Shelton Avenue. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but may we have a brief pause? I
a technical hiccup here. What's that? I have a technical hiccup on my end.
I don't know what you're saying. Technical hiccup.
What's that, Bill? Oh, sure, sure. Take a pause.
Mr. Chair,
looks like you're turning up as attendee when
should be a panelist.
It's coming now.
Yep. Thank you.
okay okay we're good
are we ready
okay yeah we're ready sir
thank you so mi 2025
001 548 926 to 76
East Shelton Avenue.
Jeffrey Stacey is the attorney.
Unanimous support from the 12th Ward
Democratic Committee, RCO.
Jeffrey Stacey, if you are available,
Jeffrey, Stacey, if you are available, please raise your virtual hand.
please raise your vote.
They should be joining back in as a panel shortly, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Jeff, Stacey.
Could you spell your name, please?
Jeffrey, J-E-F-F-R-E-Y, Stacy, S-T-A-C-E-Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
Mastery Charter School, Paxdorius Richardson Elementary, and they are a licensee, equitable
owner of the property.
Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do you agree with its accuracy?
Why don't you start your presentation, sir?
May I share my screen?
Are you able to see my screen?
Beer's coming up now.
All good?
So my client is the Mastery Charter School, Pastorius Richardson Elementary.
It is a kindergarten through eighth grade public charter school serving about 650 students on Shelton Avenue in the Germantown neighborhood.
My client has occupied this space since the 2013-2014 school year, and this particular building is the old Francis D. Pastorius Philadelphia Public School.
We put together an exhibit package, but before I walk through that, the application here is for the addition of two projecting signs, which you can see here in this image.
image. And this is phase two of a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to improve conditions
at the site and make the space more aesthetically pleasing, but also safer for students and
families. We submitted an exhibit package last week to the ZBA, also have submitted additional
documents since that time through the portal, and I'll walk through them. The property is zoned
RM1, despite its use as a school for a number of decades, and RM1 prohibits projecting signs,
and the two metal panel signs that I was pointing to earlier are therefore prohibited, and we're
here to ask for a variance from the code. We filed our appeal in March, outlining our reasons for
seeking the variance, submitted our project info form, as well as a tax clearance certificate.
As I said at the top, the Mastery Charter School of Pastorius Richardson Elementary is a licensee.
It does not have a lease. It has a license agreement with the owner of the property,
which is the school district of Philadelphia. The school was first chartered in 2013,
and there are five-year charter terms and the license agreement runs concurrently with the
charter and the school has remained in operation and therefore so does the license. But in addition
to the license agreement which we supplied to ZBA, we also have direct authorization from the school
district in the form of a letter, which is here. So on March 28th of this year, the Board of
Education approved a number of projects at the Mastery Charter Schools, including the one here
at Pastorius Richardson Elementary. We have our tax compliance certificate. Staff had also asked
for an updated one, which we supplied, and that can be seen here. Our original submission,
to go through this in a little bit more detail, the property is on Shelton Ave. It borders Sprague
Street on one side and Shelton Ave. on the other. It's about a mile from the intersection of
Germantown and Wayne Avenues. And you can see here in the drawings that, you know, the improvements here are to add, you know, these metal signs, one projecting about four feet into the right of way here on Shelton Avenue and extending.
into the right of way here on Shelton Avenue and extending six feet for this sign and five feet, 11 and a half inches for this above the roof line.
And the purpose here is to sort of complete the branding and visual improvements to the building.
And I'll cut to pictures of the existing building right here.
So this, these particular images are taken from Shelton Avenue. On the left here, this was the condition of the property before phase one of the safety improvement project started. There was, you know, pretty, there was a curb cut here and disrepair.
There were some issues with ingress and egress to the building for students and families.
So part of phase one of the project, which you can see, which was completed, and you can see in the right-hand side here, was sort of a new updated way for parents to drop off their students, pick up their students at school.
The facade of the building was also improved with some paint and new windows.
and you can also see the existing canopy over the entrance here, which I believe juts out about six
feet. So the one sign would go on the right-hand side of this canopy and the other along Shelton
Avenue. Here is another picture of that. Here's a map view. Like I said before,
The property borders Shetland Avenue and Sprague Street, and then the back of the property on Woodlawn Street.
An aerial view looking, I believe, from the northwest over Shetland Avenue.
You know, we have a pretty bland rectangular school building.
This was before the Phase 1 improvements had begun, but you can see the side of the building where the signs would be constructed.
This is a more recent photo, and where you see the blue right at the end here is where the sign along Shelling Avenue would go, as well in the back where the blue ends over here, where the other sign would go, and they would flank the improvements that have been done to date at the school building.
here's some additional pictures from the other sides of the building
as well as the rear on woodlawn street
we posted the notices
an rco meeting was held on july 8th with the 12th ward democratic committee
there were i believe six members six near neighbors present
They unanimously voted in support of this project, and as part of our exhibit package, we also have the notice that was sent out for that meeting, as well as the canceled certificate of mailing.
In addition, one more note on the school district's approval.
This is the agenda from the March 28th, 2025 meeting of Board of Education.
One of the agenda items was to accept donations from seven master charter schools, including Pastorius Richardson Elementary.
Because my client occupies the property as a license agreement, in the event that license is terminated or the school's charter is terminated, any improvements to the property will become the property of the school district.
So on March 28th, the Board of Education voted to approve to accept the capital improvements made to that building in the form of a donation.
And the total cost of the signage project, as well as phase one of the project, is about $4 million.
And that's identified here, and that was provided in the portal, along with other information in the past few days.
i'm i'm happy to take any particular questions the board might have at this time
if not i'd like to call omar robinson bring your client on please
sure omar robinson can you raise your hand
coming back in as a panelist shortly
Good afternoon, Omar Robinson, O-M-A-R.
Please spell your name for the court stenographer.
Yep, O-M-A-R, Robinson, R-O-B-I-N-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Robinson, are you the Senior Director of Facilities and Capital Planning for Mastery Charter School, Pastorius Richardson Elementary?
Yes, I am.
Did you hear the statements that I made to the zoning board today?
Yes, I did.
Was everything true and correct to the best of your information and belief?
Yes, it is.
And would you adopt those statements as your own testimony?
Yes, I will.
Mr. Chair, I have nothing.
I was just going to say I have nothing further.
All right, thank you.
Very good.
Questions from the board.
My question is, and just from what I'm hearing from you, what is the purpose of these, the
projecting signs?
I mean, I understand the canopy, but you said something about safety, and I'm trying to figure out what the safety aspect is here.
So this is one facet of a larger project, which was handled in phases.
Phase one of the project, and I'm showing on the screen the presentation that was made to the RCO,
was to make improvements to the property, which included installing a playground,
installing new windows with higher visibility into the school building,
as well as new doors and windows surrounding the entranceway.
This particular phase of the project, which is the last piece,
is to sort of complete the branding for the school,
making sure that folks know that this is Mastery Pastorius Richardson Elementary.
And then also adding sort of an architectural element
that will make the building stand out a little bit more, too.
its students and community members, as well as passersby. There has been some research that says
that when students are attending a building that is aesthetically improved, it improves
student climate and morale. But really, the main aspect as to why this is considered safety is
because this is part of a larger project centered
around student safety and building improvements.
Well, I understood the idea that you
were trying to fix the driveway entrance
and the general access to the property.
But I'm not sure I understand the safety aspect
of these signs.
I mean, not that I'm saying that it's a bad idea.
I'm just, I'm not understanding the safety aspect of it.
I understand that it's aesthetically.
Yeah, and it's equal parts of both.
And I think this is, you know, the mastery charter schools have a portfolio of a number of schools.
Mr. Robinson can provide you the exact number.
I believe it's 17 in Philadelphia. I may be off by one or two. But the idea is to make...
You know, these projecting sounds like a feature of the other buildings, and therefore this is to be consistent with the other buildings. Is that what we're doing here?
That is correct.
Oh, okay. Then that I understand. I didn't understand the idea that this provides some sort of safety aspect of that. I didn't understand that.
And we're certainly not here to say that, you know, this particular facet of the project, you know, is 100 percent based on safety.
That's part of it. And the other parts are to make it aesthetically pleasing, improve, you know, a relatively bland looking, you know, boxy building and, you know, to make it a landmark in the community.
OK. And these are not illuminated in any way, correct?
That's correct.
Thank you.
I have a question about the verticality.
So in the two vertical signs, what's being done to prevent water dripping onto pedestrians?
Like, is there anything that's either wicking the water away or?
Omar, if you're able to answer that, that's fine.
I believe we also have a representative of the architecture firm on the line if we need to toss it to him.
Yes. So I believe our architects had to jump off.
But to answer the question, yes, water will be isolated to be able to remove away from the sign.
isolated to be able to remove away from the sign. I'm not a designer, but the way we've been
I'm not a designer, but the.
discussing and designing this has included all of that process.
And you currently have signs like this on other mastery charter schools?
We do not have some in Philadelphia yet. This would be one of our first, but we've also gotten
approval for Smedley as well as Cleveland, which will have similar signs.
approval from
we've been
we've gone through you as well for those as well
okay and then for the sign
that's going on the existing overhang
I'm assuming
that that accounts
for the additional
weight to the top of that structure
yes it does
other questions
questions or comments from our attorney
Hillary Emerson. Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. I have Charles Richardson online.
I will let them out.
Mr. Richardson?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Mr. Richardson, our day would not be
complete without hearing from you. I was thinking that.