The School District of Philadelphia is considering a plan that would close Alexander Wilson School and redraw catchments for the nearby Henry C. Lea School and possibly the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.), according to a confidential district document that the The Notebook published on Saturday.
Options include moving students from the under-attended Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.) to the Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.). The Wilson building, which currently serves 226 students, would become a “surplus” property that the district could sell. The Lea School, according to the report, is currently less than half full. This option would also require redrawing the catchment for Lea and the report also recommends considering the redrawing of the Penn Alexander School catchment. No further details were available on how they might be redrawn.
The report is clearly marked “For Discussion and Review Only.” Issued by the URS Corporation, a consulting firm, the report lists several options for “right-sizing” the district – reducing the number of classroom seats and buildings to correspond to a declining number of students.
School district officials cautioned that it was a preliminary report and may not be reflective of the final list of closures scheduled to be released to the School Reform Commission in October.
At the very least, though, it provides some insight into the substance of the changes that the District is considering.
Other changes in West Philly could include closing University City High School, which is under capacity, and constructing a smaller building for the school.
Here are two excerpts from the report (click to enlarge). A link to the full report follows.
June 28th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
If there was ever an organization that deserved to get Wikileaked, it’s the PSD/SRC. At least now we have something to measure against to see how much impact the promised “community input” has.
June 29th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Drew->Locke thing on pg 7 is just absurdity. Really, who in UC is going to allow their kid to go that far into the hood?
June 29th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Jerm, I understand your concern about the potential Drew-Locke consolidation in terms of children traveling a far distance to their neighborhood school. However, your word choice is not productive to the conversation.
If the consolidation does come to pass, Locke has a wonderful Home and School Association president who is actively looking for parents with whom to partner and I believe would be very open to working with former Drew catchment parents.
June 29th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
I don’t understand where they are getting the numbers in this report. As a person who has volunteered at Lea for the past 2 years, it appears to me that those who are developing these plans look just at the number of classrooms. If they removed the ESOL classroom, Special Education classrooms, Artistic Support classroom, Reading Specialist, Lea Community School Office, the Media Lab, etc., then maybe they could “cram” 241 more students into Lea. There is room to expand, but those who make the decisions need to actually come into the building and see how classrooms are utilized before talking about numbers. This is the problem with decisions at 440, it becomes a numbers game, instead of how will it reflect on the children. Are they not the end user? The “Core Beliefs” listed on the district site are 1. Children come first 2. Parents are our partners 3. Victory is in the classroom facilitated by a strong leader 4. Leadership and accountability are the keys to success 5. It takes engagement of the entire community to ensure success in it’s public schools (forgive me if I get some wording wrong I am speaking from memory) Every decision should be based on these beliefs, and that includes school closings or expansions. Children come first and the community are bookends to the core beliefs, so both should be consulted in any decision made about these schools in West Philadelphia.
June 29th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
regarding huey, does anybody know how far away a strip club is supposed to be from an elementary school? it seems to me either the school or the club should have to relocate.
July 1st, 2011 at 1:15 pm
@Amara:
I feel your gentle scolding of a comment poster is really misplaced. The question is valid. Not everyone has to communicate by your standards. Your mentioning of a home-and-school association (which appears at every turn of the school discussions) doesn’t answer the question.
July 1st, 2011 at 1:56 pm
@Kim-R, People can certainly use whatever language they like. When the facilities master plan community meetings happen, Jerm (and others) can certainly go and use that kind of language (likely with Locke parents also in attendance) and see how far that gets them.
I added the Locke HSA information because people often aren’t aware of its existence. And it’s all I’ve got – I’m not a district employee and don’t have answers. Just trying to be helpful.
July 1st, 2011 at 4:43 pm
This document of recommendations was apparently written by a URS Corporation algorithm that is hilariously blind to the reality that Dr. Drexel McPennerson is not going to spend >$300k on a house and then send their kid to a school with an enrollment that is 95.2% economically disadvantaged and 0% percent white. It was kind of a stretch to think UC parents would deal with Drew (which is why it is shrinking), but Locke is just not going to happen.
I don’t see what political correctness has to do with it.
July 2nd, 2011 at 4:56 pm
The reality is that a) there’s a budget crunch; b) Wilson probably needs to be shut down; c) Penn Alexander is at capacity and d) Lea is a vibrant school in the midst of a transformation and, as Maurice above suggests, may be close to capacity itself–and surely should be treated with the same respect and attention as Penn Alexander in terms of its own goals, projects, commitments, and student body. Perhaps a portion of the students who are at Wilson could be transferred to Lea. The other reality is e) the growing number of students in our catchment area who cannot get into Penn Alexander or Lea and should not be squeezed into them, because then what is good about those schools is lost. One need look no further than Masterman to see what happens when you turn a good school into an overcrowded factory: Penn Alexander is about to surpass this former crown jewel, in part because the crown jewel is turning into a big, directionless, headless beast. Fix what’s broken, not what’s working.
July 23rd, 2011 at 2:41 pm
There are two pressures on Lea in the report: from Wilson, and also by ‘redrawing the catchment,’ I guess that means moving the east Lea boundary towards 45th and the south boundary towards Hazel, cutting a chunk out of the PAS catchment.
Et voila, ‘problem solved!’
Maybe we could find out how many Dr. McPennersons would be affected, and then maybe we could get Penn to support Lea further? Or am I daydreaming?
July 24th, 2011 at 10:09 am
It would be wise to seek funding not only from Penn but from the other universities in UC: let’s not forget USP and Drexel. It would be good to see them get into the mix. It’s their neighborhood, too.
July 24th, 2011 at 10:22 am
Drexel is potentially a good partner, as Fry (the new president) was in charge of Penn’s expansion into West Philly. He is trying to do the same thing at Drexel, however they are expanding north towards Spring Garden Street and Mantua. They want to support the Powel school, however I am not sure how much action/actual $$$ there will be there.
July 24th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Drexel is supporting the Samuel Powel School through community partnerships like this:
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2011/06/01/peco-drexel-to-aid-west-philadelphia.html
They are also working with community groups to bring additional resources to the school, i.e playworks, spiral Q and others, as well as providing support from University staff and faculty.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Well it looks like the Drew closing is actually happening, and with virtually no response. It will be interesting to see how that huge but largely non-residential catchment gets divvied up.
https://webapps.philasd.org/sp_files/boundary_maps/1270.pdf
November 7th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Since the district is not afraid to make ridiculous-looking catchments, I guess Wilson will get the southern part and Locke much of the northern part with maybe a smidge going to Powel. We’ll see.
May 23rd, 2012 at 9:38 am
The Drew closing is a done deal – i suppose that means no Drew in the fall – but they still have not redrawn any map that I can find.