Hite: Money not enough - Phila. schools must change

Even if piles of promised cash come through from the city and state, the Philadelphia School District must rethink the way it does business, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Wednesday.

The school system must narrow its focus, think hard about equity, and outsource some of the things it does now, he said at a news conference introducing his plan for the district.

Hite wants to give full autonomy to the strongest schools beginning in 2016, and turn some struggling ones over to private providers who would run them on contract.

"If others can do this work better, we want to utilize those individuals - especially if they're getting better results than us," Hite said. "We no longer have the bandwidth to be all things."

The school system's main focus must be neighborhood schools, where the majority of its students are educated, Hite said.

To execute the plan, Hite said, he needs more than $300 million in new recurring revenue from the city and state for the next school year and a total of $970 million over five years.

On Tuesday, Gov. Wolf proposed a budget that would give the district close to the $206 million it is asking for from Harrisburg, though that proposal will face a tough fight from legislators. Mayor Nutter on Thursday is set to advocate raising $103 million in new money from a property-tax hike.

Hite's "Action Plan v3.0" reorganizes the district. The current eight networks - groupings of schools run by an assistant superintendent - would remain.

But three networks would be added: a "turnaround" network for the bottom 5 percent or 10 percent of schools, an "opportunity" network for alternative schools, and an "innovation" network - essentially the district's research and development arm.

Eventually, a network would be added for high-performing schools that have earned total autonomy. They would be given charter-like flexibility: paid a set amount per pupil, then set free to educate as they choose.

Schools in the turnaround network could be run by the district or by outside providers - including charter companies - that would be charged with transforming them and given wide latitude to do so, as long as they met contract goals. The schools would remain traditional public schools even if they were run by charter providers.

"We want to know what's possible and what's out there, and what's working well, particularly with high schools," Hite said.

The district, in the early 2000s, turned some of its schools over to companies to run. That experiment went badly, and ended several years ago.

School officials said that this would be a different kind of model, and that they would only select providers with track records. There will be no predetermined number of schools that must go to contractors, they said.

Staffing at those schools could be a mix of unionized and nonunionized teachers, much like those at the district's alternative schools, Hite said.

The district aims to hire three assistant superintendents for the fall to run new networks. Currently, assistant superintendents supervise up to 45 schools, a ratio that Hite says is far too high. The goal is to have between 15 and 20 schools in most networks.

Charter schools are part of the plan - Hite calls for charters to expand selectively, in areas where the district needs help. And he calls for changes in charter funding, particularly in the area of payments for special education students.

Across the district, change is needed urgently, Hite said. Roughly half of all district students do not meet state standards in reading and math. The district has thousands of over-age and under-credited students.

"We still have a system that doesn't deliver the type of high-quality education that we want all children to receive," Hite said.

The plan builds on four goals laid out by Hite in previous years: early literacy, strong teachers and principals, solid district finances, and graduates who are ready for college or careers.

It's broken up into 25 steps ranging from responding to students' social, emotional, and behavioral needs to improving the quality of transportation services. It calls for ensuring "fairness of charter per-pupil payments, and accuracy of enrollment distribution," and actively promoting innovation.

The plan is the third iteration of Hite's vision, and the first where the superintendent believes he can focus most of his energy on academics and improvement, rather than how to cut enough services and employees to open schools on time and within the budget.

"Now that we have stabilized, we're moving forward, and using the type of strategies and practices that will make a difference for children," Hite said.

One question mark is the state of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers' contract. The School Reform Commission attempted to cancel the contract to save $54 million annually by requiring teachers to pay part of their health care costs; that matter is now in court.

The PFT and district are attempting to negotiate a contract, and Hite said he needs significant work-rule changes and staffing flexibility to pull off his plan.

"We have to be able to compete," Hite said. "Without the ability to compete, individuals are going to continue to migrate out of district schools to charters, regardless of what the investments are, if we're investing in all the old systems."

PFT president Jerry Jordan said that while the plan contained many noble goals, he thought it also had some ideas that have been tried and scrapped in the district.

He said he detected shades of Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman's "Imagine 2014" strategic plan and elements of a Boston Consulting Group proposal that would have given networks of schools to outside providers to run.

"Instead of turning neighborhood schools over to outside providers, the district needs to provide neighborhood schools with the tools that teachers and principals need to do their jobs," Jordan said. "It's not rocket science."