Phila. schools could lose safety advocate

The Philadelphia School District stands to lose its safety watchdog, and the man who holds the job contends he's being punished for speaking out about violence in city classrooms.

Pennsylvania officials, though, say the decision to ax the position is based only on a brutal budget.

Safety has long been a hot-button issue for the district. In 2007-08, crime there hit a record level, though preliminary numbers for last school year indicate violence was down more than 10 percent.

Union leaders and others, however, say school violence is still underreported.

Jack Stollsteimer, the current safe-schools advocate, said he worried that safety would suffer and crime would be reported even less if his office disappeared.

"There would be nobody here telling the truth about what's going on in terms of violence in the Philadelphia schools," he said. "They're going to lose their only independent voice."

The office is responsible for an annual report analyzing school violence and recommending safety fixes. Staff members also advocate in behalf of victims of violence.

Amid widespread concerns about violence in city schools, the legislature created the job nine years ago. At the time, the safe-schools advocate was the only job of its kind in the state and, for a time, was the only such job in the country.

But the office was never fully funded. Though it was designed to have a $1 million budget and a full legal staff, it has received only $387,000 for the last few years, enough to pay Stollsteimer and a handful of clerks.

State Rep. John Taylor (R., Phila.) said that in the latest round of proposed budget cuts, Gov. Rendell had zeroed out the office completely. If those cuts are adopted, Stollsteimer and the staff will be furloughed and the office shut down.

Taylor, who helped draft the 2000 legislation that created the office, said he thought the cut was more than a cost-saving measure.

"The state has never embraced the position," he said. "They've just barely tolerated it."

Stollsteimer went one step further.

"This is an effort to eliminate this office because we've been a thorn in the side of the school district and the state, because we've been willing to tell the truth about the violence going on in schools."

Michael Race, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the decision came down to dollars and cents.

"It's not anything about politics or personalities," he said. "It's simple fiscal reality."

Race said the department hoped to restore the position when funding became available. Until then, "it's our hope that the Department of Education internally will be able to identify the resources or staff that can carry out some of those statutory obligations."

Stollsteimer, a Democrat and former assistant U.S. attorney, was appointed by Rendell. The second person to hold the job, he and his predecessor, Harvey Rice, clashed with district officials at times.

In a report last year, Stollsteimer blasted the district's disciplinary system as dysfunctional and unjust, and said it violated state and federal law by refusing to expel students who took weapons to schools. State officials refused to release the report, saying it was "inaccurate and misleading," then put out their own version with virtually the same information.

Since then, Stollsteimer said, the district has improved dramatically. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman reinstituted expulsions, bringing the district into compliance with the law. She also reemphasized a zero-tolerance policy.

The district's violence numbers have spiked, he said, because it is more accurately reporting what's going on inside city schools in a way few other districts do.

But, he said, vigilance is still called for.

Joseph Torsella, chair of the state Board of Education, agreed yesterday.

"Anyone who's ready to hang a 'mission accomplished' sign on school safety in Philadelphia needs to visit a school. It would be a terrible sin to lose that office," Torsella said.

Though he has "tremendous sympathy for the excruciating choices that people have to make in budget season," he said, "I think this particular need is pretty high."

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said he "fears without the monitoring and support that the office provides for parents, staff, and students, too much will be swept under the rug."

Too often, he said, violence is underreported. If outside monitoring goes away, that will only worsen, Jordan said.

Given the huge battles being waged in the budget stalemate, the safe-schools office costs little and could easily be ignored, Taylor said.

But he and a few boosters will "do our best to see to it that the appropriation's in there," he added. "It is important to all the children, parents, and teachers in the city of Philadelphia."

Still, some education watchers don't see the office as essential.

Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, said that while cutting any office is a bad idea, the bigger issue is whether the state funds the district at a level proposed by Rendell earlier this year.

"I don't think that somebody is needed to keep the district honest," Yanoff said. "The school district is in much better shape than it was. It reports much better than most districts in the country."