turnaround; 4. reorganize into charter schools or other alternative-model schools as much as possible. A better way to spend $1.5 million would be to give each building's chief maintenance guy a Lowe's gift card so they can go about repairing the buildings without the red tape of getting approval for spending; the condition of some of these buildings is horrible, and fixing them up a little might give the students the idea that the school district actually cares about them.
    — J H
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:57 AM, 02/22/2012
    Well said JH. We they hire you?
    — Assiduous
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:16 AM, 02/22/2012
    "Corporations and philanthropies have been loath to give to the district" because there has been no accountability, no follow up and no measurable results to previous gifts. Anyone else recall the Annenberg gift of $250 million dollars that disappeared without a trace and without benefit? Why would anyone give to the school district of Philadelphia since it has been clearly proven decade after decade that the money does not help the children?

    This district has to come clean and tell us how they can legally and ethically ask for an investment income tax on top of real estate tax on top of the recently added 10% tax on top of our real estate taxes all while we read that 40-50% of the high school students are not even there in school, they dropped out; why we pay for the 70,000 chairs in classrooms that are empty, building are empty and if the Inquirer is to believed, 10% of the teachers are truant everyday, too. Not to mention the 10,000-32,000 children who are truant everyday. Please tell us what we pay for so much tuition when so many children are not there?

    What is the budget of $2.8-$3.2? Billion paying for?
    How can the school budget be that high for only 150,000 children when the operating budget of Philadelphia is $3.8 billion, not much more, for 1,500,000 citizens? The math makes no sense!

    Thank heavens we finally have qualified people with credible professional credentials on the SRC. Mr. Nevels and his wisdom is been missed on the SRC until now. Now, clear out the fog, explain the mess and let us get on with teaching children to be responsible citizens, expelling dangerous children for good, firing truant teachers and doing what the independent schools do every year, give every teacher a one year contract without the costly burden of the overhead of union executives distorting the education of children.

    This is not rocket science!

    Enough nonsense is enough.
    — GAC
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:28 AM, 02/22/2012
    Philanthropic orgs. only donate when it allows their personal philosophies/agendas to be implemented. Look at Pew's involvement with funding Barnes' move to the Parkway. Each of these orgs. has agenda that it uses its tax-free dollars to underwrite. They often are not doing "good" for the people, they're just fulfilling their own views of the world. Be careful!!!!
    — sabelotodo
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:46 AM, 02/22/2012
    Let's give the new leadership a chance. There are some highly qualified individuals in the SRC for once. And their past successes suggest they may actually know more than we do.
    — dave4dawn
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 AM, 02/22/2012
    Now, will Comcast step up with a $100Mil donation?
    — Tyrone Biggums
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:15 AM, 02/22/2012
    Almost pays for a year of Ackerman!
    — mmds
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:39 AM, 02/22/2012
    The School district money problems will Never be brought under control UNTIL they bring their labor costs under control. Labor with their huge benefits are killing the district.
    — elkie


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About Kristen Graham
Kristen Graham has covered the Philadelphia School District since May 2008. A native Philadelphian – and a graduate of the district and Temple University – she has written about everything from crime and county government to education since joining the Inquirer in 2000. Kristen, who also spent time as an online producer at Philly.com, has won multiple journalism prizes and if asked politely will sing as much of “Hail Northeast,” her high school’s alma mater, as she remembers. She comes from a family of teachers and believes there is no more difficult or important job than that of an educator.

During the school year, you’ll find Kristen chatting live on Philly.com most Mondays at noon or 4 p.m. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.

You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.

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