Community petitions Gutmann on overcrowding at Penn Alexander

If enrollment caps continue at the Penn Alexander School, Penn may be forced to do more than just write a check.

Penn Alexander was established in 1998 for pre-school to eighth grade students through a cooperative effort between the University, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the School District of Philadelphia.

In spring 2011, the school announced that it will no longer automatically accept students within its catchment zone due to overcrowding. At the time, the school district estimated that the school was at 72 percent of its maximum capacity of 815 students.

In response to the overcrowding, an activist group, Advocates for Great Elementary Education, was founded to let community members express concerns and ask questions in addition to petitioning the University for a solution.

Penn currently gives $1,300 for every student enrolled at the school, but AGREE members are pushing the University to do more.

In October, the group submitted a petition of 461 signatures to the Penn administration. Signatures were from parents of both current and prospective students and other community members.

“My understanding is that whatever they can do, they will try to do,” AGREE founder Monica Calkins said.

AGREE also asked Penn faculty members who may be affected by Penn Alexander’s new policies to submit letters to the administration, Calkins added.

Calkins said the policies may be a large factor for those Penn faculty deciding whether to stay in the area.

Presently, no changes have been made to Penn Alexander’s enrollment procedures, but Penn President Amy Gutmann has called it “one of my priorities for this year.”

Penn is currently in discussion with the principal of the school, as well as the school district, according to Gutmann.

The school was founded to help encourage urban renewal within the University City area, Calkins said.

“Penn Alexander was an amazing stimulus for people to settle and live in the area and to send children to their neighborhood school,” Calkins said.

Because of overcrowding, students who live within the catchment zone — extending west to east from 47th to 40th street and north to south from Sansom street to Chester and Woodland avenues — and would normally attend Penn Alexander will be forced to attend a different school in the area.

“When a school is overcrowded and has reached its maximum capacity, additional students are referred to the next closest school, like Wilson Elementary or Lea Elementary,” Steering Committee Chair of the West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools and 2006 College graduate Amara Rockar said.

According to Rockar, there are currently 16 students at Lea Elementary who live within the Penn Alexander catchment, due to a variety of factors that include overcrowding.

Last year, all registered kindergarten students in the catchment zone were admitted to the school, Gutmann said.

Kindergarten registration for 2012 begins on Jan. 23.

This article was revised to reflect that the petition was submitted in October, not December.

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