Spark, an award-winning national nonprofit that provides professional 10-week apprenticeships for at-risk 7th and 8th graders to “spark” their engagement in school, is partnering with three West Philly schools – Lea, Mastery Shoemaker, and McMichael – to serve approximately 60 7th and 8th grade students. The programming starts in late February 2013, and currently, Spark is seeking mentors – local businesses and organizations in West Philadelphia and Center City.

Jim Schroder, the Program Launch Director and a West Philly resident, is particularly hopeful to recruit mentors from the West Philly community. “One of the things I love most about Spark is the bridges it creates for professional adults to work with at-risk students in a specific and relational way. I think our neighborhood in particular has a ton of professionals who really care about the community but who often don’t have a natural way to productively support a struggling student, especially a way of doing it that’s so integrated with what someone is already good at and passionate about,” Schroder said in an email.

Here’s how mentoring works:

Over the course of an eight-week session, students meet with their mentors once a week for two hours and work on a project for a culminating Discovery Night graduation ceremony held at the end of the program. A mentor does not have to have previous experience working with youth. Training and support before and throughout the apprenticeship will be provided.

Spark Philadelphia is seeking to recruit 60 mentors by January 1. After that, mentors are expected to attend preparatory events, such as an orientation to get to know Spark and a match day to get acquainted with their student.

For more information about the program, visit www.sparkprogram.org. If you’re interested in mentoring or have questions, call: 267-519-4591 or email: philadelphia@sparkprogram.org

More than 100 Henry C. Lea Elementary students have been invited to spend a day at the University of Pennsylvania this Saturday (Dec. 1) when they become honorary college students during College Day 2012. The goal of this event (held three times each year) is to “excite students about the college experience, so they will be motivated to work hard in middle and high school and strive for a college education.”

Lea students are expected to come in the morning and stay until about 4 p.m. Penn students will be mentors throughout the day, sharing their college experiences with the kids and showing them around the campus. College Day participants will also take a mock Wharton management course and complete a class project – working in groups, they’ll design products that college students would want to purchase. At the end of their visit, Lea students will see a performance of Penn dance and singing groups.

A beautiful new planting bed was recently installed in the Lea Elementary School playground along Spruce Street near 47th. Sixty volunteers came out over three days to dig, till, move soil, and plant to create the 1,400-square-foot bed with trees, shrubs, and bulbs.

This project was the first phase of the recently completed Lea Schoolyard Master Plan, a vision for a vibrant, active, fun, ecological, educational, green schoolyard and community space at 47th and Spruce. The Master Plan is the product of the collaboration between Greening Lea – a group of parents, students, teachers, neighbors, and stakeholders – and the Community Design Collaborative.

Collaborative volunteers will soon announce a date when they will be presenting their master plan to the entire community. Stay tuned for more information.

A group of volunteers helped install a new planting bed in the Lea Elementary playground at 47th and Spruce.

The old West Philadelphia High School on Walnut between 47th and 48th.

The School District of Philadelphia will be asking for input on the sale of the old West Philadelphia High School (47th and Walnut) during a public meeting Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. at the new West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St.).

The District has received bids from private contractors interested in converting the building to apartments on the upper floors and mixed uses, including commercial operations on the ground floor, according to a recent report in the Philadelphia Public School Notebook.

District officials will not talk about bid specifics, but an official told The Notebook that several of the dozen recently shuttered District properties have received competitive bids. The bids have come from private developers and charter schools interested in the properties. The District has placed a $6.5 million price tag on the old West Philadelphia High School.

A statistics-powered website launched today that ranks schools in the city. Its creators hope it will help parents navigate the often puzzling enrollment process.

Endorsed by the District, GreatPhillySchools.org allows anyone with Internet access to enter the name of a school, the name of a neighborhood, a grade level or a zip code to see how schools compare.The site scores public, charter and Catholic schools.

The site’s calculations factor in academics (math and reading proficiency and standardized test scores), attendance, safety (based on the number of disciplinary incidents reported per student) and number of college-bound students (for high schools). These are combined together to place the school on a scale of 1 though 10. The website accessed several data sources, including PSSA scores, attendance records and grade point averages, to make the calculations.

For what it’s worth, West Philly’s Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) was the only neighborhood elementary school to score 10 out of 10.

GreatPhillySchools.org also includes statistical and demographic data on most schools that is available elsewhere online, but often hard to find.

The Philadelphia School Partnership, a philanthropic organization that raises money for schools in the city, the Public School Notebook and the Urban Affairs Coalition collaborated to build and maintain the site. Mayor Michael Nutter and Superintendent William Hite officially launched the site today during a ceremony at the Shepard Recreation Center (57th and Haverford).

H/T – The Philadelphia Public School Notebook and Newsworks.

Students protest school closures last year (photo courtesy of the Unionresourcecenter.com)

Residents are invited to weigh in this Saturday on the School District of Philadelphia’s cost-cutting measures that will likely include dozens of school closures.

The School Reform Commission meeting on the District’s Facilities Master Plan at West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St.) will run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Residents will hear about the District’s plan to shutter up to 60 schools over the next few years to close a budget gap that could balloon to more than $1 billion.

Enrollment in the District has dropped 21 percent since 2003, leaving classrooms at many schools far below capacity. Enrollment in charter schools increased dramatically during that time span, taking students out of District-run facilities. In a report released last month, the Boston Consulting Group estimated that the District could close 40 to 50 schools by next year and another 15 or 20 over the next five years. District officials estimate that the closures could save as much as $35 million a year. The SRC is expected to announce next month which schools could be closed next year.

Closure decisions will be based on the condition of the school, its current capacity and the academic performance of its students.

Proposed closures will likely have a profound impact on schools in West Philly. Last year Drew Elementary near 38th and Powelton closed and its students were spread among other West Philly schools. The grade configuration at Alexander Wilson School, which the District has deemed is under-enrolled, will change from K-6 to K-5. The closure and changes have placed more pressure on other schools, including the Henry C. Lea (4700 Locust St.), Alaine Locke (4550 Haverford Ave.) and Samuel Powel (301 N. 36th St.) Schools. Enrollment issues are also a prime concern at Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.).

But Saturday’s meeting is about more than just school closures. The District is also looking for resident input on a host of issues that will arise when schools start closing. Those range from getting rid of middle schools and making K-8 the only option to changing the way students are assigned to elementary schools. To record resident input at past meetings, the SRC has distributed devices that attendees click in response to a variety of questions.

For example, one question is:

“On a scale of 1 to 9, how important is it for 3rd graders to be able to walk to school?

Meeting participants can respond by pushing the appropriate button on the device. Click here for the full list of questions. Benjamin Herold from The Notebook and WHYY’s NewsWorks has a great story on the meetings earlier this week here.