On Friday, Aug. 14, families are invite to celebrate Back to School Education Day (E! Day), which will be held at the School of the Future (4021 Parkside Ave.). The event, hosted by the School District of Philadelphia, will include on-site student registration, information sessions, free book bags and other giveaways, and educational games. School District officers will be there to answer questions about transportation, lunch programs, uniforms, and many other things. The event will take place from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. More information is available on the School District website.

Just a reminder that the 2015-16 school year for grades 1-12 at Philadelphia public schools begins on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Here’s a round up of some of the latest news coming out of the area.

St. Francis de Sales School (Photo from greatphillyschools.org).

• Cool things are happening at St. Francis de Sales, the local Catholic school. The school recently received a $13,000 grant from the nonprofit faith-based Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia to help fund its Science and Arts Innovative Learning on the River (SAILOR) program. The program provides real-world, hands-on engineering experience to participating students who visit the Delaware river, build boats and learn how to operate them. The program has inspired many St. Francis de Sales students to pursue an education in engineering, according to The Philadelphia Tribune. By the way, the school’s highly-acclaimed after-school music program, Play On Philly!, has also been featured in the news many times.

Photo from Phillysoapbox.org.

• Have you checked out The Soapbox yet? Philadelphia City Paper has recently published a nice feature on the West Philly-based independent publishing center. Co-founders Mary Tasillo and Charlene Kwon opened the space at 741 S. 51st St in 2011 to be used as a community studio for book arts and zine-making. Now, in addition to the studio, which is free to use for their members, The Soapbox also hosts a variety of workshops and houses a vast collection of zines (about 1,500!), over 500 of which have been cataloged. In other independent publishing news, the annual Philly Zine Fest will take place at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut) on Aug. 30.  Continue Reading

You may have seen them cropping up around the neighborhood — Little Free Libraries are tiny libraries installed on posts outside homes or organizations where community members can “take a book, leave a book,” and they are often just the size of large birdhouses.

A Little Free Library is being installed in front of Samuel Huey school (Facebook photo).

The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), which works systematically to reopen closed school libraries in West Philly and around the city (95 percent of Philly public schools lack a functioning school library), is also using the Little Free Library model to get books into the hands of children over the summer and in the evenings.

New research suggests that having books in the home is the single most important factor in future literacy, more important even than the educational attainment or income of parents.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2014, WePAC organized a build day that produced 11 Little Free Libraries. But only two have been installed so far — one in front of Samuel Huey school, and one inside Y-HEP, a health clinic at 15th and Locust that is part of Philadelphia FIGHT. In addition to allowing the tiny library to be installed on their property, host sites make sure the libraries stay in good condition and re-stock them with books if borrowers neglect to return.

But WePac has nine other libraries still awaiting homes. “The challenge is to find locations where someone can commit to maintaining the library for the long haul,” says Mica Navarro Lopez, WePAC’s Deputy Executive Director.

WePAC is actively seeking sites where the remaining nine libraries will be cared for by a responsible steward—this might be a school, a community organization, or private individual who lives within their service area. If you or your organization is interested in becoming a host site to a WePAC Little Free Library, get in touch with them by filling out their contact form at http://wepac.org/contact-us/.

– Emma Eisenberg

All public schools will close early, at 12 p.m., on Tuesday, June 16 due the high temperatures in the forecast, the School District of Philadelphia has announced. Schools with a graduation ceremony scheduled for Tuesday have the option to remain open for the ceremonies. Parents are asked to contact schools directly to confirm graduation schedules.

Due to the high temperatures in the forecast for today, all Philadelphia public schools will dismiss at 12:00 p.m., the School District of Philadelphia has announced.  Schools with a graduation ceremony scheduled for today have the option to remain open for the ceremonies. Parents are asked to contact schools directly to confirm graduation schedules.

The temperatures are expected to reach the mid 90s today in the Philadelphia area, and heat and air quality alerts are in effect.

Photo from Drexel.edu.

Two West Philly schools received a hefty financial boost this week.

The Exelon Foundation and PECO are donating $500,000 to Drexel University, which will use the funds to develop new STEAM (science, technology, art, engineering, and math) courses at two neighborhood schools – Samuel Powel and Morton McMichael.

The PECO and Drexel partnership to create new educational opportunities for local students began in 2011 with a $1 million grant for the University Assisted Schools (UAS) Initiative, which focuses on the unique needs of Powel and McMichael schools. Since its inception “the program to improve educational options and learning opportunities for students in the Mantua and Powelton communities ha[s] been incredibly successful,” Drexel President John A. Fry said in a statement.

The program provides universal screening of all students’ literacy and math skills, development of a unique schedule for academic enrichment and intervention, development of a customized education plan for every student, and more. Also, K-8 students at McMichael and K-4 students at Powel have been visiting or received instruction from representatives of the University City Science Center, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Mural Arts Program.

More information about the grant and the program is available here.