Ford Sets Full-Access Fund; Parents Organize Fund-Raiser

Head of School Darryl J. Ford has announced a new full-access fund to help families in need pay for costs beyond tuition. "It was our founder, William Penn, who first articulated the belief that the education offered by this school should benefit all children, rich and poor. This commitment continues three centuries later," Ford said.

For the 2008-2009 academic year, Penn Charter will spend $4.3 million to defray tuition costs for one out of three Penn Charter students. "But, as all parents and students know," Ford said, "tuition pays for only one piece of the educational experience."

Additional costs - for textbooks and calculators, for track shoes and trumpets, for field trips and junior prom - can bar some students from full access to the Penn Charter experience.

Ford set as a goal for his first year the establishment of a full- access fund to provide aid to meet these additional costs. The fund will make it easier for the school to help students of limited means, and easier for families in need to ask for help.

A $30,000 gift from an OPC has energized the effort, and the Penn Charter Community will support it with a new fund-raising effort. Block Party is a new Community event - to be held every three years - that will raise money for the full-access fund. Parents will gather May 16 at 6 p.m., for the first Block Party, a fun, informal event on the lawn at Timmons House. RSVP