Did You Know That West Philadelphia Has The Most Closed Public Schools?

West Philadelphia is number one for closing public schools I learned during a recent meeting at Huey elementary. The residents of Samuel B. Huey expressed their concerns during this meeting, that I was told was to create a School Advisory Council. That was not the case, the meeting was to choose parents to interview charter schools if the SRC decides to make the school a charter.  There is no SAC at Huey and no desire to create a SAC.

The meeting was to start at 6pm, but district staff choose to stand around and talk to each other as if our time meant nothing to them. 6:22pm Pam Africa told them that they need to start the meeting. The district staff stated they were sorry and she was right. The meeting was called to order by the community who shortly after the start broke out into rage due to no presentation, no mics, no respect for the community whatsoever and they had the nerve to call the police and have them stand guard.

I really felt the stress of the parents and community members as the evening went on. Parents addressed that they felt that funds were abused and not working for the students and families.

One parent who volunteers in the school stated that she started an after school program to help the students stay out of trouble and build self-esteem.

She mentioned that after she spoke to the district staff about the school changing into a charter school she was on board for the charter and that is when the community got heated. They explained to the parent that the district was there to create a charter school and would not inform you of anything different. The community then demanded that all the parents and concerned community members come together and learn all the facts and options.

What we didn’t learn that evening is that our current Superintendent Dr. Hite graduated from Eli Broad non accredited Superintendent school and was given a blueprint for closing public schools.

I. What is this guide and who is it for?

This is a guide for school district operators considering school closures to address significant budgetary challenges. Note that this tool was not designed to assist with school closures as part of a periodical closing and opening of schools for academic performance, though a subset of the strategies may still be applicable.

Drawing on effective practices and lessons learned from 10 large urban school districts1 that have recently closed schools, this guide provides frameworks, timelines and recommended practices for:

• • •

Deciding whether to close schools and which schools to close Engaging and communicating with stakeholders Effectively executing school closures

This guide describes first what it takes to go through the school closure process; second, the do’s and don’ts of school closures—some major risks and mitigation strategies other districts have identified; and finally, the detailed steps a district must take to decide upon and conduct school closures.

Last edit date 5/20/09 For further information or referrals to personnel in districts contributing to this guide, please e-mail: tools@broadfoundation.org.

 Fortunately we have James Kenney taking over the mayor office in January and he plans to save our public schools with the community school model. The community school model is everything that we that have been advocating to save public resources have been advocating for. We want professional educators, counselors, nurses and support staff. No more experimenting with our communities and families. Students looking at education as a possible career are welcomed as long as they have a trained professional shadowing them with students. Advocacy is often a long road, but we are winning because we did not give up. We stood firm to those who choose to privatize our public resources and our voices are being heard.