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  • Carousel House will be Philly’s ‘flagship’ rec center. But people with disabilities will have to wait until 2028 to reunite.

    Carousel House will be Philly’s ‘flagship’ rec center. But people with disabilities will have to wait until 2028 to reunite.

    In March 2023, Kathryn Ott Lovell, then Philadelphia’s parks and recreation commissioner, announced that the plan to build a new Carousel House in West Philly was finally coming together.

    The city’s only recreation center dedicated to people with disabilities had closed its doors temporarily in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, then permanently in 2021. City officials said years of deferred maintenance had made it unsafe.

    “I’m excited to stop talking and start doing,” Ott Lovell said during the 2023 presentation at the Please Touch Museum.

    The city’s disability community was also excited to reunite at Carousel House. To many, the rec center on Belmont Avenue had become like a second home, with dances, movies, swimming, arts and crafts, and summer camp.

    The city’s youth wheelchair basketball team was looking forward to returning to its home base. Since the rec center closed, the squad has been practicing in New Jersey.

    Two and a half years later, however, Ott Lovell has moved on to a new job, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has replaced Jim Kenney, and the Carousel House plan is still in the design phase.

    The new ribbon-cutting date: summer 2028.

    “I know this is a point of pain for many people, the timeline associated with this project,” Aparna Palantino, a deputy city managing director, acknowledged at a meeting Tuesday night announcing the “relaunch” of the project.

    The previous plan called for Carousel House to reopen this year.

    Palantino, who heads the city’s capital program office, said the expected cost of the project had risen from $35 million to $40 million. The work will still be funded primarily with beverage-tax proceeds, but the city had to line up grants to cover the difference, as well as conduct additional environmental and structural analyses.

    “The result of all that is this amazing space that will provide so many more opportunities than the former one did,” Palantino told an audience of several dozen.

    Aparna Palantino, deputy managing director of Capital Program Office, speaks with attendees during the Carousel House Rebuild Community Relaunch at the Please Touch Museum on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Philadelphia. The Carousel House project is estimated to be completed in Summer 2028.

    The state-of-the-art rec center will preserve some parts of the iconic Carousel House building and include two basketball courts, a heated lap pool and an activity pool with a zero-entry sloping entrance, a computer lab, a gym, a sensory room, and other amenities.

    Carousel House families miss their old home, as Philly eyes a new rec center plan for people with disabilities

    That all sounds great to people like Mike Martin, who has used a wheelchair for the last 30 years and has been going to Carousel House since the late 1990s. Such a place is needed in Philadelphia, where an estimated 17% of residents have a disability.

    But the lengthy delays in the project have Martin, 74, questioning whether he will ever see the vision become a reality.

    Martin and others would have preferred for the city to fix the existing building four years ago, when rec centers were reopening after the COVID-19 shutdown. A 2021 “Save the Carousel House” protest failed to sway city leaders.

    “The design is way more than I think we expected, not that we’re complaining at all,” said Martin, who serves on the Carousel House advisory committee. “We’ll see what kind of political will there is to push this through. I just don’t want to get my hopes up is what it comes down to.”

    Once a model

    Carousel House was considered a milestone when it opened in 1987: a city-funded rec center, specifically for people with physical and cognitive limitations, three years before the Americans with Disabilities Act would be signed into law.

    The Carousel House is pictured in Philadelphia’s West Fairmount Park on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. The city said it was permanently closing the recreation center for disabled people due to the facility’s deterioration.

    But in recent years, disability-rights advocates, both locally and nationally, have come to view that approach as outdated and even discriminatory. How is telling people with disabilities to go to one center, they ask, any different from designating centers for Black people, LGBTQ+ people, or other identity groups?

    “People with disabilities shouldn’t have to go to one place. That’s segregation, no matter how you look at it,” Fran Fulton, the late Philadelphia disability-rights activist, told The Inquirer in 2022. “There is no doubt having people who know how to work with children and adults with different types of disabilities is an advantage. But it doesn’t have to be just Carousel House.”

    Sadiki Smith (right) stands to dance as music therapist Madison Frank (left) with her guitar leads a music therapy session at Gustine Recreation Center Tuesday, November 29, 2022. Since the closing of the Carousel House, the city’s only rec center for people with physical and intellectual disabilities, many of the programs have moved to Gustine.

    The city was already moving in that direction before the pandemic with its long-term Rec for All inclusion plan. The goal is to eventually make the city’s 150 rec centers accessible to all residents. The new Carousel House will be open to all people in the surrounding neighborhoods, not just those with disabilities.

    That is welcome news for Lucinda Hudson, president of the Parkside Association of Philadelphia, who attended Tuesday’s meeting.

    “It’s well needed, and I think the community is pleased with how it’s coming together,” Hudson said. “We need a facility to be inclusive for all, and to support the handicapped community.”

    Worth the wait?

    Palantino said that while the Carousel House project has faced significant delays, city officials have continued to work behind the scenes. It is the largest project in the city’s beverage-tax funded Rebuild program, which has so far committed or spent $470 million.

    She believes the new building will be worth the wait.

    “It will be a universal space, so an entire family can come here and enjoy the amenities. The former Carousel House was a little more restrictive in the population it served,” Palantino said in an interview. “This will be the flagship rec center in the city when it’s completed.”

    Attendees look at blueprints during the Carousel House Rebuild Community Relaunch at the Please Touch Museum on Oct. 21.

    Families that frequented the Carousel House, however, are running out of patience.

    The Gustine Recreation Center in East Falls has continued some of the programs for people with disabilities, including music therapy, basketball, and social groups. But that center doesn’t have the space and amenities that Carousel House provided.

    “It’s just not the same,” said Tamar Riley, whose 43-year-old son had been going to Carousel House since he was 12.

    “Hopefully we can get this off the ground,” Riley, president of the advisory council for Carousel House, said of the plans presented this week. “It’s been a really long time. I know it’s going to be a beautiful place once the city gets it up and running.”

    The closure of Carousel House also forced Katie’s Komets, Philadelphia’s team in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, to move its weekly practices to RiverWinds Community Center in West Deptford, Gloucester County.

    ‘Like a family’: Wheelchair basketball competition in West Philly is fierce (but in a good way)

    As a result, there is only one Philly player on the team, according to Joe Kirlin, who with his wife, Roseann, created a fund to support the team. The team is named after their late daughter.

    “The problem is city kids just can’t get over there,” Joe Kirlin said.

    Caroline Fitzpatrick (right), 14, of South Jersey, talks with friends during the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s 24th Annual Katie Kirlin Junior Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in Philadelphia on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. Fitzpatrick plays on Katie’s Komets team from Philadelphia.

    He said wheelchair athletes in the city are missing out on potential college opportunities. This year, all three high school graduates on Katie’s Komets received scholarships to play college wheelchair basketball.

    “That wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t start as kids playing wheelchair basketball,” Roseann Kirlin said.

    Lorraine Gomez, a community activist and president of the Viola Street Residents Association in East Parkside, said after Tuesday’s meeting that she appreciated the city’s efforts to keep the surrounding neighborhoods informed about the project.

    Gomez is looking forward to being able to use the indoor pool and walking track in the winter, and said people with disabilities also deserve “to have their space back.”

    “This is what the community needs,” Gomez said. “It’ll be a place where we can stay in touch with each other.”

    For Hudson, of the Parkside association, the most important thing now is to break ground.

    “So many things get put on the books, but don’t happen,” Hudson said. “This has got to be built.”

  • Penn faculty group says faculty, students facing ‘unfounded accusations of antisemitism’ from the university

    Penn faculty group says faculty, students facing ‘unfounded accusations of antisemitism’ from the university

    One University of Pennsylvania faculty member was called into a university office to answer for assigning “a pedagogically-relevant reading about conflict in Palestine,” others for political posts on personal social media accounts.

    One faced questions for wearing a stole with the Palestinian flag at an off-campus event.

    These are among “unfounded accusations of antisemitism” that Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors said faculty and students have endured in the last year. Chapter representatives accompanied faculty to meetings at Penn’s Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests, which called the faculty in for questioning, according to a statement the group released Wednesday.

    Former Penn board chair Scott Bok and President Liz Magill discuss the upheaval that led to their resignations

    The religious and ethnic interests office oversees the implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or shared ancestry. It was formed following accusations of antisemitism on campus in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when Penn was roiled by dueling complaints of unfairly treating Jewish and pro-Palestinian members of its community.

    Then-Penn president Liz Magill resigned in December 2023 following a bipartisan backlash over her congressional committee testimony regarding antisemitism complaints, and the following spring, pro-Palestinian protesters erected an encampment on the College Green that ultimately was dismantled by police.

    Penn encampment disbanded by police

    Since January, President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted universities that it asserts have failed to respond adequately to antisemitism complaints, and the group of Penn professors said they are worried that the university is following the president’s lead.

    “We are concerned that Penn’s own Title VI office may be responding to these external pressures in a manner that risks chilling faculty speech and potentially discriminating against faculty in violation of the law,” the group asserted in a statement published on its website Wednesday. “… Faculty members, who in some cases had already been subject to targeted harassment, felt that they were expected to take unsubstantiated accusations of antisemitism at face value and to express contrition or offer some concession to their unidentified accuser, or face the possibility of disciplinary action.”

    Penn should do more to combat anti-Jewish bias on campus and reissue a statement opposing divestment from Israel, a university task force says

    Penn did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the religious and ethnic interests office.

    Penn announced the creation of the office in September 2024, noting it was the first of its kind nationally and saying it would ensure a consistent response across all of its schools.

    “Over the past year, our campus and our country witnessed a disquieting surge in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious and ethnic intolerance,” J. Larry Jameson, who was then interim president and was named president six months later, said at the time. “The Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion (Title VI) is being formed to confront this deeply troubling trend, and to serve as a stand-alone center for education and complaint resolution.”

    The office formally opened in December with the foundational goals of educating, investigating, mediating, and evaluating. Its codirectors are Steve Ginsburg, who had served over a decade as an executive of the Anti-Defamation League, and Majid Alsayegh, founder of Alta Management Services LLC, which helped clients with criminal justice reform. The office’s chief investigator is Deborah Frey, who previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, working on discrimination complaints.

    “Because of our own lived experiences as targets of bigotry, we know this work is not going to be easy,” Ginsburg had told Penn Today. “These issues are complex and require deep thought and sensitivity for those who are impacted.”

    Faculty and students were not named in Wednesday’s statement and declined to comment through an AAUP executive committee member out of fear of retribution or harassment. The AAUP did not disclose the number of faculty and students involved.

    But the reports “come almost exclusively from faculty who are Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and/or Black,” the group said, giving rise to concerns about potential discrimination.

    The faculty and students referred to in the letter were not sanctioned or punished for their activities, but the mere act of being called in and questioned has “a chilling effect” on research, teaching, and speech, said the AAUP executive committee member, who asked not to be identified because the chapter wanted to speak with one voice.

    “For instance, in one meeting, a faculty member whose peer-reviewed research was subject to a complaint was pressured to make a modification to the presentation of that research, although their work had the support of their colleagues and dean,” the AAUP chapter said.

    In that case, the faculty member had been called in because the research “referenced a third-party resource that a complainant claimed, without evidence, promoted hatred of Israel and of Jews in the United States,” the letter stated.

    The chapter called on the office to “clarify and modify its procedures to ensure the transparency, consistency, and fairness essential to carrying out the office’s mission.”

    And it asked the office to respond to a series of questions, including about the criteria it uses to decide whether to pursue a complaint.

  • ‘You could park a car down there’: Sinkhole closes part of Schuylkill Trail in Center City

    A portion of the popular Schuylkill River Trail in Center City has been closed and fenced off indefinitely after a “chasm”-sized sinkhole formed under the asphalt.

    The trail is closed between Race Street and JFK Boulevard, just north of the SEPTA Bridge, according to the Schuylkill River Development Corp. (SRDC), a nonprofit that has helped revitalize the section of the trail known as Schuylkill Banks.

    The SRDC said that it is working with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the Philadelphia Water Department, and engineers “to figure out what caused the large cavity to form and what is needed to make the necessary repairs.”

    It has posted a map of a detour that can be used until repairs are made.

    A map of a detour for the Schuylkill River Trail closure between Race Street and JFK Boulevard, which closed for emergency repairs after a sinkhole appeared Oct. 23, 2025

    .

    Joseph Syrnick, president and CEO of the SRDC, said the hole first came to the attention of his staff when a trail user reported it last week. At first, it appeared to be only a small hole, Syrnick said.

    “By the time we got to it, it was about the size of a cantaloupe,” he said. “And then within a short time, it opened up the size of a small pumpkin. We immediately barricaded it off and made it safe.”

    Syrnick said the hole was covered with plywood and cones were placed around it to block access by trail users. Crews began to explore the hole more thoroughly.

    “We stuck our heads down there through the hole the size of the pumpkin, and saw a huge void. It’s like 8 by 10 [feet]. You could park a car down there — almost. So this has obviously been going on for a long time and luckily we caught it before it collapsed.”

    Syrnick called it a “chasm” under the asphalt.

    On Friday, SRDC hired an engineer, and then brought in the water department. The decision was made to block off the trail completely.

    Although part of the trail remained covered, it took until Monday to put fencing and signs in place, completely sealing off any access.

    “Theoretically, it could have collapsed,” Syrnick said.

    Syrnick did not have a time frame for when the trail would reopen. He said his team needs to find the cause first. A repair could mean minor or major construction.

    A sign warning people that part of the Schuylkill trail is closed for repairs between JFK Boulevard and Race Street after a sinkhole was discovered.

    “I think we’re lucky finding this in the middle of fall, heading in the winter,” Syrnick said, “which is way better than finding it in the middle of spring, heading in the summer.”

    Brian Rademaekers, a spokesperson for the water department, said it is working with SRDC to investigate the cave-in along the trail at Arch Street.

    Rademaekers said crews will use dye to trace the source in an effort to determine a possible cause. He said that the nontoxic dye may cause discolored water in the Schuylkill, but that it is not a threat to people or wildlife.

    “Once the results from this testing are evaluated,” Rademaekers said, “the PWD will work with SRDC to determine next steps needed to reopen the trail. Trail users should follow signage and advisories issued by the SRDC.

    Rademaekers said the water department would not likely have an update on the situation until at least Friday.

  • Kada Scott’s death ruled a homicide and Keon King is charged with murder, as police say others may have helped bury her body

    Kada Scott’s death ruled a homicide and Keon King is charged with murder, as police say others may have helped bury her body

    Keon King was charged with murder and related crimes Wednesday in the death of Kada Scott, the 23-year-old Mount Airy woman police say he kidnapped, then killed, before burying her body in a shallow grave.

    The district attorney’s office approved the charges shortly after police announced that the Medical Examiner’s Office had ruled her death a homicide. Officials said Thursday that Scott died by a gunshot wound to the head.

    In addition to murder, King was charged with illegal gun possession, abuse of corpse, robbery, theft, tampering with evidence, and additional crimes.

    The announcement came as investigators said they believe at least one other person helped King, 21, move Scott’s body and bury it behind a closed East Germantown school in the days after she was killed, and detectives are working to identify those involved.

    New court records, made public Wednesday, offered the most detailed look yet inside the investigation into Scott’s disappearance and death, including her texts with King in the days before she went missing, the police search for her body, and how others may have helped King try to conceal her killing.

    A review of Scott’s cell phone records showed that on Oct. 2, a number believed to belong to King texted Scott: “Yo Kada this my new number.”

    “Who dis,” Scott asked, and he responded “Kel,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for King’s arrest.

    Kada Scott, 23, went missing Oct. 4.

    Law enforcement sources said King appeared to use various aliases when communicating with people, including “Elliot” and “Kel.”

    On the morning of Oct. 4, the document says, Scott texted King saying, “kidnap me again.”

    King replied, “better be up too,” according to the filing.

    What Scott meant in that text continues to perplex investigators, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. It’s not clear, the sources said, whether Scott was joking or being sarcastic, or if King had, in fact, abducted her before.

    In any case, the affidavit says, the pair made plans to meet up later that night. Scott worked the overnight shift at the Terrace Hill nursing home in Chestnut Hill, and at 10:09 p.m., the records say, she texted King to call her when he arrived outside.

    According to the affidavit, Scott received 12 calls from the number believed to belong to King between 9:25 p.m. and 10:12 p.m., ending with a 43-second call.

    Around that time, a coworker later told police, she overheard Scott on the phone say, “I can’t believe you’re calling me about this,” before walking toward a dark-colored car.

    At 10:24 p.m., Scott’s phone line went dead, the document shows.

    The rear of Ada H.H. Lewis Middle School, where Kada Scott’s body was found buried in the wooded area.

    By 10:28 p.m., the affidavit says, surveillance cameras showed King, driving a black Hyundai Accent, pull into the parking lot of the Awbury Recreation Center. King got out of the car and left the area, the filing says.

    The next day, around 11:39 p.m., two people in a gold Toyota Camry believed to belong to King went back to the recreation center, the records show. They walked toward the playground area, then returned to the car around 3:56 a.m.

    The two people then opened up the Hyundai Accent and appeared to “remove a heavy object, consistent with a human body,” from the passenger side of the car. They carried the object toward the playground and returned to the vehicle a half-hour later, the records said.

    On Oct. 7 at 2:48 a.m., police believe King returned to the recreation center to retrieve the Hyundai. They said the car — which had been reported stolen a few days earlier from the 6600 block of Sprague Street — was set on fire near 74th Street and Ogontz Avenue a short time later.

    After a two-week search, police found Scott’s body buried in the woods behind the vacant Ada H.H. Lewis Middle School, next to the recreation center, on Saturday.

    Community members attend a candlelight vigil by flowers and balloons left at a memorial for Kada Scott near the abandoned Ada H. H. Lewis Middle School on Monday.

    King turned himself in to police last week to be charged with kidnapping Scott. He was held on $2.5 million bail.

    Earlier this week, prosecutors also charged King with arson and related crimes for the burning of the car. Now that he is charged with murder, he is expected to be held without bail.

    King’s lawyer, Shaka Johnson, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

    On Wednesday evening, city leaders headed to a church in the Northwest Philadelphia community where Scott’s body was recovered, addressing a crowd of about 200 residents concerned about public safety.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, among other officials, offered condolences to Scott’s family and commended police for recovering her body. Residents, too, appeared relieved, breaking into applause when Bethel said murder charges had been filed against King.

    Bethel, a father of three daughters, said that as the search for Scott wore on, he felt at times as if he were searching for his own child. And Councilmember Cindy Bass told the crowd that Scott “could have been your niece, she could have been your friend.”

    The commissioner said the investigation was continuing as police search for those who might have assisted King. And addressing concerns over safety at the city’s abandoned buildings — including Ada H.H. Lewis Middle School — officials said the city was in the process of reviewing vacant properties.

  • New Sixers and Flyers partnership with Bank of America will include community initiatives

    New Sixers and Flyers partnership with Bank of America will include community initiatives

    It’s the Bank of America Club Level now.

    The Flyers, Sixers, and Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday announced a new partnership with Bank of America, which will serve as the arena and teams’ banking partner this season. In addition to naming rights for the Club Level, the deal includes community efforts aimed at benefiting small businesses and youth sports.

    “It just is historic on many levels, in that we’re three iconic brands coming together,” said Comcast Spectator chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty. “We’re focused on being key players in Xfinity Mobile Arena, and Bank of America will partner with us on doing some really, really fun things in the community.” Comcast Spectacor owns both the arena and the Flyers.

    The deal, for which financial details were not disclosed, is “the most significant partnership” Bank of America has undertaken in its 20-plus years in the Philadelphia market, said Bank of America Greater Philadelphia president Jim Dever. Among its focuses is serving as a presenting partner in the Sixers’ small-business initiatives, such as the Spirit of Small Business Program and the Enrich Program, which benefit independent local businesses with aid and promotion.

    “This is an area that’s a prime focus to us, to be able to drive further economic mobility through small business and amplify their mission, and draw more patronage their way,” Dever said.

    The company will also head a youth-hockey-focused initiative in which it plans to donate up to $250,000 worth of hockey equipment to Philadelphia-area schools. Additional programs aimed at youth development and small business support will also be established, the organizations said in a statement, but details remain forthcoming.

    Tad Brown, CEO of the Sixers and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, said the partnership would allow the organizations to come together to “amplify all of our resources to benefit our fans and the region.”

    Despite its new banking partner, however, Xfinity Mobile Arena will likely remain cashless, and Dever said the organizations were not envisioning ATMs on the premises. Though, the partnership may create a small change for Hilferty.

    “I’m going to have to go elsewhere to get my cash,” he joked. “But that’s OK.”

  • A vacant South Philly Walgreens is set to become a supermarket

    A vacant South Philly Walgreens is set to become a supermarket

    South Philadelphia is set to get a new supermarket in early 2026.

    New York-based Met Fresh is on track to open its first Philly location in January inside the former Walgreens at Broad and Snyder Streets, said owner Omar Hamdan.

    The 13,000-square-foot supermarket will include a pharmacy, a fresh-cut produce department, and a deli counter, Hamdan said, and will offer free grocery and prescription delivery to area seniors. It is also applying for a license to sell beer and wine.

    The former Walgreens at 2014 S. Broad St., where Met Fresh’s first Philly location is set to open in early 2026, photographed on Wednesday.

    “We try to bring the human factor back into the market,” Hamdan said, adding that the company’s philosophy hearkens back to a simpler time: “That store owner who had the apron and was sweeping outside of his store, who said ‘good morning’ to everyone? That is what we do.”

    Met Foods, a family-owned company, has been operating markets in New York City for 15 years, Hamdan said. It currently has locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and northern New Jersey.

    When the South Philly grocer opens, it will mark Met Fresh’s first location outside the New York City area, Hamdan said.

    In 2019, Met Fresh had been in talks to move into a mixed-use development in Philadelphia’s Mantua section, but Hamdan said those plans fell through.

    Since then, Hamdan said they continued to look for potential Philadelphia locations. The store at 2014 S. Broad Street seemed like “a perfect fit,” he said, due to the area’s walkability, dense population, and a demand for more grocery stores and pharmacies.

    The “pharmacy” lettering is seen on a former Walgreens on South Broad Street, where Met Fresh plans to open a supermarket in early 2026 after “extensive” renovations, its owner said.

    From the Broad Street store, the nearest supermarket is seven-tenths of a mile away. As for chain pharmacies, the Walgreens closed last year, and a Rite Aid across the street shuttered this summer as the Philly-based company went out of business. So the nearest large drugstore is a CVS off Passyunk Avenue, also seven-tenths of a mile away.

    What happens after a Philly neighborhood’s last chain pharmacy shuts its doors

    The Met Fresh will soon start hiring in South Philly, with Hamdan noting that his stores typically need 30 to 40 part- and full-time employees from the surrounding communities. The new location will open after “extensive” renovations, Hamdan said, and once the team gets ahold of refrigeration equipment, which has been impacted by tariffs on steel and aluminum.

    Hamdan said he’s excited for Philly consumers to be introduced to Met Fresh, calling the Broad Street spot “a test pilot to see how we do in the Philly market.”

  • Coalition rallies against Philly’s plan to close schools, and says district should halt the process

    Coalition rallies against Philly’s plan to close schools, and says district should halt the process

    Pause the city’s facilities master planning process, a grassroots coalition said Wednesday, weeks before the Philadelphia School District has said it would release a draft of that plan — which will include school closures.

    Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and school board president Reginald Streater have said the long-promised planning process would be different than the 2013 incarnation, that they would consider the harm done then, and would use an equity lens.

    Watlington in September said “there are no fixed decisions at this point, and the short answer is we can’t answer any of those questions right now about which schools will close, but we can surely say some will.”

    Philly will ‘surely’ close schools, Watlington says as district releases data that will guide decisions on its 300 buildings

    Officials have also said the document — which they promise is on track for delivery sometime this fall, with a school board vote by the end of the calendar year — would also include major renovations, new school construction, and joining some schools into a single building.

    But Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who was a school activist fighting the closures on the front lines 12 years ago, said this process feels similar, despite officials’ assertions that their aim is to organize city schools in a way that best advantages children.

    Philadelphia has complex facilities needs — 70,000 excess seats in schools across the city, some schools that are more than half-empty, and some bursting at the seams. Its buildings are old, and many have environmental problems.

    “This seems like a school closure process,” Brooks said in an interview. “We’ve been here before, and the conversation should be about the future we want for our children — it should include plans for investment, not just closure.”

    City Council woman at large Kendra Brooks, speaks in front of parents, teachers, and public school advocates during a Stand Up for Philly Schools event in Philadelphia, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

    Brooks joined members of Stand Up for Philly Schools — a coalition of organizations including Parents United for Public Education, the Philadelphia Home and School Council, and Asian Americans United — outside the Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Wednesday night, where members of the Council for Great City Schools met for an opening reception.

    “We are being given an extremely limited set of options about the future of our schools. We are being told that school closures are a foregone conclusion. We’re being told to sign off on a plan that we haven’t even seen,” Brooks said to the crowd of dozens of educators, parents, students and other supporters gathered for the cause.

    “We don’t know how many, we don’t know which ones, but we know that every school closure hurts a community,” she said.

    ‘A big contraction of the school district’

    Those who rallied Wednesday made several demands of the district, which is playing host to the Council for Great City Schools conference. Those asks included pausing the planning process, creating a new strategy for public engagement, and committing at least $250 million annually to keeping district schools well-maintained.

    So far, the process has played out poorly, members of Stand Up for Philly Schools say. There’s been engagement on paper, but many in advisory groups said they felt their work was merely lip service, and community meetings have been sparsely attended.

    The school board has authorized spending over $5 million on contracts for community engagement, the planning process itself, and the construction and hosting of a data warehouse for all facilities information.

    “We feel like we’re not getting the whole picture, we feel like whatever ideas and feedback we gave are not being heeded, and we don’t think there’s enough time in this process,” said Adam Blyweiss, a district parent and teacher who sat on an advisory committee.

    Laurie Mazer, a member of Parents United for Public Education, said the process feels “weird, and rushed.”

    Getting information has ”been a real teeth-pulling exercise,” Mazer said.

    ‘When schools close, communities pay the price’

    It appeared like an early Halloween celebration at the Stand Up for Philly Schools rally.

    Coalition members wore tombstone signs around their necks, each representing a Philadelphia public school that was closed during the district’s last closure plan.

    “After months of delays and missing data, it’s clear why so many families don’t trust this process,” said Melanie Silva, the mother to a fourth grader at Rhawnhurst Elementary School in Northeast Philly and a member of 215 People’s Alliance.

    Melanie Silva, mom to a fourth grader at Rhawnhurst Elementary School, speaks during a Stand Up for Philly Schools event in Philadelphia, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

    Wearing a tombstone sign around her neck representing George Wharton Pepper Middle School and its closure in 2013, Silva described the overcrowded and under-resourced conditions at her daughter’s school. She said the school’s library was a meeting room, and classrooms were so full there was “no room to breathe.” She said the district ought to invest in its schools rather than close them.

    “We deserve transparency, we deserve trust, and real investment, not excuses,” she said.

    Charles Hudgins, an algebra teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School in Northeast Philly, warned that the district would make problems that schools face today worse by closing more of them. He said that some of his students already travel more than an hour.

    Barbara Dowdall, of Germantown, Retired teacher of 36 years, holds up a sign to show her support for Philadelphia public schools during a Stand Up for Philly Schools event in Philadelphia, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

    “The potential and talent of students is being lost every single day because our school system is focused on quality and numbers. The numbers we care about are the number of excellent schools where our children have opportunities to thrive, to think creatively and to pursue their passions,” said Ruth Kuriloff, 17, a senior at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber.

    She and her classmates said students would only be hurt by closing schools to save money.

    “These obvious inequities will not get better by closing schools,” said Jordyn McGriff-Laduna, 17, also a senior at the school. “Quality education should not be a privilege. It should be a promise for all students in all areas.”

  • Bette E. Landman, award-winning anthropology professor and first female president at Arcadia University, has died at 88

    Bette E. Landman, award-winning anthropology professor and first female president at Arcadia University, has died at 88

    Bette E. Landman, 88, of Glenside, Montgomery County, the first female president of Arcadia University, award-winning professor of anthropology at Arcadia and Temple Universities, longtime board member, lecturer, and volunteer, died Thursday, Oct. 16, at Jefferson Abington Hospital. The cause of her death has not been disclosed.

    An expert in cultural anthropology, Dr. Landman joined Arcadia, known then as Beaver College, from Temple in 1971 as an assistant professor of anthropology. She was promoted to dean of students in 1976 and rose to vice president of academic affairs and then acting president in 1982 before her appointment as president in 1985.

    For the next 19 years, until her retirement in 2004, Dr. Landman doubled the university’s enrollment to more than 3,000 students, increased its endowment from $267,000 to $26 million, supervised construction of seven buildings, and expanded international study programs. She also maneuvered successfully through an eight-month maintenance staff strike in 1993 and initiated the school’s name and academic status change from Beaver College to Arcadia University in 2001.

    She adroitly addressed the school’s thorny financial issues, strengthened its liberal arts program and College of Global Studies, and diversified the student body. “The school has come up from the floor, and it’s because of her,” Joseph Castle 2nd, then chair of Arcadia’s board of trustees, told The Inquirer in 2004.

    When she retired, Arcadia colleague Gene Bucci said: “It’s a sad day. Bette is the college.” Another colleague, Norman Johnston, said: “Without her, there might not even be a college here anymore.”

    In a recent tribute, current Arcadia president Ajay Nair praised Dr. Landman’s “extraordinary vision and unwavering dedication to access and inclusion.” He said: “Her spirit, vision, light, and legacy will forever remain a central part of the university.”

    Dr. Landman studied marriage, child-rearing, and other social constructs for nine months on the remote Caribbean island of Canouan for her doctoral dissertation in 1965 and ’66, and she lectured for decades around the country on evolution and human relationships. She evaluated academic programs and advised colleges around the world, and said often that expansive educations are vital for everyday success.

    “A baccalaureate degree must expose men and women to arts and sciences,” she told The Inquirer in 1992. “It gives breadth to what they do. I realize people work and need job skills, but the really basic skills are critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to make judgements and effective communication, oral and written.”

    Dr. Landman became president at Arcadia in 1985.

    She was also effective in improving Arcadia’s athletic program and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2009. She held leadership roles in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Pennsylvania Athletic Conference, and Arcadia officials said on the Hall of Fame website: “Bette Landman put our university on the national map in athletics.”

    Over the years, Arcadia officials named their new Landman Library in her honor, awarded her an honorary doctorate of education, and created the Bette Landman Award for students dedicated to academic success, community service, and global learning. Before Arcadia, she was an assistant professor of anthropology for five years at Springfield College in Massachusetts and then at Temple from 1969 to 1971.

    She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and graduated first in her class of 1959 at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. At Ohio State University, she earned a master’s degree in physical anthropology in 1961 and a doctorate in cultural anthropology in 1972.

    “She treated every student like we were part of her family,” a former student said in a tribute. “She knew us by name. All university presidents should aspire to be like Bette.”

    Dr. Landman taught anthropology at Springfield College and Temple and Arcadia Universities.

    As a volunteer, Dr. Landman was president of the charitable Arcadia Foundation and chair of boards and commissions for the Association of American Colleges, the American Red Cross, and other groups. She was on boards for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Abington Memorial Hospital, and Wilson College.

    She was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 1992 by the Foundation for Enhancing Communities and earned a lifetime achievement award in 2003 from the Pennsylvania Council on International Education. In 1992, the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Council on Education created an award in her name to honor a leader in women’s education in Pennsylvania.

    She earned a 1973 Lindback Award at Arcadia for distinguished teaching and other honors from the Boy Scouts of America, the March of Dimes, and the Philadelphia Business Journal. She also is featured in Karen Doyle Walton’s 1996 book, Against the Tide: Career Paths of Women Leaders in American and British Higher Education.

    She never really enjoyed fundraising, colleagues said, so she assembled a formidable staff around her. Her brother, Todd, said: “She was a tremendous team builder.” A former colleague said on Facebook: “Everyone who worked around Bette loved her.”

    The Springfield Union wrote about Dr. Landman’s doctoral dissertation in 1966.

    Bette Emmeline Landman was born July 18, 1937, in Piqua, Ohio. She grew up with an older sister, Patricia, and a younger brother, Todd, and she told memorable bedtime stories to her brother when they were young.

    She worked odd jobs during her high school years, earned a teaching scholarship to Bowling Green, and taught fifth grade in Ohio before joining Springfield College in 1963.

    At Arcadia, she liked to host student gatherings at the president’s residence, and her personal library was filled with books on history, art, and architecture. Friends noted her “infectious smile” and called her “a wonderful woman” and “an incredible lady.”

    Her brother said: “She was a very compassionate person. She was committed to success.”

    This article about Dr. Landman appeared in The Inquirer in 2003.

    In addition to her brother, Dr. Landman is survived by other relatives. Her sister died earlier.

    Services are to be held later.

    Donations in her name may be made to the Fund for Arcadia University, 450 S. Easton Rd., Glenside, Pa. 19038.

  • Toddler’s death in the bathtub of a Philly foster home prompts lawsuit

    Toddler’s death in the bathtub of a Philly foster home prompts lawsuit

    The biological mother of a 20-month-old who died in a Harrowgate foster home is suing two Philadelphia child welfare agencies for placing the toddler in a crowded house.

    Syvir Hill died April 15 while taking a bath with two other children, according to the complaint, which was filed last week in Common Pleas Court. The children were unsupervised by their foster mother, who had left the bathroom to cook in the downstairs kitchen.

    The lawsuit accuses the foster mother, Tabor Children’s Services, and Northeast Treatment Centers of negligence that contributed to Syvir’s death.

    Tabor Children’s Services had certified the mother and the Harrowgate rowhouse as eligible to foster Syvir, the suit says. The city had contracted Northeast Treatment Centers to monitor the child’s progress.

    “We are deeply saddened over this tragic loss of life,” Regan Kelly, president and CEO of Northeast Treatment Centers, said in a statement. “In the meantime, we are doing everything possible to support the family as they deal with their grief.”

    Tabor Children’s Services did not respond to a request for comment.

    Syvir entered the city’s foster-care system before he was 6 months old and “eventually” was placed in the Harrowgate home, according to the complaint. By December 2024, the rowhouse was crowded, with three foster children — including Syvir — in addition to young family members of the foster parent living in the house.

    When Syvir’s sister needed a foster home, Northeast Treatment Centers sought to place the girl with her brother despite noting that the foster parent was “at her max with the children in her home,” according to the complaint.

    The foster parent emptied a storage room, which the lawsuit calls a “closet,” to make room for the sister, who was just a few months old.

    In visits to monitor Syvir’s progress, Northeast Treatment Centers staff noted the varying number of children living in the house. The complaint accuses the caseworkers of “failing to remove Syvir Hill and other children in an already overcrowded foster home.”

    The lawsuit details the horrific last moments of Syvir’s young life based on Philadelphia Department of Human Services investigation records obtained by A.J. Thomson, the attorney who filed the lawsuit.

    Three children were splashing in the water, the suit says, when at one point a 2-year-old turned to Syvir and said, “You are not my brother!” The child held Syvir’s head underwater, while a 4-year-old “screamed in terror,” according to the complaint.

    When the foster mother came back to the upstairs bathroom, Syvir was submerged. She called police, who found Syvir nonresponsive upon arrival. He was pronounced dead at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.

    No arrest has been made in connection with the death, the lawsuit says. Court records show no criminal charges against the foster mother.

    “All three of these children are victims of the acts of the Defendants in this case and a system that simply piles children into homes without supervision, training, or enforcement of rules,” the lawsuit says.

    A judge had removed Syvir from his parents because that house was deemed unsafe for him, Thomson said. The parents visited Syvir and followed the protocols in an effort to get their children back.

    Thomson accuses the agencies of failing to inform the parents of their son’s death.

    “When he dies, they are the last to find out,” the attorney said.

    Both child welfare nonprofits have been previously involved in cases where children were abused, severely injured, or died.

    Tabor Children’s Services agreed to pay $11 million in 2023 to settle a lawsuit accusing the organization of failing to oversee the care of an infant who was abused by her biological mother. The organization, which provided child-welfare casework for the Northwest region of Philadelphia, declined to renew its contract with the city for 2025 and beyond, citing litigation insurance costs.

    Northeast Treatment Centers settled a lawsuit for $6.5 million in 2022 following the death of 3-year-old Hope Jones, who was beaten to death in foster care. The nonprofit also settled a case involving the death of Su’Layah Williams, a 1-year-old who was allegedly kicked to death in a West Philly foster home. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

    “There has to be a better way than to put these kids with people who are killing them,” Thomson said.

  • Protesters rally outside Philly ICE office as Catholics launch ‘One Church, One Family’ campaign for immigrants

    Protesters rally outside Philly ICE office as Catholics launch ‘One Church, One Family’ campaign for immigrants

    Lifted by song, prayer, and Scripture, dozens of Philadelphia-area Catholics rallied outside the Center City ICE office on Wednesday, joining a pro-immigrant push undertaken by fellow church groups around the country.

    Catholic priests, nuns, and other supporters prayed and sang outside the field office near Eighth and Cherry Streets, joining a nationwide show of solidarity with migrant families, refugees, and asylum-seekers.

    “We reject the culture of fear that dehumanizes,” Michelle Cimaroli of Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an international community of Catholic women, told the crowd of about 50 people. “As Catholics, we stand with immigrants.”

    Speakers called on people to see the face of God in every human face. And to be as confident as Jesus in sharing the truth.

    Catholic organizations across the country are taking part in a campaign called One Church, One Family: Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants. The movement invites parishes, schools, and faith-based groups to host prayerful public events that proclaim the dignity of every person.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said in a statement: “ICE respects the rights of individuals to peacefully protest.”

    A second day of prayer is planned for Nov. 13, timed to coincide with the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who became the first U.S. citizen to be declared a saint, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

    Peter Pedemonti of the New Sanctuary Movement addressing Catholics gathered outside ICE office at Eighth and Cherry Streets on Wednesday. They are protesting against the detaining and incarceration of immigrants.

    “I want us to take a moment to just let our hearts break,” Peter Pedemonti, codirector of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, told the crowd in Center City. “That we don’t let the daily barrage of bad news harden us.”

    He and other advocates said they believed ICE arrested four people in Philadelphia on Wednesday, including a man at the Italian Market.

    “We’re trying to get Catholics across the country to listen to Pope Leo’s message: Migrants lead us, they lead us to a true set of values,” said Jerry Zurek, who serves as local co-organizer of NETWORK, the Catholic social-justice group, and who took part in the Philadelphia rally.

    This month the pope described migrants and refugees as “privileged witnesses of hope through their resilience and trust in God,” maintaining their strength while seeking a better future “in spite of the obstacles that they encounter,” Catholic News Service reported.

    Big and small protests continue to take place in the Philadelphia area and around the county in opposition to President Donald Trump’s effort to deport millions of people. The number of people arrested by ICE in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania has surged since the agency reportedly implemented a 3,000-arrests-a-day quota in late May.

    Arrests doubled from an average of 26 a day since Trump took office through May 21, to an average of 51 a day between May 22 and June 26 for the three states. At the same time, the proportion of people arrested without a criminal record or pending criminal charges soared, up two-thirds since the directive to ICE was issued.

    “As Catholics and people of deep faith, we reject the culture of fear and silence that dehumanizes, and we choose instead to stand with migrants,” local organizers said in a statement, pledging “to defend the dignity of our neighbors, family members, fellow parishioners, classmates, coworkers, and friends.”

    Vicki Guinta-Abbott, a concerned citizen and a Catholic, gathers with others outside the ICE office at Eighth and Cherry Streets on Wednesday.

    The body of U.S. bishops, individual bishops, and Catholic organizations have been speaking out against what they call inhumane policies that go against church teachings on immigration.

    Local leaders said the campaign is sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration and Refugee Services, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, and many others.