On the first day of classes last September, the Philadelphia school superintendent and mayor joined other officials outside of Guion S. Bluford Elementary School to cheer on its 539 students as they entered the building.
The school district’s choice of Bluford for this annual ritual was telling. From 2010 to 2022, Bluford – built in 1972 to serve a growing population in the Overbrook neighborhood – had not been run by the district, but as a charter school operated by Universal Companies as part of the district’s Renaissance Initiative.
Then in the summer of 2022, in a dispute with its board of trustees, Universal ended its contract, and for that academic year the school operated in turmoil. Without its longtime manager, Bluford struggled to hire teachers, convince parents of its viability, and keep up the facility – among other problems, it lost internet access – until the district stepped in to build a new staff and assign a turnaround principal in 2023.
