In West non-vote, did the SRC violate the Sunshine Act?
by Dale Mezzacappa on Jun 08 2010
At its meeting last Wednesday May 26, the School Reform Commission suddenly and without voting withdrew a prepared and printed resolutionon pairing West Philadelphia High School with Johns Hopkins/Diplomas Now as a Renaissance School. Chairman Robert Archie said only that"certain facts" had come up that needed to be checked out.
It later became known -- but not through the SRC -- that the resolution was withdrawn over complaints that some members of West's advisory council were employed or paid stipends by the Philadelphia Education Fund, which is a local partner for Hopkins.
During the ensuing uproar from members of the West community -- especially the School Advisory Council that had approved the match with Hopkins and were eager to get on with the turnaround process -- Archie never explained exactly how the decision to withdraw the resolution was made.
In a press conference on Friday, June 4, Archie first said the commissioners had voted during the executive session. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman corrected him. Archie then said he had polled the commissioners in private during the public meeting, and that a majority said the resolution should be withdrawn.