Philadelphia’s top lawmaker said he’s willing to hold up city funding to the Philadelphia School District over concerns about the recently released closure and consolidation plan, a warning that signals City Council intends to leverage its biggest bargaining chip as members fight to keep schools in their neighborhoods open.
City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said in an interview Friday that multiple members oppose proposed closures in their districts, and some want more robust investments in schools slated for consolidation in exchange for their support.
Johnson’s primary concern, he said, is “making sure that the issues and concerns that we would like to see addressed with the facilities plan are reflected in the final recommendations.”
Asked if he’d be willing to hold up the city’s contribution to the school district if their concerns are not met, Johnson said: “If need be.”
Schools Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has proposed sweeping changes to schools across the city, including closing 20 schools, ordering six others to share buildings, and modernizing 159 buildings. His plan is subject to approval by the school board, which will likely vote sometime this winter.
Oz Hill (left), Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. (center), and Claire Landau at a news conference to announce plans for the first draft of the Philadelphia facilities master plan during a news conference at the Philadelphia School District Headquarters in Philadelphia on Jan. 20.
Johnson’s public insistence that Council members exercise veto power over parts of the district’s long-awaited facilities master plan is notable, and it raises the stakes ahead of a Feb. 17 hearing, during which every Council member will have the opportunity to question district officials about the proposal.
The Council president — a Democrat who is typically even-keeled and does not often speak publicly about legislative strategies — wields significant control over the fate of the city budget, which members must pass by the end of June. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will unveil her proposed budget in March.
Local revenue and city funding made up about 40% of the district’s budget this year, or nearly $2 billion. Most of that is the district’s share of city property taxes which, unlike other school systems in Pennsylvania, are levied by the city and then distributed to the district.
In addition, the city makes a separate, direct contribution to the district, which this year was nearly $285 million.
Johnson’s opposition to elements of the plan could also position lawmakers somewhat at odds with Parker and Watlington. The pair have operated in lockstep since Watlington last month unveiled his proposal.
The plan did not appear to go over well in Council, with several members expressing immediate concerns. The day the plan was released publicly, Johnson endorsed another member’s legislation to amend the city’s governing document and grant Council power to remove members of the school board at will.
Councilmember Cindy Bass at City Council’s first session of the year on Jan. 23, 2025, in City Hall.
Some Council members said they plan to fight proposed closures and advocate for more investment in struggling schools.
Speaking at a meeting at Lankenau High School in Upper Roxborough last week, Councilmember Cindy Bass pushed back against the notion of closing Lankenau, a well-regarded magnet outside of her district, and other strong schools, including Fitler Academics Plus and Parkway Northwest in her district.
“When budget time comes up, I’ll be asking about these decisions that the school district is making,” Bass, a Democrat who represents parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia, told an emotional crowd of more than 100. “We don’t support them and we don’t understand them. They have not been rationalized.”
At Conwell Middle School in Kensington, Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat who represents the neighborhood, said she was “having a really hard time understanding how the decisions were made.”
Closing Conwell, a magnet school whose enrollment has fallen to just over 100 because of parent concerns over neighborhood safety, was particularly galling, Lozada said.
“We are saying to these families, ‘We are punishing them because, as a city, we can’t respond to the public safety issues that we have on the outside,’” Lozada said. “And that is just not fair.”
Johnson said he wanted to see a clear safety plan for students being asked to travel to schools in new neighborhoods.
He also floated rebuilding consolidated schools as “all-in-one” campuses that are co-located with parks, recreation centers, and other city services.
“It would be in the best interest of the school district and the school board to think outside the box in terms of how they move forward, besides just saying, ‘We’re going to be closing down schools,’” Johnson said. “And those are conversations that we’re having right now.”
A large new apartment proposal for 4889 Umbria St. in Roxborough has been altered to appease some neighbor concerns, with more brick incorporated into the facade and design tweaks to ease congestion.
The developers, Philadelphia-based Genesis Properties and Newtown Square-based GMH Communities, also reduced the number of apartments from 384 to 369.
But the actual number of bedrooms increased from 481 to 486, as they shifted to larger, family-size apartments.
“I love the increase of twos and threes [bedrooms] and the availability to families, which I don’t find very common as a developer,” said Maria Sourbeer, vice president at Mosaic Development Partners and a member of the city’s Civic Design Review committee. “The money’s in the studios and ones.”
The design team explained that the developers felt this corner of Northwest Philadelphia would have strong demand for larger units.
Last November, the project’s initial consideration at the Civic Design Review committee saw pushback to its fortress-like design.
Philadelphia-based Oombra Architects sought to soften elements of the project, increasing plantings and street tree coverage.
More brick has been added as a building material, in a bid to echo the older industrial buildings on the project’s southwestern edge.
A bird’s eye rendering of the new development on Umbria Street in Roxborough.
The 123-space bike parking facility has been moved from the third to the first floor.
The developers also relocated the parking garage entrance from busy Parker Avenue to Smick Street, which had not previously been publicly accessible. The project includes 380 spaces.
“[We] want to commend you in taking the process seriously,” said Ximena Valle, an architect who chairs the CDR committee. “We recognize that you could have come here with no changes made. … Overall, there’s a big win here.”
The Civic Design Review process makes recommendations but cannot force developers to accede to its critiques. The last time the Philadelphia City Planning Commission studied its efficacy in 2019, it found that only a third of projects adopted CDR recommendations.
A rendering of the Lemonte Street side of the project, the largest new apartment building in Roxborough in years.
Although the project offers nearly one parking space for every apartment — far more than they are legally required — the local community group still held concerns about the amount of parking included in the project as the bedroom count rose.
Otherwise, they largely embraced the changes.
“There are going to be more cars on the street. I don’t think there’s any question about that,” said Marlene G. Schleifer of the Ridge Park Civic Association. “But we were pleased with the work that the developer has done to comfort us a little bit and make it easier to swallow.”
In the early 2010s, school closures were presented as unavoidable and data-driven. Families were promised efficiency and reinvestment. What many communities experienced instead was lasting harm that never fully healed. That history matters now as the Philadelphia School District advances a new Facilities Master Plan that again relies on closures as a primary tool.
The district argues that consolidating magnet programs into neighborhood high schools will expand access and strengthen those schools as community anchors. That logic assumes program quality can be preserved through reorganization alone. Experience suggests otherwise.
A mission-driven school culture depends on sustained focus and institutional priority. Once reduced to a single track, that culture becomes fragile. Through Lankenau, students are participating in an Environmental Rights Amendment curriculum led by the Pennsylvania Bipartisan Climate Initiative, one rooted in civic engagement as much as environmental literacy. That depth of engagement would be hard to replicate in other schools without a dedicated institutional focus on this work.
Environmental education is especially vulnerable to this kind of dilution. Partnerships with universities and community organizations take years to build. Internship pipelines depend on consistent coordination. Hands-on programs require both space and continuity. When these elements are separated, the whole weakens.
The Board of Education has recommended closing or merging as many as 20 schools, including Lankenau in Roxborough.
Equity concerns also deserve closer attention. Lankenau serves students from across North and Northwest Philadelphia who rely on district-provided transportation. For many families, this school represents access to a learning environment aligned with their interests and ambitions. Closing it narrows those options rather than expanding them.
The Facilities Master Plan emphasizes data analysis, community engagement, and fiscal responsibility. Those factors matter. But they do not capture everything. Some schools provide value that cannot be reduced to enrollment figures or building utilization rates. When a public school consistently prepares students to engage with one of the defining challenges of this century, dismantling it should not be taken lightly.
Climate literacy is not optional. It shapes workforce readiness and civic decision-making. Philadelphia should be strengthening pathways that cultivate this knowledge early and deeply. Offering environmental science only as an honors option signals a retreat from that responsibility.
This proposal is not final. The Board of Education still has time to reconsider. Protecting schools like Lankenau would not undermine the broader goals of modernization or equity. It would reinforce them and affirm that preparing young people for a changing world requires more than consolidation.
Ashlei Tracy is a nonprofit leader with a background in environmental policy and biology. Her work centers around increasing civic engagement, policy literacy, and care for our shared planet.
Meeting for the first time since Superintendent Tony B. Watlington presented his sweeping facilities plan, Philadelphia’s school board heard an outpouring of angst Thursday night from community members upset over 20 proposed school closures.
“Closing schools ruins families and neighborhoods, especially Black, brown, immigrant and working-class communities,” said Caren Bennicoff, a veteran teacher at Ludlow Elementary in North Philadelphia, one of the schools targeted for closure. “A facilities dashboard can’t measure what a school means to children.”
Watlington said the plan represented a “once in a lifetime, significant opportunity” for the city to modernize schools.
Prior to the meeting, more than 50 people gathered in the bitter cold outside Philadelphia School District headquarters, waving signs and shouting into bullhorns to show their displeasure with Watlington’s proposal.
Emily Brouder, 23, of West Philadelphia, Penn student and intern at Lankenau High School, holds a sign that says “Closing Schools Is Trash.”
Some of the demonstrators warned that removing children from their neighborhood schools would be traumatizing to already vulnerable kids.
“These schools are another home for these families,” said Margarita Davis-Boyer, president of the Lankenau High School Home & School Association. She said schools are a place where kids can get a meal, see a friendly face, and feel safe, especially when home may not offer the same reprieve.
“It’s just an injustice,” she said. Lankenau, the city’s environmental magnet school, would close under the plan, becoming an honors program inside Roxborough High School.
A strong Lankenau contingent packed both the rally and the board meeting, which happened immediately afterward.
LeeShaun Lucas, a Lankenau senior, is upset the school might close.
“To me, closing Lankenau doesn’t make sense,” Lucas said.
Lankenau’s campus is unique in the city — set against a wildlife preserve and a farm, a stream, and a forest.
Lucas has studied how to make the Schuylkill healthier by studying mussels, he said. He’s taking a dual enrollment GIS class — the only such high school in the city to offer such an opportunity, school officials believe.
That exposure has shaped Lucas, he said.
“I truly believe that voting to close Lankenau Environmental would be a mistake,” Lucas said. “Please vote to save Lank so that others may benefit from the type of learning that is only possible at Lankenau Environmental.”
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington (center), Board President Reginald L. Streater, and Board member Sarah-Ashley Andrews at the School board meeting Jan. 29.
Disparate impact
Ryan Pfleger, an education researcher, said if underutilization and facility condition truly shaped Watlington’s recommendation, the burden of closure would fall roughly evenly across racial groups.
But that’s not the case with Watlington’s plan.
“Black students are overrepresented, roughly 1.6 times more likely to be enrolled in schools slated for closure,” Pfleger said. “Fifteen of 20 schools proposed for closure are majority Black. White students are underrepresented, about four times less exposed than expected. The schools slated for closure are also disproportionately low income.”
Pfleger’s conclusions match an Inquirer analysis of the closure data.
The plan, Pfleger concluded, “does not rectify educational injustice.”
Conwell shows up
A strong contingent of Conwell supporters also told the board they were unhappy with the plan to close their school, a magnet middle school in Kensington.
Conwell has just over 100 students in a building that can hold 500. But Erica Green, the school’s principal, said it’s worth saving.
“Conwell for many years has been the cornerstone in the Kensington community, a place where students flourish, where leaders are born; alumni included leaders in government, education, law, media, public safety, and professional sports: Living proof that diamonds truly are in our backyard,” Green said. “Times have changed, but excellence at Conwell has remained the same.”
Conwell is celebrating its 100th anniversary and has been the recipient of public and private donations to advance its building conditions and program offerings.
“Do not let the almighty dollar drive a choice to remove a beautifully designated historic school and beautifully gifted young people,” an impassioned Green said. “The essence, prestige and impact of Conwell Magnet Middle School cannot be duplicated.”
Priscilla Rodriguez, whose two sons attended Conwell, worries about the implications for families that rely on it for stability.
“When a school closes, families don’t just adjust. They struggle,” Rodriguez said. Conwell families “are already dealing with a lot. You won’t make it any better by closing Conwell.”
An incomplete plan?
Katy Egan came to the board with a long list of questions, none of which were addressed in Watlington’s plan: Which schools will be modernized? When? How? How will displaced students get to their new schools? What’s happening to students with special education plans forced to leave their schools? How do you plan to keep kids safe while merging schools?
Egan, a member of Stand Up for Philly Schools, called the blueprint “a 25% plan.”
But, she said, “we deserve more than 25%, and our students deserve everything.”
Community members can weigh in on the plan in the coming weeks at meetings around the city, and Watlington is scheduled to formally present it to the board on Feb. 26.
No vote will happen in February though, said board president Reginald Streater, who declined to weigh in on the merits of the plan until it’s handed over to the board.
In other board news
In other board matters, Watlington said he would soon ask to eliminate half days from the district’s calendar entirely.
The news came as he detailed a slip in year-over-year student attendance: in December, 54% of students attended school 90% of the time, compared to 66% in December 2024. That’s the largest drop in Watlington’s superintendency, he said.
He attributed the challenges to a two-hour delay for snow, light attendance prior to winter break — and light attendance during a half day called for professional development.
Watlington said at next month’s board meeting, he’ll propose amending the 2026-27 schedule to remove half days entirely.
“Half days in the calendar do not serve us well,” he said.
The board also installed three new student board representatives.
The non-voting members are: Brianni Carter, from the Philadelphia High School for Girls; Ramisha Karim, from Northeast High; and Semira Reyes, from the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.
An Inquirer analysis of the decisions and the data behind them shows the proposed closures would disproportionately affect Black students. And despite efforts to minimize the impact, schools in the most vulnerable sections of Philadelphia would also be disrupted.
The closures would mostly address buildings with hundreds of unused seats, though some largely empty buildings were spared. And eight of the closures would affect schools given the district’s worst building condition rating — though 30 more buildings in that category would stay open and receive upgrades of some kind.
Monique Braxton, district spokesperson, said the facilities plan was “designed to provide access to high-quality academic and extracurricular programs across every neighborhood regardless of zip code.”
Most affected students — 90% — would be reassigned to schools with similar or better academic outcomes, and all would be reassigned to schools with either similar or better academics or comparable or better building conditions. Receiving schools will get additional supports, Braxton said.
Overall, the proposal would shake up at least 75 schools, with 20 closing entirely, four leaving their current buildings to colocate within other schools’ buildings, and three moving to new buildings. It would create new schools and, in one case, result in a new building. Nearly50 other district schools would take in displaced students from the closing schools, with some adding grades and others modernizing to fit new programming needs.
Collectively, about 32,000 district students learn in the 75 affectedschools — more than a quarter of the district’s total enrollment — not counting children in pre-K programs.
And those are just the changes Watlington introduced this month. Other shifts, some of them major, district officials said, are expected to be announced by the time he presentsthe planto the school board next month. A final vote is planned for later this winter.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington (center) speaks about his proposal this month for the Philadelphia school facilities master plan.
The racial impact
The 20 schools that could close have twice as many empty seats as the district’s other schools. But The Inquirer’s analysis found that the closures will hit Black students disproportionately.
Among the closing schools, about 68% of the student population is Black, compared with 40% for the rest of the district’s schools — not including disciplinary or other specialized schools.
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Of the district’s schools where at least 90% of the students are Black, more than half are scheduled to close or take in more students from the closures.
Overall, amajority of students in the 75 schools that could close, take in students, or change in some way are Black, at about 54% of enrollment.
Some majority-Black schools, however, are earmarked for upgrades. Bartram High would get a modern athletics facility after nearby Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia is closed and upgraded for that purpose.
Nysheera Roberts is the parent of multiple children who attend Waring Elementary, in Spring Garden, which landed on the closure list. Waring now educates under 200 students; its pupils would be sent to Bache-Martin.
Roberts is stunned that her school — which educates mostly Black students like her kids — could close.
She worries about the logistics of getting her kids to school safely further away, then getting to her job in home care in Frankford on time. She worries what will happen to her children, including the niece and nephew she now raises who have lived through significant trauma and have behavioral and learning needs, if they have to adjust to a new and larger school.
“It’s not fair,” Roberts said. “They’re hurting Black kids more.”
Paying attention to vulnerable neighborhoods
In deciding which schools to close or expand, the district considered the vulnerability of the surrounding neighborhood.
Two dozen neighborhood elementary schools were labeled “very high risk,” meaning they have likely dealt with a previous school closure, or the community is otherwise vulnerable to high poverty, housing concerns, or other factors.
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Welsh, in North Philadelphia, was the only school building in a neighborhood labeled “very high risk” to land on the closing list.
Bethune in North Philadelphia and Martha Washington in West Philadelphia will colocate with other schools.
But three schools with building conditions considered unsatisfactory, poor programming options, and “very high risk” neighborhood ratings were left off the closure list. Those schools are Philadelphia Military Academy in North Philadelphia, Sheppard in West Kensington — which has successfully fought off closure in the past — and Francis Scott Key in South Philadelphia, the district’s oldest building, constructed in 1889. Sheppard and Francis Scott Key are both majority-Hispanic schools.
Sheppard Elementary School in West Kensington has faced the threat of closure in the past but was spared in the latest proposal.
The district plan calls for closing five schools in neighborhoods it deemed to have a “high risk” of vulnerability, the level below “very high”: Blankenburg, Harding, Stetson, Tilden, and Wagner.
Watlington has made it clear that the district is phasing out middle schools when possible, in favor of the K-8 model — and of that list, four are middle schools. Only Blankenburg, in West Philadelphia, is an elementary. Also, of those schools in vulnerable neighborhoods, four of the five are rated as having “unsatisfactory” buildings, the district found.
Perhaps no section of the city faces as much disruption from the recommendations as the lower part of North Philadelphia.
Fourteen schools with a combined enrollment of 5,400 students could be affected, including the closures of Ludlow, Morris, Penn Treaty, and Waring.
“If you are closing schools during a literacy crisis, then you should be held directly accountable to the people you serve,” Young said last week.
Right sizing mostly empty buildings
Underused space was a factor in the district’s decision-making, an Inquirer analysis found.
Data released by the district last year identified about 60 schools that were more than half empty. The recommendations attempt to realign some of these schools by taking significant action on 31 of the 60 half-empty schools.
Of the 20 schools the district wants to close, 14 are currently at less than half capacity.
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AMY Northwest, Conwell, Robert Morris, Motivation, Tilden, and Welsh are all recommended for closure, with each educating fewer than a quarter of the students they have room for.
Overbrook High in West Philadelphia — a 100-year-old school with roughly one in four seats filled — would remain open but begin sharing space with the Workshop School, a small, project-based high school located nearby.
Overbrook has received millions in funding from the state for remediation and a new roof. It also has a strong alumni association.
Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia has thousands of empty seats but was not tapped for closure. Instead, The Workshop School, a small, project-based high school now located in another West Philadelphia building, will colocate with Overbrook.
Having a more robust enrollment, however, did not save some schools from landing on the closure list. Harding, Parkway Northwest, Pennypacker, Robeson, and Stetson operate at 50% to 74% of capacity but would still close.
Besides shutting down underused schools, the plan would alter an additional 17 half-empty schools by moving them into colocations, adding grades, or otherwise expanding their use by taking in students from the closing schools.
To make it work, the district’s recommendations often involve a series of logistical steps. A pair of North Philadelphia neighborhood schools built in the 1960s are one example.
Hartranft, a K-8 school in North Philadelphia with a building rated in “good” condition but only 37% occupied, would take in students from Welsh, a school marked for closure. Welsh teaches the same grades but in a building rated “poor” about a half a mile away. The district would then convert the Welsh building into a new year-round high school.
John Welsh Elementary school is on the list of 20 schools proposed to close by the 2027-28 school year.
Getting students out of (some) fatigued buildings
By one city estimate, district schools need about $8 billion in repair costs for 300-plus buildings that are about 75 years old on average. Watlington’s plan calculates the district could do it for $2.8 billion.
Even with some investments over the last decade, many schools still have asbestos, lead, or mold issues. And many schools that don’t have bad building quality ratings still need improvements.
Eight schools recommended for closure are in buildings rated “unsatisfactory” by the district, its lowest score.
An additional 30 schools also rated “unsatisfactory” would remain open under the plan, including some expected to see an increase of students.
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Watlington wants the district to pay for $1 billion of the plan’s price tag with its own capital funds over the next decade. That would leave $1.8 billion unfunded, and he wants the state and philanthropic funders to cover the rest.
If the full $2.8 billion plan is funded, Watlington said, the district could improve every building labeled “poor” or “unsatisfactory.”
To achieve this, some buildings could get the same kind of treatment Frankford High received — a $30 million major renovation project to remedy significant asbestos damage. Students had to relocate into an annex and another building for two years while the work was done.
The district plan calls for some of the buildings in the worst shape to receive more students. Bache-Martin, Catharine, Howe, John Marshall, and Middle Years Alternative are in buildings that need significant upgrades, according to the district’s analysis, but all would take on more pupils.
In the case of Howe, the district wants to add grades to keep students who would have attended Wagner, a middle school that is proposed to close.
The district has said Bache-Martin would receive upgrades if the plan is adopted. For other schools, neither the timeline nor the fixes they would receive are clear.
The recommendations so far only mention a handful of schools set to modernize.
Among them is Comly, a K-5 in the Somerton neighborhood.
Comly now has 660 students enrolled, putting it at 107% of its capacity. But the district recommends modernizing the school and accepting middle grades students from the Comly and Loesche catchments. Students who now attend Loesche, another K-5, go to Baldi Middle School, which is also overcrowded.
Watson T. Comly Elementary School in Somerton. It’s slated to be modernized and accept more grade levels under the district’s proposed plan.
What appears to set schools like Bache-Martin apart from some of the closures is higher occupancy. Together, about two dozen schools that are more than half occupied would remain open, even though the buildings are “unsatisfactory.”
Schools on this list — like Barton Elementary, which runs at about 80% of its capacity — are harder to shutter or colocate if no nearby school has low attendance. That makes building upgrades a more logical solution.
But those two dozen schools are not the only ones in need of significant building upgrades.
An additional 45 schools currently operate in buildings rated slightly better at “poor,” the category just above “unsatisfactory.” The district recommends closing seven of them and colocating two.
And beyond that large number of fatigued schools, many others in poorly rated buildings will remain unchanged for now, with about 10 even taking in more students.
Watlington has said that in total, 159 schools would modernize over a decade if the plan is approved and fully funded, but absent extra state and private money, that number could drop.
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.”
Joseph R. Syrnick, 79, of Philadelphia, retired chief engineer and surveyor for the Philadelphia Streets Department, president and chief executive officer of the Schuylkill River Development Corp., vice chair of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, former adjunct professor, college baseball star at Drexel University, mentor, and “the ultimate girl dad,” died Saturday, Jan. 17, of cancer at his home in Roxborough.
Reared on Dupont Street in Manayunk and a Roxborough resident for five decades, Mr. Syrnick joined the Streets Department in 1971 after college and spent 34 years, until his retirement in 2005, supervising hundreds of development projects in the city. He became the city’s chief engineer and surveyor in 1986 and oversaw the reconstruction of the Schuylkill Expressway and West River Drive (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) in the 1980s, and the addition of new streetlights and trees on South Broad Street and the upgrade of six city golf courses in the 1990s.
He was an optimist and master negotiator, colleagues said, and he worked well with people and the system. “You have concepts that seem simple,” he told The Inquirer in 1998. “But when you commit them to writing, they raise all kinds of other questions.”
In 2000, as Republicans gathered in Philadelphia for their national convention, Mr. Syrnick juggled transit improvements on Chestnut Street and problems with the flags on JFK Boulevard. He also helped lower speed limits in Fairmount Park and added pedestrian safety features on Kelly Drive.
He beautified Penrose Avenue and built a bikeway in Schuylkill River Park. He even moderated impassioned negotiations about where the Rocky statue should be placed.
Since 2005, as head of the Schuylkill River Development Corp., he deftly partnered with public and private agencies, institutions, and corporations, and oversaw multimillion-dollar projects that built the celebrated Schuylkill River Trail, renovated a dozen bridges, and generally improved the lower eight-mile stretch of the Schuylkill, from the Fairmount Dam to the Delaware River, known as Schuylkill Banks.
In an online tribute, colleagues at the Schuylkill River Development Corp. praised his “perseverance and commitment to revitalizing the tidal Schuylkill.” They noted his “legacy of ingenuity, optimism, and service.” They said: “Joe was more than an extraordinary leader. He was a great Philadelphian.”
Dennis Markatos-Soriano, executive director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, said on Facebook: “He exuded confidence, humility, and unwavering commitment.”
Mr. Syrnick reviews plans to extend a riverside trail in 2009.
Mr. Syrnick was a constant presence on riverside trails, other hikers said. He organized regattas and movie nights, hosted riverboat and kayak tours, cleaned up after floods, and repurposed unused piers into prime fishing platforms.
“Great cities have great rivers,” Mr. Syrnick told The Inquirer in 2005. “Here in Philadelphia, we have Schuylkill Banks.”
He was a Fairmount Park commissioner for 18 years, was named to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission in 2008, and served as vice chair. He lectured about the Schuylkill often and taught engineering classes and led advisory panels at Drexel. In 2015, he testified before the state Senate in support of a waterfront development tax credit.
Friends called him “a visionary,” “a true hero,” and “a Philly jewel.” One friend said: “He should be honored by a street naming or something.”
Mr. Syrnick (fourth from left) and his family pose near a riverboat.
Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, said on Facebook: “He left his native Philadelphia a much better place.”
Mr. Syrnick was president of the Philadelphia Board of Surveyors and active with the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia, and other organizations. At Drexel, he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1969 and a master’s degree in 1971.
In 2024, Drexel officials awarded him an honorary doctorate for “his visionary leadership in engaging diverse civic partners to revive the promise of a waterfront jewel in Philadelphia.”
He played second base on the Roman Catholic High School baseball team. He was captain of the 1968 Drexel team and later played against other local standouts in the old Pen-Del semipro league.
Mr. Syrnick (center in white shirt) had all kinds of way to publicize fun on the Schuylkill. This photo appeared in The Inquirer in 2007.
Most of all, everyone said, Mr. Syrnick liked building sandcastles on the beach and hosting tea parties with his young daughters and, later, his grandchildren. He grew up with three brothers. Of living with three daughters, his wife, Mary Beth, said: “It was a shock.”
His daughter Megan said: “It was a learning experience. Whether it was sports or tea parties, he became the ultimate girl dad.”
Joseph Richard Syrnick was born Dec. 19, 1946, in Philadelphia. He spent many summer days riding bikes with pals on Dupont Street and playing pickup games at the North Light Community Center.
He knew Mary Beth Stenn from the neighborhood, and their first date came when she was 14 and he was 15. They married in 1970, moved up the hill from Manayunk to Roxborough, and had daughters Genevieve, Amy, and Megan.
Mr. Syrnick received his honorary doctorate from Drexel in 2024.
Mr. Syrnick enjoyed baseball, football, and golf. He was active at St. Mary of the Assumption and Holy Family Churches, and he and his wife traveled together across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
“He was humble,” his daughter Megan said. “He was quiet in leadership. He always said: ‘It’s the team.’”
In addition to his wife and daughters, Mr. Syrnick is survived by seven grandchildren, his brother Blaise, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, at Koller Funeral Home, 6835 Ridge Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19128, and 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at Holy Family Church, 234 Hermitage St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19127. A Mass celebrating his life is to follow at 11 a.m.
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.
As our nation marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we return to the teachings of a leader who understood that justice demands more than good intentions. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said,“I think of love as something strong, and that organizes itself into powerful, direct action.”
Today, when hatred and division feel increasingly emboldened, that call to organize love is not just inspiring. It is instructive.
In recent years, many have embraced what is often called “allyship.” Too often, however, it stops there. Statements replace substance. Solidarity appears online, but disappears when issues become uncomfortable or complex.
Even the language of allyship is revealing. An ally is, by definition, part of a temporary alliance, formed for a specific battle and dissolved when circumstances change. That framework was never meant to sustain lasting relationships.
If we want to change culture, not just react to crises, we must move beyond allyship to something deeper and more enduring: genuine friendship.
Friendship lasts beyond the news cycle. It holds through disagreement and discomfort. It requires showing up not only when harm is visible, but when the spotlight is gone. It is the only foundation strong enough to support a multiracial, multifaith movement capable of confronting hatred in all its forms.
That belief is why we founded the New Golden Age Coalition: to revive and strengthen the historic connection between Black and Jewish communities in Greater Philadelphia. That connection is rooted in shared experiences, from collaboration during the civil rights movement to everyday moments of partnership in neighborhoods, houses of worship, and civic life.
History does more than inspire us; it reminds us of what is possible when communities refuse to stand apart.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. displays pictures of three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964.
But history alone is not enough. Partnership cannot survive on nostalgia. It must be renewed through action, guided by the kind of love King described: love that acts, love that protects, love that builds.
Today’s world can feel overwhelmingly dark. Antisemitism is surging. Anti-Black racism remains deeply entrenched. In a moment like this, our response must be grounded in love strong enough to confront hatred, and courageous enough to be expressed publicly, consistently, and collaboratively.
The New Golden Age Coalition organizes that love through three core pillars:
Rebuilding the bridge to beat bigotry
We are cultivating genuine relationships between Black and Jewish Philadelphians — relationships that allow us to confront antisemitism, racism, and all forms of hate.
Enhancing security and violence prevention
Our communities face growing threats from extremism, gun violence, and systemic neglect. We are working together to create safer neighborhoods and protect our most vulnerable.
Amplifying the social safety net in Greater Philadelphia
We recognize that poverty, hunger, and instability weaken families and fuel despair. Our coalition is committed to supporting and expanding the institutions that give people hope, dignity, and opportunity.
On this MLK Day, we choose not to offer feel-good slogans. Instead, we recommit ourselves to the labor of love that King demanded: strong, organized, and directed toward justice.
This means spending time in one another’s neighborhoods, houses of worship, schools, and community spaces. It requires listening before reacting, staying present when conversations are difficult, and approaching one another with love and compassion. It also means standing up for one another’s causes — not because they are convenient or popular, but because injustice anywhere threatens the dignity of us all.
This MLK Day, we invite Philadelphians to move closer rather than retreat — to share meals, attend one another’s gatherings, stand together in moments of joy and pain, and build relationships that last beyond crisis. This is love in action. Together, it is how we build a new golden age.
Philadelphia deserves nothing less.
Jason Holtzman is the chief of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Pastor Carl Day is the founder of Culture Changing Christians. Together, they are cofounders of the New Golden Age Coalition.
When Cherelle L. Parker was a City Council member, she championed a strict residency rule that required city employees to live in Philadelphia for at least a year before being hired.
Amid protest movements for criminal justice reform in 2020, Parker said stricter residency requirements would diversify a police force that has long been whiter than the makeup of the city, and ensure that officers contribute to the tax base.
“It makes good common sense and good economic sense for the police policing Philadelphia to be Philadelphians,” she said then.
But today, under now-Mayor Parker, more police live outside Philadelphia than ever before.
About one-third of the police department’s 6,363 full-time staffers live elsewhere. That share — more than 2,000 employees — has roughly doubled since 2017, the last time The Inquirer conducted a similar analysis.
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Today, the percentage of nonresidents is even higher among the top brass: Nearly half of all captains, lieutenants, and inspectors live outside the city, according to a review of the most recent available city payroll data.
Even Commissioner Kevin Bethel keeps a home in Montgomery County, despite officially residing in a smaller Northwest Philadelphia house that he owns with his daughter.
Most municipal employees are still required to live within city limits. Across the city’s 28,000-strong workforce, nearly 3,200 full-time employees listed home addresses elsewhere as of last fall. Most of them — more than 2,500 — are members of the police or fire departments, whose unions secured relaxed residency rules for their workers in contract negotiations. About a quarter of the fire department now lives outside the city.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel speak before the start of a news conference.
Proponents of residency rules in City Hall have long argued they improve rapport between law enforcement and the communities they serve, because officers who have a stake in the city may engage in more respectful policing.
But experts who study public safety say there is little evidence that residency requirements improve policing or trust. Some say the rules can backfire, resulting in lesser quality recruits because the department must hire from a smaller applicant pool.
A survey of 800 municipalities last year found that residency requirements only modestly improved diversity and had no measurable effect on police performance or crime rates.
“It’s a simple solution thrown at a complex problem,” said Fritz Umbach, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It doesn’t have the impact people think it will.”
Parker, a Philadelphia native who lives in the East Mount Airy neighborhood, says she would still prefer all municipal employees live in the city.
“When I grew up in Philadelphia, it was a badge of honor to have police officers and firefighters and paramedics who were from our neighborhood,” she said in a statement. “They were part of the fabric of our community. I don’t apologize for wanting that to be the standard for our city.”
‘Where they lay their heads at night’
What qualifies as “residency” can be a little pliable.
Along with his wife, Bethel purchased a 3,600-square-foot home in Montgomery County in 2017 for over a half-million dollars. Although he initially satisfied the residency rule by leasing a downtown apartment after being named commissioner by Parker in late 2023, he would not have met the pre-residency requirement the mayor championed for other city employees while she was on Council.
Today, voter registration and payroll data shows that Bethel resides in a modest, 1,800-square-foot rowhouse in Northwest Philadelphia, which he purchased with his daughter last year. While police sources said it was common for Bethel to sleep in the city given his long work hours, his wife is still listed as a voter in Montgomery County.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel speaks during the 22nd District community meeting at the Honickman Learning Center on Dec. 2, 2025.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement that Bethel is a full-time resident of Philadelphia, and that while he owns a property outside the city, his “main residence” is the home in Northwest Philly.
Although sources say it was not unheard of for rank-and-file officers to use leased apartments to satisfy the requirement on paper, Gripp said “only a small number” of residency violations had required formal disciplinary action following an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Division.
That likely owes to officers’ increasing ability to reside elsewhere legally. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, which represents thousands of active and retired Philadelphia Police officers, won a contract provision in 2009 allowing officers to live outside the city after serving on the force for at least five years.
The union didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Few of the cops who left the city went very far.
While Northeast Philly and Roxborough remain the choice neighborhoods for city police, the top destinations for recent transplants were three zip codes covering Southampton, and Bensalem and Warminster Townships, according to city payroll data.
A few officers went much farther than the collar counties.
Robert McDonnell Jr., a police officer in West Philadelphia’s 19th district with 33 years on the force, has an official address at a home in rural Osceola Mills, Pa., about 45 minutes north of Altoona in Centre County.
A person who answered a phone number associated with McDonnell — who earned $124,000 last year between his salary, overtime, and bonus pay — declined to speak to a reporter.
Asked about the seven-hour round-trip commute McDonnell’s nominal residence could entail, Gripp said the department doesn’t regulate the manner in which employees travel to and from work.
“Our members serve this city with dedication every day,” he said, “regardless of where they lay their heads at night.”
A long and winding history
Versions of residency rules can be found as far back as the 19th century, when police recruits were required to live in the districts they sought to work in.
But when Mayor Joseph S. Clark pushed to reform the city charter in the 1950s, he sought to abolish the rules as an impediment to hiring, saying “there should be no tariff on brains or ability.”
Instead, City Council successfully fought to expand the restrictions. And, for more than five decades, the city required most of its potential employees to have lived in Philadelphia for a year — or obtain special waivers that, in practice, were reserved for the most highly specialized city jobs, like medical staff.
Many other big cities enacted similar measures either to curb middle-class flight following World War II or to prioritize the hiring of local residents. But the restrictions were frequently blamed for causing chronic staff shortages of certain hard-to-fill city jobs.
Officers Azieme Lindsey (from left), Charles T. Jackson, and Dalisa M. Carter taking their oaths in 2023.
Citing a police recruit shortage in 2008, former Mayor Michael A. Nutter successfully stripped out the prehiring residency requirement for cadets. Recruits were required only to move into the city once they joined the force.
A year later, the police union attempted to have the residency requirement struck from its contract entirely.
Nutter’s administration objected. But an arbitration panel approved a compromise policy to allow officers to live elsewhere in Pennsylvania after five years on the job. By 2016, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies secured similar concessions.
But experts say there’s little research showing that to be true.
“I am unsure if requiring officers to reside in the city is a requirement supported by evidence,” said Anjelica Hendricks, an assistant law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who worked for the city’s Police Advisory Commission. “Especially if that rule requires a city to sacrifice something else during contract negotiations.”
FOP leaders have long opposed the rule and said it was partly to blame for the department’s unprecedented recruitment crisis and a yearslong short-staffing problem that peaked in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, facing nearly 1,500 unfilled police jobs, former Mayor Jim Kenney loosened the prehire residency rule for the police department again, allowing the force to take on cadets who lived outside the city, so long as they moved into Philadelphia within a year-and-a-half of being hired.
Since then, recruiting has rebounded somewhat, which police officials attribute to a variety of tactics, including both the eased residency rules and hiring bonuses. The force is still short 20% of its budgeted staffing and operating with 1,200 fewer officers than it did 10 years ago.
Umbach, the John Jay professor, said the impact on recruiting is obvious: Requiring officers to live in a city where the cost of living may be higher than elsewhere amounts to a pay cut, which shrinks candidate pools.
“Whenever you lower the standards or lower the appeal of the job, you’re going to end up with people who cause you problems down the road,” he said. “A pay cut is just that.”
