Philly is getting 15 new extended-day, extended-year schools
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said people had been “confused” about what year-round school means. It’s not 365 days of school, but traditional school with extra childcare and enrichment on breaks.
Philadelphia is getting 15 more extended-day, extended-year schools.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced the list of 10 traditional Philadelphia public schools and five charters at a City Hall news conference Friday, saying the city was investing in “not just a program,” but “a promise, an effort to close the opportunity gap.”
With the addition of the new schools, the city will now offer free before- and after-care seats during the school year and camp programming during summers and school breaks at 40 schools. Students enrolled in the programs get access to arts and sports programming, field trips, and homework help.
The new schools are scattered around the city.
The list, announced with fanfare at the news conference, includes Cassidy Elementary, Roberto Clemente Middle School, Duckrey Elementary, Forrest Elementary, Anne Frank Elementary, Lowell Elementary, McDaniel Elementary, Rhoads Elementary, Steel Elementary, Willard Elementary and Universal Alcorn Charter, Birney Charter, Esperanza Academy Charter, Harambee Institute of Science, and Wissahickon Charter.
Those schools join Add B. Anderson Elementary, Carnell Elementary, Cramp Elementary, Farrell Elementary, F.S. Edmonds Elementary, Gideon Elementary, Gompers Elementary, Greenberg Elementary, G.W. Childs Elementary, Juniata Park Academy, Locke Elementary, Morton Elementary, Overbrook Educational Center, T.M. Peirce Elementary, Pennell Elementary, Solis-Cohen Elementary, Southwark Elementary, Vare-Washington Elementary, Webster Elementary, and Richard Wright Elementary, and Belmont Charter, Northwood Charter, Pan American Charter, Mastery Pickett, and Universal Creighton Charter.
The city will spend $26.1 million on the 40 extended-day, extended-year programs, an official said. That money will pay for seats for 12,355 students to receive services.
‘A lifeline’
Jazmine Rodriguez loves the fact that she had free, quality childcare for her daughter, fourth grader Valerie Olmo, before and after school this past school year, during winter and spring breaks, and now, in the summer.
Before sending Valerie to Vare-Washington, a public school in South Philadelphia, Rodriguez paid for private school, where she had to pay separately for every activity.
“This program is a lifeline,” Rodriguez said Friday. “It’s a safe, nurturing space where Valerie can learn, grow, and just be a kid.”
Though the care is not open to every child at the selected schools — there are a limited number of seats in each program — officials said they were impressed with early results.
In a country with a school attendance crisis, in a city that is pushing boosting attendance, 75% of students who participated in the city’s extended-day, extended-year programs came to school 90% of the time or more. That bested the overall district rate of 61%.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said that was a powerful indicator.
“We are focused in the school district on significantly improving student achievement, and we know that one of the ways to do that is to ensure that all of ours students meet the attendance benchmark.”
Watlington and Penny Nixon, superintendent of Universal Charter Schools, both said keeping school doors open longer is a win for the city.
“This is vital for working families, and it is a powerful investment in our scholars’ growth and learning,” Nixon said.
What the model is and isn’t
Parker ran on the promise of year-round school. What has evolved, rebranded as extended day, extended year, is not teachers teaching content through the summer, but free childcare and school enrichment experiences staffed by outside providers — an important distinction in a city where the powerful teachers union showed little appetite to ask its members to work alternate schedules.
Philadelphia tried a true year-round school pilot once, from 2000 to 2004 at Grover Washington Middle School. Grover Washington during that period had nine weeks in school, then three weeks off, year round. Parents could but did not have to send their children to “intersession” weeks for help with reading and math and extracurriculars.
But then-schools CEO Paul Vallas discontinued the year-round pilot, saying it didn’t show enough promise to justify keeping or expanding it.
Parker on Friday said that people had been “confused” about what year-round school means — it’s not 365 days of school a year, but traditional school with extra childcare and enrichment. She suggested that the current extended-day, extended-year model would stand moving forward, not, as had been floated earlier, a model that would require some schools to move to a schedule that included summer instruction by Philadelphia Federation of Teachers members.
“Am I adverse to having weekend engagement? Absolutely not,” Parker said. But she’s focusing on “academic enrichment, and frankly, fun.”