Mayor Cherelle Parker, Superintendent Tony Watlington, and Chief Education Officer Debora Carrera visited Southwark Elementary School on October 8 to check in on extended-day, extended-year schooling. (Carly Sitrin / Chalkbeat)
Two months in, Philadelphia’s year-round school program is blossoming, officials say. But so far, the effort seems focused on giving more families access to programs that already existed, rather than revising the academic calendar.
Mayor Cherelle Parker continues to tout the program as a new vision for the city’s schools and the realization of her campaign promise. But she’s shifted her characterization of it from “year-round” school to “extended-day, extended-year” school. Across the 20 district schools and five charter schools piloting the free extended-day, extended-year program, the city and school district have doubled the number of after-school seats and created thousands of before-school seats at some schools for the first time.
Maritza Velez, a parent, grandparent, and foster caregiver of students at William Cramp Elementary School, said being part of the pilot program has allowed Cramp to open a before-care program for the first time this year.
“It’s great for parents that work,” Velez said.
But for most of the pilot schools, “year-round school” at this point mainly appears to be a new name for work that schools and nonprofit providers have been doing for years.
On October 8, Parker, Superintendent Tony Watlington, Chief Education Officer Debora Carrera, and other school officials toured Southwark Elementary School — one of the pilot schools. They answered kindergartners’ questions, watched fourth grade girls operate camera tripods, and chatted with other students flying drones and building with Legos.
But those programs are not new this year. They’re not even exclusive to the pilot program. The media lab is run by the public media organization WHYY, which has operated in several Philly schools for eight years. And the kindergarten class and robotics club are supported by Sunrise of Philadelphia, a nonprofit that’s been partnering with Southwark to deliver their after-school programming for more than 25 years.
Sunrise also provides free out-of-school programming to 13 other district schools — only one of which is in the pilot program.
That’s not to say educators don’t appreciate what’s going on this year. Southwark Principal Andrew Lukov said Tuesday that the pilot program has allowed the school to increase access to its after-school offerings to a larger number of families than before. Lukov called that a “big game changer.”
“Sometimes you have to tell families ‘no’ when we know that they really need these before-school services,” Lukov said. He emphasized that most of his students started their school journeys during the pandemic and are still adjusting to post-COVID education and socialization: “Our kids love being here.”
The year-round school pilot is funded by $24 million that comes from an increase in the school district’s share of property tax revenue.
