As this book is being
concluded,
The
facility is being upgraded. Aging
utilities lines are being replaced.
Improvements were made to modernize living conditions. Ground will soon be broken for a new
elementary school and housing for the students of that school. Athletic facilities are improving. Future plans call for renovation of a school
and housing facilities for middle school students and the construction of a
separate student activities building.
There are plans to increase student population to 800. Personnel with special skills in raising money
and improving outside communications have been hired. Founder’s Hall is being surveyed to determine
the requirements and costs to stabilize and eliminate some of the problems that
have occurred to it during its one hundred and fifty year existence.
In the past few years the educational quality has improved and higher standards have been established. To eliminate the excessive turnover in teaching staff, salary schedules have been revised to be competitive with city schools. Recruitment of quality houseparents is still difficult and probably will remain so because of the unattractive and unusual living conditions. The possibility of returning to a yearlong residential school is being studied. Nearly all graduates attend College.
In the past
few years the College received unjust criticism from the Philadelphia
Inquirer, the local newspaper. It
implied that the quality of education and living conditions is less today then
when it was an all-White school. Someone
called this “institutional racism”. The
articles alleged that the school’s budget was purposely reduced by the Board
during a period when the Estate was growing substantially. Headlines such as “Fortune thrives, school
does not”, “Girard Estate flush, but funds for school drop”, found in the 1997
newspapers brought adverse publicity to the College. Some of the criticism of the Board’s
political make-up were just, but in total the critics of the College were
unjust. There is still a need for the
College and it is caring for and educating six hundred children who otherwise
might be neglected or at least living under undesirable conditions.