Northeast Phila. charter school getting a better report card

It's been nearly four years since two mothers from Philadelphia Academy Charter School, concerned about their children's education, began raising alarms about management of the Northeast charter.

Their actions helped trigger an investigation that sent two former officials to federal prison and ultimately led to ongoing federal probes of at least 17 other area charters.

PACS, under a new board and with a new administration, has stabilized its finances, made substantial investments in technology, and seen major academic gains.

The school now meets standards of the federal No Child Left Behind law. And when results from the 2011 state tests were released in late September, the 11th grade ranked as the second most improved high school in the city in math, third most improved in reading.

"Great things are happening here," said Larry Sperling, chief executive officer, who took over in May 2008.

Senior Lauren Stasik, who has been at PACS since kindergarten, listed some of the recent changes: electronic whiteboards in classrooms, digital photography and other electives, and an Advanced Placement course added in September.

"Our school has drastically gone up," said Stasik, vice president of the National Honor Society.

Philadelphia Academy, which opened in 1999, enrolls 1,200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade on campuses at 11000 Roosevelt Blvd. and 1700 Tomlinson Rd.

Although the school had had a good reputation among parents, that became tarnished in April 2008 when The Inquirer reported allegations of fiscal mismanagement, nepotism, and an investigation by the school district's inspector general.

The Inquirer found that a web of business interests enabled the charter's founding CEO, Brien Gardiner, and Kevin O'Shea, his handpicked successor, to be paid more than most area school superintendents.

A subsequent federal probe revealed the pair had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school and used it on items ranging from purchases for lavish personal offices at PACS to Flyers tickets. O'Shea, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 2009, is serving a 37-month sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia.

Gardiner committed suicide in May 2009, shortly before the federal charges were announced.

Rosemary DiLacqua, former president of the charter board, pleaded guilty in 2009 to a count of mail fraud, theft of honest services, for accepting $34,000 from Gardiner and O'Shea without disclosing the money to the PACS board. Sentenced to a year and a day, DiLacqua was released from a federal facility in Florida last December.

"There was a real mess to clean up, but that's all behind us now," said Patrick Milligan, a father of five who became board president in the summer of 2008 when the School Reform Commission required an overhaul of Philadelphia Academy to obtain a new operating charter.

Funded by taxpayers, PACS received $18 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, according to its nonprofit tax return. The school was one of only three charter schools the SRC in recent years has ordered to clean house to stay open.

"The dark days - if you want to call it that," Milligan added, "we seldom discuss that part of it anymore."

In 2008, the new board approved ethics and financial-management policies and removed relatives of Gardiner and O'Shea from the payroll.

Sperling, who was promoted from chief academic officer to CEO in May 2008, and the board took steps to end the secrecy that had shrouded the school's operations and prompted parents to complain.

Board meetings now are publicized, and the school reactivated a parents' advisory council the previous administration had disbanded.

"If our parents want to come to a board meeting and bring up an issue, they have that ability," Milligan said. "It's very transparent."

Sperling, a former Philadelphia School District administrator, said changing policies was simpler than transforming school culture.

"That takes three, four, five years," he said.

Philadelphia Academy began by focusing on academics, cracking down on absenteeism, and adopting uniform grading standards to end grade inflation that had flourished in the past.

"The administration has raised the standards," Milligan said. "I believe an A is now an A at Philadelphia Academy; a B is a B."

Thanks to strict new policies, average daily attendance has improved from 73 percent at the high school and 83 percent at elementary school to 96 percent schoolwide.

"It has to do with what's accepted, what's not accepted," Milligan said.

Because of Gardiner's reputation for success with special-education students, the school continues to attract children with learning needs. Sperling said 33 percent of PACS' students receive special-education services, including 50 children diagnosed with autism and related disorders.

The school hired a second special-education supervisor, completed a comprehensive audit of its special-ed program and took steps to ensure that students with mild learning disabilities are included in regular classes with additional support.

Megan Snyder Galo and Lisa George - the two mothers who raised concerns about the school in 2007 - had concluded that their children with mild learning issues had fallen behind because they were placed in restricted classrooms with children with severe impairments.

Sperling said PACS had raised expectations for all students.

"If you're struggling and failing, we expect you to stay after school for extra tutoring," Sperling said. "If you're doing well, we expect you to do your homework. We're trying to train kids with the heart and inner resolve to be successful no matter what it is they do after high school."

And although there were hefty legal bills and other expenses related to turning Philadelphia Academy around, officials said they were amazed by the amount of money available for academics once funds were no longer being diverted to individuals' pockets and outside business ventures.

"The income we were not getting from the bad old days began flowing," Sperling said.

Among the improvements, the school hired a technology teacher and installed a new student records system. And a school that had told parents a few years ago it could not afford to buy more computers has added five large labs, six specialized minilabs, five laptop carts, and an advanced physics lab.

"Frankly," Sperling said, "I think we've gone from 50 computers in labs to 400."

The school used $400,000 in federal stimulus funds for electronic whiteboards.

Heidi Kester, who oversees social studies at the high school, said all departments had reworked courses to make them more rigorous.

She contrasted the performance of students in PACS' first graduating class in 2007 with those who received diplomas in June.

"It was night and day," she said. "The first class mostly went to a community college or a trade school, and some felt unprepared."

PACS sent several members of the Class of 2011 to four-year schools, including Penn State, and the students reported they felt prepared.

"There is more emphasis on what we're going to achieve," said Victoria Coates, 17, a senior who entered PACS in ninth grade. "They are teaching us to set us up for college."

George and Galo no longer have children at PACS but are buoyed by the changes.

"I am thrilled to hear about all of the academic growth the school has shown over the last three years," Galo said. "For my family, especially our son, it continues to be a journey to forgiveness and healing."

"What happened at PACS was a good thing," said George, whose daughter Emily is a freshman at Lebanon Valley College. "It had to happen in order to clear the way for a better dream.

"The low expectations of the previous leadership were reflected in the classrooms, and that is what I have always considered the real crime."