New Powel/SLAMS school building (photo from RogersArchitects.com)

A new public school building opened this morning in the Powelton Village neighborhood, as the 2021-2022 academic year begins and students return to full-time in-person learning for the first time since March 2020.

The new building, located at 3610 Warren St., houses the Samuel Powel Elementary School and the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLAMS). The 87,000-square-foot, two-story building is a joint project by Drexel University and developer Wexford Science and Technology.

To celebrate the opening of the new school building and the start of the new school year, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and School District Superintendent William R. Hite stopped by the school this morning. They greeted students and families and participated in the Opening Bell ceremony. Continue Reading

“Meet the NAS” night at Community Education Center (3500 Lancaster Ave.) was held Tuesday, Sept. 17. Special invited speaker was Raymond Jones, Director of External Relations for State Senator Vincent Hughes. Participants enjoyed a light reception and presentations from each candidate (Photo courtesy PEC). 

Residents of some West Philly neighborhoods have a chance to help determine future members of the Neighborhood Advisory Sub-Committee at PECCDC (People’s Emergency Center’s Community Development Corporation). These members help support community program activities provided by PEC and the City’s Division of Housing and Community Development. The NAS is a sub-committee of the PEC Board of Directors and its function is in an advisory role, acting as community level liaison. Elections are held every two years.

The next election will take place this upcoming Monday (Sept. 30), from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at two locations:  Continue Reading

West Philly residents, especially those in Powelton, Mantua, Belmont, Mill Creek, and in the former Black Bottom neighborhoods are invited to a meeting this Tuesday (Apr. 19) to talk about neighborhood history and provide input for an online history map of West Philly. You can bring your old photos and personal stories to share. The meeting will be held at New Africa Center at 4243 Lancaster Avenue, beginning at 6 p.m.

The “Black Bottom” was a predominantly African American neighborhood, located between 40th and 32nd Streets and Powelton Avenue and Curie Boulevard. The neighborhood was mostly razed for urban renewal in the 1960s.

Samuel Powel Elementary School students and teachers are planning a series of marches against gun violence and are inviting the community to join them.

“4th graders at Powel School… have been studying Gun Violence in our neighborhoods and city this year. They have decided that they wanted to march through our communities to raise awareness about gun violence,” writes teacher Joe Alberti.

The 4th graders at Powel will be marching through Powelton and Mantua on Thursday, April 21 from 1-2 p.m.

They will be marching up 36th St. to Spring Garden, then up 35th St. to Aspen before walking down 37th St. and back to school, located at 301 N. 36th St. The children created fliers about the march to invite neighbors. Here’s one of them:  Continue Reading

A new Science Leadership Academy middle school will open this fall to fifth graders in a temporary location on Drexel’s campus, the School District of Philadelphia announced today.

Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships (photo from drexel.edu)

The district expects about 90 fifth graders to enroll in the fall in the temporary space at Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships (3509 Spring Garden). Building plans for the school’s permanent home are under way on the site of the old University City High School and Drew Elementary School near 38th and Filbert.

Most of the fifth grade students will come from nearby Samuel Powel Elementary, a highly rated K-4 school.

Drexel’s School of Education will also support the middle school with help in planning and executing the curriculum, similar to the arrangement Penn has with the Penn Alexander School. Drexel President John Fry helped create the Penn Alexander school and other neighborhood initiatives as an executive vice president at Penn under former president Judith Rodin.

Costs to cover the start-up and planning of the new school will be covered by a $1.8 million grant from the Philadelphia School Partnership. The new school will be called the Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLA-MS).

Students will remain at the Dornsife Center site for “at least two years,” according to the district. The new school will accommodate some 360 students when it is completed.

District Superintendent William Hite announced a plan last fall that included the Drexel-based middle school, the closure of other schools and the conversion of the Samuel B. Huey School to a charter.

The Wiota Street Garden (from Google Street View).

Those in attendance at last night’s public meeting on the future of the Wiota Street Garden in West Powelton tenuously agreed to block attempts to build housing on the parcel.

Some 60 people turned out for a meeting of the West Powelton Concerned Community Council, which, though divisive at times, led Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to promise to stop developers’ attempts to buy the land and construct housing. She also urged community members to devise a plan that would make the garden a community space with a defined and transparent management structure.

The City of Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which owns the parcel at 46 Wiota St. (near 40th and Powelton), has deferred any decision to sell the property to Blackwell, who attended the meeting to gauge public opinion. Her agreement to help protect the garden came with the stipulation that it be managed in a way that invites the entire community.  Continue Reading