More than 300 Masterman students, parents protest planned schedule changes that cut art and music for some

Come fall, students at Masterman, the acclaimed city magnet school, will see schedule changes.

Some parents are so unhappy that they took to the street before school Thursday to protest the loss of art, music and physical education for some middle school students, shifts they say are unacceptable. More than 300 parents and students waved signs, shouting “Music, art, gym in the schools!”

Masterman and Philadelphia School District officials say the changes are strategic, designed to make “a fuller school day,” to eliminate underutilized time in the high school’s schedule, working within the confines of an underresourced system. At the direction of Jeannine Payne, the principal, the day is moving from eight periods to seven, with the addition of an everyday extended advisory period, where students will have opportunities for enrichment, tutoring and extracurricular activities.

But Jennafer Howard’s daughter, a Masterman seventh grader, will lose art and music as scheduled classes in the fall, and Howard is worried.

Howard grew up in struggling Chester, but she always had opportunities to take arts classes.

When she moved to Philadelphia and became a parent, Howard was worried about her daughter receiving a “no-frills education,” nothing beyond the basics, but found a charter school that offered solid arts programming. When Arianna got into Masterman, Howard thought she could breathe easy, but she was wrong, she said.

“For them to lose the basics, it’s just crazy,” said Howard.

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The school board has said it prioritizes students “having a well-rounded education with opportunities in the arts and athletics.” To measure that goal, a recent district scorecard found that 95% of Philadelphia students enrolled in K-8 schools are enrolled in visual or performing arts courses.

Masterman enrolls 1,186 students in fifth through 12th grades, but though the middle and high school share teachers and a building, middle school students are not guaranteed admission to the much smaller high school. Masterman, which has earned a reputation as Pennsylvania’s best high school, has been through upheaval in recent years, from accusations of entrenched racism to changes wrought by a new, district-wide school-admissions process that a recent Home and School Association report decried as harming Masterman’s academic rigor.

Because Payne became Masterman’s principal in October 2021, this was her first chance at shaping a school schedule that needed streamlining, she said.

“There were minutes that were not being used most effectively to support our students,” Payne said, and in order to make changes at the high school, shifts were needed at the middle school, too. “Because of the size of our school, we want to have the most authentically robust college-prep experience, but there are limits.”

That is: Going forward, Masterman middle school students will have art classes in sixth and seventh grade (two or three times a week) and music in fifth and seventh (one to three times a week), as well as physical education in fifth and eighth (two or three times a week). They previously had each of those classes every year, once a week.

Eighth graders will be able to access art and music in eighth grade during their lunch period; there will also be art, music and physical education opportunities during the extended advisory period. Seventh and eighth graders will also get extra time in math and English.

Expanding high school offerings was a priority, Payne said — Masterman is adding new Advanced Placement courses, and will offer more sections of popular, existing AP courses.

A Home and School Association analysis of Masterman’s new schedule concluded that middle school students will lose overall instructional time, a notion that Payne and assistant Superintendent Ted Domers dispute. The apparent discrepancy between the two is whether the extended advisory period counts as instructional time.

Masterman parent Neha Vapiwala, mother of two middle schoolers, said there seemed to be a suggestion from the district and others that because Masterman has resources that many other city schools lack, parents have no right to push back against the changes. (The school is whiter and wealthier than most district schools, has a full-time librarian, offers dozens of extracurricular activities, and has many parents who can advocate and fundraise for the school. In fact, the Home and School Association offered to pay to cover an extra teaching position, but officials told them that would further inequities.)

“I will tell you as an immigrant person who has celebrated the diversity of this city, it’s really problematic to me that every time we try to bring something up, the way it’s received is, ‘They’re just a bunch of entitled parents whining again,’” said Vapiwala, a doctor who works at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school and around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Stacy Koilor realizes how difficult scheduling is, especially over multiple grade levels in an underfunded district.

“But I’m just really concerned about the removal of some art, music, and gym,” said Koilor, who has two children at Masterman. “I think it’s important from a mental health standpoint to have access to those things. One or all of them could be an introduction to something that changes a student’s life.”

Domers, the assistant superintendent, said the notion that Masterman was reducing social and emotional supports for students by its actions was “a mischaracterization.” The extended advisory period will help students forge connections, he and Payne said.

Spirits were high at the Thursday morning rally held in front of the school on Spring Garden Street. Mayoral candidates Rebecca Rhynhart and Helen Gym, both of whom decried the changes, attended. Rhynhart’s daughter attends Greenfield, a district school; Gym’s children graduated from Masterman and Central.

“We have a choice; our voices matter,” students chanted, as passing cars honked.

Sara Goldrick-Rab, a Masterman middle school parent and protest organizer, said she doesn’t typically get involved in K-12 issues. (Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist who researches college affordability, was a high-profile professor at Temple University until recently.)

“I believe very much that the principals and the teachers have a lot on their plates, and they’re doing the best that they can in a difficult district,” Goldrick-Rab said.

But when she learned that Masterman was planning to cut art and music, at first she thought it was a mistake. When she realized it wasn’t, she felt moved to act.

“Middle schoolers need to have arts and music,” said Goldrick-Rab. “It is an absolutely bizarre moment to take that away from them. I don’t know why you would cut the kinds of things that help with climate, that relieve stress.”