Board of Education President Reginald Streater – rebuffing a request from City Council – did not commit to postponing a Thursday vote on the School District of Philadelphia’s facilities plan, which recommends the closure of 17 schools.
Also on Wednesday, Mayor Cherelle Parker delivered a lengthy address to lawmakers, calling on them to come together to support public education through her proposed $1 rideshare tax and the district’s building consolidation effort.
Earlier this week, Streater and Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. released a revised facilities master plan, named “Accelerating Opportunity,” and announced that the BOE would consider the 10-year, $3 billion initiative for approval on Thursday.
Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson asked Streater on Tuesday to put off that vote until the board’s next meeting in late May, at the earliest. He replied that he would need to confer with BOE members and would have an answer by Wednesday’s school budget hearing at City Hall.
But, a day later, Street offered nothing concrete, saying he still needed to have discussions with board members.
“I thought y’all were going to get together last night and come up with a game plan,” Council President Kenyatta Johnson said.
Streater replied that the situation is “very complex.” He previously noted that the BOE needs to consider the implications of moving the vote on the district’s capital budget and borrowing schedule.
“We have been presented with so much new information,” Gilmore Richardson said. “We are at a convergence of this facilities plan as well as being asked to fill in a budget deficit and a budget challenge that you all are asking us to deliberate.”
Streater told Council that there is a “sense of urgency” to adopt a facilities framework. Later, he acknowledged that the district has 85 buildings considered to be in poor or unsatisfactory condition and alluded to the possibility of another state takeover. Philadelphia’s public schools returned to local control in 2018.
“We have to do something about this,” Streater remarked. “If we don’t do something about it, somebody’s going to do it to us, whether it’s facility right-sizing or whether it’s also budget.”
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg, in a statement, said he was “shocked by the disrespect” Streater and Watlington showed to Council during Wednesday’s hearing.
"Our members and school families did not spend years fighting to win back a locally appointed Board of Education just for this body to be a District rubberstamp,” Steinberg said. “Yet, the apparent coordination of the District and Board on the facilities plan became an undeniable fact this week in Council Chambers.”
Parker argued that the BOE needs to “right-size” the public school system in order to secure more funding from leaders in Harrisburg.
“Right now, we are maintaining square footage as it crumbles, instead of investing in opportunities our students actually need,” the mayor said in her speech. “This means making difficult but responsible decisions, and that's what the district has worked through in the facilities plan.”
State legislators will also want to see that local officials are making a “shared sacrifice” to address the district’s $300 million budget deficit, which stems primarily from the expiration of federal pandemic relief dollars, she added.
Parker has put forward a $1 fee on rideshare trips originating within city limits, which her office estimates will generate $48 million a year. The revenue would be supplemented by an additional $2.4 million for a change in how the usage and occupancy tax is calculated for cell towers.
Watlington has said the funding, along with belt-tightening measures elsewhere, would allow the district to preserve 340 teachers, climate staff, counselors and other professionals assigned to schools across the city.
Absent the tax, the employees would not be laid off; rather, they would be reassigned to schools with vacancies, according to the district.
Parker argued that slashing the positions would have “an enormous impact,” causing larger class sizes and instability that could threaten the progress schools have made in recent years.
Council members, during a bombastic exchange Tuesday, signaled they are reluctant to pass a tax — which Uber and Lyft say will be applied to riders — while closing schools.
“We are all aligned,” Parker said. “Please don't allow people to do this divide-and-conquer strategy.”
She spoke in detail about prior efforts to boost school funding, including the introduction of a liquor-by-the-drink tax in the 1990s, along with an increased sales tax rate and a cigarette fee more than a decade ago.
“This body has been the leader in funding public education in the city of Philadelphia,” the mayor said.
Surrounding counties, she told lawmakers, have repeatedly raised property taxes in recent years to fund their school districts. While Philadelphia cannot afford to follow in their path, multibillion-dollar rideshare firms should have to pay for the cost of doing business in the city, Parker asserted.
After her address, she huddled with Johnson and Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of the education committee. The Parker administration and Council must reach an agreement on spending and tax legislation before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.
MORE: City Council blasts Parker admin, district over Uber tax, school closures
