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đŸ« Shuffling teachers | Morning Newsletter

And must-see concerts đŸŽ¶

Julio Nuñez, assistant principal at Gloria Casarez Elementary School, poses for a portrait outside of the school in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on Thursday.
Julio Nuñez, assistant principal at Gloria Casarez Elementary School, poses for a portrait outside of the school in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on Thursday.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer
    by Taylor Allen
    Published 

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

Happy Friday. You can expect to start your weekend with beautiful weather. We’ll get sunny skies with a high of 76.

First, we’ll talk about leveling, the practice of moving around teachers to reflect enrollment numbers.

And then, we have guides galore. If you want to be festive, go out for a drink, find a last-minute concert (or do all three), we have everything you need.

Let’s get into it.

— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

One month into school, Philly is shifting teachers around. But this year, it’s not about money.

Barely a month into the school year, Gloria Casarez Elementary School lost a teacher because nine fewer students enrolled than projected.

  1. The process is called leveling. It’s the Philadelphia School District’s process of shifting educators to reflect enrollment. The practice isn’t specific to the district but it’s also not common elsewhere.

How it works: Say School A has a bumper crop of students with 30 more than expected enrolled. But 20 fewer students than anticipated enroll at School B. One teacher would leave School B and go to School A. (The alternative would be to leave smaller class sizes at School B, and hire an extra teacher for School A.)

Necessary context: In the past, leveling was about money, but now it’s about people. The district cannot find and hire enough teachers to cover all its existing classroom vacancies in its 216 schools, and leveling is a way to shrink the number.

Important numbers: Philadelphia currently has 97.6% of its teaching jobs filled, meaning about 200 vacancies.

  1. Without leveling, 97% would be filled, officials said. Officials have declined to give exact numbers of vacancies, but assuming the district has about 9,000 teachers, that’s 50 fewer positions that need to be filled.

Our education reporter Kristen Graham explains why several educators want to end the practice.

What you should know today

  1. Philadelphia issued an apology for the Holmesburg Prison experiments.

  2. Charles H. Fuller Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Philadelphia icon, died at 83.

  3. ACLU filed a federal complaint alleging Central Bucks has created a ‘hostile environment’ for LGBTQ students.

  4. A federal appeals court in Louisiana ruled earlier this week that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful, impacting young immigrants in the Philly region and across the country.

  5. Local coronavirus numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.

13 Philly-area concerts you won’t want to miss this week

This week’s shows you should make a point to see include the final outdoor performance of the season at the Mann Center, a Ukrainian folk group in Delaware, and alt-R&B mavericks Sudan Archives and Steve Lacy playing in Philly.

Some standouts:

  1. Steve Lacy: The Compton native, guitarist and member of The Internet has collaborated with Solange and Tyler, the Creator. His single “Bad Habits” knocked Harry Styles’ “As It Was” off the top of Billboard charts this week. He’s bringing his Give You the World tour to Fishtown. $210-$680, 8 p.m., 10/11, Fillmore Philadelphia, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

  2. Demi Lovato: This is the last tour, or at least that’s what the singer claimed on Instagram last month, while in the midst of a South American tour that has now arrived in the U.S. in support of their rocked out new album Holy F—-. $40-$150, 8 p.m., 10/12, The Met Philadelphia, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com

Our resident pop expert Dan DeLuca breaks down more of his picks for the week.

Where to find pumpkin spice and everything nice

I love fall. I love the foliage, the sweaters, the apple cider, and yes ... even the pumpkin spice.

  1. Side note: If you are among the people who don’t like these things, that is fair but let the rest of us have our fun.

It is time to be festive and satisfy those pumpkin spice cravings.

Examples:

  1. Barry’s Buns’ spongey pumpkin cake ($25) rolled with cream cheese that serves 6 to 8 people.

  2. Lil Pop Shop’s pumpkin s’mores pop ($4) is a smooth and creamy pumpkin popsicle sweetened with condensed milk spiced just right.

  3. Kouklet Brazilian Bakehouse’s bolo de rolo de abóbora com especiarias ($6), a spiced pumpkin cake roll with its thin layers of sponge cake oozing with pumpkin spice white chocolate ganache (pictured above).

Follow our guide connoisseur Hira Qureshi for more options.

What we’re...

đŸŽ¶ Planning: to check out the Fishtown Music & Arts Festival this weekend.

🐉 Watching: House of the Dragon. I’m all caught up this week and I have conflicting feelings about Rhaenyra and Daemon.

đŸč Sharing: Eight Philly-area places to drink from our 2022 Dining Guide.

đŸ§© Unscramble the Anagram đŸ§©

Hint: A typical Pennsylvania winter destination

COOPONS

Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shout-out to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shout-out goes to Alison Garber, who correctly guessed Oscar’s Tavern as Thursday’s answer.

Photo of the Day

You now have all you need to start your weekend. My colleague Ashley Hoffman has you covered Sunday.