Scenes from the Renaissance process: Smedley's school council hits the road
by Bill Hangley Jr. on May 04 2010
“More controlled classrooms,” she said. “More organization, more respect for the teachers, more respect for each other inside the school.”Charlene Young, a parent at Smedley Elementary in Frankford, doesn’t want much for her daughter’s school – just an end to the chaos.
Jana Wilcox, development director at the Young Scholars Charter School, promised that her team could deliver.
“It’s all about creating structure and order,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. But what is going to happen overnight is a dramatic change in expectations – and consistency among the adults. A real no-excuses policy.”
Last Thursday, Young and five other members of Smedley’s School Advisory Council visited Young Scholars, one of five providers that the District has declared qualified to run Smedley as a Renaissance School next fall. The Smedley delegates learned that Young Scholars has great confidence in its academic model. They also learned that the school, founded in 1999, has had its share of growing pains.
“Young Scholars three years ago was not the school you see today,” said Wilcox. “We had average, at best, academic performance, very poor school culture. We had a lot of behavior issues…. We had fights in the parking lot and fights in the
