Kenney asked to investigate why Wister went charter

A coalition of officials, parents, and activists asked Mayor Kenney on Wednesday to direct an investigation into an eleventh-hour School Reform Commission vote to hand Wister Elementary School over to a charter organization.

Councilwoman Helen Gym, chiefs of the unions representing Philadelphia School District principals and teachers, the head of the local NAACP chapter, and others asked Kenney to order the city's chief integrity officer to conduct "a full ethics review" of the school system and SRC.

A spokesman for Kenney said the city's integrity officer lacks investigatory powers, but separately will conduct an ethics review of the district and the SRC.

"Though not in response to today's request, [Chief Integrity Officer] Ellen Mattleman Kaplan does intend to conduct a thorough review of the 2012 Task Force report on Ethics at the Philadelphia School District, particularly as the administration considers future appointments to the SRC," said mayoral spokesman Mike Dunn. "It is a disappointment that the recommendations of that task force have been, thus far, largely ignored."

The SRC issued a statement that said, "We do not understand what Councilwoman Gym is referring to. The SRC has contracted with the city's inspector general to investigate anything in the district that comes to her attention. The councilwoman should direct her questions to the inspector general. The SRC and district will fully cooperate with any investigation the inspector general believes to be appropriate."

Wister, in Germantown, was one of three struggling schools identified for charter conversion in the fall, but Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. changed his mind after new data showed the school had made progress.

The SRC, on Jan. 21, scheduled votes to hand two other schools to charter providers; Wister was not on the agenda. But, after hours of public testimony at an emotionally charged meeting, Commissioner Sylvia Simms offered a resolution giving Wister to Mastery Charter Schools.

She said she had been swayed by parents who said the district had allowed low-income children to languish in failing schools. The resolution passed, 3-1, against Hite's wishes.

Gym and others say the city must look into "potential violations of the state's Sunshine Act, commissioners' potential conflicts of interest, and undisclosed lobbying" on behalf of would-be charter providers.

Simms' sister works for a firm that once counted Mastery as a client. Michael A. Davis, the district's general counsel, previously said that did not create a conflict of interest.

Asked to comment on the call for an investigation, Simms replied, "Adults need to focus on children, not on other adults and their personal agendas."

Gym said it was unacceptable that a vote on a school's future would be taken without school officials being notified or the community being allowed to testify.

Kenya Nation-Holmes, a parent active in the fight to keep Wister out of charter hands, was astonished and furious at the SRC's move and said city intervention was needed.

"There was nothing on the agenda, and then a vote at 10:30 at night," she said. "Not even corporations put resolutions out and then vote on them one minute later."

Nation-Holmes is holding out hope that an outside investigation can change Wister's future. The January vote is one step in the conversion process, but a second vote to formally award Mastery a charter is tentatively scheduled for April.

kgraham@phillynews.com 215-854-5146 @newskag www.philly.com/schoolfiles