As budget cuts slash deeper and deeper into the city’s public schools, teachers and principals need to get more creative in looking for resources to help students. Parents and community residents are a great place to start.

That’s why parents and community members are invited to the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) on Monday for a community forum hosted by principal Sonya Harrison. The roundtable discussion will focus on the question, “How can all adults work together to improve student success at the Lea School?”

Two sessions of the forum will be held Monday. The first is 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and breakfast will be provided. The later session runs from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and dinner and homework help are provided.

RSVP is required. To register, go to the office at the Lea School or call 215-898-1112 or email PPCE@gse.upenn.edu.

Head over to the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools website for more Lea-related news.

A whole host of goblins, ghosts and other creatures large and small turned out yesterday for the Halloween Parade through the Spruce Hill neighborhood. The annual tradition began near 45th and Baltimore and concluded on the finely decorated 4200 block of Osage Ave, (“Little Osage”). We could go on about the costumes, but it’s easier just to show you. Check out the photos below.

(Photos by Mike Lyons / West Philly Local)

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SEPTA announced this week that it is expanding wireless service to many more stations, including most along the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines. Today SEPTA launched free WiFi access at the 69th Street Transportation Center used by thousands of people every day.

SEPTA is partnering with Comcast on this thing (in exchange for some free advertising), so the WiFi is Xfinity. People who already subscribe to Xfinity just need to log in as usual. Non-subscribers should click on the Xfinity network on their device and follow the prompts.

Other stations where you can use WiFi include Market East, Suburban, 30th Street, Temple University, and University City. The rollout of free WiFi at all the stations on the El and Broad Street lines will take up to two years, according to a press release. WiFi will also be expanded to regional rail and airport train stations. It seems like it won’t, unfortunately, be onboard trains and buses. That’s OK, SEPTA has bigger fish to fry – like making sure it actually stays in business.

SEPTA also announced the release of a new app. It is pretty good, but it doesn’t go much further than the better third-party transit apps available (though it looks better). The app includes current schedules for all trains, trolleys and buses and up-to-the-minute info on regional rail. Using GPS, it will also list the closest stops etc. One not-so-intuitive thing is that when you want to return to the main menu of transit options, click the transit symbol (the trolley, bus, or train) in the upper left part of the screen (see screen shot).

The app is only available for the iPhone as of today, but we’re told that an Android version is in the works.

– Mike Lyons

Pirate scene at the Haunted Garden (Photo by Elizabeth Campion).

One of the big neighborhood draws on Halloween night is the haunted garden near 46th and Springfield, where throngs of young and old come to get good and scared. This year the garden will move about 100 feet away to the seriously spooky basement of the Saint Francis de Sales School (more on that soon).

Everybody loves this event and it is getting bigger every year (literally thousands now), so more volunteers are needed to make it a success. This is a great chance to get involved with something that has become a West Philly tradition.

Squirrel Hill resident Elizabeth Campion, who has co-hosted the event for many years, has sent us a list of the ways you can help and the times people are needed:

• Trip to the wholesale store. The organizers are buying 3,000 candy bars and thousands of pieces of fruit. You need a driver’s license for this one. Bonus if you have a vehicle. Any time Wednesday afternoon, (10/30), through 1 p.m. on Thursday/Halloween.

• Moving decorations from a garage near 48th and Cedar to the site.  Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 4-8 p.m. Donate an hour or two if you can.

• Decorate!!! Help design and decorate sets. Wednesday evening, 10/30, from 6-9 p.m. and Thursday (Halloween day) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – whatever hour(s) you can spare.

• Stage carpenters. The organizers need one or two “stage carpenters” folks who know their way around duct tape, ropes, hooks and pulleys. Wednesday evening, (10/30), from about 6-9 p.m.

• Distribute treats. This is an ideal job for seniors, or families. Volunteers wait for the visitor to say “Trick or Treat” and respond with “Happy Halloween” and a treat.  Show up 10/31 at about 4:30 p.m. and leave when we run out (about 8 p.m.).

• Actors. Actors bring the sets alive. Families and Frats can coordinate as Pirates for the “Shipwreck,” or as Wait-Staff and Customers at “Dooley’s Deadly Diner” or Scarecrows at the “Poisoned Pumpkin Patch.” “Actors” must commit 10/31, 4:30-7:30 p.m. All volunteers are asked to come in costume, but some costume items can be borrowed from the organizers.

• Photographers. The organizers need people who have their own cameras and are willing to upload their cards to the Picasa site. Technical support will be provided if necessary. Photographers must commit 4:30-7:30 p.m. on 10/31. Can work as a team as long as there is continuous and overlapped coverage.

• Pack. Saturday, 11/2, from Noon-4 p.m. If you can differentiate between a spider and a pumpkin, you can help sort and pack. You will be paired with Cub Scouts who can do the bending and climbing.

If you would like to help with one or more of these activities or if you have questions, please contact Elizabeth at: home.in.phila@juno.com

Officials from the School District of Philadelphia will meet with community members today to discuss a new way of gauging success at public schools. The meeting will take place at West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St) beginning at 5:30 p.m.

District officials are asking for feedback on its new “school performance framework,” which will replace previous, often controversial, methods of evaluating schools. The goal, according to the District’s website, is to “develop and implement a new measure of school performance in order to hold all District and charter schools to the same high standards of performance, equity and safety.”

Many parents contend that these evaluation methods are a better measure of poverty than school performance as it compares schools with vastly different resources. The District faced opposition over the summer during public meetings on a plan to evaluate schools and issue performance “report cards.”

The meeting is scheduled to run until 7:30 p.m. and Superintendent William Hite will lead the discussion.

Tyrell Biggs (in the white t-shirt) still schools young Philly boxers in the finer points of the sweet science at a gym in the basement of the Shepard Recreation Center near 57th and Haverford.

Tyrell Biggs was one of those dudes who may have hit his prime too early.

He was a starting forward on that legendary West Philadelphia High School basketball team that won a state record 68 straight games on its way to Public League and City titles in 1976-1978.

A few years later, as an amateur boxer, he won gold at the U.S. National Boxing Championships. In 1982 he won the amateur World Championships in Munich. Two years later his path to professional boxing was clear after he won gold in the super heavyweight division at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, beating future champ Lennox Lewis on his way to the title. He won his first 15 pro fights and got a shot at the title in 1987 but lost in a seventh-round TKO to Mike Tyson.

All by age 27.

For Tyrell Biggs boxing was a way up in life, as it still is for many kids in the city. But like many young people who get a lot of money at a young age, Biggs battled drug and alcohol addiction during much of his adult life. He is the subject of a feature documentary that you can help make happen called Whatever Happened to Tyrell Biggs? (see video below).

Here’s the plot outline for the documentary, which is being produced by Lunchbox Communications (the crew that made Digital Dharma):

“In 1984, US Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs is hailed as the second coming of Muhammad Ali. What should have been the dream launch of an international boxing legend in reality, marked the beginning of a long period of misfortunes, both in and out of the ring. This feature biopic explores one man’s fall from grace into the depths of despair that pushes him to vanish. Living in that territory in between fame and failure, Biggs confronts a struggle that lives within us all.” A good chunk of the production of this film is already complete, but the production team needs some help getting this important story about someone born and raised in West Philly.