The plot that Drexel plans to buy includes University City High School and Drew Elementary School.

Drexel University is set to substantially expand its footprint north of Market Street with the tentative purchase of the 14-acre property where the shuttered University City High School and Drew Elementary School currently stand. Drexel plans to build residential housing, retail space and, most importantly, a K-8 school complex.

Drexel’s plan was outlined in broad terms during a meeting Wednesday night at West Philadelphia High School to announce that the university was the winning bidder on the property, one of seven properties the School District of Philadelphia has for sale. The School Reform Commission is expected to approve the sale during its March 20 meeting.

Drexel’s plan for the site includes an expanded Powel Elementary School, which currently serves students in K-4, and a Science Leadership Academy (SLA) middle school. If approved, the site would be the first middle school for SLA,  the acclaimed magnet school that has a campus in Center City that works closely with the Franklin Institute and a nascent high school program in the Beeber Middle School building in the Overbrook neighborhood.

Officials stressed that the plans are very tentative and are subject to several community meetings and the city zoning process. The terms of the purchase, including a possible price, has not been announced.

About 100 people attended the meeting, including members of the Powelton Village Civic Association and the Mantua Civic Association. The responses to the announcement ranged from relief to indignation.

“The community coming into this was very nervous,” said George Poulin of the Powelton Village Civic Association. “But we are excited about the possibilities of the site.”

The Powelton Village neighborhood would benefit the most from the project, particularly from an expanded Powel School.

Mantua residents, whose children lost their high school when University City High closed, questioned whether the project would help them.

“We don’t know where our community is heading,” said Terry Wrice, a University City High graduate and son of famed city activist Herman Wrice. “Our kids are all over the place.”

High school students from Mantua have been assigned to West Philadelphia High School, where many have experienced confrontations with students from other neighborhoods.

Lucy Kerman, Drexel’s vice provost for University and Community Partnerships, said the university has no plans to include a high school on the site.

“Our commitment has been to support the existing school and that means Powel,” she said during the meeting. “Our vision is in the K-8 space.”

The site will also include residential housing. “It will not be dormitories,” said Bob Francis, Drexel’s vice president of University Facilities.

Francis said the retail would be “small and locally organized.”

“We see ourselves as participating in the recovery of West Philadelphia,” Francis said. “This is about improving the tax base and bringing in jobs.”

Drexel’s push further north into West Philadelphia neighborhoods has increased under president John Fry. Fry, of course, was one of the key architects of the University of Pennsylvania’s initiatives west of 40th Street, including the construction of the Penn Alexander School, while he was executive vice president of Penn from 1995 to 2002.

Residents will have many opportunities to weigh in on the project at different stages. The next chance is the March 20 meeting of the SRC. Click here for information on registering to speak at that meeting. The deadline to register is 4:30 p.m. on March 19.

–Mike Lyons

Clark Park is the place to be on snow days. (Archived photo / West Philly Local)

Now might be the time to teach the kids about chickens coming home to roost or paying the piper or something. The School District of Philadelphia just announced that three days would be trimmed from spring break in mid-April to make up for the recent snow days.

Public schools will now be open April 15, 16 and 17, days that were originally part of the spring recess. Sorry kids.

The Philadelphia School District has announced that all public schools, early childhood and after school programs will be closed Friday, Feb. 14.  The second round of severe weather is expected in the region overnight. Schools were also closed today and will be closed on Monday, Feb. 17 for Presidents Day, the school district confirmed.

Photo by Annamarya Scaccia.

UPDATED (2/15/2014): The snow emergency was lifted at 2 p.m. on Friday and it is now safe to park your vehicle on all snow emergency routes.

(2/12/2014, 4:11 p.m.): Here we go again. The city has declared a snow emergency beginning at 8 p.m. tonight, so if you’re parked on one of the snow emergency routes in West Philly you will have to move your car (see below). Public and parochial schools have also been closed for tomorrow ahead of the latest storm, which is expected to dump as much as a foot of snow on the city tonight through tomorrow. Early childhood and after-school programs are also cancelled.

Trash and recycling pick-up is also suspended for Thursday and Friday. Those who usually get rid of their trash on those days are asked to hold on until next Thursday or Friday.

Several major streets in West Philly will be affected, including Chestnut Street, Walnut Street and Woodland Avenue. If your vehicle remains on one of these streets it will be ticketed and towed. If your car is towed, call 215-686-SNOW to find out where they took it. If you have to move your car, city officials are asking you to move it as far from a corner as possible to allow the plows room to turn.

There is no word yet on when the parking ban might be lifted.

In West Philly, snow emergency routes include:

• Chestnut Street from Cobbs Creek Parkway to 20th Street
• Walnut Street from Broad Street to Cobbs Creek Parkway
• Woodland Avenue from Cobbs Creek Parkway to University Avenue
• 34th Street from University Avenue to Grays Ferry Avenue
• 38th Street from Walnut to University Avenue
• 63rd Street from City Avenue to Walnut Street
• University Avenue from 38th Street to 34th Street
• Island Avenue from Woodland Avenue to Enterprise Avenue
• Cobbs Creek Parkway from Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue
• Schuylkill Avenue from Market Street to Walnut Street

School District Chief Operating Officer Fran Burns talks about the district’s plan to sell the Alexander Wilson School building at 46th and Woodland to developers who will likely convert it to a retail/residential building.

It appears that a mixed-used retail/residential building will replace the Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which the school district closed last June.

Officials from the School District of Philadelphia said during a public meeting Thursday night that all of the leading bids on the building proposed similar uses – a combination of street-level retail and housing. The district’s Chief Operating Officer Fran Burns told about 25 residents gathered in the auditorium of the Henry C. Lea School that it’s “probably not going to be a demolition, but a major renovation within.”

The final bid will not be officially announced and approved until the School Reform Commission (SRC) meeting on Feb. 20 or March 20 (we’ll let you know when we know). No other uses for the building, which many in the community hoped would reopen as a charter school, were proposed by developers and no more offers will be accepted.

Although the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was to elicit public comment on the proposal, officials offered very few details, which frustrated many in attendance.

“I’m a little frustrated about how little of this process seems to be about the impact on the neighborhood,” said a resident who lives near the school.

Burns hinted that the offers proposed student and “multi-family” residences and that senior housing was not part of any of the proposals. No charter school offered a bid, but the nearby University of the Sciences expressed some interest, Burns said.

There are more opportunities for public input, including at the SRC meeting and during the zoning process, but that will be input on the project’s details, not on whether the building should become housing or something else.

Neither the names of bidders nor bid amounts were released. Burns would not say how much is owed in bond payments on Wilson, but said that the sale of the closed schools will not do much to offset budget problems.

“The budget will not be fixed through property sales,” she said.

Here are some more details on the sale process.

The district hopes to close the sale of the school by June 30.

–Mike Lyons

All public schools in Philadelphia are closed Monday, Feb. 3 due to the winter storm warning in the area. Early childhood and after school programs are also closed, but administrative offices will remain open, according to an announcement by the School District of Philadelphia. Between 4 and 8 inches of snow is expected to fall in the area today. The snowstorm warning is in effect until 5 p.m., according to Accuweather.com.