A few dozen Philadelphia teachers and school staff protested outside one of the city's premiere high schools in an effort to fight proposed budget cuts to the district.
Wearing signs and handing out pamphlets to drivers, members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers lined the sidewalk outside the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts along South Broad Street Friday morning.
The teachers are fighting a series of severe budget cuts proposed by the district to close a more than $300 million funding gap. The proposed cuts include ending arts and music programs, sports and cutting auxiliary staff like secretaries, librarians and counselors.
"With the austere budgets schools have received, schools...will not be able to provide a high-quality education for Philadelphia's children," said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
Jordan says the teacher's union has been discussing labor concessions with the district. However, he says a concession that results teachers taking a pay cut is a non-starter.
"The school district is asking for salary cuts for all PFT members of anywhere between 5, 10 and 13-percent," he said. "I don't think that you'll find employee in the school district and the PFT...who are going to tell you that they can afford to take that kind of pay cut."
The teacher protest is just the first of many demonstrations planned Friday over the funding flap.
Students from Philadelphia public schools around the city left class around noon and marched on the School District of Philadelphia's headquarters at 440 North Broad Street. They plan to take the protetst to Philadelphia City Hall afterward.
Similar walkouts were organized last week by students, who also marched on the same spots.
The protests come on the 59th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case -- in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for states to segregate public schools.
District spokesman Fernando Gallard says staff doesn't stop students from walking out, but says officials have asked principals remind students that leaving early will results in being marked as cutting.
"Schools will follow the district's attendance policy and will take the appropriate action which triggers at least a phone call to parents to notify them of the student's absence, a request for a parent conference at the school, or after school detention," he said.
Gallard says the type of response depends on the student's attendance history. He also says the district is working with police to protect students as they congregate.
Students are using Twitter to organize and document their protests. The group Philly Student Union is promoting the hashtag #walkout215 as a digital rally point during the event.
59 yrs later and students are still fighting for an equal education! Stop the budget cuts! #brownvboard #walkout215 twitter.com/215studentunio…
— Philly Student Union (@215studentunion) May 17, 2013
The student's cause is also being supported by parents. Brett Mandel, who's running for Philadelphia City Controller, sent out a tweet saying he gave his daughter Rose permission to protest.
"Raise your voice, Rose! It may be the most educational part of the day," he wrote.
The demonstrations are happining at the same time parents, teachers and students will testify before a Philadelphia City Council hearing on school funding.
The School District of Philadelphia has asked the city and state for millions of extra dollars to close its $304 million budget gap for the upcoming school year.
City officials have said they're working to come up with the money, but a new budget has yet to be approved by City Council.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has proposed imposing so-called "sin taxes" to raise funds. Under Nutter's proposal, a $2 tax would be imposed on the sale of every pack of cigarettes in the city. A tax on bar tabs would also go up 5-percent to 15-percent.
Nutter is also vowing to collect taxes owed to the district. In all, the mayor believes these initiatives can inject $95 million in revenue into the cash-strapped district. That's tens of millions more than the $60 million requested from the city by the district.
The city must approve a school budget by the end of May and then the city's budget by June 30.
Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Sarah Glover, NBC10.com
