135215971
More than 125 neighbors poured out of their houses for DJ-fueled block party energy Saturday on the 1500 block of Wharton Street.
Face painting, hula hoopers and various games kept children occupied, with food and coffee grazed by a mix of residents and parents of George W. Childs School, 1599 Wharton St., all intending to engage the environs to support the Point Breeze elementary site. A handful of civic organizations were on hand to collect signatures and e-mail addresses, encourage sign-ups and offer information on their efforts. The party also featured a visit from one of the location’s most famous alumni, 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson.
N.I.C.E. (Neighbors Investing in Childs Elementary) celebrated the 2013 school year with the event and sought to spread name recognition for the aforementioned entities. The supportive community-based organization consists of concerned parents and community members whose main objective is to lift up the school in its time of duress and protect students and teachers in the learning process. Saturday’s occasion looked to introduce N.I.C.E., which has been an official organization with a name for a little more than a year, to the neighborhood and to foster the notion that the success of the school is inherent to a community that values its children and their education.
Megan Rosenbach has been championing support of Childs, and her work, in conjunction with her worship site, Circle of Hope, 1125 S. Broad St., has been primarily fund-raising efforts and the dissemination of any funds raised to the building’s most important needs. That wasn’t what she and N.I.C.E. were going for Saturday, though.
“This wasn’t for money at all,” Rosenbach, a former Teach for America alum who spent two years at North Philly’s Frederick Douglass School teaching seventh and eighth grade social studies and literacy, said.
“We are fund-raisers; that’s kind of the biggest thing we do,” the resident of the 1500 block of South 15th Street confessed. “But this was just more of a community-builder. There’s so much division in this neighborhood now, and N.I.C.E. is really well-positioned to help unify people around a common goal of supporting the school.”
Childs has seen many big changes over the past few years. From its former home at 1541 S. 17th St. being determined unfit for more terms in 2010, to merging with Barratt Middle School that same year, and to dealing with a recent spate of school closings upping its enrollment by almost 200, the site is racing to catch up and meet the needs of every student.
Childs’ Principal Dr. Eileen Coutts is doing her best to ensure the success and safety of each enrollee, but her charge is daunting.
“We absorbed about 150 students from the closed Smith [Academics Plus] School. We are now a school with more than 700 students and 60 Head Start students,” she explained.
“The biggest issue is that we have no assistant principal or dean to deal with discipline,” she said. “Consequently, I deal with everything. As you can imagine, no one can do a job well when one is spread so thin. Luckily, the classes are not overcrowded and are a decent size in every grade except third and seventh. Our teachers are still able to teach but certainly do not feel supported since I am only one person.”
No one would doubt the pressure of such a position, and she’s defined at least one immediate goal that would alleviate some of the building’s needs.
“I really need an assistant principal,” she said.
Rosenbach and N.I.C.E. are trying to support Coutts, teachers, students and parents to relieve some of the stress in the district.
Kim Smith’s been a Childs supporter for years, with two children, one a Philadelphia High School for Girls learner, and another a Bloomsburg University senior studying business administration, having emerged from the district unscathed and successful. She sees a need for the neighborhood and parents to support Childs and avoid regarding it as inferior to private and charter schools.
“We need to make sure that the funds are available to provide the resources. One of my major goals is to see the morale back up; a lot of the parents and teachers and staff don’t have the morale and are losing their faith in public schools,” she urged.
Johnson was quick to address how he hopes to make change for the school and lighten the load of Dr. Coutts and her teachers. He’s doing what he can to find the resources that can help students achieve as much as they can.
“I’m in the process of putting together a meeting with the school district to begin looking at the level of resources necessary,” he said. “The district has a responsibility to provide resources to the school, specifically having to do with Smith School closing down, and part of what I’ll be questioning and advocating for is the providing of those resources and support systems.”
However, it’s not just up to him, and it’s not out of the hands of neighbors, even neighbors who don’t have children in the school but want to make sure their community’s youths aren’t getting the short end of the stick.
“But I think it’s also just as important that collaborations and organizations such as N.I.C.E., F.A.S.T. (Families and Schools Together), and CityYear, those civic organizations are vital to providing resources,” Johnson said. “The people really came out and participated, neighbors and parents had a chance to see something special taking place — so that’s what inspired me.”
N.I.C.E. intends to use collected funds in the most democratic way possible.
“In our fundraising efforts we want to make sure we’re spending the money in a way that the community wants most,” the 2013 South Philly Review Difference Maker said, pledging transparency in the organization’s use of what could be seen as controversial money. “We’re excited that we can give OCF [Realty, 2054 South St.] the opportunity to use their money to build the community in meaningful ways.”
The entity was present Saturday, as were local personalities, representatives from civic bodies and other initiatives, including the Newbold Neighbors Association; the Childs-situated Dream Academy for children who have a history of incarceration in their family or who are struggling academically; the South Philly Food Co-op; the Garces Foundation; the Health Promotion Council; Circle of Hope; the Young Chances Foundation; and Unity in the Community.
“I think [Dr. Coutts] needs more support,” Smith said. “I think she’s a little overwhelmed, and they’ve taken away a lot of resources, and I don’t think the district is supporting us. So we have 30 to 35 students in one classroom, and the support’s not there to cover it. They need to give her some more support, and I think that’s what me and Megan and N.I.C.E. are trying to do — support her and get her to those goals.”
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
135216001
135215981
