Parents uneasy at New School meeting

As parents of University City New School students awaited the board's decision on the school's future, the atmosphere was a mixture of urgency, somberness and anger at last night's meeting. Prompted by financial problems, the school board held a meeting last night to vote on whether or not to remain open based on the number of early tuition deposits received. As of press time, the board had not yet finished deliberating. Faced with financial problems arising from the New School's displacement from their current home at 42nd and Spruce streets, the private school may be forced to close at the end of this academic year if they cannot cover relocation costs. Prior to the board meeting, members of the school board appealed to parents to put down an early deposit for next year's tuition. "There's a sense of urgency," said New School parent Don Cavicchio, who added that he turned in his children's tuition deposit last week. To stay open in the fall, the New School must raise $100,000 to fix occupancy violations -- which surfaced at a zoning hearing last month -- in the school's future home on 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue. The New School has already raised $25,000 of the $100,000. The space allocated to the school in the basement of Calvary Church currently lacks sprinklers and air conditioning, prompting the extra relocation costs. The school must vacate its current home by June to make room for the Penn-assisted public school planned for the site. According to Cavicchio, the school's request for early deposits has made some parents uneasy about re-enrolling their children. New School parent and visiting Wharton Professor Steve Freeman echoed this sentiment. "They have a sort of serious chicken and egg problem," Freeman said. According to Freeman, parents are unwilling to put down deposits if the future of the school is still uncertain, but without these deposits the school cannot reopen. School officials have said they needs 85 students to enroll to make staying open financially feasible. While most of the parents at last night's meeting said they would re-enroll their children, they represented only about half the parents of the school's 90 students. "It seems like 85 is almost every single parent here, and inevitably people move," New School parent Carolyn McCoy said. "We have some very determined parents, but I'm not sure we have enough." Other parents expressed concern that even if the school does reopen, its financial troubles could continue. "The tuition is going to be frozen, but there's not going to be enough financial aid," parent Shelley Graves said. "A lot of parents are feeling kind of forced not to come back." Relocating will cost the school a total of $450,000 with the added expense incurred by the zoning violations. Despite Penn's decision to fund $200,000 of the total relocation cost, several parents and teachers voiced frustration with the University for its role in the current financial difficulties. "The parents have come to the consensus that Penn should have taken more responsibility to make sure we had a secure place to go before they decided to boot us out," parent Tina Russell said. "Why are they building a public school with public money and then privatizing it?" Russell said, referring to the limited catchment area to determine who will attend the Penn-assisted school. Many parents, like Cathy Ockimey, said they were concerned that public schools would not provide a good substitute for the New School. Specifically, some said the public system would not be able to uphold the high teacher-to-student ratio -- generally one teacher to every 12 students -- of the New School. "The atmosphere [in the meeting] was very serious, but I think people are hopeful that there will be a good turnout and that the school will be able to stay," Ockimey said.