Action United member Dawn Hawkins and her son, 8th grader Khyrie Brown, have been calling for improvements at Blaine, a K-8 school in Strawberry Mansion. They persuaded new School Reform Commission Chair Bill Green to visit the school but don’t see eye-to-eye with him about planned reforms, including longer hours. (Photo: Charles Mostoller)

Khyrie Brown wants more for his school: more art, more music, more books, more laptops, even more paper towels in the bathrooms.

And although staying longer each day at Blaine Academics Plus, a K-8 school in Strawberry Mansion, isn’t at the top of his agenda, Brown says that what educators call “extended time” can help.

“Last week was the first time I went to Saturday school,” Blaine’s optional PSSA prep classes, said the 14-year-old 8th grader.

“My friend was like, ‘Just come.’ I said, ‘School’s already five days a week, and now it’s six?’ But then I wound up going, and the college student I was with, we got a lot of work done.”

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