Ray “Ghostbuster” Collazo gains momentum

State legislative candidate boasts new endorsementsBy T Martin If the warm weather was supposed to relax the young candidate whose campaign to make the primaries against incumbent Bill Reiger for the 179th state legislative district, it’s not happening. In fact, since Spring arrived, the campaign of 29-year-old Rafael P. Collazo has gained momentum, garnering endorsements from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), Salsa singer Frankie Negron and the Philadelphia Daily News. The journey that started in freezing cold on…

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Aspirantes STEP it up

Educational dance team performs liveBy T Martin “Stupid packed” doesn’t even begin to spell out how hype and intense ASPIRA’s S.T.E.P. group’s first live dance performance was on Friday night, April 16th. But that was dancer John Mull’s prediction when the dance troupe’s founder and director Hector Serrano invited NorFilly™ Magazine to attend the event held at Concilio’s Hall at 7th and Fairmount. Starting at the top with parents involved in the implementation of the education through dance and…

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Olney drums for the Christ

Olney kids join local church’s annual paradeBy T Martin Christ and St. Ambrose Episcopal Church’s annual Via Crucis through the streets of North Philadelphia boasted an added attraction for the third year in a row on Good Friday, April 9th – Olney High School’s percussion troupe. Beside the youths already affiliated with the church, these teens from Olney High are rapidly becoming a staple of the Church’s event. They brought a new “flavor” to the parade as it moved…

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Will work for fun

ASPIRA fills students’ week offBy T Martin From games to movie night to overnight bowling, the sixty some-odd students that attended ASPIRA during their Spring Break enjoyed the week off from start to finish. Aspirantes, students enrolled in any of the after-school youth leadership programs of ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania, might not have had school from April 5th to the 9th, but they did have things to do, places to go and people to meet! After news that the…

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Bracetti Academy, Part 5

Part 5 of 5 – Accentuate the positive NorFilly™ is – or was until getting hooked into this story – a positive magazine. It is a positive resource for young people interested in any of our focus topics, such as photography or technology. It is a positive outlet for teens and young adults to express their views of the world. It is a positive place for schools to share success stories and achievements. As such, we are sincere in…

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Bracetti Academy, Part 4

Part 4 of 5 – Qualified administration Understanding that bit of history brings you up-to-date. Bracetti Academy has gone through a number of appointed and acting administrators, most deemed un- or under-qualified, by the board of trustees or by the educational management organization (EMO), to run the school. The Philadelphia School District cannot, by law, dictate the day-to-day operations of a charter school; it can only advise or suggest where a school might fail to live up to lawful…

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Bracetti Academy, Part 3

Part 3 of 5 – Student voice As promised, in their April 15th edition Focus Newspaper published the writings of several students expressing positive feelings about their school and its staff. While there was never a doubt that the staff at Bracetti School is loving and caring (at least, NF never wrote such), the school felt that it was necessary to point that out. So four students’ works were published to show that for the most part – less…

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Bracetti Academy, Part 2

Part 2 of 5 – NorFilly reflects, Bracetti responds The thing about the first article we ran on the school is the fact that local grassroots newspaper Community Focus also carried the story. Being a lesser known (just a baby) publication, NF took some heat, but not as much as Focus. David Roche, production manager at Focus, received a number of calls about the article, published on the front page of his periodical. Professional to the core, he passed…

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Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School

Part 1 of 5 – Parents scream “Discrimination!”By T Martin (as Escritor X) Last month, several parents supporting Ida Navarro’s fight for a better qualified administration at a local charter school came to NorFilly Magazine with a story. Their story was about how they felt mistreated and misguided about the principles of Bracetti Charter School, located at Kensington Avenue and Cumberland Street, where they thought their children would be given the educational experience for which founding staff members toiled…

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From the mouths of babes

Teens talk about Bracetti AcademyBy Bracetti Senior Academy StudentsCourtesy of Community Focus Newspaper The teachers and staff of Mariana Bracetti Academy are so caring and willing to help us when we need them. Our teachers especially, are very concerned about our grades and education. They were so concerned about helping us that they even opened up a Saturday school PSSA Prep and Extra Help group. Many teachers have gone out of their way to make it to Mariana Bracetti…

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