Thousands of Philadelphia students walked out of class Friday and marched to school district headquarters and City Hall to protest massive cuts in public school funding.

The act of civil disobedience drew praise and criticism but it also could draw disciplinary action for the students that left class.

Philadelphia Student Union, a youth-led action group that helped organize the walkout, tweeted Monday (@125studentunion) that students at both West Philly and Bartram High Schools were being suspended for leaving class.

Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard, however, says that as of Monday afternoon no students were suspended and that suspensions would be highly unlikely for most students even those that cut class to protest.

Gallard said he spoke with Bartram principal Constance Mcalister and that she told him that she was speaking to each student the left school but that no one at that point had been suspended.

According to the district, students under the age of 18 that walked out have up to three days to produce a note from their parent or guardian that said that they had permission to leave school. If that child doesn’t produce such a note or a phone call from a parent they then can face disciplinary actions starting with in-school detentions for first offenses.

If a student is 18 or older he or she can sign out as they please, Gallard said.

Even if a student already has unexcused absences or other infractions on his or her record, they normally are allowed up to three or four of these incidents until a suspension is considered.

Gallard says that a second offense normally would warrant two days of detention and a third infraction a three-day detention. The detentions are meant to be used by the student to complete homework or other learning inside the building after school hours.

A suspension is a possible action that individual schools can take on a student by student basis but would only come into effect for a student with a history of disciplinary issues, according to Gallard.

An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 students participated in Friday’s walkout in protest of proposed cuts to cover a $300 million budget shortfall.

Gallard said exact figures on how many students walked out weren’t available as of Monday afternoon.

Thousands of Philadelphia school students walked out of class and marched on city buildings to fight drastic budget cuts to their education.

Chanting "save our schools" and holding signs, the teens from at least 27 schools converged on the School District of Philadelphia headquarters at 440 N. Broad Street just after noon Friday, shutting down Broad Street to traffic.

Once the demonstrators reached numbers in the thousands, they began marching south on Broad Street towards Philadelphia City Hall at Broad and Market Streets -- arriving around 1:30 p.m.

The students are fighting a series of severe budget cuts proposed by the district to close a more than $300 million funding gap. The proposed cuts include ending arts and music programs, sports and cutting auxiliary staff like secretaries, librarians and counselors.

The demonstration is happening at the same time parents, teachers and students testify before a Philadelphia City Council hearing on school funding.

The demonstration walked around City Hall in the middle of the street -- shutting the area down to traffic. They also made their way into the building's courtyard to have their voices heard.

Some students held signs reading "No Schools = No Life," "What will you do about the opportunity gap?" and "Give us education, not incarceration."

— Philly Student Union (@215studentunion) May 17, 2013

After spending about a half hour at City Hall, the group poured back onto North Broad Street and began making their way to School District headquarters once again.

Philly Student Union, a youth-led organizer, reported there was not one incident reported during the "peaceful" protest.

Councilwomen Maria Sanchez and Blondell Reynolds Brown met the students in front of the district headquarters and joined in on the protest.

After nearly three hours, the students wrapped up the demonstration and began to disperse.

Earlier in the day, a few dozen teachers and school staff organized a protest outside the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts along South Broad Street.

Wearing signs and handing out pamphlets to drivers, members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers lined the sidewalk outside the high school at Broad and Christian Streets.

"With the austere budgets schools have received, schools...will not be able to provide a high-quality education for Philadelphia's children," said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Jordan says the teacher's union has been discussing labor concessions with the district. However, he says a concession that results teachers taking a pay cut is a non-starter.

"The school district is asking for salary cuts for all PFT members of anywhere between 5, 10 and 13-percent," he said. "I don't think that you'll find employee in the school district and the PFT...who are going to tell you that they can afford to take that kind of pay cut."

The School District of Philadelphia has asked the city and state for millions of extra dollars to close its $304 million budget gap for the upcoming school year.

City officials have said they're working to come up with the money, but a new budget has yet to be approved by City Council.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has proposed imposing so-called "sin taxes" to raise funds. Under Nutter's proposal, a $2 tax would be imposed on the sale of every pack of cigarettes in the city. A tax on bar tabs would also go up 5-percent to 15-percent.

Nutter is also vowing to collect taxes owed to the district. In all, the mayor believes these initiatives can inject $95 million in revenue into the cash-strapped district. That's tens of millions more than the $60 million requested from the city by the district.

The mayor's plans are not the only idea being floated to raise money for the district. Some council members debated a plan to raise the Use and Occupancy Tax paid by businesses.

Under the plan, the tax would be increased to negate a drop in business property taxes following the implementation of the new Actual Value Initiative. Council approved the tax increase in committee Friday opening it up for a vote in the full council.

The city must approve a school budget by the end of May and then the city's budget by June 30.

Similar walkouts were organized last week by students, who also marched on the same spots.

The protests come on the 59th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case -- in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for states to segregate public schools.

District spokesman Fernando Gallard says staff doesn't stop students from walking out, but says officials have asked principals remind students that leaving early will results in being marked as cutting.

"Schools will follow the district's attendance policy and will take the appropriate action which triggers at least a phone call to parents to notify them of the student's absence, a request for a parent conference at the school, or after school detention," he said.

Gallard says the type of response depends on the student's attendance history. He also says the district is working with police to protect students as they congregate.

Students are using Twitter to organize and document their protests. The Philly Student Union  promoted the hashtag #walkout215 as a digital rally point during the event.

The student's cause was also being supported by parents. Brett Mandel, who's running for Philadelphia City Controller, sent out a tweet saying he gave his daughter Rose permission to protest.

"Raise your voice, Rose! It may be the most educational part of the day," he wrote.

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

On a morning last June, Benjamin married his longtime girlfriend. She wore a white dress in a simple ceremony before a justice of the peace in Norristown. Their three kids, all American citizens like his wife, were their audience.

Later that same day, their eldest daughter, still a toddler, was with Benjamin in his car as he rolled up to a traffic checkpoint in Norristown.

Benjamin can't get a driver's license because he arrived in the country illegally 11 years ago. A state trooper marked an "X" on his windshield and directed him to a parking lot where Norristown police were writing tickets.

After the Norristown officer finished with Benjamin, he told him to go speak with officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who were waiting nearby. Benjamin says the officer's tone was threatening, telling him he'd be sent back to Mexico. His daughter started to cry.

"The cops try to take [her]," recalls Benjamin, "and say 'call the mom for to pick her up.' I say, 'I don't give ... you my daughter because she's scared and she comes with me.'"

Similar traffic operations designed to catch unlicensed drivers are provoking allegations of racial profiling across the Delaware Valley. The concerns stem from ICE officers working hand-in-hand with local police, which immigrant rights advocates say is an end-run around state and federal law specifically prohibiting police from enforcing immigration laws.

ICE and police work closely at checkpoints

According to citation records obtained by a public records request, 60 percent of the nearly 100 drivers ticketed by the Norristown Police Department during two checkpoints conducted jointly with ICE last summer had Hispanic surnames. These figures are particularly striking given that Hispanic residents make up only 30 percent of Norristown's population, according to the 2010 Census.

Recently retired Norristown Police Chief Russell Bono, who oversaw the department during the traffic stops, says that immigration officers approached all ticketed drivers in their cars, regardless of national origin.

He says he had a general ban in place on asking about immigration status and that his officers took no part in the immigration enforcement. They simply enforced traffic laws, he says.

"We were not involved in that at all," he insists. "That was strictly ICE agents."

But drivers who went through the two checkpoints ICE attended in Norristown last summer had different recollections.

Benjamin, one of a dozen motorists contacted by WHYY, said ICE agents approached vehicles selectively and Norristown police officers determined who would go on to speak with immigration.

Even ICE's own records indicate that Norristown police told immigration officers who arrested a passenger in one vehicle that he was a Mexican national. ICE decided this man was a priority case because of his tattoos, which suggested he belonged to a street gang. The man told them he is not in a gang is fighting deportation. An ICE official said that it was Norristown police officers who noticed the subject's tattoos and indicated that they "may have been gang-related."

Bono maintains that the federal agency made its own decisions about whom to take and whom to let go.

"I could tell you there were probably 50 or more people who walked away who I know for a fact were not legal residents," the chief said.

Bono also told WHYY that ICE officers promised him they would not speak with passengers, but only with cited drivers.

"I did not want the checkpoints to be a pretense stop for immigration checks," he said. "They're safety compliance checkpoints, but if another agency a federal agency, ICE or anyone else, asks to participate in it and they didn't make it a pretense stop, then I didn't see anything wrong with that."
An ICE official said that ICE participated in the checkpoints at the invitation of Norristown police.

When WHYY requested more records on the checkpoints from the Pennsylvania State Police, who provided additional manpower for the checkpoints at the borough's request, state officials responded that the records were off limits because they relate to an investigation. WHYY submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to ICE in February requesting its records on the two checkpoints. To date, the agency has not delivered them.

The lucky and the unlucky

Benjamin was one of the lucky ones.
An ICE officer fingerprinted him, twice, and asked questions about his personal history. Eventually, another immigration agent said Benjamin and his daughter could go.

Another driver from Brazil, who asked that his name not be used because he's currently fighting deportation in immigration court, was not so fortunate. He describes being held in the police garage where ICE agents were fingerprinting with a group of Hispanic men, including one man who'd been taken out of a truck used by his employer, a landscaping business.

"[His] wife went to get her three girls ... six, eight, ten years old, to bring to him just to say bye and because, she says, they just want to give him a hug. [ICE officers] say, 'You have nothing to do here.'

He was in chains. He start[ed] to cry. It was so sad," recalls the Brazilian driver.
The men spent the night in the Montgomery County jail.

"All night I was thinking thousands of things in the jail. I come to achieve my goals ... [When] I wake up I hoped it was a nightmare."

The Brazilian motorist says he has no criminal record and had never been deported.
ICE points to cases such as that of Benjamin, the man who was let go, to show they exercised "prosecutorial discretion" in the field, a policy announced in 2011. A way of prioritizing its resources, prosecutorial discretion allows ICE to focus on threats to public safety and individuals that repeatedly violated immigration law.

Thomas Decker, the head of ICE's regional enforcement and removal operations, said that during operations such as those in Norristown, immigration officials exercise independent judgment in each case.

"Once we determine alienage, then is it somebody that falls into a priority. And if they fall into a priority then we can take enforcement action," Decker said.

However, the very nature of the traffic checkpoints leads to immigration officers encountering and detaining people they wouldn't otherwise prioritize for public safety reasons.

ICE ride-alongs combine separate jurisdictions

A Bensalem resident, who also requested his name not be used while he is still in immigration court, was pulled over immediately after turning out of his apartment building's parking lot.
As a teen, he'd crossed the Arizona desert to find work in the U.S. and now works in landscaping.

He doesn't have a driver's license.

The Bensalem police officer wrote him a ticket for driving without a license. The driver says he asked whether he could leave and was told to wait. Another officer who had been sitting in the same patrol car came up and knocked on the window. He was an ICE officer doing a "ride-along."

"They just come and take you," said the Bensalem man. "They don't tell you anything. There are a lot of people who are here illegally ... but what I simply don't know is, why me?"

The ICE officer took him into custody for illegal entry.
For his lawyer, Philippe Weisz of immigrant services nonprofit HIAS Philadelphia, the stop raised different questions.

"This is when you come to questions of racial profiling," he notes, pointing out that his client had barely been on the road and was never told why he was stopped.

But Weisz also alleges that the ICE ride-alongs seem like an effort to get around federal and state laws. Immigration officers can't normally pull over anyone outside of border regions, and certainly not for a traffic violation.  Police are normally prohibited from making immigration arrests.

"Well, then they bring along an immigration officer to ride along with them who then, all of a sudden, lo and behold, encounters someone who is undocumented," Weisz observes.

Fred Harran, Bensalem's director of public safety, said that the utilization of both set of laws is the point of the collaboration between local and federal law enforcement.

"If you get people in the country illegally involved in negative activity, then it's a great tool to use," he argues. "Why not use every tool that is at our disposal?"

There are a few reasons Harran could have hesitated. Congress created special programs that allow police to get involved in immigration enforcement efforts, if they are first trained on immigration protocols and how to avoid profiling. Bensalem applied for such a program but the federal government rejected the request, saying it did not expect the benefits to outweigh the workload and resources required.

Congress has also recognized that concern about police enforcing immigration could deter immigrants from reporting crimes or cooperating with investigations, when it created a special "U visa" for victims of crimes.

Michael Wishnie, head of Yale's immigration law clinic, goes a step further.

His clinic, which recently won a $650,000 settlement over similar joint activity targeting day laborers in Connecticut, says such collaborations could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

"When the police are done with the car and they...direct that person essentially not to depart under their custody or control until an ICE agent comes over to interview them, then that, in my view, probably crosses the line into unlawful immigration enforcement," says Wishnie. They should hold the person no longer than it takes to do their own criminal enforcement — in this case, writing a ticket, he says.

An ICE official states that, "ICE was present during police questioning of subjects [in Norristown]. ICE is unaware of anyone being held by the police department for immigration purposes.

ICE's regional office confirms they have participated in ten traffic checkpoints in 2012 within its area of responsibility. That region covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware.

While deportations have reached record highs under the Obama administration - a report by the Migration Policy Institute found total removals rising sharply, from 30,039 in 1990 to 188,467 in 2000 and then to 391,953 in 2011 - the Obama administration has denied setting quotas on deportations. However, documents obtained by the ACLU of North Carolina list police checkpoints among tools for meeting criminal alien removal targets.

Back in Norristown, a new interim police chief refused to admit any past wrongdoing, but says that ICE won't be back when his officers do checkpoints this summer. He heard Latino residents' complaints, he said, and he doesn't need any more headaches.

This piece was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute with additional support from the Center for Investigative Reporting. It is published on NBC10.com through a news coverage partnership with NewsWorks.org

Imagine school without a librarian. 

If the School District of Philadelphia does not meet its budget shortfall and close a $304 million gap, there will be no librarians, counselors, nor after school sports next school year.

And that's just a sampling of the cuts.

"What is the definition of school after these budget cuts?" said Nikki Adeli, 16, a sophomore at Science Leadership Academy and the vice president of the City-Wide Student Government Association.

"I'm not really happy with them."

Presently, there are 43 librarians and 20 librarian assistants serving the district's 149,535 students. That's a ratio of 1 librarian or assistant for every 2,374 students.

"If we don't get the money to fill the shortfall, funding for librarians will be removed," said district spokesman Fernando Gallard.

The school district outlined its 2014 Proposed Operating Budget at a recent Student Reform Commission meeting. 

"We're looking for new revenues for the city and state and savings on the labor side," Gallard said, adding the savings need to be sustainable. 

The thought of no librarians in the entire school district is inconceivable for some. How well can a school community function without a librarian? 

Librarians are master teachers who understand how to connect resources and new technologies, according to Susan Ballard, president of the American Association of School Librarians.

"It's pretty shocking," exclaimed Steven Bell, a Temple University librarian and president of the Association of College & Research Libraries.

"For one thing, you are going to have a lot of students missing out on good quality literature and access to updated books."

"What we know, based on the new Pennsylvania research is that school librarians and library programs play a critical role in students' acquisition of essential reading and writing skills, especially among our most vulnerable learners-- those who are poor, black, Hispanic and those with disabilities," said Debra Kachel of Mansfield University.

Mansfield and her graduate students conducted a study on the impact of libraries in schools. The study found, among other things, the relationship between the presence of a full-time, certified librarian and student achievement on PSSA reading scores is significant at all three grade levels. 

"When you take librarians out of schools you're not exposing a whole generation to develop a love of reading," added Bell. 

Your next debaucherous night of drinking and smoking might help close the Philadelphia School District's enormous budget gap.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is proposing to hike the liquor-by-the-drink tax and create a brand-new $2 tax on every pack of cigarettes in order to help fund the schools.

The School District is seeking money from the city and the state, as well as labor concessions, to close a projected $304 million deficit next fiscal year.

Under Nutter's plan, the tax on Philly bar tabs would rise to 15 percent from 10 percent. Nutter is also vowing to raise an additional $28 million next fiscal year by doing a better job collecting taxes currently owed to the School District.

Nutter's three-pronged approach is expected to raise an extra $95 million in city tax revenue, which is more than the $60 million requested by school officials.

If the schools don't get more money, Nutter argues there will be dire consequences.

"Our young people will suffer under a devastating, bare-bones budget," he said. "And we will all suffer as a result: poverty, unemployment, crime, lost wages and lack of personal opportunity."

Nutter dismissed the notion that a new cigarette tax might hurt businesses.

"I don't know that someone is necessarily going to flee to the suburbs to get a pack of cigarettes," he said.

The tax would also generate $1 million next fiscal year for a smoking cessation program.
To make his plan a reality, Nutter needs state-enabling legislation and support from City Council.

Nutter's aides said the state Senate is expected to introduce legislation soon that would allow the city to create a cigarette tax and raise the drink tax. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams is optimistic that lawmakers will support those proposals, along with Nutter's plan to collect more back taxes.

"For those who question whether it's achievable," Williams said, "all three are home runs in Harrisburg."

But that it is in no way guaranteed. Neither is City Council's support.
City Council President Darrell Clarke is concerned that state officials might authorize the tax hikes, and then think Harrisburg doesn't have to provide any money directly.

"At the end of the day, there continues to be this underlying issue, the 'gorilla in the room,'" he said.

"Where are the additional dollars that will come from the state of Pennsylvania?"

Councilman James Kenney doesn't believe imposing a new $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes will be done quickly or easily.

"I'm not a fan of the cigarette industry, but I know, like all industries that have large amounts of lobbyists and a keen interest in not being taxed anymore, I suspect, they are going to fight it," he said.

In past years, Nutter proposed a new soda tax to raise money for the schools. But after being lobbied aggressively by the soda industry, Council crushed that idea like it was an aluminum can.

Melissa Bova, government affairs representative for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said her group is fighting the drink tax increase.

"It's a 15 percent tax where Montgomery, Chester, Bucks County have a zero percent drink tax," she said. "So if you want to open up a business, are you going to look at Philadelphia and think that's a good place to make that kind of investment? With a 15 percent drink tax, I'm not sure."

Joe Grace, public policy director of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, said he supports Nutter's plan to collect more delinquent taxes. But he had less to say about the proposed tax increases.

"I don't think I want to get into the specifics of any particular tax proposal," he said. "I can say that we support the mayor's commitment to putting more revenues on the table and to seeking support in

Harrisburg. And we want to see the schools in Philadelphia succeed."
School District officials are also asking for an additional $120 million from Harrisburg and $133 million in labor concessions in order to shore up their budget.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan did not give any indication that he's willing to offer givebacks.

"The responsibility for budgeting, or for spending, that did not start with PFT members," he said.

"They chose to [overspend], and so to come and ask us now to bear the brunt of taking pay cuts in order to balance the budget, that's just wrong."

Some legislators and administration officials have said that the state wants a "reformed" teachers contract as a condition for any additional state contribution.

Nutter, who said he had spent Monday and part of Tuesday in Harrisburg, said that this is "one of the issues that has come up. The contract doesn't expire until August 31, and how it gets worked out remains to be seen."

Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez has proposed increasing the use and occupancy tax as a way to raise more money for the district, especially from larger businesses whose property taxes, she said, are likely to go down under the new property-tax assessments.

Some advocates said that's better than the mayor's plan because it doesn't require enabling legislation from the state.

Mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said Nutter "proposed what he wants to do" for the schools, and the administration would discuss its views on the use and occupancy tax when it comes before a Council committee within the next few days.

Shortly after Nutter left the news conference where he announced his plan, he was greeted by parents and children protesting the potential budget cuts. Parent Sarah Bruck said she backs Nutter's plan.

"That would be great, but we need to see it," she said. "We've been jerked around long enough."
WHYY/NewsWorks' Ben Herold and The Notebook's Dale Mezzacappa contributed to this report.

President Barack Obama is delivering a statement on the growing IRS scandal.

Schoolhouse Watch, a project whose goal is to give community members a voice in what happens with the 23 closing school buildings in their neighborhoods, has been an eye-opening experience for me.

I could not have known when we bandied about the idea of giving neighbors the tools and information they’d need to effectively decide their own fate that we would be met with suspicion, accusations, and derision. We’ve been accused of profiting from a foundation grant specific to this initiative — an assertion that is not true. We’ve been accused of giving a platform to those who want to turn schools into condos — again, not true. We’ve even been told of anonymous false emails telling panelists our forums have been canceled.

It’s clear to me that people are angry. Community members are angry because on average 96 percent of the students in each closing school are economically disadvantaged, and 90 percent of them are African American or Latino. Parents are angry because their children are scheduled to be transferred to low-performing or rival schools, and no clear transition plan is in place. Students and alumni are angry because we’ve asked them to accept the school closures and begin the next phase of the fight.

I fully expect each of those groups to express those very real concerns at today’s 4 pm community forum on the future of University City High School. It’s my hope that the anger will translate into tangible ideas, that cooler heads will prevail, and that through this forum we will shine a bright light on the history that’s led to this moment, on the fight for a community’s children, and on the abiding desire for fairness.

University City, after all, is a unique place. It is unique not only because the city has placed the building’s market value at $22.75 million, an amount that dwarfs the values of most of the other 22 school buildings that will close at the end of the school year. It is unique because of its history.

University City High School was built in the wake of urban renewal, after houses had been cleared in the name of removing blight. After a losing battle to keep their houses, an entire community known as the Black Bottom was pushed out in order to make room for the school, and after the school was built in 1971, another fight took place to allow children of color to attend the school.

Today, community members who have spent years working at University City High School are keenly aware of that history. Many believe that either Penn or Drexel University intend to acquire University City High School and the land upon which it sits.

Asked what should happen with the school building when it is closed at the end of the current school year, one young teacher spoke of that history.

“I think [since] the land was taken from a community of people — since people were displaced in order to operate a school that their children were eventually allowed to go to — then the land should return to the community,” the teacher said on condition of anonymity. “In the spirit of this forum the community should decide what should happen. Particularly because of the way the land was taken, it should be returned to the community.”

The question is how to make that happen. Should the community benefit through a partnership with a corporation, like Comcast for example, that would run the school, train students for jobs within the corporation, and hire the students upon graduation? That’s the model that Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors President Allan Domb has put forth.

Should it become a K-12 charter school whose science and technology curriculum would benefit from partnerships with Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and private sector stakeholders in the implementation of career technical education (CTE) programs? That’s what Chad Womack of a nonprofit called TBED21 has suggested.

Melani Lamond, a Realtor who works in the community, said the City and School District should be in dialogue with the community about what zoning uses they would allow, and that the property should be sold at market price. The money from the sale should go back into neighborhood schools like Powell Elementary School, she said, but this could work only if the City and School District would actually keep their word.

But in talking to teachers and alumni who’ve been involved with University City over the years, I’ve found that there is very little trust in the system. Students who were determined to keep the school open prompted teachers to join the fight. They were bitterly disappointed by the decision to close the school. And those who had invested themselves in the students were baffled.

Patrice Berry is director of the Student Success Center at University City High School, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania’s 
Netter Center for Community Partnerships. The Netter Center, which operates in seven West Philadelphia schools, is about bridging the gap between the community and the school, and also bridging the gap between the university and the community, Berry said. This model, the university assisted community school, has encouraged more parents to be involved in the school. Students, too, are more involved in community work. On the flip side, a lot of students at Penn say their lives have changed as a result of working with the students at University City.

At least one University City teacher, A.J. Schiera, came in as a Penn undergraduate student and stayed on because, he said, he fell in love with the students. A history teacher, Schiera is now helping the students to catalog the history of their school so that an enduring record will be left even after it closes.

Despite the work that’s been done by students and teachers associated with Penn, however, the school, which can accommodate over 2,600 students, has only about 500 students enrolled this year, according to School District records. And mistrust between Penn and the community endures.

The current students, said one teacher, will learn to live with the disappointment of losing their school. “I think our students know how to cope. They’re used to things like this happening. The impact is going to be quiet, but deep, and it will affect our students expectations of what they deserve. That’s not something we can really measure … it’s going to be a moment of difficult transition.”

But it could well be those very students who decide what will happen with the building in the future. Those students, after all, have already been battle tested in the fight to keep the school open.

Some of those students will be at today’s forum with Schiera, the teacher who taught them about their school’s past. Perhaps today, they’ll tell us all what University City’s future will be.

Register for today’s forum at EventBrite.com

This story was reported through a news coverage partnership between NBC10.com and AxisPhilly.org

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams can be thanked for taking an alleged drunk driver off the streets.

Williams was driving along the 500 block of North 63rd Street in West Philadelphia Sunday evening when a car zoomed past in the wrong lane, according to his office.

District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson says the DA’s security detail took chase and attempted to stop the car, but the driver, identified as Chanae Morris, continued to speed along the road.

The 24-year-old then blew through several traffic lights before crashing into another car. Morris was then taken into custody.

Morris has been charged with several crimes including Driving Under the Influence, Criminal Mischief and Simple Assault.

She was arraigned Monday and is being held on $7,500 bail.

Williams who's a heavy Twitter user, did not talk directly about the incident on the microblogging service.

Rather, he retweeted a series of posts by the District Attorney's Office's main Twitter account.

@philly_dasofc charged 24yrold Chanae Morris w/DUI for speeding past the DA and his securityin the wrong lane on 63rd St.

— Philadelphia DAO (@Philly_DAsOfc) May 13, 2013

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

A Philadelphia city councilman wants to extend the working hours for the horses that pull carriages in Philadelphia's historic district.

Councilman Mark Squilla says he wants to try a pilot program to extend the hours when horse-drawn carriages transport tourists to include the afternoon rush hour -- from 3:30 to 6 p.m.

The carriages are not now permitted on the streets during that time, but Squilla says they should be able to work during the summer.

"We have a lot of requests from tourists and people who come into the city that it's sort of a dead time for them and the carriages are not available," he said. "So we are going to try it and see how it works."

If the bill is approved, Squilla stresses it would allow only a pilot program.

If the carriage operations prove to be dangerous or interfere with traffic on the streets, he said the pilot will be halted.

Carriage operators still will be subject to restrictions that pull them off the streets when the temperature is high enough to risk injury to the horses or there are other hazardous weather conditions.

This story was reported through a news coverage partnership between NBC10.com and NewsWorks.org

The following is a work of opinion submitted by the author.

This is one man's story.

When I received my new property assessment as part of the city's AVI initiative, I could not help feeling like the perfect fool for having behaved responsibly when I was getting married and buying my home in a nice, but struggling, Germantown neighborhood five short years ago.

I had done all the right things — or so I thought. I had all of my credit scores up around 800. I lived well within the means of a dad and social worker for a fatherhood program at a nonprofit serving Philadelphia. (We help men to be responsible fathers and become actively involved in the lives of their children.) Not once had I ever paid a bill late, or paid my mortgage late, or my property taxes late (I paid what I was told I owed), and I made damned sure that I could afford my home on my salary alone should my marriage not last. (It didn't.)

When I purchased my home, a very important consideration for me was that the property taxes were low, and I was able to negotiate a fair purchase price for my home given the neighborhood it is in. Things looked good.

Then, my son graduated high school and received a scholarship to La Salle University. Over five years, I refinanced my home (twice) to lower my interest rate, and thereby my mortgage payment so that I could help my son get through college. I meticulously managed my finances, maintained my home and extended that care to my surrounding neighborhood, picking up trash off the street, looking out for my neighbors' properties, etc. When my community wanted a stop sign on our street, I led the fight against City Hall, and we got our stop sign.

And now, a bunch of people I don't know have decided that I cannot have all of this, undoing my five years of careful planning. They have decided that my home is to be made almost unaffordable to me, that I must now pay for some inexplicable errors in judgment about property taxation that the city government made long ago. These people who want to rob me have exotic names like Nutter-City Councilman-City Councilwoman-City Attorney-Judge this-or-that.

These unsavory people, representing the city of Philadelphia, Pa., have decreed that my property taxes will likely go up something like a staggering 336 percent. (And I know there are some who have it even worse. I hope they are writing their own letters.) The increase I am looking at is the highest in my immediate neighborhood, and it is outrageous, simply outrageous.

All of us, who are good citizens, were aware that we might have to pay more (albeit, only so that business property owners can pay less — sheesh!). As always we were resigned to do our bit, even though it deeply rankles us that the city has allowed so many property owners to skip paying their taxes to the tune of a reported half a billion dollars. So they come after the easy targets — the good citizens. We are all suckers anyway — right?

It bothers me that people I don't know can use the law and their positions to screw up my law-abiding and responsible existence. It is not right. It is not fair.

I've written to my city councilperson about this issue, but only received the "standard response."
As I see it, what would help is some sort of cap on the amount of allowable property tax increases, and even decreases; something on the order of 100 to 150 percent.

At some point, all the good guys — the decent law-abiding and responsible homeowners, who help to keep things going in this city — deserve a break.

My fellow Philadelphians, I think now is the time and this is the issue. Let's take a stand, write letters, call in, do something so that all these unfeeling politicians with their exotic titles hear us.

They think we're all suckers. Well, are we?

This story was reported through a news coverage partnership between NBC10.com and NewsWorks.org

After a contentious fight with the City of Philadelphia over its Logan Square headquarters and anti-gay policies, the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America has decided to move.

A spokeswoman with Mayor Michael Nutter's office says the Cradle of Liberty Council Boy Scouts of America will leave their city-owned building at 22nd and Winter Streets by June 30.

The group has been inhabiting the building rent-free for years. The Scouts built the building on city property in 1928.

In return for leaving the property, the city will pay $825,000 to the group for improvements made to the building over the years.

“We're pleased that we've reached a settlement with the city. We're obviously sad to be leaving our home for 85 years," said Scout Executive & CEO of the Cradle of Liberty Council Boy Scouts of America Tom Harrington.

A fight between city officials and the local chapter has been ongoing since 2008. The city has insisted non-profits using free city property must adhere to anti-discrimination laws.

The Boy Scouts have publicly banned gays from the organization. The group's oath requires members to be "morally straight."

Philadelphia tried to evict the group from the Logan Square building by threatening to sell the property to a developer for half its price.

The Boy Scouts took the city to court and ultimately won. A federal judge ruled Philadelphia pay the Scouts nearly $900,000 in legal fees related to the case.

"Our focus will always be in serving the kids of the city and this litigation was a distraction. It’s always in our best interest to reach a settlement and move forward,” Harrington told NBC10.com.

The Cradle of Liberty Council enacted its own anti-discrimination policy in 2003, but the national organization, based in Texas, forced the chapter to repeal it.

The national group was set to vote on changing its policies on gays in February, but delayed the decision saying they needed more time to decide.

In a statement after the decision was announced, Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke said he was disappointed such a deal had to be reached.

"I'm disappointed COLBSA was not permitted by the Boy Scouts of America to adopt its own, more reasonable policy of inclusion," Clarke said. "I will continue to support COLBSA's great work with our youth as much as I continue to hope COLBSA will one day ban discrimination against gay children and adults."

Harrington says his organization has been gathering opinions from the neighborhoods they serve about allowing openly gay children to be scouts. He says the opinions have varied.

The national organization plans to vote at the end of May on a resolution to allow gay child scouts. Harrington said the resolution does not address allowing openly gay adult scouts to remain in the organization.

Harrington says the Cradle of Liberty Council has committed to doubling the number of low-income youth in the organization over a five-year period.

The Cradle of Liberty Council's retail store will remain in the Winter Street building until October 31. It's unclear what may become of the property.

Harrington says a new headquarters has yet to be chosen and the group is looking at locations in Philadelphia and the suburbs.

More than 17,000 kids are served by the Cradle of Liberty Council in Philadelphia and Montgomery and Delaware Counties.

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

Two Atlantic City organizations are among the first to receive grants from the Superstorm Sandy relief fund headed up by New Jersey's first lady.

The Atlantic City Long-Term Recovery Groups will receive half a million dollars from the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund to help 300 people return to their homes damaged by the storm.

Emergency shelter Atlantic City Rescue Mission will get $50,000 to help house and feed 370 people displaced by Sandy.

The organizations are among 19 awarded a total of $4.2 million by the fund chaired by New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie.

The largest single grant will be going to the community of Union Beach, N.J. Officials there will use $1.5 million to rebuild 11 homes. In that community, 85-percent of the homes sustained storm damage.

Other money will be used to buy groceries for homebound elderly residents of Toms River, N.J. and rental and mortgage assistance for low-income people in Ocean County, N.J.

The grants bring the total from the group chaired by the wife of Governor Chris Christie to $11 million.

More than 130 applications were submitted to the fund for grants.

The fund is also planning a national dining out event on June 19 for restaurants to donate a portion of their revenue.