Public Service Charter School Pulls Application Amid Radnor Land Acquisition Move

RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — As Radnor Township begins the process to use eminent domain to acquire a roughly 14-acre tract of land owned by the Valley Forge Military Foundation, Valley Forge Public Service Academy is pulling its application for a charter school.

The Valley Forge Public Service Academy submitted its charter application with the Radnor Township School District in mid-November, about two months after officials announced Valley Forge Military Academy would close at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

But due to Radnor Township's plan to use eminent domain to acquire a portion of the land owned by the foundation, which includes the grounds for the Valley Forge Military Academy and proposed Valley Forge Public Service Academy (VFPSA), the application was withdrawn.

The VFPSA board of directors of the voted Thursday to withdraw the 1,000-page charter school application it submitted to the Radnor Township School District. They then immediately passed a resolution declaring their intention to resubmit its charter school application to the district once Radnor Township’s "eminent domain action regarding 14 acres on the campus has been clarified sufficiently to ensure the welfare and safety of Valley Forge Public Service Academy Charter School students and staff."

"That is clearly not something we could have anticipated," attorney Alan F. Wohlstetter, a VFPSA founder and the president of the School Improvement Partnership charter school consulting firm, said. "Clarification is now needed on a number of items in order for us to proceed with our application."

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Wohlstetter said the Township’s pursuit of eminent domain raises several important issues and clarifying questions. Those include exactly which 14 acres on the campus would be the subject of the eminent domain; if the 14 acres in question include the campus gym and if VFPSA students and staff still have access to those facilities; and how would traffic and parking be affected and impact the safety of VFPSA students, staff and the community.

"These have all now become unresolved issues impacting our ability to pre-enroll students," he said. "We don’t want to just be in the Radnor community, we want to be good partners to the Radnor community, school district and township."

Chairman of Valley Forge Military Foundation Board President John English said that board has not heard directly from the township about acquiring the property.

"There's been no communication, no letter, no email, no offer," he told Patch Thursday evening.

English called the township's move toward eminent domain "drastic" and "aggressive" and invited township representatives to contact the board to discuss a potential sale.

The Valley Forge Military Foundation is in the process of a 33.3-acre portion of the property — which includes the football stadium, track, athletic field house, several apartment buildings, additional fields, buildings, and pickleball courts — to Eastern University.

English said that land sold for $850,000 per acre. Larkin estimated that land sold for about $500,000 an acre.