Two Penn profs up for seats on Phila. school board

LarryGross and Peshe Kuriloff are among 20 candidates for four open seats. Rendell will make his picks next week. Two Penn professors are included on a list of more than 20 potential Philadelphia School Board candidates, from which Mayor Ed Rendell will appoint at least four new members on Monday. Communications Professor Larry Gross and English Professor Peshe Kuriloff were interviewed by the Education Nominating Panel, which will submit its recommendations to the mayor. Also included on the list is attorney Lucy Hackney, wife of former University President and current History Professor Sheldon Hackney. The troubled and cash-starved Philadelphia school system was a major issue during this year's mayoral election. Mayor-elect John Street promised during the campaign that he would force state legislators in Harrisburg to release more money for the city's public schools. Both Gross and Kuriloff said they believe their background in education make them well suited for the task of being a trustee to the nation's fifth-largest school system. Citing his experience of 30 years as an educator at the University, Gross emphasized the need for student familiarity with the mass media in public schools. "It's as much a part of the world that they need to be able to navigate as traditional subject matters like history and literature," Gross said. "It's by now both impossible and shortsighted to rule the media out of the scope of education." Originally interested in secondary education, Kuriloff earned a master's degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and worked as a counselor at a West Philadelphia junior high school before obtaining her doctorate and teaching at the college level. As a member of the Alliance for Progress charter school board, Kuriloff noted that charter schools -- which are largely autonomous of the public school system from which they derive their funds -- are "an important part of the future of public education." Both candidates referred to the general lack of funds as a serious problem facing the school system and stressed the need for innovative and flexible fundraising strategies. "I hope [the Board] can play a role in more flexible and creative approaches to funding other than either denouncing Harrisburg or simply demanding money," Gross said. "I think that the community needs to be engaged with the school system in some other ways beyond paying taxes. [We need to] think of ways to bring people into the schools as participants." Kuriloff agreed with Gross about the failure of the school board to obtain more funding from the state legislature. "I didn't think that the school district was making a very good presentation and a very good argument for why they needed more money," Kuriloff said. She pointed out two ways to address the issue of funding: "One is to organize and be able to present financial priorities in a more credible fashion and the other is to try to get money for targeted programs instead of general money." The two professors' opponents come from a wide range of backgrounds and include lawyers, former principals and teachers and heads of corporations and non-profit organizations. Hackney could not be reached for comment.

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