Point Breeze activists feel blindsided by loss of prize charter

Claudia Sherrod held high hopes for the Walter G. Smith School, an imposing structure on the National Register of Historic Places at 19th and Wharton Streets in Point Breeze.

She and others in the community were stricken when the Philadelphia School District shuttered the building in 2013 amid its continuing budget crisis. But news that Independence Charter might buy the building thrilled neighbors, said Sherrod, the president of the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition.

Independence Charter is one of the city's top schools - with a waiting list of hundreds of students for its school at 16th and Lombard Streets in Center City.

So when she discovered recently that the School Reform Commission had approved an agreement of sale for Smith with an out-of-town developer, she was livid. The community was blindsided, she maintains.

Ultimately, Smith and four other schools, including the former Germantown High, were promised in late September to the Maryland-based Concordia Group for $6.8 million. Independence Charter also bid on Smith, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said, saying he could not disclose the offer.

"We are furious that we had no insight [into] to what was going on with Smith," said Sherrod, who is also CEO of the group South Philadelphia HOMES.

The group has hired a lawyer and is mulling legal options to halt the sale, she said.

Independence Charter has received a grant to plan a new school. The district has not allowed a new charter to open since 2007.

Still, working with Sherrod and her group, Independence zeroed in on Smith and promised that students from Point Breeze would be guaranteed a percentage of the slots at any new school, Sherrod said.

"It's a good school, and we need that," Sherrod said. "A lot of people are sending their kids outside the neighborhood for school."

Sherrod said she feared that Concordia would speed Point Breeze's gentrification.

"Smith was always a community place, and now people are afraid that it will be torn down, turned into rubble, and made into houses they can't afford," said Deborah Cianfrani, the lawyer hired to represent neighbors over the Smith sale.

William J. Collins, a Concordia owner, said that it was too soon to say what would be done with the Smith site if the sale goes through. Concordia specializes in "housing, retail centers, and mixed-use real estate developments," according to its website, but Collins said a charter school could still be part of the mix.

"We clearly understand the community's desire to have a school, but are there any schools out there that we can put into that location?" Collins asked.

Once all studies are final and zoning issues are resolved, the sales of Smith, Germantown, Fulton, Carroll and Vare Schools could be final in April or May, Collins said.

Gallard said the district was seeking court approval for the sale, and the Independence Charter bid was lower than the winning bid.

"We have to get the most value for the properties, especially in the situation that we're in as a district," he said. "We should be celebrating someone like Concordia making a commitment to Philadelphia."

Sherrod is philosophical.

"We'll probably end up suing the SRC, and maybe we won't get too far with it, but maybe we'll make them understand that this is not their community," she said. "We need to make them reconsider what they're doing."