Phila School District budget approved

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission has approved a 3.2 billion dollar budget for the city’s public schools.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission has approved a 3.2 billion dollar budget for the city’s public schools. Next year’s budget includes over $120 million dollars to increase the number of guidance counselors and elementary school teachers. It also includes a small provision that could help Mayor Nutter reform a key city agency.

Among the Philadelphia school district’s 24,000 employees are eighty who work for the Bureau of Revision of Taxes, or BRT. Recent news reports documented deep-rooted political corruption at the BRT, and Mayor Nutter is convening a task force to explore major reforms. The district’s new budget allows it to shift its eighty BRT employees to the city payroll. District finance chief Michael Masch says the School Reform Commission wants to help clear up the status of BRT employees.

Masch: Right now, some are on the city payroll, some are on the school district payroll. the chairman has suggested there ought to be one payroll, it should be the city payroll, and if the school district is going to support the board of revision of taxes, it would help financially by transferring money over.

Masch says putting all the BRT employees under the same administrative roof will help simplify the task of reforming the agency.