A sprawling brick Glenside building that last held an optometrist’s office is returning to its roots as developer Kevin Burke looks to build community hubs around his native Glenside.
The building at 2256 Mt. Carmel Ave. was once home to a bowling alley and billiards hall. The alley closed in 1971, and a family of eye specialists ran a glasses store there for decades.
Burke bought the 1920s structure, dubbed Glenside Lanes, in 2024. The micro-mall, which officially opened in May 2025, is now home to a barre and yoga studio, a coffee shop, a record store, and a gift shop, with plans for a music venue in the back.
Like the newly bustling Yorkway Place in Jenkintown, Glenside Lanes balances traditional retail with experiential businesses. The Montgomery County venues are part of a nationaltrend, as investors look to fill commercial space hollowed out by online shopping and post-pandemic consumer shifts.
“I think it’s the way to keep a brick-and-mortar going,” said Rhiannon Punzo, a Glenside Lanes tenant. “It’s like your community mall where you’re coming to one building that you can walk to, that isn’t corporate.”
Burke is preserving most of the bowling lane flooring — including lane guides and the alternating wooden plank style demarcating the gutters — in the back of the building, which will serve as a concert and event space as early as November. He plans to develop a similar multiuse site in Wyndmoor.
The lanes from a former bowling alley are still visible in a section of Glenside Lanes under construction on Sept. 3, 2026.Jess Rohan
But to make Glenside Lanes a success, Burke needed the right business partners.
First, he found Punzo, who runs the Dovetail shop of local artist-made gifts, and cofounded the art events company CO Lab.
Punzo connected with longtime music photographer Lisa Schaffer, who had planned to open a record store in about five years. Within months, Schaffer was opening Vinyl Chickie at Glenside Lanes.
“I want you to speed up your retirement plan,” Punzo recalls telling Schaffer.
Former professional ballet dancer Alyson Pray Ward used to park outside the building and walk down the street to her barre and yoga business, Align Studio.
“I would always look up to the second floor and think, ‘That would make a gorgeous ballet studio,’” Pray Ward said. She moved Align into Glenside Lanes last year.
This summer, Raven Cafe began serving Rival Bros. Coffee on the ground floor between Punzo and Schaffer’s stores. The stores flow into one another, making it easier to linger, owners and workers said: Yogis might pick up a teacher gift downstairs at the Dovetail after class, and music lovers grab coffee at Raven before browsing vinyl.
Raven Cafe opens into the Dovetail gift shop at Glenside Lanes. The stores flow into one another, making it easier for customers to linger, owners and workers said.Jess Rohan
“People can honestly show up and see familiar faces,” said Christine Collins, who teaches at Align. “I’m meeting adult friends there.”
The clutch of complementary businesses is exactly what Burke had hoped for.
The goal “was definitely to bring in different businesses that would help the community,” Burke said. “I always thought the bowling alley would be a perfect spot for that, and now we’re almost there.”
The final business partner Glenside Lanes needed, Punzo said, was Glenside itself.
“The community said, ‘We want this, if you build more we’ll come,’” Punzo said. “They could’ve been just talking, but everyone who said it showed up.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect where developer Kevin Burke may plan a future micro-mall.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Books are back, in Greater Philadelphia and around the country.
The industry saw modest revenue growth the last four years in a row, an Association of American Publishers report found. Brick-and-mortars saw more than twice the growth of online retail in 2025, and hardcovers outpaced ebooks.
Jackie Botto looks for a book on the shelves while chatting with a customer at Capricorn Books in Jenkintown.William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer
Many Philly-area booksellers said they’re feeling the surge.
But what are they reading? Sixteen booksellers told us their favorites of 2026 so far.
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor and The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf — Ariel Censor, Little Yenta Books in South Philly
Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.— Alex Schneider, A Novel Idea in East Passyunk
Discipline by Larissa Pham — Richard De Wyngaert, Head House Books in Queen Village
Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel — Jackie Botto, Capricorn Books in Jenkintown
Message to the Blackman in America by Elijah Muhammad — Shaykh Anwar Muhammad, The Black Reserve Bookstore in Lansdale
Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson — Charity Herndon, Austen’s Shelf in Bordentown
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver — Elizabeth Young, Commonplace Reader in Yardley
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Jonathan Altshul started this week as the new manager of Cheltenham, an ethnically and economically diverse township of about 38,000 people divided into historic neighborhoods like Elkins Park, Wyncote, and Laverock.
As he gets down to work on the township’s biggest priorities, including revamping facilities and boosting the tax base, Altshul wants to hear from them all, he said in an interview.
“That’s what we sign up for as municipal managers,” said Altshul, who will receive an annual salary of $225,000. “How do you get people with different viewpoints, different walks of life, to come to the table?”
It is a skill he mastered growing up as one of seven kids, Altshul said — “trying to make sure your voice is heard while respecting there’s also six others of you in the house.”
One of his first priorities is improving Cheltenham’s facilities — some of which are century-old relics of the township’s past as a playground for the wealthy.
“We are facing aging facilities and aging infrastructure,” Altshul said, and part of his job will be addressing that to attract new residents and businesses.
He hopes to do so while “holding the line on tax increases as much as possible,” Altshul said. Cheltenham residents — who are the most property tax-burdened in Montgomery County — “have high expectations about the services that they receive, so there’s not, generally speaking, a whole lot of fat to cut.”
In tackling the building challenges, Altshul’s penchant for hard conversations may be crucial. Township officials in recent years have discussed the possibility of closing facilities, raising worries from some residents in neighborhoods that stand to lose amenities.
Two community centers — La Mott and Rowland — have been largely closed to the public for several years, and renovation plans have been confirmed only for La Mott.
Adding to Cheltenham’s infrastructure challenges is the tax base itself. The township has less commercial space than nearby towns, but a larger proportion of institutional land, according to its recent comprehensive plan. Institutional land typically includes churches, universities, and hospitals that may not pay property taxes.
Encouraging those entities to pay fees in lieu of property taxes may be part of the solution, Altshul said. He plans to take a pragmatic approach.
“There are no silver bullets with public finances,” Altshul said. “It’s just listening and rolling up sleeves, getting your hands dirty, and thinking through problems.”
It is the kind of work that led Altshul to public administration in the first place: He got a graduate degree in public policy and finance, taking federal and county-level government jobs in the Washington area before moving to Chester County to work in local government.
His last job stint — two years as a suburban township manager — took him back to his native Connecticut while he helped his widowed father with a life transition, but his “heart is in the Delaware Valley,” Altshul said. “I raised my kids here.”
That is why he takes seriously the emotional and financial investments Cheltenham residents have also made, Altshul said:
“We’re talking about home.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
The Abington Township Police Department is ending its contracts with controversial surveillance company Flock Safety after data was leaked about searches from Abington — and Cheltenham, too. The township will decide Thursday whether to replace the Flock network with a five-year contract with Axon Enterprise, another surveillance vendor.
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The Abington Township Police Department is ending its contracts with surveillance startup Flock Safety after thousands of its searches leaked to the public. Additional Flock searches went public from Cheltenham — where law enforcement doesn’t hold Flock contracts, but can access the national network through subscriptions held by local businesses.
Flock cameras log license plates and vehicle features such as bumper stickers for every passing car, and employ AI to identify cars that often travel together. The network of public and private cameras enables police to search for vehicles by behavior rather than plate number.
Now, as surveillance regulations face national scrutiny, Abington will vote Thursday on whether to replace Flock with a five-year contract with Axon Enterprise, another surveillance camera system.
Yorkway Place, the secluded, 1930s Tudor-lined alley in the heart of Jenkintown, is experiencing a business renaissance thanks in part to a meadery there.
Cheltenham residents voiced concerns at last week’s commissioners’ meeting over their lack of input in the township’s Melrose pool project, which a private company is developing. New plans for the controversial $4.5 million mixed-use development indicate more than two dozen more houses than originally proposed.
A casino cleaner looking to support his daughter, a home health aide trying to pay rent, and a Philadelphia police officer were among recent plasma donors at the Wyncote location of B Positive Plasma, which is on track to see a record year as area residents try to make ends meet.
The fifth-annual Montco Jazz Fest will bring outdoor concerts to parks across the county next month, including in Wyncote.
A lane will be closed through Friday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Church Road between Township Line Road and Route 73 in Cheltenham Township for paving. During the same time frame, utility adjustments and milling will close a lane along Ashbourne Road, Montgomery Avenue, and Central Avenue between Washington Lane and Route 73, and again between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Cheltenham police are advising residents to keep small pets indoors after multiple reports of an aggressive coyote in Wyncote. They also say to avoid the animal if seen.
🏫 Schools briefing
The 2026-27 academic years for the Cheltenham and Jenkintown school districts begin Monday.
Fast-growing chain 7 Brew Coffee is seeking Montgomery County’s approval for two proposed locations: one in Wyncote at 1000 S. Easton Rd. and another in Willow Grove at 1130 Easton Rd.
Speaking of 7 Brew, investors in the food and beverage space are keen to pinpoint the next category that could rise to the level of popularity of the Arkansas-based coffee chain, and bagels might just check that box, The Inquirer’s Michael Klein writes. He takes a look at the “bagel boom” hitting greater Philadelphia as a PopUp Bagels franchisee scouts potential Montgomery County locations.
Rob Woloshin, owner of Manny’s Deli Stop in Willow Grove, talked to Klein about visiting Steve Stein’s Famous Deli — which closed in Northeast Philadelphia over the weekend after more than 60 years — as a child. The stalwart deli informed his own shop’s business model.
🎳 Things to do
💿 Best of the 2000s: Britney Spears, burning CDs, Juicy Couture tracksuits … If these aughts buzzwords piqued your interest, consider joining this trivia night for a dose of nostalgia. ⏰ Wednesday, Aug. 26, 7 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 King’s Corner Pub, Jenkintown
🕵️ High Altitudes and High Stakes: Join this virtual discussion with thriller author Lucy Foley about her newest book, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, which comes out next month and will revive Agatha Christie’s iconic Miss Marple character for the first (authorized) time in 50 years.⏰ Thursday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m. 💵 Free 📍 Virtual, sign up via Abington Township Public Library
🎶 So Good! The Neil Diamond Experience: Robert Neary, a Broadway, television, and film icon, performs a two-hour tribute to the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. ⏰ Thursday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m. 💵 $41.71-$116.25 📍 Keswick Theatre, Glenside
🍺 Battle of the Breweries: Sample “Cheltenham-inspired” beers from local breweries and cast your vote for the champion at this event, which is part of the Cheltenham Celebrates America 250 lineup. ⏰ Sunday, Aug. 30, 4 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Gimbel Field, Elkins Park
🏒 Philadelphia Flyers’ Community Caravan: Beloved mascot Gritty will make an appearance at the Jenkintown stop of the team’s 10th annual event, complete with giveaways and bites from local vendors. ⏰ Monday, Aug. 31, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Jenkintown Square
Five bedrooms plus a dedicated office space give space for options in this Abington abode, constructed in 1966. It features two full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, a loft-style gym complete with the equipment, and a four-vehicle driveway plus a garage. Vaulted ceilings in the kitchen and living room create an open feel, and out back, there’s s a covered lower deck.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Maleka Evans waited outside Octapharma Plasma in South Jersey at 8:30 on a recent sweltering morning, sweat beading on her face. A dozen other prospective donors had arrived before her, and the line was still growing a half hour before doors opened.
One woman sat on an overturned shopping cart pilfered from the nearby Walmart. Another brought her own folding chair. A man held a bicycle tire, removed to protect his bike from being stolen once he was inside and hooked up to a machine that extracts antibody-rich blood plasma needed for medical treatments.
Every Monday and Friday for the last three years, Evans has trekked to the Audubon strip mall for what she considers her second job. She takes a 45-minute bus ride from her Willingboro home to Camden, then walks another 45 minutes to the donation site with a slogan posted in its window: “When it pays to give hope. That’s plasmagic.”
The 37-year-old single mom has noticed the lines growing in the last year, as others are seeing at donation sites elsewhere in the Philadelphia region and across the nation. The for-profit business is booming as more and more Americans, both poor and middle class, struggle to straddle the gap between stagnant wages and increased living costs.
Evans relies on the $50 that she typically earns for each plasma donation — loaded onto a prepaid debit card — to help with bills that she cannot cover with her $18-per-hour job packing boxes at a warehouse.
“Prices for everything — food, rent, transportation, electricity — are just getting higher and higher,” Evans said. “You have to work two jobs to make ends meet, and you’re still living paycheck to paycheck.”
An increasing number of people in the Philadelphia region are selling their blood plasma for money. Here, local donors sit in recliners with needles in their arms at B Positive Plasma in Montgomery County.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The U.S is one of about a dozen countries where it is legal to pay donors for plasma. It is among only three countries where people are allowed to donate two times over seven days, though not on back-to-back days, per U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations.
Nearly 70% of the world’s plasma comes from donors in America, fueling a multibillion-dollar global industry. Plasma, a straw-colored liquid in blood, contains antibodies and other proteins used for treating a wide range of patients with immunodeficiencies, neurological conditions, kidney disease, and bleeding disorders.
Last year, U.S. donors produced 62.5 million liters of plasma — the highest volume ever collected and an 8% increase from the previous year. That trajectory has continued into this year, according to Georgetown University professor Peter Jaworski.
“When the price of most staples goes up, so does the amount of plasma donations,” Jaworski said. “If I fell on hard times, the very first thing I would do is become a regular plasma donor.”
Donating plasma is widely considered low-risk, with millions of people doing it each year without reported health problems. However, the long-term health effects of donating twice weekly for years have not been well-studied. Safety concerns raised by the deaths of two people in Canada who had recently donated at for-profit clinics run by the healthcare company Grifols haveprompted an investigation there.
In the U.S., an FDA investigation into 34 deaths of people who had donated plasma between 2016 and 2020 did not find a link between donations and fatalities.
Some donors experience lightheadedness, fatigue, bruising, bleeding, or dehydration. Drinking water and eating foods high in iron and protein can help alleviate those side effects, according to U.S. health guidance.
Security guard Danny Morales of North Philadelphia said he feels “tired” after donating. But that has not deterred him from heading to CSL Plasma in the city’s Olney neighborhood twice a week, as soon as he finishes his overnight shift at 6 a.m.
Morales can earn $520 a month donating plasma, which helps to offset rising expenses that have the 35-year-old father feeling ever more drained: The cost to fill up his Honda Civic’s gas tank jumped from $30 to $80 in the last year; a package of ground beef increased by $8; and even the brand of mac and cheese that his 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son enjoy costs about $1 more, he said.
“It’s just getting worse and worse,” said Morales, whose plasma donations supplement his $18 hourly security job wage. “Stuff is just getting so expensive. Groceries are ridiculous.”
CSL opens at 6 a.m., but a line starts to form around 4:30 a.m. In late July, it snaked past the building, wrapping around the corner. The sight caught the attention of nearby Olney resident Tony Reed.
“There’s always a line there, especially toward the end of the month and definitely on Monday mornings,” Reed said. “People are broke.”
Ben Ruder, CEO and founder of B Positive Plasma, and Pearl Dixon, an assistant manager and phlebotomist, explain the donor intake process. Each donor fills out an extensive health questionnaire, undergoes a medical exam, and gets a finger prick to test their blood for iron and protein levels. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Inside the booming industry
On a recent Wednesday afternoon at B Positive Plasma in Montgomery County, a steady stream of donors checked in at kiosks in the lobby.
After filling out an extensive health history questionnaire, each new donor undergoes an on-site medical exam by a licensed practical nurse. Repeat donors must get annual exams. At each visit, a medical tech checks their vitals, including blood pressure, pulse, and temperature, and performs a finger prick to test their blood for protein and iron levels. Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds.
“We make sure they’re healthy and well,” said Ben Ruder, founder and CEO of B Positive Plasma, noting that the plasma itself is tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C before being sold.
Next, plasma donors are hooked up to a machine that draws out blood, spins off the plasma, and then returns the red blood cells back to the donor, a process that typically takes 45 minutes to an hour.
At 2 p.m., 18 of the 24 cushioned recliners at the Wyncote location on Cheltenham Avenue were occupied by donors, each with a needle in one arm. They included a Philadelphia police officer who had donated more than two dozen times since May 2025; a casino cleaner who earns $120 a week donating to support his young daughter; and a home health aide who donates twice a week to help cover his $750 monthly apartment rent.
Jason Johnson, 29, of East Mount Airy, has donated plasma 68 times at B Positive Plasma in the past two years. He makes an extra $120 a week donating twice weekly. The money helps supplement the $17.80 an hour he earns as a cleaner at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia. “In the beginning, I was doing it for the extra money, but once I learned that I’m helping people out in their life, it made me want to come back even more,” Johnson said. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Plasma donation differs from whole blood donation, a faster process that relies on unpaid volunteers who can donate only once every 56 days in the U.S.
B Positive Plasma is on track to see a record year, with 180,000 donations, peaking this holiday season, when people need extra money for gifts. Last year, the company saw 150,000 donations at about 1 liter per person.
Ruder, 42, who lives in Center City, opened his first plasma donation center in Cherry Hill in 2012 and rapidly expanded to 12 locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. He plans to open two more sites in Maryland next year and another in Allentown later this year.
B Positive Plasma, like other plasma companies, structures payments to incentivize twice-weekly donors. For instance, donors whose weight and physical health yield the maximum amount of plasma — 1,001 to 1,200 milliliters — will receive $45 for the first visit and another $90 if they return that same week. Plus, the company offered a $50 bonus for anyone who donated eight times in August.
Donyele Wilkins, 48, a phlebotomist and medical assistant, works in the donation room at the B Positive Plasma in Montgomery County. She suffers from lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease for which she receives plasma-derived infusions to control her symptoms.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Phlebotomist Donyele Wilkins works 12-hour shifts, four days a week, at B Positive Plasma.
For Wilkins, the paycheck is not the only benefit of working there.
The 48-year-old Northeast Philadelphia resident suffers from lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues and organs. Wilkins said she relies on plasma-derived medication, infused through an IV every four to five months, to help control symptoms like inflammation and joint pain.
Knowing how plasma is processed makes her feel “safe,” she said. She also likes getting to know “the regulars” who donate.
“It makes me feel like I know exactly where it’s coming from, and I know the people who are doing it,” Wilkins said. “A lot of them really need the money, so they’re helping me, on top of me helping them.”
‘Blood money’
Paying donors for plasma has sparked ethical debate, with some accusing the industry of exploiting poor people.
In her 2023 book, Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America’s Blood Industry, Kathleen McLaughlin, a Montana-based journalist, found that donors in many U.S. regions are disproportionately Black and brown people.
McLaughlin, who has a rare autoimmune disease treated withmonthly plasma-derived infusions, said today’s rise in donations is “a symptom of our broken economic system.”
While the FDA regulates health safety at plasma centers, the pay rate is set by the companies, McLaughlin found. She thinks donors should be paid more and the amount should be standardized.
“Right now, it’s a capitalist free-market system, where the pricing isn’t transparent,” McLaughlin said. “The profit margins are crazy for these plasma companies, and it’s gamified to make you donate twice a week, every week, in perpetuity.”
Jaworski, the Georgetown University professor, said donors are compensated fairly. A donor whosits for an hour and a half makes “significantly more than” New Jersey’s $15.92 minimum hourly wage and Pennsylvania’s $7.25. Plus, he stressed, donors save “hundreds of thousands of lives.”
Wallace Smith, 45, of Upper Darby, prides himself on making an honest living. He earns $15 an hour as a home health aide. He makes an extra $130 a week selling his blood plasma. The money helps cover cigarettes, rent, and his phone bill. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Recently published research suggests that communities can benefit when a new plasma center opens, because fewer young people take out high-interest payday loans and area crime drops, mostly driven by decreases in property and drug-related offenses.
“It helps you from having to do something wrong,” plasma donor Wallace Smith said.
When Smith was in his late 20s, he got arrested for selling drugs. Now 45, he is still struggling to find a job that pays a living wage, he said.
Smith, of Upper Darby, works three days a week, earning $15 an hour, as a home health aide. He earns $130 a week donating plasma, which helps pay for cigarettes, his phone bill, and rent, he said.
Like many donors, Smith said he likes the win-win of earning extra cash and helping patients who depend on plasma.
“They say there’s a job’s out here for everybody, but when you become a person who made mistakes in life, then they look at your background, so there’s only certain jobs you can do,” Smith said as his blood flowed into a spaghetti-thin clear tube at B Positive Plasma.
“With that being said, you don’t go back to your old ways,” he said. “You find better resources like this.”
On a hot August morning, donors line up outside Octapharma Plasma in South Jersey to sell their blood plasma for money. They arrive before the doors open at 9 a.m. to beat the wait. Donor Carl Davis, 56, of Camden, donates every Saturday and Monday, earning $70 each time. The extra money helps supplement his $900 monthly Social Security Income disability check. “I get SSI disability, but it’s not enough at all to pay my bills and buy food,” Davis said.Wendy Ruderman
Beach boardwalk fun
At Octapharma Plasma in South Jersey, the wait time can be as long as three hours, donors said. When a sewer pump broke and bathrooms stopped working earlier this year, the company trucked in a row of porta-potties to accommodate donors and staff.
On a recent August morning, Brittany Barr, 36, and her three sons — 5-year-old twins and a 6-year-old — waited outside Octapharma as her husband donated. The family had walked roughly two miles from their Gloucester City home.
When Barr learned her friend had kidney failure and needed plasma infusions, she wanted to help. Barr was unable to donate plasma because she is anemic, so her husband agreed to do it.
In the month since Barr’s husband started donating, the family has earned more than $500. It has helped with groceries and their phone bills to supplement her husband’s income as a shipping manager.
“With only one income, money is tight these days,” Barr said. “Everything is messed up.”
The boys, clad in their bathing suits, climbed up on Barr as she sat on a tipped-over shopping cart. They were headed next to Atlantic City for a beach day.
“This week, the money is going toward fun. They’re going to play arcades and have ice cream or whatever their little hearts desire,” Barr said. “Next week, it’s going to school supplies.”
Brittany Barr, 36, seated with her boys (from left) Cooper, Cannon, and Colton, waits outside for her husband to finish donating plasma at Octapharma Plasma in Audubon, N.J. The family from Gloucester City was next headed down the Shore, where they planned to spend the extra money earned from donating plasma on arcade games and ice cream.Wendy Ruderman / Staff
Upper Darby will consider buying a 15-acre forested property at the heart of a conservation fight after dozens of residents packed a public meeting and demanded the township look into purchasing options before rezoning the parcel for mixed-use development.
The Upper Darby Township Council on Wednesday considered moving forward an ordinance to create a mixed-use zoning district on a tract of land between State and Township Line Roads. The tract, known by residents as the Mozino Forest, contains unmaintained forest. Though the land is private property — owned by Peter Mozino and under contract to be sold to the Rockwell Development Group — residents have long utilized it as a place to walk, hike, and commune with nature.
Rockwell Development Group has proposed developing the property with a blend of single-family homes, townhouses, apartments, and ground-floor commercial spaces, as well as dedicated community and recreation spots and pedestrian walkways.
Rita LaRue, Upper Darby’s director of community and economic development, said Rockwell originally came to the township with a plan to build 56 single-family homes on the site, a proposal that would be allowed under the site’s existing zoning and would not require special zoning approvals. The township then asked Rockwell to consider an alternative, higher-density plan that would combine diverse housing types, retail, and community amenities, LaRue said. Over several months, Rockwell worked with the township’s solicitor, engineer, and planning staff to bring the mixed-use zoning ordinance.
Upper Darby officials have said putting a denser, mixed-use development on the tract, rather than the 56 single-family homes, would help fulfill core township goals by bringing in more tax revenue and adding diverse housing options.
“We are very committed to having a mixed-use space that is not simply, you know, brick and mortar. We want it to be a place that adds to community life for everybody in Upper Darby,” LaRue said.
At the meeting, Rockwell president Greg Lingo touted his Upper Darby bona fides, telling the crowd he was not the ill-intentioned, outside developer he had been portrayed as. The developer said he graduated from Upper Darby High School, is a taxpayer in the township, and has invested significantly in the Drexel Hill neighborhood over the years.
Lingo said that while he understands residents’ concerns about preserving green space, the land is private property and could be developed into a residential neighborhood regardless of whether the zoning amendment is passed.
“This isn’t necessarily a decision between open space and a future mixed-use development,” Lingo said. “This property is not open space. I’m pleased to hear that people have just been using it as open space over the years. It’s private property. It’s property that’s been neglected for as long as I can remember.”
Lingo said he would be willing to sell the property if the township wanted to purchase it, but added that as a taxpayer, he does not “think that that’s a great use.” Lingo approximated the cost of the land at $8 million.
There were 15 proposals to purchase the property, none of which involved maintaining it as open, green space, planning commission member Debbie Nifong said at a June 8 meeting.
The planning commission voted 3-2 to recommend approval of the zoning changein June.
At the Wednesday night council meeting, residents packed the council chambers, donning green shirts and spilling out into the hallway in protest of the proposed zoning change. They described tranquil walks through the Mozino Forest and warned of environmental consequences if the land were to be developed.
“I believe that having some open space, it’s future gold in terms of urban planning,” said Dolores Lombardi, a resident and former chair of the township’s shade tree commission. “Many cities are preserving open space, and creating more. An overdeveloped heat zone is not an attractive place to live in.”
“The whole forest is a natural sponge for our area. There will be severe downstream flooding,” said resident Gail Grant, who warned of increased stormwater runoff should the green parcel be paved.
Residents questioned why the forested tract should be developed when the township has numerous vacant storefronts and existing corridors in need of redevelopment.
Members of the township’s environmental advisory committee urged the council to strike down or table the zoning ordinance and said that, if given more time, they could put together a proposal for the township to purchase the land with supporting funds from local conservancies or state or federal bodies.
They cited the $13 million purchase of the Oakwell estate in Villanova by the conservation nonprofit Natural Lands and the Wyncote Foundation. The lush estate was once slated to become athletic fields for the Lower Merion School District but was sold to the nonprofits after significant community pushback.
The council voted unanimously to table the ordinance, citing a need for more information from both Lingo and the environmental advocates.
“I know the administration wants to look into seeing what sources we have available to see if we can come to some type of agreement,” council member Kyle McIntyre said.
McIntyre said he did not want to “get everyone’s hopes up” and described “two trains running parallel to each other.” While the township will “do everything in our power to possibly strike a deal” to buy the land, McIntyre said, he expressed a desire to work with Lingo to “make sure that what we’re building for this community actually does benefit it” if a sale does not happen.
“We did learn a lot of things tonight, and I’m eager to have those conversations with the township and see where we fit in and what we can do, so that we can make a decision that’s good for everybody,” Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown said.
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The board announced new leadership — with plans to appoint veteran educator Chris McGinley as interim superintendent — and an independent review of district policies, with recommendations to follow in 60 days.
But questions remain about how the board will respond to the district’s alleged mishandling of the situation, including by employees faulted in a grand jury report. Parents on Tuesday, including some who have alleged the district’s safety problems extend beyond the football program, voiced skepticism of the board’s promises.
The district will pay former Superintendent Brian Scriven, who resigned last week, as part of a separation agreement, according to a spokesperson, but terms have not been disclosed.
Here is what happens next as the board deals with the aftermath of the criminal charges announced two weeks ago, and the lack of confidence expressed by community members:
A former superintendent returns
The board said it plans to tap McGinley, a longtime educator who served as Cheltenham’s superintendent in the early 2000s, to lead the district following Scriven’s resignation.
McGinley, who more recently worked as an education professor at Temple University, will be appointed by the board at a special meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., district spokesperson Kevin Kaufman said Thursday.
Chris McGinley, center, and Angela McIver, right, at a meeting of the Philadelphia Board of Education on Jan. 30, 2020.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
McGinley, who began his education career as a teacher in Philadelphia, joined Cheltenham in 1999 as an assistant superintendent, where he oversaw efforts to address the district’s racial achievement gap. He then became Cheltenham superintendent, leaving the district in 2006 before becoming superintendent two years later in Lower Merion, which he led through 2014.
McGinley then served on the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, which oversaw the city’s schools while they were under state control. He was later named to the Philadelphia school board by former Mayor Jim Kenney, leaving the board in 2020.
McGinley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Scriven had received a new five-year contract in December. Kaufman said in an email Thursday that “the terms and conditions of Dr. Scriven’s separation agreement will be negotiated (in accordance with Dr. Scriven’s contract and applicable law) and approved publicly at a future meeting.”
An outside lawyer’s review
The board has enlisted Leigh Dalton, an education attorney based in York, Pa., with the Saxton & Stump firm, to review its policies and procedures and produce recommendations to the board in 60 days.
Board president Leah Mulhearn said Tuesday that the review would “include consideration of the grand jury’s findings and how to address them.”
None of those findings were discussed by the board Tuesday. In a scathing report accompanying the recommendation of criminal charges, the grand jury accused the district of “incompetence” while describing the actions of three employees at the high school.
Taryn Knox (left) speaks to School Board President Leah Mulhearn and Director of Business Joshua Sweigard during the Cheltenham School Board meeting in Elkins Park on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. The school board was meeting for the first time since criminal charges against four football coaches and six players were announced, and since Brian Scriven resigned as superintendent. .Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The trio — labeled in the report only as Employees #1, #2, and #3 — texted one another after the mother of the 15-year-old victim reported her son’s assault on Sept. 7. One said the student had a “chip on his shoulder” from not making varsity and said he had steered the mother away from coming to the high school in person.
The employees also indicated they trusted the head coach, Terence Tolbert, and did not believe the mother that Tolbert — who, along with three other coaches, has since been charged with conspiracy and endangering the welfare of a child — had instructed the victim not to tell his parents what had happened. The report said the district then included Tolbert in its investigation.
Asked about the status of the three employees, Kaufman said Thursday that the district “doesn’t comment on specific personnel matters.”
On Thursday, Cheltenham High School principal Benjamin Hammond informed families that Mark Hoff, who was vice principal at the high school last year but had been reassigned to Wyncote Elementary in July, would be returning to the high school this fall.
“Due to the heightened environment about student safety and culture, and acknowledging community concerns, the district has decided to continue Mark Hoff’s assignment as vice principal at Cheltenham High School,” Hammond said in a message to families, adding that Hoff would “provide stability this upcoming school year.”
“While communications between counsel are privileged, the board does intend to report out on the recommendations that she makes where appropriate,” Kaufman said.
Football is still canceled
The board will also be reviewing all athletic programs, “top to bottom,” Mulhearn said. And there is no timetable for when football, which the district already canceled in May, will resume.
“Football will not return until we address this, no matter how long it takes,” Mulhearn said.
Safety changes
Mulhearn said some safety changes were already underway. The district is “ensuring that all staff members have current criminal history and child abuse clearances on file,” she said. The grand jury report had said that at least five of the district’s football coaches last year were not up to date on clearances related to child abuse reporting requirements.
She also said the district was “communicating and reinforcing coach expectations and plans for improved locker-room supervision.” While there was an office in the football locker room, coaches did not use it last season, leaving players unsupervised, according to the grand jury report.
Cheltenham has “begun implementing” recommendations from an audit by the Center for Safe Schools, Mulhearn said. She also said the board had retained the Bucks County Intermediate Unit “to audit our human resources function.”
The Cheltenham school board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, in Elkins Park.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The criminal cases
Three coaches and the two players charged as adults by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office will face a district judge at a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 27. (Ralph Burnley, the fourth coach charged, has not yet been arraigned in the case, and there is no indication he has hired an attorney. He did not respond to a request for comment.)
The four players charged as juveniles will face separate proceedings in juvenile court that are not open to the public.
At the preliminary hearing for the other defendants, prosecutors will present evidence to the judge to support the charges through witnesses. Defense attorneys will be given the opportunity to cross-examine those witnesses and make arguments to the judge for their clients’ innocence.
After the hearing, the judge will determine whether the prosecution has proved the validity of the charges and, if so, will send the cases to county court.
Staff writer Jess Rohan contributed to this article.
Cheltenham Superintendent Brian Scriven resigned Thursday, a little more than a week after prosecutors charged four football coaches and six players in connection with violent assaults against a player last season in a high school locker room.
The superintendent’s resignation, effective immediately, came amid community outcry over the district’s handling of the August and September 2025 incidents, which prosecutors say both involved students attacking a 15-year-old and using a broomstick to poke at his buttocks.
Yet the district did not uncover that there had been two assaults, and administrators appeared to downplay a report from the 15-year-old’s mother, according to the Montgomery County grand jury that recommended the charges. It described a “level of incompetence” in the district that “put every young man on the football team at risk.”
Some parents who have been battling the district to take student safety more seriously said Scriven and his administration did not fail only in overseeing the football program.
“I see a complete lack of urgency,” said one mother who has been among a group of parents pressing the district since October to address violent incidents at Cheltenham Elementary School. The mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation for her child, said administrators still have not answered questions about how students are disciplined and how others are supported after assaults.
Another Cheltenham Elementary parent, Shanyl Jones, said her daughter, an incoming second grader, twice experienced sexual touching and comments in school. In kindergarten, a boy repeatedly touched her against her will, conduct that escalated to him grabbing her vagina, Jones said.
The boy also made sexually explicit comments to her daughter, Jones said. She reported the conduct and filed a Title IX sexual harassment case; the school moved the boy to a different classroom, she said.
After a separate boy made sexual comments to Jones’ daughter in first grade, the principal called Jones and apologized, though the boy was not moved to a different classroom, Jones said.
News of the football charges “just tore me up on what my daughter’s future would be in the school system,” Jones said. “It gave me no assurance they’re going to be able to reconcile what’s happening now.”
Scriven said in his resignation letter Thursday that “this year has tested our community in ways none of us anticipated.”
“I have come to believe that the district is best served by a fresh start under new leadership, and that stepping aside now is the right and necessary step to allow Cheltenham to move forward,” he said.
The district has not commented on how else it plans to respond to the explosive grand jury report released last week, which described the response of several employees at the high school — identified only as Employees #1, #2, and #3 — as minimizing an assault reported by the 15-year-old’s mother, and trusting the word of the head coach, Terence Tolbert, that he had not instructed the student not to tell his parents what happened.
The district did not respond to questions this week about its hiring of Tolbert — who was among the four coaches charged — including whether it had sought references from Abington, which cut ties with him after one year as its head football coach. Some parents of football players told The Inquirer they had “pleaded” with Cheltenham administrators not to hire Tolbert, whom they accused of allowing bullying during his tenure at Abington Senior High School.
Nor did the district respond to questions about whether it would take action against any employees, including those described in the grand jury report.
The Cheltenham High School vice principal whom the mother said she had reported allegations to, Mark Hoff, was named vice principal at Wyncote Elementary last month.
The grand jury report “details very troubling questions about the management and operation of the district’s athletic programs, including the football program,” school board president Leah Mulhearn said in a statement this week. “Our highest priority is the safety and welfare of the children we serve.”
Mulhearn, who did not address questions about Cheltenham Elementary in the statement, said the board was “focused on conducting a comprehensive review of the grand jury’s findings, including our policies and practices related to athletics, as the first step in implementing measures to ensure that no such conduct ever occurs again at our schools.”
The district has said a Title IX investigation into the allegations will soon be finished, with possible discipline for students. Two 18-year-old players charged as adults — the other four were charged as juveniles — have already graduated.
Community members are closely watching the school board’s next steps. Sharif El-Mekki, a nationally known Philadelphia-based educator who runs the Center for Black Educator Development and previously led Mastery Shoemaker Charter School, called on the school board in a letter to apologize to the victimized student and commission an independent investigation into the district administration’s conduct.
“Every student in Cheltenham, every teacher, every parent, and every young leader in Montgomery County is being taught something right now by how the district is responding,” El-Mekki said.
‘Environment of ongoing chaos’
Cheltenham Elementary parents said they raised concerns to administrators last October, after they heard from their children that a student touched another student’s penis sexually in class, over his clothes, in view of classmates.
Some initially did not believe it. “We would have been told about it,” said one mother, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation against her child.
Parents began talking to one another to confirm what happened. Other parents and students told them the same child had been involved in previous sexual incidents, two mothers said.
A group of parents sent an email on Oct. 3 to ShaVon Savage, then the district’s assistant superintendent, saying they had recently learned that a student “touched another child sexually during class time” and that the child had been involved in “multiple sexual incidents over the past few years.” They asked to be notified about instances of physical or sexual assault.
In the email, shared with The Inquirer, they also asked for additional supervision and counseling for students with behavioral challenges and described an “environment of ongoing chaos” at the school, which last year served a larger number of students with emotional support needs than the district’s other three elementary schools.
Savage wrote back 10 days later, saying she needed more details “to conduct a full and thorough investigation,” according to an email shared with The Inquirer. She also said that when a situation poses a “threat to a particular school community,” the district would communicate with parents, but could not share details about particular children due to federal privacy laws.
Savage met with some parents in early November and said she would visit the school — though parents were unsure whether she did, the mothers said.
Their concerns escalated when on Dec. 5, a Friday, the school’s principal, Stephanie Junod, was assaulted by a student, according to the mothers.
That night, Scriven, the superintendent, sent an email to school parents, informing them that “while Ms. Junod was attempting to de-escalate a situation with a high-needs student, she was struck in the head by their thermos.” Scriven said the principal was “expected to make a full recovery.” Junod could not be reached for comment.
Scriven said central office staff would be at the school the following Monday “to begin implementing additional measures to strengthen safety and provide more comprehensive support for students who require additional behavioral interventions.”
Brian Scriven has resigned as superintendent of the Cheltenham School District.Courtesy of Cheltenham School District
The mothers were angry that the district had not already been providing that support. Around the same time as Junod’s injury, they said, there was an assault on a student, and “at least two” against staff members, one of the mothers said.
Parents had a meeting scheduled with Savage for Dec. 15, but administrators pushed it to January, one of the mothers said.
Scriven met with parents on Jan. 8 and apologized for not treating their concerns urgently enough, according to the mother, who said Scriven also assured parents that “the football situation had been handled.”
“Obviously, that was a lie,” she said.
Scriven met with them again on Feb. 25 and said changes would be made, including putting a behavioral specialist at the school four days a week, according to the mother.
Scriven did not mention that Junod would be resigning, the mother said — a decision announced shortly after the meeting.
‘Slow to respond’
Problems at the school continued.
On March 26, parents said, a student assaulted five staff members — including punching one in the face — in view of other children. Police came to the school.
The district did not immediately notify parents. But Scriven sent an email to the school community the next day, reporting that “an emotional support student had an episode during which he eloped from the building and engaged in physical altercations with a number of staff as they were trying to de-escalate” the situation.
“While I cannot share individual student consequences or placements, I can assure you that this situation is being addressed with the highest level of seriousness and urgency,” Scriven said in the email.
In an email the next day demanding a meeting with administrators, one parent wrote: “The frustration among parents has reached a boiling point.”
“Information is simply not being shared, and critical questions regarding the safety and education of our children are being ignored,” the parent said in the email, which one of the mothers shared with The Inquirer.
Scriven responded to the parents on April 14.
“I understand the urgency of your concerns and sincerely apologize for the delay in providing a comprehensive response,” Scriven said, in an email the mother shared with The Inquirer.
Scriven said the school’s new principal, Shareese Nelson, had needed time to settle into the job, but “we are prepared to move forward in a more formal and collaborative manner.” He invited families to the school for an April 29 community meeting.
The meeting was “highly emotional,” one of the mothers said, with parents sharing their children’s experiences. After the meeting, Scriven told a 6abc reporter: “I was slow to respond. I do have to own that, and rectify that immediately.”
Shanyl Jones recalled that administrators seemed “completely unprepared” during the meeting to address parents’ safety concerns.
In a message to the community May 6, the school board acknowledged “concerns around safety and student conduct have presented challenges that we continue to navigate.”
The board said it took “all concerns that are raised with us as a board” seriously and was paying attention to how they were addressed.
It also stood by Scriven, a former Baltimore County Public Schools administrator who was named Cheltenham’s superintendent in 2021.
“Five years ago, the board invested in Dr. Scriven and his vision for the district,” the board said, calling the superintendent a “strong strategic thinker.”
“We continue to support him and his vision,” it said.
On Thursday, Mulhearn said in a statement that the board thanked Scriven “for his dedicated service to Cheltenham public schools.” She said the board had selected Joshua Sweigard, Cheltenham’s director of business services, as acting superintendent.
While the district in May released an action plan for Cheltenham Elementary, including a safety audit, staff training, and monthly reports on school incidents, the mothers said it still has not clearly explained how it handles student assaults, and how kids who are victimized or witness them are supported.
Until it does, “beginning from kindergarten up, we are not going to see this change in any meaningful way,” one of the mothers said. “This is not a one-off event.”
The Cheltenham School District’s “level of incompetence didn’t just fail one child — it put every young man on the football team at risk,” the Montgomery County grand jury that recommended the charges against four coaches and six players said in a report released Wednesday.
The August and September 2025 assaults threw the football program into turmoil, with the district canceling last year’s season in October and announcing this spring that the forthcoming fall season would also be scrapped. While district officials shared little about what happened in the locker room, videos were widely circulated within the school community depicting one of the attacks, the grand jury found.
Yet the district did not punish any players; a Title IX investigation that could result in discipline is still underway. The two players charged as adults, Isaiah Simpson and Josiah Peeler, both graduated from Cheltenham High School this year, district officials said. While the district parted ways with all of its football coaches, at least one charged this week had been hired by another local school: Neumann Goretti tapped Benjamin Johnson as head football coach in January, but on Wednesday the school announced he no longer had the job.
When the mother of the 15-year-old who was attacked reported to the high school administration that her son had been jumped by hisPanther football teammates in the locker room last September, injuring his genitals, an employee who texted two other employees about the allegation said the student had “a chip on his shoulder” from not making the varsity team, the grand jury report said.
District employees took the team’s then-head coach, Terence Tolbert, at his word and included him in “every step” of their investigation, according to the report. Tolbert, whose lawyer did not return a request for comment Thursday, was charged Wednesday with endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy.
The football practice field and stadium at Cheltenham High School in Wyncote, Montgomery County, Wednesday, July 29, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Employees were also confused about their requirements to report child abuse allegations to law enforcement, the report said.
Cheltenham Superintendent Brian Scriven said in a statement Wednesday that “every report brought to the district’s attention was addressed based on the information available at the time.” He also noted that “individuals did not cooperate with the investigative process.”
On Thursday, Scriven addressed some additional questions about the district’s response. “At no point in time was Coach Tolbert involved in planning or executing any investigation,” he said in a written response to questions.
He also said the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office had directed the district to pause its Title IX investigation into the allegations while it was investigating.
Now that charges are filed, the Title IX investigation “has resumed and will be concluded promptly,” Scriven said, withpossible “school-based” discipline.
‘Backed her off coming to the building’
In addition to issuing findings supporting criminal charges, the grand jury released a separate report focused on the school district that included recommendations for new legal requirements for schools to report hazing allegations to law enforcement.
The report described the actions of three employees at the high school, identified only as Employee #1, Employee #2, and Employee #3.
The mother of the student who was attacked told The Inquirer earlier this month that she had texted Mark Hoff, then the assistant vice principal at the high school, on Sept. 7 after learning that her son had been jumped in the locker room. Hoff was named vice principal at Wyncote Elementary School in the district on July 20. Hoff could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The high school’s principal, Benjamin Hammond, referred a reporter to the district’s spokesperson Thursday.
The person identified as Employee #1 in the grand jury report, who texted two other employees about the student having a “chip on his shoulder,” also suggested in the text exchange that the administration was trying to keep the mother from the school.
“I THINK I backed her off coming to the building in the AM,” Employee #1 texted, according to the report.
Employee #2 called Tolbert that same day, and texted the other two employees that the coach denied that anyone told the student not to tell his mom.
“At this point in the conversation, all three employees vouched for Tolbert’s credibility,” the report said.
Employee #2 began his investigation by interviewing Tolbert, who said he did not know anything, according to the report.
He also spoke to other coaches and took them at their word because he “thought that they would be forthcoming, mature adults and do the right thing and not lie to him,” the report said.
Scriven did not address a question Thursday about employees’ response to the mother. But he said they appropriately went to Tolbert to ask “what he knew of the situation.”
“At the time, there was no reason to believe Coach Tolbert was being untruthful,” he said.
Tolbert had previously served as head coach of the varsity team at Abington Senior High School for the 2023-2024 season. An Abington spokesperson said on Thursday that the district had opted not to renew his appointment after one year.
Insufficient supervision
The grand jury also found fault with Cheltenham’s supervision of the football program.
While there was an office for coaches in the football locker room, “they rarely used it,” the report said. (Tolbert had become the head coach in June 2025; coaches had used the office the season before, according to the grand jury.)
Employee #2 testified to the grand jury that he did not do anything to ensure that football players were supervised, the report said.
The grand jury also found that “at least” five paid Cheltenhamfootball coaches were not up to date on Act 126 clearances. The Pennsylvania law requires schools to provide employees who have direct contact with children with at least three hours of child abuse recognition and reporting training, every five years.
In releasing findings from its investigation in January, the district acknowledged “insufficient student supervision in the locker room by the coaching staff” and “a failure to prioritize student safety by the coaching staff” and volunteers.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announces at press conference Wednesday, July 29, 2026 multiple charges in connection with two assaults in Cheltenham Township High School locker room that injured a 15-year-old player and led to the cancellation of the 2026-2027 football season.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Circulating video footage
There were two videos taken of the Aug. 15 assault, prosecutors said. The grand jury findings characterized the footage — which it said depicted a student moving a broomstick toward the bottom of the student’s shorts while at least one player chanted “broomstick him” — as circulating widely within the school community.
One witness told the grand jury there was a TikTok video “going around where two boys were making fun of the juvenile victim with a Meek Mill video playing in the background.”
The victim testified that he believed many people had seen a video, because “random people” approached him about it in the cafeteria and hallway. Another student, who was not on the football team, told the grand jury she had been shown a video at school of the victim being kicked by multiple people.
While the district had been aware only of an incident on Sept. 3, questioning of one of the players by the grand jury in January led to the discovery that the video footage depicted an Aug. 15 assault.
Players told the grand jury that an administrator, identified only as “Administrator #2″ in the grand jury findings, met with the team after the Sept. 3 incident.
One player reported that “days” later, the administrator “addressed the team about ‘stuff’ and warned the players if there’s ‘another one,’ the season would be canceled,” according to the grand jury findings.
Another told the grand jury that the administrator met with the team while coaches were present, and told players not to fight with one another and that there would be consequences “if anything else occurred.”
That player said neither the coaches nor the administrator “encouraged anyone with information about the incident to come forward,” according to the grand jury findings.
‘Consistent confusion’ about reporting requirements
Prosecutors said the district contacted Cheltenham police after an anonymous Sept. 18 tip through the state’s Safe2Say hotline. The mother previously told The Inquirer that the tip was how she learned a broomstick was involved.
The grand jury report said district employees were unclear on their requirements as mandatory reporters.
“There was consistent confusion about what type of assault allegation would prompt an immediate report to ChildLine and the police,” the report said. It said the unidentified Employee #3 displayed “especially concerning judgment” by concluding that coaches never told the student not to tell his parents “simply because a coach said it never happened.”
Mandatory reporting laws currently do not require that allegations of hazing, committed by a child on another child, be reported as suspected child abuse — unless sexual assault is alleged, the grand jury report said.
Acts of hazing that “fall short of a completed sexual assault, touching or exposure, such as the threatened sexual assault in this case,” do not meet the mandatory reporting threshold, the report said.
It recommended that hazing be incorporated into mandatory reporting requirements. If it had been, the report said, “the Cheltenham High School administration would not have had the opportunity to mishandle the juvenile victim’s disclosure and the ensuing investigation as poorly as they did.”
In his statement Wednesday, Scriven said the district would welcome additions to the mandatory reporting laws. But he said hazing would not necessarily be immediately identifiable to school staff, noting that the law defines the offense as “for the purpose of initiating, admitting or affiliating a minor or student into or with an organization.”
Scriven did not address questions Thursday about employees’ understanding of reporting requirements.
Asked why the district did not contact police after the mother’s Sept. 7 report of an assault, Scriven said Thursday that it was “not reported as a sexual assault.”
“A ChildLine report was properly made when the district learned that a reportable offense may have been committed,” Scriven said.
In testimony, the player who was attacked described being stomped in the head and groin with cleats during the September assault, and being “tucked up” on the floor as teammates tried to poke him in his butt with a broomstick, according to the grand jury findings.
“He said that he feared for his life and did not want to go back to school or play football for the team anymore,” the findings said.
Staff writers Jess Rohan and Vinny Vella contributed to this article.
Unlike Philadelphia — a city, county, and school district all in one — the collar counties are a mesh of townships, boroughs, and informal neighborhoods.
That geographical maze, along with the centuries-long evolution of the U.S. Postal Service, means some suburbanites are not even sure what town they live in.
He is from Abington Township and, like many Abingtonians, he has been living a lie.
Where is Bradley Cooper from?
Cooper grew up not in Jenkintown, but a mile away in the unincorporated Abington community of Rydal, in a house his parents bought before he was born, property records show.
In the 1980s, he attended Rydal Elementary, where he played a mime, according to a playbill shared on social media.
The Oscar-nominated actor later enrolled at Germantown Academy, a private school in Whitemarsh Township whose reunions he still attends.
Cooper is known to call nearby Jenkintown his hometown from time to time — maybe because the borough is more well-known, and because that is what his childhood mailing address was. His reps did not return a request for comment this week.
Some Abingtonians don’t know where they live
But unlike people who grew up in the tiny enclave, Cooper could not have attended Jenkintown School District or participated in its National Geographic-famous Color Day.
“As someone who grew up in Jenkintown and loved cute boys and is about the same age as Bradley Cooper, I can tell you he is not from the Borough of Jenkintown,” writer Lauren McCutcheon said.
Many Abingtonians think they live in J-town, borough manager George Locke has said — so much so that his staff starts resident service calls by asking for an address. Otherwise they could spend 45 minutes on the phone, Locke said, before realizing the caller is in Abington.
Residents of unofficial neighborhoods like Glenside, or towns that span counties like Telford, may be more aware of their official designation. Some Glensiders attend school in Cheltenham, while others attend Abington School District.
For people without a kid in public school, an invisible municipal boundary may not matter much day to day. But it matters for local elections and during tax season.
Nye Stevens, a longtime Postal Service expert for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service, said mailing addresses can also affect people’s insurance rates, which are often based on zip code instead of municipality.
And a zip code across two towns is nothing, Stevens added — some people get their mail from another state.
Bob O’Brien of Wyncote used to think his practice, Relief Counseling & Art Therapy, was located in Jenkintown — until the tax bill from Abington arrived.
“It was confusing,” O’Brien said — especially since there is a Jenkintown post office in the same building.
“How it got this way, I’m not sure,” he added.
The demands of mail delivery
U.S. post offices began primarily as a pickup service in cities until the agency introduced home delivery in the late 1800s.
Then cars expanded the suburbs, townships shifted, and assigned post office locations grew increasingly messy.
“As townships grow, post offices seem farther away,” a New York Times headline about South Jersey observed in 1997.
The U.S. has also closed tens of thousands of post offices in the last several decades, Stevens said, which may mean losing a mailing city that reflects where people actually live.
A map shows the city limits of Waterloo, Iowa, in yellow, while a blue line shows the boundaries of the “Waterloo” zip code.U.S. Census Bureau
Around 1990, some in Congress tried to fix the issue with a bill requiring the Postal Service make zip codes match municipal boundaries if towns request it.
But such a change would “absolutely ruin the postal system,” Stevens said. “You can’t have a post office for every little borough.”
The bill failed, and years later, the Postal Service was routinely rejecting zip code change requests, Stevens wrote in a 2006 Congressional Research Service report.
“Some communities that lack delivery post offices complain that the need to use mailing addresses of adjacent areas robs them of a community identity,” he noted in the report.
But at the end of the day, “zip codes are basically a delivery system. They’re not a neighborhood recognition system,” Stevens said this week.
As for Bradley Cooper, the confusion around his addresses in the Philly suburbs has not ended.
He supposedlyowns an estate in New Hope. But he really lives in Solebury Township.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
