Parents who waited for Penn Alexander kindergarten spots vow to fight on

Parents who had prepared to camp out for four days to register their children for kindergarten in one of the city's best neighborhood schools have packed up their tents and gone home.

But the fight is not over, some say.

After 70 parents spent several hours waiting in the cold on Friday, district officials switched course and said there would no longer be a first come, first served registration policy for the Penn Alexander School at 42d and Spruce Streets.

Instead, they said, a lottery in April will determine who gets several dozen seats in the school's four kindergarten classes. Those at the front of the line have the same shot as those who register April 1.

Officials said they made the switch to ensure equity and because they were concerned for parents' safety.

The parents who waited in line have been invited to meet with Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. on Tuesday. Many hope to persuade the district to honor the first-come, first-served list and abandon the idea of a lottery for this year.

Changing the policy in midyear is unacceptable, they say, and now they are scrambling for other options. Some private and charter school application deadlines have already passed.

A group of some of the University of Pennsylvania faculty who waited in line said in a statement: "Although it may make sense to change the policy for future years, to change the policy for this year at this late stage is capricious and arbitrary."

Eric Santoro, father of three - a current Penn Alexander student, a prospective kindergartner, and a 2-year-old - said that no one liked the idea of a four-day wait and that parents had long tried to work with the school and district to come up with an alternative to a campout. But as recently as two hours before the policy switch was announced, they were rebuffed, Santoro said.

"Unambiguously, anytime we talked to them, they said no, it's first come, first served," he said.

But parent Christina Rosan, whose number on the list would be good enough to guarantee her child a spot if the old policy is honored, doesn't believe it should be.

"I personally don't think that we should be pushing for them to acknowledge that list," Rosan said. "I think that line was fundamentally unfair."