Emlen Parents and Community Call To Action

Parents and Community partners are needed to help Emlen be the great safe school that we want in our community. We recently received recognition from Councilman Allan Dombs for our great achievements at Emlen yet for some reason the school district of Philadelphia has decided to cut our resources. The cut of these much needed resources hinders our ability to support our students needs and achievements. We need parents and community members to call the school district with our concerns for smaller classroom sizes and support services. Many of our classrooms are at capacity or over capacity with a waiting list to get into our school. We had three kindergarten and first grade classrooms last year but this year with our growing demand for these class levels we only have two classrooms for each level not to mention that one of our special needs educator was taken away from us a couple of weeks ago. Our educators are stressed to the max. i was in the office and was able to see to many of our special needs families in the office due to lack of support in the classrooms.  

The partnership between parents, educators and community members were successful in getting the permanent crossing guard back on the corner of Chew Ave. and Sharpnack Street. But more work needs to be done to ensure our families are able to safely get to and from school. Cars ignore the crossing guard and may be because the light signal cautioning a school crossing is too close to the crossing path and needs to be moved down some to give drivers ample time to change the speed of their driving. 

We are hosting a press conference Wednesday, November 9th at the corner of Chew Ave. and Sharpknack Street, 2:45-3pm, to address our concerns for classroom sizes and support services along with adjustments to the school crossing signal. We are asking parents and community partners to please join us for this press conference and please also speak at the next School Reform Commission meeting Thursday, November 17th 5pm.

Instructions to Register to Speak

To register to speak at a regularly scheduled or special meeting, call the Office of Parent, Community, and Family Engagement at 215-400-4180 no later than 4:30 PM on the business day immediately preceding the meeting at which you wish to address the SRC.

 The procedures for addressing the SRC are as follows:

•  Individuals must register in their own name and cannot register on behalf of someone else;
•  Individuals representing an organization must identify that organization at the time they register, and no more than one representative of an organization can register to speak at a single meeting;
• Individuals must give their name, address, daytime telephone number, and the subject on which they intend to address the SRC;
•  Individuals must bring seven written copies of their comments with them to the meeting;
•  Individuals may speak for no more than three minutes;
• No more than six individuals on the same side of an issue will be permitted to speak, though an unlimited number of individuals may leave written comments for the SRC to review;
•  Individuals will be ruled out of order if they attempt to comment or complain about the conduct or performance of a particular School District employee and will be directed to address their comments to the appropriate School District administrator;
•  Individuals will be ruled out of order if they attempt to make any remarks of a personal nature regarding any other individual, whether or not that person is present; and
• Individuals will be ruled out of order and asked to leave the meeting if they use any vulgar or profane language.

Additionally, you may submit comments to the SRC in writing by mail or deliver them to the SRC office located at 440 North Broad Street, Suite 101, Philadelphia, PA 19130.

We may need to attend the 14th District townhall to further express our concerns for the crossing signals to be moved to a location that gives ample caution to our crossing paths.

Tues Nov 15 @ 6:00 PM (3^rd Tues monthly)

14^th Distr Captain's Townhall  Townwatch Community Meeting

43 W Haines St.

Capt Sekou Kinenebrew

http://www.phillypolice.com

We are also in need of a home and school association. Hopefully we can recruit parents from the FAST program and press conference. If you are interested in forming a home and school please contact Principal Thomas with your information. Community partners are welcomed to join!!