Several questions have arisen since the publication yesterday of the story about the Penn Alexander limiting enrollment.  We have been pursuing two things today:

One is a legal clarification on what exactly a catchment area means. More information on that is included below. We have also offered an official from the school or the University of Pennsylvania to write a note to parents and community members advising them on further steps for enrollment that we would publish. So far we have not received a reply.

Here is a list of questions to continue the conversation and some answers (Any comments or further clarification are greatly appreciated. Please leave a reply below):

• Is there no school that is obligated to take our kids?

This is where some clarification on the law probably would help. Some have asked if a class-action lawsuit is possible. The wording on the Penn Alexander Home and School Association website about what a “catchment” means is a reflection of the School District of Philadelphia wording: “Any school-age child living within this area is eligible to attend the school.” “Eligible” is the operative word. An education lawyer and former teacher from West Philly (apologies for the anonymity) wrote us that:

The district is under no legal obligation under state or federal law (short of potential mandates under the IDEA or mandates for schools that are under desegregation orders) to place any student in any particular school within its boundaries.  Under state law, a district must “enroll” every eligible student within its boundaries in “a” school, but there are no legal mandates giving students an entitlement to a particular school.

There are rights, he continued, to transfer out of “persistently dangerous” schools, but there are no legal requirements for the District to maintain a “neighborhood” school.

• If we don’t get a spot in our neighborhood school (PAS) we’re just supposed to apply to other schools and hope for the best?!

“If I wanted to apply to charter schools or apply to other neighborhood schools I would not have moved into ‘the catchment,’” one reader wrote. Parents with school-age children in the area who want their kids to stay in their neighborhood (to “walk to school”) have the option to send their children to the Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust) or the Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.). West Philly Local is not in business to recommend schools to people, but it should be noted that a tremendous amount of activity has been happening recently at the Lea School. It has a Home and School Association that is growing and the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools, which now includes nearly 200 parents and community members, is devoting much of its resources and efforts to the school. The website PhillySchoolSearch.com has an excellent primer on the transfer process.

My children may have to attend separate schools?

Penn Alexander officials have said that there will be no provisions made for siblings. As for other schools, again it depends on where you look.

Are there no future plans to expand PAS in the future?

So far, no.

How will enrollment for kindergarten happen if not a lottery?

A Penn Alexander official we talked to was emphatic that there would be no lottery. So in the near future it looks like lining up for the 50 or so spots is the only way. In March January the line-up began the night before registration began. The same school official said preference for first grade for next fall would be given to those students whose parents lined up but did not get a spot in kindergarten, making the fate of those who have to wait for the August 15 registration date even more precarious. This whole process is obviously not sustainable, but an alternative has not been announced.

How much of a dip in our home’s value should we expect?

No one can answer this for sure. Home prices have tripled within the catchment area since the school opened and everyone knows about the catchment premium on houses within the bouadaries (sometimes speculated to be as much as $100,000). It would seem logical to assume that this news will prick the housing bubble in the catchment boundaries. Real estate agents have capitalized on the catchment (see photo above). But home prices near the catchment have also appreciated greatly and if the Lea school keeps improving, there is reason to believe that home prices near it will continue to rise. One question is how many who have been on the fence about selling might be interested in selling right now?

Several people are reporting that they have been approached by a woman (maybe more than one) saying she had been a victim of domestic abuse and asking for train or bus fare to a shelter. When people have helped it became clear that the woman just wanted the money. These incidents have occurred over several months.

West Philly resident Kyle Cassidy wrote on the UCNeighbors listserv today:

I was on a neighbor’s porch last night when a young woman approached us saying that her boyfriend had just beaten her up and she needed to get to a domestic violence shelter but the nearest one was in XYZ and she needed cab & train fare. The neighbor is a social worker and was sure there was some place closer. With your help we rapidly found a nearby shelter, the neighbor called and found a bed available on 13th and arch — put the young woman on the phone with intake and she proceeded to have a bizarre one way conversation along the lines of “you’re closed? the only shelter you know if is in XYZ? That’s so far away. I’ll see if I can get cab and train fare.” Neighbor spoke to intake again who denied telling the young woman this at which point she walked away.

Since that posting several people have reported similar experiences. Obviously, the tricky part of this one is that no one wants to turn someone away who really needs help. No one has reported that this woman (women) has become combative or violent, so calling the police probably is not the answer. Below are some numbers that might be helpful if this happens to you. They are for local shelters, complaint hotlines, the UC Ambassadors, etc., who could help a person if they are legit. Thanks to resident Theresa Tsai for the following info:

• Abuse Assistance Unit
34 South 11th Street, Room 242
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-686-3512

• Women Against Abuse Hotline  
215-386-7777 (24 hours)
(shelter request made through them)

• Women Against Abuse Legal center
215-686-7082

• Women in Transition Hotline                              
215-751-1111 (24 hours)

• Southwest Domestic Abuse Unit-West & Southwest Division (12th, 18th,16th,19th
Police Districts)
5510 Pine S. Street
215-686-3182

• UC Ambassadors
215-898-WALK (9255)

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.

Landscape crews mowed the newly installed grass at Clark Park “A” today, a major step toward opening the section of the park that borders Baltimore Avenue, which has been fenced off since late last year.

The Friends of Clark Park wrote that one of the “yardsticks” for opening the park was two successful mows of the grass that had been laid down over the last few weeks. The trigger for opening the part will be the next cut. The fencing was scheduled to come down sometime in June. Now we will all be watching for the second cut, which will signal the park’s long-awaited opening.

Primary elections are set for May 17 and this time around the City Council races overshadow the Mayor’s race in terms of interest. Although Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for West Philadelphia’s 3rd District, the At-large ballot and the Sheriff’s race gives voters in West Philadelphia something to chew on.

Fourteen candidates are vying for five places on the November 8 general election ballot. Nine candidates will appear on the Republican primary ballot.

The Committee of 70 has a rundown of all of the candidates in the city primaries here. Most of the profiles include pretty lengthy Q & As with the candidates. You can find your polling station here.

OK all you cyclists (bicyclists?) time to pat yourselves on the back a little. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia released a report today that shows that Philadelphia has twice as many cyclists per capita than any of the top 10 largest cities in the country.

Bicycle commuting jumped 151 percent here between 2000 and 2009. Two neighborhoods in particular – Center City and South Philly – rank in the top 25 neighborhoods in the country for percentage of bike commuters. Only Portland, Minneapolis and San Francisco have two neighborhoods in the top 25.

Some other interesting findings:

• The number of bikes crossing the Schuylkill River has increased nearly four-fold in the last 20 years.

• The number of female cyclists in our fair town has increased dramatically as well, an indication, the Coalition says, that the city’s streets are becoming bike-friendlier.

• Sidewalk riding, the scourge of pedestrians across the city, dropped 20 percent on streets with bike lanes.

• The average number of bikes per hour at 38th and Spruce has gone up 68 percent since 2006 (Yep, people stand there and count them).

So, all in all, nice work bicycle folks. Just please stay off the dang sidewalk.