Mayor Nutter Names Novelist Lorene Cary To School Reform Commission
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Mayor Michael Nutter has filled the second School Reform Commission vacancy created by the sudden resignations of two members last month.
Mayor Nutter has tapped novelist and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Lorene Cary to serve on the SRC. With her appointment there are now four members on the five-member SRC, with Governor Corbett's nominee, Pedro Ramos, awaiting state senate confirmation (see related story).
Cary's novel, The Price of a Child, was the first "One Book, One Philadelphia" pick, in 2003. She founded Art Sanctuary 13 years ago, and she expects to provide an essential perspective.
"I think, in a way, perhaps, I'm a voice that's very, I hope, close to the community of parents and, God knows, so many grandparents and teachers and students," she said today.
Cary is 54, married to an Episcopal priest, and a mother of two. She says she knows that one of the SRC's tasks over the next year will be hiring a permanent superintendent.
"You don't just hire a leader," she tells KYW Newsradio. "You also hire a leader who's appropriate for that particular time."
A remake of the SRC became necessary last month when chairman Robert Archie and member Johnny Irizarry resigned (see related story), just before a city report accusing Archie of arranging a back-room charter deal was released (related story). The resignations left the five-member commission without a quorum.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett has said Ramos will be the commission's chair, once he is confirmed by the state senate. Nutter's first appointee, Rutgers University chancellor Wendell Pritchett, is serving as interim chair (related story).
Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio 1060
