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From Philly.com
East Falls: Don’t move school here
By Zoe Tillman
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
When East Falls resident Meg Greenfield sees the boarded-up buildings and concrete wasteland along the 4300 block of Ridge Ave., she imagines a pulsing street with stores and office space topped by luxury apartments.
Center City attorney David Shulick sees something else: a new campus for his alternative education school for students who have disciplinary problems and others at risk of not graduating.
Schulick, president of state-accredited Delaware Valley High School, expects to sign a contract with the Philadelphia School District to open in September but he's facing community opposition.
"Putting a school in an area like that is disruptive," said Greenfield, vice president of the East Falls Community Council.
Officials of the East Falls Community Council and the area's Development Corporation and Business Association said they fear the school will scare away new businesses and residents and unleash 400 teenagers into an area they see as a future community hub.
Shulick has signed a three-year lease for the site on June 1 with property owner Mark Sherman, who owns several other properties in East Falls.
Issues like redevelopment, Shulick said, are a cover for community bias against students labeled "at-risk."
"We have a phenomenal reputation," he said. "Within six to eight months of opening, they're going to realize what a...resource we are."
The school boasts a 93 percent graduation rate.
Shulick began meeting with the community soon after signing the lease, a move Greenfield and others say made them feel duped and suspicious.
"The community is active," Greenfield said. "It feels strongly that we should be involved in what goes into our community."
On July 13, an estimated 300 people - many voicing opposition to the school - crammed into the Falls of Schuylkill Library and spilled out onto the lawn for a public meeting. City Councilman Curtis Jones has also said he wants the school to find another site.
"My vote would be things that were conducive to commercial growth," like a grocery store, he said.
The showdown has been "like the scene from "Frankenstein" where people are going after the monster," with pitchforks and torches, said East Falls resident and property owner Billy Ross, 39.
The Philadelphia School Distict is negotiating contracts with all alternative education providers, including Delaware Valley High School, said a spokesperson.
Shulick, who would not comment on the negotiations, must have a written agreement with community representatives to get a contract.
East Falls - an economically and racially diverse area that is home to both affordable housing units and Governor Rendell's Philadelphia residence - has had plans to redevelop the vacant side of the 4300 block into a mixed-use corridor since 1998.
The community groups still hope to turn the other vacant lot on the block - held by the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia - into a mixed-use corridor. The RDA has signed an agreement with private developers to sell the property for such a project.
Developer David Stubbs would not comment on the impact of the school on the plan.
East Falls Development Corporation President Carolyn Sutton said she believed a school would hurt developers as they raise money to buy the site.
Prospective buyers expects to see stores, not a school, she said.
Shulick is closing the Bustleton Ave. campus, which no longer has enough room, and plans to use the two buildings to house about 400 students - 200 students grades 7 through 9 in one, 200 students in grades 10-12 in the other. He's had annual contracts with the district to operate the school on Bustleton Avenue for the last several years.
The high school was created in 1969 by a group of local educators, including Shulick's father. It moved to the Bustleton site in 1980, and Shulick took over in 1999. The Warminster campus opened last year.
The students are at-risk of not graduating, he said, for reasons like lack of motivation, drug and alcohol use, or problems at home. None have been expelled from public schools, and cannot stay if they are disruptive.
The school features small classes, technology-equipped classrooms and a sophisticated computer program to track students' behavior and progress.
At the request of community members, Shulick said he also plans to open the school's computer labs and meeting spaces to the public, and positively engage students - who are required to have afterschool job training - in the neighborhood.
The campus will be called the Judith B. Shulick Memorial Education Center, after Shulick's mother, who was killed in a 1991 car accident.
The school's opponents say its track record doesn't matter. They still fear losing the redevelopment project and worry that the presence of school buses on Ridge Ave. would make rush hour traffic worse.
"The kids could all be Harvard-bound, walk on water," Greenfield said. "It's still a school and it's not an appropriate use of space."
East Falls residents are not a united front, however.
Resident Demetria Snell, 40, a nurse who lives about a block away from the site, said she supports the school.
"They worry about such little things," she said. "This is something to help kids, why not do it?"
Alfred D'Alessandro, 22, who grew up in the area - he has "East Falls" tattooed on his left wrist - said that education should trump redevelopment.
D'Alessandro, who works as a cook at a pizza shop down the block from the site added, "Will business be as helpful as having 400 kids getting their diploma?" he said. "No."
Contact staff writer Zoe Tillman at 215-854-2917 or ztillman@phillynews.com.
