Hite outlines plan focused on student equity, improved service

SUPERINTENDENT William Hite yesterday presented a revised vision for the city school system that focuses on closing the achievement gap and providing more specialized education, but relies on significant investment from the city and state.

Hite's blueprint, referred to as Action Plan v3.0, centers around core goals of getting all kids to read on grade level by age 8, getting all students to graduate ready for college or career, and providing great teachers and principals at every school. It builds on many of the strategies outlined in Action Plan v2.0 while offering a few new ones.

Among the new action items would be reorganizing the district into specialized networks consisting of neighborhood schools open to all students; turnaround, which would convert the bottom 10 percent of schools to Renaissance charters, contract schools or restructured district-run schools; innovation, which would include schools with newer models for teaching and learning; opportunity, which would cater to at-risk students; and schools that could gain 100 percent autonomy, allowing principals greater discretion over spending.

The 56-page document also puts emphasis on improving services in the district and lays out ways to pay for the plan, including a student-weighted funding formula.

Hite said the plan will require an additional $309 million next fiscal year and $913 million in the next five years. Despite an $80 million deficit next year, he said he is optimistic the district finally may be able to make critical investments.

"I'm very excited about the work because we're no longer talking about reductions, stabilizations," Hite said during a news conference at the district's headquarters, "but instead investments and investments in things to provide children with the resources and the programs and the approaches that they need in order to be successful."

Hite said the new networks would allow administrators to focus on areas of expertise rather than overseeing a diverse cadre of schools. It also acknowledges that the district's central office no longer has the capacity to manage 218 schools.

"Quite frankly, we no longer have the bandwidth as a district to be all things," he said.

The criteria for schools that could gain autonomy have not been determined, Hite said. That classification would not begin before the 2016-17 school year.

This would not be the first time the district has tried contracting with outside providers. A failed experiment with nonprofit educational management organizations in the early 2000s was gradually eliminated. Hite said the district is more informed now, but he could not provide details on how staffing would be handled in those schools or if entities would manage entire schools or just certain functions.

He also doubled down on the need for changes to work rules involving seniority and staffing, which are being hotly contested by the teachers union.

The good news is that earlier this week Gov. Wolf proposed a $159 million increase in funding for the cash-starved district as part of his budget. Mayor Nutter is also expected to call for additional money for the district in his budget announcement today.

The bad news is that those budgets must be approved by a Republican-controlled Legislature in Harrisburg and a City Council whose members face re-election in November, making tax hikes an uphill battle.

Reaction to the plan was mixed among educators and advocates. Darren Spielman, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Education Fund, said if implemented correctly, the vision represents a "brave step" by the district. He specifically backed proposed support for teacher growth.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan released a statement that said the plan's goals are "laudable," but that no innovation or turnaround network will work without sufficient resources. He bristled at the notion of outside providers doing a better job.

"Given the right tools and conditions, our city's educators are more than up to the task of creating and implementing dynamic learning environments for schoolchildren," Jordan said in the statement.