PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A troubled West Philadelphia charter school is closing immediately, while another will operate for one final year under an agreement approved by the Philadelphia School Board at an emergency meeting Friday morning.
It’s a major upheaval for 1,000 students at the Bluford and Daroff charter schools in West Philadelphia. The schools were left with no one to run them after the Universal Companies ended their management agreement last month.
The Philadelphia School Board signed off on an agreement Friday that would have the K-8 Daroff Charter School closing immediately, and the K-6 Bluford Charter School staying open until it surrenders its charter next July.
The last-minute arrangement comes just days before the new school year is set to begin. District Chief of Staff Alicia Prince said the district is ready for parents who may show up at Daroff next week.
“The district will have people there on Monday to support and to direct families and parents, so we will have people there in person,” she said.
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Parents can opt to register their children in a district-run school, or they can try to enroll in another charter, according to Biridiana Rodriguez from the district’s Charter Schools Office.
“We wanted to make sure that that was an option for families,” she said. “As mentioned earlier, charter seats are very limited at this time.”
Board member Mallory Fix Lopez said in order to prevent this from happening again, charter parents need to hold their schools accountable.
“Charter schools have boards,” she said, “and there is a way to monitor throughout the process and not wait until it’s too little, too late.”
The district is stationing staffers at the Haverford Library to help parents enroll their students in new schools.
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