Audenried students protest against becoming a charter

Shouting, waving signs, shaking fists, 50 Audenried High students gathered outside Philadelphia School District headquarters this morning to protest the decision to turn their school to a charter.

"No Renaissance! Save our school!" they shouted, their voices hoarse in the cold air.

The protest lasted an hour and drew top district brass outside to confer with student leaders. It was organized by students and attended by them and a few community members.

Under its Renaissance Schools initiative, the district plans to turn 18 schools into either charters or district-run "Promise Academies" with longer school days and years and new teaching forces.

Audenried has been tapped to become a charter run by Universal Companies Inc. as a "Promise Neighborhood" school. Universal won a $500,000 planning grant from the U.S. Department of Education to work with the Grays Ferry neighborhood on a continuum of education services.

But community members - and students - are angry that the district did not consult with them before deciding to remake the school. They are wary of Universal, and say Audenried has made progress in the three years since it was re-opened in a new building at 33rd and Tasker.

"The school district will not take our power," said Maurice Johnson, a junior. "We came here to let them know we will not stand for this. We will not take this!"

Junior Marcus Washington hates the idea of losing the teachers who've taught him for three years, he said.

"I have learning problems sometimes, and they help me so much," said Washington.

Washington, 17, said he was disgusted at a district meeting last week. Officials came with little hard data and offered few real answers, he said - they kept telling students to wait 30 days for more information.

"We can't wait for 30 days," said Washington. "We've got to end this now, so we can get an education and not worry about our school."

Washington came to Audenried from Vare Middle School, which was previously run by Universal under a different district model. Vare was taken back by the district for poor performance.

"I had bad grades there," Washington said. "It was a bad school under Universal."

The district has said that Universal failed because it was not given enough autonomy to run Vare and that the company has a proven track record of running charter schools.

Amanda Saunders waved a sign and shook her head.

"We're outraged," said Saunders, 17, a junior. "We don't have data. We don't have answers."

Christina Douglas nodded.

"We're not failing," the 16-year-old junior said. "Their facts are wrong."

The school was briefly put on lockdown when officials learned that dozens of protestors had walked out of Audenried to head to the district's North Broad Street headquarters. The students traveled by bus and subway.

Later, Audenried Principal Terry Pearsall-Hargett arrived to try to calm the protest. Students, who had a brief conversation with Associate Superintendent Penny Nixon, agreed to go back to class but refused to get on a school bus provided by the district.

"We have been heard," yelled Ava Reeves, 18, a junior who spoke with Nixon. "They know what we want. We will be heard, but we have to go back to class to show them we're good students."

Nixon, Communications Chief Jamilah Fraser, safety deputy Brendan Lee, and Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery all stood outside for a time, watching the protest.

Spokeswoman Shana Kemp said in a statement that the district is "sensitive to the fact that emotions are running high in the face of this change, but we are confident that the end result, which is increasing academic achievement for our students and improving the surrounding neighborhood, will be met with welcome."

Kemp said that several meetings will be held in the coming weeks to give students, parents and faculty more information about the Audenried transition and Universal.

But Johnson, one of the student protestors, said the group wasn't budging.

"Until we get our school back, this will be a nonstop thing," he said.