Charter school dean charged with theft

A former dean of students at Mastery Charter School's Thomas campus in South Philadelphia is facing multiple charges alleging that he stole nearly $6,000 cash and student SEPTA tokens and TransPasses from the school over the weekend.

Antonio Dandridge, 35, who reportedly resigned from his charter school position last week, was arrested by police at his home in West Philadelphia on Monday night and charged with burglary, theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property, a police spokeswoman said.

Dandridge, who had worked at the charter school for approximately one year, allegedly returned to the campus over the weekend and used another employee's swipe card to enter the building. Police allege that he stole $1,829 in cash from a filing cabinet in his former office; three boxes containing $3,000 worth of students' SEPTA tokens; two tan metal cash boxes with $300, and 14 yellow envelopes containing 50 student TransPasses valued at $750.

Dandridge could not be reached for comment today.

Mastery officials said they would comment on the case later today.

Based on Mastery's success with a charter high school in Center City that it opened 2001, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission authorized Mastery to convert former Thomas Middle School into a charter in the fall of 2005. The school, which will eventually offer seventh to 12th grades, was Mastery's second campus. A total of 328 seventh through ninth graders were enrolled last year.

After Thomas, Mastery was authorized to convert two other troubled middle schools into charters: Shoemaker in West Philadelphia and Pickett in Germantown.

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