Penn-Assisted School to expand next year

As the 2001-2002 school year draws to a close, administrators, teachers and students at the Penn-Assisted Public School are already looking ahead to the fall.

While the past year signified the Penn-Assisted School's inaugural opening, this September will mark the beginning of several new stages of the school's development.

Not only will the school be moving into its official home -- a newly constructed building at 42nd and Locust streets -- but its curriculum and student body will also be expanding.

This new space will allow the school to enroll 700 students when operating in its fullest capacity -- nearly seven times the size of the student body now. Moreover, the school will now have a playground, a playing field, and an outdoor classroom.

According to Vice President of Facilities Services Omar Blaik, construction on the building is right on schedule, and it will be done by the end of July.

"Construction is going terrifically well, and we are within a couple of weeks from substantial completion," Blaik said. "We will deliver the project as promised to the school district by July 30."

Blaik said that the new building will add 80,000 square feet of space to the Penn-Assisted School.

The school has been temporarily housed in what was once the University City New School. Due to space limitations in the old building, however, only 120 students in kindergarten and grade one were able to enroll this past year.

Penn-Assisted School Planning Coordinator Ann Kreidle said that the school will be adding a head-start pre-school program, along with second, fifth and sixth grades for the 2002-2003 year. Ultimately, the school will have room for students from kindergarten to eighth grades.

"Right now, the enrollment for next school year is on target, and we still have space in all of the grades," Kreidle said.

Currently, students at the Penn-Assisted School come from 19 different counties. 41 percent are black, 32 percent are white, 23 percent are Asian and four percent are Hispanic.

Kreidle said that the diversity of the current student body will not be altered as the school's size increases.

Plans for the Penn-Assisted School -- which are partially funded and operated by the University -- have been in the making since 1998.

The Graduate School of Education Associate Dean Nancy Streim has guided and helped develop an educational plan for the school. In return, the Penn-Assisted School has employed graduate students to do preliminary teaching and curriculum development.

In addition to the expansion that it will undergo, the Penn-Assisted School will also be offering a wider range of learning opportunities for its students come this fall.

Thus far, school administrators have hired full-time Spanish, art and gym teachers for the 2002-2003 year. They are planning on adding a choral and instrumental program as well.

Parents have welcomed the addition of these new resources.

"We had sort of started the [2001-2002] year with some reservations because it was a new school, and they didn't have a gym or music teacher, and we were concerned about things like that," Beth Jarrett said. "But they've remedied those problems."

Jennifer Hook, another parent, said the facilities that the new building offers will further enhance her child's education.

"We have been making do with the current crowded facility, so we're sort-of in awe with the new facility," Hook said. "Plus, the new building opens the scope to having a wider range of students overnight."

Yet, beyond the physical changes that will occur over the summer, administrators and parents alike are looking toward the new school year as a way to further broaden the sense of community that the Penn-Assisted School tries to promote.

"I think that the thing that is the most wonderful is the sense of community that has developed among the kids," Kreidle said. "They have really embraced each other and are really enjoying the school."

Hook, whose daughter will be a first-grader in September, said that the parents are becoming more unified as well.

"There's a growing process of the parents getting to know each other and becoming active in the community," Hook said. "It being a neighborhood school, there's just a warmth that we all feel in being involved."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.