• The Philadelphia Tribune and WHYY’s Newsworks site both have stories about the innovative high school program located in the Navy Yard called The Sustainability Workshop, which has deep West Philly connections. The school, which teaches students to solve real-world problems, is run by West Philly resident Michael Clapper, a former teacher at West Philadelphia High School and until recently an education professor at Saint Joseph’s University, and Simon Hauger, who gained national attention as the director of West Philly High’s Hybrid X Team. The program gives about 30 seniors from West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and Furness high schools the chance to spend a year focusing on energy efficiency, climate change and other issues.

• Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer includes a story about the efforts of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) to keep school libraries open. The organization has helped reopen 10 libraries at schools in West Philly that were or would have been shuttered due to budget cuts. WePAC supplies volunteer storytellers and librarians and has donated a heap of books. We have also reported on WePAC’s good work.

• The City Paper‘s online restaurant blog Meal Ticket alerts us to the opening of Chewy’s food truck, which slings sandwiches, burgers, hand-cut fries and “tater tots tossed with buffalo sauce, Whiz, bacon crumbles and ranch dressing.” Meal Ticket reports that they also have an “Apples to Apples” BLT that includes Granny Smiths and cider mayo. The truck is a joint venture between Charlie Sokowski and Terence Jones, an old street food hand. The truck operates between 34th and 35th streets on Market from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

West Philly resident Wendell Pritchett, an urban historian and former aid to Mayor Michael Nutter, has been appointed to the School Reform Commission, the body that oversees the administration of Philadelphia’s public schools.

Pritchett, who is chancellor of Rutgers University-Camden, will fill one of the two Commission openings left vacant by the recent departures of chair Robert Archie and member Johnny Irizarry. The quick appointment of Pritchett gives the commission the necessary quorum of three. Other members include Denise McGregor Armbrister, whose term expires in January, and Joseph Dworetzky, who commutes to SRC meetings from the West Coast.

Pritchett, a familiar face at youth baseball games and the University City Swim Club, is a close Nutter ally and served as the Mayor’s deputy chief of staff and director of policy. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law from 2001-2009 and was the school’s associate dean from 2006-2008.

Pritchett will jump right into the new post. One key issue the commission will face in the next couple of months is the looming closure of several schools in the city.

The open casting call for the locally staged, “school edition” of RENT has been extended with three more auditions. Organizers want young actors. Besides high school kids, college freshmen 18 years old and younger are now welcome to participate in the tryouts. For the open call instructions go to this page.

The extended audition process will include all day Saturday, Sept. 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 19, 6-9 p.m., and Tuesday, Sept. 20, 6-9 p.m. The auditions are taking place at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street). Please email Rich at projecttheaterproject [at] gmail.com to make an appointment. For more information about this project go to Project Theater Project’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/projecttheaterrent.

iPraxis, a non-profit organization located in the University City Science Center, is looking for volunteers to help students prepare for science fairs. Lea Elementary (47th & Locust) is one of the schools where help is needed. See the flyer below.

Students returned today to a brand new West Philadelphia High School, which many people hope will serve as a symbol of a new era.

Junior Sydney Dickerson told hundreds of students, alumni and dignitaries, who ranged from Mayor Michael Nutter and State Senator Vincent Hughes to the Philadelphia Eagles mascot “Swoop,” that she hopes the new school building at 49th and Chestnut will help break through stereotypes.

“For some it means a new experience, a new beginning,” she said of the school. “For others it means a chance to prove that they’re smart. For me the new West means a chance to fight the stereotype about us West kids. About how us West kids are stupid. About how we’re bad. Well, that’s not true and I’m standing here to tell people that that’s not true. This new school provides us with the ability to fight that stereotype.”

The student body as well as dozens of alumni, many of whom wore the school’s colors of orange and blue, applauded Dickerson.

Approximately 900 students attend the school. The 170,000-square-foot school has a three-story, state-of-the art design with computer labs, science classrooms, two gyms and an auditorium. It replaces the Gothic-style building that has stood along Walnut Street between 47th and 48th streets since it opened in 1912 and was one of the longest continually operated school facilities in the state.

The new building, along with the designation of West as a “promise academy,” meaning among other things that the school will have extended days and enrichment programs, is an effort to help improve a school with chronically low test scores.

“It’s a brand new day,” State Senator Vincent Hughes told students gathered in the school’s gymnasium, which sits along Market Street. “This is about your future. Don’t let anybody snatch that future from you. It’s yours. Take it.”

The school will benefit the community as well. Its gyms, libraries and auditorium will be open to the public and have separate entrances in an effort to make it a true neighborhood high school.

The school was designed with West’s “academies” in mind. These include special programs in urban leadership, creative and performing arts and business technology.

Nutter reminded students that a new building will only get them so far.

“Great buildings are wonderful, but education is more than a great building,” he said. “Great students are even better.”

No decision has been made about the fate of the old West Philadelphia High School building, which stands in an area that could see much development in coming years.
 

The school year has begun and many parents are looking for afterschool and weekend activities for their children. We have come across a couple of flyers – one is an afterschool art program (we gave them a ring and learned that it’s a new program run by artist Rachel Louis) and the other is a weekend music program by Intercultural Family Services, Inc. We’ll be adding more such information as it comes. If you know of more afterschool programs for kids in the area email us at: editor [at] westphillylocal.com or leave a comment.