The Widener
Partnership Charter School, the state’s first university-based charter, on
Thursday unveiled the new $4.6 million wing of the school at 1450 Edgmont Ave.
The 28,000-sq-ft. addition includes a Science Learning Center, an extension of
the library, a gymnasium, eight classrooms and eight offices.
“This is
truly an exciting day for the school and the Chester community,” said Principal
Rosemaria McNeil-Sampson. “This is all about providing our students with a
first-class facility for teaching and learning that they can be proud of.”
During the
ceremony, the school also dedicated its new Science Learning Center to the
PECO/Exelon Foundation. In April, the foundation announced a $1 million grant
to the school to fund science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
education and programs to encourage parental involvement at the school.
“PECO is
proud to be a key contributor to the Widener Partnership Charter School as it
strengthens its science, technology, engineering and math curriculum, helps to
further engage parents in the education of their children, and expands to
provide opportunities for more young people to reach their full potential,” said
Craig Adams, PECO president and chief executive officer.
The school,
which opened in fall 2006, was originally chartered to serve kindergarten
through fifth grade, but as students entered fifth grade, parents approached
the university requesting that the school expand. In March 2011, the Chester
Upland School District approved the university’s request to expand the charter
to include grades six through eight.
“The parents
clearly wanted their children to continue in the charter school,” said Widener President
James T. Harris III. “After pursuing several options, and having many
conversations with the school district and parents, we believed the best way
forward was to expand our charter.”
The
ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new wing came one week after the school learned
that it had achieved adequate yearly progress on the Pennsylvania System of
School Assessment test, one of only two schools in the district to make the
grade this year. The school has achieved adequate yearly progress each year since
its students started taking the test in 2010.
The Chester
Upland School District has pointed to the charter schools that serve the
district as a primary reason for the district’s budgetary woes in recent years.
The school district reimburses charter schools on a per-student rate based on
the calculated cost to educate a student. Charter schools receive a higher
reimbursement for students designated as “special needs.”
According to
Dr. Paula Silver, dean of the Widener School of Human Service Professions and
chairperson of the Widener Partnership Charter School Board of Trustees, the
Widener Partnership Charter School maintains a low enrollment, and only 11
percent of students are special need, much lower than the district and state
averages.
“The entire
Chester community can take pride in what the Widener Partnership Charter School
has achieved,” Silver said. “There are good teachers and good schools in the
district. We should be focusing on what the good schools are doing right and
how we can work together to replicate those efforts in a cost-effective manner
throughout the district.”
Silver said
the school takes a holistic approach to education that emphasizes a low student
to teacher ratio, the social and emotional development of each student, a close
partnership with parents and caregivers, and the inclusion of music, art,
drama, foreign language instruction, and physical and health education as
integral parts of the curriculum.
Because it
is affiliated with Widener, the school receives a variety of supports from the
university including education faculty and students who support and enhance the
instruction of classroom teachers, graduate students from social work and
clinical psychology who provide a range of services to the students and their families,
and the use of university facilities such as the Science Teacher Center and the
Art Gallery. The charter school also receives support from the School of
Hospitality Management, the School of Business Administration and the Institute
for Physical Therapy Education.
The new wing
was financed and built by the university, and the university charges the school
rent annually. However, no university tuition dollars or district reimbursement
funds were used to build the new wing.
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