New Media

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Shakespeare would have called it much ado about nothing. Ruben Amaro Jr. chose to categorize it as a non-issue. Still, the latest tweet heard 'round the world had the Phillies scrambling the jets a little bit. The blogosphere began buzzing Sunday evening after the Inquirer posted an item that $120 million lefthander Cliff Lee experienced some discomfort before spring training, underwent an MRI and was examined by team doctor...

If you're 20 years old or younger, you probably grew up using computers, cell phones, iPods, and Facebook. Photos, for you, are images not necessarily printed on paper. CDs are old hat. You take digital - digital everything - for granted. In such a world, how easy is it to record and be recorded, to share your - or someone else's - most intimate secrets by posting them on the Web? All too easy. Easy gathering and distribution of information are hallmarks of the digital age. They played out all too disastrously for first-year Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

The New Media Technology Charter School in Northwest Philadelphia is finally getting its new operating charter. It took more than a year, but with the departure of the acting board president Wednesday night, the troubled school has satisfied 23 conditions the School Reform Commission required to renew its operating charter. The SRC acted after The Inquirer reported allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest involving the school's founders in the spring of 2009.

It began as a scattering of acid remarks within earshot of a Rolling Stone reporter. But - thanks in large part to Twitter, the Web, and cable news - barely two days after those remarks were disclosed, a media firestorm ended Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's tenure as commander of U.S. and NATO Coalition Forces in Afghanistan. Fast, overwhelming, decisive: It's a case study in how tightly connected 21st-century media can whip a story into a full-on tsunami, with startling consequences for individual careers and national policy.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission has permitted a city charter school to ignore deadlines for overhauling its leadership even as a federal criminal probe of the school intensifies. In August, the commission ordered New Media Technology Charter School in Northwest Philadelphia to replace its top administrator and board chairman by Sept. 1 and to install a new board by Oct. 15 as conditions for receiving a new, five-year operating charter. Benjamin W. Rayer, the School District's top charter administrator, said he expected the changes within the next several months.

The board of the embattled New Media Technology Charter School ignored yesterday's deadline for replacing Ina Walker, the school's chief executive officer, setting up a possible showdown with the Philadelphia School Reform Commission. Two weeks ago, the commission voted unanimously to require New Media to replace Walker, board chairman Hugh C. Clark, and the rest of its board, and to meet more than 20 other conditions in order to obtain a new, five-year operating charter. The conditions were designed to address allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at the school, which has campuses in the city's Stenton and Germantown sections.

The New Media Technology Charter School must replace its top administrator, its board chairman, and the rest of its board members to obtain a new operating charter. The Philadelphia School Reform Commission yesterday voted unanimously to require those changes and to impose more than 20 other conditions on New Media to address allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest. The resolution said Ina Walker, New Media's chief executive, must either be terminated or resign by Sept.

The Philadelphia School District may recommend that the financially troubled New Media Technology Charter School replace its leadership as a condition for remaining open. The district staff is mulling urging the School Reform Commission to call for the school's chief executive officer, board chairman, and all board members to step down for the school to obtain a new operating charter, according to sources in the district and charter-school community. It's the same strategy the SRC followed in June 2008 with Philadelphia Academy Charter School after allegations of fiscal wrongdoing surfaced there.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission yesterday postponed a vote on renewing the operating charter for the embattled New Media Technology Charter School to give its staff more time to investigate the school's finances. SRC Chairman Robert L. Archie Jr. said the charter resolution was withdrawn at the recommendation of district staff. The commission delayed a decision a month ago to give staff time to address questions about academics and allegations of financial mismanagement at the charter in Northwest Philadelphia.

Questions about academics and allegations of financial mismanagement at the New Media Technology Charter School prompted the Philadelphia School Reform Commission to postpone a vote yesterday on renewing the school's operating charter. School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said after the commission's meeting that she and her staff had asked the commissioners to wait on voting. "We wanted to do some more due diligence," Ackerman said. "There have been some concerns raised, and we want to make sure that we're clear about the resolution of some of those claims.