The Penn Alexander School last year warned parents hoping to register their children that there were “no guarantees” that spots would be available, even if they lived in the school’s much publicized “catchment.” This year, that warning became a reality for many parents. Not a single parent this year was able to get their child enrolled in grades 1-4, even those who waited in line for more than 24 hours.
Instead the parents were placed on a waiting list that includes students who were unable to secure a spot last year. Enrollment in Penn Alexander classes is capped lower than most other District schools as part of an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania, which subsidizes the school.
The School District of Philadelphia confirmed that the list includes students from last year who were unable to get a spot last year. A large number of parents in line last year were able to enroll their students, but not this year.
“That waitlist does carry over (from the previous year) at Penn Alexander,” said District spokeswoman Deirdre Darragh. “(The school) registered where they had space.”
The list includes between three and six names for each grade. Those students would get in if a student already registered for the grade leaves before school starts or during the school year.
The school added an additional kindergarten class this year to help take the pressure off kindergarten enrollment in February, when dozens of parents camp out overnight – often in frigid temperatures – to get a spot. Kindergarten enrollment virtually guarantees a spot in the upper grades.
A parent who asked not to be identified said the school’s administrative assistant opened the doors on Monday morning and had parents fill out the necessary paperwork. They were then told that they would be notified in the coming days about which school their child would attend.
The waiting list has been the source of many rumors in recent months. The lack of information ahead of registration has left many parents wondering a few weeks before school starts where there children will be educated.
[The administrative] assistant was always clear about there being no guarantee of getting a spot,” a parent wrote in an e-mail to West Philly Local. “But neither she nor other school officials provided any specifics about the registration situation, such as the existence and length of a waiting list for particular grades to me or the people in line I spoke with.”
August 15th, 2012 at 9:54 am
Are they returning to the PAS special cap of 24 students in grades 1-4 instead of the union maximum of 33? Confused.
August 15th, 2012 at 10:02 am
As a volunteer in the Lea Elementary library program (WePAC) last year, I was able to work with and support the following great teachers and their classes:
Ms. Mykytiuch (Kindergarten)
Ms. Clarke (1st)
Ms. Palmer (2nd)
Ms. Arafin (3rd)
I know Ms. Mykytiuch and Ms. Arafin are graduates of the Penn Graduate School of Education and I believe student taught at PAS or Lea. Ms. Clarke and Ms. Palmer have many years of experience and in fact the president of Lea’s Home, School and Community Association came to Lea specifically because he heard such wonderful things about Ms. Clarke.
I hope that if anyone’s children are referred to Lea, they find comfort in the fact that it has some really fantastic teachers who are doing great things.
August 15th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Question: What are they going to do next year when the incoming first grade class is likely to be larger than the outgoing first grade class? Also, how is it possible that no kids are getting in this year for first grade when there are less slots… 60 kids – lets say 5 head start kids; 55 kids to fill 24(kids) per class x 3 classes = 72 slots? MAKES NO SENSE TO ME. Someone explain it to me like I am 6yrs old. Oh, ok, and yeah there were already some kids on the waitlist I KNOW FOR SURE there couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 from the kinder registration in January 2011.
August 15th, 2012 at 11:06 am
ThebestAnonymous asks an interesting question…I wasn’t educated at PAS so word problems are not my strong point but I would also appreciate some explanation of the math…
Also, is it true that at this point if a family moves into this catchment anytime after February before their kid would start kindergarten then they have no chance of sending their kid to PAS (unless their child will be starting 5th-8th grade)…That the only option is the kindergarten line up…
Lastly, do you happen to know how many kids were turned away for kindergarten last year? Did all of those children get a spot for this year’s first grade?
And Mike, thanks for writing about this…
August 15th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Forgot to mention, as I know aftercare has been an issue for parents considering other schools, please check out this Lea aftercare information: https://sites.google.com/site/westphillyschools/neighborhood-schools/lea-information/afterschool
I believe St. Mary’s will also be picking up at least one student at Lea for aftercare and probably wouldn’t mind more.
If interested parents want to get in touch with current and incoming Lea parents, I will gladly put you in touch. Contact me at arockar@gmail.com Thanks!
August 15th, 2012 at 7:28 pm
bestAnonymous: I believe the math does work out for next year. There are 3 1st grade classes of 24 students (24 x 3 = 72) and there will be 4 K class of 18 each (18 x 4 = 72). So in future it will be plausible if there are no 1st grade spots. This year, with only 3 classes of 18 rising, it makes NO sense there are no additional spots. There should be 18 spots plus any students who leave. I can only assume that the spots are being given to Penn families or other “special” cases, although of course I am only speculating.
August 15th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Pam is correct. I was told during K open house that the additional K class brings kindergarten level with 1st grade. That means if you don’t get your kid into kindergarten then your SOL getting them into 1st grade. No doubt the lines next year will be longer and start earlier as a result.
August 15th, 2012 at 8:40 pm
*”you’re” not “your” obviously.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
But what about the out-of-catchment Head Start kids that rollover into the kindergarten but not onto 1st grade? Are they no longer allowing those kids to continue to the kindergarten? There’s normally some spots that open up as a result.
August 16th, 2012 at 12:07 am
How it’s possible that no one from the line got in is that there was already a long waiting list left over from last year’s line. People from this year’s line were just added to the bottom of the waiting list, and few enough spots opened up that not even everyone who waited last year has been offered a spot yet.
August 16th, 2012 at 12:12 am
And maybe there weren’t more than 6 or 7 unadmitted kids left over from the Jan 2011 line, but remember there was another line in August 2011 that I hear had around 70 people in it.
August 16th, 2012 at 7:42 am
What I’m getting here is that they lowered the class sizes back down to 24 from 33 and that’s what everyone should be made about. And the Penn GSE Dean was on WHYY yesterday yapping how exactly that kind of class size reduction doesn’t really matter.
August 16th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
S o A: Actually, that would make sense, except that they don’t carry over a waiting list from year to year, as the article says. So, in fact that did not happen, even though it would make sense. Is there any type of information disclosure that the school would be legally required to make if a proper request were submitted with the state? It would be good to know what is really going on. Maybe West Philly Local or the Philadelphia Inquirer could do a little bit of investigative journalism here.
August 16th, 2012 at 8:49 pm
I think the overcrowding can be controlled if the school would check up on kids(and parents) and see if they really live in the zone.
August 16th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Get’em is onto something but it’s prob not that many…or is it? I have a relative who lives in a triplex in the catchment. She has no kids but gets mail for a few different families delivered to her building for PSA even though nobody in the other two apartments has kids either.
A few years back there were rumors of folks who were renting places just to have an address even though they didn’t live there. I can’t imagine that’s worth the money but who knows. People do it all over the city so why should this school be any different. Central. Masterman. Science Leadership. There are kids from Jersey, DelCo, all over the place. Just keep paying those taxes people. And don’t ask questions or you’ll get accused of something.
August 17th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Yes, people living outside the catchment NEVER get mail for previous tenants because the USPS are just SO GOOD at mail forwarding and parents are always 100% careful to update their address with the district. Because it’s not that the catchment was obviously drawn too big for the school that was built but not expanded, it must be that there are so many intruders in “our” school that the taxpayers built for “us” and only “us.” Please just go ahead already and pool your resources together to hire a small army of private detectives to trail 500 families and slowly turn on one another.
August 17th, 2012 at 9:37 am
Well they could have moved elsewhere in the catchment. Anyway why not drop the mail off at PAS saying that the address needs updating? – You’re probably doing the parents a service by doing that.
August 17th, 2012 at 11:25 am
She’s lived there for 10 years and the old folks upstairs have been there longer than her so, no. Not previous tenants. Stop trying to defend. You know people do it and it stinks. There are people in the catchment (I am not and don’t care to be) who are missing out on a shot at that school because of this. It’s no big deal unless it’s YOUR kid, right?
August 17th, 2012 at 11:36 am
I’m not defending. I think witch hunts are distraction from the larger, more difficult and seemingly intractable problem that the catchment was drawn too big for the school that was built. Kick out every kid that can’t show their papers and overcrowding will still be an issue, especially with the lower class sizes being enforced. But by all means, get out your pitchforks and torches and start tailing students home.
August 17th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Every resident in Philadelphia foots the bill for PAS. The tone of the scapegoating going on here seems kind of ridiculous considering we are all footing the bill for PAS’s educational program, not just people in the catchment. Really it underlines the real solution lies with improving our other neighborhood schools not throwing accusations and screaming “Mine! Mine! Mine!” over things that taxpayers are paying for.
August 17th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
“the catchment was drawn too big for the school that was built”
the catchment was not drawn over New Jersey
August 17th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
https://webapps.philasd.org/school_finder/
Take a look at the catchment in context. Keep in mind that Wilson’s doubled into Penn’s campus only recently and Locke and Powel’s grew all to accommodate the closure of Drew.
Was PAS built to hold 500 students or 700? Was it supposed to expand into the old University City New School where PIC expanded into in 2010? Does anyone think anything but condos/apts will be built eventually on the NE corner of 43rd and Baltimore?
If you answer all those questions and still think the most productive response to the situation is to ferret out the unknown number of “non-catchment” students, sanctioned and unsanctioned by the district, at the school, have your little witch hunt. I just think it won’t stop this exact situation from reoccurring.
August 17th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
the order of remedies in increasing drastic-ness
1. restrict the school to real katchment kidz
2. alumni fundraising for a new trailer
3. cut out anything south of Baltimore – that looks geometrically weird anyway
4. cut out 7th and 8th grade
5. lottery
August 17th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Why is lottery drastic? Seems fairest and most transparent.
Also aren’t the oldest “alumni” from PAS still in high school?
August 17th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
I went to public school but I understand it is not uncommon for private k12 schools to ask alumni (and the parents of recent alumni) for money. Maybe PSD to streamline the donation acceptance process. Could I make a credit card donation to PAS today?
August 17th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Why isn’t uncapping the class sizes back to 33, which is what every other school in the district has to deal with, on the top of that list? The Dean of Penn’s Graduate School of Education said earlier this week on Radio Time that reducing class sizes to 33 to 24 doesn’t matter except to make a teacher’s job easier. We trust Penn GSE in all things, right? That’s the whole point of PAS?
August 17th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
I wouldn’t say that trusting Penn GSE is exactly the point of PAS, but yes I would support class sizes of 33. When I was a kid our classes were that big and I don’t recall it being a problem. If the research supports that intuition, then why not go for it?
I hear there’s a group of parents called AGREE that is circulating a petition to increase class sizes (I can’t find a copy of the actual petition on the internet). I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way.
August 17th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
In terms of waiting lists: my son was waitlisted for kindergarten in January, 2010. That did (in the direct words of the principal) put him and others first on the waitlist for extra first grade slots in September 2011, when he was admitted.
So that waitlist, t least, did carry over to the next year. We had to check in with them and verify that we were still in the catchement, but we didn’t stand in line again.
August 17th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
So now, suddenly class size doesn’t matter, according to the Dean at Penn GSE and Mitt Romney. And sure, these are people we should trust… http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/04/gse_vice_dean_resigns_amid_false_degree_claims
Does bodies per square footage matter? Those classrooms at PAS were not designed for 33 children.
August 18th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
@soa- and pam – my child was wait listed in jan 2011 and admitted in sep 2011 for kindergarten. We had a high 70’s number. So…. There were not so many kids denied admission to k last year, certainly not enough to account for no kids being accepted (outside of waitlist 2011) for 1st grade 2012.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:17 am
here is another thought, forget the witch hunt for the current students but lets implement this for all new incoming students.
I’ve heard of schools in the suburbs hiring private firms to make sure that people live where they claim to live.
I know there is always going to be some of you who bitch and moan about this idea but thats because you probably dont have kids or have kids at PAS and dont live in the zone.
You know if it was your kid wait listed you would bitching up a storm, well Im not bitching, just searching for the truth.
August 19th, 2012 at 8:40 am
“…just searching for the truth.”
Like Fox Mulder!
August 19th, 2012 at 9:16 am
If such behavior exists, is asking about it a witch hunt?
It’s parents lying and unethically manipulating the system, and excluding others from the school. I’m outside the catchment, and don’t care personally, but if I was inside, I would be kind of mad about this, if I had a kid who was excluded.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:52 am
The ridicule comes from the fact that last year PAS *did* a stricter review of its students’ residential status over the summer and asked some families to leave as a result. That’s why everyone was able to get a spot last August and why the current situation isn’t entirely surprising.
August 19th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
hiring a private firm to track down parent addresses for a PUBLIC school?
something is SERIOUSLY wrong here.
penn & the philadelphia school district need to implement a real lottery immediately because the sense of entitlement inside “the zone” is out. of. control.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Stephanie, why is it wrong to “hiring a private firm to track down parent addresses for a PUBLIC school?”?
Not that I disagree with you, I am just interested to understand your thought.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:26 am
just ask Kelley Williams-Bolar
http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-mom-jailed-sending-kids-school-district/story?id=12763654#.UDJW4NBYtMo
August 20th, 2012 at 11:49 am
it’s the inequity, the exclusivity that has poisoned *some* in a very divided catchment of neighbors – the haves and have nots.
how is hiring a private firm to track families any sort of solution to the ills of the district? what about the enrolled head start kids? what about the families whose kids have been in attendance from very early on, when catchment wasn’t considered, or if it was, it was at the discretion of the principal.
you think anyone cares if there are “out of catchement” kids enrolled at wilson, harrington, or even powel? no. no one cares. why? because those schools are not affiliated with the great and powerful oz.
put the money for a private investigator toward better lunches for the kids at lea, or a bigger library for the kids at huey.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Right on! Someone faking residency in another county where they don’t pay taxes and someone faking residency in another neighborhood in a city where they do pay taxes is totally equivalent! I am really starting to wonder why an unknown number of people, yet you’re all so certain they exist still and in such numbers that really matter, go to such devious lengths to send their kids to a school filled, apparently, with the children of people commenting. This is starting to look like the community of jerks that Penn built. Congrats, everyone!
August 20th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Seriously, SHCA must be so, so proud of this thread.
August 20th, 2012 at 11:55 am
the lady doth protest too much methinks
August 20th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Oh you got me, it’s not that this is gross, it’s that I’m actually a criminal mastermind trying to deflect from the dozens and dozens and dozens of my children secretly attending this school picking them up in my bus with out-of-state plates.
August 21st, 2012 at 2:59 am
Thanks for turning Spruce Hill into a bourgie crapfest, Penn Alexander!
August 22nd, 2012 at 2:04 pm
“Seriously, SHCA must be so, so proud of this thread.” – Anon
I think the Siberian Husky Club of America tries to stay out of local politics. Also, they don’t tend to comment on public schools much.
August 22nd, 2012 at 2:21 pm
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