NEW CATCHMENTS (School impacted by the 8 closings)

[annie]

https://webapps.philasd.org/school_finder/

Several schools adjacent to schools that were closed (Drew, Levering etc.) now have new catchments.

The School District of Philadelphia expects to propose 40 schools for closure this year. Consequently, it is likely catchment boundaries may change in the future as a result of additional closures and consolidations.

[3rd&Brown]

The new catchments seem to make sense in the Rox/Manayunk area. It's nice to see some logical work on the SD's part.

Just a few other observations:

1. It boggles my mind that so much of Northern Liberties is zoned to Ludlow as opposed to Kearny, especially bc Kearny has space. My guess is that Ludlow is one of the schools that will close in the next round.

2. I never realized that so much of Port Richmond (or any of it, for that manner) was assigned to the Bridesburg catchment. That explains why it's such a white school compared to other city schools. (It also has very high scores, and gets ignored by the Yuppie elite in this city).

3. Never knew Stanton's catchment dipped below Washington. I would think it should be expanded to include more of Point Breeze. It's not a coincidence that the nicest blocks in PB are those which are in the catchment.

4. The patchwork of teeny tiny catchments in Kensington is mind boggling. A lot of these will go away, I assume, Sheppard excluded.

[billy ross]

My brother and his wife are expecting. She is a public school teacher in the hood. They live on the line where Cook-Wissahickon's catchment ends. Their garage, which is directly across the street, is in Dobson's catchment. I believe that they used to be in Levering's catchment. Our nephew went to Levering. Our father went to Levering. Our grandmother went to the old Joel Cook an Manayunk Avenue. Wouldn't it be ironic if her great-grandchild went to its successor, Cook-Wissahickon, while the family is in a much better socioeconomic and intellectual place than it was in her day? They have choices, and that's a great thing. It'll be interesting to see which choices they exercise. Meanwhile my grandmother's other child moved to Springfield (Oreland) and now her descendants are firmly suburbanites. The irony is that my brother is doing better socioeconomically than any of them are, and he's the baby of all of us.

[annie]

The new catchments seem to make sense in the Rox/Manayunk area. It's nice to see some logical work on the SD's part.

The work around the closure of Drew in West Philly is similarly logical with 40th Street now playing the dividing line between Locke and Powel. (Previously Locke/Drew had this weird zigzag border that I never really understood)

4. The patchwork of teeny tiny catchments in Kensington is mind boggling. A lot of these will go away, I assume, Sheppard excluded.

I hope Welsh is also excluded as it has a strong community and test-scores (given the demographics of a high number of ELLs) similar to Sheppard's.

[raider.adam]

Interesting that the catchment where I live is so small.

[palvar]

Interesting that the catchment where I live is so small.

When I first saw this, I was surprised how small many of the catchments are. Especially compared to how large they are in South Philly (understanding that many South Philly families send their kids to non-neighborhood schools).