Philadelphia is the only school district in the Commonwealth that doesn’t elect its school board. Philadelphia City Council would like to change that.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier
Chris Mansfield | PHL City Council
By Denise Clay-Murray
We’ll start this edition of Hanging In The Hall with a bit of trivia you can use at your next party.
Which of Pennsylvania’s 67 school districts is the only one that doesn’t elect its members?
If you said Philadelphia, you’re correct. For as long as I can remember, the Board of Education here in Philly has been selected by the mayor, by the Commonwealth, and in some cases, both.
People have been decrying that reality for years now. And while there have been mumblings within Philadelphia City Council about that changing, no one took the step of looking into a new governance model for the school board.
Until Thursday, that is.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas
Chris Mansfield | PHL City Council
On Thursday, Council passed a resolution that would allow the body’s education committee to hold hearings regarding the board’s decision-making processes, its governance model and how the city would go about moving toward either an elected board or a board that’s a hybrid of both elected and appointed.
While this discussion has been going on for a while, the reason why it’s being discussed now is due to the Board of Education’s decision to pass Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s $3 billion facilities plan that closes 17 schools, including Paul Robeson High School in West Philadelphia and Lankenau Environmental High School in Northwest Philadelphia. Six schools would share the same building, and 189 would be modernized.
(Let’s hope that one of those schools is Southwark Elementary. If there’s any group of kids that shouldn’t have to worry about working bathrooms, it’s elementary school kids.)
The last straw for Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of Council’s Education Committee, was the deaf ear that the board turned to just about everyone in this process.
“I reached out to [the Board of Education,” Thomas said. “I reached out to [Board President Reginald] Streeter. I reached out to [Superintendent] Watlington myself, personally. I did not want to do this. I said, ‘Please y’all don’t make us do this. Let’s come up with something else.’”
At the end of Thursday’s Council meeting, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said that the lack of respect shown to her West Philadelphia community in closing Robeson showed her that it might be time for an elected school board.
“What people in that meeting last week — the frustration — it was the culmination of a very long process in which people were ignored,” she said. “I’m disappointed, I’m sad and I’m angry that the school board saw fit to go into the dark and vote against our children.”
While this isn’t the no confidence vote calling for the immediate resignations of the board members that passed the facilities plan that my sources said was in the offing, it does send a message.
And that message appears to be that it’s time that the School Board has to answer to the same voters that Council does.
There’s been no date set for the school board governance hearings as of yet.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee or other group or individual.
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