By Benjamin Herold 
The School District of Philadelphia's Renaissance Schools initiative was supposed to spur a dramatic turnaround for historic West Philadelphia High School.
Instead, it helped plunge the school back into chaos.
Now, it might be about to happen all over again.
We need your help to make sure part two of the unfolding story at West continues to get covered. Last spring, the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and reporter Benjamin Herold were on the front lines of chronicling a budding transformation at West. After years of decline, West's climate had improved dramatically, giving the school's popular principal and eager young teaching staff hope. Ground had been broken on a new school building. And through the School District of Philadelphia's ambitious Renaissance Schools initiative, a group of 15 parents and community members had come together to form a School Advisory Council (SAC) tasked with selecting a new "turnaround team" to help further transform the school.
But seven months later, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and School Reform Commission Chair (and West alum) Robert Archie (both pictured) have decided to exclude West from the Renaissance initiative. Four of the parents from the SAC remain the target of an open-ended District "investigation." The school is on its third new principal, and over half of the school's teaching force has left. Worst of all, the school's climate has severely regressed, punctuated by a large fight earlier this year that resulted in the arrest of 11 students.
Through it all, Herold and the Notebook have been there, breaking stories about each new twist and turn and providing much needed background to help the public understand the behind-the-scenes maneuverings that have contributed to the school's breakdown.
This January, the District will announce if West is going to be included in the second round of the Renaissance initiative. If it is, parents and community members will again come together to help decide the future of the school - this time with the cloud of last year's failure hanging over their heads. If West is not included, the school will still be faced with the daunting challenge of trying to improve student achievement while trying to rebuild - again - a school climate that is in tatters.
Continuing to tell the story of West is important not only to keeping local stakeholders informed, but to making policymakers at every level aware of what can happen when school turnaround efforts are not well-planned, transparent, and genuinely community-based.
