Ackerman defends $689k spent for S. Phila. High cameras

Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman Tuesday defended a $689,000 expenditure to install 126 security cameras inside South Philadelphia High.

Testifying before City Council on the Philadelphia School District's $3.2 billion budget, Ackerman said that other schools have even more cameras.

After racial violence rocked South Philadelphia High on Dec. 2 and 3, the 126 cameras were added to the 23 already in the sprawling building. They covered every part of the building except the bathrooms, Ackerman told lawmakers on Monday, the first day of the hearing.

On Tuesday, after answering Council member's questions, Ackerman asked if she could add to the record additional information on the security cameras.

Putting in the cameras, she said, "shouldn't have made anyone upset."

She was responding to critics, including Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan, who Monday blasted the spending, saying it made the school resemble "a police state."

Ackerman initially told Council that the South Philadelphia cameras cost $1 million. A spokesman later put the cost at $689,000. The spokesman said the bill for the cameras added up because the school, an older building with five floors, had to have an electrical system upgrade, officials said. The work was also done on the weekend.

Ackerman pointed out that Lincoln and Fels High Schools both have 160 cameras, but those buildings are new construction that opened last fall. Sayre, a building smaller than South Philadelphia, has 118, but it was converted from a middle school to a high school a few years ago.

The number of cameras at other district high schools ranges. University City has 49, Germantown 54, Gratz 55, Masterman, 8.

Northeast, the city's most populous school, has just 16.

A spokesman said the numbers depend on when a school was built and its configuration. Because of the way they were laid out, some schools are particularly tough to monitor.

"We go to a new, higher standard every time we do new installations," spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

At the Council hearing, Ackerman also discussed a teacher hiring freeze she ordered last week. District officials have said there are 1,400 current district teachers who will need new placements in September, but just 800 slots currently open.

Ackerman said she asked principals who had extended offers to outside teachers to put those on hold for now. Officials said they could not say when the freeze would be lifted.

The large number of teachers stems in part from the Renaissance process, under which 14 struggling schools will be radically restructured - run as charters, by outside managers, or by Ackerman herself.

Every teacher at the 14 schools is technically forced out of his or her current position, though all may reapply for their jobs at the new Renaissance school, which will require longer hours and summer work. No more than half of the current faculty can be rehired at any Renaissance school.

Ackerman said she was being proactive to protect teachers who will be leaving Renaissance schools, who may have a tough time finding new jobs in the district.

"I don't want people to assume that because they're at a Renaissance school, they're not good teachers," she said. "People just have a tendency to say, 'Oh, all those teachers are bad. We're not even going to look at them.'"