Neff takes SRC helm at monthly meeting

Marjorie Neff took over as chair of the SRC after Governor Wold ousted Bill Green from the position earlier this month.
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For the first time since replacing Bill Green as School Reform Commission Chair, successor Marjorie Neff held the floor at a monthly meeting on Thursday night. 

On the agenda was a stockpile of unused books housed in a block-long basement beneath the school district's headquarters, as well as in a shuttered high school, Philly.com reports

Superintendent William Hite took full responsibility for the books, adding that a review by district officials found them to be outdated. The district will try to work with Georgia-based Textbook Warehouse to inventory the books and sort them for use or donation to families and educational groups. 

For Neff, who takes charge of the SRC at a particularly sensitive time, the immediate future remains in question. The district hopes to receive $159 million in new money from the state and $105 million from the city. 

Yet public perception of the SRC is at a low point, with just 11% of respondents in a Pew poll released on Monday saying they believe it should continue to exist. 

After the SRC approved five new charter schools last month, a measure Neff opposed, debates have renewed about the role charter schools have in improving Philadelphia's underfunded schools, which face an $80 million budget deficit this year. This issue and the future of the SRC are expected to figure prominently in the  run up to the city's mayoral election.