"Upon learning that University City High School was on the list for radical changes, one teacher described the mood as 'pretty gloomy.'
'It's like someone died,' said Jeffrey Rosenberg, a gym teacher and athletic director who has spent 15 years at the school. 'Our heads are spinning.'
The atmosphere wasn't much better at the Douglass School in North Philadelphia, which has had seven principals in the last seven years.
'Some people are very sad; some are saying maybe it won't happen,' said Betsy Wice, a retired reading specialist who returns every day to volunteer at the elementary school where she taught for 20 years. 'People are sort of clutching at straws.'"
