The Notebook's latest news posts.
Philly principal urges pro sports teams to save school athletics
Submitted by thenotebook on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 09:13 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
Philadelphia School District officials are headed to City Council today to plead for more money.
With the District staring down a $300 million budget deficit, one high school principal says it's time for everyone, including the city's four professional sports teams, to chip in.
District releases detailed budget proposal
Submitted by thenotebook on Fri, 04/26/2013 - 14:59 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
As City Council's school budget hearings approach, the District has released its detailed financial plan for next year, showing line by line the withered financial health that the city's schools are in.
School safety since Newtown
Submitted by thenotebook on Fri, 04/26/2013 - 10:08 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
A version of this article first appeared at Education Week.
by Nirvi Shah & Andrew Ujifusa
After the devastating school shootings in Newtown, Conn., in December, state lawmakers around the country vowed to act. The mission: Devise ways to prevent a similar tragedy.
They came up with hundreds of possible strategies.
An Education Week analysis of nearly 400 bills related to school safety filed in the days, weeks, and months after the deadliest K-12 school shooting in U.S. history found that legislators have proposed solutions that include arming teachers, adding guards or police officers, and shoring up the security of school buildings.
District: No charter expansion next year
Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Thu, 04/25/2013 - 19:45 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
Superintendent William Hite has decided not to recommend any charter school expansions for next year, saying it would be irresponsible to do so given the District's financial situation.
"Given our dire financial prospects, we must ask for shared sacrifices from our partners," said Hite in a statement. "It would be irresponsible for the District to endorse charter expansion while asking our principals to do the impossible with school budgets."
Guide to school budgets isn't pretty
Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 18:52 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
The School District has published its 2014 "Guide to School Budgets" that lays out quite starkly what to expect next year unless new money can be found. The document is meant for principals, School Advisory Councils, teachers, parents, assistant superintendents and community leaders.
Three Philly schools get grants to expand
Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 15:18 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
Three of Philadelphia's most innovative traditional public schools are set to expand, thanks to $6 million in grants from the nonprofit Philadelphia School Partnership.
All told, Center City's Science Leadership Academy, Germantown's Hill-Freedman Middle School, and the Navy Yard's Sustainability Workshop are expected to add 1,600 new students over the next three years. The hugely popular SLA, a project-based high school known for its use of technology and its partnership with the Franklin Institute, will expand into a second campus inside Beeber Middle School in West Philadelphia.
Community disappointed as Germantown High expansion idea goes unheeded
Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 12:57 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
by Aaron Moselle for NewsWorks
Ignored and disappointed.
That's how some members of the Germantown High School community are feeling this week after learning about the School District of Philadelphia's decision to expand nearby Roosevelt Middle School.
Center City elementary school greens its way to national honor
Submitted by thenotebook on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 11:32 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
by Charlotte Pope
Philadelphia’s Albert M. Greenfield Elementary School has been named a national Green Ribbon School, along with three other Pennsylvania schools, for its efforts in environmental stewardship.
“It feels great,” said principal Daniel Lazar, who has been at the Center City school since 2009.
“In a way, it’s a validation of everything that our community has worked towards over the past eight years.”
The U.S. Department of Education honored 64 schools that scored high on environmental impact, cost savings, curriculum development, and community involvement. Fourteen school districts were also recognized for their environmental efforts.
District looks to restructure top management
Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 10:50 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
[Updated, 2:12 p.m. with full text of email]
While it is trying to cope with its fiscal Armageddon, which includes plans to cut by 30 percent its already depleted central office staff, the School District is also seeking to restructure its top management and is advertising nationally for new personnel.
An internal email from Deputy Superintendent Paul Kihn to senior staff was obtained by the Notebook and NewsWorks. In it, Kihn explains that everyone will be required to reapply for their present jobs and announces that the District is seeking people to fill new roles. These include a chief schools officer, as well as several assistant superintendents and deputies.
Despite grim District budget, Philadelphia charters seek 15,000 new seats
Submitted by thenotebook on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 17:52 Posted in Latest news | Permalink
by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
Twenty-one city charter schools are seeking to add more than 15,000 new students during the next five years. If granted by the School Reform Commission, the charters' requests would eventually mean a new $110 million annual hit to the District's already fragile bottom line.
District officials say a vote on the expansion requests, originally scheduled for April 18, is now expected to take place on May 16. The District's charter schools office has not yet made its formal recommendations to the SRC.
Some of the charters' seat requests are staggering.
Notes from the news
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