Mayor Parker visits classrooms to see extended-day programs in action at Philly schools

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Cherelle Parker got a look at one of her signature initiatives in action on Tuesday afternoon, touring the extended-day school programs at Southwark School, a pre-K to 8th grade school in South Philadelphia.

It’s not year-round school. But it is a chance for students to learn before and after school. Under the new $24 million pilot, 1,400 students attend before-school programs, and more than 2,400 stay after for offerings including coding and robotics at 20 district and five charter schools in the city.

Parker stopped into a media studies program after school at Southwark, where students told her they enjoyed the camera studies program.

The mayor said these experiences are available at no cost to students.

“Those kind of programs are offered in Philadelphia in other schools, sometimes before or after, for a fee.”

Out-of-school-time providers run the programs. Superintendent Tony Watlington says the district is talking with its unions about expanding them next year.

“We are tracking and monitoring the attendance levels. We absolutely see our way forward in growing the numbers and the partnerships next school year,” said Watlington.

“Whereas this year, there’s no changes to teachers and principals contracts and days, we’re talking about what this might look like in the future.”

For now, Southwark principal Andrew Lukov says having these enrichment programs for students — especially over the winter and spring breaks — is a game-changer.

”This is the group that went through the pandemic. And we need to give them everything possible.”