Buses bound for an education rally in Harrisburg will depart the School District of Philadelphia headquarters at 440 N. Broad St. tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. The rally is aimed at protesting likely cuts to the state’s contribution to the district’s budget, as much as $629 million. The cuts will have far-ranging consequences for the district, including cuts of about $61 million to schools themselves. These cuts will likely result in a host thorny issues, including larger class sizes, fewer specialty teachers and fewer special education teachers.

For more information and to sign-up for the free bus trip to Harrisburg call Evelyn Sample-Oates at 215-400-4041 or 215-400-4042 or e-mail her at esampleoates – at – philasd.org.

This note has been passed around the neighborhoods by e-mail yesterday and today and we thought we should pass it along:

Neighbors,
Our dog was viciously mauled late this afternoon. The dog that attacked (a big, dark, brindle pit bull terrier) was tied up outside  Salt and Pepper at 47th and Chester, but broke its leash, raced across  the street and attacked our dog. As we wait to learn about the extent of his injuries from the good folks at PennVet, I wanted to warn everyone to be especially cautious, especially those with small children and animals. Thanks to the kindness of a few strangers the police have identified the owner. Please be careful.

Writer Ann L. Rappoport has discovered and written about a well-kept secret in West Philly: The bathrooms at The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College (4207 Walnut St.). They are pretty magnificent.

Rappoport writes in today’s Phialdelphia Inquirer:

Entering it through the bar in the school’s international restaurant, I was greeted by hundreds of antique perfume bottles. Vintage ladies’ hats and beaded bags commanded notice, posed on vintage hat racks suspended from the walls and ceiling, which also host over-the-top sconces and chandeliers. Lace and feathered boas drape the stalls, recalling at least the French Quarter of the Big Easy, if not Paris itself. Somebody had a blast putting this together.

College president Danny Liberatoscioli had the initial idea to make awesome bathrooms to compliment the school’s restaurants.

“We’ve got this thing for restrooms here,” he told Rappoport.

We were not able to make it to the Superintendent’s Roundtable on Thursday night when Arlene Ackerman addressed parents and community members to talk about the issues facing the district, including proposed state budget cuts and school closings.

Luckily Amara Rockar from the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools attended the meeting and was kind enough to pass along a report on the meeting. This was originally posted on the coalition listserv. We have put bullets next to Amara’s main points. The meeting also took place as the Philadelphia Inquirer published an in-depth series on violence in Philadelphia schools.

Here is Amara’s report:

There were several hundred parents, children and staff in attendance. Martin Luther King and another school had brought in buses of parents (curiously, none of them brought up the charter debacle in the question section). Prospective parents and community members should feel comfortable attending in the future. The next roundtable is scheduled for June 2nd.

• Ackerman told a story of her son acting up in class and her showing up at his school and sitting in the back (without him knowing) and watching him misbehave. She followed him from class to class for the rest of the day. She encouraged parents to visit their child’s classes unannounced and said there was no district policy that you have to make an appointment first. During the Q&A section, several parents told of being turned away and one of being allowed inside the classroom but then the teacher refusing to teach in front of her. The superintendent referred these parents to her staff members so that they could contact the principals.

• Earlier in the program, the school climate person, Greg Shannon, went over a flyer about how to support safe schools but it was not very impressive (since the Philadelphia Inquirer articles says these methods are not used consistently or often properly). Parents had many stories of students with behavior problems disrupting school and then being allowed to return to the school. One at Childs Elementary in South Philly was allowed to return to take the PSSAs and then set a girl’s hair on fire during testing. Ackerman said that consistency and good instruction will triumph over disruption. She also reminded everyone that the district is still responsible for teaching all children, even those with behavior problems. Again, she had her staff get the information from the parents with specific concerns to see if more could be done. I was surprised no one mentioned the Inky’s allegations of underreporting of incidents by schools but I guess the parents’ concerns were more direct.

• Several parents had concerns about cuts to the special education programs. Ackerman said that they are not going to do things that would violate Individual Education Plans (IEPs) but that some extras would be eliminated. A couple parents of Autistic children expressed frustration at teacher turnover and good teachers being hounded out by teaching assistants who didn’t like that the good teachers made them work harder. Another parent was frustrated that her principal did not seem to have basic knowledge of Autism and Ackerman said that they would include something in the next principal education/training.

• Everyone was worried about the budget cuts and asked a lot of questions. Ackerman’s response was to encourage them to get involved and go to the rally on April 5th and/or write letters to representatives, the governor and the press. She also asked that people with family members in the suburbs that are represented by Republicans ask their family members to lobby as well (since most state reps in Philly are already on board with opposing the cuts). Given the history of people in West Philly moving out to the western suburbs, thought that was an interesting idea.

• As for school closings, Ackerman said there would be no closings for 2011-2012 and there would be a whole year of discussion. It sounded like some annexes or other facilities may get closed this year. There were several questions about specific dangerous buildings with parents actually advocating for repair or closure.  As I said earlier, full day kindergarten is in the 2011-2012 budget but other items will have to be cut as a result.

I left at 9 p.m. and Ackerman was still there answering questions and it looked like she was going to stay until she answered all of them. We often think of the district as something to be overcome or avoided if possible but the roundtable made it clear that the district is sometimes necessary and even helpful. There were a lot of parents who were not getting their concerns addressed by the principals and teachers of their schools.

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If you are interested in or concerned about the planning process in West Philly or elsewhere in the city, then you should check out the courses offered by the Citizen Planning Institute aimed at helping residents learn the planning process. The institute is an outreach arm of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

The one-off evening classes begin April 25. The “core” courses include:

• The BIG Picture: Planning in the City, April 25

• Land Use and Zoning 101, May 5

• The Development Process: Nuts and Bolts, May 9

The cost for all three sessions combined is $30. Completion of the core allows residents to participate in “elective” courses on commercial development, public transport and healthy communities and environmental justice.

The deadline for applying for courses is April 8.

The application is available here in the column on the right side of the screen.

Demolition crews knocked down the last couple of walls at the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut Streets on Saturday. Fire devastated the building on January 10 and led to a protracted battle between residents, the building’s owners and the city. A class action lawsuit against the building’s owners, David and Sam Ginsberg, was filed in February.

There has been no announcement about plans for the half-block lot where the buildings once stood.