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11:56

Kristen Graham -

Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to our weekly chat on Philadelphia public schools. Thanks for joining us, and thanks for your patience - I typically get more questions than I can answer, so if I can't get to your query, I apologize. Let's start the conversation.

11:59

[Comment From PBako]
Kristen, school officials must gnash their teeth and pull out their hair when these see afternoon, weekday playoff games for my Phillies. Any idea what their gam plan is to deal with distracted kids, truancy, etc?

12:00

Kristen Graham - Paul! I don't think we'll see widespread truancy unless the Phils make the World Series or there's a parade. With 2:37 game times Wednesday and Thursday, it's not too bad - most schools are nearing the end of the day.

12:01

[Comment From Gloria]
What is happening with the safety issue? The new reporting standards seem to be hiding things.

12:05

Kristen Graham - Hi, Gloria. There's no new reporting policy for serious incidents - yet. At last week's SRC meeting, Dr. Ackerman was surprised that district policy required city police to be called if a serious incident (criminal incident) is committed. She said that she believes principals should have say-so over whether police get called or not. That would definitely be a policy shift, but let's be clear - there's no new policy yet. Do you think such a stand would encourage underreporting? Some people think so.

12:09

Kristen Graham - Sorry for the glitch, folks - computer problem I believe is resolved now. Onward.

12:09

[Comment From Ken Clouse]
With teacher contracts set to expire (again) on October 31st is there any news of progress between the teacher's union and the school district?

12:10

Kristen Graham - Hi, Ken- From what I can tell, there's not much progress because the state budget deal isn't yet firm. The district will have a revenue gap of at least $160 million, and until we know what the firm budget numbers are going to be, I doubt you'll see any real progress on the nitty-gritty economic stuff - salary and benefits. My guess is we'll see another extension.

12:10

[Comment From Guest]
Wouldn't that be obstruction of justice? Not reporting a criminal act...

12:12

Kristen Graham - Guest - What happens now is the police are called as a matter of course, and they investigate and determine whether an act is criminal or not. (Was a student fight just a student fight, or was it assault?) Dr. Ackerman is suggesting that principals ought to be the ones to determine whether incidents are worthy of calling police. She made it clear to me that some cases are clear - if a student brings a loaded weapon to class, for instance, or drugs to school. But yes, it's my understanding that if a crime is committed and police aren't ultimately called, that's gets schools intro trouble with the police.

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