An after-school program organized by SEAMAAC, a South Philly-based organization whose mission is “serve immigrants and refugees and other politically, socially and economically marginalized communities” had to be relocated from South Philadelphia High School to Sayre High School in West Philly due to funding issues with the city Department of Human Resources earlier in the school year.
The program, which is called Hip Hop Heritage, focuses on “hip hop arts” such as deejaying, breakdancing and music production. As a result of the program’s relocation, the overwhelming majority of students in South Philly who participated in the program are no longer able to take part in the program unless they commute from South Philly to 58th and Walnut, where Sayre is located. Thoai Nguyen, CEO of SEAMAAC said that that commute is unrealistic for most South Philly-based students, many of whom rely heavily on the subway for transportation.
“The chances of them making that trip every day – that’s a hardship,” he said. “Even if the train was perfectly timed, you’re talking about a 30- to 45-minute ride, and that’s a lot to ask from high school students.” The program had only temporarily been at South Philly High for about a school year. Prior to that, it spent three years at nearby Academy at Palumbo.
The funding issues derived from DHS’s desire to spread its resources around the city as best it can, according to its spokeswoman, Heather Keafer. Hip Hop Heritage was one of two DHS-funded after-school programs at South Philly High. While Keafer confirmed that DHS has no hard and fast “rule” about not having two after-school programs it funds at the same site, she did say that “improving access by ensuring more schools have quality OST programs available was a part of the decision making process.” Nguyen knew it was unlikely that both SEAMAAC’s program and the other DHS-funded after-school program, which was run by an organization called Sunrise of Philadelphia (Sunrise did not respond to a request for comment), would both continue to get funding from DHS to operate at South Philly High upon the conclusion of SEAMAAC’s temporary stay at the school. As a result, not wanting to risk not getting funding for all, SEAMAAC submitted four total funding proposals, each at a different school. In addition to South Philly High, the organization, according to Nguyen, submitted proposals for Elementary in Passyunk Square and Sayre and West Philly High School, both located in West Philly. DHS approved SEAMAAC’s funding package for Sayre, which Nguyen called SEAMAAC’s “least desirable location,” despite applying for it.
“It made SEAMAAC unhappy not only because we were rejected at South Philly High, but [because] it doesn’t make sense for us to be in West Philly when most of our programming is focused on Southeast Philadelphia,” Nguyen said. When asked why SEAMAAC bothered to submit a proposal to a school so far away from where its programming is focused, Nguyen said it submitted the Sayre proposal “because it was listed as a priority school” by DHS.
Keafer, who noted that SEAMAAC was approved for one of the packages it asked for, seemed confused by the whole ordeal.
“SEAMAAC was awarded one school they applied for,” Keafer wrote to SPR in an email.
Nguyen called for more “transparency” in the process and thinks that there should be a way to make it so both SEAMAAC and Sunrise were able to have their programs at South Philly High.
“South Philly [High School] being a community school should be able to accommodate more than one provider offering two different after-school programs with very different types of programs for students,” said Nguyen. “It’s not like Sunrise was running the same exact program.”
Keafer confirmed that SEAMAAC applied to operate programs at both South Philly High and Sayre, and that the funding it was awarded was for Sayre. She said more than 300 applications were received for 15,000 slots, and the $23 million awarded by DHS for out-of-school time (OST) programs funded 6,500 slots.
“As you can see, we had far more applications than we could fund. DHS, in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, sought to maximize the impact of OST funding,” wrote Keafer.
She added that “[i]n serving the students at Sayre, SEAMAAC has a tremendous opportunity to impact youth’s engagement in their education as well as promote college and career readiness.”
Keafer said DHS understood the challenges of moving to a new school and that the department was “committed to continued partnership with SEAMAAC to benefit the students in the Sayre community.”
Despite SEAMAAC’s protests, Hip Hop Heritage moved out of South Philly High and has been operating at Sayre since late September, Nguyen said. Many of the students SEAMAAC served in South Philly are no longer involved with the program due to the length of travel necessary to get from South Philly all the way to Sayre, which is located at 58th and Walnut.
“The DHS OST team is aware of the challenges SEAMAAC has had with student recruitment as a new provider in the building,” Keafer said. “This is a common challenge when providers are new to a school. DHS is providing technical assistance to help SEAMAAC overcome this challenge.”
While Nguyen is upset over the situation, he said that SEAMAAC wouldn’t seek any appeals or legal redress “because I think it would be long-drawn out, demoralizing to our staff and students and families that we serve.” He added that he hoped DHS would be “more transparent” about its funding process.
“There are issues of process that I think can be improved on [DHS’s] part,” he said. “I don’t mind saying that.”
Despite the situation, Nguyen said that SEAMAAC is committed to providing programming at Sayre High School.
“We’re going to make the best of it because at the end of the day the bottom line is that students in Philadelphia regardless of the neighborhood deserve the best quality programming that we can provide.”
