Elementary schools will expand to include middle-school grades. Middle schools will be converted to high schools.
High schools will be renovated or built brand-new, with modern amenities making them resources to students as well as the communities they serve.
In a nutshell, those are the goals of the School District of Philadelphia’s five-year, $1.5-billion capital improvement plan. Two weeks ago, schools CEO Paul Vallas unveiled the proposal, funded through bond sales and state reimbursement programs. It is the largest and most expensive project in district history.
And, like a kid’s report card, it’s bound to get noticed.
"I don’t think there is going to be a single kid or a single family in this district that is not going to be touched in some way by these improvements," Ellen Savitz said last week. Savitz is the district’s deputy chief academic officer for school development and has been working on the district’s plans since the beginning.
"It is a combination of a million different forces converging on the kids in a way that will hopefully make every day better," she said.
Savitz, the former principal of the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, took the time to explain how this proposal would affect public-school students and families in South Philly. What she provided was a glimpse five years into the future.
If the district keeps all its promises, local students are in for a very different experience than those who went through the system before them.
Institution: Audenried High School
Changes: New building, new management
Anticipated completion: Undetermined
As anticipated, Audenried High School is headed toward a major overhaul, but it will not be closing, as many had expected — or even hoped.
The school is one of six high schools that the district has promised a new building.
"We know that we want to move ahead on Audenried very quickly and definitely rebuild it," Savitz said. "We are not going to try and rehab Audenried. It needs too much work."
When and where the school will reopen likely will depend on a proposal by Universal Companies.
Prior to winter recess, Savitz said, Universal submitted a plan to district officials outlining its vision for a new Audenried. The details included a partnership between the company and the school district to construct a building and for Universal to take over management of the troubled institution.
School district officials will review the proposal in the coming weeks, Savitz said, then make a recommendation to the School Reform Commission whether to accept or reject it. It could be several months before SRC members vote on the issue.
In the meantime, Savitz did not eliminate the possibility that Universal could be operating the school as soon as September. That would need SRC approval as well.
"If this doesn’t work out," Savitz said, "we will find a way to build a new Audenried on our own."
The district would like to erect the building at a different site in South Philly, but that could be cost-prohibitive. It is more likely that the construction will take place on Audenried’s existing property at 33rd and Tasker streets, Savitz said, and that the current building will remain in use until work is done.
The old building then would be demolished and replaced with athletic fields, she said.
Institution: E.M. Stanton Elementary School
Changes: Closing
Anticipated date: June 2003
Public hearing to discuss proposed closing of Stanton Elementary Monday, Jan. 13 6:30 to 9 p.m. Meeting at school, 17th and Christian streets.
While it seems all the talk is about what the district is adding, four schools face the ax at the end of the school year.
E.M. Stanton Elementary, 17th and Christian streets, is among those on the chopping block. As early as September, students at that school could be headed to either Arthur Elementary, 20th and Catharine streets, or Smith Elementary, 19th and Wharton streets.
Savitz explained the recommendation to close the school was not based on the school’s poor academic performance, even though Stanton had been handed over to nonprofit manager Universal Companies at the beginning of this school year as one of the 45 lowest-achieving schools in the city.
"None of this is a criticism of the job that anybody has done, from the principal to the kids to the parents," Savitz said. "It is just reality."
Stanton’s enrollment is considerably below the building’s capacity, and falling. According to district statistics, the building can accommodate 492 students, but has just 180 enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. The downward trend has continued for the last four years, during which time the student population has dropped 52 percent.
Arthur and Smith have more students, but still have plenty of room to accommodate those from Stanton. Arthur is at 65-percent capacity and Smith is operating at 68-percent capacity.
Additionally, Stanton’s building is 75 years old; it lacks a gymnasium, cafeteria, auditorium and kitchen; and it needs $650,000 in repairs.
Arthur and Smith, both newer buildings, are in better physical condition, Savitz said.
Academic performance could have saved a school from closure during this process — but only if it was performing exceptionally well, Savitz said. Stanton’s most recent scores on state assessment tests showed marginal improvement, but did not distinguish it from the pack, and Arthur and Smith both performed better in the most recent round of exams.
Savitz described one of the final criteria as "educational adequacy."
"A school that is under 200 kids often cannot offer all the programs [like orchestra, choir and afterschool programs] that you can offer when you’ve got 400 or 500 kids," she said.
Savitz stressed that the decision to close Stanton will not be finalized until after the Jan. 13 public hearing at the school and a subsequent vote by the School Reform Commission.
Institution: Bok Technical High School
Changes: Merging with Dobbins Area Vocational Technical School, relocating to new building, possibly in South Philly
Anticipated completion: 2005
Bok Technical High School is getting new everything, including a new crop of students.
The 64-year-old school at Eighth and Mifflin streets will merge with Dobbins Area Vocational Technical School, 22nd and Lehigh, pending the construction of a new building.
"Both buildings are just awful. We are looking at creating a state-of-the-art program," Savitz said, adding the district concluded this could not be done in a cost-effective manner at either existing site.
The new, combined technical school will remain in South Philly, Savitz said, but its exact location has not been determined. It is scheduled to open in 2005.
During the next several years, district officials will work on revamping a vo-tech curriculum that Savitz described as dated.
"A lot of our vo-tech programs are built on voc-ed from the ’60s where we created nothing much but carpenters and cosmetologists," she said.
Savitz promised more diversified "job-based" classes in the future. Not only are officials visiting modern programs at schools in Delaware and Connecticut, but they also have been discussing partnerships with the building trades and local industry.
"If we are going to maintain the economic future of this city," Savitz said, "we have to be training workers to stay here and do these various jobs."
Institutions: All elementary and middle schools
Changes: Elimination of middle schools
Anticipated completion: Various dates
Days are numbered for Philadelphia’s middle schools.
Nine will be converted to small high schools of about 800 students, and most of the rest will become extinct under the capital improvement program.
None of the converted high schools will be in South Philly, but as the middle schools close, local elementary schools will expand one grade at a time to eighth grade.
The middle schools have long been the bane of the Philadelphia school district and parents alike. Some schools run smoothly, but the general belief is the schools are not working, Savitz said.
Additionally, the district has difficulty keeping experienced teachers at that level, and those parents who pull their children from public school often do so just before their children reach middle school.
Keeping fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in smaller classes in the elementary schools will make them more manageable, according to the district’s theory.
Eleven of the 22 elementary schools in South Philly already accommodate grades K-eight.
Institutions: Furness High School, South Philadelphia High School
Changes: $10-$15 million in major renovations
Anticipated completion: Within three years
High-school students across the city returned to class after winter break to find cleaner, shinier schools than those they had left a week earlier.
With the kids out of the building, the district sent in custodial crews to scrub the bathrooms, remove graffiti, paint and power-wash the windows, Savitz said. She called the winter cleaning the school district’s Christmas gift to the city.
But these improvements are just the appetizer leading up to the main course. Each high school that is not being knocked down and built anew will benefit from a total of $10-$15 million in major renovations.
This is "much more than a rehab," Savitz said.
Work will begin on the outside. Doors will be replaced, roofs will be re-tarred and brick walls will be re-pointed.
Also, Vallas has a thing for glass windows, Savitz said, so the plan is to remove all the Plexiglas panes and replace them with the real thing. The district also is going to replace the metal security grates that give each school that oh-so-cuddly-prison feel with less-menacing coverings that let in more sunlight.
Inside, every high school will get a new multimedia center, technology center and modern science labs, as well as various aesthetic improvements.
Neither Southern nor Furness will be included in the first year of improvements but, Savitz said, "they will be among those schools that get done immediately after that."
The district hopes to complete all high-school renovations by 2006, she said.
Institution: New military school
Location: South Philadelphia
Anticipated opening: 2007
Probably the most innovative part of the district’s ambitious proposal is the plan to create a military school. Vallas has experience with such academies.
Not only was the district head once a senior instructor at the Illinois National Guard’s Officer Candidate School, but he also played an integral role in the formation of the Chicago Military Academy-Bronzeville while working as CEO of that city’s school district in 1999.
Bronzeville Academy was the nation’s first public military high school. Vallas believes this educational model — a blend of intense academics and discipline in a character-building environment — can prepare many students in ways traditional schools cannot. He stands behind the academic record of such schools, too, noting that many of the highest-performing schools in the country are military academies.
Right now, the district is considering building the new school in South Philly, but that is subject to change depending on the district’s ability to find a suitable plot of land on which to construct the new building, Savitz said. The district also is considering the Northwest section of the city. The school is tentatively slated to open in 2007.
The curriculum at the military high school will be college preparatory, Savitz said. Many instructors will be military personnel, and it is likely the various branches of the armed forces will have recruiters on staff informing students of career and educational opportunities offered by the military.
However, students who attend the school will have no obligation to serve in the military upon graduating, said Savitz, who added the school will be attractive to students who crave structure.
"We see kids who come into our high school who have homes that are dysfunctional," Savitz said. "When you go into a high school and there are rules, we see kids rise to that and love it."
This school will differ from many people’s preconceived notions about military schools. First, it will not be a boarding school. Nor will it serve as an alternative site for students expelled from traditional high schools.
Also while in Chicago, Vallas instituted the most expansive military education program of any school district in the country. As of 2001, 43 high schools and 16 middle schools in that city offered programs like the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.
There will be a similar movement here, Savitz said, as the district looks to add an ROTC program at every high school.
Institution: New high school
Location: Former Palumbo Elementary School
Anticipated opening: Within five years
The Frank Palumbo Elementary School building has served the district in a variety of capacities during the last two decades. Now the district is considering a more permanent plan for the five-story building at 11th and Catharine streets.
"It is in reasonably good shape," said Savitz, who should be familiar with the condition of the building from the years she worked there as principal of CAPA. "Somewhere in this five-year plan it will probably become a high school."
Palumbo was built in 1923. Until two years ago, it housed an elementary school. The district closed Palumbo Elementary due to low enrollment in June 2001, but started taking advantage of the building’s extra space long before that. Palumbo shared its space with CAPA from 1985 until the high school moved to its current home on Broad Street in 1997.
During the 2000-01 school year, the district moved 400 fifth- and sixth-graders from Norris S. Barratt Middle School, 16th and Wharton streets, to the new Barratt Annex at Palumbo. The change followed two sexual assaults at the middle school.
This year the building is occupied by students from the Overbrook Educational Center as the school awaits completion of its new building by the middle of next school year.
Institution: New high school
Location: Somewhere in South Philly
Anticipated opening: 2004
With the scarcity of sprawling tracts of undeveloped territory in South Philly, Savitz admitted she and the other honchos at the district have "no clue" where they will build a brand-new high school.
But that won’t stop them from trying. Besides eyeing land to purchase, the district is trying to obtain properties through the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, which is committed to converting and tearing down blighted buildings.
The district intends to build 11 high schools. Six will simply be new homes for existing schools. The remaining five will be new institutions altogether. Besides the military high school, which could end up in South Philly, Savitz said a second traditional high school will be constructed here.
The theme for the new high schools is "smaller but better." New schools will have lower enrollment, ranging from 800-1,000 students, but they will have improved computer technology, high-end athletic facilities and other amenities not usually associated with Philadelphia’s public schools.
District officials envision that eventually, all high schools and their new and improved facilities will be open to the community on nights and weekends.
"The goal is to make these schools the hub of the community," Savitz said. "We are hoping to change the whole feeling about high schools."
