High School

A new report from the Department of Education was released on January 23, 2013 showing that high school graduation rates are at their highest level since 1974(Brenchley 2013). Pennsylvania’s dropout rate as decreased by 1.1%. In the school year of 2002-2003 the dropout rate for Pennsylvania was 3.2% and for the 2009-2010 the dropout rate was 2.1%. The statistics show that even more high school students are staying in school to graduate increasing the teacher to student population.

Background

The look for the new high school would a building where it housed children with disciplinary problems. The old Shallcross School is located on Woodhaven Road in Northeast Philadelphia and currently the school has seating for approximately 440 students. Currently, George Washington High School (which is the only other general studies high school) in the northeast has a student enrollment of 2,000 kids which is located on Bustleton Avenue. This new public high school would provide an education for the students of the northeast and the surrounding areas of Parkwood, Morrell, and Latham place.

An online survey was taken via facebook to receive feedback and input from the surrounding areas to determine if there was a need or even a want for this new high school. While, the survey did not reach everyone in the surrounding areas, there was mixed feedback from the people that responded to the survey. Busing children from other areas was a main concern for local residents, but many people liked the idea of a new public high school in their surrounding area. They welcomed the idea of new high school for their children that was close and would even pay a nominal fee if necessary because that would be cheaper for them then sending their children to a Catholic High School that is $7000 per year.

Financials

Currently the old Shallcross School on Woodhaven Road only can house 440 seats for high school students; the property sits on 75 acres of ground. This does leave room for expansion to increase the high school to handle more students. With the city’s budget there is little money for new construction because in the city (excluding the northeast) there are 70,000 empty seats (Rogers 2011). Discussion regarding expansion and money will be discussed later in this paper.

On average it costs a public high school $8,626 dollars per year per student. If the school were to reach capacity it would cost $3.79 million per year for all 440 students. Public Schools in the U.S receive funding from three major government sources: local taxes, state revenues, and federal funding. The chief funding source at the local level is the property tax, levied on all residential and business property within the taxing jurisdiction of a local public school district.

Currently the taxes in the Morrell, Parkwood, and Lathom Place