Independence Charter School is considering opening a school in West Philadelphia.

Officials from the school, which currently has one location at 1600 Lombard, are trying to gauge interest in the school from the local community, a key part of a new charter school application. If approved, the school would likely be located in the 19139 or 19143 zip codes, according to the letter, which was posted on neighborhood e-mail lists.

The 19139 zip code covers an area west of 45th Street to Cobbs Creek and north of Spruce Street to Westminster. 19143 runs south from Spruce to the river and west from 45th Street to roughly 60th Street.

New charter school applications are due at the School Reform Commission by Saturday. Public hearings on the applications are expected by next month. The SRC then has up to 75 days to approve or reject a charter application.

The district currently has 86 charter schools that enroll some 67,000 students. This is the first time since 2007 that the SRC has considered new applications for charter schools, thanks to a provision in the $2-per-pack cigarette tax. There could be as many as 50 applications, according to reports.

Penn Alexander School (Photo West Philly Local).

In other school news, the School District of Philadelphia has published the procedures for the year’s kindergarten lottery at Penn Alexander School for the 2015-2016 school year. Applications will be accepted between Jan. 20 and Feb. 27. The lottery will be conducted and letters will be sent to parents during the week of March 9.

Here are some guidelines:

• Two proofs of residency within the Penn Alexander catchment are required.

• Head Start and Early Intervention applications are also due within the same time frame.

• From the District’s website: “Parents are strongly encouraged to participate in the School Selection Process beginning October 17, 2014 and ending 5:00 PM on December 12, 2014. The School Selection online application can be reached by going to schoolselect.philasd.org.”

• Admission decision will only be communicated in writing. No phone calls.

More information and application materials can be found on the Office of Student Enrollment and Placement website.

– Mike Lyons

A reader and Cedar Park resident, Gwen, sent us a letter wondering why there are more abandoned dogs in her area. She’s particularly referring to the 4900 block of Cedar Avenue where a few dogs have been found lately wandering about. Gwen and her neighbor found two large dogs (pictured) there on Monday. Here’s what she writes:

“I spent [Monday] afternoon trying to locate the owners of two enormous pitbulls with another West Philly resident. When I posted about the incident on Facebook, two different friends responded with stories of their own regarding discovering abandoned dogs at the same corner. Very disheartening, dangerous and cruel to the poor dogs, and dangerous for residents, their children, and their dogs. Who is abandoning these dogs? They were friendly, but seemed truly lost/abandoned, with no leashes or tags, and they were walking in the road. I can’t stop thinking about them.”

Unfortunately, these dogs’ owner was not found, but hopefully they will find a new, better home soon. Gwen says that after a couple of hours of knocking on doors, checking in with the Baltimore Pet Shoppe, and borrowing rope from the block captain, the person who first found them took them to the ACCT Philly shelter. “They will be ready for fostering and adoption as of this evening,” Gwen writes.

A recent crime update distributed by the University City District is a reason for concern. After several calm months, UCD is reporting a “substantial spike” in robberies and residential burglaries in the area last month. Overall, 47 serious crimes were committed in the UCD service area in October, according to the report (see map below). Arrests related to 10 of these crimes were made.

There were 11 armed and 12 unarmed robberies and 23 residential burglaries in October. Most of the burglaries took place in Spruce Hill (between Spruce St and Baltimore Ave). Arrests were made in relation to four of these burglaries. It’s worth mentioning that the previous worst month in terms of residential burglaries this year was March when over 30 burglary incidents were reported.

In addition to serious crimes, UCD also reports a large number of thefts from vehicles last month, which may be tied to several large events being held in the area.

Since days are getting shorter and most of robberies happen at night, please stay alert when walking or running after dark.

Serious Crimes in October, 2014 (courtesy of UCD).

A large firecracker was tossed into Milk and Honey Market (45th and Baltimore) tonight, according to various reports. The incident happened around 6 p.m. when an unidentified person threw the firecracker, described as a “cherry bomb,” inside the shop through the open door and ran away. It went off right inside the front door area and filled the place with smoke, according to witnesses. There were customers inside the shop when the incident took place. Black marks could be seen on the wood floor where the device exploded.

Milk and Honey owner Annie Baum Stein says that it was “crazy” but “everyone and everything is fine.” Both the police and UCD responded to her call immediately after the incident and the staff did a great job calming the customers and securing the store.

There’s no more information available at this time.

Curio Theatre Company opens its 10th season this week with the world premiere of a performance that is, as they say, ripped straight from the headlines.

The Matter of Frank Schaefer tells the true story of the Methodist minister from Lebanon, Penna. who is defrocked for officiating his son’s gay wedding, refrocked on appeal and is currently threatened with another defrocking.

“What grabbed us right away with the story of Frank Schaefer is that it felt like a civil rights movement was starting right in front of us,” said Curio’s artistic director Paul Kuhn. “When we started this project gay marriage had not been legalized in Pennsylvania and Frank Schaefer had not yet been defrocked.”  Continue Reading

The historic Woodlands Cemetery was holding a Veterans Day celebration earlier today, but this report, unfortunately, is about despicable acts that took place this week at the cemetery. The Woodlands’ executive director Jessica Baumert writes that vandalism was reported and witnessed at The Woodlands on Sunday, Nov. 9, and Tuesday, Nov. 11. Both incidents happened during the daytime, and there are reasons to believe that the same people were involved in each incident.

Police are searching for the following individuals:

White, male teenager (< 18 years), tall (± 6′), well built with a mop of black hair, pale complexion, large mouth, dark eyes, wearing a black zip-up jacket and black pants.

White (maybe Hispanic) female teenager (< 18 years), petite (< 5′ 4″) with long, straight, dark brown hair, olive complexion and dark eyes, wearing a brown (possibly leather) jacket and blue jeans.

On Sunday, there was an additional male. His description is not provided.

If you see people that fit this description on the grounds of The Woodlands, please call 911 and report it to the police immediately. Do not confront these individuals.

If you have additional information or witnessed any suspicious activity, please contact Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183 or steven.blackwell@phila.gov

(Photo courtesy of The Woodlands)