Oxford Circle prepares
for arrival of the new Fels High

By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer

As the School District of Philadelphia plans the future move of Samuel Fels High School, the community that is home to the school continues to give its input on possible solutions for the proposed new building.
School district officials who are working on the project continued talks with the community during the monthly Oxford Circle Civic Association meeting on Aug. 17.
State Sens. Shirley Kitchen (D-3rd dist.) and Christine Tartaglione (D-2nd dist.), state Rep. Mark Cohen (D-202nd dist.) and representatives for City Councilwoman Marian Tasco (D-9th dist.) and state Rep. Alan Butkovitz (D-174th dist.) attended the meeting.
In June, the school district purchased the former John F. Kennedy Hospital site at 5500 Langdon St. from its current owner, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 33, for about $4 million.
The current school, located a few blocks away at 901 Devereaux Ave., is too small to hold the nearly 1,800 students who will go there this fall, and it is nearly beyond repair, the school district says.
"We find ourselves right now not only with a seriously overcrowded Fels High School, but a building that is really falling apart," said Ellen Linky, the district’s North Region superintendent.
Fels, built in 1954, once was a junior high school but was converted to a high school in the early 1990s.
"The current Fels building has a couple of years left in it," said Terry Wilson, deputy design manager of the Philadelphia School Improvement Team. "It’s nearing the condition to where, in a few years, we’re going to have to say it’s condemnable."
Meanwhile, the school district is taking steps to make sure the school structure is safe for students until they move, Wilson said.
The Fels relocation is part of the school district’s five-year, $1.5 billion capital-improvement plan. School district officials estimate that the new building will cost about $40 million to construct. Among many other amenities, the new school will have a cafeteria that will accommodate 500 students, a 900-seat auditorium, a 15,500-square-foot gymnasium and a six-lane swimming pool.
In addition, the district is thinking about erecting a wrought-iron fence around the property and providing for a new access road in and out of the property.
According to July’s School District Community Outreach Newsletter, the new school would be ready by the 2006-07 school year, with a groundbreaking scheduled for December. However, officials at last week’s civic association meeting said that the time frame for groundbreaking is flexible, as the school district and the community come up with concrete plans that almost everyone can agree on.
The newsletter, Linky said, will be published regularly to update the community on what’s going on.
Civic association president Nancy Hampson told the officials that they must come up with an access road through the property that would not increase traffic volume in the neighborhood.
Plans for an access road are still being devised, since they would affect the Naval Air Supply Center and Cardone Industries.
School district CEO Paul Vallas told the committee at two meetings that the community would have an access road built for the school, Hampson said.
She emphasized the need to "find a way for an access road to go out to Whitaker Avenue."
"We cannot, as community leaders, agree to any other way," the civic leader said.
Hampson does not want any of the streets surrounding the school impacted by vehicular traffic, including school buses, SEPTA buses and cars.
Residents also met Fels High School’s new principal, Christine Sadjian-Peacock, who has extensive experience as a principal in the school district.
Sadjian-Peacock replaces Jeffrey Petty. His current status since leaving Fels could not be determined as the Times went to press this week.
Among the changes, the Fels ninth-graders will be enrolled in the new Ninth Grade Academy, in which the freshmen would receive extra math and English in their curriculum.
The school district also has rented space at the former David Neuman Center, at 6600 Bustleton Ave., to accommodate about 250 ninth-graders who need remedial lessons or who are older. They will be there from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, although this situation is temporary, the principal said.
She also changed the bell schedule so that students go to school from 7:35 a.m. to 2:39 p.m., enabling the arrival and dismissal times to differ from those at the Laura Carnell School just down the street.
Sadjian-Peacock promised to keep open communication with the community and encouraged people to call the school (215-537-2516) if they have questions.
"I am always willing to work with the community," she said. oo
The Oxford Circle Civic Association meets on the third Tuesday of every month. The next meeting will take place on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at Glading Memorial Presbyterian Church, Cheltenham and Loretto avenues.
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com