Nutter wants to talk to Archie about closed-door meeting

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is looking into a report by WHYY’s Newsworks.org and the Public School Notebook that documented a closed-door meeting held by the head of the School Reform Commission and a would-be charter school company. The group was in line to take over Martin Luther King High School, but after the meeting decided it didn’t want the deal.

Mayor Michael Nutter said he wants to know more about the meeting admitted to by School Reform Commission chairman Robert Archie, State Representative Dwight Evans and John Q. Porter of Atlanta based Mosiaca. It happened shortly after the company was given rights to run King High School as a charter–a deal that could be worth $60 million.

“Given the news accounts I will inquire and try to get a little better understanding of the chain of events, or why did it happen the way it happened for the reason you are asking the questions because of how it appears,” said Nutter.

The mayor wants to review the issue before weighing in on the matter.

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“I think at this moment with no information it would be unfair for me to try to speculate about what someone did in a private meeting about which I have no information,” he said.

The mayor said he will try to discuss the meeting with Archie in the next day or so.

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