City Council withdrew Joyce Wilkerson’s school board nomination. Mayor Parker asked her to serve anyway.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has asked Philadelphia school board member Joyce Wilkerson to continue serving indefinitely despite City Council on Monday withdrawing her nomination for a new term, an unexpected move that followed the most contentious negotiations between the administration and Council since Parker took office.

Council President Kenyatta Johnson, announcing the withdrawal at a 1 p.m. Council meeting Monday without a roll-call vote or public hearing, said the majority of Council members “have had serious concerns with the nomination of Joyce Wilkerson to the board of education since it was announced several weeks ago.”

Johnson, who met with Parker on Monday morning, declined to make those concerns public “out of respect for Ms. Wilkerson.” He also thanked her for her “extensive career in public service.”

Council last week confirmed eight of Parker’s nominees: Reginald Streater, Sarah-Ashley Andrews, ChauWing Lam, Crystal Cubbage, Cheryl Harper, Whitney Jones, Wanda Novales, and Joan Stern.

Wilkerson needed nine votes for confirmation; sources said she had only six.

Parker’s maneuver was the latest step in what has been a wild stretch for the mayor, Council, and the school board.

”Clearly, the mayor knows how to play chess,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, a city nonprofit. “We applaud her move that ensures the board will continue to benefit from Joyce’s dedication, institutional knowledge, and unwavering focus on what’s best for children.”

A frustrated Curtis Jones Jr. was the lone Council member to publicly object to Johnson’s move to withdraw the nomination. Jones said he supported charters and questioned school board members sharply.

But, he said, “I trust my mayor and her leadership. I think that if you’re asking her to cook the meal, she should be allowed to buy the groceries.”

Council has, in the past, given new mayors wide latitude to enact their agendas, Jones said.

“I do not understand why we can’t proceed that way today,” Jones said. He requested a roll-call vote on withdrawing Wilkerson’s nomination; no such vote was taken. A roll-call vote on the motion would have forced some of his colleagues to go on record about her nomination.

Immediately after Council moved on to another matter, Wilkerson spoke to reporters outside Council chambers, producing a letter Parker had written to her formally requesting Wilkerson continue to serve on the board after her term expires April 30 “as no one has been confirmed to replace you.” The appointment will last until Parker picks a replacement.

Wilkerson said she was “delighted” to continue to serve. “I think the board has made wonderful progress.” She declined to comment on Council’s objections to her; asked how long she’ll serve, Wilkerson said, “What I know is what’s in the letter.”

The mayor praised Wilkerson as a “laudable steward” of the education of Philadelphia’s children.

In a statement, Parker doubled down on her full slate, including Wilkerson, saying the nine “are among the best and the brightest our city has to offer, and they represent the kind of diversity, civic-mindedness and passion for public service that I seek every day as we continue to build the Parker administration.”

Johnson said he wasn’t sure whether Wilkerson is allowed to continue serving after her term ends on Wednesday, saying, “That will be up to the Law Department to make the final decision.”

But he made clear that it would be unacceptable if Parker lets Wilkerson serve indefinitely without nominating someone to replace her. The City Charter does not appear to specify a time frame for Parker to put forth a new nominee.

”I know that Mayor Parker, who is a former member of this legislative body and who is also a former member of the [Pennsylvania] General Assembly, will respect the decisions of the members of this body,” Johnson said after Council adjourned on Monday. “We withdrew the nomination, and we expect the administration to send us a nominee to confirm.”

Johnson said Council works “collaboratively” with the administration but is “not a rubber-stamp body.”

”I know a lot of people are looking for the theater: Council president versus the mayor,” Johnson said. “But nevertheless, we are a legislative body and there will be times that we will disagree, and there will also be times we will agree because we all have the same common goals, and that is to move the city of Philadelphia forward.”

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of the education committee, said he did not support Wilkerson because “our schools have been inadequate under her leadership.” He has taken issue with the district’s handling of facilities issues in recent years, and also cited problems with the way the district operated during the pandemic as reasons he did not back Wilkerson.

Objections to Wilkerson surfaced after a campaign, mostly by supporters of charter schools, against both her and Reginald Streater, the current school board president, over their handling of charter oversight, approvals, and closings.

Streater was finally able to coalesce enough support to move forward after a tense hearing, but Wilkerson was not.

Council sources have said that Dawn Chavous, Johnson’s wife, was involved in the effort to defeat Wilkerson through her role with the African American Charter School Coalition. Chavous, spokesperson for the coalition, said the group has not taken any position on school board nominations, and that she has not used her position as Johnson’s wife to steer Wilkerson’s fate.

Chavous was a member of Parker’s Educational Nominating Panel, which chose Wilkerson from a field of 100-plus applicants for final consideration by the mayor. Chavous voted for Wilkerson’s selection on the panel.

Naomi Johnson Booker, head of the Global Leadership charter schools and a member of the coalition, sent a letter to Council over the weekend underscoring her issues with Wilkerson’s leadership, which she said was “marred by a series of failures and disregard for accountability and transparency in decision-making processes,” according to the letter, which was obtained by The Inquirer.

Booker cited not just charter-related problems she found with Wilkerson’s leadership, but also issues ranging from the district’s academic performance and its lack of a facilities master plan to Wilkerson’s “reported rude behavior as a board member” and her restricting the superintendent from collaborating with charters as reasons she thinks Council should reject Wilkerson’s nomination.

Johnson pushed back against the notion that charter supporters “were the only ones against Ms. Wilkerson’s nomination.”

A diverse coalition of Wilkerson supporters has sprung up to defend her and urge Council to confirm her. PFT president Jerry Jordan, in a statement Sunday, said it was “entirely unfortunate the Council has delayed the nomination of an incredibly well-qualified candidate with an unparalleled depth and breadth of experience. Ms. Wilkerson’s qualifications uniquely position her to be an instrumental member of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first appointed school board.”

Jordan said that a school board appointment “cannot, and should not, be a decision based on individual grievances or disagreements. As I have shared, the Federation has certainly not agreed with Ms. Wilkerson on every decision she has made. But complete agreement, alignment, and conflict avoidance should not be what our city seeks in board members.”

The eight confirmed school board members, who will be sworn in Wednesday, have expressed strong support for Wilkerson.

“It’s the slate, not just the eight,” Streater said in a statement last week.