School lunch in Philadelphia is a social justice issue for many.

This summer the School District of Philadelphia closed the kitchens at several schools, leaving just a handful of schools in the City – mostly high schools – with meals cooked onsite. The vast majority of schools serve pre-packaged lunches trucked in for out of the area. Health concerns surrounding these pre-packaged lunches coupled with the fact that 40 percent of kids are at risk for childhood obesity have sparked concern among parents, teachers and activists.

Those folks and others will gather at the Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.) on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. to discuss where school food comes from and how to make it healthier. Interested community members are welcome to join the discussion.

Speakers will include:

For more information about the event please contact: Bryan Fenstermaker at 215-895-4020 or by email: bfenstermaker[at]theenterprisecentercdc.org.

Only one school in the area is slated to close, the Charles R. Drew School near 38th and Powelton, in the school consolidation plan unveiled yesterday by the School Reform Commission.

Beginning next school year students at Drew, which is a K-8 school, will be spread among Samuel Powel Elementary, Martha Washington Elementary, Alaine Locke School and Middle Years Alternative school.

The plan also changes the grade configuration in the 2013-2014 school year at Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland), which is currently K-6, to K-5. Sixth grade students will attend Shaw Middle School. Shaw (54th and Warrington) will expand from 7th and 8th grades to include 6th grade as well. Grade changes at Comegys Elementary (51st and Upland) and Harrington Elementary (53rd and Baltimore) to K-5 will also feed Shaw’s new configuration.

Students at two other local elementary schools – Lea Elementary and Penn-Alexander – will experience no changes under the plan, which will eliminate 14,000 empty seats. The School District of Philadelphia has said that it hopes to eliminate some 70,000 empty seats over the next several years.

Under the plan, West Philadelphia High School will be put for sale sometime during the 2012-2013 school year.

The District has scheduled a series of public meetings to discuss the consolidation plan. The fist meeting in West Philadelphia will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the new West Philadelphia High School.

The full report is available for download here.

We will know a lot more about which schools will close or consolidate in West Philadelphia after today’s School Reform Commission (SRC) meeting, which for the first time, will be streamed live online.

The SRC is scheduled to release its tentative master plan to address the estimated 70,000 empty seats in the district. The plan includes a list of schools that will be closed, consolidated or have grade changes. The list will be the subject of a series of community meetings over the next several months.

A leaked preliminary report that recommended that the Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.) be closed and students transferred to the Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.) fueled speculation that fairly drastic changes were ahead for schools in our area. The District responded that the leaked report was merely a rough draft that was far from the final recommendations. There was even speculation that the much-debated catchment area for the Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust) would be redrawn, though that seems unlikely. A much more clear picture of those changes should emerge from today’s meeting.

The SRC meeting begins at 3 p.m. today and the announcement on the proposed changes is scheduled for 5 p.m. For the first time the SRC meeting will be streamed live at the District’s website. The meeting will also be broadcast on its cable channel, which is available to Comcast (Channel 52) and FIOS (Channel 20) subscribers.

West Philly-based writer Patrick Kerkstra has penned the most comprehensive article to date on the enrollment issue at the Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust), the school’s impact on the surrounding area and the possible reshuffling of enrollment patterns at other elementary schools in the neighborhood.

Published at Plan Philly and The Notebook, Kerkstra analyzed block-level census data in the article and concludes that there are actually fewer children in Penn Alexander’s catchment area now than in 2000, a year before Penn Alexander opened. This is possibly good news for parents hoping to get their children into the school because it suggests the overcrowding issue in Penn Alexander’s lower grades may ease without drastic measures such as a lottery or redrawing the catchment boundaries. (Kerkstra has graciously shared his data with us. Click here for a Google doc that has it arranged in very readable tables. Note the tabs at the top for each school.)

He also highlights a serious drawback to the school’s presence in the area. Census data clearly shows that the catchment area, and the school itself, is getting less diverse. As home prices have risen, the number of African Americans living in the catchment has decreased significantly.

Unfortunately, no one from the school or the District would go on the record with him to discuss plans to address overcrowding in the school’s lower grades or the long lines to enroll in limited kindergarten spots.

Kerkstra also goes through the implications of the possible closing of the under-enrolled Alexander Wilson School (1300 S. 46th St.), which was suggested in recommendations to the School District of Philadelphia published earlier this year. The final word on that will likely be announced in the next few weeks.

His article also includes the work of groups addressing school issues, including the West Philly Coalition of Neighborhood Schools, which is working with Henry C. Lea Elementary (47th and Locust) and Advocates for Great Elementary Education, which has focused on shedding light on the enrollment issue at Penn Alexander.

Be sure to read the whole article at Plan Philly here or The Notebook here.

Another person with West Philly roots has been appointed to the School Reform Commission. Mayor Michael Nutter appointed novelist, arts advocate and professor Lorene Cary to the commission, which is charged with overseeing the city’s public school system.

Cary, 54, attended Henry C. Lea Elementary (4700 Locust St.), the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a creative writing instructor at Penn. Cary’s novel The Price of a Child, which tells the story of a slave who declares her freedom while traveling in Philadelphia in 1855 but whose child is still held in bondage in Virginia, was the first “One Book, One Philadelphia” selection in 2003.

“For me what is truly outstanding is that she has an incredible passion for the well-being of children,” Nutter said in a statement. “She cares very personally about parents and she’s very much focused on supporting teachers. She will be a tremendous asset to the School Reform Commission and the children of Philadelphia.”

Cary also started Art Sanctuary, an arts advocacy organization. She lives in East Falls with her husband Rev. Robert C. Smith, the rector of the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, and two daughters.

In many ways Cary is an atypical choice for the Commission, which has been made up mostly of lawyers, business people and bureaucrats since it began in 2001. Last month Nutter appointed West Philly resident Wendell Pritchett to the Commission.

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.