Shallcross school staying put

A controversial plan to turn the former Orleans Technical Institute in Rhawnhurst into a disciplinary school is dead, and next week 250 elementary-age children will start school there instead.

Rather than moving to the Orleans site on Rhawn Street, Shallcross Alternative School will stay put on Woodhaven Road in the Far Northeast, and the seventh and eighth graders from Carnell Elementary School, one of the Philadelphia School District's most overcrowded buildings, will move into the Orleans classrooms.

The swap was announced last night after a feverish few days of negotiation among district officials, politicians, and representatives of Camelot Schools Inc., the for-profit company that runs Shallcross for the district.

"It's a done deal. They're not going to open," City Councilman Frank Rizzo, who sat in on the negotiations, said last night of Shallcross' potential move to Rhawnhurst.

Earlier in the week, hundreds of angry residents packed a meeting to protest Shallcross' move. Some objected to students with disciplinary records coming into their neighborhood, but most were incensed that Camelot had planned the relocation without notifying neighbors.

Michael Masch, the district's chief business officer, said that Camelot was first told to find a new site for Shallcross because the district believed it needed that space for overflow Carnell students. Some Carnell children are already bused from their school on Devereaux Street in the Oxford Circle area to LaBrum Middle School in the Far Northeast.

Camelot chose the Orleans site, signed a one-year lease, and spent the summer and several hundred thousand dollars retrofitting the building. It did not notify neighbors.

But once word of the plan leaked out, the community and lawmakers began protesting.

Masch said yesterday that the previous administration had not considered the Orleans site for Carnell - which is much closer to Rhawnhurst than it is to the Shallcross building - and it became clear to new Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and others that there was no need to displace the disciplinary students.

"Given that we've got one week before school starts, this looks to be the best solution going into this school year," Masch said, adding that crews would work hard to make sure the school opened on time.

The overflow Carnell children will still have to take two bus trips each way - first to Carnell from home and then to the Orleans site in Rhawnhurst - but the journey is shorter than it would have been had Carnell moved to Shallcross.

Masch said that the district would not refer any additional Carnell students to LaBrum, and that if the Orleans site worked well, it would consider relocating all overflow Carnell students there.

Lawyers for the district, Camelot, and the owner of the building are working to figure out an equitable way to get the lease in order and reimburse Camelot for the money it has spent on a building it will not use, Masch said.

"The spirit in which we want to negotiate is that no one is worse off under the arrangement than was planned before," Masch said.

Acknowledging neighbors' concerns over locating a disciplinary school at the Orleans site, Masch said that when the school district opens or closes a building, officials notify the affected community, but "that was not done in this case. That's very unfortunate, and that's not the way the school district wishes to conduct itself."

Camelot officials could not be reached for comment.