Ackerman helps open new Fels High as school year begins

He wore black sneakers with red laces. She wore stylish gold flats.

Mo'Naire Walker, 14, a freshman at Fels High in the Northeast, and Arlene Ackerman, Philadelphia School District superintendent, hiked the few blocks from Walker's house to the brand-new high school as part of the schools chief's back-to-class ritual.

But it wasn't all pomp and posing for photos. On the first day of school, the city's teacher-in-chief wanted to know: What's his plan to succeed in school? What's his career goal?

He dreams of being a football star, Walker said. With a little more prompting from Ackerman, he said that if the NFL didn't work out, he'd be a construction worker, maybe own his own business.

"Good," Ackerman said. "You have to have a backup plan. My brother's an electrician. He always has work."

Later, Ackerman turned her attention to Walker's new digs, the $80.1 million school at 5501 Langdon St., where Mayor Nutter and other dignitaries joined her for a bell-ringing ceremony signaling the start of school for 160,500 city students.

"You've got a beautiful new school!" the superintendent said, waving at students walking in.

Sophomore Serge Jules, 16, looked apprehensively at the large, two-story structure, which boasts a six-lane swimming pool, a cavernous gym, and plenty of natural light.

"It's a nice school, but I'll probably get lost," Jules said.

Simone Willis, a 16-year-old junior, wore a large green sign around her neck: "Need help? Ask me - student volunteer."

Willis eyed a sea of students surging through the front door, looking confused and asking where their rosters were, how to find the girls' bathroom, where the pool was.

"It's beautiful," Willis said. "It should be taken care of. I hope it stays like this."

Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco, who helped broker the deal that settled community concerns over the school and allowed construction to proceed, was more blunt.

"This is your house," Tasco told the Fels senior class, who gathered in front of a podium at the school entrance. "I want you to love your house. I want you to remember your parents paid for this house. The money didn't come from outer space."

Liana Daye has high hopes for the school. Her daughter, Cartier Rutledge, is a 17-year-old senior, and Daye came to see her off on the first day of school.

"This is well-deserved by the kids, and they'll do great here," Daye said, snapping a cell-phone photo of Rutledge and a friend before they made their way into the building.

After the bell ringing, the ribbon cutting, and the "it's-going-to-be-a-great-school-year" speeches, Ackerman made her way into the gym, where she encouraged hundreds of underclassmen to ask for a real first-day-of-school treat.

"We want a rap! We want a rap!" the crowd told Mayor Nutter.

Fresh from taking his own daughter to her first day of high school at Masterman High in Spring Garden, the city's rapper-turned-mayor obliged, if a bit reluctantly.

"Come to school, don't be a fool," Mixmaster Mike rhymed. "You got to stay in school if you want to graduate."

The city opened two new high schools yesterday, Fels in Oxford Circle and Lincoln in Mayfair. An annex of Solis-Cohen Elementary, in Bustleton, also opened.

There were 24 teacher vacancies on the first day of school, said Estelle Matthews, head of the district's human-resources department.

Officials had been optimistic that they would fill every classroom on the first day, but a surge of resignations, no-shows, and long-term leaves in the last few weeks of summer thwarted those plans.

Matthews said the 24 unfilled jobs - down from 146 vacancies on the first day of school last year - were staffed by substitutes yesterday.

But she expects to fill those jobs within the next few days, either with teachers who recently applied to the district, or with those from a list of "supplemental teachers" who were hired but don't yet have their own classrooms.

"I'm still getting resignations and moving people around," Matthews said last night. "Tomorrow, we will be filling those positions."