Bluford Charter welcomed students back Tuesday, but much is still in flux
A Philadelphia School District charter official said he was happy "to see not just one, but multiple adults supporting students on their first day.”
Embattled Bluford Charter School welcomed students back Tuesday, but much about the school still remains in flux.
The West Philadelphia charter was scheduled to open Aug. 29, but its first day was pushed back as school officials negotiated a deal to close nearby Daroff Charter, Bluford’s sister school, and scrambled to hire teachers and enroll students.
Ultimately, the Philadelphia school board, which authorizes and supervises city charters, closed Daroff and kept Bluford open for the 2022-23 school year only. Unless another firm is hired, Bluford would revert to district control in July.
Peng Chao, the Philadelphia School District’s acting charter chief, was at Bluford, at 57th and Media, in the pouring rain Tuesday and said he was “pleasantly surprised at how many families and students were at the school.” Chao and his team arrived at about 7:45 a.m. ahead of an 8:30 start time, and “there were kids who beat us to the door, families who were excited to be there.”
» READ MORE: ‘I feel lost’: Families at two Philly charters scramble to find new schools after closure plans were announced
Bluford still has teacher vacancies, but other staff — instructional coaches, assistant principals — will fill in for those classroom spots as needed, Chao said, “to make sure that students are receiving instruction throughout the day, especially in the core areas.” He said he was happy “to see not just one, but multiple adults supporting students on their first day.”
What officials termed “an active crisis for children” happened after a feud began in June between the Bluford-Daroff board of trustees and Universal Companies Inc., its former charter operator.
The Bluford-Daroff board said it no longer wanted Universal to run the schools. Universal offered to operate Daroff for 90 days and Bluford for the 2022-23 school year, but the board declined that offer. Eventually, the district’s charter office officials intervened after concerns arose over staffing, academics, and safety. (Previously, the school board revoked both charters over academic and other concerns, which Universal had fought.)
Daroff students were offered places at Bluford, but pupils from both schools were given the option to enroll at district schools instead. Enrollment numbers were fluid Tuesday, but district officials said at the end of the school day, about 600 students were enrolled at Bluford, with about 200 former Daroff students enrolled. The two schools had a combined enrollment of about 1,000 last year.
Through most of last week, it wasn’t clear whether the school could open Tuesday. It lacked Wi-Fi and phone service. Some teachers quit last week and other openings remained unfilled. Charter officials confirmed Wi-Fi and phone were operational over the weekend.
» READ MORE: ‘I feel lost’: Families at two Philly charters scramble to find new schools after closure plans were announced
Rather than hire a management company, Bluford will operate independently all year. But the charter office will be more involved than it typically is with a charter school, per the terms of the agreement the board of trustees signed with the Philadelphia school board. Chao said the office has “a great deal of respect for charter schools’ autonomy” but will be in close contact with the Bluford leadership team, especially around staffing and safety.
“At the same time, we want to make it clear to the school that they are running the school and we are going to stay out of their way,” said Chao.
Throughout the summer, the district’s biggest area of support “has been a thought partner with the board of Bluford and Daroff with their leadership team” as they “essentially start a brand-new charter school in the course of a month or so,” Chao said.
Bluford had been a K-6 school but is now a K-8 to accommodate Daroff seventh and eighth graders. The school had to act quickly to build curriculum for those students and it wasn’t clear whether all curriculum was in place as of Tuesday, Chao said, but “we did walk through the building today, and it looked like functioning classrooms and schools — there were materials throughout.”
Chao said the charter office has been focused on getting Bluford to opening day and its officials are “relieved to have gotten to this point.” But he said officials must now examine the bigger picture.
“We do have to go back and dissect what happened here between Universal and the schools to see how we can avoid this happening in the future,” Chao said.