Summer comes to early end in Upper Darby
Summer is over. At least in Upper Darby. It’s one down (actually now two) and 179 to go for the 2017-18 school year.
The Upper Darby School District beat Ridley to the punch this year, as the Royals supplanted the Green Raiders in their traditional role as the county’s first school district to return to class.
Yes, more and more school districts are no longer abiding by the old tradition of not interrupting kids’ summer reverie until after Labor Day.
But students in Upper Darby got something more than an early wake-up call. They – along with their fathers – got a valuable lesson.
It was an opportunity for parents, in particular dads, to take part in a special event geared specifically for them.
Stonehurst Hills Elementary School this year took part in something called the Million Father March. It’s a national project started back in 2004 by the Black Star Project asking fathers – or really any significant father figure – to take part in their child’s first day back at school.
The project was celebrated in 581 cities around the world in the 2015 march. More than 30,000 took part in the project’s home base of Chicago.
This was the first year that an Upper Darby school took part in the festivities.
Stonehurst Hills Principal Aaronda Beauford greeted students and their father figures early outside the school at 8:30 a.m. Monday, just prior to the school bell ringing at 8:45.
“They care about their children … and we wanted to show our appreciation,” Beauford said before greeting the visitors and leading her young charges into their classrooms.
Kids were busy reacquainting themselves with old friends and checking to see who was in which classroom.
Every study tells us that parental involvement is crucial to the success of students in class. Obviously that includes dad. It was heartening to see all those men walking their kids to school.
It was just one of a weeklong series of events the district utilized to soften the blow of what some might see as interrupting summer to return kids to school. The district held a series of meetand-greets for both parents and students last week.
We sometimes gloss over the challenge that is faced every day in Upper Darby, where something akin to a small city arrives each day at Upper Darby High School alone.
There are more than 3,500 students in Upper Darby High.
Across the district more than 12,000 kids are enrolled in district schools. As you might expect, educating that many kids is not cheap. The Upper Darby School District budget stands at $199 million. After giving families and property owners a oneyear reprieve by dipping into their reserve funds, district officials again were resigned to raising taxes this year.
And they still don’t know what to expect in terms of funding from the state, which continues to dither on a funding mechanism for the $32 billion budget they passed – but didn’t fund – at the deadline at the end of June. And even with the tax hike, school board members again were forced to raid the reserve fund.
The district has 1,750 employees, utilizes 130 school buses that traverse 188 different routes.
But perhaps the most striking thing about Upper Darby schools is the wondrous diversity they represent. More than 75 languages are spoken in the district.
You want to see a melting pot? Come to Upper Darby.
On the first day of school, many dads did just that, accompanying their kids to see first-hand what was ahead this school year.
We salute the efforts in Upper Darby to ease the pain of the early return to class. We congratulate all those dads who took part in the program at Stonehurst Hills.
Yes, we still lament the end of summer. At least a little.
But we can’t wait to detail the progress all these kids make in the upcoming year.