A Note from FoCA CO-PRESIDENTS

The 2022–23 school year marked a period of change for FoCA and Chester A. Arthur School. The year was packed with all the normal school growth, student learning, and activities in the school building, but many areas changed and required FoCA and the school community to adapt.

Several things for FoCA looked familiar this year: we held successful events including the Back to School Jam, gathered for Little FoCA meetups, collaborated with HSA, and, of course, hosted our annual FoCA Night Out — which raised $110,000 to support the school. We remain grateful to all who have given their time and talents serving on various committees, attending and volunteering at our events, and donating to support all that we do for Arthur students, each of whom matter and all of whom benefit from your generosity now and in the years to come. 

Through its fundraising efforts, FoCA was able to support several initiatives, projects, and events. In 2022–23 we raised a total of $124,233, which was used to fund teachers’ needs in the classroom, continue Spanish instruction, provide art education, offer professional development, and support the Makerspace to help direct STEM learning. Of course, none of these successes would have been possible without the vital contributions of the larger FoCA community.

As mentioned, FoCA and Chester Arthur School also saw a great deal of change this year. Those changes included a transition in school leadership from Dr. Libby to our new principal, Dr. Patterson, as well as the departures and additions of several teachers and school staff. FoCA would like to say thanks to all the folks who left this year, as well as those that are new, for their tireless work at the school. We would also like to express our gratitude for the resilience and strength shown from the students and their families.

The biggest change this year was the process to change the school’s name. This student-led initiative involved students, staff, parents, and community members. This was a democratic process in action for all to participate. A committee engaged in a process that entailed gathering input on potential new names, identifying top contending names, allowing the community to vote, presenting the winning name, and submitting the official name change to the school board for final approval. In the end, the school changed its name from Chester A. Arthur School to Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy (this is how we will refer to the school in the remainder of this report). This is an exciting moment in the school’s history to honor a musical and civil rights icon who lived just blocks from the school! As the school transitions in name in the 2023–24 school year, FoCA will do the same with its name to represent the change.

This year also saw the departure of several key FoCA board members: Noah Buboltz, Matt Katz, Keola Harrington, and Rose Harris. FoCA would not be what it is today without their dedication, leadership, and tireless support. Please join us in thanking these members for their incredible service to the school community. FoCA is bringing on five new board members for the 2023–24 school year: Rae Ritter, Rachel Schwartz, Alexandria Walker, Ariel Greenstein, and Marley Shropshire. 

Thanks to everyone who supported FoCA this year. We look forward to more exciting changes in 2023–24.

Sincerely,

Noah Buboltz & Jason Miller

A Note from the HSA

The Home and School Association (HSA) is the direct link between Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy families and student life. Our board continues to focus on the work of our mission statement: The HSA engages students, families, and staff to strengthen relationships within the school and enhance the Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy experience.

As we move forward, we strive to work together to support activities that will build relationships and community with the students, families, and staff at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy. Some of the events that HSA and Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy have held over the past year include: celebrating our teachers and staff during teacher appreciation week, holidays, and report card conferences; hosting a movie night with popcorn and candy; resuming field day for the first time since before the pandemic, hosting a fall potluck for families, supporting Back to School Night, Math Night, Literacy Night, Art Night, and our annual Scholastic Book Fair; and providing soft pretzels to our students and staff every month throughout the school year.

Partnership between the HSA and FoCA remains central to our success and has expanded in the 2023–2024 school year. The HSA has partnered directly with the FoCA Events Committee to jointly support school and community events. Both organizations regularly collaborate to assist the amazing teachers and staff in their efforts to ensure a fun and safe educational experience for all Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy students.

 Sincerely,

The HSA Board: Jennifer Souder, Shannon Breslin, Alexis Hart, Courtney Wolk

FoCA Night Out 2023

On March 25, 2023, the Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy community got together for our annual fundraiser, FoCA Night Out. The 23rd Street Armory was bumping with almost 300 guests! We enjoyed a fun evening of dancing, socializing with neighbors, great food and, most importantly, an exciting live auction that is vital to our fundraising efforts. Because of the community’s incredible generosity, we raised more than $110,000 for continued support of curriculum investments, technology upgrades, and dynamic programming. Thanks to our incredible team of hard working committee volunteers, school staff, and FoCA board members, this event has been a huge success every year. 

The flash appeal at the event raised $11,000 that will go directly toward upgrading school furniture. And our silent auction sold 179 items for a total of $26,598. 

One thing that makes our community special is the continued loyal support of local businesses. Year after year, businesses in Philadelphia bolster the event by offering sponsorships, food, and auction items. Thank you to all businesses for your yearly support. More than half of the money raised comes through business partnerships — totaling $56,900 this year. 

FoCA Night Out’s top sponsor at the Diamond level $7,500 was OCF Realty, which continues year after year to show up in a big way for the Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy community. We appreciate all that you have done! 

Additionally, a big thank you to our Platinum, Gold and Silver Sponsors listed below. Your support has also had a huge impact. 

Platinum Sponsor
Alterra Property Group

Gold Sponsors
Rittenhouse Market
South Square Market
H&K Hair Studio
Sort It Out Philly
Fritz & Bianculli
Chick’s 
Alpha Dog Grooming Services 
The Rob Wishnick Team at Guaranteed Rate

Silver Sponsors 
Galit Winokur In Town Compass 
The Law Office of Steven Zellinger 
JKRP architects 
Neomind Labs

A special shoutout to our In-Kind sponsors who served us delicious food and beverages to keep us bidding and raising money: El Fuego, Moore Brothers, Starr Restaurants, Bonners Irish pub, Yards Brewery, Federal Donuts, and Matt Kaz Cocktails. 

We could not do this without you! 

Our volunteers are already hard at work on FoCA Night Out 2024 and we can’t wait to see you there on April 6, 2024. Save the date for what will surely be another awesome night supporting Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy!

Back to School Jam

In the fall of 2022, FoCA again partnered with the Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy HSA to host the fifth annual in-person Back to School Jam. We spent a beautiful Saturday with hundreds of students, families, and community members in the schoolyard. There was complimentary food, gifts, activities, and a DJ spinning tunes for everyone. We hosted a basketball exhibition game for older kids, and ran professional agility drills before the game. It was a wonderful day of connection and community for Marian Anderson Neighborhood families to kick off the new school year.

Spring Clean-up

Our schoolyard reached peak usage in the school year after the pandemic. FoCA takes charge in cleaning and planting the grounds, and we organized a weekend spring morning for volunteers and FoCA board members to bring some TLC to the schoolyard.

In-School Events

Hosting events at the school is an important and great way to bring together Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy families. The following events were hosted over the course of the 2022–23 school year. 

• Movie Night: a September outdoor event that was for all Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy families. With a showing of Despicable Me and popcorn and candy snacks, the schoolyard was a joyful place to be. 

• Fun Day: a May event for students during the school day with a DJ, fun and friendly competitions, face paint, balloon animals, a dance group, and relay-type events.

• Fall Gratitude Potluck: a November event that gathered families in the schoolyard with snacks to build community and connection.

• MLK Supply Drive: a January event that collected hygiene products (in original packaging), new socks/underwear, and new or gently used uniforms for our students.

• Book Fair: a spring event that was supported by volunteers. Each student was given $5 to put towards a book fair purchase. 

• Upper Academy Events: Volunteers and food donations supported the Upper Academy social and various other events such as Math Night, the Art Show, and Literacy Night. 

Staff Appreciation Activities and Spirit Events

Throughout the year, FoCA financially supported activities, gifts, and events that the HSA coordinated and implemented. Staff appreciation activities included bringing the John's Water Ice truck to the school at beginning of the year, snack/breakfast donations from families, holiday gifts for each staff member (gift cards to Social House), Insomnia Cookies delivery, and Teacher Appreciation Week activities such as gratitude notes from kids covering the doors to school, breakfast catered by Fitzwater Bagels and Social House, Primo's lunch, and baked goods donations from families.

School spirit events were also plentiful! They included monthly pretzel Fridays, Student of the Month breakfasts, PSSA gift bags with hard candy, water and motivational notes, 8th grade and Kindergarten move-up celebrations, a grant for 8th grade trips, and uniform swap coordination.

Spanish Exploradores 

One of our most significant programmatic expenditures is our program to teach kids Spanish — an opportunity that would not otherwise be available due to limited public funding. Spanish Exploradores is a local Philadelphia program that sends teachers into schools to nurture their abilities to learn a new language. This year Spanish classes were available to our students in grades Kindergarten through 7th. 

Capital Improvements 

One of the major ways we enhance the experience for the Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy community is through regular capital improvements — projects that would not happen otherwise given the way that schools are funded. We supported the maintenance of the crown jewel of Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy, the schoolyard, which is where students, parents, and community members converge after school and during the weekends. We also maintained the furniture for the more recently created cafetorium. The wonderful Makerspace classroom and programming continued through the funding of materials, supplies, and equipment, where children explore creative thinking and problem solving while designing and creating their own ideas through computers and other technology.

Teacher Mini-Grants 

Teacher mini-grants are a way for our teachers to have immediate classroom needs met by FoCA, like through classroom supplies. The grants also paid for equipment for the nurse’s office, folding tables for events like the annual math night, and ELA books throughout the year.

Allegro Music Consultants

Allegro Music Consultants brought professional musicians to perform for — and instruct and inspire — 3rd grade students. They learned about the instruments, the nature of an ensemble, and performances. FoCA is thrilled to support this element of our musical educational programming. 

Early Literacy Materials 

Ensuring a strong literacy curriculum for our youngest students continues to be a priority for FoCA. Fundations is a multisensory phonics, spelling, and handwriting program that is informed by an extensive research base and has proven effective at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy. The program is used to instruct kindergarten to 2nd grade students in phonemic awareness and word study and contributes to fluency, vocabulary development, and the application of strategies for understanding text. Since implementing Fundations at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy in 2014, the school has seen increased levels of students reading at or above grade level. 

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

We were able to bring back one of our favorite activities in the 2022–23 school year by showing our thanks to the teachers and staff at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy through appreciation breakfasts and lunches throughout the year. Additionally, Amazon gift cards were provided at the beginning of the year to offset teachers’ out-of-pocket expenses for the classrooms. 

REVENUE

Corporate/
Organizational Giving/Other

$1,368

Individual Giving

$12,353

Events

$110,512

_____________________________

Revenues Total

$124,233

We love our little school building at the corner of Catharine and 20th Streets just south of Center City Philadelphia. But the building has been around since the mid-20th century and has suffered from disinvestment due to school funding shortages. One of FoCA’s missions has long been to make the school as beautiful, inviting, and comfortable as possible for our students and staff. FoCA works each year to collaborate with school leadership on identifying the areas that are most in need. This year, sites were set on kicking off a campaign to raise money for refurnishing the school’s classrooms.

We dedicated our annual flash appeal during FoCA Night Out 2023 to raising $10,000 to contribute to the campaign that has been started through The Fund for the Philadelphia School District. FoCA contributed additional funds raised throughout the year to the furniture campaign, raising approximately $22,000 for a phase one purchase of furniture. 

We still have a long way to go in raising enough money to provide new furniture for each classroom, but we have a strong start! The fundraising efforts for new furniture will continue into the 2023–24 school year. 

Suggestions or Comments?

We couldn't do any of this without the volunteer and financial support of our great neighborhood. It takes a village and we're lucky to have such a diverse community with many different resources to bring to the table to invest in our school and our neighborhood as a whole. If you've have suggestions or would like to get involved with the Friends of Chester Arthur Elementary, please send us a note below!

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