Still full of life, 114-year-old Sheppard School faces its demise

Submitted by Benjamin Herold on Mon, 12/12/2011 - 14:53 Posted in Latest news | Permalink

Text and audio production by Benjamin Herold
Photographs and slideshow production by Jessica Kourkounis
for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks
 

Isaac A. Sheppard Elementary School, now 114 years old, could be living out its final days.

A tiny K-4 elementary school at Howard and Cambria in the heart of one Philadelphia's toughest neighborhoods, Sheppard is one of nine schools slated for closure as part of the School District's facilities master plan. At a Tuesday community meeting, District officials will make made their case for closing the ancient building and reassigning its students, prompting a huge outpouring of emotion from Sheppard supporters.

Willing to listen

by Benjamin Herold Posted in December 2011 Edition | Permalink

For the first time in recent memory, Patrice Berrian-Marrujo felt that somebody in power was listening to her.

A classroom assistant for students with severe emotional problems at Levering Elementary in Roxborough, Berrian-Marrujo describes herself as a "low-level employee" in the School District of Philadelphia.

But she is passionate about her work, and she is concerned about what the District's recent proposal to close Levering will mean for her students. So on a crisp November Saturday, she joined roughly 100 other parents, students, and teachers at a community meeting at Roxborough High School to discuss the District's plans.

New tool connects people, ideas, resources

Submitted by Guest blogger on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 16:47 Posted in Community voices | Permalink

This guest blog post comes from Brian Cohen, a blogger and School District of Philadelphia teacher.

Lights. Camera. Intimidation.

That's the way I felt standing in front of four video cameras and over a dozen reporters on Monday when the new Change By Us Philly website officially launched.

I was asked to come and speak from my experience using the social networking tool in order to find help and resources in providing laptops for my math classroom at the Academy at Palumbo.

Go slow on closings

Posted in December 2011 Edition | Permalink

After a year of urgency from the District about the need to shed tens of thousands of excess seats, it was surprising that the facilities master plan unveiled in November called for only nine school closings. Some local officials and School Reform Commission members responded that the plan is not aggressive enough. One critique we heard is that it's better to rip off a Band-Aid than slowly peel it off.