Taking the high-school road

Thomas Middle School soon will receive an $8-million renovation. The facility at Ninth and Johnston streets will move in 400 computers and a central hallway befitting a modern workplace.

Thomas also will get a whole new identity.

About 100 parents learned more about the pending changeover to a charter high school at a community meeting Monday night.

Not all of them were happy about the news or the way it trickled out.

"As a parent, I am fuming," said Marie Gustafson, who has two daughters at Thomas. "I understand changes need to be made, but the way it’s been done is ridiculous."

School district officials maintain it is all being done for the good of the students as part of the Small Schools Transition Project, which eventually will result in 66 high schools citywide.

The project goes hand in hand with the district’s ongoing plan to phase out the city’s middle schools, replacing them with K-8 institutions.

Students now enrolled at Thomas will remain in school during the transition as grades are simultaneously added and deducted each year (for example, the school will eliminate fifth grade while adding ninth).

Scott Gordon, founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based Mastery Charter High School, maintained that the new school would remain a neighborhood institution, filling 75 to 90 percent of its slots with local students. The school has not yet been named.

"This is not your traditional charter school," the CEO said. "It’s going to have community leadership and community representation."

But since Mastery is an independent, nonprofit organization, it will staff the school with its own employees, Gordon said.

Thomas’ administrators and faculty will be relocated, said school district CEO Paul Vallas.

"No faculty member will lose their job," he said. "They will all have time to apply to the 67 primary schools that are converting to K-8."

Vallas added that the new school would provide the community with additional choices.

"I know South Philly needs more high-school options," he said. "I brought in Mastery Charter because I’m convinced it’s a sure thing."

MASTERY CHARTER TENTATIVELY will begin renovations this summer.

"It feels like a place where the adults are in charge," said Gordon, who added that the charter school would house 400 new computers.

During the meeting, Gordon highlighted aspects of Mastery’s college preparatory program, which includes small class sizes and an extended school year.

The CEO noted that an estimated 85 percent of Mastery students at the school’s existing location at 35 S. Fourth St. took the SATs, compared to the citywide average of 27 percent.

Each core subject taught at the school has a sequence of 12 levels, rather than four grade levels as in a traditional high school. Students must score at least a 76 on all exams and assignments to move to the next level.

"This is not your grandfather’s high school," said Gordon. "Getting a C or D doesn’t cut it in the real world and doesn’t cut it in our school."

Mastery students also must complete an internship before graduation and sign a nonviolence contract.

"It states that they will not participate in a fight, and if they do participate in a fight, they’re willing to leave the school if they are asked," Gordon said.

Vallas maintained that the Mastery Charter takeover should not come as a total surprise to parents since he announced the phasing out of middle schools at the beginning of this school year. Thomas also froze its enrollment of fifth-graders to begin its transition, he added.

But Marie Gustafson’s husband, John, of the 2800 block of South Randolph Street, noted that his 11-year-old daughter, Stephanie, started the fifth grade this school year.

Residents expressed concerns that the school’s closure would cause an overflow of students at other local institutions.

"We do not move kids into a building unless there’s additional space," Vallas said.

As for parents’ fears that Thomas’ successful programs would be eliminated, Vallas responded, "We will be pulling nothing out that already exists in this school today."

The schools chief said he would like to establish a community advisory council to further address apprehensions about the new charter high.

After the meeting, it seemed that extra reassurance might be needed. "It sounds good so far, as long as everyone keeps their word," said Rosanne Pauciello, assistant to state Sen. Vince Fumo. "We need a nice, small neighborhood school in South Philly and this is a start."

Tanya Pezanowski, whose son Christian is a sixth-grader at Thomas, said the advisory council should have been established before "all these decisions were made."

"I got some more answers tonight, but I’m still not confident about this because they keep focusing on the high-school aspect" and not on the remaining middle-school children, she added.