Philly high schools bearing brunt of SEPTA strike

This week's SEPTA strike that shut down buses, subways, and trolleys across Philadelphia has had a big impact on attendance at the school district's high schools, with those that draw from across the city bearing the brunt.

Daily attendance at the high schools was recorded as 87 percent Monday, the day before the strike. It plummeted to 61 percent on day one of the strike but had improved to 71 percent on the second day.

"Lower attendance numbers are concentrated in our . . . high schools" that draw students from across the city, H. Lee Whack, a district spokesman said in a statement.

And the numbers vary widely among schools.

At Lankenau High School, a magnet school in Upper Roxborough, principal Joshua Levinson said that on a typical day, 97 percent of the 345 students are in school.

On Tuesday, the first day of the strike, the rate dropped to 70 percent but improved to about 80 percent on Friday, Levinson said.

"Our kids are doing their best to get to school," he said.

Levinson said teachers are working with students who have not been able to get to school and are emailing them their assignments.

Toni Damon, principal of Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School in North Philadelphia, said roughly 30 percent of her 606 students were making it to school during the strike.

"To me, that is pretty good when you think of being a citywide-admit school," Damon said.

"We were prepared for this," she said. "So many of our students have electronic devices."

Those who are not able to get to school are getting their assignments from teachers' websites and submitting them via email.

Districtwide, student attendance at all 218 schools was at 85 percent on Wednesday, the last day for which figures are available. That was up from 80 percent on Tuesday, and down from the 89 percent of district students marked present on Monday, the last school day before the strike began.

School district officials said they would next release attendance data on Monday.

martha.woodall@phillynews.com 215-854-2789 @marwooda

Staff writer Kristen A. Graham contributed to this article.