SRC approves another charter school

The School Reform Commission approved a new charter school Thursday, bringing to six the number it has signed off on this year.

The SRC had denied KIPP West Philadelphia Charter's application in February, but the organization tweaked the proposal, making changes to proposed school governance, academic certification, location, and opening date.

On second pass, the SRC approved the school's charter, 3-1. But it was not a ringing endorsement. Chairwoman Marjorie Neff voted against the charter, and Commissioner Feather Houstoun said she felt it did not rise to the level of other applications, but was approving it because leaving the board deadlocked put the SRC on shaky ground legally.

Commissioner Farah Jimenez abstained from the vote, citing a personal conflict of interest.

The KIPP approval will have no effect on the proposed 2015-16 budget, since it won't open until 2016. It was approved for a three-year charter serving 375 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

Marc Mannella, chief executive of KIPP Philadelphia, said he was "very pleased with the outcome, and we are looking forward to serving more children in Philadelphia in 2016."

The SRC also signed off on a new charter for Frederick Douglass Elementary. The former district school had been run under the district's Renaissance process by Scholar Academies, which failed to make the academic gains officials required.

Mastery Charter Schools will take over managing Douglass over the summer. The change was welcomed by parents, many told the SRC.

Parent Gale Fisher-Glenn said that the school's children needed academic improvement urgently, and that she was confident Mastery could make that happen.

"We can't afford for our school to go backwards," she said. "We have failed [children] once. Let's not fail them again."

Before the meeting, 50-plus people stood in the rain, rallying against the district's proposal to possibly outsource school nurses.

Peg Devine, a longtime district nurse, said outsiders saw city schoolchildren as a potential "cash cow. The people who are running this make lots of money."

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said the union would explore all possible legal avenues to stop the district from outsourcing nurses.