School District backs converting three schools to charters
Three days before the Philadelphia School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to turn three district schools into charters, district officials said they would recommend the controversial changes.
Three days before the Philadelphia School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to turn three district schools into charters, district officials said they would recommend the controversial changes.
Reports posted on the district's website late Monday showed that teams that evaluated the turnaround proposals submitted by providers would urge the SRC to convert the following schools into Renaissance charters in the fall: Jay Cooke in Logan, Samuel Huey in West Philadelphia, and John Wister in Germantown.
The Great Oaks Foundation has applied to take over Cooke. Global Leadership Academy is seeking to run Huey, and Mastery Charter Schools wants to take control of Wister.
District teams that examined the proposals said all operators met the criteria to convert the schools to Renaissance charters and should be granted five-year agreements with conditions.
The latest conversions have been criticized since Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said last October he wanted to give the three schools, which have been struggling for years, to charter operators.
Before last week's SRC hearing on the district's proposed budget, protesters and supporters of the proposed conversions massed outside the district's headquarters on North Broad Street.
Based in New York, the Great Oaks Foundation operates charters in other districts, including Wilmington and Newark, N.J.
Global Leadership has a single charter in West Philadelphia. Huey would be its first conversion.
Mastery, which is based in Philadelphia, operates 13 charters in the city and five in Camden. Eleven of Mastery's charters in the city are former district schools.
This is the sixth year of the district's Renaissance program, which was created to give academic makeovers to chronically low-performing schools. So far, 20 schools have been given to charter operators, and performance has improved at most of them.
The SRC on Thursday also will consider closing or changing the management at four Renaissance charters that the district says have not met promised objectives.
Due to the large number of resolutions on the agenda, Thursday's meeting is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 5:30 p.m.
martha.woodall@phillynews.com 215-854-2789 @marwooda
