Dear Superintendent Hite:
This year, our schools opened with a lack of resources any educator would have deemed unimaginable. You yourself
described our schools as “functional types of schools” lacking in the “resources that we typically expect in schools.”
During the first six weeks of this school year, public school parents in Philadelphia have witnessed impossible and dangerous situations as our children’s schools have tried to function with this level of resources. One child has died. Many other parents have documented serious physical, emotional and academic harm and neglect. This is the reason why nearly 800 parents have filed formal complaints with the State Department of Education documenting not just insufficient resources, but a lack of resources that routinely violates the state code with regard to educational standards and mandates.
Parent complaints have pushed responsibility onto the state to adequately fund schools. We were glad to see the $45 million in federal funds released to respond to these needs; however, we have serious concerns about the articulated priorities and lack of transparency around how the $45 million will be spent to alleviate the crisis happening across city schools. It is unimaginable that the District could receive $45 million and that a significant number of our schools could actually end up worse off through loss of staffing. At the very least, there should be a do-no-further-harm policy and an immediate priority to relieve violations of the state code.
We ask the following:
- Guarantee a minimum of one counselor in every school and ensure a ratio of 1:250 students in high schools and 1:400 in elementary schools. In other words, restore all counselors at last year’s levels.
- No split-grade classrooms anywhere. Split grade classrooms as a result of budget cuts are a known pedagogical failure resulting in a deprivation of appropriate academic learning for children.
- No teaching or staff positions should be removed from schools at this point in time. Given that we are functioning with bare-bones budgets, schools should be left no worse off in staffing than they were on September 9th.
- Allocate more teachers to schools with class sizes over the contractual maximums. Children cannot learn effectively in classes of this size.
- Address school nurse and medical safety of students, beyond the standard of “medical fragility.”
We are shocked that school communities are losing staffing positions as a result of leveling, despite the fact that parents fought hard to have $45 million delivered to our district. Cuts in instructional staff at the current moment would jeopardize the functioning but fragile classroom environments established by teachers who have been working with next to nothing over the last six weeks. We are concerned that you have not promised to restore guidance counselors to schools at an appropriate ratio, even though this is the number one concern voiced in the formal parent complaints filed across the city.
Furthermore, school communities are being kept out of the loop with no information about cuts that will take place at the end of this week. Parents deserve input into the District’s plans around investment in our children and schools, both on a district-wide policy level and on a school-by-school level. As parents, we request clear information regarding the District’s plans for spending every dollar of the $45 million amount and evidence that the District plans reflect parent priorities and activism in particular areas, such as guidance counselors, health care, class size, and split grades.
Sincerely,
Parents United for Public Education
