The sledding was awesome. The snowball fights were grand. But now it’s time to pay for those snow days. The School District of Philadelphia just announced that it will add two days to this year’s calendar to make up for classes missed during the winter.

The last day for students is now Tuesday, June 21 and the last day for teachers and staff is June 22.

Philadelphia schools were closed January 12th, 27th, 28th, and February 22nd because of snow.

Attention young chess players. The Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library is hosting a chess tournament on Saturday to help bolster interest in chess among West Philly youths.

The three-round unrated tournament is open to anyone, youths and adults alike (although they will compete in separate tournaments). The event will also include an introduction to tournament play, refreshments and prizes. Organizers hope that they will garner enough interest to start a chess club at the library.

Here is the tournament schedule:

Registration: 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Introduction to tournament play: 1:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Competition: 2:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Players from the chess club at the Walnut Street West Library will likely be on hand for the tournament, according to their coach Joe Clarke. Speaking of the Walnut Street West club, several of its members competed last month in the Fourth Annual Checkmate Violence 24-Hour Chess Marathon at Temple University. The tournament took place Feb. 5-6. Club members George Cao, Saleh Ibrahim and Carter Davis, all 9, 10-year-old Sherwin Hosseinpour and 7-year-old Risa Azim all took home medals (see photo below).

About 200 players take part in the event, which includes a series of tournaments and activities, and about 100 play all 24 hours.

West Philly News has reported that Rev. Zachary Navit, who recently headed the St. Francis De Sales Parish in West Philly, is one of the 21 priests that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia placed on administrative leave because of allegations of sexual abuse or other inappropriate behavior with minors.

Navit currently serves as a priest and part-time director in the Office for Special Projects & Closures at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Buckingham, PA.

Navit, who was ordained in 1994, served as pastor of St. Francis de Sales (4625 Springfield Ave.) from 2004 until taking the position at Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 2008, he oversaw the merger of St. Francis de Sales with Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Southwest Philadelphia.

As pastor of Saint Francis de Sales, Navit helped oversee the parish school, which serves 500 students.

The Archdiocese announced on Tuesday that 21 priests had been placed on administrative leave following a Grand Jury issued on Feb. 10, but no names were released.

“These have been difficult weeks since the release of the Grand Jury Report: difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse, but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community,” Archbishop Cardinal Justin Rigali said in a statement released Tuesday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday published a list of 21 names that included Navit.

Lt. Brian McBride of the Philadelphia Police Department will discuss crime and crime prevention in the area tonight beginning at 6 p.m. at the Calvary Center (48th and Baltimore). The discussion is open to the public and is the first in a series of meetings on crime and crime prevention.

The meeting will take place in the center’s lower level.

Need a cheap tool? Maybe a hammer for a buck? A tool box for two bucks? Or maybe you just want a good cup of coffee and a scrumptious pastry on a Saturday morning. If so then head down to Woodland Avenue on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the annual Yard Sale Jamboree at the West Philly Tool Library (4620 Woodland Avenue).

The Tool Library is selling off all of the stuff it can’t loan out.

Michael Froehlich of the Tool Library writes:

Each year, the Tool Library receives hundreds of donations of tools, hardware, and, frankly, lots of things we don’t really know what to do with. Many of them we can put into circulation. But lots of them we can’t. This Saturday we’ll be emptying our basement and selling them off.

An added treat will be free coffee and pastries from nearby Four Worlds Bakery (4634 Woodland Ave.). Michael expects a visit from the Build-It Bus, the traveling workshop for kids, at about noon.

If you can’t make it Saturday but you still want to help out the Tool Library always accepts tools and cash donations. Click on their link above for more info.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo will be in West Philly on March 18 at the Annenberg Center (3680 Walnut St.) at 8 p.m. This show is very likely to sell out so we are giving you plenty of notice. The beloved South African vocal group will perform songs from their new album, Songs From a Zulu Farm.

Tickets for the performance are steep – $60. If that’s a deal breaker, then you might try to hold out for “West Philly Rush Hour” tickets. The Annenberg Center offers special first-come-first-serve $10 tickets for residents who can prove they live in the following zip codes: 19104, 19131, 19139, 19142, 19143, 19151, 19153. The tickets are on sale for an hour two hours before the show starts. So if there are any left for this show, they would be available from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the box office.

All of that said, though, there is a pretty good chance that the show will sell out.