Transforming Futures for 50 Years: Benchmark School in the 2010s

Benchmark’s summer camp offers a five-week program that builds self-confidence in reading, writing, sports, activities, and beyond. Along with our exclusive Confidence Ropes Course, we have trained and experienced teachers that facilitate success in a supportive learning environment to build self-confidence in themselves as learners.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Eric MacDonald, Benchmark School’s 8th grade teacher, Transition Counselor, and Assistant to the Middle School Head, was awarded the 2022 KSLA Exemplary Service Award.

As evident in our special events as well as in the classrooms where the students thrive daily, building community is very important at Benchmark. Ms. Theresa Scott, a 5th grade teacher, has been intentionally building community through special service projects. 

Dive into the latest issue of Benchmark Magazine!

Members of our 6th grade teaching team recently had their proposal accepted to present at the at the PAMLE (Pennsylvania Association of Middle Level Educators) conference in February 2023. 

Our Benchmark School community is enriched by our exciting new hires. Get to know our new staff and faculty, and welcome them when you see them in person!

In much of the country, schools and camps that serve kids with learning differences are scarce. Many families have to travel substantial distances to get the help their children need, if they’re lucky enough to have a supportive school in the area at all. For others, it can mean moving one’s entire family for a summer at Benchmark. 

Benchmark School is pleased to announce the appointment of Joe McPeak as Chief Financial Officer, following the service of Kathy Peters as Interim CFO during the 2021-2022 school year. 

After more than a year of thoughtful input and consideration from all corners of the Benchmark community, we have created a strategic plan that will propel Benchmark into the future. 

As the culminating event of our 50th Anniversary celebrations, we can't wait to welcome our beloved Benchmark community to a grand gala on May 14.

Throughout the month of January, Benchmark School participated in a school-wide service project supporting the Children's Crisis Treatment Center and presented the donations to the agency on February 9, 2022. 

Our Head of School Chris Hancock contributed his educational leadership insights in the recently published book, Flux Leadership: Real-Time Inquiry for Humanizing Educational Change with Sharon M. Ravitch, Ph.D.

We welcome Mr. Sam Gerlach, Benchmark's first Innovation Space Teacher. 

Benchmark has a partnership with Swarthmore College's education department and hosted five general ed students. We spoke to George Corzine, who observed in 5th grade, on his last day. 

Benchmark students collaborated with parent and artist Dori Desautel Broudy to make art for the newly opened Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity in North Philadelphia.

Read our 2021-2022 COVID Procedures.

Benchmark is delighted to welcome new faculty and staff to our school for the upcoming school year.

We have reached the final installment of our video celebration of Benchmark's 50th Anniversary. 

On Saturday, June 5, we had the honor of graduating of the Class of 2021!

Hear tips on how to help kids socialize again, how to support kids with anxiety, what to do about screen time, how kids should best spend their summer, what to look out for with COVID and vaccine effects, and much more.

Our video celebration of Benchmark's 50th Anniversary continues!

Join us at a lunchtime webinar on Thursday, May 27, 12-1 p.m. to learn about how to help children thrive emotionally and academically as we move into this summer and the next school year. 

Benchmark School is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Diversity Collaborative (GPDC), which convened an Elementary Student Diversity Day on Friday, April 16.

In our decade-focused celebrations of our history, we reflect on the 1990s in this video, looking back at the maturation of our program, the arts enhancements, and the expansion of our middle school. 

We are thrilled to share our next milestone in the celebration of our 50th Anniversary year: a retrospective of Benchmark in the 1980s.

Students in the Pfautz/Regan cohort have been engaging in design sprints that call upon their empathetic thinking skills.

To help enrich our 8th grade students’ study of identity, and to add empathetic richness to Jesse North’s class’s reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night, Mrs. Brodo shared the story of her family’s narrow escape from the Holocaust. 

How do you flip a totally hands-on project in virtual learning times? Kevin Canney and his social studies classes got creative, innovating new ways to study one of humanity’s most basic needs: shelter. 

Benchmark librarian Leslie Komarnicki authors a series for Black History Month in the Delco Times.

While some of us have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines, Benchmark alum Jacob Newmark ‘15 has been working to help bring them to us.

Ashton Muehl, Angelina Georgiou, and Madaline Yerger for turned classroom learning into action and advocacy.

Please enjoy the first video in our historical series revisiting the decade of Benchmark's founding: the 1970s.

Benchmark School held our inaugural Day of Service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Several teachers hosted the day, the centerpiece of which was three activities for students and families to have a “day on” rather than a “day off.” 

Benchmark and our own Head of School Chris Hancock are the lead features in an article called "Engaged" in Suburban Life magazine that examines how students with learning differences need supportive environments to thrive. 

Our math teachers led students in Hour of Code activities! The Hour of Code takes place annually during Computer Science Education Week. (This year, it's December 7-13).

How can design thinking solve the world’s problems? That’s just what Dr. Heather Warley’s class set out to discover.

It's election season nationally and at Benchmark! Ms. Scott took the lead on hosting a mock election for President, in line with the civics work so many students have been exploring in their social studies classes. See our results!

Head of School Chris Hancock was recently featured in Penn's peer-reviewed journal, Perspectives on Urban Education, on leadership in times of crisis.

All through the summer, we crafted meticulous a reopening plan to ensure a safer reopening this fall. County Lines Magazine featured our efforts in "The Great Restart."

On September 14, Benchmark School was proud to kick off our 50th Anniversary celebrations and formally welcome Mr. Chris Hancock as our third Head of School in 50 years. 

We are delighted to welcome so many new members of our Benchmark community! Get to know our new faculty and staff members.

The Benchmark School Store has a huge array of Benchmark apparel, including uniform items and spirit wear, as well as items for adults.

The Benchmark community has voted! Find out the name of Head of School Mr. Hancock's new puppy.

We have been hard at work on our greatest goal of the moment: bringing our Benchmark community back to campus safely. We are pleased to share our plan for reopening Benchmark School.

We’re pleased to be able to share an update on our progress toward a safe and educationally robust reopening this fall. 

On June 9, we were thrilled and honored to graduate our Class of 2020. Check out the photos!

Objects can be powerful triggers of memory. Sixth graders are rounding off their year by considering the role of memory in helping to create the person they are.

The Mattaliano/Sperling class listened to a podcast called "Six Minutes" throughout the school year and continued right into their time of online learning. This week, they got to learn all about how the podcast is made from the creators themselves.

We're delighted to announce the appointment of Megan Wonderland to the position of Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management at Benchmark.

Edward Bloor, the award-winning author of many young adult novels, popped into a very exciting class gathering this week! The Powell/Brodo seventh grade language arts class just read his novel Tangerine, and were thrilled to have the chance to speak with Mr. Bloor about the book.  

In a powerful example of collaboration between teachers across curriculum areas, students in Ms. Scott and Mrs. Causey’s language arts class created “activist art.”

We've loaned our 3D printer to a local volunteer group, PPE Fab Crew, who are dedicated to creating equipment for Philadelphia-area hospitals in need.

It’s not easy to start a new job in the midst of a pandemic, but Bandana Jha loves turning challenges into successes. As of March 30, Ms. Jha steps into the role of Chief Financial Officer.

March 2 was Read Across America Day, which also coincides with a celebration of Dr. Seuss.  As she has for the past fifteen years, Mrs. Spirokostas's class has dedicated this week to honoring the works of Dr. Seuss.

We are closely monitoring the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. While the present information suggests a low public health risk, we have a team of administrators and staff in communication with one another on a daily basis to assess the situation.

Sixth graders asked: “How might we motivate students and teachers to bring their own reusable water bottles to the dining hall?”

Sixth grade memoirs are on display in the Writer's Gallery. Visual art complements the written work, and the art stands have a special creation story of their own.

In this issue of Benchmark Magazine, we explore arts integration—an instructional approach where the visual and performing arts are included across the curriculum—as an important articulation of our larger focus on innovation in instruction.

My days at Benchmark begin with a front row witness of our children’s entry into their schoolhouse. Through this ritual I have come to see that each child has a unique “signature” as they take these first steps across the bridge from home to school.

Students in Mrs. Arabia's class have been learning about kindness and inclusivity. When our music teacher Mrs. Veacock shared the song "Yay, People" from City Love with the students, they liked it so much that they convinced Mrs. Veacock that they should make a video as a surprise.

What might you need to survive in a hunter-gatherer society? As a follow-on activity to Nicole Scali’s sixth grade social studies lesson on the Stone Age, she asked her students to create functional hunter-gatherer baskets using only glue, 80 strips of paper, brushes, and a plan.