Philly City Council will consider having an elected school board | Council roundup

Philadelphia City Council will hold hearings to review how the city appoints school board members and will consider whether the School District of Philadelphia should have an elected board.

The move to authorize a legislative review of the school board nomination process comes days after Mayor Cherelle L. Parker placed a member on the board despite lawmakers’ objections.

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat who chairs Council’s Education Committee, introduced legislation to hold hearings on the district’s governance structure and said he wants to explore if an elected or hybrid school board structure could be more effective. Currently, board members are nominated by the mayor, then confirmed by Council.

“Most people in our city would agree that a different model of school governance is probably the direction they want to go in,” Thomas said Thursday. “The point of the resolution is to explore it.”

Here’s a rundown of what else happened this week:

An examination of how school board members are picked: Thomas and a majority of Council opposed Parker’s nomination of former board chair Joyce Wilkerson, and last week Council President Kenyatta Johnson announced Council was withdrawing her nomination. Parker then asked Wilkerson to continue serving on the board past Tuesday, when the terms of all former Mayor Jim Kenney’s nominees expired.

» READ MORE: What just happened with Joyce Wilkerson and the Philadelphia school board? Here’s what we know.

Thomas said in a statement Thursday that the current governance process “fosters a dynamic between parties that encourages confusion and distrust.” He noted that Washington, D.C. and Chicago have hybrid models that are a mix of appointed and elected board members, and other school boards across Pennsylvania are elected.

Any change in the process would have to be done through an amendment to the city’s Home Rule Charter, which is essentially the city’s constitution. Charter amendments require approval from voters through a ballot question.

Hearings and review of the strategy in Kensington: City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada introduced legislation requesting that City Controller Christy Brady conduct a performance audit of city funding distributed and used in the Kensington area.

The view would “examine the policies and procedures of the recipients and their impact on the city of Philadelphia.”

Council members this week also announced the members of a new special committee on Kensington, which will examine the city’s response to the open-air drug market in the neighborhood.

The committee will include members of the previously formed Kensington Caucus: Lozada, and Councilmembers Mike Driscoll, Mark Squilla, and Jim Harrity. Lozada, Driscoll, and Squilla each represent parts of Kensington. Harrity is an at-large member who lives in the neighborhood.

Other members of the special committee include Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who chairs Council’s public health committee, and Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who chairs the public safety committee.

Lozada said the purpose of the committee is to provide “much needed oversight” of the city’s health and safety plan in the neighborhood, as well as of third parties the city pays to provide services there.

Hearings have not yet been scheduled.

A possible change to city contracting: City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, the Democratic majority leader, introduced legislation Thursday to reform the city’s contracting process in response to revelations of overspending in the Office of Homeless Services.

Philadelphia has for decades allowed some city departments to grant contracts to nonprofits without going through the usual competitive bidding process. Gilmore Richardson’s legislation would remove the exemption.

A mayor sits in on Council: Former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, Sr. and his son, former City Councilmember Wilson Goode, Jr., were in Council’s chambers Thursday alongside a bevy of members of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Council honored the group with a resolution marking the 120th anniversary of its founding.

That was Councilmember Rue Landau, who introduced a resolution honoring Temple University and its esteemed mascot for winning The Inquirer’s first-ever mascot bracket. Hoot, hoot.