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District Reviews Proposal for Boarding School: If Approved, a South Phila. Group Would Run the State's First Publicly Funded Residential School

Posted on: Thursday, 15 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Martha Woodall, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Dec. 15--The Philadelphia School District may partner with a South Philadelphia community-development organization to open what would be the state's first publicly funded boarding school.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission has asked district staff to review the proposal submitted by the AvinJohn Community Development Corp. to operate a boarding school for 300 middle-grade students under a contract with the district.

The proposed Solomon's Initiative Academic Boarding Middle School would be similar to the SEED Public Charter School in Washington. SEED, which was founded in 1998, is the country's first urban, public boarding school.

At yesterday's commission meeting, the Rev. Steven Avinger Sr., senior pastor at the Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church and treasurer of the community-development group, said there is a need for an innovative residential school in Philadelphia.

He said the school would be aimed at students in sixth through eighth grades who are on the brink of trouble.

"We call them students on the bubble -- kids who have not engaged the juvenile justice system fully but are on the verge," he explained after the meeting. "They have some attendance issues, family issues."

He said the school would target students who are now required to attend the district's Saturday detention sessions. His organization is involved in operating one of those programs.

The school would "provide all the wrap-around services necessary to level the playing field" for those students, Avinger said.

Both he and district officials said that they were not yet sure of the cost.

The SEED school in Washington spends about $30,000 per pupil, and 90 percent of that comes from public funds, according to officials at the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board. SEED raises the rest of its money through fund-raising.

The school enrolls 320 students in seventh through 12th grades. In the last few years, 100 percent of its graduates have gone on to college.

While Philadelphia officials said they were interested in reviewing AvinJohn's proposal, they said the school district could not afford to operate a boarding school without outside help.

"The question for us is: Can we make this work financially?" schools chief executive Paul Vallas said after the meeting. "Can we participate in this and not bear the bulk of the cost? Because at the end of the day, we have 225,000 children we have responsibility for, and we have to make sure that we're serving them all adequately."

Commission member Sandra Dungee Glenn said many questions remained. But Glenn, who has visited the SEED school and has been talking with advocates of Solomon's Initiative for more than a year, added: "I always think that where there's a will, there's a way."

Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

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