South Philly Review

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A new year cannot always cloak old problems.

Five troubled area schools learned that Jan. 25, as the School District of Philadelphia included them among 18 facilities in Year II of the Renaissance Schools Initiative. Three comprehensive models will attempt to diminish the numerous woes that the quintet faces.

South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., heads the local selections, which the district chose because of a combination of poor academic statistics, high dropout rates, instances of school violence and neighborhood elements, such as high illiteracy rates and unemployment figures. Joining Southern are James Alcorn School, 3200 Dickinson St.; Charles Y. Audenried Sr. High School, 3301 Tasker St.; Smith Academics Plus, 1900 Wharton St.; and Edwin H. Vare School, 2100 S. 24th St.

The move enfolds the schools within Superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman’s Imagine 2014 plan through which the Renaissance Initiative already assists 13 institutions. The district will manage Southern, Alcorn and Smith, while Universal Companies, 800 S. 15th St., will convert Audenried and Vare into charter schools.

The Renaissance designation will alter each school’s operation for the 2011-12 school year, with new measures and personnel helping to provide the institutes more respectability.

Easily the most chronicled of the five, Southern, which 14 months ago witnessed two days of attacks against Asian-American students, has benefitted from the leadership of first-year principal Otis D. Hackney III, but could not avoid distinction as a Renaissance school. On the district’s School Performance Index, which ranges from 1 to 10, with “10” the worst score, it received a “10,” and for the ’09-’10 year, only 16 percent of students proved proficient in mathematics and just 12.7 percent did so in reading on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).

“We were aware of the likelihood of receiving help,” Hackney said of his Lower Moyamensing school. “I believe this year, however, we have started to create a culture where students realize certain behaviors are unacceptable.”

Southern will follow the guidelines of the Promise Innovation Model in which Hackney will retain his position. It contains 15 elements designed to craft a higher degree of autonomy in school management in exchange for a high degree of performance accountability.

This version is likely the most straightforward of the three — with the Promise Academy (Alcorn and Smith) and Promise Neighborhood Partnership (Audenried and Vare) models being the others.

The guidelines place no limits on the percentage of current staff that a principal may retain. Teachers will work one additional hour one day per week for professional development and an extra hour two days a week to offer academic intervention. Supplemental enrichment and academic intervention will occur two Saturdays each month. A summer academy will result in a longer school year, and a week long summer institute will assist staff members a week before school begins.

According to district spokeswoman Elizabeth Childs, teachers under the Innovation and Academy models will be eligible for a one-time $4,000 recruitment incentive. Salary rates will undergo adjustments, with longer school days, school years and Saturday classes necessitating bumps.

Southern’s students will have one extra hour for academic intervention Tuesdays through Thursdays, and structured enrichment programs will be available Mondays through Wednesdays. Students and staff also will need to adhere to a dress code. One family field trip each month will look to strengthen parental and community input into the building’s operation.

“We have to work on keeping up our momentum,” Hackney said. “So many people want more out of their experiences with this school.”

At Grays Ferry-based Alcorn and Point Breeze-based Smith, most of the procedures will resemble Southern’s, but the Academy model allows only 50 percent retention of the current staff. The principals can remain in their positions only if they have served no more than two years at their schools. The teachers will work an additional hour each day.

Most of the Promise Neighborhood Partnership model’s elements will come through meetings between Universal and the district. The former announced receipt of a $500,000 grant to revitalize Grays Ferry and Point Breeze Jan. 24. The latter chose the 18 schools from a pool of 34, with its selections having higher rates of poverty and lower test scores than those of its collective institutions.

Academically, Vare is a slight exception. Its 35 percent PSSA mathematics proficiency is 7 percent higher than the district-wide average, and its 33.2 percent reading mark bests the district’s average by 2.2 percent. Regardless, second-year principal Rachel Marianno knew assistance would come to her Point Breeze facility.

“Parents have had mixed reactions because we do not have a full picture of what will be,” Marianno said, adding Universal’s founder Kenny Gamble will surely work hard to help her 325 students.

Going forward, she feels Vare can only prosper through the intervention.