News

By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

On Tuesday, March 20th, SLA Juniors began the annual Pennsylvania System of School Assessment testing.

While the content being tested will remain the same–Reading and Math in March; Writing and Science in April–this year’s process has changed from last year, mainly due to a cheating scandal within the Philadelphia School District.

Math Teacher Sunil Reddy, who is helping to manage the testing process along with Science Teacher Stephanie Dunda, stated that “There are some schools within the district who are suspected, but we are nowhere near that.”

However, SLA Juniors will still be affected by the tightened requirements and regulations.

“Some of the rules regarding proctoring changed,” explained Mr. Reddy. “So, primary teachers of students who are testing in the subject that those teachers teach them in are no longer able to proctor those tests, which schedule-wise made it difficult to schedule teachers because they couldn’t proctor those tests for those kids.”

Due to the new rule about teachers proctoring, the organisation of PSSA rooms and times had to be re-sorted. This year, rooms will be testing by streams rather than advisories, which has also minimized the number of rooms that needed to be proctored.

The teachers proctoring the PSSA’s also had to undergo special training, which included instructions on how to proctor tests, what they need to say to students, and also what they can’t say during testing.

There will also be officials from the school district appearing at SLA on certain days to monitor and check that everything is in order.

No cheating has occurred at SLA, nor has the school ever been accused of wrongdoing.

“We just want to make sure that we follow the rules as strictly as possible so we continue to have 100% in the clear name,” said Mr. Reddy.

As well as new rules regarding the PSSA testing, the Juniors will also have a new schedule for the next weeks of testing.

“Typically it’s the first four bands on the first days of testing. And then usually every day after that it’s the first three bands with any extended testing for anybody who is not done yet,” explained Mr. Reddy.

While SLA will have to go through the same process as every other high school in the Philadelphia School District, the juniors will not be allowed to leave after the test.

For Juniors, the PSSA test is a chance to get out of classes; for the school, it is a chance to show the school district how successful our students can be.

“We just want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible,” stated Mr. Reddy.

By Heather Campbell

Guest Writer

This year, the SLA annual ski trip to Blue Mountain scheduled for February 25th was cancelled due to the lack of funds, snow, and overall student interest.

A ski trip has been planned every year for the past six years, but only four have actually happened.

The cancellation of the trip has been a disappointment for many of the students who were hoping to attend.

“I was really sad it was canceled. I was really looking forward to it,” commented Senior Marina Stuart.

Stuart had not been skiing since the last trip and was looking forward to it and hanging out with friends. This was the third trip that Stuart had tried to attend, but has only gone on one.

Freshmen Nikki Adeli, Leah Kelly, and Julian Makarechi were also among the students who were disappointed to learn about the cancellation of the trip.

Kelly was hoping that the skip trip would provide her the opportunity to bond with friends and have a fun time, but now they have to do so by other means.

“I usually don’t go skiing but when I do, it’s with my school trip,” commented Adeli.

Science teacher Gamal Sherif, who organizes the trip, said that “we didn’t have enough students.” They had 28 students sign up, but they needed 45 to afford it.

The cost of the trip was also a factor in the its cancellation. For the past few years the trip has been to Bear Creek because it was cheaper, but this year they opted for taking a yellow school bus to Blue Mountain to balance out the cost. The Home and School Association had offered to cover a portion of the cost.

“We thought we could spend the $500 from the Home and School and see how it would hurt the school overall,” commented Sherif.

“Every year it has been hard for us. I don’t know if the school is big enough. We tried all sorts of things; we had bake sale, we had poly-metrics and conditioning.”

With the high costs of skiing, it is essential for funding and student interest in order for the trip to be successful.

“When freshmen come at the beginning of the year, they should mention it. They need to mention it more,” suggested Adeli.

“I think they isn’t enough interest at our school and they need to team up and partner with another school” said Stuart.

To make the trip more successful, the organizers have been considering the idea of partnering up with another school, looking at Julia R. Masterman to be their model.

“Masterman gets to go on a Friday. The early mornings and Saturdays didn’t appeal to students,” stated Sherif.

Another factor in the trip’s cancellation was the lack of snow.

“If we got up there and the weather was slushy it would not be money well spent,” commented Sherif.

For this year’s ski trip, the school had to take into account the weather and student interest to assess whether the cost of the trip would be outweighed. This year, the trip was too expensive for what it was worth.

By Mike Dea

Staff Writer

Principal Lehmann is the recipient of the Lindback Award For Outstanding Principal Leadership, awarded to him on February 27^th, 2012.

The Lindback Award is given as a recognition of principals within the School District of Philadelphia who have gone above and beyond their given responsibilities.

The school of each recipient of the Lindback award is given $15,000, which they can then use as they see would best benefit the school.

To receive the award, one must be nominated by two teachers, a parent, and a student.

Mr. Lehmann found it an honor to have been nominated. “It was unbelievably humbling that the community of SLA thought I deserved the award.”

During a time of budget cuts in the School District, the additional $15,000 that came with the award was an added benefit. Lehmann is going to use this addition to help pay for next year’s laptops.

“We spend about $180,000 on laptops, including teachers and students,” Lehmann noted. “The majority of which is for students.”

With such a large amount of funds to raise, and a reduction in aid from the School District, every bit of fundraising helps.

Mr. Lehmann appreciates his fellow principals that he’s relied on for guidance and aid.

“Within the community of the School District of Philadelphia, there’s an amazing group of principals who are amazing, successful, and who use our colleagues to bounce ideas off of and use as sounding boards,” he said.

“So when one of us wins the award, it is shared with all of the principals in this city who work in service of our city’s children.”

With this amount in place, SLA is now more than halfway to their fundraising goal for next year’s laptops.