School Day

About 2,800 fifth graders (and some fourth graders, too) came to the Academy of Music yesterday for a special concert of new and old music. Among the players was one almost as young as the students: Violinist Karen Sinclair, 15.

For students and staff at schools around the state, February means more than groundhogs or dead presidents' birthdays: It marks the start of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams. The PSSA is a series of state-mandated tests that measure student performance in the basics - reading, writing and mathematics. The tests also serve as the major tool for documenting a district's academic achievement. Schools not meeting predetermined standards are subject to public criticism and sometimes are overhauled.

The Pennsauken Board of Education, by a 7-1 vote, last night rejected a proposal to lengthen the school day at the high school and middle school, a plan that was aimed at improving scores in the state-mandated proficiency test. Instead, the board approved another plan that will offer extra math instruction to middle school students in need of remedial help. John Ritchie, prinicipal of the middle school, said board members opted for the second plan partly because they felt it would be more effective in improving basic skills.

Saturday classes for high school students had a short but successful run last weekend at Octorara Senior High School. Seventy percent of the students in grades nine through 11 braved the fog to make it to school by 8 a.m. Saturday, school officials said this week. Classes ran until 12:15 p.m., with one 15-minute break. The students had to make up four hours of instructional time after the district fell short of the 990 hours for secondary students required to get state financing.

Children returned to classes yesterday for the first time since four classmates and 12 other people died in a Christmastime massacre, and one school official described the day as "so close to normal it's scary. " "Just super" was the way high school principal Lloyd Herrick said the 1,150 pupils in the district seemed to be coping in the wake of the slayings of 16 people, all but two from one family. Ronald Gene Simmons Sr., 47, has been charged with two of the slayings. He is expected to be charged with the other 14, all members of his family.

Here's the bad thing for 10-year-old Tamara Weiner: Her friend Katy attends the Upper Merion Area School District Extended Day Program only twice weekly. "I wish she would go there the other days," Tamara said. "But now I'm starting to go there less, because I'm kind of capable of staying by myself. " Now, maybe. Four years ago, no way. The after-school extended-day program began when Tamara was a first grader. Before school, she went to a neighbor's house. Now that there is a morning program as well, Tamara arrives at school at 7:30 a.m. "I like the idea of dropping her at school and knowing that she is in good hands," said Judy Weiner, an associate professor of computer science at Temple University.

For working parents, getting the children ready to go back to school often includes worrying about how to find affordable, reliable before-and after- school care for them. These days, the schools have taken some of the worry away. More and more districts are recognizing the need for latchkey programs and are setting them up in the schools. And these programs offer more than just custodial care. In many cases, they complement a child's regular course of study. Homework assistance is available in all of these programs.

Public schools may not bar student religious clubs from meeting during student-activity periods held during the school day, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled unanimously that the Punxsutawney Area School District in Western Pennsylvania violated the federal Equal Access Act of 1984 by requiring Melissa Donovan and her Bible club to meet before the school day rather than during the school-wide free activity period first thing each morning.

The Haddon Township school system opens its after-school child-care program tomorrow. The program, designed to be self-supporting, will provide supervised activities for children in first through sixth grades at the township's five elementary schools. Dennis St. John, the township's community activities coordinator, said a survey conducted in the spring showed that 150 families needed after-school child-care services. "We are trying to meet that need," St. John said. Early last week, 45 children were registered for the program, but St. John said he hoped to sign up 40 more.

BACK IN HIS Overbrook High School days, City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. lived in fear of a student who was two years older, tough as nails and always ready to fight — a student he renamed "Ray-Ray" during an anecdote he has shared at recent Council hearings. This month, when school district officials came before City Council to plead their budget case, Jones and Councilman Kenyatta Johnson couldn't resist reliving their own public-school experiences. Their stories ranged from the terrifying tales of Ray-Ray to teachers who kept members on the right path.

Five thousand students are in the middle of an educational tug-of-war in one of the largest and most affluent school districts in Pennsylvania. More is more, administrators and school board members say. An additional 10 minutes a day spent on each core subject, such as math, science and social studies, will help middle-school students learn better, they insist. More is less, parents and teachers counter. Students will lose one period a day of art, music, gym, and other "special" classes.

IT SEEMS quite evident that Jason Kaye has never taught in a public-school classroom and is therefore incapable of casting the ballot for the "Are teachers the problem?" vote. In concluding that teachers unions and teachers are the problem, Kaye fails to acknowledge the thousands of teachers who either come a few hours before the start of the school day and/or stay many hours after the dismissal bell has tolled to talk with parents and to tutor children for free! In concluding that teachers would have to do more "heavy lifting" if this American education system is to succeed, I ponder the possibility that he hasn't considered the teachers who spend hundreds of their own dollars to refurbish old computers.

EDDIE LEE Thornton applied her culinary skills to making sure that Philadelphia schoolchildren got healthy food, and that members of her church got nourishment for their bodies as well as their souls. She spent hours in the kitchen of Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, and took care of the children through her 31 years with the school district's comprehensive day-care program. Eddie Lee, who also led neighbors of the 2300 block of McClellan Street in South Philadelphia in clean-up and beautification projects, died Jan. 6 after a long illness.

David Williams said he soon hopes to narrow his growing list of prospective colleges to five or so. Higher on the star running back's current to-do list, after the recent announcement that West Catholic will shut its doors come June, is deciding where he wants to spend his final year of high school. For now, his top three schools, in no particular order, are La Salle, Imhotep Charter, and Cardinal O'Hara. The speedy junior added that Archbishop Wood and Roman Catholic are also possibilities.

David Williams said he soon hopes to narrow his growing list of prospective colleges to five or so. Higher on the star running back's current to-do list, after the recent announcement that West Catholic will shut its doors come June, is deciding where he wants to spend his final year of high school. For now, his top three schools, in no particular order, are La Salle, Imhotep Charter, and Cardinal O'Hara. The speedy junior added that Archbishop Wood and Roman Catholic are also possibilities.

High school feels different in the big white mansion at the edge of the Navy Yard - no desks in rows. No 47-minute class periods. No warnings to remove the hat, put the cellphone away, take the exam seriously. Instead, small groups of students are designing their own workshop space. They're drawing up more efficient bus routes for the Philadelphia School District. Their teachers act as mentors, sounding boards, not lecturers. The premise? American high schools are broken.

The father of a 13-year-old girl who alleges she was inappropriately touched by a Philadelphia School District police officer during a pat-down for weapons filed suit against district officials in federal court Monday. The male officer allegedly stuck his hand down the girl's shirt and touched her chest during the two-hour search in an auditorium full of students at Harding Middle School on Oct. 24, according to the suit. Other students also were searched at the Frankford school, including another girl who had a different male officer stick his hand down her shirt, the suit said.

Although archdiocesan teachers went on strike Wednesday, it appears that all but one Catholic League high school are planning to continue their athletic schedule as normal. Cardinal O'Hara is believed to be the lone Catholic League school that will not participate in games during the strike. O'Hara teams, though, still will practice. Each individual school was given the choice by the archdiocese to participate in athletic events during the strike. "That's for the time being.