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“It’s like a natural disaster where you lose so many members of your family at once,” Principal Joanne Capriotti said Monday morning at Vare-Washington School, 1198 S. Fifth St. “It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ll do our best to move forward.”
Already adapting to newness through the spring decision by School District Superintendent Dr. William R. Hite Jr. to relocate enrollees and programs from Abigail Vare School, formerly 1621 E. Moyamensing Ave., which she led for nine years, to George Washington School, whose programs he and the School Reform Commission elected to cease, she began handling more change last week, as her employer’s leveling process cost her and her 375 learners 6.1 teachers. Having expected to part with three figures because of the practice that reconciles summer enrollment and staff projections with first-month roster tallies, Capriotti and her colleagues are working to keep the students enamored with their studies and to intensify their attention to each pupil’s needs.
The local professionals had believed the district would move instructors three weeks ago as another attempt to deal with its debt crisis, which reached $304 million at its worst, but the educational overseer delayed implementation to analyze the proposed shifts. It had foreseen Vare-Washington welcoming close to 600 registrants, so when roughly two-thirds of that total started lessons last month, Capriotti received another test of her administrative might, which she is passing courtesy of a tight-knit feeling at her Dickinson Square West facility.
“I’m definitely not saying it can’t be done,” she said of helping all but kindergarten, fifth and seventh grades to adjust to the modifications, which include combining classes and seeing the institution’s teacher-leader and intervention teacher, who had acted as the dean of students, venture to classrooms to provide instruction. “Some parents have come to apologize, but there’s a certain level of comfort among us that I think will carry us through.”
Along with coping with the alterations, which Capriotti initiated Oct. 24, the Vare-Washington community is contending with a $203,000 reduction in its Title 1 allotment, a source of money via the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that, among other measures, looks to meet “the educational needs of low-achieving children in our nation’s highest poverty schools, limited English proficient children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children, neglected or delinquent children and young children in need of reading assistance,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.
With the district having classified 95.3 percent of last year’s matriculators as “economically disadvantaged” and 14.2 percent of them as English language learners, the slashed funds figure to be another dilemma, but thus far Capriotti is managing the situation, with no tinkering to the curricula needed.
With hundreds of schools hankering for financial assistance, the district is seeking $133 million from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, whose contract expired Aug. 31, and received word from Gov. Tom Corbett Oct. 16 that he would endow it with a one-time $45 million state grant. Hite, however, revealed last week the politician’s bequest will not go toward hiring teachers. It instead will restore up to 80 guidance counselors, fund instrumental music and sports through the spring, aid Individualized Education Programs for those with learning differences and rest in reserve for payments to charter schools, which preliminary reports say might have higher enrollment numbers this year.
Such schools scooped up many Vare and Washington students this summer, leading Kathleen Kramer to worry about the future of local public schools. The fourth-grade teacher and building representative finds herself the most affected instructor numerically, as her class swelled from 18 to 33 learners, the federation maximum for fourth through 12th grades. Donning a shirt bearing the message “Teachers make all other professions possible,” she determined to make the first full week of dealing with the variations a success.
“These kids have had nothing but turmoil since December,” the 14-year employee and resident of the 100 block of Daly Street said of Hite’s initial announcement on the possibility of relocating Vare and halting Washington’s programs. “Even now, they don’t like the disruption of their routine. Teachers are used to adapting and adjusting, but what about our abilities to interact with learners the ways we need to? Sometimes I think we’re reduced to crowd control.”
Having helped to organize an Oct. 23 protest rally outside the school, the Whitman inhabitant knows the power of perseverance and will honor her garment’s sentiment by bettering her charges’ lives.
“We knew change would occur,” Kramer, with 139 district teachers transferred, said. “No matter how drastic our losses, we have to fight for these kids.”
Practicing civil disobedience appealed to the registrants and employees at George W. Sharswood School, 2300 S. Second St., too, with likewise frustrated figures rallying outside their building Friday. Having departed for summer vacation with 560 students, Principal Maureen Skalski returned to her Whitman haunt last month with 509 pupils, with 36 additional learners in two Head Start classes. Having said farewell to a pair of counselors, she and her team lost two educators and a prep specialist last week, resulting in larger, yet within contractual limits, second and fifth grades.
“It’s just unbelievable we’re in such a bare-bones situation,” the 15th-year leader said. “We’re trying to pace ourselves to give our kids the best.”
Accustomed to gaining an educator annually because of bulging enrollment, Sharswood has entered unfamiliar territory, with the departures coupling with the lost counselors to forge a need for the remaining individuals to take on different roles. With many students requiring individualized education plans and others needing encouragement in dealing with home and school matters, Skalski is finding the Sharswood community has grown closer as a family, leaving her simultaneously sad and triumphant.
“We’re all sharing the burden,” she said, adding the emphasis she is placing on aiding eighth graders in their high school application process.
The pending graduates and the sixth and seventh grades extended their display of unity beyond South Philly Friday, marching to the district’s North Broad Street headquarters to present persuasive essays to Hite. Skalski praised their maturity, seeing them as reflections of the commitment to self-improvement that any education should yield. That they find their pursuit of a stable environment compromised is compelling her to feel fortunate she has committed colleagues.
“They’ve stepped up significantly,” Skalski, who integrated classes last week, said. “We want to see these children grow. It’s still early into the adjustment period, but I’m liking how we’re bonding.”
Contact Managing Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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