The Northwood Civic met Tuesday night to discuss the proposal by Camelot Schools of Pennsylvania to operate an Excel Academy on the grounds of Friends Hospital at 4641 Roosevelt Boulevard (map) . Camelot is seeking zoning variances to open this school year and needs the support of Northwood.
The school would be under contract to the School District of Philadelphia and similar to the one operated at present on Bustleton avenue. It would only serve students in the Northeast. The purpose is to help students who have fallen at least two or more grade levels behind to catch up and graduate. It is not a disciplinary school but an accellerated program to get these kids back on track.
The Civic has been negotiating for several weeks and a vote was taken on the proposed agreement. It was approved unanimously.
Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School opened its doors Saturday to the community and we stopped by briefly to see what was happening. There was certainly a good sized crowd at 9:30.
The school is located in the old Mater Dolorosa school at Paul and Ruan Streets. it’s good to see it being put to good use again.
We walked about the building and it showed that a lot of work has gone into getting it ready for the school opening in September.
In the gym we were greeted by the sound of drums. I am a sucker for percussion and I have rarely heard a sound with this beat. Those guys should be invited to the Frankford Festival.
I’ve heard some folks wonder about this school and the strange sounding name. You can go to their web site linked above to find out more. It is a charter school which means it is funded by the school district and therefore follows the same curriculum as the public schools. The difference is that where choices exist, they will use African cultural resources. When I was growing up, our school talked a lot about the Irish and German cultures. Since this area is populated by many African Americans it makes sense.
From the philadelphia Real Estate Hub we have some Frankford transactions made in July of 2009. It’s probably not all inclusive. You can see most of the houses by using google maps street level view.
We’ve been trying to get a key made. Sounds simple enough but life can be complicated. Got some done at Lowes a while ago and that worked so we went back there and asked them to make a copy from the one they made before. It worked fine. Took those keys and not one of them worked. So went back to Lowes and told them about that and they said OK we’ll do it again. Took those keys and not one of those worked either. So we took those back and gave up on Lowes.
Was coming up Frankford Avenue Tuesday morning and was passing 4320 Frankford Avenue. Looked out to my left and there was a locksmith, American Lock Services. Brilliant thought came to me that maybe they would be able to make a key. I parked and went over. It was about 10:30 but the door was locked. I banged on the door and a nice lady with a Russian accent came to open it.
So I told her the problem and in one minute she had two keys ready to go. She said sometimes people just don’t pay attention to what they are doing. Bring them back if they don’t work.
They worked.
I kind of owe them this plug. When I was doing the walk up Main Street video I originally had them in but cut them because I did such a poor shot of the store front. In any case, we know they make keys pretty well.
We have some transactions for August thanks to our friends at City Space.
