Dr. William Hite: 'We Must Give Every Child The Opportunity To Have A Real Chance At Success'
By Gary R'Nel
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Gary R'Nel spoke with the Superintendent of the Philadelphia School District, Dr. William Hite, on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about his Action Plan 3.0 for Philadelphia schools and the improving financial status of the district.
Hite said his latest initiative strategizes a way to better suit the needs of the most vulnerable students in the city.
"It is a plan enumerates 25 actions that we need in order to be effective and the most important and radically innovative effort to help our schools lift the achievement of every public school student in Philadelphia and it is wherever they live, whatever their background, or their life experience. While I understand that we can't, as a school system, negate the effects of poverty and trauma, but we can and must give every child the opportunity to be educated well and to have a real chance at success after graduation. This action plan really is designed to reallocate and distribute resources and in times of diminishing resources, you really have to have a renewed focus on equity, particularly with children who have historically been under served and those children in low performing schools."
Despite the achievements the district has made in the recent years, Hite believes they must still do more.
"Have we done everything that we can do in order to provide every child with access to high quality education? We would love to think we have, but that just has not been the case and that problem is exacerbated when you're closing large numbers of buildings, eliminated programs, eliminating 5000 individuals who work in the system, eliminating instructional materials and supports from schools. That has made the challenge even more significant and, unfortunately, it impacts our children who are already at the margins. What I mean by that is, generally, it impacts more significantly children who are coming from circumstances of poverty or coming from families where English is not the first language or coming to us with special needs. Those are substantial challenges for us and we have to do everything within our power and authority to ensure that we are delivering them the best opportunity for success."
Hite stated the district is making significant strides forward financially, but will still be short of resources at the beginning of the next school year.
"We spent the first couple of years trying to stabilize the district. Since I've arrived here, we've had to do some very difficult things here...We have administrative spending here in the district that's below three percent. We have a central office that could host 2,000 people and we have 400 people in this building. We have eliminated programs and resources and, so, for the first time since I've been here, we're going to finish this year balanced. But because of our fixed costs and the increases in costs, we will begin July 1 with an $80 million revenue shortfall. So the first $80 million has to go to fill that deficit and additional monies would go to the types of investments we've talked about and these investments would be investments back into schools, into classrooms for things that children need."
