The infamous line for kindergarten registration at the Penn Alexander School began at about 9 a.m. this morning, 24 hours before registration actually begins.

By 10:30 a.m. the line had already swollen to about 70 people. Those in line, some of whom were wrapped in sleeping bags, had begun to devise a plan to provide some relief – maybe two hours on, two hours off – from the freezing temperatures. There are currently three kindergarten classes at the school.

The line has started very early in recent years, including the night before registration last year. This year’s line, however, is unprecedented. Kindergarten registration across the district begins tomorrow morning.

West Philly-based writer Patrick Kerkstra has penned the most comprehensive article to date on the enrollment issue at the Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust), the school’s impact on the surrounding area and the possible reshuffling of enrollment patterns at other elementary schools in the neighborhood.

Published at Plan Philly and The Notebook, Kerkstra analyzed block-level census data in the article and concludes that there are actually fewer children in Penn Alexander’s catchment area now than in 2000, a year before Penn Alexander opened. This is possibly good news for parents hoping to get their children into the school because it suggests the overcrowding issue in Penn Alexander’s lower grades may ease without drastic measures such as a lottery or redrawing the catchment boundaries. (Kerkstra has graciously shared his data with us. Click here for a Google doc that has it arranged in very readable tables. Note the tabs at the top for each school.)

He also highlights a serious drawback to the school’s presence in the area. Census data clearly shows that the catchment area, and the school itself, is getting less diverse. As home prices have risen, the number of African Americans living in the catchment has decreased significantly.

Unfortunately, no one from the school or the District would go on the record with him to discuss plans to address overcrowding in the school’s lower grades or the long lines to enroll in limited kindergarten spots.

Kerkstra also goes through the implications of the possible closing of the under-enrolled Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.), which was suggested in recommendations to the School District of Philadelphia published earlier this year. The final word on that will likely be announced in the next few weeks.

His article also includes the work of groups addressing school issues, including the West Philly Coalition of Neighborhood Schools, which is working with Henry C. Lea Elementary (47th and Locust) and Advocates for Great Elementary Education, which has focused on shedding light on the enrollment issue at Penn Alexander.

Be sure to read the whole article at Plan Philly here or The Notebook here.

The line to register a student in grades 1 through 8 at the Penn Alexander School began at 7:30 a.m. today, more than 24 hours before registration begins.

As of 9 p.m. this evening about 20 people had set up camping chairs along the school’s fence along Locust Street between 42nd and 43rd. A clipboard hung from the fence near the school entrance. Several parents, who will spend the night waiting in line in hopes of getting a spot in the school’s crowded lower grades, had been in line by 5 p.m.

“I feel like an idiot,” said one parent, a Penn professor who recently returned from sabbatical leave to realize he had to re-register his 3rd and 5th graders at the school. “I can’t speak for everyone here, but personally I feel like an idiot.”

Several parents in the line faulted the school for its reluctance to address the overcrowding problem. Suggestions have ranged from starting a lottery for the lower grades to expanding the school’s capacity by erecting temporary trailers.

Parents have often waited in line to register children at the school’s kindergarten, but the line to register students in grade school is a new phenomenon brought on by word that the school would for the first time institute a cap on lower grade levels.

Registration is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow. School officials have already said that many who hope to register for the lower grades, particularly 1-3, will likely be turned away.
 

This will be a stressful weekend for a lot of parents in the neighborhood. Registration for the upcoming school year begins at the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) on Monday and many are still unsure if their child will get a spot, even if they live in the school’s well-publicized catchment area.

The school has become so popular that it’s lower level grades have filled up, prompting a grassroots organization, Advocates for Great Elementary Education, to seek answers about how the school will operate in the future. Will parents have to queue through the night to get their child in? Will there be a lottery? Can they make the school bigger? The group has drafted a petition asking for answers, which has reignited a debate about gentrification, class and race that always bubbles just under the surface around here. This brings anxiety to parents who are balancing their desire to get the best for their children with their desire to see everyone’s children get the best.

One parent, Jon Grabelle Herrmann, whose daughter will be eligible to attend Penn Alexander’s kindergarten next year (if she gets a spot), shared the following commentary on the neighborhood e-mail listserv UCNeighbors. He graciously allowed us to republish it here.

As the new school year approaches, parents and community members concerned about the cap on new students in the lower grades of the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.) have started an online petition asking that all school-age children living in the school’s catchment area be admitted.

The petition follows a letter sent by the Spruce Hill Community Association to University of Pennsylvania officials last month asking the university, which manages the school in cooperation with the School District of Philadelphia, to address the cap. Options recommended for investigation include erecting temporary classrooms and moving students from the middle school grades, where classes are sometimes under-enrolled, to a different building.

The group circulating the petition, Advocates for Great Elementary Education Everywhere (AGREE) West Philly, asks Penn President Amy Gutmann, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and Penn Alexander Principal Sheila Sydnor to “work collaboratively, and in a timely manner, with concerned community members to find a viable solution to PAS’s overcrowding problem.”

School officials have said that the K-8 school, which since its opening has pledged to maintain a lower-than-required student-teacher ratio, is overflowing with students in the lower grades. New Penn Alexander students begin to register on Monday (August 15), which will be the first indication of how many will be affected by the cap.

Groups advocating for healthy school lunches in the city are urging parents and community members to sign a petition opposing the planned closure of more than two dozen full-service school kitchens, including the one at the Penn Alexander School (4209 Spruce St.).

The proposed closure of the full-service kitchens, which are part of the School District of Philadelphia’s plan to balance its budget, would mean that Penn Alexander students and some 16,000 students at 25 other schools would no longer receive meals cooked at school but would be served pre-packaged meals shipped in from a company located in Brooklyn.

More than two-thirds of the district’s schools, which lack full-service kitchens, already serve lunch this way and the district estimates that closing the 26 full-service kitchens would save an additional $2.3 million. Many of the schools that serve pre-packaged meals now never had full-service kitchens.

But advocates from Fair Food, The Food Trust and a growing number of parents oppose the decision, which has not yet been finalized, arguing that the pre-packaged meals teach children bad eating habits.

These groups are asking parents and community members to sign this electronic petition, which will be sent to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Fair Food and The Food Trust are also trying to save the “Farm to School” program at Penn Alexander and two dozen other schools in the city. The program contracts with local farmers to supply schools with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Alyssa Moles, the Farm to School program coordinator for The Food Trust, said by e-mail that her organization is lobbying the District to retain the program. She wrote that she has been assured that, even if the full-service kitchens are closed, that “it will not affect the Farm to School program at those schools and they are also looking at ways of making sure that the schools that were not part of the program will continue to receive fresh fruit and vegetable offerings every day.”

Many schools nationwide have made the transition to pre-packaged meals prepared off-site. These meals are not always hot. For some insight into what pre-packaged lunches are like, check out this blog from “Mrs. Q,” a teacher in Illinois, who ate (and photographed) them every school day in 2010.

The District’s proposal has also garnered national attention. Writing in Mother Jones magazine, Tom Phillpott argues that the cuts are indicative of a new austere reality in the United States.

The school’s losing cafeterias (from the Inquirer):

Baldi Middle, Barratt/Childs Elementary,Beeber Middle, Conwell Middle, DeBurgos Elementary, H.R. Edmunds Elementary, Feltonville Arts and Sciences,  Finletter Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Harding Middle, Hunter Elementary, Jones Middle, Juniata Park Elementary, Marin-Munoz Elementary, Marshall Elementary, Meehan Middle, Overbrook Education Center, Penn Alexander Elementary, Penn Treaty Middle, Pepper Middle, Shaw Middle, Spruance Elementary, Tilden Middle, Grover Washington Middle, Wagner Middle, Wilson Middle.

Other ways to follow the story:

Good School Food for Philly Kids (Facebook group)

Philadelphia Inquirer story on the proposed closures