Parents implore district: Stop tinkering, fix schools | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/02/2010

Parents implore district: Stop tinkering, fix schools | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/02/2010

Parents at one North Philadelphia school that may be radically overhauled in the fall had a clear message for the Philadelphia School District last night: Enough is enough. Stop tinkering with our school and figure out how to help our kids.


Winifere Thornton said she wasn't sure about the announcement that, by landing in the bottom 10 percent of schools districtwide, Dunbar might be operated as a charter, or by outside management. It might remain under district control, but with big changes in staff and school day.


If chosen as a "Renaissance" school, Dunbar, on 12th Street near Temple University, would be on its third manager in eight years. Parents and students feel whipsawed by all the upheaval, Thornton said.


"Too many changes," Thornton said. "Everything failed. Different principals all the time."
Her grandson, she said, is in sixth grade but reads at a third- or fourth-grade level. Several parents in attendance said their children were also behind.


Nikia Denby, one of the 30 parents and teachers in attendance last night, went to Dunbar when it was a good school, she said, and now she's the parent of three children there.
She's undecided about Renaissance schools, but she knows she wants something better for her children.


"Why pass kids along when they don't know the curriculum? They're moving, but their brains aren't moving with them," Denby said. "When it's time for my son to compete in the real world, he will struggle."


Dunbar doesn't have enough