About FSS
Admission
Program
Students
Parents
Alumni/ae
Support FSS


 
 
Calendar
Open House Dates
Support FSS

 

 

Parents> Newsletters 2010-2011> March/April 2011> March/April News>


Parking is a challenge anywhere you go in Center City, but especially in our small school lot. Please be considerate when entering and exiting the FSS parking lot for drop-offs and pick-ups.  Working together, we can maintain a safe and pleasant community.

A few guidelines:
•Pedestrians have the right of way. Allow pedestrians to cross at the sidewalk and crosswalk zones.

•Avoid dropping students off at the exit gate on 16th street. Visibility is limited for drivers here, and it is dangerous. Instead, pull up to the walkway that opens to the sidewalk on 16th Street. 

•Pedestrians should enter the parking lot only through the gate on 16th St. which leads to the crosswalk, and not through the entrance or exit of the parking lot.

•Please remain in your vehicle when you drop your child off in the morning and pick your child up in the afternoon.  
 
•Parents are permitted to park in the lot only after 4 p.m., and only in marked spaces. Never abandon your vehicle in the parking lot, whether at the entrance gate area, bus zone, or in front of faculty and staff parked cars. (Please remember that your doing so may cause frustration and anger on the part of others when they find themselves blocked in by your car.)
 
•Other alternatives to pulling into the school parking lot:  
   - In the mornings, a small gate is open on Race St. at the west end of the low wall. You may temporarily park along the south side of Race St. to drop off your child, who may enter through this gate. 
 
   - Many older students prefer to be dropped off at the Parkway/Cherry Street entrance, where there are two loading zones.  

   - Metered spaces are available on 16th St. and also on Vine St., a short walk away.



Friends Select is in the news:
  • the Feb. 10 issue of the Jewish Exponent ran an extensive article on InterSession, and quoted Darien Headen ’11 and Ben Behrend ’12, as well as Rose Hagan, head of school. . . . .
  • the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a piece on Feb. 24 about retiring Pennsylvania Ballet principal dancer Martha Chamberlain, a Friends Select alumna. . . .
  • NBC-10 filmed Karen Cohen’s 5th grade class at Mother Bethel AME Church recently as part of a Black History Month segment. . . .
  • The Daily Journal (a South Jersey newspaper), profiled Jennifer Webb-McRae, Cumberland County’s first African American prosecutor, whose grandmother was a Quaker and an alumna of the school. . . .
  • the Chronicles of Quaker Education, a newsletter of the Friends Council on Education, will run an article in its Winter edition that highlights Friends Select’s partnerships with several city institutions, including the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Leidy School and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. . . .
  • the April issue of Philadelphia Magazine will carry an in-depth article on schools—public, parochial, and independent—who make a practice of recruiting superstar athletes—and how this affects schools who don’t. Writer Michael Bradley interviewed athletic director Tim Litz and boys varsity basketball coach Sean Ryan for the piece. No guarantee that they will be quoted, but they did talk at length to Bradley about why Friends Select does not recruit and how this policy benefits the school’s student scholar athletes.



An exhibit of the acclaimed Pennsylvania Hands photo project by Friends Select alumna Sally Wiener Grotta’67 will be on display at the school’s Select Gallery from April 5 through 28, 2011. The school will host a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 21, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Also on April 21, Grotta will present a slide show that morning to middle- and upper school students and will visit several art classes throughout the day.

Pennsylvania Hands is Grotta’s visual celebration of those individuals who keep alive the traditional trades that built Pennsylvania’s dynamically diverse culture. In this ongoing project, she creates narrative portraits of people who use their hands in traditional ways, making functional objects that are, today, typically created by machines.

Along the way, Grotta spends time in a wide variety of artisans’ workshops—including a spinner, weaver, blacksmith, glassblower, rug-maker and many others—returning over the months and the years to follow the various stages of their creations. Pennsylvania Hands is evolving into American Hands, as she begins to focus her camera on artisans beyond her home state.

Last year, Pennsylvania Hands was exhibited in the East Wing Rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, among numerous other exhibits. 

After Pennsylvania Hands leaves Friends Select, it will continue to travel to various venues around the state, and through the country. In September 2011, American Hands will be mounted at the annual trade show of Photo Marketing Association in Las Vegas. For more information on the project and a schedule of her exhibits and lectures, please go to www.AmHands.com, and to follow her adventures as she continues to expand the project, go to www.Facebook.com/AmericanHands.

The Pennsylvania Hands exhibit and presentations are supported by a PA Partners in the Arts Grant from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the PA Council on the Arts.



Friends Select School is forming an aquatics club for age-group competitive swimming. The club will be an affiliate of USA Swimming, a national organization that organizes meets across the country and promotes competitive swimming. The Friends Select Aquatics Club (FSAC) is appropriate for novice to advanced swimmers (grades 1 through 12) and is open to both Friends Select and non-Friends Select students.

There are fees to participate. Fees cover coaches’ pay, membership in USA Swimming, practice time in the pool, and equipment. Payment is based on two seasons, a Fall/Winter season (September-April) and a Spring/Summer season (May –July).

There is no minimum number of swimmers required to form a club. The school held two informational meetings in February for parents and prospective swimmers. So far, about 20 swimmers have signed up.

“It’s good for the community and good for the school,” said Friends Select athletic director Tim Litz.  “We have an excellent aquatics facility, and there are no other competitive swim teams in Center City,” he said.

The FSAC will begin training in March with the intent to start competing during the summer season. As part of USA Swimming Mid-Atlantic Region, the FSAC will compete against other clubs locally and in South Jersey.

Litz encourages interested swimmers to sign up by early March. Contact
Litz at timothyl@friends-select.org to learn more about the program, the fee schedule, and how to sign up.
 



Friends Select School / 17th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway / Philadelphia, PA 19103-1284 / 215-561-5900 phone / 215-864-2979 fax

search login