Girard College postpones controversial move to end boarding school program

PHILADELPHIA Girard College will continue to run its boarding and secondary school programs for at least one more year.

The Board of Directors of City Trusts, which oversees Girard, voted Monday to delay controversial plans to suspend the residential and high school programs and will run them through the 2014-15 academic year.

In June, the board announced that it would seek permission from Orphans' Court to scale back Girard's operations in the fall of 2014 to help restore its ailing finances.

The board has asked the court to allow it to temporarily modify the will of Stephen Girard, the merchant banker whose 1831 bequest established the boarding school for poor children on a 43-acre campus in Fairmount.

On Monday, however, the board moved to put off the changes until September 2015 to ease "any uncertainties that exist for the students, parents, staff, and faculty" while the petition is before the court.

"We respect the right of the Orphans' Court to take the time it needs to consider the petition and the temporary changes that the board has proposed," the board's president, Ronald Donatucci, said in a statement. "But while that process continues, it inevitably creates a sense of uncertainty and tension about the future for our students, their families, and our faculty and staff."

A total of 330 students from first through 12th grade are enrolled at Girard this fall.

"We greatly appreciate the board's decision because it will help to ease the concerns of our students, families, and our colleagues," Girard's president, Clarence D. "Clay" Armbrister, said.

"While we await the decision of the court, there is no question that this is the right thing for all of us in the Girard family."

Many Girard students and their families also welcomed the delay.

"I think it's a great move," said Virginia Dennis of Juniata Park, whose son, Brandon Dixon, is a junior. "They weren't ready."

Dixon, 16, said the mood was subdued - although a few clapped - when Armbrister met with high school students Monday at 2:30 p.m. to tell them of the delay.

"So next year will go on just as if it was this year," Dixon said.

Dixon said he was not surprised by the move because he figured the "legal stuff would tie it up."

Girard is seeking the court's permission to begin offering an extended-day program with more rigorous academics for students in first through eighth grades.

The board has said the temporary changes were needed so Girard could cut operating costs, replenish shrinking reserves, and avert financial ruin.

Girard spent $42,500 per student to provide a college-preparatory education and 24-hour care five days a week for the 405 students who attended in the last academic year. The school suspended its weekend boarding program a few years ago to cut costs.

Continuing to run five-day residential and high school programs "has become impracticable," the board said its court filing.

Many students, parents, alumni, and staff opposed the proposed changes, and some have filed a petition in Orphans' Court to try to block them.

In June the board decided to allow the 43 students in the Class of 2015 to complete their education at Girard as day school students and have the opportunity to earn course credits from Community College of Philadelphia.

As part of the delay, the board said Monday it would extend that option to the Class of 2016 so those students would be able to complete their senior year at Girard as day students.