Philadelphia school-safety watchdog is shut down

State officials yesterday shut down the Philadelphia schools' independent safety watchdog.

Jack Stollsteimer and the two state employees who supported his work will remain on Pennsylvania's payroll through Aug. 28, but he was ordered to stop working yesterday. Officials even changed the locks to his office in the Philadelphia School District's Center City headquarters.

"Like we're going to steal something, or break back in and help victims?" a frustrated Stollsteimer quipped yesterday.

Reached last night, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said she was sorry the office had been closed and hinted that Stollsteimer still might be able to work with the district. She declined to be more specific.

The furlough, which effectively shuttered an office charged with monitoring violence in city classrooms, was a bizarre ending to an often-tense relationship between Stollsteimer and the state. He said he was being punished for telling the truth.

"I wasn't surprised, because since the beginning, the Pennsylvania Department of Education has treated this office like an ugly stepchild," said Stollsteimer, a Democrat and former assistant U.S. attorney.

State officials said the decision was purely budgetary, not based on politics or personality.

Stollsteimer was one of 255 employees statewide who were cut this week because of the state's economic crisis, said Michael Race, a spokesman for the Department of Education.

"This may be just the first round of furloughs," Race said.

Race said that the department hoped to restore the position if funding became available, but that it would reassign the work internally in the meantime to fulfill the office's statutory obligations.

State Rep. John Taylor (R., Phila.) said the assertion that the move was fiscally motivated was "laughable."

"They can't possibly say that this is budgetary-related when they fund it with a couple hundred thousand dollars," Taylor said. "It's an indication of how much they despise that office."

The budget for the office was $387,000 last year.

In 2001, the legislature created the office to address concerns about widespread violence in Philadelphia schools. At the time, the safe-schools advocate was the only position of its kind in the country.

Harvey Rice, now an assistant city controller, held the job initially. Gov. Rendell tapped Stollsteimer in 2006.

Stollsteimer drew state ire last year when he released a report that called the district's disciplinary system "dysfunctional and unjust," and said the district violated state law by refusing to expel students who brought weapons to school. State officials refused to release his report, calling it "inaccurate and misleading," and then put out their own version, which reached virtually the same conclusions.

Since that report, the district, which typically underreported violence, has improved dramatically on safety issues, Stollsteimer said. He credits Ackerman for reinstating expulsions and enforcing a zero-tolerance policy.

But, he said, there is work left to be done.

"There will be nobody in a position to make an independent judgment about the district's efforts to keep kids safe," Stollsteimer said.

Taylor, who helped craft the legislation creating the office, has been fighting against shutting it and will continue to advocate for it, he said.

"Without that office, I think it absolutely sends a signal that we're weak on enforcement, that there's nobody watching now," Taylor said. "It says, 'Teachers, you don't have to report violence to the principal,' and 'Principals, you don't have to report to the district,' and that the same cover-up that existed for decades will keep going."

Ackerman said Stollsteimer's furlough would not change the state of safety in the district, which has seen a 16.7 percent drop in violent incidents, from 6,390 in the 2007-08 school year to 5,312 last year.

"We're going to continue down this road of making our schools safe and fully implementing our no-tolerance policy," Ackerman said.

"He really has the good of the children and the district at heart," she said of Stollsteimer. "I have a feeling we'll find some way to work together. This is his passion."