The School Reform Commission last night approved the revised proposal for a K-4 KIPP charter school in West Philadelphia.

KIPP’s original application, which called for a K-12 school serving more than 1,300 students was rejected in February along with more than 30 other applications for new charters. Only five were approved. KIPP revised the application to change school governance structure, teacher qualifications, opening date and its location. Originally proposed for the Kingsessing neighborhood, the new school will be located in Parkside.

The SRC approved the revised application 3-1. Chairwoman Marjorie Neff voted against the proposal and Commissioner Farrah Jimenez recused herself from the vote because of a possible conflict of interest.  Continue Reading

Independence Charter School West was one of five new charter schools approved last night amid a raucous School Reform Commission meeting.

Under its newly granted charter, the school will open in 2016 to K-4 students and will be located in the 19142 zip code in Southwest Philly. The school “will recruit 50 percent of its students from within zip codes 19143 [which includes Cedar Park and Kingsessing] and 19139 [including Walnut Hill], and 50 percent from other parts of the city,” according to its application filed with the district. Another revision to the application caps the total number of students at 300 in the school’s first year.

Independence, like the other charter operators approved on Wednesday, already runs at least one school in the city. The others approved include schools proposed by Mastery, KIPP, Freire and MaST.  Continue Reading

The School Reform Commission is set to make decisions on 39 charter school applications during a special meeting scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

This is the final step in an application process that included public testimony and comment. This is the first time in seven years that the School District of Philadelphia has considered adding charter schools to go along with the 86 brick-and-mortar charters already operating.

The proposed schools would add some 15,000 charter school seats and cost the district hundreds of millions of dollars.

Charter school opponents like the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools argue that the district should invest money in existing public schools.

The Philadelphia School Partnerships, a pro-charter philanthropic group that includes Drexel University president John Fry on its board, offered $25 million to the district earlier this month to help offset the costs of adding new charters and another $10 million to improve existing district schools.

Republican legislators are also pushing for new charters in the city, The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting.

A list of the proposed schools along with detailed applications are available on the district website. A dozen schools are proposed around West Philadelphia. Charter application evaluation reports are available here.

Wednesday’s meeting will likely be live streamed here.

– Mike Lyons

The University of the Sciences (USP) has acquired the former Alexander Wilson School at 46th and Woodland and plans to turn it into student housing.

USP paid a reported $2 million for the 1.03-acre parcel that borders its campus and includes the three story school building, which the School District of Philadelphia closed along with nearly two dozen other public schools in 2013. The purchase, which was approved at the October 16 School Reform Commission meeting, follows a long bid process that included interest from West Philly based developers Orens Brothers.

The university will turn the site into student housing and student-focused retail, according to Helen Giles-Gee, USP’s president.

“The location of the Wilson School adjacent to the [USP] campus is a strategic one for our university and one that we hope will provide both student housing and retail that makes sense for the community and for us,” Giles-Gee said in a statement. “Though we understand that no community wants to lose its neighborhood school, we hope to work closely with area residents as we develop our plans for the site.”

Early last spring Orens Brothers seemed to have locked up the purchase of the Wilson building for $4.6 million, but the District later asked for clarification of the bids and USP emerged as the front runner.

The Wilson sale follows the sale of the old West Philadelphia High School (47th and Walnut), which will be converted to residential units.

In September, the SRC lowered the sale price of the old West Philly High by $900,000 to $5.1 million to compensate for “design inefficiencies” in the building, which was constructed in 1912. The developer, WPHS Venture Partners, told the SRC that it had to lower the number of units it could build from 300 to about 250, prompting a request to the SRC for a price reduction.

We will keep you updated on the development of these two buildings as they go through the zoning and public comment phases.

School District Chief Operating Officer Fran Burns talks about the district’s plan to sell the Alexander Wilson School building at 46th and Woodland to developers who will likely convert it to a retail/residential building.

It appears that a mixed-used retail/residential building will replace the Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which the school district closed last June.

Officials from the School District of Philadelphia said during a public meeting Thursday night that all of the leading bids on the building proposed similar uses – a combination of street-level retail and housing. The district’s Chief Operating Officer Fran Burns told about 25 residents gathered in the auditorium of the Henry C. Lea School that it’s “probably not going to be a demolition, but a major renovation within.”

The final bid will not be officially announced and approved until the School Reform Commission (SRC) meeting on Feb. 20 or March 20 (we’ll let you know when we know). No other uses for the building, which many in the community hoped would reopen as a charter school, were proposed by developers and no more offers will be accepted.

Although the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was to elicit public comment on the proposal, officials offered very few details, which frustrated many in attendance.

“I’m a little frustrated about how little of this process seems to be about the impact on the neighborhood,” said a resident who lives near the school.

Burns hinted that the offers proposed student and “multi-family” residences and that senior housing was not part of any of the proposals. No charter school offered a bid, but the nearby University of the Sciences expressed some interest, Burns said.

There are more opportunities for public input, including at the SRC meeting and during the zoning process, but that will be input on the project’s details, not on whether the building should become housing or something else.

Neither the names of bidders nor bid amounts were released. Burns would not say how much is owed in bond payments on Wilson, but said that the sale of the closed schools will not do much to offset budget problems.

“The budget will not be fixed through property sales,” she said.

Here are some more details on the sale process.

The district hopes to close the sale of the school by June 30.

–Mike Lyons

Penn Alexander School parents and education advocates will hold a phone bank in the school’s cafeteria next Tuesday (June 11) to push for school funding as the school district’s “doomsday budget” took a step closer to reality last night with an e-mail from Superintendent William Hite to thousands of school employees notifying them of possible layoffs.

The phone bank, which is open to all parents (from any school) and community members, will be set up to call voters in key Pennsylvania districts. The goal is “to motivate voters to contact state representatives requesting increased, stable funding to all Pennsylvania public schools,” according to an announcement. The phone bank will run from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Babysitting will be provided.

A representative of Education Voters of PA will be on hand to give an overview of state education funding issues and conduct a mini workshop on how to make an effective call. They will also provide a list of voters to call. If you can’t stay for the phone bank, feel free to take a list of voters to make calls during the following days.

Be sure to bring your cell phone to the phone bank.

As parents step up pressure on legislators, Hite had the somber duty of informing a few thousand school employees of impending layoffs (see the text of his email below from The Notebook). The School Reform Commission (SRC) approved the “doomsday budget” last week that has no funds to pay for staff other than a head principal and classroom teachers at most schools. Art and music teachers would be laid off, as would librarians, counselors, school aides and other support staff.

The formal layoff notices reportedly begin to be mailed out today.

Some jobs could be spared if money can be returned to the budget. Mayor Michael Nutter proposed an increase in alcohol and cigarette taxes that could restore some funds to the school budget, but those have not yet been approved. The state legislature and Philadelphia’s City Council have yet to grant requests for additional funding.

Nutter and Hite were in Harrisburg earlier this week to make the case for the $120 million the District is requesting from the state.

“So one of the things we hear is that year after year after year the district comes asking for money,” Nutter said in a statement. “Well you’re right, because year after year after year the District doesn’t get what it has asked for, and when you shortchange someone, they have to come back year after year after year.”

Nutter told legislators that the $304 million the District is asking for ($60 million from the city, $120 million from the state and and $134 million in labor concessions) would bring it into alignment with a balanced five-year plan.

“This is the moment to solve this crisis so we’re not back here year after year after year,” he said.

Here is the text of Hite’s e-mail to school employees (from The Notebook):