Alternative school hopes to open in East Falls

When East Falls resident Meg Greenfield sees the boarded-up buildings and concrete wasteland along the 4300 block of Ridge Avenue, she imagines a pulsing corridor of stores and office space topped by luxury apartments.

Center City lawyer David Shulick sees something else: a new campus for his alternative-education school for students with disciplinary problems and others at risk of not graduating.

Shulick, president of the state-accredited Delaware Valley High School, expects to sign a contract with the Philadelphia School District to open in September, but he faces community opposition.

"Putting a school in an area like that is disruptive," said Greenfield, vice president of the East Falls Community Council.

Officials of that council and the area's development corporation and business association said they feared the school would scare away new businesses and residents, and unleash 400 teenagers in an area they see as a future community hub.

Shulick signed a three-year lease for the site June 1 with Mark Sherman, who owns several properties in East Falls, and is renovating two buildings on the site.

Issues such as redevelopment, Shulick said, are a cover for community bias against students labeled "at-risk."

"We have a phenomenal reputation," he said. "Within six to eight months of opening, they're going to realize what a . . . resource we are."

The school boasts that it has a 93 percent graduation rate.

Shulick began meeting with members of the community soon after signing the lease, a move that Greenfield and others say made them feel duped and suspicious.

"The community is active," she said. "It feels strongly that we should be involved in what goes into our community."

On July 13, an estimated 300 people - many voicing opposition to the school - crammed into the Falls of Schuylkill Library and spilled out onto the lawn for a public meeting. City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. has also said he wants the school to find another site.

"My vote would be things that were conducive to commercial growth," like a grocery, he said.

The showdown has been "like the scene from Frankenstein where people are going after the monster" with pitchforks and torches, said East Falls resident and property owner Billy Ross, 39.

The school district is negotiating contracts with all of its alternative-education providers, according to a spokesperson.

Shulick, who would not comment on the negotiations, must have a written agreement with community representatives in order to renew his contract.

East Falls is an economically and racially diverse area. It has affordable-housing units and is home to Gov. Rendell. Community leaders have had plans to develop the vacant side of the 4300 block of Ridge into a mixed-use corridor since 1998.

The community groups still hope to turn the other vacant lot on the block - held by the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia - into a mixed-use site. The RDA has signed an agreement with developers to sell the property for such a project. Developer David Stubbs would not comment on what impact the school would have on that plan.

East Falls Development Corp. president Carolyn Sutton said she believed the school would hurt developers as they raise money to buy the site. Prospective buyers expect to see stores, not a school, she said.

Shulick is closing the school's Bustleton Avenue campus, which no longer has enough room. He plans to use the two buildings in East Falls to house about 400 students: 200 in grades seven through nine in one and 200 in grades 10 to 12 in the other. He's had annual contracts with the district to operate the school on Bustleton Avenue for the last several years.

The high school was established in 1969 by a group of local educators that included Shulick's father. It moved to the Bustleton site in 1980, and Shulick took over in 1999. Its Warminster campus opened last year.

He said the students were at risk of not graduating for reasons that include lack of motivation, drug and alcohol use, and problems at home. None has been expelled from public schools and students cannot stay in his school if they are disruptive.

The school features small classes, technology-equipped classrooms, and a computer program that tracks students' behavior and progress.

At the request of community members, Shulick said, he planned to open the school's computer labs and meeting spaces to the public and to engage students - who are required to have after-school job training - in the neighborhood.

The campus will be called the Judith B. Shulick Memorial Education Center after Shulick's mother, who was killed in a 1991 car accident.

Opponents say the school's track record doesn't matter. They still fear losing the redevelopment project and worry that school buses on Ridge Avenue will make rush-hour traffic worse.

"The kids could all be Harvard-bound, walk on water," Greenfield said. "It's still a school and it's not an appropriate use of space."

East Falls residents are not a united front, however.

Demetria Snell, 40, a nurse who lives about a block from the site, said she supported the school.

"They worry about such little things," she said. "This is something to help kids, why not do it?"

Alfred D'Alessandro, 22, who grew up in the area and has "East Falls" tattooed on his left wrist, said education should trump redevelopment.

D'Alessandro, who works as a cook at a pizza shop down the block from the site, added, "Will business be as helpful as having 400 kids getting their diploma? No."