Elmer Smith: Nutter offers faint praise to exiting SRC members

THE MAYOR'S send-off for Arlene Ackerman sounded like, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." His more measured praise for former SRC members Robert Archie and Johnny Irizarry just let those chips fall where they may.

In a terse tribute to the men who were his choices for the School Reform Commission two years ago, the mayor ladled out praise in heaping thimblefuls.

"I very much appreciate the service of Bob Archie and Johnny Irizarry through very difficult and challenging times," the mayor said. "During their watch, students continued to show improved test scores and the graduation rate has improved."

And Mussolini made the trains run on time.

I think they probably deserved a little better. But Arlene Ackerman casts such a long shadow, it's hard for anyone else to bask in the sun.

She took time out from a family gathering in New Mexico last week for some more shadow-casting. Her telephone interview in The Public School Notebook challenged the mayor to release a study by his chief integrity officer, Joan Markman, about the murky dealings involving plans to turn Martin Luther King High School over to a charter operator.

The way that was supposed to work was that the district was going to honor the wishes of the MLK parents advisory group, who wanted the school to be run by a firm called Mosaica. Ackerman sanctioned that choice and the SRC approved it in a public meeting.

Moments later, in a cozy corner of school district headquarters, Archie, state Rep. Dwight Evans, a representative of Mosaica and then-deputy superintendent Leroy Nunery held their own meeting. When it was over, the man from Mosaica had backed out of a contract that was projected to bring in $60 million in revenue over the next five years.

Apparently the people's choice wasn't as compelling as Evans' choice, which was Foundations Inc., a regular and generous donor to Evans' campaigns. A potential conflict that kept Archie from voting in the public meeting because his law firm had represented Foundations was no problem in the less-public meeting.

Later, as the details oozed out of the back room, Foundations decided that it didn't want the contract, and the district decided to run MLK itself.

Neither Nunery nor Archie nor, indeed, self-styled whistle-blower Arlene Ackerman has been willing to say what happened in that secret meeting.

Which is why Ackerman's sudden outrage at the backroom dealings rings a bit hollow to me.

But she has a point. The results of the investigation should be released forthwith, and until they are, Archie's commendable service to the district will always carry a taint.

Michael Masch, the district's chief financial officer, does not believe that Evans or Archie "got anything improper" in return for whatever happened in that back room. He said that the dealings at MLK were not typical of Archie or most charter negotiations.

"Charters have to spend all that we give them to run the schools," Masch said. "It's not like they are making money.

Actually, it is a little like that.

"They don't make a profit," Masch said of the charters. "But they can accumulate a surplus. For instance, there's no requirement that they have to spend all we give them for special ed on that."

Nor is there a requirement to prevent nepotism. Staff meetings look like family reunions at some charters, and some charter operators have a history of finding ways to pay rent to themselves.

In fact, most of the details of charter financing are beyond district oversight. A bill pending in the Legislature would give the district even less oversight by allowing universities and other groups the right to approve public-school charters. And Gov. Corbett's proposed 2012 budget cuts charter funding altogether, raising the district's charter bill by 65 percent.

A new SRC administration will have to grapple with that. The mayor will select two new members "very soon." Rather than cast another virgin into the fire, Corbett has picked former school-board member Pedro Ramos to fill his one vacancy.

They should be forewarned: This is a thankless job in "very difficult and challenging times."