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Southern hospitality A once-beleaguered school added a new parent resource center and served as the site for a youth rally last week. By Joseph Myers R e v i e w s ta f f w r i t e r
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ate provided South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., two chances last week to prove that it has busied itself with finding means of enhancing student achievement and parental involvement while also decreasing safety concerns. Three days apart, the opportunities revealed that the school’s community covets placing considerable distance between its spotted past and envisioned future. First-year principal Otis D. Hackney III joined about 200 parents, teachers and staff members to plot the moves he hopes will rid his school of its four-year designaSee SOUTHERN page 14
Sports Newbold Neighbors Association volunteers including its president Jim Resta, holding tree, and its greening chair, Leslianna Federici, to his left, gathered at DiSilvestro Playground, 15th and Morris streets, before planting about 40 trees at last fall’s event.
Making their point
P h o t o P r o v i d e d b y B e t h M o h a n R e s ta
Ryan’s throng
A Passyunk Square high school hosted a world-class athlete with Olympic aspirations. By Joseph Myers................Page 45
Residents of a Newbold group aiming to better the neighborhood have faced ongoing resistance from other civics for encroaching on their boundaries. Amanda L. Snyder Review Managing Editor
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hen looking for their future home, Bucks County native Samantha Nestor and Andrew Haneiko, originally from Northeast Philly, were not even considering South Philly. “Wait a second, South Philly is actu-
ally awesome,” Haneiko said they realized upon finding a home in an up-and-coming neighborhood. The couple moved to 15th and Dickinson streets five years ago. They wanted to be active in the community, so began attending Point Breeze meetings, but their interests — geared more toward greening and recycling as opposed to senior assistance
programs and caring for Point Breeze Avenue — were not heard. “We felt if there was a zoning meeting that the neighbors just yelled and screamed,” Haneiko said. “Nothing seemed to be getting accomplished. We were all like ‘what’s happening?’” See NEWBOLD page 10