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.

Victorian Garden at The Woodlands Center Circle (rendering).

In an effort to take The Woodlands cemetery grounds “from eternal rest to garden best,” 20 people are sought to join a newly established garden community, The Grave Gardeners, for the upcoming growing season.

Each Grave Gardener will adopt a grave in the Center Circle of the cemetery and tend to it throughout the season. All the supplies and knowledge you need will be provided, in exchange for your work. At the end of the season, you’ll get a chance to show off your plot to the rest of The Woodlands community at a Garden Fête.

The season will start with three workshops, where The Grave Gardeners will learn how to design a Victorian-style garden and how to keep it beautiful throughout the growing season. The workshops are led by local experts.

The first workshop, “Gardens (and Houses) in Graveyards,” presented by architectural historian and vice president of The Woodlands Aaron Wunsch, will be held on February 25.

So, if you have some free time this spring and summer and are not afraid to get your hands dirty, you’re welcome to fill out an application here: woodlandsphila.org/gravegardeners.

Application are accepted through Friday, Feb. 12.

Delaila Aryee (left) and Lyndsay Brown (right) with former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.

A new fitness and physical therapy private practice with a focus on affordable physical therapy and rehab, fitness classes and open gym options, has recently opened at 5008 Baltimore Avenue. Vital Step Physical Therapy and Fitness co-owners Delaila Aryee and Lyndsay Brown, both Doctors of Physical Therapy, are young entrepreneurs who were featured on A Woman’s Nation in September 2015. Their dream then was to open their own, compassionate practice that would serve their community.

“We are very passionate about making an impact in our local community because we have spent many years here as clinicians, residents and graduates from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (also located in West Philly),” Aryee and Brown told A Woman’s Nation.

Thanks to the women’s passion and a little help from KIVA Zip, which provided a microloan allowing to renovate the space and to purchase necessary equipment and supplies, Vital Step opened its doors in November.

At Vital Step, you can get physical therapy services for various neurological conditions, including stroke, brain/spinal injury, Parkinson’s disorder, Multiple Sclerosis and more; orthopedic conditions, including joint replacement therapy, arthritis/joint pain, lower back/neck pain, sports injuries and more. The facility also offers balance and fall prevention programs, CHF and COPD management, postpartum therapy, diabetes and high blood pressure management, and other services.

Rehabbing an ankle injury at Vital Step.

As concerns fitness and health education, Vital Step offers general and specialized fitness programs, including yoga, low impact aerobics and Zumba/dance, and nutrition education.

Vital Step Physical Therapy & Fitness is located at 5008 Baltimore Ave., on the 2nd floor of the Mercy wellness center (it is not affiliated with Mercy).

For more information, visit: http://www.vitalsteppt.com/. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

(Photos from Vital Step’s Facebook page).

UPDATE (2/9/2016): Due to the low snow accumulations, Streets Department crews will be collecting Tuesday’s trash and recycling on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Residents whose trash collection day is Tuesday can now put their materials on the curb.

On Monday, the Streets Department announced  that it cancelled Tuesday trash and recycling pick-up ahead of an expected snowstorm that will put garbage trucks to work as snowplows.

UPDATE (2/8/2016): More steam turbine testing will be conducted on Monday, Feb. 8, from 7 to 11 p.m.

The University of Pennsylvania Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services will conduct steam line venting as part of the Utility Plant upgrade at University Avenue and River Fields Drive, according to an announcement by the Division of Public Safety. This venting is necessary to clean out new steam piping prior to energizing newly installed steam turbines.

Venting will occur at various intervals over a three-day period Tuesday, Feb. 2 through Thursday, Feb. 4, between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.

Venting will consist of a series of approximately five steam releases into the air from the new steam piping, which will create a high white columnar-like cloud of vaporized water which may look like smoke as it condenses into the cool air. There will be corresponding loud sounds similar to a jet engine. Each duration of venting will be approximately 30 seconds to two minutes.

The developers of the old West Philly High School building recently secured $24 million in funding. According to reports, the loan has been arranged by Colliers International Capital Markets and will be used for the acquisition and redevelopment of the 442,200-square-foot, four-story building at 4700 Walnut Street. The 103-year-old building was acquired by New York-based developer Andrew Bank in early 2015.

The project to gut the building and convert it into 298 loft apartments was first presented in 2012, but it took more than two years for Bank to finalize the purchase of the building.

Bank, who is the Managing Director of the real estate development company Strong Place Partners, met with community members last summer to talk about the project. During a June 2015 Garden Court Community Association meeting, Bank told the attendees that his company had obtained all necessary permits and that some work on the building was already being done, including asbestos and debris removal and construction of a loading dock on the eastern portion of the building.

Bank also said that he was waiting for a loan settlement to begin building the first 130 apartments. He added that the project may include some commercial space along Locust Street.

Construction is set to begin in 2017.