Esperanza Academy Charter School
Esperanza (Nueva Esperanza, Inc.) and Esperanza Academy Charter School recently received state-wide recognition for operating as a second vaccination clinic in the City of Philadelphia. The site, which spans Esperanza’s main parking and the Esperanza Academy Charter School gym, was strategically selected for its location, serving as a convenient intersection for nearby under-vaccinated communities which will, ideally, result in an increase in vaccination rates. Approximately over 10,000 people have reportedly been vaccinated thus far at the clinic. The Esperanza Community Vaccination Center located at 4261 North 5th Street, is managed by the City of Philadelphia with assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (PA).
Please note that in addition to walk-ups, individuals can also make appointments directly via the City’s page. For more information, click here.
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Penn Medicine Vaccination
Penn Medicine will be offering a new one-time COVID-19 vaccine clinic for all District and charter school staff who have not yet been vaccinated and would like to receive the two-shot Pfizer vaccine. The Penn Medicine clinic will provide vaccinations by appointment only on Saturday, May 1, 2021 (first dose) and Saturday, May 22, 2021 (second dose). On those days, appointments will be offered from 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM at School of the Future, located at 4021 Parkside Avenue. Participants must be able to attend both vaccine appointments, as they will not be offering make-up appointments. While the clinic will also be open to the public, appointments have been reserved specifically for District and charter staff. For more details about the clinic, view the flyer here.
If applicable staff members filled out the pre-registration form the week of April 19th, they should have received a text message on April 23rd from Penn Medicine with a link to register. For staff members who did not, they should text the word READY to 267-263-7618 or call the same number to register. To view what the text registration interface looks like, click here.
Please note that staff members who receive the first dose on Saturday, May 1, 2021 will be prompted to register for the second appointment on Saturday, May 22, 2021. Additionally, medical experts from Penn Medicine will be hosting a webinar tomorrow, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 2:00 PM to share information about COVID-19 vaccines and to answer questions. To join the Zoom webinar, click here.
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Policy Committee Meeting Recap
The CSO presented to the Policy Committee on April 15th a recommendation to the Board of Education regarding its approach towards the SY 2020-21 and SY 2021-22 renewal cohorts due to the impact of COVID-19. The relevant portions of the meeting can be viewed here (11:39 - 32:19).
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Charter Payments Notice
Please be aware that due to Monday, July 5, 2021 being a bank holiday, your July charter payment may not be received until the following day, Tuesday, July 6, 2021. If you have any questions, please email specialfinance@philasd.org.
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Epicenter Office Hours
The Epicenter Office Hours’ April webinar, scheduled for Thursday, April 29, 2021 at 2:00 PM, is now open for registration. In addition to allowing users to receive new tips and take part in Q&A, this session will also highlight Epicenter’s Easy Exports and Reports processes, as well as their premium application feature. To register, click here.
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Meal Site Plans & Data Reporting
If your school currently serves meals to all students/youth throughout Philadelphia and is listed on the City’s Food Distribution website, please support the City in tracking site turnout by providing meal data via the Meal Data Reporting form linked here.
The CSO receives and shares this data directly with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Children and Families upon submission.
If you are not currently featured on the City’s list and would like to be, please first review the Health & Safety/COVID-19 section of our School FAQs page for criteria. If qualified, we encourage you to complete our Meal Site Plans form here. Questions should be directed to Jasmine at jdreyes@philasd.org.
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Spring Family Newsletter
The CSO’s Spring Family Newsletter for students and families has been released here, and can be accessed via our website here. Please encourage your families and students to read the Family Newsletter, where they can learn more about upcoming city-wide events and opportunities that are being offered to them, in addition to general information about the charter school process.
Please note that you can also access the Family Newsletter in our Resources for Schools section below. If you have exciting updates that you would like for us to share in the Family Newsletter, please contact Cherron at cschell@philasd.org.
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Transportation Updates
The Department of Transportation Services will be offering Summer transportation services for charter students for this upcoming Summer. Summer transportation services will consist of Extended School Year (ESY), and newly added COVID Compensatory Services (CCS), Summer Academic Programing for general education students, and Federally Required State Assessments. Please review the 2021 Summer Transportation Memo and complete the form by Thursday, May 6, 2021.
Additionally, for any school that is implementing state assessments during the Spring semester and is in need of transportation services for students, you must share the dates and time schedule with your transportation scheduling analyst at least two weeks prior to implementation to ensure all necessary students are routed.
To view your school-specific transportation analyst, visit our School FAQs page here. The Department of Transportation Services is aiming to meet all pick-up and drop-off requests as it relates to testing schedules; however, has the most flexibility on Wednesdays due to District scheduling and additional service vehicles available for use.
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CSO Community Engagement Workshop
The Strategy & Operations (S&O) team would like to thank all school personnel, which has primarily consisted of family engagement liaisons, college and career readiness coordinators, and school counselors, who participated in the CSO’s first Community Engagement Workshop on April 9th! The Workshop featured Minds Matter Philadelphia, a national organization that provides a variety of college readiness support to qualifying students, and who are interested in seeing more students from the charter sector participate in their program opportunities. You may view the Community Engagement Workshop Minds Matter Philadelphia presentation here.
The feedback from the first Workshop has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. Of the responses received, 92% stated they would attend another Workshop, and 77% stated they wanted to pursue the opportunity shared. It was also helpful to hear that 100% of participants felt the Workshop logistics were well coordinated, which gives us great insight for future preparation as we work to ensure the Workshops meet sector interests and needs. Please note that while this first Workshop was geared towards high school students, the series will be diverse and strategically organized to fit the interests of different grade spans and school locations, amongst other variables. To this end, if you have any ideas or areas of interest you would like to share with the CSO regarding community engagement, please complete our Community Engagement Areas of Interest form here.
As a reminder, the Community Engagement Workshop initiative is strategically organized to serve as a space in which we connect school communities with diverse stakeholders. The CSO hopes that these Workshops support in bringing additional attention and resources to the charter sector, in effort to increase access to students and families. That said, although these Workshops are intended to be beneficial for our school communities, participation is completely voluntary. The CSO does not endorse or require the participation of any school, staff member, student, or guardian.
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SY 2020-21 District-Wide Survey Reminder
As a reminder, the District-Wide Survey window will close on Friday, May 14, 2021. Students, parents, teachers, full-time school support staff, principals, and assistant principals (new this year) are eligible to take the survey, making it one of the best tools the District has for assessing stakeholder perspectives across numerous topics impacting our operations, even during a year of virtual learning. For more information or to learn more about the survey, click here. If you have any questions, please contact schoolsurveys@philasd.org.
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SY 2021-22 Charter School Calendar
As a reminder, in preparation for SY 2021-22 Information Systems (IS) is requesting that schools submit school calendar information via the linked Calendar Submission Survey by Friday, April 30, 2021. This information will be used to create shell calendars in Infinite Campus (SIS). Once the shell calendars are created, schools will then be able to adjust specific instructional days as needed. Please contact Jasmine at jdreyes@philasd.org if you have any questions.
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End-Dating, Graduating & Student Rollover in Infinite Campus
IMPORTANT: Please refer to the memo linked here that contains information about graduating students, retained student scenarios and code input, and the charter rollover process. Ensure to follow the timelines and guidelines as it relates to these processes. Please also refer to the Enrollment Codes document that lists all relevant codes to support with end-dating students in Infinite Campus (SIS). This document can also be found on our School FAQs page within the “Requesting Student Transcripts, End-Dating, and More” section, linked here.
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End-of-Year Compliance and Operations Submissions
Various Dates
Please refer to the following upcoming Calendar of Collections deadlines for the month of May:
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Statements of Financial Interest (SOFI): Saturday, May 1, 2021
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Current Year Approved Board Minutes - Quarter 3: Saturday, May 1, 2021
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Current Year Approved Board Minutes - Quarter 4: Saturday, May 1, 2021
As a reminder, SOFIs must be submitted for all charter school Board members and school leader(s) who served at any point during CALENDAR YEAR 2020. Please note, this also applies to Board members who served in 2020 and are no longer current Board members. Schools may submit either the handwritten or online form. Please contact Seun at ooke@philasd.org with any questions.
Please note, the following items have not yet been scheduled in Epicenter however you will be notified in the upcoming weeks to complete: SY 2021-22 Calendar submissions (Friday, April 30, 2021), Transportation Calendar (Friday, May 28, 2021), and User Verification (Friday, June 11, 2021).
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SY 2021-22 Calendar of Collections
The CSO is pleased to share the SY 2021-22 Calendar of Collections, which contains compliance and operations requirements to start the upcoming school year. Similar to last year, the CSO will be scheduling a Wednesday, June 30, 2021 Priority Deadline for policies, which if schools utilize, will ensure they receive feedback on a policy over the Summer. Items will be scheduled in Epicenter over the coming weeks to allow schools to begin to submit documents. Please note that all end-of-year (EOY) 2020-21 compliance items have been added to the SY 2021-22 Calendar of Collections so that schools only have to reference one calendar beginning Saturday, May 1, 2021.
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2021 Annual RPA Scholarship
Applications Accepted Through Friday, April 30, 2021
The Raymond Pace Alexander (RPA) Scholarship Foundation is inviting students to apply for the Raymond Pace Alexander Annual Scholarship. The Foundation wishes to award high-achieving, graduating black male seniors from Philadelphia with a $1,000 scholarship to support their educational pursuits at postsecondary institutions. The RPA is entering their third year of operations and to date, has distributed three scholarships.
Please encourage qualifying and interested students to apply here. For additional information, view the flyer linked here, or visit the Foundation’s website here. Questions should be directed to rpasfoundation@gmail.com.
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Tools for Success Suit Him and Her Up
Applications Accepted Through Friday, April 30, 2021
Tools For Success, Inc., founded by Marquis Coates, will be awarding suits and professional dress attire to deserving young men and women who are currently enrolled in a Philadelphia public high school. This opportunity was established in recognition of Marquis Coates’s father and mother, Mr. Guysen W. Lockett and Mrs. Sonya Bryant-Lockett, each of whom believed that young men and women should always look presentable, especially in the workplace.
There are separate applications for men and women. For more information and to view the applications, interested qualifying students should be encouraged to click here.
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PEF & Wawa Welcome America Partner on 'I Am Philadelphia' Contest
Applications Accepted Through Friday, April 30, 2021
The Philadelphia Education Fund (PEF) and its PhillyGoes2College team are partnering with the Wawa Welcome America Festival in a contest showcasing student voices and imagination. Open to Philadelphia's high school students, the "I Am Philadelphia" - A Young Voices Spoken Word and Video Contest is comprised of two competitions: one video, one spoken word, that could result in a performance opportunity at the Festival. Prizes include studio time, mentoring, Wawa Welcome America tickets, and possible performance opportunities at the festival.
Application submissions are due on Friday, April 30, 2021. Winners will be announced by Tuesday, June 1, 2021. To learn more information including the rules and entry requirements, click here. Questions around entry should be directed to kstaskel@philaedfund.org.
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Virtual City-Wide Regional College Fair
Friday, June 4, 2021
Registration for the city-wide virtual fair is free for 10th and 11th grade students, and will take place on Friday, June 4, 2021. High school registration opens on Monday, May 10, 2021 and is accessible via multiple devices, cellphone, laptop, or computer. The fair will be organized in three sessions: 1] Zoom Student Workshop A, which supports students with the financial aid process and SAT preparation; 2] Virtual College Sessions, which allows students to interact with colleges and universities, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); and 3] Zoom Student Workshops-B, which will follow the same format as Workshop A but at a later time (2:30 PM - 3:30 PM).
For more information, click here. The student registration link will be shared by Collegefairmagazine (CFM) after Monday, May 3, 2021. We encourage you to contact CFM at collegefairmagazine@gmail.com to be added to their distribution list, in order to receive the registration link and all other materials.
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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library, founded in 1995, recently launched in Philadelphia and will be sending free books to up to 2,000 Philadelphia children each month. Children must be under the age of 5 and reside in the 19133 zip code to qualify.
To learn more, click here or visit the Imagination Library website. Qualifying residents can sign up by clicking here, or by visiting either the Lillian Marrero Free Library Branch or the Maria de los Santos Health Center.
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ISTE Scholarship
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), an organization that works to cultivate innovative solutions and connections that improve opportunities for all learnings, is now offering scholarships for their Online Teaching Academy, a fully virtual, self-paced professional development course that helps K-12 educators learn foundational principles for teaching online. The Academy provides guidance on critical topics such as equity, inclusion, and designing online instruction, to name a few. To learn more about ISTE, click here.
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Penn Rising Scholar Success Academy
Various Dates & Times
In support of ensuring students are graduate ready for postsecondary success, The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) will once again partner with the University of Pennsylvania for the Penn Rising Scholar Success Academy (PennRSSA) for all rising seniors in charter and public schools. PennRSSA is a series of free-of-cost, entirely virtual postsecondary access programs designed to prepare Philadelphia high school students for the pivotal next steps of educational and career pathways in a post-pandemic world. Information session dates, program details, and the application may be found here. Feel free to distribute this flyer to your students.
PennRSSA is prepared to offer credit for students who fully participate. Participating students who attend district schools will receive a humanities credit; charter schools must confirm with PennRSSA that their students can also receive a credit. If you are interested in receiving the curriculum outline and/or speaking directly with the program administration to learn more, please reach out to Elaine Leigh at eleigh@gse.upenn.edu.
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CGCS-Bernard Harris Scholarship
Applications Accepted Through Tuesday, May 4, 2021
12:00 AM
Named for the first African American to walk in space, the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS)-Bernard Harris Math & Science Scholarship is being offered to graduating high school seniors. Four scholarships will be awarded to two African American males and females, and two Hispanic males and females—$5,000 per student. Applicants must be accepted for full-time enrollment at a four-year college or university in the next academic year, and pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).
Interested students should be encouraged to apply by clicking here. For additional scholarship information, feel free to share this flyer with your students. To learn more about the organization, click here.
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National Association of University Women
Applications Accepted Through Friday, May 14, 2021
11:59 PM
The National Association of University of Women Suburban Philadelphia Branch (NAUW-SPB) hosts annually the African American History Month Oratorical Competition for high school students to develop deeper knowledge and appreciation for issues impacting women and communities of color, and to encourage students to experience the transformative power of language and written expression.
Interested students can view the application here. To learn more about the Association and other programs, click here.
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Food Distribution
3001 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
The Philadelphia Martin Luther King, Jr., Association for Nonviolence, Inc., is distributing food every third Saturday of the month, at 3001 Walnut Street (lower level parking lot). For public transportation, bus numbers 42 and 21 will stop directly in front of the location. To accommodate for health & safety protocols, individuals are requested to remain in their vehicle and wear a mask should they be driving to the location. If individuals have access to a “Share Food” card they may present it upon arrival. If not, they will be provided with brief forms to complete in order to receive a card for future use. Questions should be directed to helpforchildren@gmail.com. No identification is required, everyone is welcome!
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Click here to view the CSO March Newsletter. Our May newsletter will include pertinent deadlines and further updates. Please email Jasmine at jdreyes@philasd.org if you have feedback, questions, submissions, and/or if you would like to have your school or one of your scholars featured in an upcoming CSO newsletter.
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