Superintendent William Hite said today that the 2013-2014 school year may be delayed if the District does not receive an anticipated $50 million from the city by Friday, Aug 16. “We will not be able to open all 218 schools for a full-day program,” Hite said in a statement released this afternoon. “Without the funds to restore crucial staff members, we cannot open functional schools, run them responsibly or provide a quality education to students.”

William Hite (archive photo).

Schools are scheduled to open on Sept. 9, but Hite said administrators are considering alternatives, including pushing back the first day of school, only opening some schools on Sept. 9 or opening for a half day.

Hite said that $50 million is required to rehire hundreds of aides and other school personnel who have been laid off as a result of the budget shortfall.

“Fifty million dollars allows us to tell parents that when their child is walking through the hallways, eating lunch or at recess, an adult will be supervising them,” Hite said. “It allows us to tell parents that counselors will be available to serve children in our largest and neediest schools, and that an assistant principal will be on hand to resolve any disciplinary issues that keep children from learning.”

Hite went on to say that $50 million “only allows us to open the doors” and reiterated the District’s position that labor union concessions are also required.

Parents can register public school students for the upcoming school year this Friday, Aug.  9 at the Family and Education Reunion at the School of the Future, 4021 Parkside Ave.

The Reunion runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include free backpacks, educational workshops, entertainment and food. Registration is required for students who moved to another neighborhood during the summer, those who are new to Philadelphia or transferring from private, parochial and charter schools, and kindergarten students who did not pre-register in the spring.

There are some exceptions to that though. Placement for specialized services, Renaissance Schools, overcrowded kindergarten classrooms or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and arrangements for children who live with an adult other than their parent won’t be available.

Also, it is unclear whether registration for Penn Alexander School, which last year had its own registration date separate from the rest of the District, will be available on Friday. General registration at neighborhood schools is on Aug. 19. UPDATE (8/7/13): We have confirmed that parents who want to enroll their kids in Penn Alexander School will not be able to register them at Friday’s event. For more information about the enrollment at the school please call 215-823-5465.

Parents or guardians will need the following to register:

• Proof of identification, including current PA driver’s license or photo ID card; a valid municipal, state or federal employment identification or a passport.
• Proof of residency, including: PA driver’s license; current vehicle registration; lease with name of parent/guardian; recent property tax bill; voter registration ID; recent letter from government agency with parent/legal guardian’s name; recent pay stub, bank statement or credit card bill; change of address notice; deed; mortgage settlement sheet; wage and tax statements.
• Proof of child’s age, including: birth certificate (original or notarized copy); child’s valid passport; baptismal certificate; prior school records; notarized statement from parent.
• Immunization document that shows proof of vaccinations for diptheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, Hepatitis B and varicella (chicken pox). Valid proof includes child’s immunization record, written statement from former school district or medical office that required immunizations were administered; verbal assurances from former school district or medical office that required immunizations were completed with records to follow.

Transfer requests will not be accepted until later in the fall.

The first day of school is Sept. 9.

Little Green School House teachers (from left to right) Tyler Colvard, Dionne Wright-Chambers, and Rowan Machalow.

Rowan Machalow and her partner Tyler Colvard, both teachers, are opening a new preschool this fall, called The Little Green School House, at their home located near 45th and Walnut (219 S. Melville St). Apart from teaching music, art, yoga, science, reading readiness, math, and drama, the school will have a special emphasis on living green – kids will also be learning things like “composting in a worm bin, planting and growing food they can eat, preparing and eating local veggies, cleaning and beautifying our block, visiting a local chicken coop, sorting materials for recycling, and using recycled materials to create art.”

The preschool will have full-day and half-day options and will only have 12 spots available, since Rowan and Tyler would like to “keep it pretty small.” Besides them, there will be two other qualified teachers in the program. Kids from almost 2 years old through 3rd grade (for after school programs) are welcome to apply. You can check out the space and meet the teachers at one of the Open Houses – on Tuesday, July 30 and Friday, Aug 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.littlegreenschoolhousepa.com, email info@littlegreenschoolhousepa.com or call 215-222-0208.

What a difference a year has made for West Philadelphia Catholic High School. The school, located at 45th and Chestnut, was supposed to have closed last year, one of many victims of school closures and consolidation undertaken by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. But it was saved and officials there announced on Monday that the school received a $1 million donation, the largest single donation in its 96-year history.

Pledged by an unnamed donor, the money will help fund a five-year plan focused on issues such as enrollment and technology. West Catholic’s president, Brother Richard Kestler, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the gift will also bolster the school’s plan to become financially self-sufficient by 2015.

The school will also get a new name – from now on it will be called “West Catholic Preparatory High School, located in University City.”

Enrollment figures are on the rise as well. The school had about 250 students last year. This year it will add a freshmen class of 145, three times bigger than last year’s class and the largest since the 2007-2008 school year.

West Philly resident Siduri Beckman, Philadelphia’s first Youth Poet Laureate, has aimed her pen at Gov. Tom Corbett and state Republicans for education budget cuts that have disproportionately hurt poorer school districts. In A Word from the Cripples, which she gave us permission to reprint below, Beckman, a graduate of Penn Alexander and a Masterman ninth grader, speaks for the city’s public school students, the ones most impacted by the cuts.

The poem has received national attention – for good reason.

A Word from the Cripples

by Siduri Beckman

Siduri Beckman (Photo by Albert Yee Photo and reprinted from the Generocity website.)

I’ve got something
to say.
It won’t take long
Just as long as it took you
to snatch everything away
One fourth of the body is
the leg
You have crippled us
Cursing us to hobble
all of our lives.

You see us as a problem
the classic class problem
INNER CITY streaked like mud across our faces
they’re all on the street anyway.

Thrusting fear
into our hearts
Why make us feel
so small
helpless
Forgotten by the people
whose duty it is to remember

Turn your back on your city
that chose not to choose
you
Because they feared
and now do all fears dawn true.

We will show ourselves to be
as formidable a foe
as all of those frackers
who you refuse to tax.

Dismiss us
We cannot vote.
But in this country
we can speak.

A mural at the Alexander Wilson School.

The Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which is one of two dozen public schools slated to close in a couple of weeks, is being eyed as a possible location for a charter school.

A public meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, June  13 beginning at 6 p.m. to discuss that possibility. Speakers will include Marc Mannella, CEO of KIPP: Philadelphia Schools and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. The meeting will be held at the 46th Street Baptist Church, right across the street from Wilson at 46th and Woodland. All parents, students and members of the community are invited to attend.

While the fate of most of the closing schools is unclear, it is likely that some of them will become independently run charter schools. Some 57,000 of Philadelphia’s public school students were enrolled in charter schools this year, about 37 percent of all students.

Begun in 2003, KIPP: Philadelphia Schools currently operates one elementary school, KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy, two middle schools, KIPP Philadelphia Charter School and KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School, and one high school, KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy. The company hopes to operate 10 schools in West and North Philadelphia by 2016, according to its website. Those plans include adding one elementary school per year between 2013 and 2015.

– Mike Lyons