The parents camped outside the Penn Alexander School on Sunday night could be called a lot of things, but complacent about their children’s education is not one of them.
In what is now an annual occurrence, around 80 neighborhood parents lined up outside 42nd and Locust streets to secure a coveted spot in the kindergarten class at Penn Alexander. Registration begins Monday at 9 a.m.
In response to overcrowding, an enrollment cap was placed on the kindergarten class in the summer of 2011.
Bundled up in winter coats, hats and gloves, the parents staked their positions with foldable chairs and camping tents. Some caught the Giants and 49ers game from a TV screen out of the back of a minivan.
The line formed last year about 9 p.m. the night before, said 2000 Wharton School graduate and father of two, Jon Herrmann. However, this year, the first parents to stake a spot started the line 12 hours earlier — at 9 a.m.
Niambi Love and her husband, 1995 College graduate Kristofer Love, were the first to arrive Sunday morning. A clipboard of names hung behind Niambi’s seat. “This is a list my wife created to maintain some kind of order,” Kristofer said.
“In August, people from the back of the line tried to run up when they opened the gate, as if they had been in line [all along],” Niambi added. “This is a more orderly way of doing [the line].” Each parent also wore numbered stickers representing their positions.
Penn Alexander does not formally organize the queue, but the group of parents have established their own system to record the order of the line.
Linda Schnolis, 2000 College graduate and current Nursing graduate student, waited in line with her husband, 1994 Engineering graduate Richard Schnolis. “It was a mad dash at the beginning,” Richard said, “then very relaxed.”
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