May Newsflash
At the SRC . . .
In April, the School Reform Commission approved the following resolutions:
· Creation of the Creative Action and Results (“CAR”) Region
To be headed by former Edison Cluster leader Marilyn Perez, the CAR region is beginning with 11 schools, from the list of schools with six consecutive years’ failure to make Adequate Yearly Progress. Other factors considered were attendance and climate issues. The establishment of the region, a response to requirements of the No Child Left Behind act, allows the District to target the schools for intensive intervention in instruction, assessment, professional development, climate and more. District Chief Academic Officer Gregory Thornton said the District in the coming year would re-evaluate the schools, and make determinations about customized interventions, including staff changes, extended schools days and school years, private management, and possible school closings. The 11 schools are: Barry, Blaine, Bluford, Ferguson, L.P. Hill, McDaniel, Meade and Webster elementary schools, Roberto Clemente Middle, and Olney and University City high schools. Temple University is losing two of its partnership schools – Ferguson and Meade. The District is disbanding its Office of Restructured Schools.
· Conversion of Thomas Middle School to the Mastery Charter School
Next fall Thomas Middle in South Philadelphia will emerge as the second campus of Mastery Charter School. Set to open with a cap of 240 students in grades 6 through 8, the school will be allowed to increase enrollment to 600 students – and expand to grades 7 through 12, by the 2009- 2010 school year. Mastery will allow current Thomas students to enroll during the school’s conversion year, with further years’ admissions providing preference to students in the school’s catchment area, to be determined by the District. Of the building’s $6 million renovation, the District is to provide $1.5 million. The District will pay Mastery a $400,000 annual operating grant, “under the small school transition program to defray the cost of its operating expenses.”
· $232,000 to reimburse the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health for Lead in Drinking Water Project
Dating back to December 1999, city health workers have helped the District remediate school facilities for lead in plumbing and faucets.
· Lease space for the Franklin Institute/School District of Philadelphia Partnership High School for Science, Math, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
The District executes a 10-year lease for 62,000 square feet of space of the Balch building at 18 S. 7th St., for the planned High School for Science, Math, Technology and Entrepreneurship, set to open in 2006-07. To serve up to 500 students, the building will be leased for $800,000 in its first year, increasing to $1.08 million in the 10th year.
· $18.5 million to purchase core curriculum materials
The amount covers early childhood materials, social studies textbooks for grades K-7, and grade 10; science textbooks and materials for grades K-6, mathematics materials for grades 9-11, reading intervention materials for grades 3 and 4, and literacy, mathematics, social studies and science materials for schools adding new grades in the 2005-06 school year. The publishers and their contract amounts are: $1 million -- Holt, Rhinehart, Wilson; $1 million -- Carolina Biological; $2.8 million -- Delta Education; $5.7 million -- Harcourt School Publishing; $3 million -- K12, Inc.; $1 million -- Prentice Hall; $700,000 -- DLM, Inc.; $1.96 million -- McDougal Littell; $100,000 -- Key Curriculum Press; $40,000 -- McGraw Hill; $900,000 -- Voyager Expanded Learning; $290,000 -- Harcourt Achieve. Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn raised questions about the contract with K12 for elementary science materials, noting that Philadelphia would the first district to purchase the materials.
· $4.25 million to publishers for summer program curriculum, materials, and professional development
The amount entails math and reading interventions for up to 60,000 students in grades pre-K through 8. Publishers’ contract amounts are: $47,000 -- Pearson Learning: Dialogic Reading Program; $46,110 -- Wright Group: Doors to Discovery/Theme Units; $80,000 -- Scholastic Readingonline; $2.63 million -- Princeton Review; $276,5000 -- Zaner-Blouser; $475,200 -- Rigby-Steck Vaughn; $252,000 -- Pacific Learning; $444,000 -- Harcourt Inc.