Focus on freshmen

Freshmen entering South Philadelphia High School in September will feel isolated from the rest of the students, but it won’t be due to typical adolescent angst.

Southern’s newbies will actually be alone, separated from the rest of the student body in the school’s Ninth Grade Success Academy.

The school has been selected by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to become a Talent Development High School, a program created by the college in 1994 to assist large high schools facing serious problems with student attendance, discipline, achievement test scores and dropout rates.

The program is already in place at several of the city’s public high schools, including Kensington, Strawberry Mansion, Edison and Germantown.

"Oftentimes, we think the children might get bad habits from the other children," said Southern principal David Strolle. "They are younger. We feel they need a place to call their own, at least for the first year until they get acclimated to the demands of high school."

The academy will be housed on the high school’s fifth floor, and the principal said it will be off-limits to the rest of the student population. Freshmen even will have their own entrance to the building.

In addition, the class schedule for the entire school is changing. Students’ schedules have consisted of six classes plus lunch, each 59 minutes long. Next year, students will take four 90-minute classes a day, plus lunch.

The school year will be divided into two semesters. Students will enroll in four classes for the fall semester, then four new classes in the spring.

"This will go a long way in not only enabling the students to take remedial courses if needed," Strolle said, "but also at the other end of the spectrum, to take higher-level courses to enhance their credentials."

Southern will offer an advanced-placement chemistry course next year, and the principal said additional college prep courses will be added in subsequent years.

Freshmen will be required to take a ninth-grade seminar class during their first semester to learn study skills. The Talent Development curriculum also offers "transition courses" to ninth-graders lagging in English and math.

Grades 10-12 also will be separated into two academies: one with the school’s law and justice and business programs, and a second with health and hospitality programs.

Southern had received approval to become part of the Johns Hopkins program last year, but amid the changes within the school district — including the hiring of schools CEO Paul Vallas — Strolle said plans were put on hold.

Vallas OK’d the new curriculum prior to the start of this school year, and Southern reapplied to the program and was accepted again. More than 80 percent of the faculty voted in favor of participating in the program, Strolle said.

Southern has received a $180,000 grant from the Philadelphia Education Fund to purchase the materials and pay Talent Development coaches from Hopkins who will work with teachers. The program is intended as a permanent fixture at Southern.

To prepare parents and students for the changes, Strolle and other administrators visited eighth-grade classes at Southern’s feeder schools. The principal also plans to mail information on the academy to parents.

And this summer, freshmen and their parents will attend a three-hour orientation at the school. Those sessions have been scheduled for Aug. 26, 1-4 p.m.; Aug. 27, 9 a.m.-noon; and Aug. 28, 4-7 p.m.


Welcoming new teachers

The School District of Philadelphia is faced with more teacher vacancies than ever before heading into the next school year — officials are looking to hire 600 teachers before September.

Last Thursday, the district unveiled its new Teacher Welcome Center at 22nd and Arch streets as part of an aggressive campaign to fill those empty slots.

"First impressions make a big difference," said school district CEO Paul Vallas. The center features computer workstations, a benefit services center and interview and counseling rooms.

Last week, the School Reform Commission adopted a budget that allotted $12 million for teacher recruitment and retention.

At least 125 new teachers will enter the district next year through a partnership with a national program called Teach for America, which helps urban districts recruit recent college graduates.

The district also is expanding its own search for teachers, especially in parts of California and New York where educators are being laid off because of budget cuts.

Teachers already in the system are being encouraged to bring new faces to the district as well. Vallas said current teachers could earn as much as $1,000 for referring someone to the district.

"We want to turn every one of our teachers in the school system into a recruiter," he said. "Just imagine 12,000 recruiters." Mayor John Street attended the ribbon-cutting for the new center.

"The opening of this recruitment center is more than just a symbolic statement that we care about recruitment," Street said. "We care about getting the very best teachers we can get and providing them with the best teaching environment we can afford."

So far, the school district has received 800 applications from prospective new teachers.