Philadelphia Hebrew Public Charter School

Overview of the organization and the school: Philadelphia Hebrew Public Charter School (PHPCS) is applying for an expansion PACSP grant that will grow our successful five year old school of 460 students in grades K to 5 into a 700 student, grades K to 8 school over the next three years. PHPCS is an intentionally diverse, secular, charter school that is focused on improving world peace and building intercultural communication through the medium of the Hebrew language and the context of ancient and modern middle-eastern cultures. Our goal is that our students “will emerge as highly educated, globally aware, ethical citizens who are prepared with a foundation for success in high school, college, workplace, and society.” PHPCS is part of an expanding network of high quality schools (Hebrew Public), all of which serve primarily low income, ethnic minority students in economically challenged neighborhoods.

Vision for the project: PHPCS is proposing to add 240 high quality seats to Philadelphia over the 3 years of the grant, with the addition of 3 new grades: 6th in year 1, 7th in year 2, 8th in year 3. Funds will add new space, new furniture and supplies, and new personnel.

Increasing Charter Options and Improving Outcomes for At-risk youth: This project increases high quality options for at-risk students as our school serves a mostly low income, historically disadvantaged population, most of whom live in designated Opportunity Zones. Our school has helped these students to grow their core academic skills, even during the CoVID-19 pandemic.

A description of 3-5 goals for the project; and How CSP funds will help achieve those goals: The $1.5 million dollars of CSP funds will be used to: (1) Provide funds to expand our lease into new classroom space in our current building to enable space preparation and fit out for the new 6th, 7th and 8th grades; (2) Add furniture, learning technologies and supplies to ensure our new students have a high quality learning environment; and (3) Add new community support and behavioral management personnel to stabilize and enrich our expanding, and higher grade, student population, from transportation to community outreach to special needs student support.