Alternative Education

An alternative education program that keeps potential drop-outs, pregnant teens, drug users and problem kids in school has been saved - at least temporarily - from the budget ax of the Wissahickon school board. After much discussion Monday night, board directors agreed to ask five neighboring school districts to pay full tuition costs for their students who participate in the program. The district houses the program at Wissahickon High School and pays the salaries of the program's three part-time teachers.

For the first time, the Philadelphia School District is offering an alternative education program for students in the primary grades, announcing yesterday that behavioral services will be offered to violent and disruptive third and fourth graders. The district has several alternative placement programs for students from fifth through 12th grades, but the service is now authorized for students as young as 8 and 9 years old. "This is brand new for the district," Gwen Morris, the district's executive director of transitional and alternative education, told the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.

The North Penn and Souderton Area School Districts sit side by side in eastern Montgomery County. Their students are mostly middle and upper-middle class. Both districts have paid millions in contract and transportation costs in the last decade to send their violent, their troubled, their disruptive students outside district boundaries for alternative-education programs, sometimes to Philadelphia or as far as Lehigh County. But when each began planning for local alternative education - to begin this September - their paths diverged.

The Philadelphia School District is poised to expand programs that deal with dropouts or students in danger of dropping out while it reduces the number of spots for students with discipline problems. If a recommendation made to the School Reform Commission yesterday is approved next week, the district will more than double the seats in its alternative-education program, from 1,275 to 2,755 next year, and cut the number of disciplinary seats by nearly a third, from 3,150 to 2,240.

Etta May Pettyjohn, 96, of Southampton, Bucks County, quintessential schoolmarm for 36 years, principal of Kensington High School for Girls, and champion of the restoration of Penn Treaty Park, died Friday at Southampton Estates nursing home. A 1925 graduate of Kensington High School for Girls, Dr. Pettyjohn returned to her alma mater three decades later as principal. A large portrait of the determined, 6-foot-tall woman still stares down on hallways of Kensington High, now a school attended by boys and girls.

To help close its $629 million budget shortfall, the Philadelphia School District plans to close 13 schools for students on the verge of dropping out and cut funding for remedial disciplinary programs in half. Operators who have contracts with the district to run the popular "accelerated" programs, which help at-risk students and those who already have dropped out earn diplomas, said they were told of the changes this week. Those who run disciplinary schools also were told of cuts to their programs.

About 2,100 people showed up for last night's Coatesville Area School District budget hearing, as administrators recommended $12.7 million in budget cuts for next year. The hearing was delayed for nearly an hour as school officials set up closed-circuit television in 30 classrooms to accommodate the overflow crowd. About 170 full- and part-time jobs could disappear as the district copes with a budget gap that exceeds $10 million, officials said. Kindergarten and alternative-education programs are also recommended for elimination.

YOUR REPORT on Philadelphia's dropout crisis ("Aiming to turn lives around," Oct. 19) did an excellent job of shining light on causes and short-term effects. It is great to hear that we are reinforcing our efforts to keep people in school, and to reconnect out-of-school youth to school and alternative-education programs. Unfortunately, there are many more older drop-outs. The 2000 census puts the number at more than 437,000 adults in Philadelphia, 25 or older, who do not have a high-school diploma.

When he thinks back on his days at Pemberton High School, there's only one thing Wayne Davis, 17, remembers liking: lunch. He stopped attending by the end of the 1992-93 school year. Anne Lanning, 16, doesn't remember liking anything at all about Rancocas Valley Regional High School. In December, she knew there was no way she would be going back for classes this fall. Yet both Davis and Lanning are in school right now, and loving it. They are two of 22 students, ranging in age from 14 to 19, chosen to attend the Alternative High School of Burlington County, started in September and based on the campus of Burlington County College in Pemberton.

As a proud parent of a student in the Philadelphia school system, I have been pleased with the upward direction of the schools. But the recent gains the district has achieved depend on continued resources. I am concerned that the Republicans' bare-bones education plan would reverse recent gains. The plan would eliminate summer school programs and limit alternative-education services for at-risk students. It would reduce school police coverage. And it would increase class size.

Governor deserves respect I must heartily disagree with the perspective of the writer of "Governor's behavior shameful" (Tuesday). I wonder if the letter writer heard the exchange between Gov. Christie and William Brown? Brown gave an editorial of his own before asking a question, and when the governor attempted to answer, Brown repeatedly interrupted Christie. Brown was not interested in an answer to his question. He was there to further an agenda and try to shout over any reasonable explanation the governor had to offer.

Our virtual lives and political ads Are the political ads I see in my Internet browser targeted at me due to my search history? Maybe also based on the content of my e-mail, texts, and documents that I store in the cloud? If I search on issues about birth control and the morning-after pill, might I see a political ad the next day trying to spin my opinion or suggest the right candidate for me? If targeted Google ads based on search history are effective at selling lawn mowers and power tools, then they certainly should also be effective for getting the right political ad to the right voter.

Mayor Nutter on Tuesday announced support for a Philadelphia School District request that the city increase its funding as much as $110 million. The funds would pay for full-day kindergarten, transportation services, and other programs to be determined by the district, City Council, and the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, but would likely necessitate a tax increase by the city. Nutter, who added restoring cuts to alternative schools to his list of priorities, said options for raising the money were still being worked out. "This is not a time for political posturing," he said at a news conference.

State Rep. Louise Williams Bishop (D., Phila.) has introduced legislation that would abolish the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, created by the state in 2001 as part of a takeover of the Philadelphia School District. The SRC consists of five members - three appointed by the governor and two by the mayor - and has certain "extraordinary" powers, including the ability to impose terms on the district's unions to speed reform. Ten years in, Bishop said, it's not working. In terms of academics, violence, and finances, the district is "worse now" than it was when the state stepped in to revamp the system, she said.

To help close its $629 million budget shortfall, the Philadelphia School District plans to close 13 schools for students on the verge of dropping out and cut funding for remedial disciplinary programs in half. Operators who have contracts with the district to run the popular "accelerated" programs, which help at-risk students and those who already have dropped out earn diplomas, said they were told of the changes this week. Those who run disciplinary schools also were told of cuts to their programs.

As a proud parent of a student in the Philadelphia school system, I have been pleased with the upward direction of the schools. But the recent gains the district has achieved depend on continued resources. I am concerned that the Republicans' bare-bones education plan would reverse recent gains. The plan would eliminate summer school programs and limit alternative-education services for at-risk students. It would reduce school police coverage. And it would increase class size.

The Philadelphia School District is poised to expand programs that deal with dropouts or students in danger of dropping out while it reduces the number of spots for students with discipline problems. If a recommendation made to the School Reform Commission yesterday is approved next week, the district will more than double the seats in its alternative-education program, from 1,275 to 2,755 next year, and cut the number of disciplinary seats by nearly a third, from 3,150 to 2,240.

Crime spiked in Philadelphia schools last year, hitting a record level. Nearly 15,000 criminal incidents were reported in 2007-08, a 14 percent jump from the previous school year, according to an analysis by Philadelphia's safe schools advocate obtained by The Inquirer. The number of serious crimes, however, dropped by 7 percent, and district officials say all crime is down by 11 percent so far this school year. No students were expelled last school year - even those who brought guns to school - and just 31 percent were transferred to alternative education placements.