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.

School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman stepped down today. The school district statement is embedded below.

Ackerman took over as superintendent of the city’s public schools in June 2008 and her contract was due to run through 2014. Ackerman’s contract will be bought out for $905,000. Some $500,000 of that money will come from the School District and $405,000 will come from anonymous private contributions, according to a District statement.

Graham reports that a national search will be conducted for a replacement. More details about Ackerman’s resignation and the financial terms under which she left will likely be disclosed at the Aug. 24 meeting of the School Reform Commission.

The line to register a student in grades 1 through 8 at the Penn Alexander School began at 7:30 a.m. today, more than 24 hours before registration begins.

As of 9 p.m. this evening about 20 people had set up camping chairs along the school’s fence along Locust Street between 42nd and 43rd. A clipboard hung from the fence near the school entrance. Several parents, who will spend the night waiting in line in hopes of getting a spot in the school’s crowded lower grades, had been in line by 5 p.m.

“I feel like an idiot,” said one parent, a Penn professor who recently returned from sabbatical leave to realize he had to re-register his 3rd and 5th graders at the school. “I can’t speak for everyone here, but personally I feel like an idiot.”

Several parents in the line faulted the school for its reluctance to address the overcrowding problem. Suggestions have ranged from starting a lottery for the lower grades to expanding the school’s capacity by erecting temporary trailers.

Parents have often waited in line to register children at the school’s kindergarten, but the line to register students in grade school is a new phenomenon brought on by word that the school would for the first time institute a cap on lower grade levels.

Registration is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow. School officials have already said that many who hope to register for the lower grades, particularly 1-3, will likely be turned away.