News Brief: Friday, March 3, 2000

Penn official tapped for city school board University Budget Director Michael Masch, who came to Penn in the summer of 1996 after serving as Philadelphia's budget director under former Mayor Ed Rendell, was chosen to serve on the nine-member board from a pool of 78 applicants. Street spokeswoman Barbara Grant said Masch's kind of financial know-how is "sorely needed" on the board because of the massive financial problems facing the School District. "[Masch] was hired for his expertise in finance, his ability to analyze complex budgets and his long commitment to public service," Grant said. In the next few months, the school board is expected to determine who will attend the area Penn-assisted public school that is slated to be built this spring at 42nd and Locust streets. Masch said in an e-mail that he will not take an official position on the highly controversial catchment area issue until he has reviewed all the issues with School Board President Pedro Ramos. "My highest priority will be to make sure that the Philadelphia school district is taking every reasonable action within its power to use the significant resources entrusted to it by the taxpayers," Masch wrote. Wednesday's announcement marked the first time that Street exercised his new power -- approved last November -- to appoint school board members at his discretion. Street kept Ramos and Vice President Dorothy Rush in their positions and retained only two of the five members who reapplied. West Philadelphia resident Michael Karp was dismissed. -- Katie Ambrogi