District promises to get tough with new Renaissance charter operators

Submitted by thenotebook on Tue, 04/02/2013 - 18:24 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner

The Philadelphia School District is vowing to take a hard line on two issues that have caused confusion when charter operators take over traditional public schools: special education and facilities costs.

Even as the District tries to convert three more of its schools into charters, officials and parents alike are wading through confusion over “exceptions” that past administrations granted to outside managers in previous years of the District’s Renaissance school turnaround initiative.

Giving credit for good work

Posted in October 2012 Edition | Permalink

I’ve been living in this area since 1951, spending more than 50 years as a reporter, first for The Bulletin and then for The Inquirer. My most rewarding years were as The Bulletin’s education reporter in the 1950s. It was an exciting time with reform in the air and since The Inquirer and Daily News paid little attention to education, I had the field to myself. I worked hard and was on the front page with school stories several days a week.

Report detailing Boston Consulting Group findings and recommendations released

Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Thu, 08/02/2012 - 07:35 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

By Dale Mezzacappa and Benjamin Herold

The School District released a 119-page document on Thursday that summarized the analyses and recommendations of the Boston Consulting Group, an outside firm retained at private expense to help the District avert a financial meltdown by radically overhauling its business operations and delivery of education.  

The document details BCG’s work and thinking on hot-button topics ranging from charter expansion to labor negotiations.  It also includes the previously unreleased analyses behind controversial District proposals to close dozens of schools and reorganize those that are left into decentralized, independently managed “achievement networks.”

William Penn Foundation bankrolling $160,000 communications campaign for District

Submitted by Benjamin Herold on Tue, 07/24/2012 - 07:00 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

By Benjamin Herold for the Notebook/NewsWorks

The William Penn Foundation has paid more than  $160,000 for work being done by two private communications firms to support the School Reform Commission’s much-debated  “transformation blueprint.”

It's just one of several efforts undertaken by the city's civic leaders on behalf of the cash-strapped District that was revealed by a review of William Penn's recent grants.

The organizations doing the communications work, Sage Communications and the Bravo Group, are being paid through William Penn funds that have been passed through the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, respectively.  Each grant was for $82,500, the maximum allowable without the approval of William Penn’s board, which meets three times a year.