Local Elementary Schools Wrestle with Population Changes

Local Elementary Schools Wrestle with Population Changes Classroom trailers are bound for Queen Village

by Eleanor Ingersoll

Throughout the city, the School District of Philadelphia is charged with addressing population changes that affect city schools. This includes Queen Village, where an influx of families has resulted in more kindergarteners than the 60 available spots at Meredith Elementary School at 5th and Fitzwater streets.

In Pennsylvania, kindergarten attendance is not mandated, so school districts aren’t required to offer it. Thus, the School District of Philadelphia is permitted to put a cap on the kindergarten classroom size. As a result, parents of rising kindergartners started resorting to lining up outside of the school at pre-dawn hours in the dead of winter to be the first in line for the opening of January’s registration. To address the problem, three years ago the district discontinued the regular kindergarten registration process at Meredith Elementary and instituted a verification process for birth and residence in the catchment. Verified students were then eligible to be entered into a lottery; the students could then return to Meredith for first grade if they chose.

The district sent students who did not receive a Meredith lottery slot to nearby Nebinger Elementary School at 6th and Carpenter streets, which the school district determined had enough space. However, Nebinger, once briefly slated for closure in 2011 due to unfilled seats, was now in the midst of a renaissance. Out-of-catchment families had begun applying for voluntary transfers and became an engaged part of the Nebinger community. They now make up 55 percent of the school’s population.

The influx and exodus from year to year of out-of-catchment kindergarten students created by the district's lottery have created an instability issue for Nebinger administrators. Because school budgets are increased or decreased based on annual student populations, it has resulted, for instance, in the near dismissal of a newly hired teacher for a projected third kindergarten classroom.

The school district also eliminated the voluntary transfer option for Nebinger, leaving families with more questions than answers. Would the transfer process, closed to students outside of Nebinger’s catchment, also apply to the Meredith families who chose to stay? And what about the younger siblings of existing Nebinger families? Would they be able to register in order to stay together at Nebinger? In June, previously registered out-of-catchment students at Nebinger were deregistered and notified by letter, leaving parents to scramble for fall placement elsewhere.

At Meredith, there is also no preference for siblings, as the lottery does not take into account where older siblings are attending school. Conflicting instructions for accepting a kindergarten spot at Nebinger left some Meredith families with no kindergarten placement.

Meanwhile, the classroom sizes in many grades at Meredith exceed the recommended cap of 30 seats in first through third grades; for comparison, many suburban schools target a classroom size of 22 students. Even a handful of additional students can tax not only physical space, but also affect the ratio of instruction time versus classroom management: In the 2018–19 first grade, where the recommended cap is 60 seats for 6- and 7-year-olds, there were an extra 15 students who needed to be spread across just two classrooms.

Classroom trailers at Meredith, which will not arrive until 2020, are a short-term fix, which leaves no solution in place for overcrowding this year. It will also leave teachers, who come from as far away as Delaware, without a parking lot; council members Mark Squilla and Helen Gym are working on alternative solutions to alleviate that future problem.

The school district is also exploring longer-term solutions, including assessing available classroom space at other locations around Queen Village and Bella Vista, and assessing vacant district schools for the possibility of a collective middle school that would pull from similarly overcrowded catchments.

The district will also implement a Comprehensive School Planning Review. The multi-year strategic planning process will assess projected population changes across the city and make necessary changes in order to provide all children “access to a great school, close to where they live.” Meredith and Nebinger will be in the first of four phases of this comprehensive review, which begins this fall. ■

Looking for the Calm of Spirit? Our Church invites the community to join us for spiritual growth through: FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, PHILADELPHIA …Supporting healing for all mankind 225 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 1 91 06 215-922-0828 visit us at: firstchurchcsphila.org Sunday & Wednesday Services • Sunday School for Children & Our Reading Room Sunday Service: 1 1 AM • Wednesday Evening Meeting: 7:30PM Reading Room Hours: Monday: 1 1 AM to 1 :30PM, Wednesday: 2PM to 7PM, Thursday and Friday: 1 1 AM to 4 PM Saturday: 1 1 AM to 1 :30PM

Harry Azoff

In mid-summer, Queen Village said a final farewell to Harry Azoff, friend to just about every person and dog who walked the 800 block of South Front Street, where he lived since 1978. In the July/August 2018 issue of QVNA Magazine, writer Mark Holmes III said, “If Queen Village had a mayor, it would have to be Harry Azoff.” (Story online at http://bit.ly/HarryAzoff. Obituary: http://bit.ly/Inquirer-HarryAzoff) Among his many talents, Harry wrote poetry and prose—and we are privileged to publish one of his works: Photo by Mark Holmes III

Contentment

Peaceful friends and people that you like to see Comfortable places and a mind at ease Looking out the window at the traffic and the tree There’s always lots of food around For friends and family

Gratitude and openness, being truthful in what you say Contentment seems to form itself in many ways I have the greatest neighbors, so I’m lucky in that way It’s unexplainable, It’s what I have, I’m lucky in that way

— Harry Azoff “Mayor of Queen Village”