A 53-year-old man was attacked, beaten and robbed by a large group of teenagers on Monday evening near 45th and Chester, according to police.

The man was walking in the area around 6 p.m. when he observed a group of teens (10 to 12 boys) yelling and acting irate. The man tried to avoid the group and started walking in the street along the bike lane. The teens then pulled the man back on the pavement and started punching him until he fell to the ground, according to a police report. The teens continued punching and kicking the man while he was on the ground until a witness, who was driving by, noticed the beating and began honking her car horn until the teens walked away.

After the teens left the area, the man noticed that his house keys, cell phone and iPod had been taken.

The witness drove the man to Penn Presbyterian Hospital where he was treated for pains to his head and legs, according to police.  Continue Reading

Samuel B. Huey School (Google Street View image)

Global Leadership Academy Charter School may soon take over the Samuel B. Huey elementary school at 52nd and Pine. On Monday, the School District of Philadelphia announced Global Leadership Academy as a match recommendation for Huey, through the Renaissance Charter Schools initiative.

Global Leadership Academy currently operates a K-8 school at 4600 West Girard Ave.

Jay Cooke Elementary in North Philadelphia is also slated to become a charter school.

“The Renaissance Charter Schools initiative is one of our most successful interventions to improve student achievement at struggling schools,” superintendent Dr. William R. Hite said in a statement.

The next step in the school conversion process is consideration by The School Reform Commission (SRC), which will consider both schools in the Jan. 21 action meeting. If approved by the SRC, Global Leadership Academy would take over Huey this fall, in the 2016-17 school year. The charter operators will be invited to submit a Renaissance Charter School application subject to a vote at a future SRC action meeting.

Huey and Cooke parents protested the conversion last year.

Thanks to a stolen cell phone’s tracking app, police were able to track down and detain three young males suspected in a gunpoint robbery near 47th and Springfield on Thursday evening.

Police say that a 40-year-old man was walking in the area at about 6:40 p.m. when he was approached by three young males who put what he believed to be a handgun to the back of his head, told him to not look back and put his hands on top of his head. Then the males took the man’s iPhone, Mac Book Pro laptop, house keys, and a backpack, and told him to run and not look back, according to a police report. The victim ran home and was actively tracking his phone to the area of 51st Street between Pentridge and Florence before it was manually powered off, according to police.  Continue Reading

The School District of Philadelphia released on Thursday the 2014-2015 School Progress Report (SPR), which measured performance of both District and charter schools during the school year. According to the report, Penn Alexander School (PAS) is the best K-8 school in the district and is the only school to attain the highest performance ratings across all the domains – Achievement, Climate and Growth. In 2013-2014, PAS was ranked 6th among the district’s K-8 schools.

Samuel Powel Elementary, a small K-4 school in Powelton Village, is ranked 5th best elementary school in the district and is one of the three Peer Leaders (the school achieved the highest SPR scores among others with similar students). The school enrolled about 260 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

Paul Robeson High School for Human Services was honored for the highest four-year graduation rates among non-special admission schools.

To view the report, go to the School District website.

UPDATE (2:00 p.m.): The gunman has been identified as 30-year-old Edward Archer of Yeadon. He reportedly told police that he had committed this act “in the name of Islam.” It also appears that he has been suffering from a mental condition. Archer’s mother told Philly.com that her son had been hearing voices and was asked to get medical help. 

A police officer was ambushed and shot multiple times, as he was driving his cruiser near 60th and Spruce, according to police.

The shooting took place at around 11:30 p.m. when a gunman approached the patrol vehicle and fired at least 13 shots at the officer with a semiautomatic pistol. The officer, identified as 33-year-old Jesse Hartnett, was struck in the left arm and multiple times in both legs and was taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition after having surgery.

Hartnett was able to exit his vehicle and return fire at the gunman, striking him in the lower back area, according to a police report. The gunman tried to flee south on 60th Street, but was caught nearby. Police recovered a black, 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

Police are calling the shooting an “attempted execution” and say the shooting was unprovoked.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who has been on the job for a week, said at a press conference this morning that it was “amazing that [Hartnett] was able to survive.”

Kindergarten registration for the 2016-2017 school year will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 19. A couple of area schools will soon start the lottery application process.

Penn Alexander School.

Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust) will start accepting applications for Kindergarten lottery also on January 19. Applications will be accepted through Monday, Feb. 29. Applications received after Feb. 29 will be placed on a wait list. Only children residing within the PAS Catchment are eligible for the lottery (two proofs of residency within the catchment are are required).

The lottery will be conducted on the week of March 7, and student households will receive lottery letters the following week. For more information about kindergarten registration at PAS, go to the school website.

The School District of Philadelphia introduced somewhat controversial lottery process at PAS in 2013 after the school had received an overwhelming number of applications in the previous few years. The first public school in the district to introduce admissions lottery, the PAS lottery was called a “pilot” for other schools.

One of the new charter schools in the area, Independence Charter School West has been accepting lottery applications since November 2015. The school is enrolling students in grades K-3 for its inaugural 2016-2017 school year in Southwest Philadelphia (the school will open at 56th and Chester in September 2016). Children residing in Southwest and West Philadelphia and in Overbrook are welcome to apply (priority will be given to students from the Bartram, Overbrook, and Sayre high school catchments). Th  lottery application deadline is February 1, 2016 and the drawing will be held on February 16. For more information and to apply, go to: http://www.icswest.org/Admissions.aspx. If you have questions, email:  icswestinfo@icscharter.com