PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — When classes begin Aug. 29, two Philadelphia schools — Olney High School and Stetson Middle School — will return to district control after a decade as charter schools.
A state panel in February upheld the Philadelphia Board of Education’s 2019 vote to not renew the schools’ charters, held by the nonprofit ASPIRA, setting the stage for the school district to regain control of the schools. Stetson and Olney were converted to charters in 2010 and 2011, respectively, with the hope that they would see an academic turnaround under the school district‘s Renaissance School Initiative.
At Olney High School, newly named principal Mike Roth has been working to rebuild a school community. The huge, 92-year-old building at Front Street and Duncannon Avenue is the same, but almost half the staff will be new when Olney High reopens on Aug. 29. Roth, the former principal at Olney Elementary School, has been …