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Lansdowne-Aldan Citizens' Committee records on the creation of the William Penn School District
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Held at: Delaware County Historical Society [Contact Us]408 Avenue of the States, Chester, Pennsylvania, 19013
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Delaware County Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Lansdowne-Aldan Citizens' Committee was one of several local committees that formed in 1971 in an attempt to halt the creation of the William Penn School District in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The committee lobbied to overturn the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's ruling to form the William Penn School District through merging and desegregating the existing smaller, local school districts of Lansdowne-Aldan, Yeadon, and Darby-Colwyn.
For several years, the school boards of Yeadon and Lansdowne-Aldan fought in state courts to preserve their independent school districts but were no longer able to continue to fight under the law. As an independent group, the Lansdowne-Aldan Citizens' Committee was able to go farther than the school boards, though its efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
The William Penn School District was established in 1972. It currently serves the boroughs of Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon.
A resident of Lansdowne and Maris Grove in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, John "Jack" Covert was a member of the Lansdowne-Aldan School Board, and subsequently the board of the William Penn School District. He was also a member of the executive committee and Education Chairman of the Lansdowne-Aldan Citizens' Committee.
A graduate of Upper Darby High School, Covert attended Delaware County Community College, St. Joseph's University, Villanova University, and Widener University. He served in the National Guard in the 1960s. Covert worked as a lineman and an analyst for Philadelphia Electric, retiring in 1992. He also owned a small business called Covert Operations. He was active as a coach for the Little League and basketball teams in East Lansdowne, and was a member of the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and MENSA.
Bibliography:
"L.-A. Committee Agrees with Nixon's Policies." The Yeadon-Lansdowne Courier. March 23, 1972. Clipping found in the collection.
"John Covert, Obituary." The Delaware County Daily Times, June 20, 2012. Accessed July 2, 2013. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delcotimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=158119986
This collection consists of materials collected by John "Jack" Covert, a member of the executive committee and Education Chairman of the Lansdowne-Aldan Citizens' Committee. It consists largely of correspondence with some financial records, newspaper clippings, copies of lawsuits and legal documents, meeting minutes, memoranda, newsletters, school statistics, donation forms, and lobbying materials.
Some of the materials relate to various parent organizations that formed during the waning days of Lansdowne-Aldan High School.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Delaware County Historical Society directly for more information.
People
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Delaware County Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Delaware County Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.