Angry parents confront Palmer Charter School founder

A CROWD OF angry parents confronted the founder of Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School last night, demanding answers about yesterday's abrupt closing of the high school, affecting almost 300 students.

Walter Palmer met with families inside a packed cafeteria at the school's Frankford campus, on Harbison Avenue near Sanger Street - the location of grades 5-12 - to explain the decision to close the high school immediately and help families of ninth- through 12th-graders find other school placements.

Palmer insisted that the school had done all it could to stay open after losing a bitter court battle with the Philadelphia School District over enrollment. But that was little consolation to adults who blamed Palmer for leaving families in the lurch seven weeks into the school year.

"We're not here for a press op," one woman yelled, referring to TV news cameras, as Palmer tried to have seniors describe their experience. "We want to know what's happening with our kids."

"We're going to hear from these seniors," Palmer replied, before the crowd interrupted him again. After a brief exchange, the meeting ended abruptly and a group of frustrated adults swarmed Palmer with questions.

"I live up here. Lincoln [High School] is overcrowded, Northeast [High] is overcrowded. They're not even taking no kids," said an emotional Jeanie Marks, whose granddaughter is a ninth-grader at Palmer. "What am I supposed to do? I can't get her in a charter school. I filled out about 12 applications for charter schools, but that's for next year. She can't sit on my couch. She's got to come to school."

The high school's closing is the latest twist in the Palmer saga. The charter announced earlier this month that it would have to reduce enrollment from more than 1,200 students to 675 students in grades K-8 after a series of court rulings. In May, the state Supreme Court sided with the district on the enrollment cap, claiming that the charter had agreed to the limit in a 2005 document. Last month, a Common Pleas judge denied Palmer's emergency petition for additional funding.

Families of students in the high school were notified of the closing late last week and over the weekend.

Even last night, a dejected Palmer told parents that he believed he was right. "I think they [the courts] were wrong," he said. "I think they ruled wrong, I think they measured wrong, but it is what it is.

"We've held out as long as we could, we prayed as much as we could," he added.

Also at the meeting were representatives from several public, private and charter schools, including a number of schools from the Archdicese of Philadelphia, who spoke with parents before and after the meeting about their options.

Despite comments from some parents to the contrary, Julian Thompson, the district's coordinator for charter-school operations, said that all neighborhood schools in the area, with the exception of Northeast High, had room for Palmer students. Parents can register at those schools directly, and the district has relaxed catchment areas to accommodate displaced pupils. They also can apply online for citywide special-admission schools.

But several parents, including Lissette Villanueva, insisted that they were not interested in returning to the public schools.

"If I wanted him in public schools, he would've been in public schools, but I wanted a better education for him," said Villanueva, whose son is a 10th-grader at Palmer. Her son's neighborhood school is Kensington High, but when asked if she would consider enrolling him there, she said: "Not at all. And now we have to go search and see what school's going to take him, knowing that the charter schools are full."

Senior Monet Mitchell, a second-year student at Palmer, complained that the upheaval was a real tragedy for those who had hoped to graduate with their peers. "If they were [going to] shut it down, they should have shut it down before the school year started. Teachers, they really cared about us," she said. "And Dr. Palmer, mistakes and all, he really loves us and he would do anything to keep the school open."