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From a North Philly School, Teachers Head Into Surrounding Community

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Teachers at Thomas Edison High School and the Fareira Skills Center, at Front and Luzerne Streets, took a long lap around the neighborhood today in support of their students.

Principal Awilda Ortiz organized most of the 250 teachers in a community walk to let neighbors know they are fully committed to educating the 1,400 students at the facility.

"My second purpose is for our staff to have a better understanding of the travels and plights that our students face on a day-to-day basis," Ortiz (at left in photo) told KYW Newsradio.

Teacher Albert Fried-Cassorla, who joined the walk, said --  in Spanish and then English -- that Edison teachers are proud of what they do and care about the local neighborhood in which their students live.  "It helps connect us," he added.  "We're not seen as an isolated group that just does their work and goes home."

His colleague, JoAnn Bankes, enjoyed the opportunity to say hello to neighbors.

"Many of us don't travel through the neighborhoods when we're going to and from school," she said today.  "This isn't even a drive-through.  It's a walk-through, to connect."

 

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