Club Holland

Oh what a great way to kick off the summer. The kids are out of school. Yesterday had to be close to the hottest day yet. And we had a pool party.

Thanks to Ralph and Tina for opening their home and their pool. It was a great time! So good to see the kids and enjoy some food and fun. See pictures below.

We're getting ready for the summer camp. Ms. Stacie already has thirty kids signed up! Our max is about sixty...we're always pushed to the limit (it's hard to turn kids away at the door) There's no doubt we'll have to. After the first day of camp, word of mouth always brings more than we can handle.

We're excited to team up with New Life Youth Group, some Temple Crosswalk students, and Bridge Community. This year's camp theme: Daniel and the Lions Den. Buckets and drum sticks are involved.

Last Day

The 2008-2009 After School year is officially over. We're incredibly grateful for a wonderful year. We're incredibly excited for the summer. Love and thanks to all who helped this year. Below some scenes from the last day. I love the last picture of Kasherah and Kaseem holding Candy Land. There is something strangely appropriate about it.

We're gearing up for a summer full of fun. I will try to keep things updated here as best I can.

Our June newsletter will be out to you shortly. Keep an eye out!

May

Where, oh where, did May go?

Summer is brooding over school.

We're finally back to work on the mural. Pictures coming. The kids have also been making their own sillypuddy and playdough with Ms. Stacie.

This past weekend the older girls enjoyed a sleepover with Ms. Karen.

Volunteer Becca Channing and crew continue to hold the fort down in the absence of our Temple Crosswalk volunteers. Congrats to them on finishing out the semester.

We're currently accepting new or like-new kids books for our summer program. If you'd like to donate please contact me for details at joshmacha@gmail.com

Finally, this past week in the news:

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is moving (or perhaps stumbling) their way toward selling off 1,800 blighted properties (1,000 boarded up homes & 800 vacant lots) currently in their possession.

This is good for obvious reasons. Vacant and rundown properties are certainly eye sores, but more importantly they impact a community's ability to draw/maintain investments. A block of eight row homes, five of which are boarded up or literally falling apart, is not all that inviting to small businesses, developers etc. Ride the train about the city and you'll see blocks like this everywhere.

Getting properties like this into the hands of active owners is a good idea. The article cites some properties on North 19th street that have been vacant since 2000.

Still, it remains to be seen whether any of this will happen. Apparently, PHA is having problems getting permission from HUD to move forward. Problems like PHA's inability to complete the proper paperwork! I'm also curious to see just where all these investors are going to come from. It's not as though PHA is in the business of holding on to prime real estate. These properties are in the housing authority's possession for a reason. Aside from organizations like Habitat for Humanity, I just can't see there being a whole lot of interest without any kind of incentive.

But if Habitat's Jon Musselman remains optimistic, perhaps we should too.

"Private developers, too, are interested. "I can't tell you how many times a developer has walked in here and said, 'How can I get this property? Can you help?' " Musselman said.

The real estate market in that part of North Philadelphia remains strong, he said. Just west of Temple University, the neighborhood is still seeing home construction and rehabs, thanks to the demand for student rentals."

Mother's Day

Last Thursday was our first every Mother's Day Dinner. A great success and alot fun for everyone involved. Mom's and Aunt's were served dinner and received the presents the kids had been working on with Ms. Stacie. Thanks to all who came!

Birthday

Yesterday was Alisha and Asha's birthday. They have been with us since the beginning. Actually, they go back to our summer camp 2006. The two quickly became a staple at the camp. Smile's that light it all up.

Happy Birthday!

Asha 2006

Alisha 2006

Asha & Alisha at our Christmas Dinner 2008

In other news the boys went Wolverine with the tinker toys yesterday. Below Richard (left) and Davon (right) gettin' geared up for battle. Yes, it quickly got out of hand, but constructing the equipment is where the real fun is at.

Finally, just to update you on our advisory board - yes we are finally together - we met for the first time this past Friday night. It was a great time together and we're excited to see what's in store for us. There is a strange energy in opening up everything about the Ark that has otherwise been just conversation and thought between Stacie and myself over the past two years. We're glad to expand the brain trust. Very glad. I'll be sending out a brief letter to our mailing list with more detail. Once again if you're not on that list - you did not receive our newsletter in February - and would like to be, please send an email to arkofphilly@gmail.com.

Moving Along

Thursday is Ark Store day. The day the kids get to spend their good behavior dollars on some goodies. This year Dick and Donna Templin took over as the Ark Store keepers. They've done a fantastic job stocking the store and helping the kids work through how far their dollars will go. You might recall last year there was great excitement over who would eventually save enough dollars to get the much coveted scooter. Marquis demonstrated remarkable self-restraint, saved and saved, and finally got it. This year a nurf gun set is holding the awe and hopes of many of the Ark boys. Some are within reach.

Discipline, rewards, helping kids to behave and control their emotions is complicated stuff. And it's only further complicated by adults trying to weave their way toward some kind of consistency and justice. It's in some ways what Paulo Friere refers to as an inherent teacher/student contradiction. We can tell alot about what's going on in a classroom or how a teacher understands education and love, by observing interactions through this paradigm. It sounds heady but some of the difficulties can be solved quite simply. Veronica's unprovoked scarling declaration below is a nice example.



In other news Imagine 2014 passed the School Reform Commission last night. Highlights in my mind:

"The plan's largest expenditure would come from hiring 367 teachers to reduce all class sizes in kindergarten through third grade.

Those classes now can have up to 30 children. Under the plan, no kindergarten class would have more than 23; in the three other grades, the classes would hold 22 to 26 students, depending on the school's academic- achievement level."

This certainly seems like a good idea. Few argue against small class size. It's particularly encouraging too because it focuses on the youngest kids (something I've been turned on to by a friend of the Ark currently teaching in Philadelphia). But considering the near 100 vacancies at the beginning of this year it also seems unachievable. But then I read Just the Facts piece on Imagine 2014. At the bottom of a long list of expensive changes, one stands out that does not require a single cent:

"Changing the hiring timeline from August to June to ensure fewer teacher vacancies"

Okay, that might not seem like a big deal, but trust me, it really is. Just ask the aforementioned friend of the Ark. (Maybe she'll write up an account of her experience for us). Just know that teaching in a public school, as you might imagine, is not the kind of job you get hired for, sit down at your first meeting and then return to your desk to begin work on your first assignment. Imagine being hired in the late August (or even early September), waiting to get assigned to a school (which is no snappy process) and before you know it you're dealing with 30 children you never met before and you're supposed to teach them effectively with love and care.

So, looks like some good stuff here. We'll continue to follow along as it develops.

Finally, we'll be rolling it all out a bit more formally in the next month but we do have a BIG summer camp on the calendar. July 13th - July 24th.

5 Year Plan

We don't have one that's for sure. At least not yet.

Just to update you (those of you I know are glued to this developing story). A bit more news on Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's vision for Philadelphia School District. Here's the link: Article HERE

Apparently the recent version of "Imagine 2014" has some new additions.

"The new version...adds a call for more counselors in elementary schools; more school libraries and textbooks; and increased opportunities for middle-schoolers to learn world languages...stresses that communities should be part of the process for revamping failing schools."

Also the "first group of 10 yet-to-be-determined schools are to be shuttered and reopened under a new structure in September 2010." The new schools are being called Renaissance Schools, charged with the task of embracing "bold new educational approaches with proven track records for success that include in-district restructuring and external partnerships.”

You can bet the high school local to the Ark will be among the first ten.

Many more additions you can read for yourself. I found this to be most ambitious:

"By 2014, the report states, the city's graduation rate should be 75 percent, as opposed to the 53 percent it was in 2008."

Consider that of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., Philadelphia is currently ranked 36th in high school graduation rate. Achieving the goal set out in Imagine 2014 would put Philly somewhere around 4th or 5th in the nation, next to Colorado Springs School District.