Community Impact 2009-2010

Since moving to its current location in 1976, four years after its founding, The Philadelphia School (TPS) has been a vital part of its Center City West neighborhood and the City of Philadelphia. The school has provided an excellent educational program to hundreds of young Philadelphians. As the sole progressive pre-secondary school in downtown Philadelphia, it represents a distinctive educational option for families committed to living and working in the city. Ninety-seven percent of our students live in Philadelphia. Over the years many parents have reported that it was the availability of The Philadelphia School that was the main reason that they remained Philadelphia residents rather than relocating to the suburbs.

Members of The Philadelphia School community – parents, faculty, staff, students, and trustees – regularly contribute both time and financial resources to area service organizations, cultural and educational institutions, and businesses. Our parents play vital roles in the life of our city as doctors, nurses, social workers, public servants, artists, musicians, journalists, consultants, entrepreneurs, developers, architects, lawyers, paralegals, law enforcement professionals, professors, school teachers, and business executives, to name just some of their occupations. Many of our alumni live in Philadelphia, working in the fields of business, education, government, journalism, law, law enforcement, medicine, music, and technology.

The Philadelphia School contributes to the local economy.
Our 59 full-time and 30 part-time employees contribute $154,500 in local wage taxes. Seventy-four percent of our teachers live in the City of Philadelphia, paying local real estate and school taxes. School employees receive a total of $4,353,757 in payroll and benefits; much of this income will in turn become revenue for local businesses, generating sales and other tax revenue for the city.

In 2009-2010 the school purchased more than $833,000 in goods and services from Philadelphia businesses. The school paid nearly $8,000 for its own trash pick-up and recycling.

The Philadelphia School provides students with nearly $1 million of financial aid.
Our school currently provides $978,700 in financial aid to approximately 26% of its students; of those receiving aid, 90% live in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia School works closely with the Steppingstone Scholars program. We work to help families access funds for tuition assistance through the Black Alliance for Educational Options and Children's Scholarship Fund of Philadelphia. TPS is also the first school in the region to have formed a partnership to place middle school students from the national diversity access organization, A Better Chance.

The Philadelphia School relieves Pennsylvania and Philadelphia
of some educational expenses.
In 2010-2011, of the 370 students enrolled at The Philadelphia School, 97 percent are residents of Philadelphia. If these students were enrolled in public school, it would cost the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania approximately $2 million to educate them. In addition, the parents of these students pay City of Philadelphia school income taxes.

Since its founding,The Philadelphia School has been in the forefront of environmental education.
We are grateful that our founders were early environmental educators. From the beginning, our program has empowered students as stewards of the natural world. Each week in the fall and spring, students travel to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education to spend meaningful time in nature. Study of environmental issues has always been integral to the academic program. Students organize an annual Earth Day Celebration and play active roles in the school’s comprehensive recycling program. Our environmental education program has received national awards and grants, including a President’s Environmental Award and an Environmental Protection Agency education grant.

Philadelphia is an extension of our classrooms.
The rich resources of our city serve as primary sources for our learners. Our students learn about the complexity of urban life by studying their own neighborhoods. They connect directly with America's past by walking the city's streets and visiting its museums. Students may interview a local shopkeeper about her business, visit a medieval courtyard at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, or walk through the doors of the Johnson House, where slaves stopped on their way to freedom. Collaborative projects have included curating an exhibit at the Atwater Kent Museum, creating an online exhibition about Ben Franklin with the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and designing plans for the development of the Delaware River waterfront with the Independence Seaport Museum.

Our students regularly visit the city’s museums, theaters, and historic sites. In addition to supporting these venues financially, the school strives to imbue students with a lifetime appreciation for our city’s cultural and historic treasures.

Service projects are ongoing at The Philadelphia School.
Classroom community service projects have benefited local and international organizations, including UNICEF, the Nationalities Services Center, Reach Out and Read, and Heifer International. Our students tend garden plots in Schuylkill River Park as part of the City Harvest program. The Student Council organizes fund raisers for a variety of worthy causes, most recently for the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

Our Parent Association organizes monthly community service projects to meet expressed needs of social service agencies, including the Bethesda Project, Project HOME, Trevor’s House, and Trinity WinterShelter. Our Middle School students make sandwiches every Monday for the residents of My Brother’s House, a shelter at 15th & South Streets. Almost the entire school community participates in the school Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, preparing sandwiches and desserts for more than 500 residents of local shelters.

The Philadelphia School makes its facilities available at no cost to the community.
The Taney Baseball League uses our parking lot during its season and holds several clinics and events at our school. The school tries to make its facilities available for community meetings when school is not in session. The South Street Bridge Coalition held meetings at TPS about the plans for the rebuilding of the South Street Bridge.

The Philadelphia School trains future teachers.
Each year several faculty members serve as cooperating teachers for undergraduate and graduate students training to be teachers. Our teachers have supervised student teachers from Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, Community College of Philadelphia, and the University of the Arts. Teachers trained at our school have joined the faculties of public and private schools.

The Philadelphia School supports community events.
TPS is a member of the Center City Residents Association and the Friends of Schuylkill River Park (FSRP). Our faculty, students, and parents volunteer at the FSRP Fall Festival each year, and the school made a generous donation to fund the installation of new playground equipment.

The school also sponsors a Taney Baseball League team. Our a cappella group has performed at community events, including annual appearances at the Fitler Square Fair.

TPS has organized an outreach committee made up of neighbors of the school, as well as representatives of local organizations, including the Center City Residents Association, the Friends of Schuylkill River Park, South Square Town Watch, South Street West Civic Association, and the Fitler Square Improvement Association; the committee meets twice a year at the school to discuss community issues.

Our faculty and staff serve a variety of organizations.
Head of School Amy Purcell Vorenberg is on the board of the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS) and on the Community College of Philadelphia advisory committee on early childhood education; she is president-elect of ADVIS. Director of Finances & Operation Carol Lerner, as well as Preschool teachers Lisa Miles and Pam Holland, are on the board of The Parent Infant Center. Middle School teacher and neighborhood resident Judith Parker serves on the board of the Friends of Schuylkill River Park. Middle School teacher Stephen Bartholomew is a volunteer docent and visitor services manager for the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Several staff members volunteer at WinterShelter at the Trinity Center for Urban Life, as well as at a variety of cultural and religious institutions in the city.

The Philadelphia School is a good neighbor.
Located in a mixed-use neighborhood, TPS strives to be a good neighbor. Trash pick-up is scheduled at a reasonable hour. Staff members streamline the flow of drop-off traffic to ease congestion on Lombard Street. Snow is shoveled promptly, and we often shovel neighbors’ sidewalks as a courtesy. The school does routine tree maintenance and tree planting when needed.

The Philadelphia School continues to explore ways to serve the neighborhood, which are consistent with its mission as a coeducational independent school. Our plans for developing our new property at 2501-15 South Street, acquired in July 2008, take into consideration our desire to make our facilities more available for neighborhood meetings and events when school is not in session. Additional space will also enable us to invite our neighbors and area educators to more school concerts, festivals, speaker forums, and other events. Construction began in summer 2011; the new lanscaped entryway to the Lombard Street building will be complete in October 2011. We will gradually grow to a school of 450 children in the next six or seven years, enabling an additional 70 to 75 students to attend our school.

We invite you to learn more about The Philadelphia School.
It would be a pleasure to arrange a tour for you so you can learn more about our school’s

• urban and environmental programs
• community service projects
• connections to its neighborhood
• plans for campus beautification and development

Please contact Dana Marcus, Director of Institutional Development, by phone (215-545-5323, ext. 227) or email (dmarcus@tpschool.org) to arrange a visit or to learn more about The Philadelphia School.