School for at-risk students has East Falls grumbling
Hundreds of East Falls residents, more than could fit inside a room at the Free Library branch there, turned out last night to oppose the proposal to open an alternative school for "at-risk" teenagers in the neighborhood.
Hundreds of East Falls residents, more than could fit inside a room at the Free Library branch there, turned out last night to oppose the proposal to open an alternative school for "at-risk" teenagers in the neighborhood.
Despite being home to Gov. Rendell and other politicians, residents believe East Falls is becoming a "dumping ground" for the city's social ills, John Hawkins, a board member of the East Falls Development Corp., said yesterday just before the meeting.
Residents are already putting up with the Youth Study Center, located in the old MCP Hospital on Henry Avenue until its permanent home is built in West Philadelphia, and they fought off a planned Trump Casino.
"A drug-rehab facility just opened, too - all in one tiny little neighborhood," Hawkins said.
Now the Delaware Valley High School is planned to open in September - serving 400 students at risk of dropping out - in two buildings off Kelly Drive near Calumet Street.
David T. Shulick, president of the school, said students who will attend DVHS-Kelly have problems with being motivated academically and might have some social problems, but they're not from the juvenile court system.
Shulick said that during 40 years in operation - at locations on Bustleton Avenue and in Warminster, Bucks County - the school has educated some students from the juvenile-court system. But, he said, the East Falls school is a different model.
The crowd was calm and listened quietly for most of the school's presentation. It included a brief comment from a parent of a student and from another student who said the school "really helped me get back on track."
Residents groaned loudly when a school official said buses would drop off students inside the parking lot and would not add to traffic hassles on Ridge Avenue.
Last night, the hundreds of residents were too many for the meeting room at the Falls of the Schuylkill Library Branch, Midvale Avenue near Conrad Street. More than 100 people filled the lawn outside the building.
The East Falls Community Council, which organized the meeting, then also angered residents inside the library when they announced plans to conduct the meeting in shifts, asking residents to go outside and allow others to come in for the same presentation.
One woman then got up and angrily said she was a senior citizen who lives across Ridge Avenue from the planned school.
"We have paid our dues and don't want to listen to loud teenagers walking past early in the morning," the woman said.
Outside, another older resident said, "A school is not the best use" of that location.
But Shulick said that businesses thrived and $400,000 homes were sold near the school's Bustleton location.
"It's a shame that some people care more about sleeping late than whether our children graduate from high school," Shulick said. *
