Burned out charter school to re-open Wednesday

A West Philadelphia Charter School demolished by fire is going to share some space for the rest of the academic year.  A new building is being constructed to provide a permanent home.

The temporary home for the Global Leadership Academy (GLA) was destroyed by fire on Sunday.  The School District has worked out a deal with the Kipp Charter School to share their district owned space at 5900 Baltimore Avenue until GLA’s permanent home is ready in September.  

“GLA didn’t burn down, a pile of bricks a bunch of pencils, a pile of paper went up in smoke but not GLA it didn’t burn down, no not at all,” said Dr Naomi Johnson Booker is CEO of the displaced school.

Mark Mannella is head of Kipp Schools.  He says there is no problem sharing space and there will be separate entrances for both schools.  “We will share the cafeteria, we will share the gym but we will be in there at different times so that there’s no confusion and there’s no which students do what or whatever,” said Mannella.

GLA’s new home is expected to be finished by September and wasn’t touched by the fire.