Area elementary schools have shown significant, and in some cases dramatic, growth on the state’s standardized math and reading tests, according to Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results released last week by the 185,000-student Philadelphia School District.
The Charles W. Henry and Henry H. Houston schools in Mt. Airy, along with John S. Jenks School in Chestnut Hill, all charted gains in math compared to last year’s test results.
Among the area’s fifth graders, those scoring proficient or better in math ranged from nearly 50 percent at Houston to 71 percent at Henry. As for eighth graders, Jenks took the prize with more than 77 percent of its students scoring proficient or better.
Still, reading scores were less consistent, dipping or staying static in half the cases, and generally lagged behind math on the proficiency scale at the three schools. While Henry’s eighth-grade scores represented a five point drop from last year, it remained the literacy leader with 72 percent of its eighth graders scoring proficient or better.
Districtwide, about 45 percent of fifth graders scored proficient or better in math and 35 percent did so in reading. Eighth grade scores lagged behind with 39 percent of students scoring proficient or better in each subject area.
And despite near double-digit increases in state performance criteria, all three area schools met federal requirements for “Adequate Yearly Progress” under the No Child Left Behind Act.
After a months-long selection process, Springfield Township is negotiating a new lease for the municipally-owned Flourtown Country Club, a 51-acre swath of land in the heart of the township, complete with a nine-hole golf course, swim club and banquet hall.
The lease with the current operator, Angelo DiCandilo, who has managed the club since 1979, is set to expire Dec. 31. DiCandilo is retiring.
But as township officials forge ahead in contract talks with a potential management team, at least two township commissioners are raising issues of process, legality and ethics in what is perhaps the largest undertaking of its kind for the municipality in more than two decades.
At a Board of Commissioners workshop meeting earlier this month, Democratic commissioners Kathleen Lunn and Marc Perry expressed concerns that the township had started negotiations with a potential lessee before the board had approved the choice with a vote. Also, both officials raised questions about the legality of Springfield Township’s liquor license.
At issue is whether the township’s nonprofit liquor license, which is designated “CC” for catering club, can be used by a for-profit operator.
In general, licensees found to have violated the state Liquor Code could incur any variety of penalties, ranging from fines to the suspension or revocation of a liquor license, according to Sgt. Donald Fernbach, district office commander of the Pennsylvania State Police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Allentown.
Chestnut Hill’s Fall for the Arts and Garden festivals, both sponsored by the Chestnut Hill Business Association, are meant to turn people on to the neighborhood. They did the trick for Robert Previdi.
“My wife and I first came here in 1996 for the Garden Festival, and we both just fell in love with the place,” Previdi told the Local this week.
They loved it so much, in fact, that the family moved here from New York in 2003 — and, as of Oct. 3, Previdi will find himself in charge of these annual events as the newly-hired executive director of the Chestnut Hill Business Association and the Chestnut Hill business improvement district (Chestnut Hill District).
In stepping into this dual role, Previdi fills the position vacated in June by Suzanne Biemiller, who left to work for the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Previdi, a native New Yorker, stepped down as chief spokesperson for City Council president Anna Verna in order to take the executive director’s job. He announced last week that he was also resigning from the board of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, where he served on the executive committee and as chair of the traffic and transportation committee.
For Previdi, the new job means stepping full-time into a role he relishes — that of working to improve the neighborhood.
George Lyons, newly appointed executive director of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, has spent many hours walking around the Hill with Cara, the family golden retriever. He is enthusiastic about what he has seen.
“Chestnut Hill has a lot of history to celebrate,” says Lyons, who demonstrates that, when it comes to local history, he’s done his homework. “From its colonial history as Sommerhausen, a prosperous agricultural colony of German immigrants recruited by William Penn in the late 1600s, through its 19th and early 20th century transition to the Victorian country residences of wealthy Philadelphians as developed by the Houstons and Woodwards. The community is still evolving; some of the largest mansions were torn down or recycled from private to public use. An amazing variety of architecture can be seen; simple 18th century farmhouses are in the same block as the mid-20th century contemporary Robert Venturi house, there are blocks of small row houses a short distance from ‘estates’ — and everyone meets as they shop on the Avenue.”
by JAMES STURDIVANT
George and Cady Lyons