The Philadelphia School District disagrees with the Auditor General's view that it is involved in risky financial investing.

The state's Auditor General Jack Wagner recently says more than a hundred of the state's 500 school districts are engaging in complex financial swap agreements with investment banks that amounts to nothing more than gambling.

Michael Masch, Chief Business Officer for the Philadelphia School District doesn't see it that way.

Masch: The debt policy that the school commission adopted last year recognizes that there can be a place in a diversified portfolio of a public institution for some level of variable-rate debt. But it has to be managed carefully.

Masch says the Philadelphia School District currently has $1.1 billion dollars tied up in swap agreements. The money is for new construction and building renovations.

He says no money has been lost as a result of the investment bank agreements brokered between 2004 and 2005, but that the District doesn't plan on making any new ones.

Pennsylvania's Auditor General says he wants to repeal the law that allows schools to get involved in these swaps. He says, the Bethlehem Area School District has already lost $10 million dollars using swaps.

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Director of UD's Center for Fuel Cell Research Ajay Prasad says there are plans for two more hydrogen busses by 2011 and more re-fueling stations in the near future, one in Wilmington and one in Dover.   "At this point, they're only running on campus, but we are working hard with DART and Delaware Transit Corporation to extend operations into the city of Wilmington, Dover, and other places."

The new hydrogen bus is just a small part of the alternative energy research effort at the University… Delaware is also home to one of the department of energy's "Energy Frontier Research Centers" with funding from the federal stimulus program.  UD's Vice Provost Mark Barteau says with the new bus, the research effort is moving out of the laboratory and into public demonstration.  "This is very much out their on our streets where our students can use it, the public can see it."

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Members of the American Federation of Teachers at the Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr decided to walk off the job last week. Jarred Freedman is the schools representative from the American Federation of Teachers.

Freedman: What prompted the teachers to hit the picket line was the fact that the school wanted to cut the contributions to the pension plan by over 50%. It wasn't the salaries, it wasn't medical it was the pension plan.

Freedman says the 55 teachers will stay out until the school restores the pension plan funding. School officials have canceled classes for the week and in a statement said they respect the educators and hope to reach a settlement soon. No talks have been scheduled.

A little over 300 students grades 6 through 12 attend the Jewish day school.

"We expect closing on the property to occur later this month, and have already begun the process of evaluating the facilities on site for decommissioning, demolition, and winterizing purposes," UD Executive Vice President Scott Douglass said. "Our internal team is working with outside experts as well as colleagues at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and the City of Newark to make this a smooth ownership transition."

The University agreed to buy the 272 arce site late last month for 24.25 million dollars.  It also agreed to assume liability for any environmental clean-up necessary.

Newark mayor Vance Funk is pleased the deal is moving forward.

"I think the biggest nightmare for any mayor or any city when you have a manufacturing plant the size of Chrysler close down is that its going to sit there for 10, 15 years."  Funk said. "If you look at the scenarios at the different auto plants that have closed on the East Coast, the vast majority of them, nothing happened for at least 7 to 10 years.  They become major eyesores.  The fact that we're in a situation that its going to be converted into a useful purpose quickly, we're very, very lucky."

The University plans to use the site to expand both its research and collaborations with others in a variety of areas, including alternative energy and health sciences.

The purchase marks the largest addition to the University's Newark campus ever.

Governor-elect Chris Christie is continuing his tour of the state and making it a point to visit schools. During the election, the teachers union supported Governor Jon Corzine's re-election.

Instead of making nice, Christie yesterday described the union as an obstacle to education reform.

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Christie answered questions from students at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township and emphasized that improving education in urban schools is one of his top priorities.

Christie said afterwards that the New Jersey Education Association has frequently been an advocate for the status quo.

Christie: Whether the status quo is succeeding or failing and attempting really to become kind of a spin machine for why even a failed status quo is okay. They need to get realistic about the fact that change is coming because it is.

The union has voiced objections to Christie's plans for school vouchers that would allow students in failing urban schools to attend classes elsewhere.

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The administration of the Fleisher Art Memorial recently held a town-hall style meeting with students to discuss the culture of the organization. Many students have become disgruntled with the school pulling back its free, drop-in classes in favor of classes requiring pre-registration and tuition fees.

Director Matt Braun says the drop-in classes have become popular to the point of overcrowding.

Braun: We are now taking a harder look at how we offer our free programming, because we are needing to focus on the quality of the experience for the student. If you have to set up your easel up in the hallway, that's not the quality of experience we want to offer at the Fleisher.

At the town hall meeting a student advisory committee was established for the upcoming spring semester.

New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie says improving the quality of the state's schools is one of his top priorities. But he'll likely face push-back from the teachers union – over exactly how he plans to do this.

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New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker says the union does have some concerns.

Baker: Scaling back the commitment to pre-K education, pre-school education, we think would be a real mistake. If he follows through on what he talked about in the campaign and scales that back, we're going to continue to fight for that and push for that.

Christie has said he wants to eliminate the waiting list for charter schools and would appoint an Education Commissioner whose priority will be approving high quality charter school applications. Baker says while the union has never been opposed to charter schools, it's wise to proceed cautiously to maintain high standards.

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The school district of Philadelphia issues close to 36,000 transpasses a month to students. John Frangipani is Chief of Operations for the School District.

He says attendance is up about 2% from earlier this week.

Frangipani: Our normal attendance for high schools is slightly higher, the drop in some schools was as much as 30%, but we are starting to see a climb up, especially the schools that are isolated.

For students who simply cannot make it to class, the district has put together packets of information to help them keep up with their studies – and has posted other materials on the web.

New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie says improving urban education will be one of his top priorities.

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The first public appearance for Christie after his election victory was at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark, a charter school in which students have high test scores on math, science and language.

Christie: These schools are teaching children 11 months a year, five and a half days a week for a cost that's two thirds of what the cost is in the regular public school in Newark. What I've said is this is a model that we should replicate all over the state of New Jersey.

Christie say's it's an obscenity the state is spending big money on failing schools. He's pushing for bipartisan legislative action to make changes.

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The case of Charleeni Ferreira is reminiscent of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly's gruesome 2006 death. That case exposed problems in the city's Department of Human Services, and prompted child advocates to demand a major overhaul of the city's child-welfare system.

In the most recent case, reports show DHS provided services to the girl's family, but medical examinations did not confirm allegations of abuse, and the case was closed.

Shelley Yanoff is the Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth.

Yanoff: People from the school were concerned and neighbors seemed to see major differences and major problems with the child and it's not clear whether they responded or not. This is not it seems to me an occasion for more finger pointing but rather for all of us to realize how deep our obligation is to look and protect children.