City And Education Officials Announce New Model For Improving Phila. Public Schools
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia public schools would become multi-service centers for children, under a plan endorsed today by city government and school officials, appearing at an elementary school near Temple.
It's called the "Community Schools" model.
Mayor-elected Jim Kenney and council president Darrell Clark went to Cincinatti, last week, to see the model in action.
"We walked into the hall, they had a vision center, in case you have trouble seeing. They had a dentist because when your teeth are health, your body's healthy."
Kenney and Clark have long proposed doing something similar in Philadelphia but lacked support from the mayor and School Reform Commission. Clark says that has changed now that Kenney will be mayor and former principal Marge Neff leads the SRC.
"The stars have aligned. Everybody's on board with this."
Clark says the roll-out is still in the planning stages and the cost unclear, though he says it shouldn't cost much since it's simply a realignment of how services are provided.
South Philadelphia High School in recent years has partnered with dozens of organizations to provide services to students as part of a community schooling approach.
"We work really hard to make sure students come in and have the supports they need because I have students with a wide range of issues but I also have a student that has a wide range of abilities so we try to make sure that we address both ends of that spectrum," said Otis Hackney III, principal of South Philadelphia High School.
