Hershey School Lives With Controversy

By Mary Ann Zehr

Hershey, Pa.

There are private schools. And then there's the Milton Hershey School.

The school bearing the name of its benefactor, the late chocolate-candy magnate Milton S. Hershey, was thrust onto the international stage recently when its board of managers considered selling the company whose sweet success has made the school's $5.5 billion trust one of the nation's wealthiest.

And though the board has backed down from a sale—talk of which stirred a ruckus here—it doesn't look as if the school's leaders will be left...