The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page B08

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Street, Rendell welcome district's technology high school By Susan Snyder INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Mayor Street, Gov. Rendell and other dignitaries joined Philadelphia School District officials yesterday morning at a ceremony to kick off the building of a $50 million high school in partnership with Microsoft. Officials from the district and Microsoft say the school which will serve 750 students and open September 2006 will become a worldwide prototype for the best and most cost-effec tive use of technology in education and school operations. "We view this as just another very important step in framing this city as the city of the future," Street said. Street supported building the school in Fairmount Park near the Philadelphia Zoo, and yesterday he said that the school would be designed in a way that is "sensitive to the surrounding community" and that it would serve students from the neighborhood.

Standing in what will become the school's front yard, district officials released an artist's rendering of the building. New details also emerged about the construction of the school. The school, at 41st Street and Parkside Avenue, will not just be technologically advanced, but also on the cutting edge environmentally, said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's project manager. It will have a partially green roof to blend in with the surrounding park and "photoelectric" windows that use the sun to help heat the building. The timber from the few trees that must be cut down to make way for it will be used for carpentry within the building, she said.

Each student will get a laptop or computerized tablet. Digital dashboards, smart cards, and a home and school broadband connection are among the services planned. Classes will be largely mobile; the teacher won't be sitting at a desk, but moving around the room to teach, she said. The auditorium or performance center, which typically stands unused in most schools for large periods of time, will be on hydraulics that allow it to be converted into classrooms. It is known as the "School of the Future" for now, but the district plans to sell naming rights for $5 million, as well as naming rights to individual classrooms and other spaces.

School district chief Paul Val-las said that if Microsoft decided to contribute the funds, he would "love" to see its name on the school. Microsoft is contributing expertise and employee time including a full-time on-site coordinator but is not providing cash. The software giant's role is to help design the school, oversee its development, and connect the district with experts at universities and in other countries. Contact staff writer Susan Snyder at 21 5-854-4693 or ssnyderphillynews.com. B8 www.philly.com Seven Barrymores for 'Constant Star' set new high mark Street has meeting on orchestra dispute Douglas Thompson).

In the prison drama, Thompson gave a memorable account of a jailed serial killer who has found God. Zizka accepted the award in a George Bush mask, with a send-up of neoconservative attitudes. The adventurous Lantern won awards for two of its plays. Peter DeLaurier was chosen as best actor in a play for his solo performance as a librarian embarked on a colorful odyssey in Underneath the Lintel. The Lantern's boisterous treatment of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors wasn't for Bard purists, but it won for both play ensemble and choreography.

Local playwright Thomas Gibbons, who gave InterAct Theatre Company its strongest piece of the season with Permanent Collection a drama inspired by the tangled politics surrounding the Barnes collection won for best new play. In the musical awards, Mary Martello, who gave us the self-confessed "tawdry dominatrix" in Michael Ogborn's Cafe Put-tanesca at the Arden Theatre, was the best leading actress. She thanked the company for "hooking me up." David Colbert won the leading actor honors in the Wilming- BARRYMORES from Bl Before this year, the greatest number of awards won by a single show was five, achieved by five productions over the years. Unusually, neither the director nor any of the cast was in attendance to receive the awards. The Wilmington-based Contemporary Stage Company brought the First State more recognition with its leadoff production of Collected Stories.

Lynn Redgrave, who lent star power to the drama about an aging writer, won as outstanding leading actress. Not present, she sent her thanks. Ka-rina Mackenzie, who played her student, was best supporting actress. After several years at the An-nenberg Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Pennsylvania campus, the awards show moved to the Academy of Music for the first time. The Wilma Theater, a regular presence in the Barrymore winners circle, and the smaller Lantern Theater Company each went home with three Barrymores.

The Wilma's strong treatment of Stephen Adly Guirgis' Jesus Hopped the Train won for best play, direction (Blanka Ziz-ka), and supporting actor (John 2004 Barrymore Award Winners Production, play: Jesus Hopped the Train, Wilma Theater. Production, musical: Constant Star, Delaware Theatre Company. Direction, play: Blanka Zizka, Jesus Hopped the Train. Direction, musical: Tazewell Thompson, Constant Star. Music direction: Dianne Adams McDowell, Constant Star.

Leading actor, play: Peter DeLaurier, Underneath the Lintel, Lantern Theater Company Leading actress, play: Lynn Redgrave, Collected Stories, Contemporary Stage Company. Leading actor, musical: David Colbert, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, City Theater Company. Metropolitan Area News in Brief Man, 20, shot to death in East Germantown Police last night were investigating the death of a 20-year-old man gunned down in East Germantown. Police said the victim, whose name was not released, was shot in the face while sitting in a car near Wister Street and Belfield Avenue about 1:45 p.m. He was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the motive was unknown. Stephanie L. Arnold Police investigating attack on girl, 15, in Oxford Circle Police yesterday continued their investigation into the attack and suspected rape of a 15-year-old girl Sunday night near North Cedar Hill Cemetery in the Lower Northeast. Officers with the Special Victims Unit said the victim told them that a man attacked her in the 6000 block of Bustleton Avenue in Oxford Circle about 9 p.m. as she walked home from the terminus of the Frankford El.

The man grabbed her by the throat, choked her, threw her to the ground, and sexually assaulted her, she told police. The girl was later seen wandering partly clothed in the area, near the sprawling cemetery. Witnesses told police they saw a man running from the area about the same time. Police said the girl passed out, making her recollection of the attack somewhat jumbled. Nevertheless, investigators are handling it as a sexual attack.

"We're following leads," said Capt. John Darby, commander of the Special Victims Unit. "We're working with the victim." Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. 3 accomplices in shooting over 76ers jersey sentenced Three accomplices to a shooting that left a 19-year-old paralyzed were sentenced to jail yesterday on charges of robbery and conspiracy.

Tyree Peel, 16, of the 5300 block of Greenway Avenue, and Michael Whittington, 17, of the 1700 block of South 57th Street, were sentenced to 212 to 5 years, plus five years' probation, the District Attorney's Office said. Peel's 18-year-old brother, Anthony, was sentenced to 1112 to 23 months for his role in the June 2003 shooting over a 76ers jersey in Southwest Philadelphia. Kevin Johnson was shot in the back of the neck after he refused to give up his jersey. He remains paralyzed. His cousin, Nafeese Holton, survived a gunshot to the face.

Last week, the two gunmen both age 17 were sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for attempted murder. Jacqueline Soteropoulos Olney High is evacuated after a formaldehyde spill Olney High School was evacuated yesterday afternoon after a 17-year-old ninth grader who had a master key to the building stole a bottle of formaldehyde from a science lab and dropped it in a stairwell, officials said. Five students and an adult complaining of nausea and other ill effects went to a hospital to be checked. The incident happened about 12:45 p.m. on the fourth floor.

Fumes spread after maintenance workers tried to use water to clean up the spill, which amounted to 2 to 4 ounces, officials said. Formaldehyde, a throat and lung irritant, "quickly made a lot of people feel really sick," said Philadelphia Fire Capt. Mike Carroll. The student suspected of causing the spill "will be severely disciplined," district spokesman Vincent Thompson said. "We are investigating how this young man got hold of a master key." Susan Snyder Church scraps deal to buy vacant retirement homes A rapidly growing fundamentalist church that had sought to buy and demolish two vacant retirement homes on a 5.6-acre tract in Mount Airy has changed its mind.

Put off by the recent historic certification of the buildings, the Impacting Your World Christian Center in Germantown announced yesterday that it would look elsewhere for a site for a church for its 1,800 members. "We have to count the costs," Sherman Toppin, lawyer for the church, said in a statement issued by the church. "It's going to be much more expensive as a result of the historical designation." Preservationists and community groups in Mount Airy objected last summer when the church's plan to buy and demolish the retirement homes on West Johnson Street was made public. One building was built by music publisher Theodore Presser in 1914 as a home for retired music teachers. The other was built in 1895 by George Nugent, a wealthy woolens manufacturer, as a home for retired Baptist ministers.

Both buildings now are badly deteriorated. The city Historical Commission certified the buildings as historic properties this fall, preventing demolition without commission approval. L. Stuart Ditzen Folk-arts charter school proposed for Chinatown About 120 supporters of a proposed charter school for Chinatown that would emphasize folk arts crowded into the auditorium at the School Administration Building on 21st Street yesterday for a public hearing on Folk Arts-Cultural Treasurers Charter School. "We really need a charter school," Jimmy Chang, president of the Philadelphia Hoyu Chinese American Association, told a panel of district officials reviewing the application by Asian Americans United.

The hearing was one of 10 held yesterday on applications from groups seeking to open publicly funded charter schools in September. Other proposals include an arts-based elementary school for Northern Liberties, a high school in Center City that would combine academics with martial arts, and a high school in Olney that would stress rigorous instruction and civic engagement. Representatives from each described their proposals and answered questions about how they planned to provide special-education services, manage finances, and measure student achievement. The panel will forward its recommendations to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, which is expected to vote on the applications in January. Philadelphia is home to 52 charter schools.

Martha Woodall Leading actress, musical: Mary Martello, Cafe Puttanesca, Arden Theatre Company. Supporting actor, play: John Douglas Thompson, Jesus Hopped the 'A" Train. Supporting actress, play: Karina Mackenzie, Collected Stories. Supporting actor, musical: Lenny Haas, The Fantasticks, People's Light Theatre Company. Supporting actress, musical: Jennie Eisenhower, The Wild Party, Media Theatre.

Set design: Donald Eastman, Constant Star. Lighting design: James Leitner, Mary's Wedding, Act II Playhouse. Costume design: Merrily Murray-Walsh, Constant Star. Actor and playwright Louis Lippa won the Lifetime Achievement Award for three decades of work in the local theater community. ton-based City Theater Company's Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Veteran Broadway composer Cy Coleman won best score for his music for the Prince Music Theater's The Great Ostrovsky, a lighthearted evocation of Yiddish theater in 1920s New York. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award went to actor and playwright Louis Lippa in recognition of his three decades of work in the local theater community. As both playwright and actor, Lippa has been associated for many years with People's Light Theatre Company in Malvern. The Barrymores are administered by the Philadelphia Theater Alliance. The winners selected by a panel of nominators and judges drawn from theater professionals and the theatergoing public.

Contact theater critic Desmond Ryan at 215-854-5614 or dryanphillynews.com. Read his recent work at http:go.philly.comdesmondryan. Sound design: Fabian Obispo, Constant Star. Original music: Cy Coleman, The Great Ostrovsky, Prince Music Theater. Choreographymovement: Aaron Cromie, The Comedy of Errors, Lantern Theater Company.

New play: Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons, InterAct Theatre Company. Ensemble, play: The Comedy of Errors. Ensemble, musical: Constant Star. Theater education and community service: Rainbow Connection Program, Prince Music Theater. New approaches to collaborations: A Catered Affair by Arje Shaw and Front of House by Michael A.

Carson. F. Otto Haas Award for an emerging Philadelphia theater artist: Jorge Cousineau. Lifetime Achievement Award: Louis Lippa. Park man delphia Area de Sales Network businessman's group nearly 20 years ago.

Longshore was "very family oriented," Guerin said. It was one of Longshore's two married daughters who called Guerin yesterday morning to tell him the news. Even though he knows them, Guerin, 75, said he couldn't tell which daughter it was because "she was crying so much, I couldn't be sure." Friends and fellow members of the de Sales Network were stunned yesterday when they heard the news. "Oh my God!" said Robert J. Sims, chairman of Sims Financial Services in Wayne.

"He was a great guy, a wonderful guy, a very giving guy," Sims said, overcome with emotion. Longshore was a vice president at Catholic Health East in Newtown Square, a health system with hospitals and medical By Peter Dobrin INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC Mayor Street was meeting last night once again with representatives of Philadelphia Orchestra management and musicians in an effort to settle the orchestra's contract dispute. Street had announced a "framework" for a new musicians' contract Nov. 5 and had said that the agreement would be written in seven to 10 days. Yesterday marked the end of that 10-day period.

Talks stalled last week after the two sides found themselves unable to agree on key points of the framework. They concurred on the issues of salary and pension, but management then demanded work-rule changes that had never been discussed, according to players, such as a change that would allow management to schedule three concerts on the same day. Management says it asked for the change, but only on three Saturdays per year. The orchestra's contract with its 106 instrumentalists and three librarians expired in September and has been extended twice. Musicians in recent days have started a new public-relations campaign.

A few players held up signs in the Kimmel Center lobby Saturday morning before a family concert, collecting names for a mailing list and giving listeners information on their position. Contracts for four of the nation's so-called big-five orchestras expired this fall, and the Philadelphia Orchestra is now the only one playing without a new agreement. The others are in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York. Contact music critic Peter Dobrin at 215-854-5611 or pdobrinphillynews.com. Read his recent work at http:go.philly.competerdobrin.

in D.C. facilities in 11 East Coast states. He had written the book, Top Docs: Managing the Search for Physician Leaders and frequently spoke to national audiences of management professionals. Longshore also served on the board of advisors of the De Sales Spirituality Center in Washington and as a trustee of Northeastern Hospital in Philadelphia and De Sales School of Theology in Washington. "We are deeply saddened by the death of our colleague," Catholic Health East's president Bob Stanek said in a statement.

"As both a friend and co-worker, George was a man of great faith, peace and compassion. We extend our prayers and heartfelt sympathy to the family." Contact staff writer Marc Schogol at 610-313-8112 or mschogolphillynews.com. had been "under a tremendous amount of stress recently" and had been worried about the magazine portrayal. Much of the article, which Raymond Jackson apparently did not see before the stroke, was flattering. It raised questions about whether the parents intentionally withheld nutrition from the adopted sons and noted that the children had entered the Jackson Robbers kill Elkins The author and health-care executive was shot, and his wife pistol-whipped, despite giving up money.

Another wedding guest told the Washington Post that he tried giving first aid to Longshore, who initially was conscious and kept asking why he'd been shot when he had given the robbers his money. The assault occurred outside St. Francis Hall at the Franciscan Monastery in the Brook-land neighborhood of Northeast Washington. Although her nose was broken and she suffered other injuries, Longshore's wife, Joanne, was able to return home to Elkins Park, said the Rev. William Guerin of the Oblates of St.

Francis de Sales. Guerin had known Longshore since he was a Catholic school boy in Northeast Philadelphia. The two had founded the Phila By Marc Schogol INQUIRER STAFF WRITER As gun-toting robbers set upon George F. Longshore, his wife and another couple outside a Washington wedding reception, the Montgomery County businessman threw money at them to leave. But it wasn't enough.

The robbers shot and killed Longshore, after pistol-whipping his wife and two other guests at a Saturday night wedding. Police said Longshore, 58, an Elkins Park health-care executive and leader of a Catholic networking and spiritual support group, was shot in the chest by one of the assailants. The robber, along with an undetermined number of accomplices, fled and remained at large yesterday. STROKE from Bl He had stayed home from church to care for an ill daughter, the statement said. Returning from church, family members "found Raymond had vomited several times and was unresponsive," the statement said.

They called paramedics. A Cooper spokeswoman said federal privacy laws prohibited her from releasing any informa Father in Collingswood starvation case is in a coma after weekend stroke tion about Jackson's condition. The criminal case against the Jacksons is in the pretrial discovery stage. The couple have been free since posting $100,000 bail last November. The family's focus yesterday was on Raymond Jackson's health, the family lawyer said.

Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said: "It's unclear what ef fect this will have and how things will proceed." The stroke came on the eve of yesterday's publication of an interview in which Raymond Jackson told New York magazine that his eldest adopted son had helped authorities build a misleading case against him and his wife. The author of the article, David France, said in an interview yesterday that Raymond Jackson home with preexisting health problems, including eating disorders and fetal alcohol syndrome. Authorities have said doctors and psychologists who have examined the four brothers have concluded that they were systematically starved. They point to the adopted sons' dramatic weight and height gains since their removal from home in October 2003. Bruce Jackson, now 20, has grown 11 inches and more than doubled his weight to well over 100 pounds.

The younger brothers have each grown at least 5 inches. Keith, 15, gained 50 pounds. Tyrone, 11, and Michael, 10, more than doubled their weight as well. Contact staff writer John Shiffman at 856-779-3857 or jshiffmanphillynews.com..