After fire, West Philly charter school looking for new home

Four-hundred students at a West Philadelphia public charter school have off this week, after a five-alarm fire decimated their school over the weekend. 

Naomi Johnson Booker, the chief executive officer of the Global Leadership Academy, said the fire destroyed everything.  

“The only thing left is the sign on the outside of our building,” Booker said.  “The school was completely demolished.  But the firefighters need to be commended because the way that fire was enraged, it could have burned down the neighborhood – but they contained it.”Booker said she hasn’t decided whether to accept the School District’s offer to let her use a school building in South Philadelphia, because it’s far from where many of the students live.Booker said she hopes the Global Leadership Academy students will return to school on Tuesday January 18th.  But Booker said she doesn’t know where.  She said a new facility already being built at 46th Street and Girard Avenue won’t be ready until September.

School officials are meeting with parents Monday night at a West Philadelphia church to talk about how to move on.