Classroom

This from my education-team colleague Susan Snyder: The Philadelphia School District has cut one of the companies overseeing disciplinary classrooms in its schools. The Abraxas program served 270 students in grades three through eight in nine classroom sites around the district last school year. The decision to end ties was made because the company did not meet standards set within the district's "accountability matrix," said district spokeswoman Shana Kemp. Phone calls to the company were not returned.

It was short, but sweet. In 2009, at age 40, William J. Gretzula was appointed superintendent of Bucks County's Bensalem School District. Wednesday night, citing family priorities and the wish to return to his roots as an educator, the now 42-year old Gretzula announced to the astonishment of residents at a school board meeting that he was leaving the post to teach in the district's schools. The board hired him as a teacher on the spot; what school, grade, and subject he will teach have yet to be determined.

WILMINGTON - A tenured professor fighting to keep his job at Widener University School of Law after allegedly making classroom comments about a dean has sued the official for defamatory remarks she is accused of making about him. As part of classroom exercises, Lawrence J. Connell used what he called hypothetical examples in which he "decided to shoot" the dean. The school, which is investigating the matter, has placed him on paid administrative leave. In his suit, Connell, an associate professor, has accused the dean, Linda L. Ammons, of intentionally making false statements, in proceedings to oust him, that characterize him as a racist and sexist.

"MISS MOFFETT!" Zakkiyah Chambers screamed when she saw English teacher Hope Moffett standing outside Audenried High School yesterday afternoon. Chambers, 17, who had gone to Millersville University on a college trip with 39 other members of Audenried's junior class, ran across the school yard and hugged Moffett. "I missed you!" Chambers said. School "wasn't the same" without Moffett, she said. Moffett, 25, had been banished from her classroom for 19 days since Feb. 18 and "reassigned" to a teacher-detention room, known as the "rubber room," after school-district officials said that she put students in danger by giving a teen several SEPTA tokens on Feb. 15, the day students left school to protest a plan to turn Audenried into a charter school without the community's input.

The Philadelphia School District's fight against Hope came to a surprisingly happy ending yesterday. Hope Moffett, the Audenried High School English teacher who was exiled from her classroom for the last 19 school days and expected to be fired, will be back in front of her students on Monday. Moffett, 25, will receive a five-day suspension after acknowledging that she didn't notify Audenried's principal on Feb. 14 that students planned to leave school to attend a rally on Feb. 15 "even though no parental permission had been submitted to the school," the district said in a statement.

The Philadelphia School District announced Friday night that Audenried High School English teacher Hope Moffett will return to her classroom on Monday. Moffett will receive a five-day suspension after acknowledging that she didn't notify Audenried's principal on Feb. 14 that students planned to leave the building to attend a rally on Feb. 15 "even though no parental permission had been submitted to the school," the district said in a statement. "I stand by all of the things that I've done and I feel really happy that it worked out really well in the end," Moffett said.

Recess has taught 5-year-old Kasheem Royster some very important lessons, he said. "No pushing," the kindergartner at Charles Drew Elementary, a public school in West Philadelphia, said. "No arguing. " A remarkable thing happened when Drew partnered with a nonprofit group to bring in a full-time recess coach to structure activities for all students in their down time, administrators said. Violent incidents went down schoolwide. Behavior improved, even in the classroom, said Carleton Holman, dean of students at the 234-pupil school at 38th and Warren Streets, just off Lancaster Avenue.

Back in the late 1990s, forward-thinking educators at the Hill School in Pottstown added Chinese to the language offerings. Recently, the private high school's model program became one of 60 nationwide designated "Confucius Classrooms" by the Asia Society and by the People's Republic of China's Office of Chinese Language Council International, known as Hanban. Confucius Classrooms are designed to promote cultural exchanges and help meet the growing demand for people fluent in the world's most-spoken language.

An associate professor at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington may lose his job following accusations that he used hypothetical examples of the dean's violent death as part of classroom exercises. Lawrence J. Connell, a tenured professor, is accused of using examples that describe dean Linda L. Ammons' shooting death at least ten times in classes on murder and criminal procedure, said Thomas S. Neuberger, Connell's attorney. Connell, 58, described himself as the hypothetical shooter in the classroom examples, Neuberger said.

Philadelphia School District classrooms have thousands more empty seats than officials previously thought, adding another factor to an already-challenging financial picture. District officials are grappling with a funding shortfall that could total $430 million in the next fiscal year. Administrators told members of the School Reform Commission on Wednesday that a detailed, school-by-school analysis of district buildings revealed there are more than 70,000 empty seats - not 45,000, as they told them two months ago. Danielle Floyd, deputy for strategic initiatives, told the commission that while she had said in November that there were more empty desks in city schools than there are seats in Citizens Bank Park, the 70,000-plus figure exceeds even the seating capacity of Lincoln Financial Field.