School District of Philadelphia Presented $500,000 Check By PECO Energy for Teacher and Student Initiatives

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School District of Philadelphia Presented $500,000 Check By PECO Energy for Teacher and Student Initiatives
    PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The holiday season started early
this year for the School District of Philadelphia, which was presented a
$500,000 check today at Spring Garden Elementary School by PECO Energy to
support teacher recruitment, leadership development and enhanced math skills
for fourth through eighth graders.
    "On behalf of the School Reform Commission (SRC) and the School District
of Philadelphia, I would like to thank PECO President Denis P. O'Brien and the
entire PECO family for investing in our students," said James Nevels, Chairman
of the School Reform Commission.  "PECO's generosity will go a long way in
supporting the Declaration of Education, improving math skills, and training
and retaining teachers and principals throughout the District."
    At the ceremony today in the school's library, School Reform Commissioner
Daniel Whelan and District CEO Paul Vallas received the donation from O'Brien.
"The Energy for Education Partnership will help PECO continue our work to
better the lives of children in our region," O'Brien said.  "I can't think of
any better way to help improve education in Philadelphia than with this
donation, which helps bring talented teachers to the city, helps train
principals for leadership positions, and helps students improve their math and
analytical skills."
    During the next three years, the donation will be used to support three of
the District's top priorities:

    -- Teacher recruitment.  Continuing PECO's support of the School
       District's leadership development efforts during the last two years,
       funds will be used for the "Rolling Out the Red Carpet" program.  The
       program brings certification students and their faculty and dean to
       Philadelphia for a day of observing neighborhood schools in action.

    -- Leadership development.  Recognizing the strong link between principal
       leadership and teacher retention, funding will be used to sponsor the
       School District's newly created Principals' Academy.  At the Academy,
       new principals meet once a week for more than two months to discuss
       leadership strategy and build a core of peers.

    -- Enhanced skills for students.  Recognizing the importance of math and
       analytical skills to students, a portion of the gift will be used to
       sponsor 24 Math Challenge tournaments at all 10 administrative
       regions.  Math skills throughout the nation have gone down, while the
       importance of those skills has increased in our digital and
       computerized world.

    "PECO, thank you for supporting the School District of Philadelphia, our
teachers and principals, and most importantly our students," said Vallas.
"Your $500,000 donation will not only improve public education in
Philadelphia, but it will also begin to train the next generation of this
City's skilled workforce."
    The SRC's Declaration of Education is a collection of beliefs, visions and
goals that are driving the School District of Philadelphia to an unparalleled
era of excellence.  The mandate, to be achieved by 2008, sets the bar
exceedingly high for early literacy, academic achievement, environment,
community collaboration, equity and operations, and is designed to push the
Philadelphia school reform movement to the next level.  For example, the
Declaration mandates closing the achievement gap between all races to less
than 10 percentage points, having 85 percent of all high school students
graduate and ensures that 100 percent of schools have equity in facilities,
programs and resources - to name a few of the Declaration's 15 points.
    Based in Philadelphia, PECO Energy is an electric and natural gas utility
subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC).  PECO serves 1.5 million
electric and 460,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania.  In
2003, its sales exceeded 36,753 gigawatt hours (gWh) of electricity and 92.3
billion cubic feet of natural gas to residential, business and institutional
customers.  PECO's energy delivery services generated $4.38 billion in revenue
for Exelon.  PECO is one of the largest employers and most active corporate
citizens in the Greater Philadelphia Region.

    CONTACT:  Cecilia Cummings, School District of Philadelphia,
+1-215-299-7850; or Vernita Smith or Fred Maher, PECO, +1-215-841-5555.
SOURCE PECO Energy
http://www.peco.com
CONTACT:
Cecilia Cummings, School District of
Philadelphia, +1-215-299-7850; or Vernita Smith or Fred Maher,
PECO, +1-215-841-5555