Nevels to quit school-reform post

WHEN IT comes to the Philadelphia School District ship, the captains are jumping overboard.

In June, district chief executive Paul Vallas resigned, apparently under pressure from School Reform Commission chairman James Nevels and other critics on the commission.

Yesterday Nevels became the next to walk the plank. He said he will resign next month, but he may have had little choice. Gov. Rendell may have ushered him to the railing because he was angry over how he handled Vallas' departure, sources say.

The sudden announcement shocked at least two SRC members.

"I was very much taken aback by the news," commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn said.

Commissioner Martin Bed-narek happened to be at school district headquarters yesterday morning just before Nevels' announcement went public.

A staffer pulled him aside and told him, "Jim was going to be leaving." Bednarek said he asked, "Jim who?"

Told that Nevels was resigning, Bednarek said he replied, "You've got to be kidding!"

Nevels' term does not expire until January 2009. He has headed the School Reform Commission since December 2001.

Nevels and/or the SRC drew criticism from Rendell over a $73 million school-district deficit disclosed last fall, over their failure to give Vallas the support that Rendell said his accomplishments deserved and over their choice of an interim successor to Vallas without consulting the governor.

"He [Nevels] openly defied a powerful sitting governor," a district source said.

This source said insiders didn't believe Nevels would stay long, but thought he would wait until "he opened schools and then bow out gracefully."

As recently as June, Nevels, 55, a Republican and chairman of a national investment-advisory firm, said he would stay on the commission until the district got "on sound financial footing."

This week, officials said the district still faces an $80 million deficit for the current year.

Nevels said yesterday he decided it was time to "step down" to focus his energies on his investment advisory Philadelphia-based firm, the Swarthmore Group.

He said the decision would "enable the new SRC chair to create a new team to lead what likely will be the most crucial decision of her or his tenure, the appointment of the next district CEO."

It was unclear last night who will succeed him.

Officials didn't publicly discuss the behind-the-scenes politics yesterday. Rendell and Jacqueline Barnett, the city's education secretary, praised Nevels' leadership.

"Jim, his fellow commission members and, of course, Paul Vallas, put in place an academic operation that is the envy of most other large urban districts, " Rendell said in a statement.

"There is no question that losing Paul Vallas and Jim Nevels in such a condensed time frame presents a great challenge for the district . . . .

"The hard part was building the foundation, and I thank Jim Nevels for getting the heavy lifting done," Rendell said.

Meanwhile, parent and citizens groups said it is probably time for Nevels to go.

"The SRC has lost support among the public and political leaders in recent months," said Sheila Simmons, education coordinator for the Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth.

A group statement urged "the next appointment be one that can build on the progress children have made, strengthen accountability and transparency in decision-making and capture the confidence and commitment of the state and the city."

Parents and school advocates were upset in March when they learned that Nevels had signed a contract amendment giving Edison Schools, a private manager of 20 city schools, an additional $1.6 million.

The amendment agreed to pay Edison a fee for managing the schools at a flat rate based on 12,591 students, even though the enrollment in its 20 schools had dipped to 10,395.

Things heated up even more in May. Just before the SRC was set to vote on the 2007-08 budget, parent groups packed the school district commission auditorium and held up signs saying they had "no confidence" in the budget or the SRC.

Parent groups were also upset that Nevels had persuaded the SRC to name Tom Brady as the interim CEO to replace Vallas when he'd been hired as chief operating officer only six weeks earlier, said Greg Wade, president of the Home and School Council.

SRC Commissioner Glenn stormed out of that meeting because she didn't know Nevels was going to call for a vote that day.

"The way Brady was ushered in, we all felt as if he [Nevels] had not only lost touch with his fellow commissioners but with the district as well," Wade said. Brady, a former Army colonel, had worked as chief operating officer for the Washington, D.C., public schools. *