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LATEST NEWS ON OUR EFFORTS TO SAVE OUR SCHOOL (posted June 19, 2011)

So, the fight is not over yet. Please continue to spread the message that: "students attending alternative schools are some of the most vulnerable youth in Philadelphia and deserve, at the very least, to be funded the same as youth attending the city's high schools."

EMERGENCY NEWSFLASH!(posted on June 8, 2011)

As Big Picture Philadelphia gears up to celebrate the June 20th Graduation Exercises of El Centro de Estudiantes' 1st Graduating Class, the Students and Staff of El Centro fight for their very survival!

El Centro Teacher, Andrew Christman, stands up for the right to a decent education.

On Monday, June the 20th, El Centro de Estudiantes will be honoring its first Graduates. Less than two years after opening, El Centro has much for which to be proud. As you are probably aware, El Centro, like every alternative school in Philadelphia, opened to serve students who dropped out or were kicked out of the school district's middle and high schools, are over-aged and under-credited and have fewer than 13.5 credits upon enrollment. Since opening in the fall of 2009, 30 of the students El Centro has enrolled, had they completed a full course load, would have been eligible to graduate in the summer of 2011. El Centro has retained 73% of those students and 68% of those students will graduate this summer. The school district of Philadelphia's comparison graduation rate for the similar population is about 22%.

However, the School District of Philadelphia has voted to eliminate El Centro and every other alternative school, and should the decision stand, would effectively negate the hard work and commitment of the more than 50 El Centro students slated to graduate in the Summer of 2012. So, how did this happen?

On Tuesday, May the 31st, the School Reform Commission approved the School District's proposed budget for the 2011 - 2012 school year by a vote of 3 - 1, thus voting in favor of eliminating alternative schools, including El Centro. In the place of El Centro and the 12 other alternative schools, the school district will develop 5 new schools of their own serving a total of 3,900 students. This proposal has ignited outrage amongst students, families and city leaders, including the Mayor and raised important questions, including: 

• With an average of 780 students per proposed school, the district wants to essentially place the students back in schools almost as large as the comprehensive high schools from which they dropped out. Is there an alternative program anywhere in the country that has had success educating students in a 780 student school? or even a 500 student school? (El Centro serves 165 students.) 
• How is the School District going to do this at $2,228 per student? The district clearly indicated that they would serve 3,900 students at a cost of $8,687,775. Does the district forget that once upon a time they failed these same students when they were spending close to 6 times the proposed amount?
• The school district claims that they will implement educational best practices learned from the present alternative schools. These practices which require an enormous amount of professional development support usually take 2 - 3 years to master. Does the district leadership have capacity to implement these programs? What is the track record?

Big Picture Philadelphia and others around the city are fighting this decision. Parents, students and staff have testified in front of the Philadelphia City Council and the School Reform Commission, engaged in a letter writing campaign and have called their Council Member repeatedly. The following is the testimony of El Centro Junior, Joandaly Chavez:

I want to start off by saying that everyday I fight for my future, whether it’s in school or out of school. To me, El Centro de Estudiantes is my high school, my pride, my integrity, and most importantly, my education. El Centro de Estudiantes is a Big Picture school that enrolls students who have dropped out of traditional high schools. Our school is different from other schools in so many ways.  We focus on real world learning and finding our own internships in the community. We give exhibitions of what we have learned in front of students, teachers, parents, and visitors who come from the community. We have no metal detectors and no issues with violence.

When I first applied to El Centro, I was a troubled teen, as many are here in Philadelphia. A year previously, I was in a public high school with a background of fights, suspensions, student riots, teacher neglect, and worst of all bullying from students and teachers. I felt alone. I was failing the most important school years of my life. I was also involved in a lot of the violence that surrounded my school and neighborhood. The School District of Philadelphia assured my parents and me they would keep me focused, give me an excellent education, and would never let me down. Yet, in reality, I was neglected and viewed as just another young woman who would eventually dropout. Due to those conditions, I did end up dropping out of school. I was in the 10^th grade and it took me a whole year of struggle to find my way back.

Coming to El Centro gave me hope. There’s no comparison to the teachers at El Centro, because they have a higher level of understanding. They are way more than just teachers to me and my peers, they’re like an astonishing older brother or sister. When I have the smallest doubt in my mind about actually being somebody and graduating, not only do my advisors lift my head up high, but so do my peers. We’re all united as one, one family, no one is above anyone. I take school seriously more than anything now, I am no longer getting into fights and my grades are even better.

I want to leave this question up in the air for the elected officials and members of the School Reform Commission who have control of my future. What’s going to happen to all the students that had no assurance, dedication, and commitment before Big Picture came into their lives? I believe that if all thirteen accelerated schools were to shut down, I’d go back to my old ways. This is not because I want to, nor because I am a follower, but because no one but the students and teachers understand what El Centro De Estudiantes and the twelve other accelerated schools mean to our education and future. Big Picture Philadelphia is the name I want printed on my transcript when I graduate. I was one of Philadelphia’s troubled teens who is now truly honored to stand strong and believe that I am going to be successful with the help of Big Picture Philadelphia schools. This is why I strongly ask that you let us keep our schools, our educations, our futures, our homes… our hope!

So, what can we do? The School District of Philadelphia still has a budget shortfall of roughly 600 million dollars. The Mayor has asked the City Council to propose legislation to raise an additional 75 - 120 million dollars for the School District to restore funding for four targeted areas, including alternative education. The future of El Centro is largely tied to whether the Council votes to approve this additional funding and whether they do so on condition that alternative schools be restored.

Tomorrow, Friday, June 8, there will be hearings at the City Council around just this and a few El Centro students will be speaking. Today, Youth United for Change is organizing a press conference and El Centro students will be participating there as well. And there are many who are reaching out and talking to City and District leaders around this issue. So, what else can we do?

Big Picture Philadelphia needs you, your friends and colleagues who care about the future of El Centro to reach out to your City Council representative. The message is simple: "a 600 million dollar shortfall remains at the school district so please provide additional funds and save our school, El Centro, an alternative school." CITY COUNCIL PHONE NUMBERS CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK: PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL CONTACT

PHOTOS OF OUR EFFORTS

FROM TESTIFYING BEFORE CITY COUNCIL TO HITTING THE STREETS, WE ARE MAKING OUR VOICES HEARD.

50 El Centro students and parents testified before City Council at a meeting
that took 5+ hours!



Those who came together for the testimony include David Bromley, Executive Director of Big Picture Philadelphia (far right), dozens of concerned students and parents, teachers and principals and school staff.

Please check out the two Save Our School videos made by journalism students at El Centro. The videos give a powerful sense of what is at stake.... 

LINK TO VIDEO 1

LINK TO VIDEO 2

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In the Spring of 2011, Big Picture Philadelphia has selected a winner for the first "WORKS OF GENIUS" for our new website! Congratulations to Precious Young for her creative and genius dress design!!

With the launch of our new website, we wanted to make sure that we could feature creative exemplary pieces to populate the STUDENT VOICES page on our website. So we held a contest and requested submissions. The winner received a cash prize and the honor of having her work featured as the first ever STUDENT VOICES project!

PRECIOUS YOUNG'S BALLGOWN.....

My project is my mother's ballgown. I had an internship last year with a fashion designer who owned a fabric store. While there I learned about the many different materials and dealing with customers. My mom wanted me to make her a dress for the ball she was going to with my dad. So, I started to design a dress for her using my favorite color and the one that just happens to look best on her, blue. Since, I was working with a fashion designer and an excellent dressmaker, I decided to turn it into a project and it was a great way to get credit, although it was more for fun. It was the perfect project because it helped out everyone. My mom would get a fabulous dress, I would be taught by a professional on the art of dressmaking, and it was good promotion for his shop. The LTI projects are supposed to be about helping the mentors who so kindly offered to help us, so we do a project designed to help them. That's exactly what the dress did, because all of my dad's friends saw it and business cards went flying....

An Excerpt from Precious Young’s Personal Narrative

The passion that I pursued this trimester in my Learning Through Internship (LTI) was in fashion design. I managed to get a LTI at a fabric shop located at 4^th and Fitzwater Streets. It is called La’ Grants Fabrics. I worked there with Mr. James, a fashion designer and owner of the shop and Sy, my mentor who runs the shop as the manager. The story of how I got my LTI is funny. Khara, my Advisor, was determined to get me a LTI. On a Friday she took me to South Street on fabric row to see if we could find any places. We went into some shops that were nice but didn’t have what I wanted, so we kept looking. In one of the last stores we went into, we asked them one question and they answered without even so much as a second thought. Khara started to explain our school a little bit and before she even finished they said “too busy, prom season” and that was their full answer. We left and got to the end of the block, turned around and walked back up the block. Then, we stopped at this cool looking fabric store and they were open, so we went in to check it out. Khara talked about our school and they liked the model and she asked if they could take an intern. They said it sounded like a great idea and I left my information and they gave me a card. We left and the following week on Tuesday I called and scheduled an Informational Interview. Two Informational Interviews and Shadow Days later my LTI was officially set up. I’ve been working there ever since. My project was to design and create a dress for my mom to wear to a ball. It was originally a home project. Since it was something I liked to do, Khara suggested I turn it into another project to get school credit for it. I did not complete this project following the timeline because everything did not go according to a time specific timeline. I liked working with a very skillful and knowledgeable teacher like Mr. James. I liked the fact that they actually took the time to sit with me to see where I was and what I could already do. They taught me and corrected me when I did something funny, as well as showed me better ways to do things, all involving my sewing. What I would do better next time is to make more time to practice my sewing, so I don’t make as many mistakes. I learned that stretch netting shouldn’t be used for a solid dress because it tears too easily. Also a loose stitch is better to use for the first fitting opposed to a tight stitch on the finish. I learned how to sew in a zipper. I feel great because it was my project and I did most of the work: the cutting, pinning, and sewing. Mr. James was right there helping and guiding me, checking my work, making corrections, and showing me things I could do to have less stress during sewing. It was great to have mentors that were willing to help me throughout the whole process.

.....Student Voices will regularly feature the work of students in the Big Picture network, allowing the world to partake in our creative genius!