“Something’s gotta give.”
That’s what one parent told me last year about Penn Alexander, the small public K-8 school co-managed by The School District of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. It has small classrooms, yet has a big and growing following. More and more families are moving into its designated catchment area, swelling enrollments. The school was designed for small class sizes, and the smaller than average classrooms are brimming with children. Yet, more and more families keep moving to the catchment to join the school. Something’s gotta give.
Fortunately, the problem has been limited to kindergarten where only a limited number of seats are made available. Other grades accept all catchment students. I originally wrote about the Kindergarten problem in 2010 with “Penn Alexander Crapshoot” and then wrote about it again this past January as parents waited in line in the middle of the night in record freezing temperatures to secure seats for their children [VIDEO]. The local TV news even took notice. Since the issue was limited to kindergarten, the problem for catchment families was what to do for the kindergarten year. Those who did not secure a seat had to find another option.
Over the last several weeks, I have spoken to several Penn Alexander parents who independently shared with me some swirling rumors–that Penn Alexander will be instituting a new enrollment policy–No guaranteed seats for catchment students for all grades. As with most rumors, details were sketchy and varied. Enrollment by lottery? Preferential treatment given to siblings? Grandfathering currently enrolled students? Enrollment via a first-come-first-served registration day like kindergarten? Whatever the details are, this is causing quite a stir. Many families have paid huge premiums over comparable homes to buy a house in the Penn Alexander catchment. Now, faced with an uncertain school situation and a potentially big loss in property values, these parents are understandably upset.
I didn’t write anything about this rumor because I hear rumors all of the time that turn out to be false. This one seemed more likely, but I wasn’t sure and I don’t like stoking the fires of school choice anxiety. I reached out to school officials and got a denial and sort of let it drop. Now the West Philly Local is reporting that the rumors are true and is citing official district spokeswoman Shana Kemp as its source. The official statement:
Penn Alexander is at capacity in the lower grades. It typically is the policy that a school must take a student who lives in a catchment, however, once a school reaches capacity, the District can make the decision to assign students elsewhere in order to relieve overcrowding. This is what we have had to do at Penn Alexander. The school was founded in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, in part, in order to provide enrollment relief to the Lea and Wilson schools, so it is important that we not create a situation of overcrowding there.
West Philadelphia Local goes on to write,
Registration officially begins on August 15, but District officials recommended that parents of students not currently enrolled at the school investigate other neighborhood schools.
Details of how the enrollment caps will be managed are sketchy at this time–refer to the West Philly Local article for that. What strikes me though–If I had moved to Penn Alexander catchment with the expectation of sending my children to Penn Alexander, I would be incensed right now. You have to think that catchment families will mount a full-scale revolt over this development. Something to watch. I don’t think we’ve heard the last on this issue. Something’s gotta give.
Len–families in the Penn Alexander catchment need to ask the principal and the SDP administrators if there are currently any children in the over-enrolled grades with an EH-36 (voluntary transfer for students who live out of the catchment). Those transfers are granted ONLY IF THERE IS ROOM. If catchment students are to be turned away, then all out-of-catchment students should be sent back to their neighborhood schools. If a were a catchment area parent who was about to be turned away, I would scream like heck if even ONE out of area student was taking my child's space. I have heard rumors about the children of certain big-wigs being allowed into Penn Alexander, but I do not know if it is true. Parents should certainly ask about it though.
I'd be surprised if there were any legit VTP students at P.A.. This increasingly problematic enrollment issue is something that school officials certainly must have been aware of for years. Right? Right?
Can't speak about big-wigs. If I got a spot through VTP, I'd be pretty incensed if I got kicked out though.
There are people who connections to 440 N. Broad who have their children at Penn Alexander and don't live anywhere near the school (e.g. live in Overbrook Park and their child goes to PAS). I have no idea of the percentage but it certainly occurs. This is an ongoing problem in Philly. Parents who know someone get their child into the "better" elementary schools while those without connections and resources, are left. Ideally, Penn would see West Philly as its neighborhood, not just the few blocks around Penn Alexander which conveniently shelter the University from the rest of West Philly.
I hadn't heard about big wigs, although I'm not surprised. I do hear that it's common advice for Penn folks to rent a cheap "primary residence" apartment to fake being in the zone. We'll never really know but I wonder what percentage that is.
I live a half block outside the catchment, having bought before the school existed or kids were in the plans. I have a 3 year old now and this pretty much cements that we won't move into the zone (for the school) which we were seriously considering. I had heard the lottery rumors too – just last weekend in fact. I also hear a lot of kids move on at 5th grade from Penn Alexander, which the article confirms in describing the lopsided enrollment. Oddly, this half official news is a relief because I can move on to other options.
Though committed/active parents are only part of any solution – the principal and other administrators being a BIG part too.
Not surprising how many parents DRIVE to pick up their children at Penn Alexander. I sense a bit of corruption in the system. It's hard to feel bad for people who had enough money to move into the area just for the schooling, received the good schooling, and now are worried about their property values. Property values only matter if you want to sell (or pay higher taxes!). Be a part of the community instead of thinking of the investment to own property in the area as a de facto private school tuition.
I agree with the commenters who want to see schools like Lea improve. There's a lot of potential there if people are willing to actually be a part of the community and work with teachers to improve schools.
As a former W. Philadelphian who has seen this neighborhood transformed from a middle class community of social workers and schoolteachers to a Park Slope-West enclave, part of me finds this amusing. They bought into UCity for what they believed would be a gated community, in essence, with a school with resources that no one else in the city has. Their arrival drove out many, many residents — the school has become significantly whiter. On the other hand, I understand the feeling of betrayal of believing you bought into an area to get your child a particular kind of education, and now it's gone. But that feeling of betrayal is shared by parents all across the city as the governor eviscerates the budget for education, affecting all public schools. Why should PAS families be able to buy their way out of that? It is my hope that PAS's new policy will encourage these families, with their tremendous resources, to put their energy into supporting all the schools in their community, not just this one bastion of privilege.
Just speaking as one of these families, if we had such tremendous resources I suppose we could just send our kids to a private school. Having been public school-educated K-12, knowing the lack of diversity often seen in private schools, and also not having said resources, the public school option becomes very important.
Also, while I agree that property values aren't the principal concern, they do affect the ability to finance improvements on houses that most of us see as long-term investments. This is a potential issue for a number of my neighbors who have no interest in leaving the area.
I'm a current 8th grade student at Penn Alexander and I assure you that if you move into the Penn Alexander area you wont regret it. I've been at P.A.S. since kindergartend and there's no other school like it. The one-on-one time each student gets with the teachers makes the P.A.S. experience so much better than any other school. I know recently its been hard to get into P.A.S. recently but thats only becuase soo many people have been moving into the area.
Therefor, P.A.S. has to manage the sudden spike in students and if that means they have to decline a few to make sure they still can insure that every student in there will get the quality teaching that parents moved out there for in the 1st place then so be it. Would you rather have you kid be the 1 kid out of 40 that is just being taught and push to the next teacher with no indivisual time to monitor thier growth and make sure they understand the information and this is critcal in kindergarten, I don't think so.