Summer School

Curtis Drake, the former West Catholic High star who has had an unsettled career as a Penn State football player, reportedly is awaiting a decision on whether he will be allowed to participate in voluntary summer workouts because of academic issues. The Centre Daily Times quoted a source as saying that Drake, a redshirt junior who was moved from wide receiver to cornerback during the spring by new head coach Bill O'Brien, is anticipating word on his status. Quoting sources, the newspaper also said quarterback Rob Bolden, who is believed to be third in a three-man battle for the starting job behind Matt McGloin and Paul Jones, has not enrolled in summer school nor participated in recent workouts, leading to speculation he may transfer.

Although the Philadelphia School District has already shed more than 3,000 workers from its payroll, more pink slips are coming, an official warned Friday. "There will be more layoffs," chief financial officer Michael Masch said after a special School Reform Commission meeting. As of Friday, the district had lost about 3,400 jobs - 2,778 of them through a reduction in force. Because the district was banking on charter-school reimbursement that the state this week did not provide, officials must now figure out how to close a $35 million gap - on top of the $629 million it already slashed with layoffs and deep cuts to programs and school budgets.

Isaiah Rivers earned all A's on his report card at Chester Arthur Elementary in South Philadelphia, but that wasn't enough for the 13-year-old. He wants to get ahead for next year. So Tuesday, he was one of 58,000 registered students who showed up for the Philadelphia School District's expanded summer school program. "I heard about it at school, and then my mom came to sign my little brothers up," said Isaiah, who is going into eighth grade at the school at 20th and Catharine.

For the first time in 15 years, Philadelphia school officials are preparing for a full-scale summer school program for students in all grades. Plans for the $3.9 million summer program were unveiled yesterday, the same day letters went out notifying parents of up to 31,000 public school pupils that their youngsters will not be promoted. The expansion of the summer program - for years limited to 12th-graders who needed one or two courses to graduate - is one way the district says it is giving students extra help in a time of increased standards and tougher grading and promotion policies.

Sunshine, boring through high windows, overheated the Showalter Middle School in Chester one morning this week as 15-year-old Desiree Womack listed her three reasons for coming to summer school: "The education, the money and the help. " Was that second thing money? Yes, $3.70 an hour, to be exact. This summer, 375 disadvantaged middle-school students in Philadelphia and 190 in Chester are earning full-time pay to study in the morning and work in the afternoon as part of a program to keep them from becoming dropout statistics.

Summer school at Bridgeport Elementary in the Upper Merion School District could be eliminated in 1989 and replaced by aides for remedial math and reading during the regular school year. That could be the scenario if the school board, at its meeting tonight, reallocates about $45,000 in federal education funds. According to Mary Kopa, director of curriculum services, 80 students would attend Bridgeport summer school for 24 days at a cost of $39,710, while 120 students would receive remedial classes for 182 days during the regular school year at a cost of $44,167.

Well, until yesterday, the folks at ESPN had to be really excited about the opportunity to showcase Heisman Trophy hopeful Eric Metcalf tonight when Metcalf's Texas Longhorns visit the Brigham Young Cougars. Then the Longhorns landed at Salt Lake City International Airport, and Texas coach David McWilliams announced that Metcalf wasn't with the team and won't play tonight. It seems that Metcalf got scholarship money for summer school this year, then neglected to do one little thing - go to summer school.

For thousands of students across the region, summer school is no way to make up work or squeak through to the next grade - it's an essential part of their school year. "It helps me learn," said Janita Vazquez, 17, a Philadelphia student whose teachers say she's thriving in an extended-school-year program. "It helps me read. " An increasing number of special-education students require longer school years. More students need the summer weeks as a bridge between grades so they do not regress and are ready to learn new skills in September.

RE ROBERT Stewart's letter about Arlene Ackerman spending $600,000 on air conditioning for her "babies" during their summer-school sessions: You wrote: "If her babies did their work during the year, they wouldn't be in summer school. " I have three "babies" in summer school, and it's not because they failed any subjects. In fact, my children asked to go to "S.L.A.M. " - Summer Learning and More, a program the district offers to children who'd like academic help or work preparing them for the grade they are going into.

SCHOOLS CHIEF Arlene Ackerman spent nearly $600,000 so her "babies" would have air-conditioning during summer school. For 30 years, they didn't have air conditioning. They opened the windows. Why can't they do it now? Also, the cost of installing went to union firms and will take a week, starting on a Saturday, a double-time day, and Sunday, ditto. A rough estimate for this whole waste of money is $1.4 million, give or take $100,000. This type of fiscal irresponsibility shouldn't be tolerated.

Curtis Drake, the former West Catholic High star who has had an unsettled career as a Penn State football player, reportedly is awaiting a decision on whether he will be allowed to participate in voluntary summer workouts because of academic issues. The Centre Daily Times quoted a source as saying that Drake, a redshirt junior who was moved from wide receiver to cornerback during the spring by new head coach Bill O'Brien, is anticipating word on his status. Quoting sources, the newspaper also said quarterback Rob Bolden, who is believed to be third in a three-man battle for the starting job behind Matt McGloin and Paul Jones, has not enrolled in summer school nor participated in recent workouts, leading to speculation he may transfer.

Fewer students will be eating free breakfast and lunch in summer school this year because budget troubles are forcing the School District of Philadelphia to reduce the number of academic and enrichment programs it offers. This year, about 10,000 students will be enrolled in summer programs, nearly half of the 19,000 who attended in 2011, a district representative said. Summer school will be available only to high school seniors who need credits to graduate, special-education students, and students who qualify for education programs funded by federal grants.

The Philadelphia School District could face a budget shortfall of as much as $400 million in the next fiscal year, a top district official said Tuesday. Or it could be $145 million - "still very big" but more manageable, said Thomas E. Knudsen, the district's chief recovery officer. In a bit of good news, the district's current deficit has shrunk from $38.8 million to $26 million as the result of cuts and identification of new funding sources, he said. Knudsen revealed the budget figures Tuesday evening during a presentation to students about the district's financial health at School District headquarters on North Broad Street.

After a year in a city public school classroom, Tony Danza says his heart is still very much in Philadelphia. But when he visited Northeast High this month, Danza detected a problem. "The morale was kind of low because of the ongoing budget cuts," said Danza, who taught sophomore English at Northeast two years ago for a reality show. "They're talking about cutting school nurses. Can you imagine that?" Actually, the district already has laid off nurses, virtually eliminated summer school, and ordered some employees to take pay cuts and furloughs, among dozens of other painful cuts.

After a year in a city public school classroom, Tony Danza says his heart is still very much in Philadelphia. But when he visited Northeast High this month, Danza detected a problem. "The morale was kind of low because of the ongoing budget cuts," said Danza, who taught sophomore English at Northeast two years ago for a reality show. "They're talking about cutting school nurses. Can you imagine that?" Actually, the district already has laid off nurses, virtually eliminated summer school, and ordered some employees to take pay cuts and furloughs, among dozens of other painful cuts.

With a $61 million shortfall to bridge by the end of June, the Philadelphia School District will let go about 90 school police officers Friday, according to a source familiar with the plan. Other cuts will also be announced, including administrative layoffs likely to come from regional offices, the source said. The police officers who will be laid off are per-diem workers who do not earn benefits, though most work every day during the school year. District spokesman Fernando Gallard declined to comment Thursday.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz told the School District of Philadelphia Tuesday he still had doubts about the system's financial viability and would be required to state those concerns in documents provided to bond-rating agencies. The district is trying to erase a projected deficit of at least $61 million by June 30 and faces a funding gap of $269 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. "To date, school district information we have obtained and analyzed provides substantial doubt among my professional audit staff, and strongly indicates a troubled organization," Butkovitz wrote in a letter to Thomas E. Knudsen, the district's new chief recovery officer.

Claire Cohen Jacobs, 89, formerly of Haddon Township, a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University in Camden for 27 years who initiated a summer computer and math program for teenagers, died of pneumonia Monday, Sept. 26, at Compassionate Care Hospice in Wilmington. Dr. Jacobs joined the Rutgers-Camden faculty in 1964 after earning a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. While teaching, she earned a doctorate in education from Rutgers in the 1970s.