As overcrowding continues at Penn Alexander, dismayed parents are finding solutions to enrollment issues by looking out, not in.
Some parents who stood in line to register their children at Penn Alexander considered Lea Elementary as a possible alternative, according to 2006 College graduate Amara Rockar, the chair of the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools.
Lea Elementary, built in 1914 and located at 47th and Locust streets, has a catchment area encompassed by 46th to 50th streets and Sansom Street to Baltimore Avenue. With approximately 355 students from kindergarten to eighth grade, about half the attending students live outside the catchment zone, Rockar said. The school has “room to grow,” she added.
“The University of Pennsylvania is interested in assuring the quality of education in all schools, including those in the West Philadelphia community,” Jeffrey Cooper, Penn’s vice president of government and community affairs, wrote in an email.
“Representatives of [our] programs meet often with school officials, families and community groups to discuss the best ways for Penn to be involved,” he wrote, adding that he had personally met with the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools to discuss a collaboration between Penn and Lea.
According to Lea’s school improvement liaison Josephine Poteat, Lea would be interested in a partnership similar to the one that exists between the Penn Alexander and Penn.
Until June 2011, Penn’s Graduate School of Education worked with Lea under a contract and provided it with professional development services to its teachers. According to Rockar, the contract was not renewed because of the budget crisis within the Philadelphia School District. The GSE still provides these services to Lea in an unofficial capacity, Rockar added.
However, reasons surrounding the contract termination remain unclear.
“They decided to quit the program, but I don’t think it was a budgetary decision,” GSE Dean Andy Porter said. “The school still gets some resources to provide for whoever they want.”
Porter added that the GSE is still involved with helping Lea.
“[Our relationship] has changed in its nature, but it’s still there,” he said.
According to Rockar, some parents are initially cautious about considering Lea as an alternative due to negative school district reports analyzing the socioeconomic statuses and test scores of its students.
However, Rockar said the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools encourages parents to “come and see the school and kind of experience it, because I think it gives … a much richer impression of what’s actually going on at the school.”
When parents visit Lea, they are shown the results of various donations that the school receives, including a renovated library and a garden to make the school’s campus greener.
Maurice Jones, member of the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools, has a third-grade son that attends the elementary school. As president of Lea’s Home and Community Association, he works on a daily basis to improve the school. According to Jones, he is more than happy with his decision of choosing Lea for his son.
“In the final analysis, I wouldn’t have my son at Lea if I didn’t think the education was beneficial to him. It wouldn’t benefit me to entertain this social experiment to just improve a school. I’m more than happy with his education,” Jones said.
Some teachers currently working at the elementary school have been involved with Penn Alexander and Penn’s GSE in the past.
“I’ve been able to see the teachers for all grades. They’re so great,” Rockar said. “There’s a lot of real commitment to the school and to their students.”
However, Rockar is quick to acknowledge that Lea cannot be the ultimate solution to overcrowding at Penn Alexander.
“It’s not the definite solution,” she added, “but I think that supporting more schools in the neighborhood would release some of the pressure that parents feel that they have to live in certain areas.”
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