Letters
Regrets about Regional High School
More Scrabble clubs are forming
‘Pre-K Counts’ could help thousands
Services to immigrants not declining
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Letters to the Editors
Regrets about Regional High School
To the editors:
As one of four former principals of the late Philadelphia Regional High School, I am still saddened by the District’s decision to terminate the program in 2005. The school served kids who needed a second chance to get back on track. Sophia, whom the Notebook wrote about (“Dropping out, coming back,” Spring 2007), would have found the flexibility she was looking for.
Unfortunately, when test scores and public posturing drive everything, more children are left behind.
Alan Liebowitz
liebo@lawyer.com
The writer is a retired Philadelphia principal currently practicing education law and child advocacy.
More Scrabble clubs are forming
To the editors:
Thanks for your article about ASAP/After School Activities Partnership’s Scrabble initiative. As a result of this article, we have 15 new recruits and five new sites for Scrabble clubs.
To date there are 40 Philadelphia clubs with more than 600 students participating weekly. Clubs are formed and supervised by ASAP-recruited volunteers with backgrounds as diverse as school nurses, teachers, retirees, and professionals looking for a break in their weekly routines.
The benefits of Scrabble are many. In addition to the obvious improvements in spelling, vocabulary and dictionary usage, the game also requires math, spatial awareness, decision-making and healthy competition. Students have said how much they enjoy playing.
Philadelphia Scrabble Club members have volunteered to provide training and assist with clubs’ initial start up. We organize the trainings, and Hasbro and the National Scrabble Association donate all materials. If you are interested in starting a Scrabble club, contact Peter English of ASAP at 215-545-3077.
Marciene Mattleman
The writer is president of ASAP.
‘Pre-K Counts’ could help thousands
To the editors:
Parents want to prepare their children for life and give them the tools they will need to be successful adults. Quality pre-kindergarten is an important step.
This is why Governor Rendell’s proposed $75 million investment in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is so important.
Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts would make it possible for 11,000 three- and four-year-olds to attend a quality pre-kindergarten program at no cost to their families. Parents in participating communities would be able to choose full- or half-day quality pre-kindergarten in schools, Head Start, child care centers and group day care homes with a rating 2 or higher on the state’s Keystone STARS rating system, and licensed nursery schools.
All Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts classrooms would have quality features such as small class sizes, teachers with education in early childhood, and a curriculum designed to promote the healthy development of each child.
Children age three until they enter kindergarten would be eligible to apply. Priority enrollment would be targeted at children who have economic, language, cultural or other disadvantages putting them at risk of failing in school.
It is up to all of us to let our legislators know that Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts is crucial for our young children’s success. Learn more at www.prektoday.org.
Melissa Stueck
mstueck@philasafesound.org
The writer is coordinator of the Philadelphia Alliance for Better Child Care at Philadelphia Safe and Sound.
Services to immigrants not declining
To the editors:
In response to the Notebook article “Immigrant communities decry cuts in services” (Spring 2007), the School District’s Office of Language, Culture and the Arts (OLCA) would like to share the following facts to rebut the charge that there has been “a string of declining services to immigrants.”
OLCA has ensured that all English Language Learners (ELLs), including immigrant children and youth, receive support or participate in the following activities:
- “Refugee Programs” for the last four summers, successfully servicing more than 500 high school immigrants
- Services of 80 “Bilingual Counselor Assistants,” who provide language translation and serve as cultural brokers in more than 140 schools
- ELL parent meetings
- Adult ESL Classes for parents of the Central East Region, Edison High School, Solis-Cohen and Hopkinson Elementary Schools, and Chinatown Learning Center
- Translations of documents in multiple languages
- A community advisory committee made up of representatives of all the communities represented in our student body
- Spanish and Chinese language classes for adults in the Central East Region, at Taller Puertorriqueño, and at the 440 N. Broad St. Education Center
- Cultural celebration of Hispanic Heritage, Asian Lunar New Year and Cambodian, Laotian and Thai New Year.
OLCA also improved the academic delivery in the Newcomer Program at South Philadelphia High School, with a “Student Success Center” and a state-of-the-art computer lab, while opening another Newcomer Program at George Washington High School.
To ensure quality, OLCA conducted walkthroughs in all 140 ESOL/Transitional Bilingual Program schools. OLCA programs are monitored by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and US Department of Education, receiving good feedback.
Margaret M. Chin
OLCA@phila.k12.pa.us
The writer is officer of the Office of Language, Culture, and the Arts for the School District. More on this topic on Activism around the city.