West Philadelphia High School garden. (Photo by Allison Ostertag)

The West Philadelphia High School Garden at 47th and Locust Streets needs a volunteer group or individual to design and/or build a rain water harvesting and garden watering system. A stand for a rain barrel needs to be built and the barrel needs to be adapted to collect rain free-standing, not from a downspout.

Right now the only access to water is inside the school, which is very inconvenient and unavailable during school breaks.

Volunteers should have some building skills, tools (they can be rented from the Tool Library) and possibly a vehicle to transport the lumber. The garden has drills, hammer nails and will supply building materials.

To apply and for more information contact Allison Ostertag at 504-710-5406 or by e-mail: freeduh2 – at – hotmail.com.

Here you can see more photos of the garden.

Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman will meet with concerned West Philadelphia parents and others on Monday, January 24 at the Philadelphia Business and Technology Center (5070 Parkside Ave., first floor) at 1 p.m. West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhoods and Businesses is organizing the talk and Ackerman is expected to discuss, among other things, the district’s strategic plan – Imagine 2014 – and community involvement in schools.

The meeting organizers want to remind those interested in attending that the entrance is on Columbia, not on Parkside.

The crisis in public education is perhaps the biggest challenge facing our city. You only have to go as far as our own neighborhoods to see the disparity among schools. To address these concerns, teachers, parents and students from some area schools are coming together tonight for a local screening of “A Community Concern,” a documentary about organizing for better urban public education, at the Enterprise Center CDC (4548 Market St.) in studio c. The film begins at 6:30 p.m. and doors open at 6.

From the organizers:

“A Community Concern is a new documentary about people who refuse to accept the system’s failures, and are working for change.Their spirit, passion and commitment shows that when organizers, parents, youth and educators work together, they are successful. It brings together stories of people who face different challenges, but share similar goals.”

The event co-Sponsored by The Enterprise Center, Philadelphia Student Union, Parents in Action Council, Teacher Action Group & The Notebook.

West Catholic takes on South Fayette today in the PIAA Class AA state football championship at noon. If you didn’t make the trip to Hershey you can still catch the game live on television.

The game will be televised on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN). Here is a listing of the channel numbers for a bunch of cable companies.

A New York-based religious leader penned an opinion piece in today’s Inquirer that outlines what many of us here already know – some creative problem-solving needs to be done to help public schools in West Philadelphia.

Howie Beigelman, deputy director of public policy at the Orthodox Union, and a handful of other religious leaders toured West Philadelphia High School, West Catholic High School and Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School – a public school, parochial school and charter school respectively – in early October. Students First organized the tour. Beigelman highlighted the differences between the three schools, notably that the atmosphere was “less hopeful” at West Philadelphia High, where he observed that teachers often locked their doors during class.

He continues:

Construction of the new playground at Alexander Wilson Elementary School (1300 South 46th), a project that has been years in the making, began today.
A member of the construction crew that was beginning to assemble the playground equipment said that phase would be done by Friday, “if all goes well.” Another crew will then lay down a rubber ground surface.
The playground has been near the top of the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) wish list for many years and became a reality after a $50,000 grant from the Hamels Foundation, the charitable organization run by Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels and his wife Heidi. The grant was the Foundation’s largest made to a Philadelphia public school this year. Mary Goldman of the SHCA’s Youth and Education Committee was instrumental in arranging the funding for the playground. Community members from the school and a variety of organizations have been raising funds for the playground for about 20 years.
The 183-square-foot facility will provide 21 activities and will be able to accommodate about 70 children at a time.