District: Nunery sat ‘shocked’ in March meeting

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

In a late night statement, a School District spokesperson said that Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery was the previously unnamed District official present in a pivotal, closed-door meeting about the fate of King High School on March 16.

The meeting included School Reform Commission Chair Robert L. Archie, State Rep. Dwight Evans, and John Q. Porter of Mosaica Education, which had just been authorized by the SRC to negotiate a charter for King. The day after the meeting, Mosaica withdrew from the process.

The presence of a District official at the meeting was disclosed for the first time by Archie in a Thursday interview with The Inquirer, more than five weeks after the event.

The District’s statement, below, said Nunery and Porter were "shocked" by what happened in the meeting but doesn’t provide further explanation:

"On March 16, 2011 Deputy Superintendent Dr. Leroy Nunery was directed by SRC Chairman Robert L. Archie to approach Mosiaca’s John Porter to invite him to participate in an impromptu meeting with Representative Dwight Evans. Dr. Nunery was under the impression that the purpose of the meeting was to facilitate a discussion on how Foundations Inc. and Mosaica Turnaround Teams work together to improve Martin Luther King High School. Dr. Nunery attended the meeting but offered no opinion or information. Mosiaca’s John Porter is reported as saying, ‘Dr. Nunery appeared as shocked as I was during the course of the discussion. It was apparent that he was unaware that this meeting was going to take place prior to it occurring.’ Dr. Nunery has worked to maintain the integrity of this process and will continue to do so moving forward."