Category school

What to do with the old West Philly High?

There are currently many different ideas floating around right now (i.e. senior housing, condos, market-rate apartments, mixed-use, charter school, etc.). It’s really just a matter of who wants to invest in it, do the neighbors like the proposal, and will the city approve it.

If you take a look through the pictures from the article, it’s amazing to see how different things were built 100 years ago as compared to how they are built today. This was a school built with 97 classrooms and capable of holding almost 2,700 students (this was back in 1912). To give you perspective, the new West Philly High that was just built down the street currently has about 800 kids.

The good news is that the city is looking to sell this building sooner rather than later. The longer it sits, the more upkeep is needed (which costs money) and the worse it will be for the neighborhood (who wants to look at an old, abandoned school?).

My prediction is that the new zoning code will help move this property in the right direction. If I had to guess what it would become in the near future, I would say a charter school.

But hey, I could be totally wrong.

Philadelphia ranked “#1 US City for Green Schools”

Huh?

This seems like a random survey, but we’ll take the positive news for our public school system. With all of the negative news out there about failing public schools and heated arguments on union contracts, it’s good to hear that strides are being made in other areas; especially here in Philadelphia.

For me, it’s kind of ironic that I’m writing about this post today after just watching the movie “Waiting For Superman.” If you have not seen this movie yet, you need to give it a watch; whether you like documentaries or not. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of documentaries (i.e. “Supersize Me,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” etc.), so my standards for a decent documentary are relatively high. “Waiting For Superman” was very well done.

The story focuses on why US public education has not made any progress in test scores since the mid-1950s, and more specifically why urban areas are performing the worst. No matter which side of the fence you sit on, it’s an eye opener to say the least; especially when you see the facts on how the US currently stacks up against developing countries around the world.

Now that Philadelphia has gained some recognition for its public school system, the next step is to start getting positive press on improving student performance.

One thing at a time…

New charter school planned for the Delaware Waterfront

And it will be a science-based school, as well.

Just so everyone knows the school already exists, but its looking for a larger, more modern facility to house and educate over 1,000 students.

My question is, what are they going to do with the old school (at 1330 Rhawn St)? I haven’t heard/seen anything yet. It’s currently up for sale right now; listed at $6.8M.

Maybe another charter school? Small business? I guess only time will tell.