Drexel has a role in a new Philadelphia public middle school
Drexel University will partner with the Science Leadership Academy on a new district middle school.
My colleague, Kristen Graham reported Thursday that the Philadelphia School District was planning a middle school based on the successful Science Leadership Academy model. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/school_files/Philly-schools-closures-new-schools-charter-conversions-.html
Its partner for the new school is Drexel University.
Drexel has been working with Samuel Powel, a K-4 school in its West Philadelphia neighborhood, for years and wanted to find a way to support a middle school that Powel students could attend, said Lucy Kerman, vice provost for university and community partnerships. When the university learned that the Science Leadership Academy, a high school, wanted to do a middle school, it seemed like a perfect fit for Drexel, which encompasses the Academy of Natural Sciences, she said.
The university is helping the school secure a temporary location for a fifth grade next fall and ultimately hopes to find partners to build a school on the University City High School site, which Drexel owns, she said. The hope, she said, is that the new site would house both a larger Powel and the new middle school.
"But there's a long way to go before we know if we we're able to do that," Kerman said, and if a plan to build a new school were to go forward, it would take several years.
The university, she said, would not pay for construction of the new school, nor would the district. Drexel would make the land available. Many details, such as whether the district would pay rent to Drexel, still need to be worked out, she said.
"In the meantime, we'll continue to support Powel and we are eager to bring the resources that we have …to support an inquiry-based middle school," Kerman said.
The university and leadership academy hope to have the temporary site secured by the end of the month; it will not be on Drexel's campus, she said.
Kerman said the university is looking forward to a year of planning with the new middle school principal, Tim Boyle, currently a teacher at Chester Arthur Elementary in South Philadelphia.
"He just came on board and he already has been meeting with our dean of education," she said, noting that they will explore how faculty across the university may assist, as well as students.
Drexel will not provide the school with a per pupil operating subsidy, she said, as the University of Pennsylvania does to Penn Alexander. Penn helped the district create Penn Alexander and has provided up to $750,000 a year to the school since it opened in 2001.
Drexel, Kerman said, also supports McMichael School, which is in its neighborhood.
"From the university's perspective, we know that quality public schools are essential to keep advancing the progress of Philadelphia today," she said. "We have a lot of young people moving into the city. We know they won't stay if there aren't strong educational options.…It's in the best interest of all universities to support public education."
