Closing the door to the future?
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — On Feb. 8, a nearby shooting prompted the lock-down
of the Beacon school of St. Martin de Porres Parish at 2300 W. Lehigh
Ave.
On Feb. 6, a gunman was on the street while students were being dismissed
from their public school and transported to the after-school program
at Catholic Social Services’ Southwest Philadelphia center.
Last year, a teenager was murdered outside the Beacon school of Our
Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in West Philadelphia.
When the Beacon schools were established in the Philadelphia Archdiocese
in September 2006, in collaboration with the City of Philadelphia, they
served as “beacons of light” — places where positive
social activities for youngsters took place after school hours. But
even more than those activities, the Beacon schools afforded the city’s
children the most precious of commodities — safety in a dangerous
world.
But on March 1, the doors that invited children in, and kept danger
out, may be closing.
Four of the Archdiocese’s 10 Beacon schools — and one of
the after-school programs — operated by Catholic Social Services
were informed via individual letters on Feb. 1 that their funding through
the city’s Philadelphia Safe and Sound, will be terminated.
The city plans to shutter 10 of its 40 Beacon programs because of budget
problems. For the archdiocesan programs, the funding cutback will total
$1.8 million.
The four Catholic Beacon schools that will close are: Our Lady of the
Blessed Sacrament at 344 N. Felton St.; Visitation B.V.M. at 300 E.
Lehigh Ave.; the Gesu at 1700 W. Thompson St., and St. Martin de Porres
at 2300 W. Lehigh Ave.
In addition, the after-school program at the Southwest Philadelphia
Family Service Center will also come to an end.
Msgr. Joseph A. Tracy, secretary for Catholic Human Services —
under which the archdiocesan Beacon programs operate — said that
although the Archdiocese is grateful to have been included in the initial
Beacon program, it is extremely disappointed by the abrupt closures.
Msgr. Tracy sent a letter to Mayor Michael Nutter asking the city to
help the affected families with their after-school needs, and to consider
funding some type of transition plan to assist parents and the schools
until the end of this school year.
“We entered into agreements with Philadelphia Safe and Sound with
the idea that they were going through the whole year, and they didn’t,”
Msgr. Tracy said. “Now, we have to quickly shut [the Beacon programs]
down. People’s jobs are going to be lost as a result of this,
and parents are going to be tremendously inconvenienced to find alternatives.
“These are in the most violent neighborhoods in the city. It’s
going to be difficult to recover this in some other program,”
he added.
At the Beacon schools and after-school program that are slated to close,
the situation is “chaotic,” Msgr. Tracy said. “People
are scrambling to make other plans.”
In the meantime, he said, CSS officials have met with the school principals
and pastors of the affected archdiocesan programs, and are working to
devise a transition plan.
“I said, ‘It’s impossible.’ I said, ‘It’s
not fair,’” said 10-year-old Devynn Gray, a fifth-grader
at St. Martin de Porres School who attends its Beacon programs upon
learning of its impending termination.
“We go on field trips and we do a lot of activities,” such
as sewing, Devynn said. “They they help us with our homework.”
“We regret having to make any of these decisions,” said
Anne Shenberger, president and CEO of Philadelphia Safe and Sound.
Shortly after the Nutter administration came into office, Shenberger
said, she received a telephone call asking that the organization cut
back its budget to reflect the $54 million that is currently available
for the programs.
The original Safe and Sound contract with the city for fiscal year 2007-’08
provided for $75 million, Shenberger said.
But a funding discrepancy arose because the City Council failed to approve
a request late last year by former Mayor John Street to transfer $21
million to the city’s Department of Human Services (DHS) for Safe
and Sound’s programs, according to Shenberger and Doug Oliver,
Nutter’s press secretary.
Oliver said that, as a result, the Street administration went to other
DHS programs and cut about 200 contracts from 12 months to 10 months,
transferring the funding for those months to Safe and Sound.
However, the programs that were cut are required under state law; they
include foster care programs and residential care programs.
“Essentially … it was a shell game,” Oliver said.
“Money was taken from programs that were mandated to be funded
and given to another program. Our fundamental position on this issue
is that you can’t really cut funding that never existed.
“There is no money,” he said.
Oliver said the city has to be fiscally responsible. Meanwhile, he said,
“We are committed to finding an after-school program for everyone
who was participating in one. We’ve always maintained that you
don’t play budget games with children’s lives.”
The final decision on the closures rests with the city.
For more information about the archdiocesan Beacon program, call (215)
587-3590.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.