In 1689, William Penn founded this school on a radical idea: that education should be open to everyone. One of the first schools to welcome students of all religions, races and genders—and to offer financial aid—Penn Charter has championed access and equality from the very beginning. Those values still guide everything we do today. 

Penn Charter's commitment to access has deep roots. As early as 1697, the Overseers William Penn appointed to govern the school established a fund so that the children of the poor could attend. Penn Charter was among the first schools to welcome students of all religions (1689) and races (1770), and to educate girls (1754).

In 1875, Penn Charter consolidated as a private all-boys prep school under Gurneyite Friends guidance. With reformer Richard Mott Jones as headmaster, and a new location at 12th and Market streets, the school quickly earned a national reputation for excellence in both academics and student life.

Penn Charter began as a downtown urban school, and as it expanded, finding a new home took more than 50 years. Today, our School House Lane campus offers a green, wide-open space that's still unmistakably part of the city. It's a place that draws families from across Philadelphia, New Jersey and beyond, and feels like home to all of them.

Richard Mott Jones' daughters were Penn Charter students and, throughout the 20th century, girls enrolled in kindergarten and first grade. Penn Charter became fully coed again in 1991, and graduated the first modern coed class in 1992. 

The Middle School building, completed in 2002, houses grades 6-8. It is a light-filled space with large classrooms and science labs, an atrium and an IdeaLab. Middle school students enjoy this space all their own. 

The Kurtz Center, opened in January 2010, is a LEED Gold building featuring a vegetative roof. It hosts a variety of performances throughout the year, including plays, musicals, and band and choral concerts. The center has a 625-seat theater equipped with a sprung floor for dance and an orchestra pit that allows student musicians to accompany stage performers, complete with a hydraulic lift. Additionally, the facility includes choral and instrumental rooms, a recording studio, four individual practice rooms, a scene shop, a costume room, and dressing rooms.

In the William A. Graham IV OPC '58 Athletics & Wellness Center, which opened in September 2021, we fortify the PC athletic legacy, cheer the Quakers, and gather to celebrate all-school traditions.

The complete vision for PC athletics began with the first project in the campus transformation: construction of a new baseball field on the newly purchased property on Strawbridge Campus. Ralph F. Palaia Field was completed in spring 2019. The new complex provides synergy between the athletics facilities on both sides of School House Lane.

The new 88,000-square-foot Graham Athletics & Wellness Center includes:

• Fitness center and cardio center, training room, hydrotherapy, nutrition center
• Wrestling room, basketball courts for team practice and PE program (the courts convert to competition courts)
• Climbing wall
• Multipurpose room, classroom space, student and coach lockers, meeting spaces
• OPC Rail of Recognition and storytelling display of PC traditions
• Safe, direct access to track / Maguire Stadium Field / Strawbridge Campus / Palaia Field
• Storm water management features, nature landscape

The campus master planning project determined that the very best place to build the new lower school now, as well as for the future development of our 47-acre campus, is on the site of the current field house. Moving the functions of the field house to the new Athletics & Wellness Center adjacent to Maguire Stadium Field creates the opportunity to build the lower school in the best location — and create a vibrant, collective Academic Village.

A new view of campus from School House Lane, with Graham Athletics & Wellness on the left, the main academic building in the center, and the David L. Kurtz Center for the Performing Arts on the right presents a unified front line representing the ongoing vision and new expression of academics, arts and athletics.

The William A. Graham IV OPC ’58 Athletics & Wellness Center is a vibrant 88,000-square-foot facility that amplifies athletics and wellness. With two competition courts, a wrestling room, fitness center, rock wall, athletic training suite, classroom space and nutrition center, the Graham is a community gathering space as well.

Penn Charter students, teachers and staff kicked off the 2024-25 school year with an opening assembly that welcomed the community to the 100th year on PC’s present-day campus, known as Pinehurst. Head of School Karen Warren Coleman shared with students the theme of the school year, Community: Together We Thrive.

"One of the many things our faculty do so well at Penn Charter," she said, “is to educate and prepare students for the world that ought to be—as it could be. 

"Robert Lawrence Smith, a Quaker educator and author of The Quaker Book of Wisdom, posed the question ‘What makes a good school?’

“Smith’s response to this question always makes me beam with pride,” she said, “as it describes everything I know about and have experienced here at PC. He says, ‘A good school is one that is constantly engaged in self-examination, in improving itself, in becoming wiser in its ability to teach and inspire. It’s a school that is intent on turning out good people who make a better world.’” 

Louella Whitaker, senior class clerk, shared her own perspective. “To create a strong community, we must find things we share in common – points of connection that will bring us together rather than pull us apart. Yes, we each bring something unique to this community, and that is what makes this place so beautiful, but finding similarities, even with our differences, is what will allow us to grow as individuals and as a community.”

Other highlights of the assembly included Coleman presenting the Class of 2025 with its official class banner; the Quakers Dozen performing “Meeting for Worship (After a While)” – based on a poem by Helen Morgan Brooks, with music written and arranged by choral director Tony Yoo; and Paul Hough OPC ’77, in his first address to the PC community as clerk of the Board of Trustees, articulating his wish for students: “May those red doors inspire you every day to do great things.” 

See photos of the Opening Assembly and the first day of school in all divisions, including pre-K and kindergarten.

“Looking back over my seven years at Penn Charter at Eight S. Twelfth Street, the day that comes to my mind as the most outstanding is the one when we were called back to assembly shortly after our regular morning assembly had been dismissed. Our beloved Headmaster … announced that we had been willed twenty beautiful landscaped acres at Queen Lane where our playing fields would soon be located and where the school would eventually be moved. We were instructed to go right over to Broad Street Station, where a special train would be waiting to take all 500 students to Queen Lane so we could look the grounds over. It was as happy a group of boys as you would want to see, although most of us realized that we would be graduated before the school could be moved from the heart of Philadelphia to this beautiful location.” 

– Richard P. Cuthbert OPC 1904 

The sentiment above was excerpted from an essay titled “Looking Back to the Turn of the Century” and appears in the book Old Penn Charter, a collection of anecdotes documenting Penn Charter’s history and the many individuals who had an impact on the first 300 years of William Penn Charter School’s existence. 

The anticipation that began in 1903 would last for more than two decades. 

By the year 1897, enrollment had skyrocketed – from 17 students in 1689 to well over 400. Headmaster Richard Mott Jones knew his students needed more space and was anxious to have a plan in place to secure appropriate indoor and outdoor facilities for his burgeoning student body. He would not need to wait much longer. 

Following the passing of two Quaker women, Sallie M. Waln and Clementine Cope, the latter of whom was the sister of overseers Francis Reeve Cope and Thomas P. Cope Jr., Penn Charter was willed a 35-acre estate in “the country,” known as Pinehurst. 

The campus stood, waiting for occupants, until 1923, when the school finally made an advantageous sale of the 12th Street property. But those 20 years were not in vain, as the school spent considerable time and resources ensuring that the building, the classrooms and the fields would have the very best materials and resources when students would finally occupy those spaces. 

The anticipation was palpable for the boys and young men of Penn Charter during the early 1920s. They had outgrown their campus and were ready for a more modern, spacious home, where they could learn and play, study and explore all across one expansive, green campus. And that day, Sept. 23, 1925, the first official school day on the Pinehurst campus, was filled with excitement. 

“We have all experienced many more or less memorable events but one that will remain in our minds much longer than most all others is the day that the William Penn Charter School opened wide its doors for the first time at Pinehurst,” read the Penn Charter magazine in 1925. 

Students were also thrilled with the modern new building—“the last word in academic up-to-dateness”—and determined its “splendid edifice whose tower pierces the air” would be dedicated to all who lived and worked with the “spirit of Penn Charter instilled in them.” 

This fall marks 100 years since that momentous day, and Penn Charter’s campus footprint, student body and program have continued to grow. The 2025-2026 school year opened with a record 1,021 students—students who are able to benefit from the dedication, foresight and investment of so many academic leaders and innovators who understood the power and impact of a Penn Charter education. 

“That spirit of generosity and vision has been a longstanding hallmark of the Penn Charter community and is what allows us to proudly celebrate the 100th year of students attending our storied school on the current Pinehurst campus,” Head of School Karen Warren Coleman shared in her Commencement 2025 address. “This monumental time in our history is truly cause for celebration—this community has been blessed with generations of former and current leaders whose generosity has positioned us well for the future.” 

The size of the school may fluctuate and expansion may take place, but what has not and will not change is the sense of belonging that has always been at the heart of the Penn Charter experience. 

As Cuthbert shared in 1904, “It is one of the greatest satisfactions of my life that I was privileged to have spent those formative years at Penn Charter, and I am proud to be one of the many grateful graduates … I remember and cherish most of all the acute feeling of belongingness … that permeated the school. It was as if there was an unseen spirit that bound us one to the other. I feel it even today.” 

Penn Charter is pleased to announce Dennis Bisgaard as interim head of school for a two-year term, effective August 20, 2026. As he assumes this role, the school will launch a comprehensive 18-month national search for a permanent head of school to begin in 2028. 

A nationally recognized independent school leader, Dennis has over 20 years of experience, serving as both a head of school and interim head of school at top schools across the country. Most recently, Dennis was the head of Maret School in Washington, D.C., where he led the launch of the school’s strategic plan, “Advancing with Purpose,” completed the school’s AIMS accreditation self-study, acquired and purchased new home athletics fields, conducted K–12 curricular reviews in a number of departments, and helped to bring to life new outdoor gathering spaces for the greater community.

Prior to Maret, Dennis served as interim head of school at Friends School of Baltimore, Park Tudor School in Indianapolis, and The Northwest School in Seattle. He also spent 12 years at Kingswood Oxford School in Connecticut, where he worked to expand fundraising, enhance curricular opportunities and secure new facilities. During his tenure, he established the Kingswood Oxford Leadership Institute for Educators of Color to help identify and develop future independent school leaders. Dennis has also served on the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and is a member of the Heads Collegiate Forum and Heads and Principals Association.

Dennis received his MA in educational administration (private school leadership) at Columbia University, Teachers College at The Klingenstein Center, where he was a member of the International Honor Society in Education. He also received his Candidatus Magisterii degree in British & American literature and physical education (equivalent to MA/PhD) from Odense Universitet (University of Southern Denmark). Early in his career, he spent time in Philadelphia as the recipient of Temple University’s inaugural “Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation” Post-Graduate Fellowship.

After beginning his career as an English and physical education teacher and coach at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Dennis served in the dual role as classroom teacher and administrator at Collegiate School in New York City, associate head at Shady Hill School in Cambridge, and founding head of School at Whittle School & Studios in Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Monica, also an educator, with a background in counseling psychology, have devoted their lives, both professionally and personally, to championing the education, well-being and growth of young people and emerging leaders.

From the beginning of our search, Penn Charter has sought an experienced, capable leader who can empower and support our dedicated faculty and staff and lead growth and continuous improvement. We looked for an interim head whose presence, warmth and capacity for genuine engagement would reinforce Penn Charter’s mission, culture and Quaker values. We believe Dennis will not only serve as a stable leader for the next two academic years but will also continue to advance Penn Charter’s essential strategic planning work in preparation for a permanent head of school to begin in 2028.

 “Dennis impressed the search committee with his focus on both steady and strategic leadership during this important time," said Greg Summers OPC ’89, P ’23, ’26, co-clerk of the search committee. “There are few school leaders in the country who have the breadth of experience leading as an interim head. In selecting Dennis, the board felt confident that Penn Charter will continue to advance in every realm.”

“There are schools one comes to understand over time, and others whose character you feel almost immediately,” Dennis shared. “During our visit, my wife, Monica, and I felt something distinctive about Penn Charter—in the warmth of its people, the vitality of the campus, and the quiet strength of its Quaker values. I am deeply honored and humbled to become part of this remarkable community.”

We are thrilled to welcome Dennis to the Penn Charter community!