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Penn Alexander panic drives 24-hour campout for kindergarten registration
If the Philadelphia School District is looking for a barometer to measure just how great the demand is for above-average public schools in the city, the scene at 43rd and Locust last night and this morning was a good place to start.
Penn Alexander panic drives 24-hour campout for kindergarten registration
If the Philadelphia School District were looking for a barometer to measure just how great the demand is for above-average public schools in the city, the scene at 43rd and Locust last night and this morning would have been a good place to start. This morning was the registration start for kindergarten at Penn Alexander, the West Philadelphia grade school where slots have become highly coveted, driving up property values in the catchment for determined parents who see the school as an alternative to charter school lotteries and pricey private school education. And after several tense hours of detente — which involved parents sitting outside the school in their cars, waiting to see who would make the first move into the bitter January cold — the first mother dragged out her lawn chair before 9 a.m. yesterday, a full 24 hours before registration would open.
How fast did the line form? Parent John Herrmann got the news quickly, having set up an email chain with parents in the same day care class. "I had a friend who was much further ahead. But I thought, 'Well, I have time to shower.' So I was No. 41, and everyone else in my group is up in the front," he says.
By the evening, there were more than 70 parents in line — most of whom evidently had been able to secure child care. (Though there were a few bundled-up children along for the night.) Several pointed out that the system favors those with strong neighborhood networks, as well as two-parent households or those who can afford to wrangle a last-minute sitter so they can go wait out in the cold. "This is ridiculous," Herrmann admits. "But we're obviously going to camp out to get our kids in: that's the system we were given."
Herrmann came equipped with a camp chair; others brought fire pits, outdoor heaters, tents and even a flat-screen TV rigged to show the football games out of the back of an SUV parked nearby. Someone came by with donuts for everyone; later, someone else brought samosas. The joke was that it was "Occupy Penn Alexander."
Kris Love, who secured a parking spot nearby on Friday and with his wife started the early line-up, has his son in first-grade in Penn Alexander and wanted to make sure his daughter would be able to go as well. "Everyone knows there's a very limited number of spots, about 50 to 60, we're not sure exactly. So you sacrifice one night for your child's education. There's great parent involvement, it's a great school and that's why we got here so early.... Everyone has to do something crazy or out of the ordinary at some point in your life, and if it's for your child so be it."
But the party atmosphere was decidedly lacking down at the back of the line, where Rahul Pandey was huddled at No. 71. He already has a daughter in first grade at Penn Alexander, but he had no idea the line would be forming this early. He had walked past the school on his way to the grocery store, seen the line and canceled his plans for the afternoon to stand in the cold and cross his fingers that 71 spots would be made available. "I have to be optimistic. What else can I do?" he says. "If I don't try I won't get. But I don't feel this the right thing. But that is how it's going on."
Asked if he felt it was lucky that he'd happened to come across the line-up at all, he frowned. "It's not lucky. Lucky will be if I get a spot."
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