18 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • FALL 2020
That is the
challenge
of
leadership
- trying
to create
a family
out of
strangers.
While at Murray Hill, Sherin also met
the special education department. And
position in Philadelphia, Sherin gained
interim principal.
-
S
in Philadelphia, looking for another
scheduled.
to-and-from Maryland in his black
Saturn SL2 over a half dozen times for
opportunity to be its principal.
As he closed in on his destination, he
the city before turning into Fairmount
structure arose out of green, manicured
School of the Future.
The former Microsoft’s High School of
the Future had opened to tremendous
fanfare in 2006, touted as a groundbreaking
achievement in public-private
partnership.
stories about the lost promise of the
School of the Future. Where it once had
many students from another school.
-
ately needed leadership stability after
chair across from a 10-person panel,
Nutter, a school committee member and
Nutter.
among the panelists: his mentor, Dr.
Dickey.
Sherin still had to convince the nine
to lead the School of the Future as its
Sherin promptly accepted their offer
the School District of Philadelphia, in its
special education department.
said.
Spend a day at School of the Future
anyone call him by name.
a principal, no students, teachers, or
Principal Sherin.
transitions in his more than six years of
service.
prior, the School of the Future had
the school identity in a temporary state
of limbo.
-
nasium, he did not see any real logo or
an expression of school colors. So he
established Firebirds as the team name
and red, black, and grey as the school
regalia.
-
tiful gym, and so the ‘Firebird Palace’ I
the bottom of its league standings, but
since Sherin hired a dynamic Algebra
teacher as the head coach in 2016, the
culture of the program changed. The
the last three seasons.
Most recently, the Firebirds’ basketball
to the third round of the state playoffs
by the coronavirus pandemic.
year, Sherin’s remarkable success at the
-
lastic Athletic Association’s Principal of
effects and restrictions. In a normal
academic year, the School of the Future
of the appeal is that every student is
granted a laptop in 10th grade, and the
technology is incorporated as much as
The 2020-21 school year originally
Philadelphia charter school abruptly
closed due to the pandemic, causing the
Firebird family to expand sooner than
enrolled at the School of the Future
second assistant principal added as a
a distance.
ALUMNI IN EDUCATION