SRC rejects plan to auction district art

Inside School District headquarters, the School Reform Commission listened Thursday night to pleas to restore counselors to every public school.

Outside, hundreds gathered to mourn the death of a sixth-grade girl last month after an asthma attack at Bryant School, which had no nurse on duty.

Crises continue on nearly every front for the troubled Philadelphia School District, whose officials are even considering selling some of its valuable artwork to raise cash.

About 60 of the district's 1,100 paintings, once hung in schools and for the last decade in storage, together could fetch $200,000 to $600,000, officials estimate. The works include pieces by noted African American artists Henry Ossawa Tanner and Dox Thrash.

Erin Davis, who works in the district's financial services department, said the reasons for selling the work were clear: "We hit a deficit, we talk about all the revenue-generating possibilities, and this comes up."

Ultimately, the SRC voted down a resolution to auction the art.

"It just doesn't feel right to do this," Commissioner Joseph Dworetzky said. "This is part of the history of the district."

Commissioner Feather O. Houstoun voted against the resolution because, she said, if art were to be sold, the money should go to fund art programs, not into the district's general fund.

Retired teacher Marilyn Krupnick, who taught at Wilson Middle School - where most of the valuable work was once housed - had urged the SRC to take the sale off the table. Yes, she said, the district is in financial trouble. But she didn't think "selling the artwork can cure the ills of the Philadelphia School District."

Krupnick said she had secured a commitment from the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown to accept the artwork and allow it to be viewed by the public. But Dworetzky asked district officials to form a committee to explore returning the art to schools and securing it properly.

For a decade, the most important pieces have been kept in storage at an undisclosed location.

As the commission heard testimony on the fate of the artwork, about 200 people gathered in a light rain to mourn the death of Laporcha Massey, a sixth grader at Bryant Elementary. The girl died after an asthma attack at school, where no nurse was on duty.

The mourners, who held candles and stood in silence as a student violinist played "Amazing Grace," hoped to draw attention to a lack of resources, including nurses, at city schools.

Parents, district staff, and community members have also decried cuts in school counselors. Many schools lack a full-time counselor. Gov. Corbett this week released $45 million to the district, part of which will help restore about 80 counselors, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said.

Rehiring 80 counselors means that every high school would have one. But there is no such assurance at middle and elementary schools, and a pool of "itinerant counselors" will continue splitting time between multiple schools.

Ruth Garcia, one such itinerant counselor, works at eight schools. "I am stressed past the limit" to help the thousands of children who depend on her services, Garcia said.

The SRC also endorsed paying $200,000 to appraise the 24 school buildings it voted to close this year. And it voted not to renew the charters of two schools, Truebright Science Academy and Community Academy, because of problems at each.

Representatives from both schools said they would appeal the SRC's decision to the state Department of Education. The schools will remain open during the appeals process.

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