Title
Renaming the 6000 Block of Market Street “Sharif El-Mekki Way” to honor Sharif El-Mekki and his decades of distinguished service to Philadelphia's students, educators, schools, and communities.
Body
WHEREAS, Sharif El-Mekki has dedicated more than two decades to education in Philadelphia, beginning his career as a classroom teacher in the School District of Philadelphia before serving as Vice Principal and Principal of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Middle School, where student proficiency increased from below five percent to fifty percent during his tenure; and
WHEREAS, Mr. El-Mekki subsequently served eleven years as Principal of Mastery Charter School Shoemaker in West Philadelphia, leading a significant school turnaround that closed the achievement gap in mathematics, earned multiple national recognitions for student growth, and resulted in all four of his final graduating classes being accepted to college, with students receiving nearly fifteen million dollars in scholarships; and
WHEREAS, In 2014, Mr. El-Mekki founded The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice to recruit, develop, and retain Black male educators, and in 2019 founded the Center for Black Educator Development, where he now serves as Chief Executive Officer and leads a national effort to strengthen the pipeline, preparation, and retention of Black educators; and
WHEREAS, Mr. El-Mekki has brought his expertise to national and international education policy, serving as a U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow, co-leading the Biden-Harris Education Policy Committee's educator diversity plank, serving on the Shapiro-Davis Transition Advisory Committee on Education and Workforce Development, and providing testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce; and
WHEREAS, Mr. El-Mekki has continued to serve the City of Philadelphia through civic and community leadership, including as a member of the City's Commission on African American Males and ...
Click here for full text