Calling on the School District of Philadelphia to produce and transmit to Council annually a proposed Five Year Financial Plan.

WHEREAS, The City Council commends School District CEO Paul Vallas for his public commitment to produce and transmit a Five Year Financial Plan for the School District of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, There is a critical need to ensure that the finances of the School District of Philadelphia are appropriately managed; and

WHEREAS, Sound financial management requires sound financial planning; and

WHEREAS, The City annually engages in a self-critical five year financial planning process, culminating each year in a revised Five Year Financial Plan, which must by law be balanced; and

WHEREAS, The importance to the education of our City’s children of sound financial management and planning demands that the School District engage in a comparable five year financial planning process; and

WHEREAS, In order for the Council to fulfill its obligation to review the annual budget of the School District and to provide appropriate levels of funding, the Council needs to be comfortable that sound financial planning and management techniques are in place in the District; and

WHEREAS, By law, the School Reform Commission is required annually to submit to the Council, at least ninety (90) days before the end of its fiscal year, a lump sum statement of anticipated receipts and expenditures for the next fiscal year and a request for authority to levy taxes to balance its budget for the year; and

WHEREAS, In order to facilitate a careful consideration of such request by Council, the Council needs an opportunity to first review the District’s proposed five year financial plan; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the School Reform Commission shall transmit at the earliest possible date to the Council its proposed Five Year Financial Plan for the five years commencing with the upcoming fiscal year, in form comparable to the City’s Five Year Financial Plan, with such modifications as are necessary to comport with the needs of the School District and its accounting system. Council hereby declares that its review of the Commission’s lump sum statement of anticipated receipts and expenditures for the next fiscal year and request for authority to levy taxes to balance its budget for the upcoming year will be severely hampered without adequate time to review such documents, and that the soundness of the proposed Plan, including its plan for balancing the budget and fulfilling the District’s mandate to provide an appropriate and adequate education to all of our children, will be a critical factor in the Council’s evaluation of the District’s tax authorization request.

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