Nutter: Issue school report 'immediately'
Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter has urged Philadelphia School District leaders to make public "immediately" a $700,000 management audit finished nearly a year ago.
Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter has urged Philadelphia School District leaders to make public "immediately" a $700,000 management audit finished nearly a year ago.
"A management audit of this scope and cost deserves to be part of the public debate," Nutter wrote in a letter Friday to School Reform Commission Chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn. "It is critical that the taxpayers - who paid for this report - get an opportunity to review it and discuss it."
Nutter, considered the heavy favorite in the November election, also asked Dungee Glenn to give him a copy of the report.
Reached by phone yesterday, Dungee Glenn said that she hadn't seen Nutter's letter, but that she would be prepared to respond to it and make a decision on whether to release the documents today. Sherry A. Swirsky, the district's general counsel, was expected to have issued a legal opinion to Dungee Glenn on whether she considered the documents public record under state law by the end of yesterday.
The Inquirer reported last week that the consultants' study, commissioned by the School Reform Commission, had gone unread by top district leaders for nearly a year, even though its cost was worth the salaries of 13 beginning teachers.
Spokesmen for Mayor Street and Gov. Rendell said they could not reach their bosses for comment last night about whether they agreed with Nutter that the report should be made public.
The newspaper has requested under the state Right to Know law that the district release the submitted by Evergreen Solutions of Florida and Noreen Timoney, a Florida consultant and wife of former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney.
In the letter to Dungee Glenn, Nutter said he had become "increasingly concerned about the fiscal and managerial challenges that the school district faces . . . I want to work with you in resolving the issues to improve the educational experience of our children."
Nutter said Dungee Glenn had told him she was trying to determine whether the 200 pages of documents were in report form or a form in which they could be released.
Nutter gave his view: "Public dollars were spent. Whether it's finished or not, it sounds like the project is over. Release it and move on."
The Inquirer also reported last week that a 35-member task force Street appointed to study district operations had compiled a report that also has not been released. It was due out in January and cost $500,000. An executive summary of the report was quietly posted on the city Web site over the summer.
Nutter said that study also should be released.
"A study is only as good as what you do with it," he said. "We cannot waste money on adults doing studies that we're not going to use. We need to start utilizing that information to improve education for children."
Street's education secretary, Jacqueline Barnett, said last night some numbers were being checked.
"Our goal is to release the task force report sooner rather than later," she said.
