[Editor’s Note: We did not attend yesterday’s Penn Alexander rally at Penn. The information for the report below comes from some who did. We decided to reprint the statement from a parent below because we feel it provides an important perspective. That said, we hope that ALL of the neighborhood schools in the area could benefit from committed parents like the ones we have come to know from the situation at Penn Alexander.]

Several parents of prospective Penn Alexander School kindergartners rallied on Penn’s campus yesterday. Carrying signs and chanting “10 more in,” the parents hoped to attract the attention of top Penn administrators who were meeting inside Houston Hall and protest the School District of Philadelphia registration lottery held behind closed doors last week.

The district mailed notifications to parents this week indicating whether their child was admitted to the school. Most parents at the rally knew whether their child was one of the 10 who registered and were not selected in the computer-generated lottery.

The statement below is from Spruce Hill resident Eric Santoro, whose son attends Penn Alexander. His daughter was not selected in the lottery. He read the statement during the rally. The bold and capitals are in the original.

Earlier this morning, I learned that a computerized lottery wait listed my daughter for admission into Penn Alexander, her neighborhood school.  Penn Alexander is the school that her older brother already attends. It is the school where my wife is a room parent. It is the school where I became a founding member of the parent communication committee. It is the school that is the very reason I moved back to University City, after I moved away in 1997 following an epidemic of violence and murder against neighborhood residents. Like many of you here today, my wife and I chose to live in the Penn Alexander Catchment, and have made considerable investments of time and resources to the neighborhood, because we want the best urban education possible for our children

Now we are being asked to accept that a computer generated lottery, which was conducted in secret, and about which we were given no information, has rejected my daughter from the neighborhood school that drove us to live here in the first place. I cannot accept this. On January 18, when the school district capriciously changed Penn Alexander’s registration policies, the school disseminated a letter from Superintendent Hite that said:  “In an effort to make this process . . . less challenging for parents in the catchment area, the School District of Philadelphia has decided to conduct a lottery to determine kindergarten enrollment.”

Unfortunately, the School District got it absolutely backwards:  when you implement a lottery and break up families and neighborhoods, you have created the most, not a less, challenging situation for parents in the catchment area.  When the Penn Alexander School was created, one of the stated goals was “[t]o ensure a close and vital relationship between the Neighborhood School and the community it serves.”  This aspirational goal has been turned on its head.  The imposition of a lottery now threatens to make our neighborhood school, the very thing that divides and diminishes our neighborhood. 

Families, like mine, with multiple children cannot be asked to play the lottery over and over again and risk that their families will be strewn across the district.  Families will inevitably move, new families will inevitably refuse to move in, and our wonderful neighborhood will be torn apart – returning it to the days when Spruce Hill was mere transient stop for Penn employs to live for a couple of years before they move to the suburbs. This is also unacceptable.

We are told that the Penn Alexander lottery is a District “pilot” program. I have a better idea:  how about if instead of piloting a lottery, we pilot doing everything possible to allow all children to attend their neighborhood school? How about if instead of piloting a lottery, we pilot increased student enrollment even if it’s a little beyond our typical “comfort” level? How about if instead of piloting breaking up families, we pilot doing everything we can to keep families together? How about if instead of piloting a secret lottery, we pilot transparent processes where all impacted parents can understand how decisions are made about their children? How about if instead of piloting school district ultimatums and capricious decision making, we pilot increased community involvement and open dialogues about decisions that impact our children? How about if instead of piloting school district decision making based anonymous data and hypothetical conjecture, we pilot decision making that takes into consideration the actual, real life people and families who will be affected?

On January 18, 71 families got in line and planned to sleep outside for four days for a spot at Penn Alexander.  If 71 parents are willing to sleep outside for 4 nights in January so that their children can attend this school, then we are surely also willing to commit our time, resources, and diverse skill sets to help develop a solution to the enrollment issues.  Give us that chance! Give us a chance, and I have no doubt that a reasonable solution to the enrollment crunch will be achieved The School District and University of Pennsylvania need to recognize that the parents are not a problem to be dealt with; but rather, we need to be part of the solution.

Parental involvement in a neighborhood school can only be a good thing. And decisions about the school that impact the lives of families and do not involve the input of the community should be viewed as unacceptable and deemed invalid. We should not have to accept an untimely and entirely arbitrary pilot program.  The lottery was supposed to promote fairness, but singling out our children as a test case for the entire Philadelphia School District is the most unfair result of all.

To the School District and to the University of Pennsylvania, I implore you:  Let us help you FIND A WAY TO ENROLL 10 MORE CHILDREN AT PENN ALEXANDER!

 Thank you

In addition to the Little Baby’s Ice Cream zoning meeting, there will be two more important neighborhood development and safety meetings this Thursday, Feb. 21.

– Garden Court Community Association invites residents and business owners to join them at 6:30 p.m. at 4725 Chestnut Street for a meeting and potluck dinner. Small business and economic development within Garden Court (45th St. to 52nd St. and Locust St. to Cedar Ave.) will be discussed at this meeting. Here are some of the topics:

• Do you want information on starting a business?
• What kind of services and retail do you want to see in the Garden Court neighborhood?
• Are you interested in what community members can do together to improve business districts within neighborhoods?
• Are you a neighborhood entrepreneur interested in resources to help your business?
• What would you like to see in the neighborhood business districts (48th & Spruce and 52nd Street)?

The panel includes the following speakers: Angela Dowd-Burton (Executive Director, Office of Economic Opportunity, City of Philadelphia Commerce Department), Rojer Kern (Neighborhood Markets Manager, City of Philadelphia Commerce Department), Iola Harper (Senior Director of the Business Acceleration Group), and Mahari Baily, Esq. (Love Real Estate Group).

You can also hear updates on GCCA membership, planning, and education activities and more. For more information, please contact Kate Mills, Corresponding Secretary, at katewmills@gmail.com.

– A monthly community meeting with police will be held at Calvary Center for Culture and Community (48th & Baltimore), beginning at 6 p.m. Bring your questions and concerns and discuss crime and other neighborhood issues with Lt. Brian McBride and Sgt. Ron Washington of the University City Division of the Philadelphia 18th Police District.

Life in West Philly may soon become a little sweeter. A popular Philadelphia ice cream and frozen dessert shop, Little Baby’s Ice Cream,  has revealed plans to expand into West Philly and already has chosen a Cedar Park location. The property where the new Little Baby’s Ice Cream parlor is proposed is at 4903 Catharine Street, which is the old Fourth River Signworks property.

This Thursday, Feb. 21, the Cedar Park Neighbors Zoning Committee and the owners of Little Baby’s Ice Cream will review the proposed plans to convert 4903 Catharine Street into a takeout ice cream parlor/restaurant on the first floor of the property at a zoning meeting, which will begin at 7:15 p.m. at Calvary Center (48th & Baltimore). Vacant spaces are proposed on the second and third floor of the property. Residents are invited to the meeting to provide their feedback on this issue before a hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment scheduled on March 13 at 5:00 pm at 1515 Arch St.

If the proposal is approved by the ZBA and if everything else goes according to the plans, the new shop, titled “Little Baby’s Ice Cream Cedar Park Embassy,” will open in the early spring 2013.

Little Baby’s Ice Cream specializes in handmade, small-batch Philadelphia style ice cream and non-dairy and vegan frozen desserts, as well as handmade cookies and milkshakes.

Parents of some of next year’s prospective Penn Alexander School kindergartners will rally outside a University of Pennsylvania meeting on Wednesday to persuade the School District of Philadelphia to open up more spots in the school’s kindergarten and first grade. The rally comes as the District confirmed that the lottery was held and that parents would be notified by mail this week.

A group of parents of “kindergarten eligible students” are organizing the rally as Penn’s University Council meets. A representative of the group, a Penn professor, will speak during the “open forum” portion of the meeting, which allows members of the Penn community to raise issues. The meeting is only open to people affiliated with Penn and top Penn administrators are expected to be present. The rally is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. outside of Houston Hall at 3417 Spruce Street.

A Penn-affiliated parent who lives in the Lea School catchment is scheduled to speak on “partnering with local public schools beyond Penn Alexander.”

Penn Alexander rally organizers are asking that kindergarten class sizes, currently capped at 18, be increased to accommodate all registered students. Penn provides funding to the school to help keep the class sizes smaller than the District maximum of 30 seats per class.

“We request that seats be added to accommodate 22 Kindergarten students per class,” the rally organizers wrote in a statement.

The group also reiterated its opposition to the registration lottery, which was held by computer last week. According to the statement, 88 children registered for kindergarten, which includes some Head Start and special needs students who receive automatic enrollment. The increase to 22 seats would ensure admission for all students who registered.

“Based upon our group’s investigation we believe the existing kindergarten and first grade classrooms are large enough and can support more children,” the statement reads. “We believe that through a natural attrition, the class sizes for first grade will never reach close to 30.”

The group is also pressing the district to release details about how the lottery was conducted. So far district officials have only told parents that they will receive notification of their child’s status in the mail this week.

In an e-mail to prospective kindergarten parents, district spokesman Fernando Gallard wrote:

“The letter will advise if your child is admitted to the 2013-2014 class or if your child is on the waiting list. If an applicant is on the waiting list, a number advising the order on the waiting list will be cited in the letter.  The letter also asks applicants on the waiting list of their opportunity to seek enrollment at Lea School.”

– Mike Lyons

It’s no secret: property taxes for many in West Philly, especially in gentrifying neighborhoods, will increase beginning next year. Some will see dramatic increases under the city’s new Actual Value Initiative (AVI), which is designed to rectify disparities in assessed home values.

Check the assessed values of nearly every plot in the city using the clickable and zoomable map below.

Some estimates put the number of property owners who will see an increase at about 60 percent. Most of those will be modest increases. But residential properties on some blocks will see their taxes double – or more. For example,  property taxes on the east side of the 400 block of 51st street could rise as much as 270 percent. A caveat is in order here. Although the assessed values are right, the map is based on a 1.34 percent tax. City Council will set the actual rate in the spring and will also consider relief measures for the hardest hit property owners.

Property owners can also appeal assessments (see “AVI tools and resources” below).

Property owners will receive new assessments this week by mail, but the assessments are already accessible online thanks to the city’s efforts to make home values transparent. The clickable map below produced by the non-profit news and information organization Axis Philly shows the new assessed values. The darker the red, the higher the likely increase. If the property owner received a homestead exemption, that should be noted on the map.

Obviously, it’s too early to predict how these new values may impact neighborhoods. Part of the appeal (and higher sale prices) of homes in “up and coming” neighborhoods in the city like Fishtown, Graduate Hospital, Powelton Village and University City were low property taxes. So the tax increases themselves will likely impact sale prices (and “actual value”).

For property owners who live within the Penn Alexander catchment, the new assessments come on the heels of an announcement from the School District of Philadelphia that the school will implement a kindergarten registration lottery. The school has already said that spots in the elementary school are not guaranteed for new children in the catchment.

Many renters could also see a bump, depending on what type of property they live in. Many large apartment complexes will see a drop in assessed value and their taxes, while homes converted into apartments are more likely to see an increase.

Large commercial properties will likely see the biggest drop. Taxes on the CVS property at 43rd and Locust, for example, could drop as much as 20 percent. But many properties that house small businesses will not fare as well.

How will the new assessed values impact you? Will it drive people and businesses out of your neighborhood?

The clickable map (press “collapse” to reduce the size of the search window):

AVI tools and resources:

• Pew Report: The Actual Value Initiative: Overhauling Property Taxes in Philadelphia.
• Appeal your assessment
• AVI Calculator
• Newswork.org’s Taxipedia.

 – Mike Lyons

Police have charged a 19-year-old West Philadelphia woman in the abduction of a 5-year-old girl from Bryant Elementary School (6001 Cedar Avenue) with rape, kidnapping and related charges.

Police say Christina Regusters was the woman who donned Muslim clothing and a face veil, impersonated the girl’s mother and took her from the school on the morning of  Jan. 14. The girl was found by a passerby hiding on a playground in Upper Darby the following morning. Regusters and three others were picked up at a home yesterday on the 6200 block of Walton Street. The other three people were released, but police say they have not been ruled out as suspects.

Regusters worked at an after-school program that the girl attended, police said. Video surveillance and the young girl’s description of the street and home have been vital in the investigation.

– Mike Lyons