U. to help 3 institutions find new sites

The school and child-care centers are being displaced by a new public school slated for 42nd and Spruce streets. The future is a bit clearer for the three institutions currently located on the site a new, University-assisted public elementary school will call home. Penn will help the private, non-profit University City New School and Parent Infant Center, as well as the University-owned Penn Children's Center, relocate from 42nd and Spruce streets to new locations by the end of the next summer, according to Steve Schutt, University President Judith Rodin's chief of staff. Once the institutions have been relocated, the School District of Philadelphia is scheduled to begin construction on the new public school. The new building, which has not yet been designed, is slated to open in the fall of 2001. Penn officials hope to find relocation sites for the three institutions by mid-December. It is not clear whether any of the institutions will return once construction is finished. Schutt said he notified the Penn Children's Center about the plans in a meeting last week, and informed the Parent Infant Center through a recent letter. Also unclear, according to Schutt, is how much financial help Penn will give the two private institutions to assist in the move. "I would certainly expect there will be costs involved that we can help with," Schutt said. The move will not be the first for the children's center -- a University-owned childcare center for children ages three months to five years -- which has seen three homes in the past 10 years, according to Marie Witt, the interim vice president for business services, whose department administers the program. "There's cautious optimism [because] in each case that we've moved before, it's always been to a better environment," said Witt. Parents have said they hope the new location will have appropriate space for classrooms, some kind of play area, as much light as possible and be accessible to the Penn campus, according to Witt. The center currently has about 90 children, 70 of whom are there full-time. Although Penn is looking to relocate the 110-student New School, officials still hope the private school will become part of the public school once it opens, Schutt said. Officials asked the private school to join with the new school when plans for the school were announced in June. UCNS has not yet made a formal decision. Marni Sweet, director of the Parent Infant Center, was unavailable for comment. The school district will pay for the construction of the public school, and Penn has promised to contribute $1,000 per student each year. The estimated annual total is about $700,000. Penn has also agreed to relocate the Carver High School for engineering and science from its crowded space in North Philadelphia to the corner of 38th and Market streets.