Philly’s Edison High has struggled for years. Here’s how its principal has spearheaded a turnaround.

A few months before Lillian Izzard took over as principal of Edison High, she walked through the sprawling school on West Luzerne Street with a notebook, taking pictures with her phone.

“I had trophy cases with no glass, broken hydration stations, tiles that were stained with water damage, holes on the wall,” said Izzard. “It was heartbreaking.”

It felt like a metaphor: Izzard was taking over a school that had a reputation, and not a great one. Edison had multiple long-term staff vacancies and high turnover. It had hall-walkers and other student safety and behavior issues. And the building, Izzard saw firsthand, looked like a place you wanted to get out of fast.

Izzard, who was principal of Fels High School at the time, had been talked into taking the Edison job. But the walk galvanized her: She was going to convince whomever she needed to convince to make the Hunting Park school look welcoming. And then she was going to work with staff and students to make it feel that way, too.

A little more than a year in, Izzard has made serious strides in turning around what had been regarded as one of the district’s toughest schools.

“Oh, my God, it’s so good now, so much better,” said Edith Cazaubon, a special education teacher there since 2006. “Now, you see more people smiling.”

Izzard was born in Jersey City, and moved to Philadelphia when she was 9. Her mother enrolled her at Bayard Taylor Elementary, a public school in North Philadelphia, and Izzard landed in ESL classes to practice her English; the family spoke Spanish at home.

Eventually, she moved to local Catholic schools, graduating from Little Flower High School, then briefly taking classes as an accounting and business administration major at Chestnut Hill College. She loved learning and was a good student, but college didn’t work out initially.

“I was one of six in a single-parent home, and I went to work to help my mother,” said Izzard. “I had to help raise my five siblings.”

At age 20, she got hired by the Philadelphia School District as a secretary in the Office of Non-Public programs — steady work, with bosses who encouraged her. She earned a degree in education while working full time, got jobs as a school operations officer, a program coordinator. Then, she decided to become a classroom teacher. She took a pay cut, but Izzard felt called to do the work.

Izzard landed at Julia DeBurgos Elementary in North Philadelphia, teaching technology. She loved being in the classroom, wanted to become an administrator, so got another degree in educational administration, and eventually became an assistant principal at Clemente Middle School.

“It was a little challenging, I’m not going to lie,” she said. But Izzard settled into it, then moved to Fels, where she was eventually appointed principal. She imagined she’d retire from that job when Jonathan Brown, Izzard’s former assistant superintendent, reached out: What about Edison?

The answer was a quick no.

But then Izzard had a conversation with a colleague who was “working with students who looked like him,” Izzard said, and a light went off. Every one of the 900 students at Edison is considered economically disadvantaged. Roughly 1 in 3 is an English language learner, and 1 in 3 needs special education services. Sixty-six percent are Latino, like Izzard.

“Any one of those students at Edison could have been me,” Izzard said. “My colleague said, ‘Go, bring your systems, provide opportunities for your students.’”

It took a leap of faith, she said.

“All I know is that Edison’s always been painted in a negative light. But these kids — my kids here — are the same kids as my kids at Fels, the kids at Central. These are children, why are we painting this picture? I wanted to change that, to change the school from the inside out.”

Izzard peppered the district’s facilities department with not just requests, but requirements: new paint, in bold yellows and greens, with murals and signs; brighter lighting; replacement glass, and more. She told teachers to start putting up bulletin boards again. Don’t worry about students ripping them down, Izzard said — they won’t. (And they didn’t.)

Izzard understood that her staff was beleaguered, and on day one, she greeted them with treats, just to say thank you for being here. You matter.

“After that, it was communicating how everything’s important, and that you deserve the best of the best,” Izzard said. “My plan of attack was, do the building first, and then do systems.”

That meant getting cell phones out of students’ hands; Izzard was an early adopter of Yondr pouches at Fels, and brought them to Edison, too. And she brought Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports to the school, shifting the narrative from negative student behavior to playing up students’ good side.

Izzard added extracurricular clubs and sports, and the kind of events students wanted: spirit week, a Halloween celebration, college day, Earth Day, a Black history celebration, women’s day.

“We celebrate everything, and kids want to be a part of it,” said Izzard. “All of it is earned, and the kids take pride just as much as the adults.”

Comprehensive high schools such as Edison take every student who walks in the door, regardless of need. And students’ needs are great, with significant numbers living in foster care, experiencing homelessness, returning to school from incarceration or inpatient services. Gun violence and trauma are a common backdrop.

Izzard insisted on structure, rules, positive relationships and opportunities. The school had miles to go — 12% of Edison students met state standards in English in 2021-22, the last year for which data are available, and 2% in math; just under half of ninth graders were on track to graduation, and the four-year graduation rate was 55%.

But Edison is moving the needle.

After Izzard’s first year, more ninth graders were on track to graduation (up 6.5%), teacher and student attendance was up (2.3% and 6.2% increases, respectively.) This year, serious incidents are down. It’s leaning into its strengths, including career and technical education programs that focus on everything from welding and automotive to culinary and film. There are no teacher vacancies.

Eliza Bender, an Edison 11th grader, put it plainly.

“The years before, students were rowdy and disrespectful, but it’s definitely changed since Principal Izzard came,” said Bender, 17. “We work as a unit now, and the idea is everyone is going to get you to graduation, get you what you need. It’s changed, people have a more positive outlook on their education.”

Izzard’s abundant paperwork doesn’t get done during the school day; when students are in the building, she’s often out of her office.

“I love my mornings, greeting kids, engaging with them; it’s my favorite part of the day,” she said. Izzard has a bullhorn, and a way about her — firm, but positive. “I can’t get from here to there without being stopped 20 times, but I love that. It’s what drives me.”

On a recent day, Edison staff had to confiscate several cell phones. Izzard announced random phone checks the next day.

“Guess what? That day, we saw no cell phones,” she said. “I don’t tolerate disruption of instruction.”

Kevin Bethel, the district’s safety chief, is a big Izzard fan. The year before she came to Edison, there were 122 fights in the school. Last year, there were 12. At one point, he had to triple the number of school security officers in an attempt to keep order. Now, he’s scaled back.

“Just the way she goes about building relationships is great,” said Bethel. “Everybody’s a part of the safety process. When young people see that, it creates this safety umbrella. It’s commendable, the level of effort and work she and her team have done to restore the order in the school.”

Cazaubon, the veteran Edison teacher, said she knows why Izzard won a prestigious Lindback Award for principal leadership in the spring.

Izzard trusts her teachers, and goes to bat for them; when Cazaubon mentioned to Izzard she wanted to start reading novels with her autistic support students, two sets of the books she wanted showed up in her room. And Izzard includes her students in everything; Cazaubon’s 12th graders participated in a senior project for the first time ever last year.

“She checks in, she’s visible, not to intimidate you, just to make sure everything’s OK,” said Cazaubon.

And a remarkable thing happened when Cazaubon showed up for the first teacher prep day in August: Instead of a lot of new faces, the faculty looked familiar.

“When I looked around, everyone came back,” she said.