Fairhill Community High School: Phoenix rising

One of six "accelerated schools," it offers over-age students a new path to a diploma. "The teachers don't play," one said.

by Ruth Rouff

Photo: Harvey Finkle

Ashley Howell, who uses the onsite daycare center for her 18 month old daughter, has perfect attendance and plans to study nursing after she finishes her diploma.

According to mythology, the phoenix was a sacred bird reborn from its ashes. It's fitting, then, that the phoenix is the mascot for Fairhill Community High School, a school in Kensington that gives another chance to former dropouts such as 17-year-old Samuel Estevez.

"I was way off track at Kensington High," Estevez acknowledged as he polished a persuasive essay in computer lab. But after leaving Kensington, he stayed home for just a month before realizing that he "wasn't going to make it anywhere in life" without a diploma.

He heard about Fairhill from his girlfriend, a recent graduate, and he found it a far more congenial place. "Here I attend school every day," he said. "The teachers don't play. They're really about teaching. At Kensington, you could walk out of class ... and no one would say anything."

Founded in 2004, Fairhill is one of six "accelerated schools" designed to reclaim over-age students with few high school credits and put them on a path to a diploma. It is bringing new hope to roughly 225 students and has a waiting list of 300.

The nonprofit that runs Fairhill, IECI/One Bright Ray, Inc., has an agreement to open a "North Philadelphia Community High School" nearby this spring for 100 students, some of them coming out of the juvenile justice system. Because of the high demand, the District is planning to open yet another accelerated school this summer.

An evaluation of the accelerated schools is underway, but there is not yet any hard data on how effective these small, privately managed schools are in shepherding students to graduation and further education or jobs. Principal Marcus Delgado said that in less than four years Fairhill has awarded diplomas to 87 students.

It is clear that at Fairhill many students benefit. Estevez is on track to graduate in September with plans to enroll in barber school and open his own shop. Sasha Bernard, 17, found Fairhill on the recommendation of a math teacher at Edison who saw that she was floundering.

"Here the teachers … make sure you get your work done,” she said as she compiled a “Hamlet Dictionary” using PowerPoint. “At Edison, they didn’t care what you did, as long as you didn’t make trouble.” She is on track to graduate in March 2009 and wants to enter the medical field.

Sasha Bernard who struggled at Edison, is on track to graduate from Fairhill in March 2009.

Interview required

Delgado said that students are admitted four times a year after undergoing an intensive interview process in which he determines whether they are serious about returning to school. He estimates that he admits 90 percent of the students he interviews.

Some, he said, come to Fairhill with zero credits; some have been out of school for four or five years. Some read on lower than a sixth-grade level. To help them succeed, Fairhill offers a range of support services, including a social worker and therapist and one support service class during the last hour of every day. There, students get instruction with a ten-to-one student-teacher ratio. In addition, tutoring services are available after school every day until 4 p.m.