School of the Week: Isaac Sheppard School is 'a hidden gem'

Known for being one of the best-kept secrets in the School District of Philadelphia, the Isaac Sheppard School continues to raise the bar of academic excellence.

Located at 20 W. Cambria St. in West Kensington, the K-4 school offers an educational program that provides rigorous instruction, emotional support and educational and social opportunities for its students.

“Sheppard is a really unique school in the sense that we’re a small school located in a really difficult neighborhood,” said principal Elana Galli.

“However, once you walk into our school it’s warm, happy and very energetic,” Galli said. “We truly have a family atmosphere here. We’re definitely one of the hidden gems in the school district.”

This year, the school has been focusing on keeping students healthy, closing the academic gap and rebuilding partnerships. Another huge priority for the school has been social emotional learning.

Students start their day with a community meeting with their teacher where they prepare themselves for the school day and learn team building skills. The school also started a new social emotional period for students once a week.

“We start the day with social emotional learning and we end the day with social emotional learning,” Galli said.

“At the end of the day, the students are able to wind down, reflect on their day, reflect on their feelings, learn to articulate their feelings and learn to interact with each other appropriately,” Galli added. “They were out of the building for two years on Zoom screens, so social skills are a big part of that as well.”

Since counselor Justine Rybaltowski came to Sheppard two years ago, she has been helping students with their social emotional skills, academics and attendance.

“Sometimes I do have personal conversations with parents as to why they are unable to get their kid to school as often as we would hope and then work with outside agencies to make renovator plans,” Rybaltowski said.

“I make sure kids are ready academically and if they’re not I figure out what’s needed to help them be more successful,” Rybaltowski added. “I also make sure that students have different coping strategies like puzzles, sand, Play-Doh and coloring books so that the kids learn different ways to cope with their anger.”

Through local partnerships, Sheppard provides various programming for its students. Philly Pops and the Kensington Soccer Club are among just some of the partnerships the school has.

“Philly Pops teaches our kindergartners the violin,” Galli said. “They do music assemblies for third and fourth-graders where they bring in different musicians in Philadelphia.

“We don’t have a gym so our partnership with Rock Ridge has our fourth-graders doing dance and the Kensington Soccer Club exposes our students to soccer. We also have a partnership with PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts),” Galli said.

“They’ve done online assemblies and lessons for our students throughout the year and during the pandemic,” Galli added. “Each grade level will actually get to go visit PAFA in-person, which is the first field trip we’ve done in two years.”

Adding to Sheppard’s students’ enthusiasm is the high-caliber of teachers. Gailli praised her staff for their hard work and dedication.

“We have a nice core of veteran teachers who have been at the school for over 20 years; they started their career in the 90s and never left,” Galli said.

“Then we have new and mid-career teachers, who come up with innovative ideas. They helped to really raise our rate. We’ve had the highest growth in our network this year in terms of literacy on the Star Assessments,” Galli said.

“I really credit all of our teachers for making sure our kids are growing those fundamental skills,” Galli added. “Everyone here loves the community, the families and the kids. We truly have an amazing staff at Sheppard.”

The principal said what she wants students to take away from their experience at Sheppard is the love the staff has for them.

“I want the students to know that we love them and want what’s best for them,” Galli said.

“We will push you to work hard and we want to give you the skills to do whatever you want when you leave us,” Galli added. “We want them to feel like they’re coming to a second family every day.”