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News Archives

last updated 3/21/08

• • • •

Originally Published 1/07/08

The WLCS submitted a new application to Cheltenham Township on November 15th, 2007. We completed our first of two public hearings with the Cheltenham Township School District on December 17th, 2007.

Informational Meeting – We will have an informational meeting for the public on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 3:00pm at Saint John's Lutheran Church on the corner of Old York Road and Melrose Avenue, Melrose Park, Pennsylvania.

Public Hearing – Our next hearing with the district will be held on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 between the hours of 1:00pm and 5:00pm at the Cheltenham Township School District Administration Building on the corner of Ashbourne Road and Washington Lane in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania.

The public is invited to attend and comment. Please join us.

Please click here to sign our petition and support our efforts to have our application approved in Cheltenham Township.

Originally Published 8/06/07

Sad News! Although we have a signed charter in Springfield Township, our petition for the temporary zoning variance that would have allowed us to utilize the basement of Grace Lutheran Church for our temporary home was denied first by the Springfield Township Planning Commission and then by the Springfield Township Zoning Board.

The WLCS was requesting a temporary use variance that would allow us to use the Church as a secondary school for a period of one year with the possibility of going to a second year should we be unable to find a permanent property. We were also requesting a special exception to the code that would limit the number of parking spaces from the 42 that the local code would require us to have to the seven we would need for our teachers and staff. As there was no off-street parking available to us at the church, I arranged for parking up the street. I also diminished the number of students that we would have had during our first year from 56 to 40 as that was the number that the 2500 square foot space would have been able to accommodate safely.

During the week before our case was to be heard by the Springfield Township Zoning Board. I was called by Rob Dunlop, Springfield Township's Code Enforcement Officer. He informed me that the Planning Commission decided that the use represented by our temporary inhabitance of the Grace Lutheran Church hall was deemed "inappropriate" for the surrounding neighborhood. He offered no further information when I responded by asking him what meaning the term "inappropriate" had in this particular situation. He then asked me if I wanted to withdraw our petition, to be heard the following week by the Zoning Board, and in the same breath informed me that it is very rare that the Planning Commission changes its determination once they choose a course. I chose to go ahead with the hearing thinking that we had nothing to lose by making an attempt at being heard.

There were a good number of people coming to support the Whole Life Charter School at the hearing but few were given the opportunity to comment on our behalf as speakers were only allowed to ask questions of the witnesses, myself and Pastor Carol Ficken from Grace Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, it seemed the writing was on the wall considering the predisposition of the Planning Commission and our petition was denied.

I applaud those who came and spoke despite the limitations placed by the Zoning Board and I am grateful to those who came and sat with us for nearly four hours as we waited the two hours for our case to be heard and the remaining two during which it was.

We are continuing to search for a home in Springfield Township. In the meantime we are re-activating our application in Cheltenham Township. This application was submitted in November of '06 and is still active. If you would like to support our efforts to open in Cheltenham, please click here to sign our petition.

Originally Published 6/20/07

We are moving ahead! Our charter has been signed by the Springfield Township School District, making us an official charter school in the State of Pennsylvania. We have found a suitable (although temporary) location, and we are now looking for teachers, staff, and students for a Fall 2007 opening.

If you would like to learn more about the WLCS before choosing to enroll, click on the "Enroll Your Child" link above and fill out the online form. One of our staff will call you If you would simply like an enrollment application, click here to download it.

If you are interested in applying for a job at WLCS, please call 215 517.5331. We need skilled, creative, and adventurous educators to join us as we open this very non-traditional educational opportunity for kids and their parents who are interested in a unique learning model.

Originally Published 2/10/07

Big News: Our Charter was approved by the Springfield Township School District Board of Directors on November 21st. With gratitude to the Springfield Township School Board for the opportunity to educate kids who learn
differently with our unique methods, we are proud to announce that the Whole Life Charter School for Learner Alternatives is going to open in September, 2007 to a community of 56 students and their families.

We are going to have our first parent meeting on February 18th between 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, 6900 Stenton Avenue in Philadelphia. This is a very important meeting and is a must for all potential students and their parents. During this event we will:

• Describe the school and some of the many processes students will engage in on a daily basis so that you can evaluate whether the Whole Life Charter School is going to be a good fit for your child.
• We will open the floor to you. Among other things we want to incorporate you, the parents into the Whole Life Charter School community by asking you to give voice to what you are hoping this school will be for your child, what you believe is your role in the creation of your child's education as part of the WLCS community, and what part you believe parents should play in the governance and day-to-day operations of the WLCS.
• Invite you tocomplete more detailed pre-enrollment forms should you decide that the WLCS is, in fact, appropriate for your child.
• Talk to your teenagers about their hopes and dreams for the Whole Life Charter School.

If you decide to attend on this date, please respond to this email with a message telling us how many people you will have coming from your family, their names and their ages. If you choose not to intend this very important meeting please let us know that too. Those families that do not send any response will be deleted from our mailing list. It is important for us to get a full count so that we may plan accordingly. Also. please let us know if you would be willing to offer a ride to someone who may be without transportation from your area.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I look forward to seeing you.

Originally Published 2/05/07

The Whole Life Charter School is going to have its first parent meeting on February 18th between 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, 6900 Stenton Avenue in Philadelphia. During
this event we will describe the school and some of the many processes
students will engage in on a daily basis so that you can evaluate whether
the Whole Life Charter School is going to be a good fit for your child. If you haven't responded as of yet to the email sent on 1/29 please do so by calling Gary Sobolow at 215.517.5331 immediately with the number of people attending from your family and their names.

Originally Published 10/20/06

Public Hearing Scheduled for 11/01/06 – The Board of Directors of the Whole Life Charter School resubmitted a revised application to the Springfield Township School District on Friday, September 29th 2006. The Township invited us to a public hearing on our application at the Springfield Township High School, 1801 Paper Mill Road, Erdenheim, PA.

The hearing is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Individuals and families interested in the Big Picture Company model are invited to come at 3:30 p.m. as Advisors and students from the MET schools in Providence and Camden will be in attendance to answer your questions and convey their personal experiences of the model we are so heavily borrowing from in the design of our school.

Public comments will be taken starting at 5:30 pm. If you would like to speak in support of our school to the commission at that time, you are invited to do so.

To get to the High School, take Rte 309 North to Paper Mill Road. Turn left
at the end of the exit ramp. Go through the light under the bridge and make a
right into the parking lot.

• • • •

Originally Published 10/04/06

Charter Application Resubmission – The Board of Directors of the Whole Life Charter School resubmitted a revised application to the Springfield Township School District on Friday, September 29th 2006. We feel this application very appropriately answered the concerns of the Springfield Township School District Charter School Commission. We expect to hear whether there will be hearing on this resubmission in the next few weeks.

Enrollment Intentions – We have been deliberately conservative concerning our recruitment efforts. The parents that have contacted us have been very hopeful about our school's opening. We believe that it is unfair to offer this hope without being able to guarantee its existence and we know that we can fill our school with very little effort if we aggressively recruited because of the real need for a school of this type in our area. Even with virtually no recruitment effort, we have reached 60 enrollment intentions for our first year. Let this not discourage you from submitting an enrollment intention, however.

New Partnerships – Since the last update, we have received letters of support from a number of people and organizations:

• The United States Department of Agriculture – John Cherry, the director of the USDA Regional Research Center, nearby our Mermaid Lane location has offered his scientists to work with our teachers and students, extra and replaced scientific equipment, internships, meeting space, and plants and supplies for the greenhouse we are planning at the rear of our school.
• Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania Family Care Center – Laura MacGregor MA, LSW, a social worker at CHOP offered her support and the support of the rest of the Staff of the Family Care Center, as well as a steady supply of student referrals.
• Bryn Mawr College Department of Psychology – Dr. Leslie Rescorla, the chair of the Department offered the assistance of her students, both graduate and undergraduate to work with our kids and teachers. She also believes that our school might provide an opportunity for for research for some of her graduate students.
• State Senator Vincent Hughes – The Democratic Deputy Whip of the Pennsylvania State Senate and the Senator that represents the 7th district "wholeheartedly" supports the mission of the Whole Life Charter School. These are his words: "Every child deserves an education but every child does no learn in the same way. The Whole Life Charter School will provide an opportunity to children who ‘traditionally' are left behind."

Teachers – As of this writing we have received resumes from five teachers and one teaching aid who have expressed an interest in teaching at the Whole Life Charter School. Three of the five have certification in Special Education. Again, we have not aggressively recruited teachers or assistants because we do not have a real job opportunity to offer until we receive our charter. However, we won't deter interested educators from submitting a resume and visiting with us. The more interest we can show for our school, the stronger our application will be viewed by Springfield Township School District or the Charter Appeals Board, if that becomes necessary.

If you are interested in teaching at Whole Life Charter School, please email Gary Sobolow.

Stay tuned.

• • • •

Originally Published 8/02/06

Updated Website – Although it may be less than obvious, we have made some updates to this website. Navigation (above left) has changed slightly and should allow visitors to get to more of the information we have been asked for since we started posting a year ago. One new page, "The School Day" has been of particular interest to those trying to get a better understanding of how our school will educate kids. Downloadable documents such as our "Project Highlights" handout which puts on paper much of the information you will find in this website have been added to "Links and Resources." If you would like to know more about the people that are working hard to create this school, please view our "Founding Team" page.

New Board Member – I would like to announce that Louise D'Alessandro of Elfant Wissahickon has joined our Board. I believe you will be immediately attracted to the warm, happily kinetic energy of this woman when you meet her. Butter is partial to the intention of the Whole Life School because she identifies with kids failed by traditional education. I'd like to personally thank Rachel Milenbach for initiating this contact and helping us bring this very nifty woman on board.

New Board Member – Henrietta Singleton, the mother of future WLCS student Jon Singleton, has consented to join our Board of Directors. Henrietta has a contagious personality and is very easy to talk to. For this reason she will be acting in the capacty of Parent Liaison. If you want to find out what is going on in our parent's group please email her at henrietta@wholelifeschool.org.

New Enrollment Intentions – We have nine new enrollment intentions as a result of the open houses two weekends ago. These enrollment intentions came almost entirely from Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill and Cheltenham Township. This brings our total up to forty signatures and forty two kids with virtually no advertising save some well placed posters. Can you imagine what will happen when we have a budget to advertise with?

Formal Coaching Agreements – We have been in touch with Joe Battaglia, Coaching Coordinator from the Big Picture Company and Ron Newell, one of the founders of the Minnesota New Country School. Both have sent me signed agreements for faculty and staff training services. It is important for us to have these agreements as we have borrowed heavily from these schools to create the methodology of the WLCS. Now we are assured that they are willing to bring the wealth of their experience to our administration and faculty once our charter is approved.

I have word from other Board members that there is more good news coming but I don't want to share it until it is confirmed.

• • • •

Originally Published 6/11/06

The Whole Life Charter School (WLCS) Board of Directors has been working overtime to open the Whole Life Charter School by September 2006. We have strengthened our Charter Application and will be taking next steps within the month. Listed below are some of the ways we have improved our position.

• We have rewritten substantial portions of the original application. In doing so we have bolstered an argument that shows a real need for an alternative school in Springfield Township using data provided in this year’s Springfield Township School District (STSD) Annual Report.
  
  
• We have added some wonderful new people to the Board of Directors. Our entire team now includes;
• Dr. Mohamed Latib, Vice President of Strategy for DeSales University. Dr. Latib has a boatload of experience in the business of education. We are counting on him to help us build a solid business underpinning with which to sustain this public institution. Dr. Latib’s son, Sinaan, will enter WLCS as an 11th grader.
• Ms. Jaqueline Parrish, a mathematics teacher with over thirty years experience in the Philadelphia Public School System. A voracious researcher, Jackie has become indispensable for the information she uncovers while helping us to prepare our application’s resubmission.
• Ms. Susan Stout. Susan is the parent of Nile, one of our students-to-be and she is a resident of Springfield Township.
• Ms. Rachel Milenbach, Director of the Tobacco Control and Prevention Program at the Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Tobacco-free Education and Action Coalition for Health. Rachel is a natural born crusader. Fortunately she is crusading for the opening of the WLCS.
• Dr. Galen Godbey, Associate to the President for Globalization at DeSales University.
• Norm Matlock, Norm is a lawyer and has been acting as our treasurer since the time we received the Pennsylvania Department of Education planning grant.
• Gary Sobolow, Technology Coordinator at Mount Saint Joseph Academy and originating founder of this project.
  
  
• We have made changes to the size of the school and the amount of time we will spend ramping up to full capacity. We initially planned to open with 168 children in grades nine and ten. Our new plan is to open with 54 children in grades 9 through 12. We will increase our student population by 54 children in the second, third, and fourth year. From the beginning we wanted to provide a small school environment for our students and this decision will allow us to do so.
  
  
• We have increased our “aggregate” of community support. Additions to this aggregate include:
• Enrollment intentions for approximately 65% of our first year student population.
• DeSales University has committed tangible support for our students.
• A number of Pennsylvania certified teachers have shared their excitement over the Big Picture Schools methodology we will emulate at WLCS. They have filed their applications with us.
• A local technology firm has offered to assist us in developing our school’s technology platform.
  
  
• Only a few weeks ago, I signed an agreement with the Big Picture Company to purchase services that would educate our faculty and administration to manage the WLCS. We are looking forward to a lot of terrific training for our administration and faculty.

We are very excited about these developments. There is much more news that we willl be sharing with you during the remainder of the June.

Gary

• • • •

Originally Published 3/02/06
A Note from our Founder.
It has been awhile since I have been able to update you on our progress. Sadly, I have spent a good deal of the last two months in bed managing some rather severe complications from a surgical procedure performed back in September. And while I was able to attend the public hearing we had with the Springfield Township Charter School Commission, (more on that shortly), it was virtually impossible for me to spend even a short time working at the computer. Nevertheless, I am recovering, thankfully, and so can share a bit of what is going on.

As we expected would happen from the very earliest days of planning the submission of a Charter application for the Whole LIfe Charter School to the Springfield Township School District, our charter application was denied. But I would like to reiterate; this was entirely expected.

Charter School applications are frequently denied in suburban and rural Pennsylvania. For proof, go to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Appeals Decisions web address, and notice that there are seven appeals made during 2005. In recent years an average of 18 planning grants were offered to charter school wannabe's in this state. Generally, half of all Pennsylvania Charter Applications are made to the Philadelphia school district. Once denied, some applicants decide to quit. Doing the math, seven appeals made in one year by applicants in suburban and rural districts is quite a percentage. The various school boards substantiate their decisions with a variety of opinions given “in concern for the good of the children that may attend the charter school in question” but quite frankly it usually comes down to money.

Every school-aged child in the state is supported by a grant that is the sum of local taxpayer income and state and federal moneys. The child’s grant follows the child from the coffers of the child's school district of residence to the charter school the child attends. For a school district with a new Charter School this starts adding up to a lot of unpleasant budget revision.

Outside of Philadelphia, charter applicants have recourse when their application is denied. State law provides that an appeal can be made to an unbiased panel known as the Charter Appeals Board (CAB). This body may decide to reverse a school board's decision providing that the application is viewed as meeting the requirements laid out in the Pennsylvania Charter School Law which is summarized here.

The founders of WLCS are going to appeal the denial of our application with the CAB. We understood the probable need for this step from the beginning, so, to us, this is business as usual.

That is not to say that we are happy to do so. We would like to remain on amicable terms with the Springfield Township School District. And we would have liked to be welcomed.

Our team of founders and advisors are working on the appeal. We have managed our planning grant funds with the intention of having enough money to take our case to the CAB.

• • • •

Originally Published 1/20/06
The Whole Life Charter School founding team will meet with the Springfield Township School Board on Monday, January 23rd, 2006 at the Springfield High School beginning at 10:00 am in the school’s Little Theatre. The High School is located at the Papermill Road exit of Route 309.

The purpose of this meeting is to present our application to the School Board and answer any questions they might have regarding it. All interested parties are permitted to attend.

If you are interested in offering your thoughts and opinions to the School Board as to how you think the Whole Life Charter School will or will not benefit the community and its children you are welcome to voice them at this event. If you cannot attend this meeting and would like to prepare a a statement in support of the Charter School, please do so and email it to gary@wholelifeschool.org.Your statement will be read and put on record during the hearing.

• • • •

Originally Published12/7/05 – Town Meetings Scheduled
We are planning two Town Meetings to inform the community about the Whole Life Charter School. These Town Meetings are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 13th, 2005 and Thursday, December 15th, 2005. They will be held at the Springfield Township Municipal Building, 1510 Paper Mill Road, Wyndmoor. During these meetings a short presentation will be made by Gary Sobolow, the originating founder, followed by a question and answer period.

If you are interested in signing a petition to indicate your support of an alternative school in Springfield Township, you may do so at the meeting or on this website under the “help us build” link above left. If you are interested in stating an intention to enroll your teenager in the Whole Life School, forms will be available for that purpose at the town meeting.

• • • •

Originally Published 11/12/05
We will be on time in the submission of our Charter application to the Springfield Township School District. The date of submission is November 15th. Thanks go to:

• Gary Sobolow, the originating founder upon who's vision and research the application was derived.
• Deb Johnson, the Yenta of the group whose caring for this project and professional knowledge of the educational terrain has proven to be supportive for the entire founding team.
• Wendy Galson, for designing a very sound social development curriculum for inclusion in the application,
• Norman Matlock for his lawyerly advice and for signing the checks.
• Robin Eglin, of Omnivest, for his investigation of local properties and the rapid development of a five year budget.
• Alex Schuh, of Foundation 21, for writing this very lengthy document, and keeping the original vision alive amidst a sea of education legislation.

• • • •

Originally Published11/05/05 – It's been an amazing year.
We submitted our Planning Grant application to the Pennsylvania Department of Education at the end of 2004 and waited with fingers crossed for nearly three months at which time the PDE informed us that we were one of the twenty applications that were accepted this year out of a field of 37 applicants. In so doing the State granted $75,000 dollars to our project for the purposes of completing our research and designing a school to serve the needs of high school students with the divergent learning styles represented by our target population.

The funds are being well spent. We have hired:

• Alex Schuh of Frontier 21 to assist in the writing of the Charter School application.
• Robin Eglin of Omnivest Properties to help oversee the choice and devlopment of our future home and to develop the school’s startup and annual budgets
• Robert O’Donnell, Esquire as legal counsel for the purposes of incorporation

At present Alex is putting the finishing touches on the application to open the Whole Life School. We will submit it on November 15th to the Springfield Township School District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

In the meantime we are attempting to get the word out. The development of the web site is part of that process and, as of this writing, is sorely in need of being completed. Bear with us as we strive to fill it with the information promised by the links above left.