New West Philly School Catchments

**annie** · 08-03-2012, 03:50 PM

https://webapps.philasd.org/school_finder/

Since Drew closed, several West Philly school catchments had to be redrawn and are now posted online. Powel's catchment has grown to 40th Street and I believe PAS's has changed in the area around Woodland Terrace and 40th. Wilson's and Locke's catchments also changed. Although Lea is expecting many former Drew students this fall, its catchment is unchanged. This is not entirely unexpected as for Lea to have taken any of Drew's catchment, it would have needed to cut into Locke's and potentially loop around Penn Alexander's.

The School District of Philadelphia expects to propose 40 schools for closure this year. Consequently, it is likely catchment boundaries may change in the future as a result of additional closures and consolidations.

**boognish** · 08-03-2012, 04:28 PM

Time to shrink PAS catchment. There's no reason anything west of 46th or south of Baltimore is in the catchment. Those areas would benefit Lea and Wilson. Also, no reason to go north of Walnut.

I'm more than a little biased, but it's ridiculous to have PAS overloaded when the other schools would reap the benefits of involved parents. The whole thing kinda sickens me.

**annie** · 08-03-2012, 04:46 PM

I thought the PAS change might have been an accidental nick with the Google map but this confirms it: https://webapps.philasd.org/sp_files..._maps/1280.pdf

It's all very interesting because one of the reasons PAS was created (supposedly) was to alleviate overcrowding at Lea and Wilson. I will say the district people in charge of the Facilities Master Plan are some of the most thoughtful I've met. I wonder if this tiny change is a test? The district has pretty exact information about where any child attending a school lives (or where they're said they lived at registration). It may be that no current PAS children live in the side of that block.

**daveydoo** · 08-03-2012, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by boognish

Time to shrink PAS catchment. There's no reason anything west of 46th or south of Baltimore is in the catchment. Those areas would benefit Lea and Wilson. Also, no reason to go north of Walnut.

I'm more than a little biased, but it's ridiculous to have PAS overloaded when the other schools would reap the benefits of involved parents. The whole thing kinda sickens me.

Sounds logical to me. But from what I gather that action wouldn't get much love from parents moved out of the zone nor those without kids who are homeowners and therefore sensitive about their property values.

**annie** · 08-03-2012, 06:20 PM

Just got word from the district Facilities Master Plan staff that PAS's catchment wasn't changed. The carving out of Woodland Terrance to 40th was an error and will be corrected.

**boognish** · 08-04-2012, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by daveydoo

Sounds logical to me. But from what I gather that action wouldn't get much love from parents moved out of the zone nor those without kids who are homeowners and therefore sensitive about their property values.

It's somewhat ridiculous to me that people are predicating their home values on inclusion in the catchment, which is after all an imaginary line. It's also ridiculous to me that I could live directly across the street from a school that my (imaginary) children wouldn't be allowed to attend.

Oh well.

Thanks for the info, annie.

**Zigster** · 08-06-2012, 09:56 AM

this is good news for Saunders Park. There are some nice quiet blocks there where the street grid gets all wonky.

**annie** · 08-06-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by boognish

It's also ridiculous to me that I could live directly across the street from a school that my (imaginary) children wouldn't be allowed to attend.

From what I understand, the NYC system of "zones" makes more sense where one school may be your catchment or default school but there's a couple more schools in the zone that your kids would be able to attend easily either by preference or necessity. It doesn't make sense that Philly parents seeking to attend a nearby school that isn't their catchment school have to go through the same crazy process as those trying to send their kids to a school clear across the city. Because of transportation costs, enrollment close to home should be encouraged. It could also possibly reduce the surprise if a school is overenrolled and kids get sent to a nearby school as there would be an established relationship between the schools.