William Penn Charter School

History

Penn Charter is among the first schools in the United States to offer education to all religions (1689), financial aid (1701), matriculation to girls (1754), and education to all races (1770). The "Charter" in the school's name does not, as might be assumed, mean that it is a modern "charter school". Rather, it is a reference to the historic document signed by William Penn to establish the first Quaker school in America. Originally located on the east side of Fourth Street below Chestnut, the school officially consolidated in 1874 as an all-boys College-preparatory school at 12th and Market Streets. Penn Charter moved to its current forty-seven acre East Falls campus in 1925. In 1980 the school became fully co-educational by allowing girls to continue past the second grade, thus graduating the first co-ed senior class in 1992.

Traditions

Service-learning is integral to the school and incorporated into the pre-K to 12 curriculum. The school's Center for Public Purpose engages students in service and community-based work by addressing Philadelphia's most pressing social issues, particularly education, food insecurity, and poverty. To earn an activity credit, many Upper School students complete 40 hours of community service a year; a van carrying students leaves the campus after school every day to perform community service in various locations throughout the Philadelphia area.

Color Day, celebrated on the Friday before Memorial Day, is a tradition in which two teams sporting the school's colors, blue and yellow, compete against each other in playful contests, concluding with a 12th-grade rope pull.

The school's Senior Stairs are a central stairway that only current seniors, faculty, and alumni can use during school hours.

A Penn Charter graduate is known as an "OPC." The honorific "OPC 1689" is bestowed rarely by the Overseers upon significant faculty and staff in recognition of their service to Old Penn Charter.

Activities

The school newspaper, "The Mirror", is the oldest secondary school student newspaper in the United States, having been published since 1777.

The Upper School's Quakers Dozen is the school's select, audition-based a cappella group. They bi-annually tour all over the country during spring break, and often perform at school events like Commencement.

In the summer months, the school runs a day camp for children.

Sports

Penn Charter is a member of the Inter-Academic League (Inter-Ac), the nation's oldest high school sports league, and shares the nation's oldest continuous football rivalry with Germantown Academy, celebrated every year since 1886 during GA/PC Day. As of 2024, the game has been played 138 times, more times than the Army–Navy Game (116) and just two fewer times than the Harvard–Yale Game (132).

Campus

On the 47 acre campus, the three divisions of the school (Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools) have their own designated buildings. The Upper School building was built in 1925 when PC moved to Schoolhouse Lane. In addition to the 3 academic buildings, there are also various buildings across the campus like the GAC, which holds the pool and a gym, the squash courts near the tennis courts, and the Kurtz, a 600+ seat theater built in 2010. The Kurtz has 4 recording studios, a Broadway sized stage with an underground orchestra pit, a choir and band room and multiple multi-purpose rooms. The campus also boasts a newly added state-of-the-art athletics building, the Graham Athletics and Wellness Center. It holds 2 full sized basketball courts with an overhead bridge that separates the two, a college level weight room, an athletic trainers room with a hot and cold tub, 2 locker rooms for Upper School students (boys and girls) as well as 2 visitor locker rooms and 2 Middle School locker rooms, a snack stand for students, a wrestling room and many multipurpose rooms.

Leadership

John Flagg Gummere, scion of prominent Quaker educators, was headmaster from 1941 to 1968. He was a noted Latin scholar (Ph.D., Penn) and author of several widely used textbooks. He was followed by Wilbert L. Braxton, a longtime dedicated Penn Charter faculty member and administrator. Braxton was headmaster from 1968 until 1976. He was followed by Head of School Earl J. Ball III. After 31 years as head, Ball retired in June 2007. Darryl J. Ford, former director of the Penn Charter Middle School, was appointed as Head of School by the Overseers after a national search. Ford was the school's first African-American head. On March 17, 2022, Ford announced his resignation. Later that year, on October 22, 2022, the Board of Trustees announced the selection of Karen Warren Coleman as the next Head of School, who started in the fall of 2023. Coleman is the first woman to serve as Head of School.

In popular culture

The ABC show The Goldbergs features a fictional school that the Goldberg children attend called William Penn Academy, which is based on William Penn Charter School. The show's creator, Adam F. Goldberg, is an alumnus of William Penn Charter School, an OPC 1994. The show features Germantown Academy as the chief rival of the school. The show also features actual teachers and students who attended the school in the '80s and '90s.

Schooled, a spin-off of The Goldbergs also features the fictional William Penn Academy as the primary setting for the show.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of William Penn Charter School people

Penn Charter has notable alumni in the arts, sciences, government, and business, including Rubén Amaro Jr., David Sirota, Matt Ryan, Robert Picardo, Adam F. Goldberg, Mark Gubicza, Michael Siani, Leicester Bodine Holland, Richard B. Fisher, Arthur Ingersoll Meigs, Richard Lester and Vic Seixas

References

References

1. Montgomery, Thomas Harrison. (1900). "[[:File:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu". George W. Jacobs & Co..
2. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141006163529/http://articles.philly.com/2014-04-30/entertainment/49497079_1_quaker-school-jenkintown-tv-show Archives - Philly.com]