PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Normally in the news for being one of Pennsylvania’s top schools, Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School at 17th and Spring Garden streets has been in the headlines for other reasons lately.
Teachers last month protested asbestos in the school building. Black students last year made accusations of discrimination. And, there has been increased attention on the declining percentage of Black students selected for the special admission school.
Enter Dr. Jeannine Payne, who begins Sept. 27 as Masterman’s first Black principal.
“Hopefully, my place at the school is an example of representation that is a model for students there,” Payne said. “To be the first for anything carries a great responsibility. But we also have to realize that this is 2021. And so, for us to be still having a ‘first’ opportunity like that says a lot in itself.”
Payne, 45, attended Masterman from fifth through ninth grades before transferring to Central High School.
“There are very few of us that are alumni that also have the opportunity to be school leaders where we went to school,” she said. “I just think that that’s an awesome opportunity.”
Payne, who was the principal at Richard R. Wright Elementary School for the last six years, wants her students at Masterman to know that someone is listening to them.
“I think that is the primary responsibility that I have, is to make sure that there’s no longer a void that problems fall into,” she said.
Related
Payne also takes a style of candor and collaboration to Masterman.
“The more brains that are in a room, the more likely the problem is going to be figured out. And I believe that that is true for all members of a school community.”
She admits to a bit of sadness to be leaving her Wright community, but she is embracing the surprising number of people who have reached out to welcome her to Masterman.