This edition of the Notebook
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Notebook NEWSFLASH: December 2004
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When
a horrific crime takes place in a public school where management is contracted
out to a private company, where do the lines of responsibility lie?
In
the case of a boy’s rape at Stetson
Middle School last month, opinions raged in the days that followed. An
11-year-old boy who was cutting class engaged in a dispute over a ball with a
12-year-old male student in the bathroom. The 11-year-old chased the
12-year-old through the hallway and raped him in a secluded fire tower
stairway.
The
perpetrator’s mother, during a protest at the school on November 22,
complained, “It’s the school’s fault.”
The
young victim, accompanied by his mother, reportedly wore a sign to the rally that
read, “I was raped by the school district.”
During
a community meeting nearly a week later, parent and community activist Eva
Caraballo read a statement of responsibility directed solely at Edison Schools, the education
management organization (EMO) contracted to run Stetson. Edison was hired to
manage Stetson in 2002 when the School Reform Commission decided that 45 of the
system’s most troubled schools would be better off in the hands of outside
management.
Meanwhile
parents took the microphone to lecture each other, charging too much watching
of “novelas” (soap operas) and arguing that viewing pornographic movies with
images of “machismo” contributed to children’s behavioral problems.
School
District spokesman Vincent Thompson, hours before the meeting, told the Notebook,
“The School District of Philadelphia puts a large emphasis on the
responsibility for safety and security of an EMO school on the backs of the
EMO. They’ve been hired to run that school, and we expect them to run that
school.
“But
we also understand that every school in the District is the responsibility of
the School District of Philadelphia,” Thompson added. “So we have a
responsibility as well. We understand our mutual role.”
Although
Edison – with firm pressure for immediate action from Vallas – made leadership
changes at the school, it has been the District that has responded most visibly
to the situation.
Edison
removed Stetson principal Sergio Rodriguez from the school, and in the interim,
installed the District-preferred candidate, Yvonne Savior, with 30 years’
experience in the District.
“Stetson
was a tragic incident that frankly shocked us, shocked the school, shocked the
District,” said Edison spokesman Adam Tucker from his New York office. “And
that’s why we’re all focused on identifying how this happened and making sure
we do everything within our power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The
District, meanwhile, assigned its faith-based relations coordinator as well as
a special assistant to the District’s CEO to the school, as well as adding
three officers to the five school officers already assigned to Stetson, located
on B Street and Allegheny Avenue in West Kensington.
The
victim was reassigned to a school of the parents’ choice. The aggressor was
suspended in anticipation of expulsion to a disciplinary school. Siblings of
the aggressor were moved to another school to avoid disruption, and parent
meetings were scheduled for the following weeks.
Edison’s
approach to safe schools has caused clashes with the District in the past, and
some argue that Stetson was a tragedy waiting to happen.
Upon
taking over management of 20 Philadelphia schools in 2002, Edison cut
secretarial, support and non-instructional staff members. At Stetson, that
meant a reduction of nine NTAs, leaving one NTA and one police officer to
secure the sprawling, five-story building with more than 900 students.
The
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers toured the school at that time, and reported on gangs of
class-cutting students, roaming hallways and disrupting classes, and of a girl
being overheard threatening to kill the unborn baby of a pregnant teacher.
“The
Federation has been concerned for some time about the lack of order and lack of
adequate supervision in that school,” said spokeswoman Barbara Goodman, noting
it did not have a principal when that year opened.
The
School District soon intervened to re-instate the NTAs and other support staff
at Stetson – and some as well in other schools -- to seek control of the
environment.
Explaining
Edison’s philosophy, company spokesman Adam Tucker said, “Our model does not
call for the number of NTAs (non-teaching assistants who help patrol the
school) Philadelphia schools traditionally have. We like to take those same
dollars and put them in instructional staff. What we’re trying to focus on is
kids’ (being) proficient or advanced in reading and math. And our strategy is
to spend more money on people who teach.”
More
recently at Stetson, parents like Betty Pagan said repeated attacks on her two
sons in special education at the school were responded to with little more than
incident reports. According to one news report, a score of teachers staged a
sick-out to bring attention to conditions at the school, and one school police
officer called the environment at the school “a zoo.”
Goodman
noted that obviously, security in the school had been beefed up since those
weeks in 2002. But she concluded, “Schools do best under strong leadership with
clear standards for conduct that are understood and enforced adequately across
board. And when schools lack that, it’s chaotic. Teachers can’t teach.”
A
chronic problem of high teacher turnover has persisted at Stetson, with five
teacher vacancies currently posted on the School
District website.
Richard
Barth, senior vice president for Edison, declined to comment on why the company
had not changed the leadership structure at the school, citing personnel
policy.
Tucker
was quick to point out that the differences over NTAs at Stetson and some of
its other schools took place more than two years ago, and maintained that
relations between the District, Edison and its school communities have improved
dramatically. Tucker stressed that Edison is conscious of the “paramount
importance” of safety and security: “You can’t learn if you are not safe and
secure.”
Of
the “Edison model” he said, “the good news is, we think it’s working.”
Tucker
pointed to increased test scores at its schools and the movement of all five of
its middle schools off the “persistently dangerous schools” list, a No Child
Left Behind initiative that reports on the number of serious incidents in a
school.
Edison
likewise claims progress at over 100 schools it runs nationally, but has lost
contracts for over 40 others, where the company has been removed from its
management role.
At
the community meeting at Stetson, the District defended Edison’s performance in
printed materials, stressing that Edison schools had one-third the number of
arrests and 10 fewer assaults compared to last year.
That
seemed lost on the parents who attended the community meeting. Each interviewed
volunteered that they were afraid to send their children to school. But parent
Donna Tyer seemed somewhat comforted by the community meeting.
“I
think this is a good show of faith on the part of the parents,” she said.
But
a spate of violent incidents that the District itself has had to confront puts
it on the spot in seeking to prevent sudden serious incidents inside and
outside of schools. In the weeks before and after the Stetson rape, District
schools have seen:
·
A sexual attack by a fifth grader on an
8-year-old third grader in the schoolyard of Wilson Elementary School during a
Police Athletic League after-school program.
·
A shooting of a 15-year-old student a few blocks
from Germantown High School.
·
The shooting of four students outside Strawberry
Mansion High School, one of whom died.
One
solution promoted by schools CEO Paul Vallas is placing armed Philadelphia
police officers at some Philadelphia schools. He has recently proposed
positioning officers outside school entrances, increasing police patrols of the
immediate area before and after school, and sending probation officers and
police to visit the homes of troublesome students in the evenings. For that
effort, Vallas wants the city to seek a $5 million federal grant for about 40
city police officers.
Mayor John Street has expressed strong
disagreement with Vallas’ idea to place armed officers at schools and resisted
deploying additional police to regularly patrol them. He has announced his own
initiative, to launch this month and called "Operation Safe
Schools." Its aim would be more collaboration and information-sharing
between the Police Department, schools, and city agencies. Features would
include a hotline for anonymous tips and a computer database that would track
problem areas.
Some advocates point to another solution
– smaller schools. Stetson, Strawberry Mansion, and Germantown are all schools
with populations approaching or exceeding 1,000 students.
“The research is very clear, that the
smaller the school, the more significant the reduction in incidents of
violence,” said Fran Sugarman, Coordinator of the Philadelphia chapter of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform.
“The feeling of community among students and teachers make a significance
different in personalization and the attention students are getting.”
“Something has to be done to make these
schools smaller, and this really emphasizes the importance of our student-led
effort to get smaller high schools,” Sugarman added.
Contact
Notebook
staff writer Sheila Simmons at 215-951-0330 x156 or sheilas@thenotebook.org.
You’re
a Center City resident with a comfortable lifestyle and a big decision in your
future: Send your school-aged child to the neighborhood public school, pay the
hefty price for a private school, or to just leave the city for the sprawling
house and less-troubled school system of the suburbs.
Well, your first step might be to the admissions counselor of those Center City public schools, where you can take a tour of the facilities and sit and chat about the new, standardized curriculum.
“The
possibilities are so endless,” breathed Alice Heller, Director of the
School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Charter and EMO Schools, who now
holds the
additional position of Center City
Network Administrator.
Called
the Center City Schools Initiative, the effort was first announced in February
and is a School District partnership with the Center City District
(CCD) and the Central
Philadelphia Development Corp. (CPDC), seeking ways to retain downtown’s
base of professional and “knowledge-based” residents.
And
indeed, the CCD was established through 2,000 property owners as a special
services improvement district with a $13.5 million annual budget, while the CPDC is a
membership organization of more than 100 leading businesses based in or serving
Center City.
The
effort currently highlights the District’s 11 elementary schools in the Center
City catchment area – now being defined as river to river and Poplar Street to
Washington Avenue.
Since
September, the initiative has primarily focused on marketing the schools –
including a high-tech Web site (www.centercityschools.com) that
thus far has cost $100,000; postcards sent to Center City parents about the Web
site; and a focus on more personalized promotion of each school’s offerings.
The
site also provides information on a total of 44 public, private, parochial and
charter schools in Center City, including the District’s middle and high
schools.
The
effort is certain to draw questions about the targeting of public school
resources to a neighborhood generally less neglected than many others.
But
Heller was quick to note, “There is no expectation for the District at this
time to put in any extra dollars that are not already earmarked for the
schools.” She did add that the District will dedicate a “small staff” to the
effort, which she will head.
For
the admissions counselor, a Center City District report stated, “If this cannot
be financed by the School District, the Center City District is prepared to
assist in securing funding.”
One
sticky point in the initiative can be found in that report, “Growing
Smarter: The Role of Center City’s Public Schools in Enhancing the
Competitiveness of Philadelphia.”
It
reads, “Parents living in the Center City Network can choose either to send
their children to their local neighborhood school, or they can apply to any
public elementary school within the boundaries of this downtown zone. Beginning
September 2005, once neighborhood enrollment is satisfied, transfer requests
from within the Center City Network will be given priority over requests from
other areas in Philadelphia.”
Heller
commented, “That has not been spelled out yet. . . You need to be very careful
to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt any of the schools and is equitable and
fair. We need to research it and come up with a plan . . . This can’t be a
blanket kind of thing.”
With
$1.5 billion earmarked by the School District over the next five years for the
building and renovating of some 40 to 50 schools, representatives from New
Orleans-based Concordia, a nationally
recognized planning and architectural firm, have been spending a lot of time in
Philadelphia recently.
But
Concordia is not getting School District money. Their presence is part of an
$82,500 grant to the Philadelphia
Education Fund to develop a blueprint for how a community-based
school-planning model would be implemented in the neighborhoods around
Kensington and West Philadelphia high schools, both slated for replacement.
The
William Penn Foundation,
which is overseeing the grant, would like to see the building of institutions
that positively impact and contribute to their overall neighborhoods.
“The
Foundation views the Capital Program as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for
this city, not only to renew the city’s school facilities, but also to find out
how schools can contribute to neighborhood renewal,” said Shawn McCaney,
program officer for William Penn.
Concordia’s
work “involves a scanning of existing conditions and resources within those
communities, and then developing – if we executed the plan – how we would do it
and how the community would be involved,” McCaney explained.
Concordia
maintains that school construction planning too often is done in isolation and
is usually prescriptive rather than collaborative.
The
effort reflects a growing trend to build schools that foster a sense of
ownership, inclusiveness, participation and empowerment in their communities.
Research
says student achievement is enhanced in smaller, more personalized
environments, is affected by classroom configuration, and flourishes where
“school is central to the life and learning of the community, accessible beyond
traditional school hours,” according to a report
authored by Concordia founder Steven Bingler.
Thus
far, four Concordia representatives have been interviewing community leaders,
meeting with School District officials, making presentations to organizations,
researching existing facilities, and gathering information from other entities
that could have a stake in the school communities.
McCaney
said Kensington and West Philadelphia were chosen because the two neighborhoods
are already being targeted by William Penn efforts.
He
added, “Our hope is that there will be support, based on this plan, from the
community, School District and local organizations like the Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United for Change. And if
there is that commitment, we would consider providing funding toward
implementing the plan. But that really is contingent upon the School District’s
commitment and support from the community.”
Concordia
representative Bobbie Hill, in Philadelphia recently, said she was “encouraged”
thus far by the firm’s work here, which McCaney said will continue for another
several months.
“Every
community has its politics, issues, struggles, and certainly, Philadelphia has
plenty,” she said. “But I think the brainpower and the passion and leadership
from the public sector, private and not-for-profits, is pretty outstanding. It
bodes well for this effort.”
The
first two years of the School District’s Capital Plan calls for the building of
five new high schools, phasing out middle schools, expanding elementary schools
to accommodate between 700 – 900 students in a K-8 structure and constructing
five new elementary schools and a number of additions, according to the
District.
December 9: School District
Parent and Community Roundtable. 10 a.m., School District of Philadelphia, 2120
Winter Street, 1st floor boardroom. Parents and leaders of community-based organizations gather to discuss
District programs and provide parent insight into initiatives. RSVP to Anastasia Karloutsos at
215-299-3634.
December
11: “College Is Possible” Workshop. Sponsored by the CORE Philly Scholarship Program and the Sallie
Mae Fund to provide college preparation and financial aid information. La Salle University, 1900
West Olney Avenue, La Salle Union, Dan Rodden Theatre, La Salle Union, The
Ballroom – Spanish Session. Registration is required at www.salliemaefund.org or call toll
free (877)
840-8224. For more details go to www.salliemaefund.org
or www.corephilly.org.
December 15: School Reform Commission Meeting. 1 p.m., School District
of Philadelphia, 2120 Winter Street, 2nd floor Auditorium. To register to
speak, call 215-299-7850 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
December
16: “An “An
Introduction to the Pennsylvania Parent Information & Resourece Center
(Free) Basic Computer Skills Class for Parents & the PA PIRC (Free) On-Line
Skills Tutor Program for Students (K-12).” Lee Mathis and
David Hall, Presenters. Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine
Street, Philadelphia, PA. For information, call 215-763-0883.
December
6: Baseline Test: 9th Grade Transition.
December 10: Last Day for "Return to Neighborhood School" transfers for grades K-8. For information, contact the Office of Student Placement, 215-299-7672 or 299-3693.
December
14 - 16: K-8 Report Card Conferences.
December
23: No Extended Day Program.
December
24 – 31: Schools closed for winter recess.
The Notebook NEWSFLASH
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