THE Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts has made a $325,000 grant to the University to assist with its planned public elementary school in West Philadelphia [“Gazetteer,” Sept/Oct 1998]. The new school, to be built on land owned by Penn — the site of the old Divinity School, bounded by 42nd, 43rd, Spruce, and Locust Streets — is scheduled to open in September 2001. Some 700 students, from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, will attend from the surrounding neighborhood.
Penn, which plans to provide $1,000 for each student every year for the next 10 years, has signed an agreement with the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to create a local governing board consisting of teachers, parents, and representatives of the University. The grant will be used to plan the development of the school and its educational mission, and to ensure that area residents will be involved.
