Public school scandal may disrupt Penn relationships

Penn’s relationship to local Philadelphia schools has never been more important since the district is recovering from a superintendent buy-out scandal and a lack of certain permanent leadership.

Arlene Ackerman was bought out of her contract as the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District for $905,000 just before the start of the fall semester.

2001 Wharton and 2003 Graduate School of Education graduate and Fels Institute of Government lecturer Leroy Nunery is serving as the interim Philadelphia School District Superintendent. Many are hopeful that his personality — what The Philadelphia Inquirer calls “a consensus-builder” — will help foster necessary relationships and compromise.

“We’ve gone through a lot as a district, we’ve had any number of challenges from the standpoint of the budget, of leadership changes,” Nunery said. “We would be a perfect Wharton business case or management case of trying to keep a balance between delivering what everyone expects as a public good i.e. education, while doing self-correction in the middle of all of it.”

Although Ackerman’s removal does not directly affect the University, the numerous schools where Penn students and faculty work as part of various West Philadelphia community service programs have been affected.

“Some site coordinators have either left or moved from several of the schools that we worked with” and can lead to destabilized relationships with Penn, said Wharton senior Zachary Browne, chairman of West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. Although Browne could not absolutely tie these changes to the Ackerman issue, “it is certainly a possibility.”

Two of the most involved initiatives on Penn’s campus regarding local public schools are WPTP — a student group on campus organized through Civic House — and the Community School Student Partnerships, organized by the Netter Center. College junior Allyson Even, who is a board member on WPTP and a senior staff member of CSSP, explained the different approaches taken by each organization.

Through the WPTP program, Penn students are paired up with specific West Philadelphia students and that relationship is carried throughout the semester with a specific emphasis on tutoring. CSSP is more of a “jack of all trades” and is involved in mentoring, tutoring, enrichment programs, in-class support and afterschool programs.

Some of the schools, including University City High School, is a University-Assisted Community School and partners with the Netter Center even more closely to ensure the school’s success. “Superintendents change, mayors change, funding changes, but the idea [of a UACS] is that universities are more stable and more consistent,” Even said.

Under Ackerman, several under performing schools were labeled “Promise Academies” and had to follow very specific guidelines to raise student performance.

“As of now, things have not changed too much … but when a new permanent superintendent is put in place it could all be up in the air,” Even said. “We don’t know where Penn will fit into the equation.”

The Penn Office of Government and Community Affairs “generally [has] a very positive relationship with the schools and that relationship remains strong,” Vice President Jeff Cooper said.

So far, the school system’s lack of funds, made worse by the $905,000 buyout, has had an impact on the schools. After a summer of budget cuts, the schools now have extended days three times a week rather than five times a week, and there are now only two enrichment periods worked into the week that make it possible for organizations like the Netter Center to run their programs in the schools.

As in the rest of Philadelphia, the Ackerman scandal has led to outrage. “The larger, more important things about the whole Ackerman issue are the budget cuts and the buy-out itself,” Even said. “It is offensive … if you look at the numbers and the fact that she was bought out for that much money in a district that is already strapped for cash — that’s pretty sad.”

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