Penn joins city in new public school partnership

Penn will aid the Phila. School District in constructing one school and relocating another. Calling it "the right thing to do," University President Judith Rodin announced last Thursday a partnership between Penn, the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to establish a new University-assisted elementary school on the outskirts of campus. Under the terms of the agreement, a new school serving students in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade will be built at the district's expense on a University-owned plot of land at 42nd and Spruce streets. The University will also contribute $700,000 per year -- or $1,000 for each of the school's expected 700 students -- for ten years after the school is completed. The school -- expected to open in September 2001 -- will serve children living in the area bounded by 40th, 49th, Market and Baltimore streets. It is intended to relieve overcrowding in West Philadelphia's beleaguered public schools and to serve as a testing ground for teachers and programs from Penn's Graduate School of Education. Additionally, the University will aid the district in relocating the overcrowded Carver High School for Engineering and Science from its current location at 17th and Norris streets. Though the city will pay the costs of constructing a new buildingfor the magnet school, the University has agreed to make a plot of land at the corner of 38th and Market streets available at a nominal cost. "This is a partnership that holds incredible promise for the children of West Philadelphia," said Rodin, who is a product of the Philadelphia public schools system. "The three organizations represented here share a common interest and that is a commitment to improving the public schools in West Philadelphia." The public school venture is a departure from the national trend in education which sees colleges eschewing public school sponsorship in favor of private elementary and secondary schools. "Penn could have, and many universities across the country have, gone into this effort by establishing a private school or a charter school," said School Superintendent David Hornbeck, who oversees 213,000 students in the city's 259 public schools. "This is a wonderful moment for a K-8 school without peer." Speaking for the teacher's union, PFT Chief of Staff Jerry Jordan declared the partnership a "ray of light after many days of darkness." Penn's commitment to West Philadelphia public schools, however, will go beyond granting land for new buildings and funding school programs. Urban Studies Professor Ira Harkavy and GSE Dean Susan Fuhrman have agreed to head local "cluster resource boards," groups of community members and school officials who will work together to make improvements in areas such as programming and facilities. Harkavy, who is also the director of the Center for Community Partnerships, will head the board that represents University City High School and its "feeder schools," while Fuhrman will lead the West Philadelphia Cluster Resource Board. "We help decide what the clusters need," said Carol Scheman, Penn's vice president for government, community and public affairs, referring to concerns from new textbooks to cafeteria food. "It's an exercise in democracy at the very very local level." The new elementary school will maintain a close relationship with GSE, Fuhrman said. Though the school and the University will continue to sponsor volunteer projects at other local schools, the new school will be a focal point for GSE's teacher training and research programs. "We have over time been trying to consolidate our placements," Fuhrman said. While this school will receive significant funding and programmatic aid from Penn, Carol Scheman noted that the inspiration for this school came from the West Philadelphia community, not the University alone. "What you have here is the implementation of an idea that had its genesis in the community," she said. Yet, according to Penn officials, the presence of a quality public school in the area will likely attract members of the University community to join the larger West Philadelphia community. "Education has always been one of the major aspects of the drive to bring people to West Philadelphia," Managing Director of Community Housing Diane-Louise Wormley said. "[This school] certainly sounds like its going to be quite unusual and quite exceptional." University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos noted that Penn's commitment to the new elementary school will not stop when current city and University administrators leave office. "The University Trustees have decided and planned that this is something that will go on for many years -- decades of change," he said. "It is our successors that will make it continue." "It's going to change this area, this district and ultimately, this city," he added.