Appeals court: Girard must keep high school, boarding programs
Girard College's high school and boarding programs remain safe for the moment. Commonwealth Court has upheld a lower-court ruling that preserved both programs. The Board of Directors of City Trusts, which oversees the historic school, had sought the court's permission to temporarily jettison the boarding and secondary components to shore up Girard's long-term finances.
Girard College's high school and boarding programs remain safe for the moment.
Commonwealth Court has upheld a lower-court ruling that preserved both programs. The Board of Directors of City Trusts, which oversees the historic school, had sought the court's permission to temporarily jettison the boarding and secondary components to shore up Girard's long-term finances.
In an opinion filed Thursday, Commonwealth Court said it "commends the board for beginning to confront the myriad of financial, educational and institutional challenges" Girard faces. "Nevertheless, we discern no legal or factual basis to disturb the considered judgment of the Orphans' Court."
Orphans' Court Judge Joseph D. O'Keefe ruled in 2014 that the boarding and high school were critical parts of the vision that the merchant and banker Stephen Girard outlined in his 1831 bequest that created the free boarding school for poor orphans on a 43-acre site in Fairmount.
"We were very pleased with the court basically affirming Judge O'Keefe's decision," said Joseph Samuel, president of the Girard College Alumni Association. "I think it's a very positive outcome for the school."
Samuel said that his organization represents 3,000 alumni across the country and that its members would work with Girard officials to ensure the school can continue educating future generations of students.
Kevin Feeley, a Girard spokesman, said the board had not decided its next step.
Girard president Clarence D. "Clay" Armbrister said in a statement to staff and alumni last week that "as a practical matter, the order means that we will maintain a residential program. However, as equally important, we will continue to move forward with our plans for the new high school, and our redesigned elementary/middle school as part of our ongoing commitment to provide the best educational experience for our students."
In December 2014, Girard officials pledged to operate its high school program for four more years to ensure its current eighth graders could graduate from the school in 2018-19.
A total of 270 K-12 students are currently enrolled.
In 2013 the board sought the Orphans' Court's permission to suspend the two programs in 2015. Absent those changes, the board said that funds that support Girard College could be exhausted in 25 years.
In denying that request, O'Keefe said that he sympathized with the school's financial plight, but that those concerns could not override Stephen Girard's wishes. He also said the school's finances had improved in 2013.
Over the years, the courts have approved several changes to Girard's will, which called for establishing a school to "educate poor, white, male orphans."
It took two trips to the U.S. Supreme Court and seven months of around-the-clock picketing by civil-rights protesters before the school was integrated in 1965.
Another lawsuit nine years later led to the admission of girls. And the definition of orphans was expanded to "functional orphans" to include children from single-parent homes.
martha.woodall@phillynews.com 215-854-2789 @marwooda
