School District

School District Seems Indecisive With Plans To Shift the Schedule

May 26, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Leo Braveman

Staff Writer

Back in March I first heard talk about the school having a pushed back schedule for next year. Immediately when I heard this I was surprised and not really looking forward to any type of delayed schedule

As of now, our school officially starts at 8:15, making any unexcused arrival after that marked late. Next year, Philadelphia schools are scheduled to shift to a 9AM start time (the change does not affect any schedule changes such as no advisory, changed Wednesdays ETC, making for a simple schedule pushback). According to Principal Lehmann, our schedule will most likely begin at 9 AM.

When I first talked to friends about it I heard excitement about the plan. Many students were understandably excited to wake up much later, and liked the overall idea, feeling that it would allow for more sleep.

Although I agree that it will be nicer to wake up late, I see the overall effect of the plan to be awful for students and even teachers with any type of extracurriculars.

In terms of my own day, I enjoy going to the gym after school, maybe a couple days of the school week. But on days that I have advisory, it would cause me to get home anywhere from 7-730PM, making for a huge inconvenience for when I would normally have dinner, and force me to start homework later than 8PM!

But this significant day change of course does not only affect me, any students who wish to play a sport, or even spend time with friends after school will experience the same issue, with possibly having to commute much further than I do.

I see some of the logical reasoning on why the school district wants to push back the day, but I am concerned that with still not enough time for long activities before school, and students getting home much later the effects could be hurtful and inconvenient.

Hopefully, after a year of this crunched afternoon schedule students will find ways to manage, there is still a possibility that the plan can change but nothing points towards that being definitive.

As a final note, the day I planned to publish this article the school district abruptly canceled the plan. I do not know more on this but am looking forward to hopefully having the same schedule.

Locker Talk: What website do you wish was unblocked in school? Why?

January 23, 2013 by lpahomov

Caption

“Facebook. I like facebook and it’s really fun.” - Freshman Hikma Salhe

Caption

“Tumblr. I feel as though we should have other means of expressing ourselves besides twitter.” - Sophomore Alexis Dean

Caption

“Damnlol because when I finish my work I think there should be a site we can go to to waste time.” - Sophomore Nadir Meeks

Caption

“Facebook because there is definitely a lot of educational things you could find on there if you use it right.” - Freshman Morgan Caswell-Warnick

Caption

“Spotify. Having spotify blocked is just going to make us torrent music.” - Junior Anthony Buchanico

Caption

“Youtube. I know it’s unblocked already but I don’t care about any other website.” - Junior Ananda Kinght

Caption

“No website. People shouldn’t be focusing on something else besides their school work.” - Sophomore Rahed Albarouki

Previous Next

Parents Protest Budget Cuts with ‘Mock Bake Sale’

April 15, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Parents and students at rally outside City Hall

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

Members of City Council received a sweet surprise Thursday April 12th when parents of school district students hand delivered baked goods. Following, parents and students gathered at City Hall for a rally to talk about Governor Corbett’s $900 million education budget cuts.

Education Voters of Pennsylvania backed this “Not-a-real-bake-sale” with parents and the community who organized it. The message was, “There aren’t enough cookies in Pennsylvania.”

The two-part event began with the parents delivering cookies to the chambers of City Council with the intention of expressing dissatisfaction about the budget cuts.

Afterward, about sixty people gathered on the north side of City Hall for a brief rally.

People in attendance included Senator Vincent Hughes as well as Representative Eugene DePasquale.

“When someone says there’s not enough money in Harrisburg to fully fund public education,” Senator Hughes said, “they’re lying!”

“With a billion dollar gap, we can’t do it.” said Parent of two at Cook-Wissahickon, Rebecca Poyourow.

As a key organizer Poyourow gathered with parents from around Philly over the last month organizing the effort.

Parents who spoke expressed frustration about crowded classrooms, teaching layoffs and cuts to art, music and language classes.

Parent Sabra Townsend, whose child go to James Dobson Elementary, brought a flyer with her for an actual bake sale to support an after school math program at Dobson.

Not the first ‘Mock Bake Sale’ of its kind, similar types of event were held in Harrisburg and Shippensburg on Monday April 9th.

At the end of his speech Senator Hughes asked how much the cookies costed. Education Voters PA Executive Director Susan Gobreski answered, “How much do you wanna pay? 50 cents?”

Senator Hughes, after hearing the cookies were meant to be free, agreed, “Well, every little bit counts.”

Representative Jim Roebuck, the Democratic education chairman who is running again on April 24th, told the crowd that “You have my commitment as long as I am in Harrisburg.”

Contact Jenn Wright at jwright@scienceleadership.org

New ‘10% Time Project’ Shakes Up Spring Courses

March 6, 2012 by lpahomov 1 Comment

Project Timeline for Ms. Echols' Physics Class

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

A new semester-long experiment started in February for juniors in Physics and seniors in Anatomy.

Running for a total of 13 weeks, juniors and seniors choose a medium to present their learning in a topic of choice.

The inspiration for the program comes from Google and their “20% time” method, where employees can spend one day a week working on anything they want to enhance the companies’ services.

Quite fittingly, SLA has adapted this idea into science classrooms.

“It gives kids the chance to be creative and recess their mind,” Senior Amber Altomare said, “while still being graded.”

Teachers employing the project, like Science Teacher Tim Best, say that its purpose is “to learn about something you want to know instead of something I want you to know.”

The 10% Time Project is a badge of just exactly how SLA has been operating under its unique teaching style since the day the doors opened.

Mr. Best speaks to the fact that while it requires a lot of work, the project is nothing like the senior year-long project. He says, “I want it to be worthwhile and educational, but not too much like school work.”

There are few guidelines about how this can be formatted. The project description states the only requirement is that the final project be made public. That variety of choice is not an obstacle for the average SLA student, rather a preference.

Junior Tenzin Ngawang appreciated that freedom. “The teacher is not on your back about it,” she said.

Coincidentally, the announcement by Chief Academic Officer Penny Nixon from the school district about removing the mandated curriculum was announced around the same time the project was assigned.

Principal Chris Lehmann is a part of the School Autonomy Sub-Committee that took part in developing the idea of taking away the scripted curriculum.
Mr. Lehmann said he hopes the decision helps to “develop curricular programs that are more responsive to the communities they serve.”

So, does this mean that other schools will start adopting SLA innovations like 10% time?

““I hope so,” said Mr. Lehmann. “I don’t know that it will happen immediately, especially because it is already so late in the year.”

“I believe that in time you’ll see small scale experiments and implementation… that by school year ‘13 or ‘14 you’ll see schools really blow it out of the water. Some schools are eagerly awaiting this.”