Enrollment at the vaunted Penn Alexander School at 43rd and Locust has increased every year since it began with 75 students 10 years ago. Now, School District of Philadelphia and Penn Alexander officials have announced, the school’s lower grades are full and many new students will likely not be admitted next year even if they live in the school’s catchment area.

Rumors have been swirling for months that the school, which has operated cooperatively with the University of Pennsylvania since opening in 2001, was at capacity in its lower grades. The District has confirmed that special arrangements have been made with Penn Alexander to limit the number of new students, a break from the District’s usual requirement of reserving spots in neighborhood schools for students who live within the school’s catchment boundaries.

The school’s lower grades, particularly 1-3, are at capacity and students who live in the school’s catchment area, where housing prices have tripled since the school opened, are no longer guaranteed spots.

District spokeswoman Shana Kemp wrote in an e-mail to West Philly Local:

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.

A school official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that there were “no guarantees” that students not already attending the school’s kindergarten would be admitted to the first grade. Some grades beyond first are full as well, the official said. Even siblings of students already attending the school are not guaranteed admission.

Penn provides $1,330 per student annually to keep average class sizes at about 23 students. Currently, the school’s lower grades far exceed that number, with some classes as high as 30.

Registration officially begins on August 15, but District officials recommended that parents of students not currently enrolled at the school investigate other neighborhood schools.

The District estimates that Penn Alexander is at 72 percent of capacity. That number reflects a lopsided enrollment where the classrooms in lower grades are at or above capacity and the upper grades (6-8) are under capacity. The school is designed to accommodate 815 students. Last October, the District reported that 587 students attended the school.

The school official who asked not to be named said an admission lottery is not an option. Likewise, expanding the school’s capacity by using trailers or other temporary classrooms was not planned. The line to sign up for kindergarten at Penn Alexander, which is now the only way to guarantee that a student will be admitted to first grade, began forming this year long before registration began at 8 a.m., requiring parents to spend the night outside the school in freezing temperatures to get a spot.

“I wish we could accommodate every child but we can’t,” said the school official.

Alternatives for those living in the catchment include Samuel Powel Elementary (301 N. 36th St.), which serves students in grades 1-4. But Powel is even more crowded than Penn Alexander. The district reports that, as of October 2010, 236 students attended the school, which has a capacity of 199.

Another alternative is the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust), which in recent months has drawn interest from parents who live just outside the Penn Alexander catchment. Lea serves students K-8 and is at about 72 percent capacity, according to the District. Parents who want to improve other schools in the neighborhood have formed the West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools, which has become active at Lea in particular.

The announcement from school and district officials is likely to send parents who have flocked to the neighborhood in recent years scrambling to find school alternatives for their children. The Penn Alexander official sympathized.

“When this school opened we never imagined this would happen,” the school official said.

The angst over budget cuts and half-day kindergarten were temporarily set aside at Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust) yesterday so community members, teachers and parents could talk about how to make their school great.

About 125 people gathered in Lea’s auditorium to hear a panel that included Jacqueline Edelberg, a parent who helped lead the transformation of Nettelhorst, her neighborhood school in Chicago. She and co-author Susan Kurland, Nettelhorst’s former principal, chronicled the change in the book How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Renaissance.

Eight years ago, as Edelberg began looking for school options for her pre-school age children, she was advised not to send them to Nettelhorst, a 300 students which was then populated almost exclusively by children bussed in  from outside the neighborhood. She didn’t know anyone from the neighborhood who sent their children to the school, where the test scores were abysmal and the building itself was gloomy.

“I liked my neighborhood,” she said.  “The idea that I would have to leave my neighborhood because my kid turned five struck me as kind of weird.”

The transformation began, she said, when Kurland approached her and other parents and asked what it would take to get them to send their kids to Nettelhorst. The parents made up a list that included things that any parent would want for their children: a great curriculum that included foreign languages, music, art, sports, a beautiful building and community involvement.

Very few wanted to be among the first families from the neighborhood to send their child to Nettelhorst. Edelberg took the chance.

She and a small group of parents formed committees for things like curriculum, marketing and fundraising. But the most important step, she said, was to open the school up to the community. The school to agree to allow at least one parent in every classroom every day.

“That really helped mollify a really skittish situation so (parents) knew that someone was minding the store,” she said.

That parental involvement also drove teachers that the parents considered ineffective to leave.

“I think the PC way to put it,” Edelberg said. “Is that teachers who did not share our educational vision found suitable accommodations elsewhere. And that happened very, very quickly.”

Now almost a third of the adults in Nettelhorst every day are parents. They also invited community members, artists and others, to the school. They started a farmer’s market on school grounds, which brought in more community members.

These and a long list of other changes turned the school around. “I would put my kid’s education on par with any private school in this country,” she said. “I believe it is that good.”

Nettelhorst has achieved this, she added, without tracking students, without selective enrollment and with no gifted program.

Maurice Jones, a Lea parent and president of the school’s Home and School Association, has looked to the Nettelhorst model in his own efforts to help transform Lea, the neighborhood school for many families who live  just outside the catchment for the vaunted Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust).

“I could send my children to any school, public or private, but I choose to send them to Lea,” he said.

Jones has helped forge ties with the community that has led to the creation of a Visual Arts Program at the school, a community garden and a singing group, the gLea Club. But he wants more change.

Panelist Stanford Thompson offered last night to help him out. An accomplished musician, Thompson is director of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra program Tune Up Philly, which brings performance-based music programs into city schools. A West Philly resident, Thomspon is currently working on a program at the St. Francis de Sales School (47th and Springfield) which has drawn praise from all corners of the city. Last night, he offered to bring the program to Lea, which drew applause from the audience.

“I look at this room and I see a roomful of folks who could figure out how to fix schools in West Philly,” said Thompson.

Edelberg stressed that change would not be easy. At Nettelhorst change meant grappling with charges that the improvements were simply byproducts of gentrification that benefited some students at the cost of others.

“They aren’t. It is across all class lines in all kinds of neighborhoods where you can have successful schools. I kid you not, the only thing that matters is engagement,” she said.

Policymakers told Edelberg and others that their model would not scale – the changes at Nettelhorst might not work in other neighborhoods

“The idea that moms or dads or normal people cannot affect change is so maddening to me,” she said. “Schools aren’t anything more than a collection of adults trying to do right by kids. That’s it.”

Edelberg also stressed that now is the time for parents to act. Documentaries on school reform like Waiting for Superman and others have widened the discussion on community and parent engagement as a way to improve schools.

“We have a very short window of opportunity here,” she said. “Right now more people are talking about school reform than have in decades.”

Jones and others hope to steer that momentum toward Lea, a K-8 school built in 1914. He told the audience that he expected some resistance.”I’m trying to change the tide here,” he said. “So we’re asking people to get in the boat to help us.”

The changing demographics of the neighborhood around Lea will also likely be a factor in changing the school. Home prices in the area, particularly between Market Street and Woodland Avenue have risen sharply in recent years. Most of the audience at last night’s discussion were white, while the school’s 395 students are 87 percent African American, according to School District of Philadelphia statistics.

Many families that live near the school choose to send their children to the Samuel Powel School (301 N. 36th St.) Most have to drive their children to the school. One woman who attended the meeting and asked that her name not be used said she drove her children to Powel every morning. She lives at 48th and Osage and was interested in the panel discussion because her children could walk to Lea if she chose to send them to school there. When asked if she would, she said that she would wait to see what happened at Lea.

“I’m not ready yet,” she said. “Not yet.”

A reminder that community members are invited to a discussion on improving neighborhood schools tonight that will include talks by two authors who gained national attention for their efforts to turn around an underperforming elementary school in Chicago.

Authors Jacqueline Edelberg and Susan Kurland describe in How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood Renaissance the transformation of Nettelhorst, an elementary school in Chicago. Both women were pivotal in the school’s turnaround and now consult with civic organizations and neighborhood groups on improving local schools. They will talk about their work at tonight’s gathering, which begins at 5:45 in the Lea School auditorium (4700 Locust St.)

Other speakers at tonight’s meeting include:

• Stanford Thomspon, the director of Tune Up Philly.
• Sterling Baltimore, the director of the Lea Community School (afterschool program)
• Maurice D. Jones Sr., Lea Elementary Home and School Association president
• Daniel Lazar, Greenfield Elementary principal.

The gathering will offer parents and community members the chance to connect with Home and School Association representatives. Lea’s gLea Club will also perform.

The meeting is sponsored by the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools and hosted by The Enterprise Center CDC and the Parents in Action Council.

A reminder that the West Philadelphia Cooperative School (4625 Baltimore Ave.) is hosting an open house this Saturday, April 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tours will be from 11-12 and an information session will follow.

The school offers a Kindergarten Class (ages 4-6), a Preschool Class (ages 3-4) and a Toddler Class (age 2).

Full-day kindergarten, thousands of jobs and after-school programs are just a few of the items in serious jeopardy as The School District of Philadelphia looks for cuts to meet a massive budget shortfall.

The district released a preliminary budget yesterday (see the “budget in brief” below) that includes a $22 million cut to kindergarten funding, which if passed would eliminate full-day kindergarten at every school in the district. Remedial and summer reading programs, after-school programs will also be eliminated under the draft budget. Special education liaisons will be cut 77 percent. Students transportation and gifted programs will also be drastically reduced.

School class sizes will revert to the maximum allowed in union contracts, which is 30 for elementary school and 33 for higher grades. The district, which serves 155,000 students, estimates that this will lead to an increase of three or four students per class.

The budget shortfall is the result of a $292 million cut in state funds earmarked for the district.

Presented to the School Reform Commission yesterday, the preliminary budget has sparked outcry from politicians, parents and teacher organizations.

The Inquirer reports today that Third District Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who represents much of West Philadelphia, joined Councilmen Bill Green and Curtis Jones Jr. in adopting a resolution calling on Gov. Tom Corbett to continue to fund full-day kindergarten.

“You think we’re in trouble now…it would hurt families everywhere,” Blackwell said. “People won’t be able to work. It affects socialization and education of children.”

Full-day kindergarten began in Philadelphia in 1996 under then-Superintendent David Hornbeck. Hornbeck told the Inquirer that cuts to full-day kindergarten should not be under consideration.

“Based on evidence in Philadelphia and across the country, I can’t think of any decision that would be more ill-advised for Philadelphia’s children,” Hornbeck said. “I would probably approach the challenges they face by saying, ‘What’s the first thing I’m not going to cut,’ and it would be full-day kindergarten.”

The School Reform Commission has until May 31 to pass the budget.

Here is the “budget in brief,” which includes a summary of the cuts.

Preliminary Budget

Students at the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) returned from spring break today to find a giant rabbit hiding in a stairwell. This bunny stands about six feet tall and guards a little nook between the school’s first and second floors and is part of a program that organizers hope will transform Lea’s appearance.

Painted by muralist Jeremiah Johnson, the rabbit is part of Lea’s Mural Arts Program, a cooperative project between students, their art teacher, a former visual merchandiser and volunteers.

Like many public schools in Philadelphia, Lea’s interior has suffered as the school struggles to recruit and retain teachers and serve students’ educational needs on a tight budget. The school was built in 1914, two years after the construction of nearby West Philadelphia High School. Lea’s Visual Arts Program gives students a chance to leave their mark on the school, which serves grades K-8.

“It shows that people care and it gives students a hand in recreating their environment,” said John Try, Lea’s art teacher.

Last week’s spring break gave them a chance to do some major work on Lea’s first floor, where it’s kindergarten, first and second graders spend most of their time and where the giant rabbit, which looks like it jumped straight out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, stands guard.

The rabbit fits well with the first floor theme in the beautification project – the ground.  The second floor, where third through sixth graders learn, will be painted to look like a biosphere, complete with clouds. Seventh and eighth graders are on the fourth floor, where space will be the theme. The three levels are the visual expression of the overall theme of “ascendency”to reflect students’ movement up through the school.

“They’re ascending in terms of age, but also in terms of maturity so I wanted the theme to reflect that,” Try said.

The program is focusing on transitional and high-traffic parts of the building like hallways, stairwells, cafeterias and rest rooms, where research shows that students feel most vulnerable to violence and bullying.

Yvette Almaguer, a visual merchandiser for luxury retailers like Lancome and Baccarat Crystal for 15 years who is now a graduate student at Penn’s Graduate School of Education, is taking the skills she learned in the retail world and applying them to help improve the aesthetic climate at Lea.

“Everyone talks about school climate,” she said during a break from painting last Thursday. “Positive school climate is not just about behavior, it’s also what you see around you.”

Try, Almaguer, volunteers and a team of students have been meeting after school on Fridays to plan and work on a number of visual projects.

Try and Almaguer hope to oversee the installation of at least a dozen more murals in the school. But they need help. Almaguer has reached out to community groups in West Philly and hopes to attract much-needed grant money for the ongoing project. She also hopes to add a research component that will systematically  investigate her hunch that the improved aesthetic appearance of a school may lead to improved student attitudes about being at school.

Eighth grader Gibron Wynne, a member of the visual arts team, spent his spring break days at school working on the project.

“I feel like I want to leave a little legacy here at my school when I leave,” he said. “They told me I didn’t have to do it for my spring break, but I wanted to do it.”

Wynne will leave his neighborhood school next year to attend the well-regarded magnet high school Academy at Palumbo in South Philly.

The goal of the Visual Arts Program is to get more students like him involved in changing the school. But the program needs adults too. Most importantly, Almaguer said, it needs Lea parents to participate with the students. They also need grant writers to help raise money to keep the project going and mural artists to help bring the “ascendancy” theme to life.

Wynne elaborated a little further on his ideas about what “ascendancy” means to him.

“If you make it to the third floor that means you made it to the stars,” he said.

Those interested in helping out can write Almaguer at yarecess — at — gmail.com or call 917-602-7998.

Here is video of the interview with Yvette Almaguer: