PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A longtime Philadelphia charter school is closing for good this month, leaving many parents asking why, while they try to find new schools for their children in September.
June 14 is the last day ever for classes at the Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School of Philadelphia. Since Veronica Joyner announced last October that the first- through 12th-grade school she founded would close when she retires at the end of this year, 900 families have been scrambling.
The School District of Philadelphia has been trying to help, says Peng Chao, who heads up its charter schools office.
"We actually recently — as recently as last week — held an event here, where we had a number of families come in — I think almost 100 families came in — to try to find new options for them, both district and charter."
Chao says many parents at Math, Civics and Sciences don't know where their children will be going this fall.
"It's impossible to say precisely right now. What we do know is that there are a couple of hundred families that still don't have a definitive placement yet," Chao said.
But Joyner says most parents have secured placements, and she says they've thanked her for providing a charter school option over the years.
"They've been congratulating me for a job well done for 25 years — as a private citizen, seeing a problem and helping to resolve the problem."
But parent Kieyera Williams questions why Joyner sought to close the school, rather than allow someone else to run it. The school board gave the school a one-year, instead of a five-year, charter renewal.
"I think that is just wrong, honestly. I feel like she should at least leave it to somebody she trusted. This is a whole school. People have been going here for years."
Williams still hasn't found a new school for her second grader.
"I'm undecided, because I still want him in a charter school and everywhere else is so far and is not giving me enough time to find him a school."
Joyner heads the nonprofit Parents United for Better Schools, which plans to sell the North Broad Street building where the school is housed.
“I think that I should be respected as a private citizen in Philadelphia for the hard work that I’ve done. I’ve provided diplomas to over 2,000 students,” Joyner said.
"I did something to help the community. I'm not obligated as a private citizen to continue a school that I've run very well for 25 years."