Officials resolve debate over University-assisted school

After more than two years of planning and at least as much infighting, construction on the highly controversial Penn-assisted public school is finally set to begin this fall. Planners have scheduled the groundbreaking for the new school for late October or November at its future site on Locust Street between 42nd and 43rd streets. In addition, Penn announced this summer that it will give $1.5 million to the nearby Lea School to improve facilities and reduce overcrowding. Construction on the school, which was originally slated to begin last March, had been pushed back until the Philadelphia Board of Education settled the contentious question of the school's catchment area this summer. According to Steve Schutt, Penn's pointman on the project, the delay will partly push back the school's scheduled fall 2001 opening, with only the kindergarten and first grade sections of the building scheduled to open on time. "A sufficient portion will be complete next fall for those two grades to start," said Schutt, adding that the rest of the classes in the pre-K-8 school will be phased in as the construction proceeds. Penn and the school board announced plans to build the neighborhood school in the summer of 1998. The University has promised to contribute $700,000 -- $1,000 per student -- for 10 years, as well as to provide technological and teaching support from its Graduate School of Education. The school board decided on the school's controversial catchment area in July, ending a long community debate over who will be among the school's 700 students. Using both distance and diversity as factors, the school board set the attendance zone between 40th and 47th streets from Sansom Street to Baltimore Avenue. Those boundaries mean that the school will feature a racially diverse population comprised mainly of African-American, Asian and white students. Penn's agreement to aid the Lea School has largely smoothed over what was once a very divisive subject. "The school board has resolved the outstanding issues that were of concern," said Glenn Bryan, a Penn community relations official. "I think the community is satisfied to a certain degree with the proposals." Bryan praised the Lea deal as a "major, major step" in relations between the University and its neighboring community. While Penn professors have taken part in other programs at the school in the past, the University has never led such a formal initiative there, he said. Lea will also benefit from the new school's catchment area, as the new school will draw about 200 students from Lea's current attendance zone. Paul Steinke, executive director of the University City District, praised the entire project as a positive addition to the area. "The planners bent over backwards to do a fair and balanced job," Steinke said. "And I think they succeeded.