After three days out of school buildings, Philadelphia public students and staff will be back to in-person learning Thursday.
Officials announced the call Wednesday afternoon.
Archdiocesan high schools and city parochial schools will also be back to traditional classes Thursday, officials said.
In the aftermath of a significant winter storm and sub-freezing temperatures, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. gave students and staff a full snow day Monday, with no learning or teaching obligations.
He pivoted the district’s 125,000 students to virtual instruction Tuesday and Wednesday as conditions remained tricky to navigate.
Temperatures are expected to dip even lower Thursday, and many side streets and sidewalks aren’t clear, but officials have said they prioritize in-person learning when conditions are safe for students and staff.
“School District and City of Philadelphia officials have been working around the clock to clear snow and ice from roads and walkways to support a safe return to in-person learning,” Watlington wrote in a message to families and staff Thursday.
Any students arriving late because of weather-related challenges will not have their lateness counted against them, the superintendent said. The same goes for staff not able to make it into work on time because of weather-related commuting challenges.
Yellow bus service will operate as usual, though delays might occur, Watlington said.
After school activities are on, the central office will be open, and the school-selection deadline has been extended from Wednesday to Friday so families can confer with school counselors they may have had difficulty reaching because of the snow closures.
Philadelphia’s school board meeting, also scheduled for Thursday, will also happen in person. Board members and members of the public have the chance to participate virtually, as well.
With streets still snowy and frigid temperatures locked in for days, Philadelphia school buildings will remain closed Wednesday, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said.
Classes are on, though, with students expected to complete work virtually and educators required to teach.
“Based on the conditions due to the inclement weather, out of an abundance of caution and in order to ensure the safety of our entire school community, including our valued staff members who commute from various counties across the region,” the virtual call was made, Watlington said in a message to families and staff.
District offices will be operating virtually as well. No after-school activities will be held.
“The safety and well-being of our students, staff, and families is our top priority,” spokesperson Naima DeBrest said in a statement. “To the greatest extent possible, the School District of Philadelphia strives to keep schools open for in-person learning to accelerate student achievement. The recent snowstorm in the greater Philadelphia region dropped significant snow and ice, which has left slick or covered roads. It continues to impact drivers and commuters.”
The district’s plans for the rest of the week have not yet been determined, officials said. It had already planned report card conferences and early dismissals for all schools Thursday and Friday.
Archdiocesan high schools and parochial elementary schools in the city will also be virtual Wednesday.
Suburban Catholic schools typically follow the decisions of their local school districts.
Other districts have already said they will open Wednesday
Some suburban school districts are going in a different direction. Upper Darby schools will be open Wednesday, but with a two-hour delay, Superintendent Dan McGarry said in a letter to families.
“The district maintenance, facilities, and transportation departments have worked very hard to prepare our schools for students and staff,” McGarry wrote. “I also know that the township continues to work hard to clear roads as quickly and safely as possible … please be safe as you make your way to school tomorrow.”
Upper Darby is a smaller district, with just 12,500 students in 13 schools. Philadelphia, by contrast, has about 125,000 students in 218 schools. It maintains about 300 buildings.
Colonial Schools, in Montgomery County, will also be open Wednesday, operating on a regular schedule.
It is the city’s environmental sciences magnet school and the state’s only three-year agriculture, food, and natural resources career and technical education program. It’s set amid 400 acres of woods, with neighbors including a vast environmental center and farm that are active partners with the school. Lankenau’s students have access to dual enrollment and an impressive array of internships.
The Lankenau community is already gearing up for a fight ahead of a school board vote on the proposal, expected this winter. Community members say the school must be saved because it is one of a kind, offering immersive education in agriculture and sciences and boasting a 100% graduation rate that’s rare in Philadelphia.
Shutting “the Lank” would be a disastrous move, said Jamir Lowe-Smith, a junior at the school. The district’s proposal would merge Lankenau into Roxborough High as an honors program, but you cannot replicate what his school has built anywhere else, Lowe-Smith said.
The Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School in Roxborough. The district’s proposal would merge Lankenau into Roxborough High as an honors program.
“Lankenau takes education to the next level,” said Lowe-Smith, president of the school’s chapter of Junior MANNRS — Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences — which preps students for jobs in the growing green sciences industry.
“The environment is beautiful, the woods are — that’s another classroom,“ Lowe-Smith said. ”Nature is like therapy for a lot of people — it changed my life.”
Being tucked into the woods allows for a Friday advisory bird-watching club at Lankenau and research in a stream that leads directly to the Schuylkill. It lends itself to tick drags — studies of tick species — pesticide classes that will allow students to graduate as certified pesticide applicators, and work with school beehives. Its students engage in innovative project-based learning every day.
Lankenau students all receive yellow school bus transportation because the campus is not close to any SEPTA routes — adding to the district’s expense to keep it open.
The school is small — its building, on Spring Lane in Upper Roxborough, is about half full, enrolling about 250 in a building that can accommodate 461. But the recommendations for closing need to be about more than numbers, said StateRep. Tarik Khan, a Democrat whose district includes that area.
“Respectfully, the recommendation to close Lankenau is one of those things that doesn’t make sense when you look at the full picture,” Khan said. “Right now, it’s a recommendation. Early on, it’s important just to say: This is the wrong decision. I will elevate my voice throughout this process, and I’m not alone.”
Monique Braxton, a district spokesperson, said the Lankenau recommendation “reflects the district’s commitment to reinvesting in neighborhood high schools as community anchors — a guiding theme of the Facilities Master Plan that received overwhelming support in the recent community survey. This approach expands access to high-quality academic programming and resources across neighborhoods, creating greater opportunity for more students and supporting stronger academic outcomes and postsecondary readiness.”
Firing on all cylinders
Lankenau, Khan said, is “firing on all cylinders. The school has so many opportunities for students, so many connections. To take this school out of its environment will break a lot of those connections, will break the cohesiveness.”
The school lacks a gym. But its students play flag football, hike in the woods, and practice archery. It has a 100% graduation rate, officials say, educating a student body that is primarily Black and brown, with 25% of students requiring special education services.
Jessica McAtamney, Lankenau’s principal for the last five years, stressed that the school is “doing urban agriculture in a very unique campus setting that is anchored in the space. Agriculture is Pennsylvania’s No. 1 industry. Lankenau is preparing kids to do that. This campus is what allows us to do that.”
Roxborough High School, by contrast, is in a dense, residential area. Its building, which can hold almost 2,000 students, is about three-quarters empty.
Like many in the Lankenau community, Erica Stefanovich — who teaches the only Intro to Geographic Information Systems high school course in the city, she believes — was blindsided by word that the school was earmarked for closure.
“They can say that our building condition is an issue, but how is our building a problem when we have air-conditioning, zero asbestos, and they put a brand-new roof on our school two years ago?” Stefanovich said.
In 2006, the district actually made plans to expand the Lankenau building, going so far as to contract with an architectural firm to make a model. But those plans went by the wayside as the school system hit rocky financial waters in the early 2010s.
No slight against Roxborough, Stefanovich said. It does have a park close by, but “we can’t do mussel experiments in that park. We can’t do our internships that our students love. How do we have beehives when there isn’t enough pollinator space around Roxborough High School to have beehives? Our seniors are out of the building 40% of the time; they are off doing things. If we move, we don’t have that.”
District changes yielded fewer incoming students
Lankenau used to educate more students.
Before the district changed its school selection process, in 2021, instituting a centralized lottery in the name of equity, the school had bigger incoming classes. It’s a magnet, meaning students have to have certain grades and test scores to qualify, but in the past, administrators had some leeway to let in students who were close to qualifying if they werea good fit.
And though district officials said changes to the admissions procedure were necessary to ensure that schools’ demographics mirrored the city’s, Lankenau did not have a diversity problem prior to the changes.
Lankenau had 106 ninth graders in 2020-21, before the lottery. It dipped to just 28 freshmen in 2023-24, but after a number of parents and administrators raised concerns about the process, some course corrections were made.
Its numbers are now rising again. Seventy-eight ninth graders entered this school year, and 107 students listed Lankenau as their top choice for the 2026-27 freshman class.
Even if the proposed school-closing changes go through, Wyntir Alford, a Lankenau 11th grader from West Oak Lane, will be able to graduate from the school as-is — the change is not planned to take effect until the 2027-28 school year.
But her family was clear: If the closing were happening next year, Alford would have had to transfer.
“My mom told me her first thought was, ‘There’s no way she’s going to Roxborough.’ She said, ‘The reason we put you in Lankenau is because of all the opportunities and all the nature around.’ I’m not surrounded by any nature at home. So to be able to go to a school like this is a big deal.”
A student tests a water sample in a Lankenau High school science class in this 2023 file photo.
Juniper Sok Sarom, a current Lankenau ninth grader, is not sure whether she will transfer to Roxborough if the school board approves the closure recommendation. But she knows she’s happy at a school that gives her plenty of hands-on experience.
“Our campus — it’s a special learning environment, which you wouldn’t get at any other school, not even Central or Palumbo or SLA,” Sarom said, referring to Science Leadership Academy.
She and others are gearing up to fight the changes, they said.
Charde Earley, a Lankenau paraprofessional, dealt with her own sadness the day students found out about the proposed closure, working through tears. And then she marveled at how students pivoted to problem-solving, resolving to write letters and speak at meetings.
“My motto is, respectfully, ‘Hell, no, we won’t go,’” Earley said. “We’re secluded and we’re safe. You never know what hardship our kids are going through. Imagine what this is doing to our kids.”
“Given the conditions of the roads and the issues that the mayor and others have talked about, and out of an abundance of caution,” district offices will remain closed Tuesday, and after-school programs and athletics are also closed, Watlington said.
The superintendent prioritizes in-person learning, he said, but Tuesday “and any subsequent inclement weather days will be remote learning days.”
Virtual instruction, closures and delays beyond Philly
Districts around the region were starting to make similar calls.
Haddon Heights, in South Jersey, had already called a two-hour delay.
The Cheltenham School District is also going virtual.
“After consulting with my team, many roads remain unpassable and are likely to refreeze after dusk, making bussing on Tuesday too risky,” Superintendent Brian Scriven told families in a message Monday afternoon.
Schools have increasingly been turning to online instruction during winter storms, though some districts use a different calculus on when to go virtual. New Jersey schools do not allow for virtual instruction.
Scriven said Cheltenham administrators were “hopeful schools will return to normal operations as soon as possible,” and would communicate any additional schedule changes before Wednesday.
Upper Darby schools also announced virtual instruction.
“Unfortunately, we are going to need another day to continue to remove snow and ice,” Superintendent Dan McGarry told families Monday afternoon.
Officials with the Centennial School District in Bucks County also said they would have virtual instruction, telling community members in a message that “conditions remain challenging, and our facilities personnel are hard at work clearing lots and entryways.” Central Bucks also called a remote learning day.
The Colonial School District, meanwhile, announced a second traditional snow day Tuesday.
“More work needs to be completed on our secondary roads to make it safe for our students to travel on Wednesday,” Superintendent Michael Christian said in a message to families. In the event of more inclement weather, Christian said, the district would have virtual instruction.
Camden schools will also be closed on Tuesday. So will Cherry Hill, Winslow, Woodbury, and Washington Township, among others.
Letitia Grant was gobsmacked when she learned her daughter’s school was slated for closure.
“That can’t happen,” she said.
Penn Treaty High School, where Grant’s daughter is in the eighth grade, is one of 20 schools proposed for closure as part of a massive reshaping of the Philadelphia School District announced Thursday.
The plan — which Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said he would present in full to the school board on Feb. 26 — would affect every neighborhood in the city. In addition to closing 20 schools, it proposes colocating six others, and making changes, including renovations and grade restructuring, at an unspecified number of schools.
But Grant is focused on what it means for her daughter, who loves her teachers, her counselor, and the friends she has made at the Fishtown school.
Grant was looking forward to seeing her daughter cross a stage to collect her diploma at Penn Treaty’s 2030 high school graduation, she said. She is not sure what will come next.
School officials stand by outside for afternoon dismissal at Penn Treaty Middle School, 600 East Thompson Street, in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
Penn Treaty, which now has just 345 students in grades six through 12 in a building that can accommodate 1,200, would cease to exist under the plan, and Bodine High, a district magnet in Northern Liberties, would move to the Penn Treaty building and add a middle school.
After dismissal Thursday, the day families learned of the closure, Grant’s daughter and her friend stopped their biology teacher to chat. The teacher is her daughter’s favorite, Grant said.
Grant fears the changes will meanthe district will be “piling too many kids per classroom.”
The facilities plan will touch every neighborhood in the city for years to come, with ripples for students, teachers, and families. Here are some of their stories.
At Waring, parents worry — and prepare to sound off
As parents dropped their children off Friday morning at the Laura Wheeler Waring School in Spring Garden, faces were grim.
“We’re pissed off because it’s a great school,” said Isheen Bernard, whose son attended Waring and whose daughter is a third grader there now. Waring was identified for closure; under the plan, Masterman middle school students would eventually take over the building, with Waring students sent to Bache-Martin.
Isheen Bernard, 48, poses for a portrait after dropping his child off at Laura Wheeler Waring Public School in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. Under a new school district plan, Laura Wheeler Waring Public School would be closing in the 2027-2028 school year.
Nysheera Roberts graduated from Waring herself, and so did her mother. Now, she has children there, and her nieces and nephews also attend.
Shutting the school down would be hurtful and heartbreaking, Roberts said. Waring has just under 200 students in a building that can house 437.
“It’s a piece of our history,” she said.
Taking her daughter to Bache-Martin would be a major inconvenience for her, her children, and other neighborhood families, Roberts said. Now, she can easily drop her baby off at a nearby daycare before popping over to Waring with her children, then heading off to work. But Bache-Martin is too far for younger children to walk to from the family’s home — a problem because Roberts does not always have access to a car.
“They shouldn’t be taking our school away from these children,” she said.
Nysheera Roberts, 35, poses for a portrait after dropping her children off at Laura Wheeler Waring Public School in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. Under a new school district plan, Laura Wheeler Waring Public School would be closing in the 2027-2028 school year.
Every Waring parent she has spoken to is upset, Roberts said. She knows the district plans to allow public comment on its plan, and thinks affected families won’t hold back.
“They’re gonna have a lot of parents speaking,” Roberts said. “And I’m gonna be one of them.”
Many schools Mack attended as a child have been closed, so he was not completely surprised that Morris was identified for closure. But he worries about the effect the closing will have on the younger children at the school, who are just settling into the rhythms and routines of Morris.
“You’re telling kids who are already not used to school to go to a new environment and just kind of pick up where they might have left off,” he said. “That’s not conducive to a positive learning environment.”
Exterior of Robert Morris Elementary School on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Philadelphia.
His older children, who are in fourth through eighth grade, have not always had an easy time — often, the teacher they had in the fall left before the spring, and they had to cope with many new teachers or substitutes.
“The kids know they’ll be here longer than their teacher in many cases,” Mack said. “Teachers just pass through, and a lot of kids think that way.”
When Mack was growing up, teachers knew his parents, and they often grew up in the same community as he did, attended the same church. He understands those connections may not still be possible, but said the generational relationships schools used to build produce results.
“Schools have a lot of behavioral issues that I feel as though permanent teachers who have that longevity, of knowing your mom and having been friends with your auntie, add credibility and respect to a teacher’s voice,” Mack said.
Moving more students into existing schools will tax those schools, he said. Will they be overcrowded? Can they guarantee equal or better learning outcomes?
“I think it falls on the school district to pour more resources into teaching staff, because teachers are going to have to wrangle 30 kids in a classroom,” Mack said. “One effort I’d like to see is for the district to identify and vet teachers who want to teach in Philadelphia, in the same schools, for their career.”
Not on the closing list, but big changes are still coming to Moffet
Moffet Elementary shows up nowhere on the school closing list.
But parents at Moffet, in Kensington, learned that massive changes are planned for their school, too. Moffet families were told that children in grades K-4 will be shifted to Hackett Elementary. Moffet, now a K-5, will become a 5-8 school. Hackett is now a K-5; it will become a K-4 with a larger catchment.
“Parents are very upset,” said Katy Hoffman-Williamson, mother of a first grader and president of Moffet’s Family School Organization. “Our WhatsApp thread is blowing up.”
Moffet, she said, is “this really special gem of a school in our neighborhood. There’s only two classes per grade, the Family School Organization is super involved, and all the teachers go above and beyond what they’re supposed to do. It’s an incredibly diverse school, a really special place.”
Technically, Hoffman-Williamson’s catchment school is Ludlow, which was tagged for closure. She chose Moffet carefully and doesn’t love the idea of sending her son to a larger school, or having him transition to a new school in third grade, when he will have to start taking state tests.
“If I didn’t find a school like this, I would have moved, and there’s so many families that are like mine,” Hoffman-Williamson said. “Some families might find the transition to middle school easier, but for the most part, we’re really upset.”
Some academics are alarmed
Julie McWilliams, an anthropologist of education and codirector of the University of Pennsylvania’s urban studies program, studied past city school closings for her forthcoming book Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia.
McWilliams, who is also a Philadelphia School District parent — her children attend Fanny Jackson Coppin in South Philadelphia — said she was not shocked by the number of school closures, based on history and the district’s messaging this time around.
But she was “horrified” by some of the choices the district made, including closing William T. Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia. The 5-8 school previously took in students from two schools in Southwest Philly that the district previously closed. And she hopes that the school board listens to the people these decisions will galvanize.
“I’m hoping that this is just a starting point to really tease out which choices here are big mistakes and actually were just thoughtless choices,” McWilliams said. “North Philadelphia got crushed in closings last time. Southwest got crushed. I know that’s where the empty seats are, but they’re going to be creating deserts in neighborhoods that have already suffered.”
Akira Drake Rodriguez, a Penn assistant professor who, with McWilliams, is part of the Stand Up for Philly Schools coalition organizing against closures, was also alarmed by the Tilden closing in particular.
“That whole neighborhood of Southwest Philly is charter schools,” Rodriguez said. “Do you really think they’re going to stay in traditional public schools when you close Tilden?”
She predicted enrollments at some schools marked for closure would plummet as parents face uncertainty around their future.
“The district hasn’t really given people a ton of confidence around managing large-scale modernization efforts,” Rodriguez said.
Edwin Mayorga, a SUPS member, an Academy at Palumbo parent, and an associate professor of educational studies at Swarthmore College, said any school closure is troubling.
“It’s about asking ourselves, ‘What are the conditions that have produced a school that has declining enrollments, or toxic conditions in the facility?’ and trying to start from there,” he said.
Students are going home from school Friday with charged computers, but Watlington, speaking at a city emergency services news conference, said he wanted students to focus on having fun.
“We’re inviting students and staff to enjoy this snowfall, which will be the most I’ve seen during my nearly four years here in Philadelphia,” the superintendent said. “Sledding is appropriate. Snow angels are appropriate, and [Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel] gave us permission to have one or two safe and fun snowball fights.”
If conditions require more days out of school buildings, “every subsequent day will be a remote learning day,” Watlington said.
Philadelphia Achdiocesan high schools and parochial elementary schools also will have a virtual day Monday.
Suburban schools prep
Philadelphia isn’t the only district that has already announced plans or warned that closures were likely.
In Upper Darby, school officials told families Thursday night to prepare for the prospect of virtual instruction on Monday, and possibly Tuesday.
“If the weather is more significant than anticipated, and there are power outages in the area, we will shift to a snow day,” with no virtual school, Superintendent Daniel McGarry said in the message.
In the Cheltenham School District, Superintendent Brian Scriven told families that “if weather conditions require us to close schools and offices,” the district will have a traditional snow day Monday. Tuesday is to be determined — and Wednesday could be virtual instruction, “if conditions are significant enough,” Scriven said.
Colonial School District Superintendent Michael Christian told parents Friday that “if the accumulation is as high as some meteorologists are projecting, we would call for a traditional snow day on Monday and quite possibly Tuesday as well.” And Wednesday could be a virtual instruction day, Christian said.
Meanwhile, the Council Rock School District said that “if school buildings must close on Monday,” students would have virtual instruction.
Of the district’s 307 buildings, most schools — 159 in total — would be modernized under the proposed plan. The district pointed to Frankford High, which closed for two years because of asbestos issues and just reopened in the fall with $30 million worth of work to spruce it up, as an example of modernization.
An additional 122 schools would fall into a “maintain” category, meaning they would receive regular upkeep. And six facilities would be co-located, meaning two separate schools would be housed under one roof, each with its own principal and team.
Finally, 20 schools would be recommended for closure. Among them is Penn Treaty, now a 6-12 school, which would close in its current form, but go on to house the current Bodine High School, a magnet in Northern Liberties. Bodine’s building would become the home of Constitution High, which now occupies a rented space in Center City.
As proposed, Watlington’s plan would cost $2.8 billion over 10 years. The district would put up $1 billion via capital borrowing during that time — leaving $1.8 billion unaccounted for that the superintendent said would need to be covered by state money or philanthropic support. If the district doesn’t get all or some of that amount, the plan would have to be amended.
Will some schools definitely close? Which ones?
Right now, the closures are just a proposal, and the school board is slated to have the final say at a vote this winter. They could adopt all, some, or none of Watlington’s recommendations.
If the closures are approved, no school would be shuttered before the 2027-28 school year. And should some schools close, no job losses are expected, Watlington said.
Of the 20 facilities targeted for closure, 12 would be repurposed for district use. Eight would be given to the city for affordable workforce housing, or job creation, both priorities of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
We don’t have the full list of proposed modernizations yet, so it’s tough to say the proposed fate of every school.
What will happen to students who attend closing schools?
Every affected student would be routed to a new school. A new transition office would work closely with impacted communities to make sure academics, attendance, and social-emotional needs don’t suffer, Watlington said.
“These families will get gold-standard, red-carpet treatment directly from the superintendent’s office,” he pledged.
Why are these changes necessary?
The district hasn’t had a facilities master plan in more than a decade. It has 70,000 empty seats citywide, with some schools overcrowded and others with entire unused floors. It’s also got a lot of aging buildings — the average district school is nearly 75 years old — and many have environmental and/or significant systems issues.
Officials said they want to solve district-wide disparities: Some schools have art, music, and ample space for physical education, plus extracurricular activities, and some have few of those things.
How were school buildings’ fates determined?
Watlington said there was no formula to determine his recommendations. But four factors entered into the decision: building condition, utilization, the school’s ability to offer robust programming, and neighborhood vulnerability — a new measure that considers things like poverty and whether the area has lived through prior school closings.
The district formally launched the final phase of its facilities master planning process in late 2024. Since then, officials have hosted 47 community conversations and received 13,700 survey responses from people in every zip code in the city. Officials heard from a project team of 30 members and received feedback from nine advisory groups composed of more than 170 members.
The district later launched surveys to gain more input, with the topline result being that Philadelphians didn’t want their local schools closed. Many respondents outlined fears about potential hardships that closing schools could create, such as longer walks to school or tough bus rides in unfamiliar or unsafe areas.
And they flagged worries about merging schools and having large grade spans in a single building.
When did the district last close schools?
Mass school closures last happened in 2012 and 2013, when 30 schools shut.
That process hit economically disadvantaged neighborhoods disproportionately, did not yield substantial savings, and generally led to worse academic outcomes and attendance for students.
The mistakes of 2012 informed this go-round, officials said. They have promised better services for schools, students and families affected by any coming transitions.
The school system would see sweeping changes: 20 school closures, six co-locations, more than 150 modernization projects and one brand-new building.
All parts of the city would be affected under the blueprint, which will be formally presented to the school board Feb. 26 and is not final.
The $2.8 billion project is necessary, officials said, because of 70,000 extra seats across the district, poor building conditions in many schools, and disparities in program offerings.
Here’s a breakdown of Watlington’s plan:
If you are reading this story and cannot see the charts, click here.
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Wholesale changes are coming to the Philadelphia School District, with Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. poised to propose a massive reshaping of the system, including closing 20 schools.
The plan, years in the making, would touch the majority of the district’s buildings and bring change to every part of the city: over a decade, 159 would be modernized, six colocated inside existing schoolbuildings, 12 closed for district use, and eight closed and given to the city.
At least one new building would be constructed.
The 20 closures, which would not begin to take effect until the 2027-28 school year, would be scattered through most of Philadelphia, with North and West Philadelphia hardest hit.
Watlington released some details of the blueprint Thursday — including the list of proposed school closures—and acknowledged that the changes will roil some communities.
Watlington is scheduled to present his proposal to the school board next month, with a board vote on the plan expected this winter.
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Philadelphia, the nation’s eighth-largest school system, now has 216 schools in 307 buildings, the oldest of which was constructed in 1889. It has 70,000 empty seats citywide, though some of its schools, especially those in the Northeast, are overcrowded.
But, Watlington said, “this is not just about old buildings.” Philadelphia’s academics are improving, and faster than most big-city districts, but most of its students still fail to meet state standards — just 21% hit state goals for math, and 35% for English.
“We must find ways to more efficiently use all of our resources so that we can push higher-quality academic and extracurricular programming and activities into all of our schools across all the neighborhoods of Philadelphia, while at the same time addressing under- and overenrolled schools,” the superintendent said.
If the school board adopts Watlington’s plan as proposed, the number of empty space in school buildings would decrease, with district schools going from a 66% utilization rate to 75%. The changes would also allow for the district to offer more students prekindergarten, algebra in eighth grade, and career and technical education and Advanced Placement courses, officials said.
“Part of the problem here is there’s so much disparity in the School District of Philadelphia,” said Watlington, who suggested the plan will improve equity.
Every building judged in “poor” or “unsatisfactory” condition — there are now 85 citywide — would either close or be upgraded within a decade, though the information released Thursday did not include details on upgrade plans.
There are no guarantees, however. The plan comes with a $2.8 billion price tag — only $1 billion of which the district will cover with its capital funds. The rest of the money is dependent on state and philanthropic support, neither of which is a given.
If the extra funding does not come through, Watlington said, fewer schools in disrepair could be modernized, or the district would have to make other revisions to the plan.
Officials said a backup plan would take longer to complete — 16 years, instead of a decade. The $1 billion version would not allow the school system to upgrade all schools currently rated unsatisfactory or poor. Instead, it would have 45 buildings in the those categories in 2041.
A possible closure list
Watlington indicated he wants to close these schools: Blankenburg, Fitler, Ludlow, Robert Morris, Overbrook Elementary, Pennypacker, Waring, and Welsh elementary schools; Conwell, AMY Northwest, Harding, Stetson, Tilden, and Wagner middle schools; and Lankenau Motivation, Parkway Northwest, Parkway West, Penn Treaty, and Robeson high schools. (Some of those schools, like Lankenau and Robeson, would become programs inside other schools — Roxborough High would use Lankenau, and Sayre would useRobeson. Others would close outright, with students assigned elsewhere.)
And he named six schools that would move into other school buildings while maintaining their individual structure and identity: Martha Washington, Building 21, the Workshop School, the U School, a new Academy at Palumbo Middle School, and a new K-8 year-round school.
Students at the affected schools will all move into schools with similar or better academic outcomes or building conditions, or schools that are better by both measures, Watlington said. Transition resources will be available for schools, students, and families from closing schools and for schools that take in new students.
The changes will also affect far more students than those in the 20 schools being shut down or in those sharing locations; closures mean the district would eventually need to redraw at least some school catchment boundaries, which dictate the neighborhood school each child attends.
Watlington said he did not anticipate job losses as a result of the closures.
School officials stand by outside for afternoon dismissal at Penn Treaty Middle School, 600 East Thompson Street, in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
Fewer transitions, more standard grade configurations
Officials said they arrived at the blueprint after analyzing data and gathering feedback across the city — in meetings and surveys, and based on wisdom from advisory panels and a planning team. (Some advisory panel members said they had real concerns about the process, felt they got too little information, and saidtheir input was not seriously considered. Some had called for a pause in the process and a plan with no closings.)
Parents, staff, and community members identified four main themes that informed the recommendations, Watlington said: strengthening K-8 schools, reinvesting in neighborhood high schools, reducing school transitions for students, and expanding access to grades 5-12 criteria-based high schools.
The plan dramatically shrinks the number of grade spans in the district.
Currently, there are 13 different kinds of school configurations. Going forward, there be just six grade bands: K-4, K-8, K-12, 5-8, 5-12, and 9-12. (Six schools will be exceptions, however.)
Philadelphia is leaning into a “strong K-8 model,” Watlington said. He recommended closing six middle schools, with some elementary schools adding grades to accommodate.
From left to right, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington, senior adviser Claire Landau, and chief of communications and customer service Alexandra Coppadge speak to reporters on Tuesday about their proposed master plan for Philadelphia schools.
It is also turning some high schools that now house four grades into middle-high schools, with 5-12 spans. South Philadelphia High will get investments to its career and technical education space and add fifth through eighth grades, for instance. A new Palumbo Middle School will open, colocated with Childs Elementary in Point Breeze; its students will get preference for admission to the Academy at Palumbo, a South Philly magnet.
Investments in the Northeast, and elsewhere
The single from-scratch construction announced will be in the Lower Northeast — a new Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, a popular magnet now in the Far Northeast. That new building, which will house students in fifth through 12th grades, would rise on the site of the old Fels High School in Oxford Circle.
A new neighborhood high school will open in the current Rush Arts building, if the plan is approved.
The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, shown in this 2022 file photo, will move to a new building constructed in the lower Northeast under the facilities master plan now under consideration. A new catchment high school would open in the Rush Arts building.
Comly, Forrest, and Carnell — all Northeast schools — would be modernized and get additional grades to relieve overcrowding.
Masterman, one of the city’s top magnets, has long been overcrowded — its middle school would move to Waring, in Spring Garden, one of the closing schools.
“It’s really important to note this is not a plan to just funnel resources into the Northeast part of Philadelphia, where the population is increasing faster or in a different way than other parts of the city,” Watlington said. “This is not just build out, invest in some areas, divest in others.”
Learning from past mistakes
Watlington said he knows the plan will be difficult for some to swallow, and does not achieve every aim.
But, he said, “we are not going to make good the enemy of perfect.”
Still, Watlington and others vowed this closure process — the first large-scale closures in more than a decade — would not repeat the mistakes of 2012 and 2013, when 30 schools were shut to save money.
A new transition team will focus on what students and schools need, from social and emotional supports to safety and academic help.
School board president Reginald Streater and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. are shown in this 2025 file photo.
“These families will get gold-standard, red-carpet treatment directly from the superintendent’s office,” Watlington said.
The superintendent said he will urge the board to “strongly consider” his recommendations.
“We have one shot to get this right,” Watlington said. “We believe this is as good a plan as we can bring to the board, and so we’re going to recommend strongly that the board adopt these recommendations.”
School board president Reginald Streater said the facilities planning process was “critical” to bettering student outcomes.
Watlington, Streater said in a release, has led “meaningful community engagement with families, educators, and community members across our city. The board looks forward to receiving the full set of recommendations and carefully considering them as we work together to ensure all of our school facilities and student rostering practices best support access to high-quality educational experiences and opportunities for all students.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker gave good marks to the plan.
“It is ambitious, it’s thorough, and it’s grounded in what I believe matters most, and that’s achieving the best outcomes for our students,” Parker told reporters. “I’m proud that the district has taken what I would describe as a clear-eyed look at really what matters for our children.”
‘It feels like a family member is dying’
Outrage mounted for some Thursday as district officials began notifying affected communities and groups.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Sharee S. Himmons, a veteran paraprofessional at Fitler Academics Plus, a K-8 in Germantown. “It feels like a family member is dying.”
Himmons is enrolled in the district’s Pathways to Teaching program, taking college courses to earn her degree and teacher certification. She was sitting in her math class at La Salle University when she found out Fitler was slated for closure. She began crying. She failed a test she was taking because her concentration was shot, she said.
Fitler Academics Plus Elementary School in Germantown is among the 20 schools that would close under the proposed plan.
“This school is such a staple in the neighborhood,” she said. Fitler is a citywide admissions school, but draws many students from the area. Himmons’ own sons attended Fitler, and she wanted to teach there after her college graduation.
“This isn’t over,” she said. “We’re going to fight — hard.”
Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said he is waiting to see more granular details of the plan, including the list of schools that will be upgraded and what fixes are promised, and hopes for information about how much weight was given to every factor that went into the decisions.
But, Steinberg said, “it is devastating for any community to lose their school — the parents, the kids, and the staff.”
As for the process that led the district to this moment, Steinberg said it was abundantly clear even to advisory panel members that their viewpoints were just points of information for Watlington’s administration, that no promises about heeding any advice were made.
Either way, the closure of 20 schools and more changes that will have ripples across the city for years to come all lead back to one factor, he said.
“Without the chronic underfunding of the district,” Steinberg said, “we wouldn’t have gotten to this point.”
Robin Cooper, president of the union that represents district principals, said the announcement was destabilizing, even though officials had warned closings were coming.
“It’s a loss of history, a loss for Philadelphia,” Cooper said. “Schools are a family, and some families are breaking up.”
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
The Philadelphia School District is poised to announce soon which of its aging buildings it will fix up and which it might close, or consolidate, or reimagine in the coming years.
But teachers and parents at one South Philadelphia elementary school say they cannot wait for help and have appealed to Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, and others.
“Southwark School is desperately in need of changes,” a letter signed by 300 people and sent to Watlington and Parker on Friday read. “Our children are learning in an unhealthy environment that no child should have to experience.”
In many ways, Southwark, a K-8 facility constructed in 1905, is a thriving school — it has strong academics, a diverse student body of about 900, a dual language immersion program, and a robust complement of activities. Southwark is a community school, with city-paid resources including free before- and after-school care.
Mayor Cherelle Parker and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. visit a classroom at Southwark Elementary to discuss the city’s extended day extended year programming in this 2024 file photo.
But it also has issues including bathrooms that “break down nearly every day,” the letter said. “The plumbing has gotten so bad that sewage comes dripping down from the ceiling into classrooms.”
The letter outlined other issues including a rampant bug and rodent problem, a stairwell covered in graffiti and trash, dank hallways, a lack of adequate ventilation, and more.
“Our children tell us that classrooms feel like prisons because the windows can’t be opened fully and they have opaque coverings,” the letter read.
Nyera Parks, a Southwark second-grade teacher, said she doesn’t think the community is asking for too much.
“These conditions are affecting the children’s health, their focus, their sense of safety,” Parks said. “It’s the bare minimum — we’re asking for a clean and safe school.”
Responding to teacher and parent concerns, district chief operating officer Teresa Fleming said in a letter sent Monday the school system “has already taken concrete action to address conditions at Southwark while continuing to plan for sustained improvement.”
Fixes Fleming cited include “mass”trapping, plaster and plumbing work, and adjustments to the cleaning staff.
Some staff have reported “visible improvement in cleanliness and operational response,” Fleming wrote in the letter to State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D., Philadelphia). “At the same time, we recognize that some of Southwark’s challenges are rooted in aging infrastructure and require longer-term planning. My team is developing an actionable plan that includes feasibility reviews of plumbing systems, HVAC needs, and cafeteria kitchen capacity, with attention to major shared spaces, including the gymnasium, cafeteria, and auditorium.”
Southwark, according to data released by the district this summer, is in “poor” building condition. It is also operating at 104% of its building capacity.
Fleming said the school “will likely receive facility enhancements” through the forthcoming facilities master planning process.
‘It shouldn’t have to be like this’
The first thing Jennifer O’Shaughnessy, a teacher and part of the morning care staff, does when she gets to Southwark early is pick up trash. Then, when she gets to the cafeteria, where kids will eat breakfast, she grabs wipes to clear the mouse droppings that have accumulated overnight.
At least once a week, O’Shaughnessy said, “the kids are eating breakfast and we see a mouse come out, and then they’re standing up, screaming. We tell them it’s going to be OK, but it shouldn’t have to be like this.”
O’Shaughnessy has worked at Southwark for 15 years and is now the upper school coordinator, teaching writing and a elective and supporting other educators. She loves the school so much she sends her own daughter to Southwark.
But it troubles her that because of the old heating system, the school’s classrooms are either freezing or so hot students sometimes get nosebleeds.
“I’ve had teachers take their kids into the hallway because it’s too hot in their classrooms,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It’s 80, 90 degrees in there, and you can’t think. And when the heat is not on, it’s freezing and you have students with winter jackets on.”
City demographics and Southwark’s burgeoning popularity have brought new life to the school, but have also strained the building.
Bathrooms are a particular issue. The restrooms that get the most use are in the basement, near the cafeteria. But those bathrooms are frequently closed because of plumbing issues and other problems.
Last month, a student told O’Shaughnessy they couldn’t use the bathroom because no toilets were working. There had been no news of a closure, so O’Shaughnessy went in to investigate.
“Every toilet was running over,” she said. “I went in there and almost lost my lunch. They had taped off half the stalls because flood water was running over. The other toilets were clogged.”
O’Shaughnessy had the bathroom shut down, leaving a common problem — there are a few other bathrooms, but not enough to accommodate the large student population’s needs.
‘It’s still a mess’
Appealing to the superintendent and mayor was not the teachers’ and parents’ first move. They worked within the system, staff said, putting in countless work orders and making more direct appeals to district officials.
Southwark recently got a permanent building engineer — that has helped some, said Justin Guida, the school’s STEM teacher, but the problems can never be rectified by one employee.
“We get a little Band-Aid here and there, it looks like they helped, but it’s still a mess,” said Guida, who lives in the neighborhood and has worked at Southwark for 10 years. “When the kids complain because of the bathrooms or the food or the bugs or mice, it breaks my heart. The kids say, ‘I love Southwark, but it’s dirty.’”
Southwark teachers say that school material often get ruined by rodents.
“We’re growing plants as a science experiment, and the plants get destroyed because they’re getting eaten by the mice,” Guida said.
Guida knows the district has billions in unmet facilities needs, but the changes Southwark needs are not all costly, he said.
“Can the windows get uncovered so we can see out them and have natural light come in? Can we clean the fire towers that our kids have to walk through?” he asked.
Parks, the second-grade teacher, is frustrated by air filters that do not get changed, especially given the high rates of asthma among Southwark children.
In 2023, Southwark was temporarily closed because of damaged asbestos, with the school split between South Philadelphia High and Childs Elementary. The damaged asbestos was removed, but Parks and others worry about the asbestos that remains in the building.
Parks attended Southwark as a child and is dismayed that her second graders may not be having the same experience she had as a student. She never had sewage leaking from bathrooms into her classroom, or had lessons interrupted by a mouse scurrying across the floor.
“I remember feeling safe there,” she said. “Some of the things that I’m seeing in the building now are not how I saw and experienced it when I was there. How are they able to learn and feel comfortable in these types of conditions?”
Parks and others who signed the letter to Watlington and Parker have asked for fixes including repainting hallways, ensuring every classroom has a working lock, and guaranteeing that stairways and outdoor areas will be regularly cleaned, that every room has air-conditioning and regular air filter changes, and that there are specific plans for long-term bathroom repairs.
Fiedler said that she appreciated Fleming’s response, but that Southwark’s conditions generally “are a major concern.”
“We know that there’s many years of deferred maintenance in the School District of Philadelphia and across the commonwealth,” Fiedler said. “I think this is a really good, really sad, and scary example of a place where more needs to be invested.”
