Activists, parents criticize SRC expenditures

As members of the School Reform Commission went to Harrisburg yesterday with the aim of getting $54 million in additional funding from state lawmakers, their own spending came under increased scrutiny.

Education activists and parents complained about SRC expenditures including contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars - sometimes for jobs that appeared to be duplicated by the school district.

While the state takeover was supposed to lead to better management, the SRC and the district pay for similar sets of lobbyists, press aides, and financial staffs.

Parents also voiced displeasure that the SRC did not take any parents to Harrisburg to help lobby lawmakers for the money needed to balance the $2.18 billion 2007-08 budget.

"They're giving us lip service again," said Greg Wade, president of the Philadelphia Home and School Council, the city's largest organization of parents. "They told us they wanted us to be involved, then they go to Harrisburg with their paid consultants and not us. We're not happy."

SRC members said they were invited to the capital by Rep. Dwight Evans. "When somebody invites you to their house, you go; you don't bring company with you," said Sandra Dungee Glenn.

"This is something that we should all be on the same page about," she added. "This is not divisive . . . We should each work from our respective vantage points to help children."

Though no deals were reached, SRC Chairman James Nevels said he felt good about the meeting with members of the Philadelphia delegation of senators and representatives. They met with no Republicans, he said, but will do so at a future meeting.

"I am cautiously optimistic," Nevels said about more funding.

In the meantime, the SRC is facing allegations from critics that it has hired a battery of consultants in the areas including government lobbying and public relations that duplicate services already being provided in-house by school-district personnel.

"It's really questionable why they are turning the SRC into a mini-bureaucracy of its own when we're struggling for teachers, librarians, books and music and art programs," said Helen Gym, a leader of Parents United for Public Education. "That's something that we, as parents, are going to be taking a look at."

The SRC contracts with former state House Speaker Robert O'Donnell to lobby in Harrisburg. From Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2008, he is to receive $324,000, according to his SRC contract. At the same time, the district employs two full-time government-relations staffers who also lobby. Together they earn about $150,000, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said yesterday.

For public relations, the SRC has a contract with Carey Dearnley for $162,000 for this and next school year, and a contract with Ross Associates, for $180,000 for this year and a proposed $162,000 contract for next year. At the same time, the district's internal Office of Communications is staffed by Gallard and three media managers under him for a total of $284,000, he said.

The SRC has a chief of staff, Frank Siefert, who earns $140,000 a year. The district has a chief of staff, Claudia Averette, who earns $150,000.

The reform commission, in addition, has a full-time staff of nine that earns $757,783.

"It is not a duplication nor a waste of money in several instances," Nevels said. "There have been situations where we did not have the expertise in-house and we sought it elsewhere. I believe each of those contracts is justified."