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Alumni Reunion Dinner Dance at H.R. Edmunds

The Philadelphia Charter School for Arts & Sciences at H.R. Edmunds invites you home to take pride in the school that brought you your beginning!

Alumni Reunion Dinner Dance

at H.R. Edmunds

Classes from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s

‘70s, ‘80s,  & ‘90s

Friday, March 28, 2014

7:00PM – 10:00 PM

Tickets Cost $30.00

All proceeds to benefit the Student Activities Fund.

For more information and to buy tickets please contact:

Barbara Mayer at bmayer@stringtheoryschools.com or

Nicolette Richter at nrichter@stringtheoryschools.com

You may also call the school office at 215-537-2520

Join us on our Facebook Page:   H.R. Edmunds All-Class Reunion

 1197 Haworth Street

Philadelphia, PA 19124

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Philadelphia School Partnership Awards 2 Million to Edmunds

The Inquirer yesterday reported that the Philadelphia School Partnership awarded a grant to String Theory Schools to help it convert H.R. Edmunds Elementary School in Frankford/Northwood into a Renaissance charter school.

The quality of its schools is the first thing that families are going to look at when they decide where to live, so this is a great first step.  We’ll be watching how String Theory Schools meets the challenge.

You can read the entire Inquirer story by Martha Woodall here.

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Edmunds Elementary to Become String Theory Charter School

The School Reform Commission (SRC) announced on Thursday that the Renaissance Turnaround Team from String Theory Charter Schools has been awarded the contract to run H. R. Edmunds

H. R. Edmunds Elementary School

Elementary School effective with the school year beginning in September of 2012.

From their web site the String Theory model:

String Theory Schools’ flagship model school is the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School. When the doors opened in September 2000, it became the only grade school in the state of Pennsylvania to link academic education with the arts. Since then, schools in Chester and Pittsburgh, as well as other states throughout the county, have followed the String Theory Schools’ model.

The SRC followed the recommendations of the School District which says on their press release:

The District recommendations were informed by a turnaround team matching process conducted by School Advisory Councils at each Renaissance School.  School Advisory Councils met and reviewed proposals from turnaround teams and visited schools currently managed by the teams.  After reviewing the proposals, meeting with the prospective turnaround teams and holding community meetings, the Councils developed match recommendations and delivered them to the District earlier this week.

The District incorporated the findings from the School Advisory Councils into the final recommendations to the School Reform Commission.  Renaissance Schools and turnaround teams were matched based upon how the turnaround team’s proposed school design meets the needs of the respective schools.

At the Northwood Civic meeting earlier this week in the discussion among members regarding Edmunds, the opinion of the majority of the members was that any change should be in favor of a better educational result.  Members voiced concerns about order and discipline more than anything else.  So they will be looking toward improvement in those areas of concern as this process moves forward.

There is no mention in the SRC press release of whether the School District recommendations followed the will of the Edmunds School Advisory Council.  So far they have not responded to our inquiry on that issue.  If any readers have any insight into that question, please comment.

 

 

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H. R. Edmunds School is Hot Topic at Northwood Civic

On Tuesday night, the Northwood Civic Association discussed at length the repercussions of the impending conversion of the H. R. Edmunds elementary school to a charter school.  Members were updated on the recent public meeting by Renee Hudson.  Concern focused on discipline, school growth and who would run the new school.

In others news at the meeting, Joe Krause reported on his recent meeting with Northwood Academy Charter School.  Take away from that meeting is that the school will not be adding a high school but will be Kindergarten to 8th grade.  The top floor of the new building will be a gymnasium and the ground floor will house a cafeteria.  They are considering trying to acquire the lot on the other side of the street (Adams and Orthodox) for parking.

Joe Krause also reported on the Juanita Civic meeting he attended where it was reported that construction on the Bridge school on the property at Adams Avenue will begin within the next few months.  It was also noted the the owners of the property now occupied by the concrete company on Castor Avenue have a potential tenant for a new building that would be erected at that location.  PHMC is considering it for the location of an adult day care facility. No decision has been made.

Association member Al Stuhl raised the issue of a membership drive to recruit new members and also a web site for public information.

Minutes of the last meeting were read by Gina Panchella and the Treasurer’s report was delivered by Renee Hudson.  The next meeting of the Northwood Civic will be held at St. James Lutheran Church on April 17th at 7PM.

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H.R. Edmunds Elementary School to Become Charter School

From the Inquirer this morning:

FOUR MORE elementary schools will be overhauled next year as part of the school district’s Renaissance Initiative, which aims to turn around “chronically low-performing schools.  …The district will work with the community to select one of six companies to turn the struggling schools into charters. …  The providers are: American Paradigm, Mosaica Turnaround Team, Mastery Charter Schools, Scholar Academies, String Theory and Universal Companies.

Read the entire story at this link.