Samuel Powel Elementary (36th and Powelton) invites parents and caregivers of students entering 1st-4th grades in the 2012-2013 academic year for an Open House on Thursday, Oct. 13, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Parents and caregivers of children entering kindergarten next year are invited for Kindergarten Tea at Powel on Monday, Oct. 17, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Open houses will begin in the single story library (access to the library is from the play yard which can be accessed along 35th street or at the corner of 36th and Powelton). Please RSVP to Andrea Kitchens at akitchens480 [at] msn.com.

Henry C. Lea Elementary (47th and Locust) will be hosting Kindergarten Open House on Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Open house begins with a meet and greet with the principal, Dr. Lisa Bell-Chiles, in the library on the third floor followed by visits to Ms. Mykytiuch’s and Ms. McCloskey’s kindergarten classrooms and a school tour. For more information call: 215-471-2915. West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools will provide refreshments.

Should Philadelphia have an elected school board? Should the school district’s governing body be appointed locally? Here’s a chance to have your voice heard.

These issues will be discussed when parents, students, educators and community members meet at a public forum on education governance on Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Center City.

Entitled “Governing the School District of Philadelphia: Do We Have the Right Model?,” the forum is open to the public and will be moderated by recently retired Daily News columnist Elmer Smith. Panelists will include Maurice Jones, a parent from the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust streets), who has helped spearhead improvements at the school over the last several months. The West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools is a co-sponsor of the event.

The forum will run from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The United Way Building (1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Lobby 2). The first part will include a panel discussion and Q and A and the second part, which begins at 7 p.m., includes breakout groups to identify community concerns and priorities. Refreshments will be served during the breakouts.

You can get free tickets by going here.

• 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.