Despite fiscal woes, Phila. schools push for innovation

William R. Hite Jr. finds himself in an unusual spot: presiding over what is perhaps the gravest fiscal crisis the Philadelphia School District has ever seen, yet pushing hard for innovation.

On the superintendent's watch, two new schools debuted last year. Three more will open Monday - Building 21, Learning in New Contexts, and the U School - small, personalized places that focus on projects, rely heavily on technology, and admit all students, not just the best and brightest. All three were built with outside money.

Hite has been accused of building new programs at the expense of existing, struggling schools. He has been chastised for championing yet another experiment in a district that has more than its share of failed experiments.

But the way he sees it, the district was failing large groups of students well before its money problems hit. And schools built in times of financial crisis have a stronger shot at surviving than those flush with cash that can and does evaporate quickly.

"I think this is exactly the right time to do innovation," Hite said in an interview. "If we do nothing but create new models that better serve our kids, then we've been successful."

Do not discount, either, the superintendent's need to offer an antidote to the constant stream of gloom coming out of the district.

"Here is what I struggle with every day: We have to be able to look forward to something that is more hopeful than cuts and layoffs," Hite said.

Officials say the three new schools, all opening in North Philadelphia inside current schools or closed buildings, can transform the high school experience. All have general curriculums and emphasize "personalized learning," with students focusing on projects of interest and learning in ways that work well for them. The schools will also be competency-based, focusing on knowledge rather than time - students progress by demonstrating mastery of a skill, no matter how long it takes.

A $3 million grant from the Carnegie Corp. of New York paid for the design of the U School and Learning in New Contexts, known as the LINC.

The founders of Building 21, including Laura Shubilla, former executive director of the Philadelphia Youth Network, approached the district about locating their new school here. Funders include the William Penn Foundation and Philadelphia School Partnership.

But the new schools will receive only minimal financial support from the district - the per-pupil allocation given to every school, plus an extra $15,000 each this year to help with start-up costs. Things are so tight that leaders scavenged closed district buildings to find furniture for the new schools.

"We don't want things that aren't sustainable," said Grace Cannon, executive director of the district's Office of New Schools.

Even so, Saliyah Cruz, "school design leader" (think: principal) at the LINC, jumped at the chance to build a new kind of place.

Cruz - a Philadelphia native credited with turning around a tough West Philadelphia High before leaving the district during the turbulent Arlene Ackerman administration - fled a more stable school system in Delaware to take her current job.

"Our real commitment is to create schools that respond to the users," she said. "For these kids, school is something that's been done to them, not an integral part of their life."

Schools usually tell students to put away their electronics. But at the LINC, housed in space at Roberto Clemente Middle School on West Erie Avenue, they will be used as learning tools.

The school will have no textbooks, Cruz said. "All of our learning assets are digital." Students will have their own computers, purchased with the Carnegie grant money.

Demand for the new schools exceeded even optimistic predictions: 1,800 young people, mostly from district and charter schools, applied for 345 spots. Students were selected by lottery, with half from the surrounding neighborhoods and half from other parts of the city.

Each school will open with only freshmen, then add a grade every year until reaching full capacity of about 450 students. (The LINC will open with 115 students, a quarter of whom receive special-education services.)

"We didn't have to sell people on the idea that things needed to change," Cruz said. "We were a dropout factory. Parents had given up on the system."

(In 2013, 64 percent of district students graduated on time, an improvement from a decade ago, when just 43 percent did. But the rate still considerably lags the national average of 80 percent.)

That the schools take any student was crucial, district officials said.

"It's choices for young people who don't get to make choices," said Cannon, of the new-schools office. "It's about equity."

Cruz vividly remembers pitching the new schools to a group of eighth graders last school year. When she told them that anyone could apply - even students who had low grades or a less-than-stellar behavioral record - one boy's eyes lit up and his hand shot up.

What, he asked Cruz, if someone had gotten kicked out of one school? Could he still apply? Yes, Cruz said, even then.

"He said, 'Oh snap! I'm applying,' " Cruz remembered. "He became my poster child for why this work is important."

Not everyone is pleased with the new schools, though. Robin Roberts, mother of three children who attend district schools, is among the wary.

"They're taking resources that could go into augmenting neighborhood high schools," Roberts said.

Perhaps more troubling, she said, is the idea of more experiments in a district that has tested, then tossed, multiple models.

"They're stealing people away with bright, shiny, and new, but I think it's a bunch of hooey," Roberts said. "They're siphoning people away, and then they'll blame them if it's a failure."

Hite, though, is resolute. He plans to personally welcome students to the LINC on the first day of classes, a sign that he has big plans for the new schools, which he believes could lead to a shift in the way most city students learn in their high school years.

"We have to be honest about the performance or lack thereof of the schools that serve a large number of our children," Hite said. "These big-box structures that operate on a one-size-fits-all model will no longer have the ability to educate all students. Without the ability to respond to the learner, these large comprehensive high schools could very quickly become obsolete."

Is the superintendent foolish to focus on new schools when the sky is falling?

Chris Lehmann, principal of top city magnet Science Leadership Academy and a national leader in education technology circles, believes that Hite doesn't have a choice.

"Dr. Hite inherited the fiscal crisis he did," Lehmann said. "He still has an obligation to do the best he can for the kids of this city."