School's In, continued

    Previously, Sydnor was for nine years principal of the M. Hall Stanton Elementary School. “It’s an inner-city school in North Philadelphia” with “plenty of challenges,” she explains. “We tried to make sure the students achieved, that they had everything they deserved to have, that it was equitable. That was our goal—to make sure that we could compete with suburban school districts and other schools throughout the city.”
    A major attraction of the new school was the opportunity to “have a lot of input into the design,” Sydnor says, including the ability—rare in the School District of Philadelphia, where principals do not have control over personnel—of site-selecting a teaching staff. “We had to bring a team of people together—Penn was involved, the school district and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and parents—on a committee to select a staff for the new school. That was different,” she says.
    As it turned out, of nearly 100 applicants all the successful candidates came from within the district except for the art teacher, Sydnor says, adding that this was an “accolade” to the district and not special preference. “During the interview process, their knowledge-base far exceeded those coming from outside the school district.”
    Besides providing $1,000 per student in financial support for the school, Penn is also contributing its expertise in a variety of ways. “We meet every week, and the collaboration with Penn, as well as the school district and the Federation of Teachers, has been great,” says Sydnor. “Penn has been in the planning process throughout. We rely on their research for educational materials.”
    The resources available to the school are “far-reaching,” she adds, from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) offering help to parents of students who may not have health care to professional-development support for the staff. In the spring, they expect to involve student teachers and tutors from the Graduate School of Education, graduate-student language tutors for non-English speaking students, and a student nurse to work with the school nurse and counselor. In another effort, the University has agreed to provide training for school staff in the various cultures of the student population—which is extraordinarily diverse, with almost 20 countries represented.
    Families at the school include those with parents who are affiliated with Penn as professors, students, or staff, as well as who work elsewhere but live in the catchment area for the school. (Full disclosure: One of those Penn affiliates is the Gazette’s art director, Cathy Gontarek, whose son Max attends the school).
    The school year began for first-graders on September 7. Four days later, students were sent home early when the district closed schools at noon following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The first time that both kindergartners and first-graders were in school was on the 13th. “It was great,” says Sydnor. “The children were happy to be here. They left happy. The parents were happy. It was a great experience.”

Photography by Candace diCarlo

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