The Franklin Conference on School Design - PhillyBlog

Eagle Scout · #1 (**permalink**) 04-22-2005, 04:19 PM

Dear Friend,

As you may know the School District of Philadelphia and the School Reform Commission have a $1.5 billion capital improvement program. This program offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink the relationship between schools and community renewal. A new series of public forums will provide Philadelphians with the opportunity to participate in a robust public conversation about the community building opportunities presented by this unprecedented investment in the city’s schools.

As the next stage of The Franklin Conference on School Design, four “principle sessions” will be held at locations throughout the Philadelphia School District, each focusing on citizen concerns for their neighborhood or region. Each meeting will start with a short overview presentation, followed by facilitated small group discussion, in which participants will develop values- based common ground principles for school design.

The sessions are scheduled as follows
• Tuesday, May 17, The Enterprise Center (West Phila.),
4548 Market St. – 5:30 to 8 pm
• Thursday, May 19, Northeast High School
Cottman and Algon Aves. – 5:30 to 8 pm
• Tuesday, May 24, School for the Creative & Performing Arts
901 S. Broad St. – 6:30 – 9pm
• Thursday, May 26, Dobbins High School
22nd & Lehigh Ave. – 6:30 to 9 pm

The principle sessions build on the opening event of The Franklin Conference on School Design, held March 28 at the World Café Live in West Philadelphia. This first session consisted of an expert panel discussion on school design, planning, and pedagogy, and brought together over 200 representatives of the school community, design professionals, and educators from the region. The structured table discussions that closed the event brought forth many concerns that Philadelphians have about school design, curriculum, and administration, which will be addressed and integrated into the civic deliberations now scheduled for May.

Those interested in attending should RSVP to school@design.upenn.edu or 215- 573-8720 with name, organization, contact information and neighborhood. Availability will be confirmed as soon as possible.

The Franklin Conference on School Design is a civic engagement program of the Penn Institute for Urban Research. The program is sponsored by the William Penn Foundation, the Penn Institute for Urban Research, the Philadelphia Inquirer, PennPraxis, the Design Advocacy Group of Philadelphia.

More information, along with downloadable materials from the March 28th event, may be found at http://www.upenn.edu/penniur/civic/franklin/.

Thank you,
--
The Franklin Conference on School Design
Schools by Design: Innovative Intentions
215-573-8720
school@design.upenn.edu

SurfDog · #2 (**permalink**) 05-31-2005, 10:21 AM

Julie Donofrio
PennPraxis
----------------------------------------------
Dear Friend,

We would like to invite you to contribute to the design and development of Philadelphia Schools. The Franklin Conference on School Design, the joint project of PennPraxis, Penn Graduate School of Education, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Design Advocacy Group, has added the following session to collect citizen input for school design. The meeting is scheduled as follows:

DATE: Wednesday, June 1, 2005
TIME: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
PLACE: West Philadelphia High School, New Gym, 4700 Walnut
Street.

Food and refreshments will be served. Please note change in venue.

This Franklin Conference on School Design Session will be held in conjunction with the West Philadelphia High School’s Community Planning Process led by Concordia, LLP, an architecture and planning firm from New Orleans, LA. The meeting will launch their extended planning process for West Philadelphia High School. The Concordia-led session will be the first of several meetings engaging a wide array of community stakeholders to design the next West Philadelphia High School(s).

Holding the two meetings together will allow the Franklin Conference’s rich community dialogue to create general, city-wide guidelines for school design to augment the Concordia process.

Please RSVP if you are interested in attending. Write an email to school@design.upenn.edu or call 215-573-8720, with your name, organization, neighborhood, email address, street address, and phone number. Also, check the website for links to school design and curriculum research, along with an overview of our project:

http://www.upenn.edu/penniur/civic/franklin.

Joely · #3 (**permalink**) 06-01-2005, 03:34 PM

~bump~

seand · #4 (**permalink**) 06-01-2005, 03:55 PM

I can never go to one of these things but I sure wish some PB poster would go to one and give us a report.

seand · #5 (**permalink**) 06-11-2005, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Citizens speak but will School Board Listen?
UC Review
By Sheryl P. Simons

Amidst the sounds of bouncing basketballs and youthful squeals emanating from the gym inside the West Philadelphia High School (WPHS), a diverse group of about 125 concerned citizens, students, teachers, parents, and alumni gathered to discuss the future direction of their neighborhood schools. Held on June 1st, it was another meeting in the citywide series conducted under the auspices of The Franklin Conference, a Penn-based urban school planning consortium. Dr. Amy Gutmann, Penn's President convened the conference last March at the World Cafe with a speech that stressed the importance of education to any democracy.

Concerned citizens, students, teachers, parents, and alumni gathered to discuss the future direction of their neighborhood schools. Photo: Sheryl P.Simons
From the podium at WPHS, Marsha Brown, head of the Home and School Council expressed a desire to include as many voices as possible. "All participants need to have input so that the new building will be effectual for our student programs." According to Brown, the steering committee has been meeting since 2003 and has traveled to observe other newly constructed urban schools including one in the Bronx. Beginning in July, she announced that this larger group will meet for the next eight months to specifically address matters pertaining to WPHS and the West Philadelphia region.

A detailed visual presentation was made by representatives of Concordia, LLC., a New Orleans-based architecture firm with a track record in large urban school design. Their slides gave a historical timeline from the one-room school house to today's factory warehouse school that many criticize as prison-like. Steven Bingler, Concordia's founder, noted that the objective was to create new schools as town squares that would become the center of community life. However, in order to reach this goal, Harris Sokoloff of the Franklin Conference stated that, "The first step would involve establishing guidelines and criteria to use as a part of the planning process." Through the use of small group exercises, Sokoloff hoped that by the end of the meeting a common set of guiding principles would emerge.

Earlier this year, School Superintendent Paul Vallas announced an ambitious $1.6 billion building and renovation program, which would serve as a catalyst to re-shape the relationship between communities and their schools. While Vallas was head of the Chicago school system, a similar re-building program took place using the Concordia firm.

Despite this good-faith effort to engage stakeholders in dialogue, concerns have been raised about the veracity of this process. The original West regional meeting took place on May 17th, primary election day, a time about which Matthew Wolfe wrote a Letter to the University City Review Editor stating, "It is an insult to the citizens of West Philadelphia for them to hold such an important conference on Election Day." As a result of Wolfe's objections, as well as protests from others, this additional June 1st date was set.

Moreover, on June 6th, the Philadelphia Students Union (PSU) scheduled a rally at the Friends Meeting Center, 15th and Race Streets, where Dr. Greg Thornton, Chief Academic Officer for the School District of Philadelphia, was invited to attend. Eric Braxton, Director of the PSU, stated that Dr. Thornton would be asked to sign a contract agreeing to implement these recommendations. "We want assurances that the school board will adhere to what comes out of this process."

Echoing this sentiment was Norman Brown, 1970 WPHS Class President, "There is an urgency of where and how this is going to go down. This is not just a downtown thing. We have a strong history in this community and we need a voice."

Having an impact on the future of WPHS is the new Microsoftsponsored Technology High School in nearby Parkside as well as the future Penn-sponsored International High School. On behalf of U. Penn, Glenn Bryan, Director of Government and Community Relations, told the audience that he wanted to dispel all the rumors that plans for the International High School were imminent. Bryan assured the group that the idea of this new school was in the very early stages of development and he welcomed anyone to contact him to discuss concerns.

Also in attendance was Sarah A. Mack, a 1936 graduate and one of only ten African Americans to graduate from WPHS that year. She spoke to the audience about the importance of education and how she would like to see smaller classes so that students can see what school can do for them.

"My father was a sharecropper and it was quite something for us to go to school during the Depression. Even though my father didn't have an education, he instilled in us pride by valuing education and setting standards." She concluded by saying that "...far more students needed to be a part of this process."

http://www.philly1.com/story7060805.html

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