6 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |
A U G U S T 2 9 - S E P T E M B E R 4 , 2 0 1 3 | C I T Y PA P E R . N E T
classifieds | food | the agenda | a&e | feature
the naked city
naked
the thebellcurve
city
CP’s Quality-o-Life-o-Meter
[0]
Former reality-TV star Kate Gosselin files suit against her ex-husband Jon Gosselin for allegedly hacking her computer and phone to gather info for his tell-all book. Also filed: eight tiny handwritten petitions for emancipation.
[ -4 ]
According to a study by Terminix, Philadelphia is the second worst city in the country for bedbugs. According to a study by bedbugs, we are delicious.
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About 2,500 people take part in the Diner en Blanc, in which attendees wear white and eat BYO food in the middle of JFK Boulevard. “Well, there goes my appetite,” says local bedbug.
[ +1 ]
Philadelphia bicyclists enjoy their fifth annual Naked Bike Ride through Center City. “Ugh.Would you look at that,” says bedbug spokesperson.“OK. Ice your taints, people. We’ll come back in a couple days.”
[ +1 ]
According to former Eagle Hollis Thomas, the Veterans Stadium shower room area featured a chest full of pornography used by Phillies and Eagles players. “I apologize if I have inadvertently placed in your head the image of, say, the ’93 Phils rubbing one out together,”Thomas continues.“Or Ricky Watters, perhaps, with his gross little alligator arms. This was not my intention.”
[0]
Mayor Nutter slams a teachers’ union commercial that criticizes him for letting students down. “It’s part of a planned distraction campaign,” he says, adding,“Hey, I think I hear Mister Softee!”
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According to a report by CBS 3, some local coffee shops are cracking down on “laptop hobos” by limiting the amount of time customers can have WiFi access. Kicked to the curb, ol’ Saucepan Sal chalked a crossed-out apple on the sidewalk outside the cafe before picking up his R.E.Load bindle and slouching down the road.
[ +2 ]
The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues meets in Philly to discuss controversial topics like implanting memories. Which we kinda used to have reservations about but suddenly we’re OK with.
This week’s total: 0 | Last week’s total: -3
EXTRA CREDIT: Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania, headquartered on North Fifth Street, owed its publicly funded charter schools $3.3 million, according to an independent audit. JESSICA KOURKOUNIS
[ education ]
SCHOOL BOOKS A charter operator owed millions to its schools. No one is checking its ledgers. By Daniel Denvir
T
he Philadelphia School District will spend a projected $729 million on charter schools in the coming fiscal year. But, if the past year at one charter operator is any indication, not all of those funds will actually go toward serving students. Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania owed large sums of money to four Philadelphia charter schools it runs, according to an independent audit of the organization’s finances as of June 30, 2012, that was obtained by City Paper. According to the report, which was produced for Aspira and completed in April, the nonprofit was running a deficit of $722,949 as of last June and owed the publicly financed schools $3.3 million. That’s in addition to millions of dollars in lease payments and administrative fees filtered to Aspira and entities it controls with no oversight. “That money is being given to fulfill the purposes of the charter, which is to run the school,” says Michael Masch, a former chief financial officer at the District and budget secretary under Gov. Ed Rendell. “It’s taxpayer money, and it’s limited as to its use.” The questions over Aspira’s finances highlight the School District’s weak oversight of charter schools at a time when the District is struggling to close a budget gap that initially stood at $304 million, prompting the layoff of nearly 4,000 teachers, counselors and other staff.
Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania, once a small nonprofit providing services to the Puerto Rican community, has in a few years’ time mushroomed into one of the city’s largest charter-school operators. Its balance sheet has undergone a similarly prodigious expansion, thanks to taxpayer funding of Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School, John B. Stetson Charter School, Olney Charter High School, Antonia Pantoja Charter School and Aspira Bilingual Cyber Charter School. For reasons that aren’t clear, millions of dollars have moved between the network of charter schools, their parent nonprofit and two property-management entities. The School District is charged with overseeing city charters, but “does not have the power or access to the financial records of the parent organization,” according to District spokesperson Fernando Gallard. “We cannot conduct even limited financial audits of the parent organization.” That’s despite the fact that charters account for 30 percent of the District’s 2013-’14 budget. Aspira declined to comment. The $3.3 million that the four brick-and-mortar charters apparently have loaned to Aspira are in addition to $1.5 million in lease payments to Aspira and Aspira-controlled property-management entities ACE and ACE/Dougherty, and $6.3 million in administrative fees paid to Aspira in 2012. A 2010 report by City Controller Alan Butkovitz found the District’s Charter School Office “is only providing minimal over-
“It’s taxpayer money, and it’s limited as to its use.”
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