Good news coming out of Smedley over on Bridge Street. Since Mastery Charter Schools took over the school in September, parents say they are happy with the turn around.
At long-suffering Smedley Elementary in Frankford, things are finally looking up. Now a Renaissance school run by Mastery Charter, there are raised expectations for students. And according to new data released by Mastery and the School District, enrollment, attendance, and reading levels are all going up, too. The key, says Principal Brian McLaughlin, has been getting the entire school–even the kindergartners–to feel a sense of urgency.
From the Notebook on the opening of the Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary School (1790 Bridge Street):
By 8:30 in the morning on September 1, all of the fourth and fifth graders at the new Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary School in Frankford were assembled in the sweltering cafeteria for a combination PowerPoint presentation and pep rally.
“On the screen, you see a big eraser,” preached Brian McLaughlin, Smedley’s energetic new principal who, at 27, is just a few years removed from a stint as a Teach for America corps members at Stetson Middle School.
“I want you to think of all the things from last year that may not have been things you liked,” said McLaughlin. “We’re going to erase those right now.” Photo: Benjamin Herold
Taking a breather on the first day back to school.
Mastery opened Smedley, Mann, and Harrity Elementary schools on September 1, and Young Scholars Charter School opened Douglass Elementary on August 31. For both, the focus of the weeklong head start is establishing a new school culture and new expectations.
The education of these children is the only hope we have. See this link on the dropout rate in Philadelphia.
The School Reform Commission has finally made a decision on the new management of the Smedley Elementary School, at 1700 Bridge Street. Mastery Charter Schools will take over. From the Inquirer:
“Great things are going to happen in the coming year,” said Gordon, whose Philadelphia-based company is known for turning around failing and violent schools.
His group will run West Philadelphia’s Harrity School, which is K-8, and Mann and Smedley schools, both of which serve grades K-5. Mann is in Wynnefield, Smedley is in Frankford.
A standing room crowd showed up for a full agenda at tonight’s Frankford Civic meeting. DA Seth Williams stopped by to discuss his office’s new iniative of assigning his assistant district attorneys to geographic areas. He feels that this will allow them to better understand and relate to the needs of the community. Sounds kinda like the police departments PSAs. Here’s video of Seth talking about Frankford’s issues.
Also at the meeting, Jason Dawkins from counsel-woman Sanchez’s office spoke:
of her reservations about the obesity tax pending in counsel stating that coming from retail and small business, she was concerned about increased taxes hurt small business.
He also talked about Smedley school at Bridge and Charles Streets becoming a Renaissance school. The plan proposes to turn around about 30 schools over the next three years by bringing in new leadership from education management organizations (EMOs), charter schools, or teams of District educators.
Spoke again of the city’s “Spring Into Your Park” cleanup scheduled for April 10th. He has to possible projects and are looking for input
He’s got recycle bins, get into contact with him if you need one
tomorrow at Sankofa Freedom Academy at 1 pm, they have their rescheduled Black History Month presentation
THEY ARE PLANNING FOLLOWUP STAKEHOLDERS AND TOWN HALL MEETINGS ABOUT THE HALFWAY/DRUG HOUSE TASK FORCE!Remember the last one? It was a year ago and apparently there’s been some steady progress. No firm date has been set.
The business owner of 4102 Paul Street, sitting at the corner of Torresdale and Paul St, came in because he’s seeking a zoning for retail sales of aftermarket wheels and tires. The place is currently zoned commercial but because he wants to be able to take the tires off of cars, it has to be zoned as auto repair. There were concerns over where he would be storing all the tires after another tire joint burned down two of it’s neighboring houses. His zoning hearing is March 9th at 2:30 pm.
The owner of 1715 Harrison Street came in looking to get zoning to convert it from a 2 family home to a 3 family home. He stated he lives in New York and that he’s owned up to 100 properties in Philadelphia at one time. He admitted to having one outstanding L&I violation for having key locks on every room which usually means its a being used as a boarding house. He said 5 people were living there now. The owner left after his presentation. Later on Pete Specos spoke of taking 3 weeks and 4 letters to get into contact with the owner, and that there were 3 or 4 violations on the property. He also said all three floors of the house were occupied and that when he went to the location, it was a “pig pen”.
Photo: Benjamin Herold
