For the first time since
replacing Bill Green as School Reform Commission Chair, successor Marjorie Neff held the floor at a monthly meeting on Thursday night.
On the agenda was a stockpile of unused books housed in a block-long basement beneath the school district's headquarters, as well as in a shuttered high school, Philly.com
reports.
Superintendent William Hite took full responsibility for the books, adding that a review by district officials found them to be outdated. The district will try to work with Georgia-based Textbook Warehouse to inventory the books and sort them for use or donation to families and educational groups.
For Neff, who takes charge of the SRC at a particularly sensitive time, the immediate future remains in question. The district hopes to receive $159 million in new money from the state and $105 million from the city.
After the
SRC approved five new charter schools last month, a measure Neff opposed, debates have renewed about the role charter schools have in improving Philadelphia's underfunded schools, which face an $80 million budget deficit this year. This issue and the future of the SRC are expected to figure prominently in the run up to the city's mayoral election.
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