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The loyalty displayed by parents and faculty of E.M. Stanton rallying to save their neighborhood school from closing just won’t be enough.
A group of teachers, parents and adults who volunteer as mentors at the elementary school have been meeting Sunday evenings to devise an alternative to the School District of Philadelphia’s plan to shut down Stanton, 17th and Christian streets. The same supporters showed up in force two weeks ago when district officials held a hearing at the school.
The effort has been valiant, but school district CEO Paul Vallas said last week during a meeting with local reporters that Stanton’s numbers are impossible to ignore.
"You have a school with poor test scores, declining enrollment, that is one-third full in a building that is approaching a century in need of major repairs," Vallas said. "We are not going to have credibility if we are keeping every building we own open."
Stanton’s enrollment is at 36-percent capacity, the school performed poorly on the most recent set of state assessment tests, and district officials have estimated it would need $650,000 in repairs before next year. Vallas added he could not justify keeping the school open and expanding it through eighth grade when the building lacks a gym, a cafeteria and an auditorium.
"How do you build a school without a gym?" Vallas posed. "I can’t figure that out."
The proposal to close the school and three others after this year was included in the district’s $1.5-billion capital improvement plan. Closing Stanton will save the school district $500,000, officials report. In September, students would be rerouted to Arthur Elementary, 20th and Catharine streets, or Smith Elementary, 19th and Wharton streets.
Parents and school staff will have more opportunities to plead their case, however. Vallas will be visiting Stanton again next month — he and other officials toured the building prior to the public hearing, as well — and members of the School Reform Commission won’t make the final decision until April.
The CEO further explained that Philadelphia’s schools must begin using resources more cost-effectively.
"If I don’t spend my money wisely, I’m not going to have enough money to reduce class sizes," Vallas said. "If I’m managing large, half-empty, inefficiently managed, inefficiently run buildings, then I am not going to have money to pay for afterschool programs and summer school programs."
Vallas is always looking for ways to stretch a dollar, and he has accomplished a feat previous district leaders swore was impossible: For the first time in recent history, the district’s bankbook is in the black.
According to the school district’s mid-year report, the budget is "structurally balanced." That means Vallas won’t have to use any of the proceeds from last year’s $300-million bond sale to make ends meet.
Last year, school officials predicted they would have to tap that revenue source for at least $28 million. Revised calculations now estimate there will be at least a $2-million surplus, according to Vallas.
The newly balanced budget is not bare-bones, either.
It includes $18 million that will pay the debt service on the first of five $300-million school construction bond sales — the first step in Vallas’ five-year, $1.5-billion capital improvement program — and another $14 million to fund the largest summer school program in district history, which will commence this summer.
"Everything proceeds from finances," Vallas said.
Also, beginning Feb. 15, students who habitually disrupt class or are "nonviolent" offenders of the district’s zero-tolerance school safety policy will find themselves heading to class on Saturdays — and their parents will be joining them.
The requirement is part of Vallas’ new Saturday Morning Alternative Reach and Teach (SMART) program. Students assigned to SMART must attend eight Saturday sessions, where they will be counseled and participate in character-building exercises. Parents will be required to attend three sessions to learn how to manage their child’s behavior.
Those students who don’t learn their lesson on Saturdays will be required to attend sessions of full-day "summer camp," Vallas said. Children struggling academically will attend half-day sessions during the summer.
SMART sessions will be held at one of nine locations throughout the city, to be announced.
Also next month, the district expects to sell the first construction bonds to pay for the first wave of school building and renovation. Money raised from that and subsequent sales will pay for the $1.5-billion capital improvement plan. Those proceeds, Vallas said, will be split relatively evenly between the high schools and elementary schools.
Beginning this summer, seven high schools will undergo millions of dollars in renovations, he said, and construction will begin on at least two new high schools.
Those schools receiving improvements, and eventually every school, will be equipped with state-of-the-art science labs, libraries and computer technology centers.
"Our goal is to turn the specialty classrooms into classrooms that are on par with any of the classrooms in the most affluent suburbs," Vallas said.
The new schools also will have swimming pools, medical clinics open to the community and athletic fields.
"I can’t believe these high schools don’t have swimming pools, I swear to God," the CEO remarked incredulously.
As many as four new school buildings will be constructed in South Philly. One will house a new high school and a second would be for a military school. (The district also is considering sites in Northwest Philly for the latter.) Audenried, 33rd and Tasker streets, and Bok Technical High, Eighth and Mifflin, both will get new buildings.
Plans no longer call for Bok to be combined with Dobbins Area Vocational Technical School in North Philly. The district studied the enrollment at both schools, Vallas said, and found that each draws a considerable number of students from the neighborhoods in which they are located. That makes it more difficult to find a compromise location suitable to students at both schools.
The school district already acquired land to begin building the new Dobbins, and work could begin this year. Construction on a new Bok could begin the following year, Vallas said, depending on money and availability of land.
Open, available space will be a hurdle in building all four South Philly schools. The school district plans to acquire some space through the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. It also will create task forces consisting of students, community members and school officials who will provide input on site selection and some design elements of the new institutions.
"We’ll work out the problem," Vallas promised.
