Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School (SLACS)

Philadelphia, PA

In 2005, the Southwest Leadership Academy Charter School was formed in the under-serviced Woodland / 72nd Street area of Southwest Philadelphia to fill what its founders saw as a large gap in the public school system. Since then, SLACS has grown and built a reputation that stretches far beyond its neighborhood.

In the past decade, SLACS had begun to physically outgrow its original school building, but in order to fund their new, larger campus, they needed to raise enrollment

To help SLACS increase enrollment (and ultimately fund their new campus), Morley was hired to provide architectural design in building more classrooms by converting a former police evidence vault into a new school! We renovated two floors of an existing three-story building totaling 15,700 sq. ft transforming it into a new school with its own

We also provided rezoning services since converting commercial space into a school required several presentations to the local community and zoning board access and drop-off area.

Now, with 13 additional classrooms, SLACS can increase enrollment enough to justify the build-out of their new school campus.