‘A square peg in a round hole’
Puntel, the Spanish teacher, said she feels constant stress over the merger.
As the school’s union representative, she worries about who will get seniority among Saul and Lankenau teachers and about retaining excellent newer teachers. Worries about the merger have literally kept her up at night, she said.
Having seen the district through many changes, Puntel said she has developed “a trauma that lives in my body, and it’s exhausting.”
Above all, she emphasized that staff support saving Lankenau. While the two programs are similar, they aren’t necessarily a great fit — at least not without an adequate on-ramp, she said.
“We both care about agriculture and we both care about the environment, but they’re two very distinct schools and different communities,” Puntel said.
She said the mergers and closures represent larger problems as school districts everywhere grapple with declining enrollment and underfunding.
Messiah Stokes, a senior at Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet School, has advocated against the proposed closure of his school. (Rana Rastegari for WHYY)
Puntel pointed to the ongoing demonstrations in Paris, where mass protests have formed around the poor condition of public school buildings, disinvestment in young people’s futures and the rising cost of living. What’s happening in Philadelphia is much the same, she said.
“We have all kinds of all kinds of things happening around the world at this moment around inequality and education, and I think it speaks to those that are in power that do not see children or learning as a priority,” Puntel said.
In their uncertain situation, Saul staff have adopted the term “Lanken-Saul,” after the fictional Frankenstein, whose well-intentioned but unthoughtful creation ends in disaster.
If both programs could engage in extensive collaboration on a unified school, it could have strong potential, Puntel said. But without this opportunity, they’re left feeling unprepared.
“We’re excited beyond belief to have the possibility of getting to learn and study with those [Lankenau] students, but we also have students also say very clearly that there’s no way that this is happening, right? Because we’re not ready, right?” she said.
Puntel said she and her team “do not see any evidence of any kind of successful merger in our future.”
“If [the district] is going to push this through, you are pushing a round peg into a square hole,” she said.