Ackerman blames Nutter, union, and politics for her ouster

In her first public comment since quitting as city school superintendent, Arlene C. Ackerman blamed Mayor Nutter, the teachers' union, and other political forces for her removal, and said her troubles began when she refused to overrule parents in favor of a politically connected contractor.

"There are people who wanted me to stay," she told Education Week, which quoted Ackerman on its website Wednesday. "But if your boss does not want to work with you, and they're willing to pay you a million to step aside - that's how much they don't want to work with you - then what can you do?"

Ackerman's forced resignation sparked a wild session of the School Reform Commission on Wednesday, as a pro-Ackerman crowd of more than 100 booed and shouted. Speakers accused the board of "lynching" Ackerman.

The SRC members made no statement and answered no questions about paying Ackerman a $905,000 buyout, with $500,000 coming from the district and $405,000 from anonymous donors.

Efforts to contact Ackerman were unsuccessful. She has not responded to repeated requests for comment since her buyout was announced Monday. Her attorney also could not be reached.

Speaking to Education Week, she did not address criticism by union heads, government leaders, teachers, and students who have described a superintendency crippled by poor decisions and political missteps, topped by an inability to compromise and a management style that many took for arrogance.

She did shed new light on two incidents that helped speed her undoing.

In June, confronted with a disastrous $629 million budget gap, Ackerman warned parents that full-day kindergarten faced elimination. The mayor and other city leaders prepared to storm Harrisburg to win new money.

But at the last minute, Ackerman announced that she had her own plan to save kindergarten - undercutting Nutter's strategy with state legislators.

In the interview, Ackerman said the mayor had asked her to put all-day kindergarten on the chopping block because he wanted to use the potential loss of the program as a bargaining chip with city and state officials.

"I really didn't want to do it. I really didn't feel good about it," Ackerman said. "But I'm trying to play the politics here."

When the announcement was made that the program was endangered, she said, "I was approached by hundreds of parents about this. It didn't align with everything else that I was about."

She notified Nutter - who had sought from $75 million to $110 million in new city money for schools - of her plan to save kindergarten only an hour before announcing it.

"I actually thought he would be happy that we found the money, but he was furious," Ackerman said. "My misstep was to cross the mayor, and my mistake was to ever have agreed to it."

Mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald would not respond to Ackerman's specific allegation regarding full-day kindergarten.

"The mayor appreciates Dr. Ackerman's service, but he has no interest in responding to her emotional remarks," he said. "He certainly wishes her the best, but his focus is on the smooth opening of school for thousands of Philadelphia schoolchildren in less than two weeks."

Ackerman's administration was criticized over its handling of school violence, and a government report has flagged dozens of schools for potential improprieties on state exams. This year's budget shortfall, caused both by state cuts and by the district's decision to use one-time federal stimulus funds for ongoing programs, forced dramatic and painful cuts.

Ackerman's supporters insist that she has been unfairly blamed, noting that standardized-test scores have gone up in each of the last nine years. They say that whatever her faults, no one cared more than she about poor inner-city kids.

Ackerman told Education Week that she believed her tenure had been damaged even earlier, in March, when she bucked a powerful politician in favor of a school's parents in choosing who would run their school.

That affair involved the district's approval of a charter-school operator, Mosaica Turnaround Partners Inc., to run Martin Luther King High instead of a competing charter company, Foundations Inc.

Foundations had close ties to State Rep. Dwight Evans, the former ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and one of the city's most powerful elected officials.

A committee of parents, students, and staff had strongly endorsed Mosaica over Foundations. Ackerman told Education Week that she was told to overrule the parents' choice and that she refused to do so. She did not tell Education Week who directed her to support Foundations instead of Mosaica.

If Ackerman's account is accurate, only two people could likely have done so: Her boss, SRC Chairman Robert L. Archie Jr., or Evans. Both attended a closed-door meeting with a Mosaica official and with Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery II, named this week as acting superintendent.

After refusing to support Foundations, "I was told then I was making a 'career decision,' " Ackerman said.

Efforts to reach Evans were unsuccessful. Archie declined to answer questions after the SRC meeting.

Mosaica withdrew from consideration a day after the March 16 meeting with Archie and Evans. The meeting occurred shortly after the SRC voted, 3-0, to have Mosaica run the high school. Archie abstained from that vote because his law firm previously represented Foundations.

He has said that neither he nor Evans pressured Mosaica to back out.

Nutter said Monday that the results of a city inquiry into the matter could be released in the next couple of weeks.

In the Education Week interview, Ackerman said trouble with the city teachers' union developed during negotiations to expand the number of Promise Academies, an effort that reclassifies and overhauls failing schools via longer school days, increased funding, and new staff.

"It's one thing to be fired when you do something. It's another thing to have to step down when you have to do the right thing," she said. "I'm in perfect peace."

She defended her $905,000 buyout, saying it was the SRC that broke her contract. She said she was shocked to learn that anonymous contributors had donated money to remove her from office.

"That's the degree to which the push-back is for real change to happen in Philadelphia," she said. "People would rather give [money] to get me out of here."

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