Leaders of Kennedy C. Crossan Elementary School and Immanuel Lutheran School both consider their schools among Burholme’s best-kept secrets.
Crossan, at 7350 Bingham St., has 360 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, said principal Lynne Millard. There are 45 staff members.
Crossan offers a music program, science fair, a diverse student population and extracurricular activities. It has met Annual Yearly Progress goals nine years in a row, and its PSSA scores in reading and math have surpassed targets.
“There are so many points of pride at our school,” said Millard, a 25-year School District of Philadelphia employee who has been principal for four years.
Immanuel Lutheran, at 1015 Cottman Ave., has 168 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. It opened in 1965.
Business manager Janice Reiff said tuition is $4,100 for pre-kindergarten and $4,500 for other grades, with discounts for church members and families with multiple kids in the school.
Students in prekindergarten through fifth grade learn German, while sixth- through eighth-graders study Spanish.
Some neighbors worry about the children’s safety because many Cottman Avenue motorists go through red lights or block intersections in heavy traffic.
Police officer Mark Mroz said the 2nd district puts much of its personnel at school dismissal time at Northeast, Fels and Woodrow Wilson. He suggested asking crossing guards to copy down the license plate numbers of offending drivers and pass on the information to police, who could write tickets.
In other news from the Feb. 14 meeting:
• Some neighbors are upset that a proposed deli at 7237 Rising Sun Ave. has obtained a liquor license.
F&T’s Deli plans to open in the former Moegerle Paints, which closed about a year ago.
Neighbors claim that the owner, prior to applying for and obtaining the liquor license, either did not post a required sign, posted it for only a short period of time or posted it in a place that was hard to see. About 100 have signed a petition of opposition.
“We’re going to try to stop this,” said Al Taubenberger, the group’s president.
Deli officials are expected to attend next month’s meeting.
• Mroz introduced Dianne Murphy as his successor as the 2nd Police District’s community relations officer.
Mroz, who held the job for about seven years, now works as an aide to Inspector Mike Cochrane, commander of the Northeast Police Division. He thanked Burholme residents for their support of fallen officers and the district’s children’s holiday party, and they gave him a partial standing ovation.
Murphy has worked in the 2nd district for four years. She had been in a squad car, on a bicycle and on a foot beat in the shopping complex at 4640 Roosevelt Blvd. She also worked in the 15th Police District, and her husband is a 14-year police veteran, assigned to the 8th district. They have four kids.
The new CRO announced there will be a community day celebration on Saturday, May 18, at Target, at 7300 Bustleton Ave. Activities will include document shredding and vehicle identification number etching.
Murphy welcomed 2nd district residents to call her at 215–685–7276.
Meanwhile, Mroz said his “last hurrah” was to work with the 2nd Police District Advisory Council to add a bylaw prohibiting civilians from bringing guns to its meetings. The PDAC acted after a man carried an exposed gun on his hip at a recent Take Back Your Neighborhood civic meeting.
“Everyone in the room was extremely concerned with this male,” said Mroz, who was not at the meeting but was told the man was “kind of confrontational.”
The gun was legal, and Philadelphians can carry guns in the open, but some civic leaders were nonetheless uneasy.
“Some of these community meetings get heated,” Mroz said.
• United Methodist Church of the Redeemer, which hosts a monthly concert series, is now home to the Amici Opera Company. The Rev. David Brown, the church pastor, said Amici will present Sigurd, by French composer Ernest Reyer, on Sunday, March 10, at 3:30 p.m. and Saturday, March, 16, at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $25 at the door, $22 for senior citizens and advance purchases, $15 for students and $10 for children under age 12. The church is at 1128 Cottman Ave. For more information, call 215–224–0257.
• An aide to City Councilman Brian O’Neill presented the Town Watch/Civic Association with a check for $2,000, courtesy of the Philadelphia Activities Fund. ••
