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Parents scramble to join four-day-long kindergarten-registration line (updated)
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Parents scramble to join four-day-long kindergarten-registration line (updated)
(UPDATE: The Penn Alexander line is no more, probably preventing a few cases of hypothermia along the way.)
Don't blame Robert Tucker; blame the system. Last year, the line for registration at Penn Alexander involved a nearly 24-hour wait outside West Philly's most sought-after neighborhood elementary school. Rumor was, this year, the line for Tuesday registration would be starting the Friday before. So, this morning, Tucker enlisted his mom (his wife is 37 weeks pregnant) to bring a chair out and start things off, hopefully ensuring a kindergarten slot for his daughter. By 2 p.m., nearly 70 parents (after a tense period of detente) had joined him.
It's the longest-ever wait for registration at the school, run via a partnership between the Philadelphia School District and Penn Alexander. Parents who had hustled to secure their spots said it was, once again this year, a sign of inequality within the school system. "I heard through the rumor mill that Friday was the day," Tucker (who had taken over for mom by the afternoon) shrugged. It's his first experience with he Philly School District. "If my daughter couldn't get in I would have no control as to where she could get into."
Unlike Tucker, many other parents have older children in the school already. Anne Dorn, who has a second-grader at the school, says her husband lined up at 5:45 a.m. registration day the last time around. But now, she's 67th in line and not too optimistic about her prospects. Parents don't know exactly how many children will be accepted into kindergarten from the line, since some students, like those in Head Start at the school, get preference. Dorn was notified of the line's formation by a text-message chain from parents at a pre-school nearby. She had her youngest in a stroller with her. "We were hoping it wouldnt' be this bad, so we don't have a good plan" for childcare this weekend. She said her primary concern is having all her kids in the same school.
A couple of dads near the front of the line say that things got tense this morning, when Tucker's mom showed up with her chair and sat down. "There were 35 or 40 people all standing here," wondering whether to line up, one said. "I was legitimately worried there would be pushing and shoving." They figured they may as well line up: "at least this way it was orderly."
Some parents said that they weren't surprised the line started today, even though registration is days from now. But that doesn't mean they like it. "We all want them to change the policy," one said. "The whole thing feels gross, given what's happening to the public school system right now."
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