Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and the Philadelphia School District have proposed 18 school closures, six colocations, and a vague, insufficiently transparent plan to reconfigure grade levels across numerous other schools, citing the need for “more efficient use of all of our resources” to deliver high-quality academic and extracurricular programming districtwide.
The Inquirer Editorial Board has endorsed the plan, pending adjustments to several sites, including Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School.
The district is right to pursue a comprehensive facilities plan that addresses toxic building conditions, overcrowding, and underutilization. But it is going about it the wrong way. Facilities planning should be an annual, longitudinal process grounded in sustained community engagement, not a punctuated moment of 24 mass closures that disrupt neighborhoods and sidestep the thoughtful incorporation of public input that only time and intention can provide.
Mistakes of 2013
Without such care, the district will repeat the mistakes of the 2013 closures, which led to students disappearing from school rolls in September, overcrowded receiving schools, and the racialized erasure of neighborhood histories and place-based educational traditions.
First, significant questions remain about implementation and transparency. Ten properties are slated to be “conveyed” to the city, reportedly tied to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s H.O.M.E. plan. Amid speculation about a 20-year tax abatement connected to redevelopment, it is unclear what mechanisms will ensure the benefits of these transfers accrue to the communities that have borne the brunt of closure, rather than to private developers. A two-decade tax abatement would symbolically and materially reinscribe the racialized disinvestment, neglect, and manufactured crisis that have too often paved the way for school closures in the first place.
Second, the data used to inform the closures have been called into question by many, and do not take into account the nuance of mixing school populations via colocation. For example, parents at Childs Elementary have cited the district’s plan to colocate a new Academy at Palumbo based on a building capacity of 1,000. However, a significant portion of the building’s classrooms is dedicated to special-education students. A colocation would displace SPED students from these classrooms while reinforcing a bifurcated culture among the catchment-based middle school students and Palumbo students in an already rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Point Breeze.
Third, closure and conveyance to the city for resale do not guarantee public-serving outcomes. With my collaborators — Ariel Bierbaum, Amy Bach, and Elaine Simon — I have studied how thoughtful reuse, rooted in restoring community access and public control, can begin to repair the racially inequitable legacy of past closures.
Yet, private redevelopment has repeatedly failed to stabilize these properties. Selling off public assets does not guarantee revitalization; it often perpetuates stagnation or displacement. Developers frequently “flip” former school buildings, speculating on value rather than advancing community use.
After it closed in 2013, Germantown High School fell into decay and disrepair, a fate Julia McWilliams writes could be repeated.
Take the former Germantown High School and Robert Fulton Elementary, for example. Concordia Group bought them in 2014, only to abandon its plans and resell the buildings three years later to local developer Jack Azran, whose opaque redevelopment has sparked concern.
Moreover, once schools are sold to private entities, they are effectively lost to some communities and public education forever. South Philadelphia’s experience is a cautionary tale. As nearby elementary schools became overcrowded following the 2013 closures, the former Edward W. Bok Technical High School, once a public citywide admissions school, was transformed into a workspace for small-business owners, artists, and nonprofit organizations, closing classrooms forever.
This reuse no longer serves the same community of students and families as when it was a high school, and raises important questions: What does it mean for a community’s future when former schools become symbols of gentrification rather than centers of education? And what options remain when demographic shifts create new demand for neighborhood schools that no longer exist?
Had Bok remained in public hands, it could have flexibly adapted to those needs. Instead, it serves a much different population: South Philadelphia working artists, small-business owners, and local refugee-serving nonprofits, but also patrons who can afford $14 cocktails.
Slow down
Rather than defaulting to closure, the Board of Education should consider how underenrolled buildings might be repurposed for public-serving uses that retain community control. Could redevelopment proceed gradually, with clear commitments that investments in existing buildings benefit both local families and those who have chosen these schools?
Such an approach would require genuine public engagement and sustained dialogue. It would require slowing down and rejecting a disruptive, thinly deliberated plan shaped by speculative capital and instead committing to participatory, long-term facilities planning.
The district and the city face a choice. They can repeat a cycle of disinvestment and dispossession, or they can chart a more deliberative, community-rooted path. The question is whether they have the will to do so.
Julia McWilliams is the codirector of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of Stand Up for Philly Schools. She coauthored the forthcoming book, “Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia,” from the University of Chicago Press.
Half days are disappearing in the Philadelphia School District.
Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, the district won’t have a single early dismissal — for teacher planning, report card conferences, or any other purpose.
Student attendance tumbles whenever Philadelphia has a half day, and parents scramble to plan for childcare when they happen, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said.
At the superintendent’s request, the board amended the 2026-27 calendar, changing eight previously scheduled half days to zero.
Some days previously scheduled for professional development will now be full days off for students, and report card conferences — previously held over two half days — will now be scheduled on a single day off for students.
“When we have half days in the school district, it significantly impacts our student attendance,” Watlington told the board. “We now have clear data over 3½ years that when we have half days for professional development and the like, it lowers our overall student attendance.“
Watlington has emphasized student attendance as a key driver of academic improvement, and overall, Philadelphia’s student and teacher attendance has risen during his tenure, which began in 2022.
But half days were responsible for the largest single year-over-year drop in attendance in recent years. In December 2025, 54% of district students attended school 90% of the time or more, down from 66% over the same time period in 2024.
In January 2026, regular student attendance was 51%, down from 53% in January 2025, a dip Watlington said was “largely attributed to disruptions in the calendar.”
Controlling for half days, regular student attendance would have been 70% last month — proof, Watlington said, that half days need to disappear.
“This is very important,” the superintendent said, “because we know if we can get student regular attendance up, kids just learn more when they’re in school more.”
Half days planned for March, April, and May this school year will remain on the calendar, but the half day planned for students’ last day of the school year, June 11, is now a full day.
Robert Morris School in North Philadelphia has been lauded for improving test scores, and it isthe last elementary school in its immediate neighborhood.
But the school district says not enough neighborhood children want to attend.
At a community meeting last week, district officials said the school’s“severely underutilized” capacity was the driving factor behind their recommendation to close Morris after the next school year.
But community members have questioned why low enrollment alone was enough reason to cut the school — and have voiced concern that the district is closing a school with a majority-Black student population while keeping open a nearby elementary school that has more white students.
“We want the option for our children to be able to walk a block or two or three and get to their school. And it’s not clear to us the reason why that isn’t a possibility,” said Cierra Freeman, co-lead of culture and strategy for the Brewerytown-Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition.
Morris students would be reassigned to Bache-Martin School or William D. Kelley School for fall 2027 under the plan.
The district plans to repurpose the building at 2600 W. Thompson St., which it has categorized as being in “fair” condition, into a hub for its Office of Diverse Learners. Currently, the office operates within district headquarters and has an evaluation center near Central High School.
District officialsalso said theywant to keep the building so it could be reopened as a school in the future should enrollment interest rise.
Robert Morris Elementary School in Brewerytown.
‘Punished for being so small’
Morris was honored by the district last year at its Accelerate Philly awards for major improvements in test scores across reading and math. Its third-grade class jumped from 7% proficiency in reading and 14% in math to 48% and 59%, respectively. The district has said it did not consider schools’ academic performance in its facilities plan.
“It seems like Robert Morris is being punished for being so small,” Paul Brown, a school psychologist at Roxborough High School a Youth and Education co-lead for the Brewerytown Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition and a member of Stand Up for Philly Schools, said at the community meeting.
Neighbors said the district has not done nearly enough to retain and attract families to Morris, a “neighborhood gem,” according to Siobahn Neitzel, a local resident and youth and education action team co-lead for Brewerytown-Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition.
“The challenges that the district talks about with regards to Morris … really come from a continued lack of investment on the district’s part,” she said.
If there must be change at Robert Morris, some speakers urged the district to consider colocating the Office of Diverse Learners with the school instead of closing it. District officials said that option would be considered —but it was not reflected in a revised plan Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. presented Thursday that spared two schools originally slated for closure. Morris is still on the closure list, but the school board could make changes before votingon the plan in the coming weeks.
A changing area
Brewerytown and adjacent Sharswood are neighborhoods in flux. The area is experiencing rapid gentrification, with new developments and property values shooting up in recent years, including the $750 million Philadelphia Housing Authority project to clear and redevelop the Norman Blumberg Apartments towers.
In the last round of mass closures in 2013, the district shuttered Meade Elementary School, less than a mile from Morris. Residents within the Morris catchment area have opted for other choices in recent years, including charters and other public schools. District officials said about 16% of students in Morris’ catchment already attend Bache-Martin.
Third grade teacher Brendan Yuhas teaches students Trenton Andersen, left, and Serenity Rose Rhoades, right, at Robert Morris Elementary last year.
Freeman said that is, in part, the district’s fault.
“This school has not been marketed to parents and families in the neighborhood. It has not been made attractive. It has not been pushed up,” Freeman said.
Some residents are frustrated with the plan to instead investmore than $50 million in Bache-Martin to handle an infusion of hundreds more students, including from Laura W. Waring School, and $4.7 million into Kelley. They believe Bache-Martin students deserve that kind of investment, but so do Kelley and Morris students. District officials said Kelley has received more funding in recent years, making a similarly large investment unnecessary.
Residents are concerned the consolidation could result in violence, by putting kids from different neighborhoods and rival gangs suddenly under the same roof at Bache-Martin or Kelley. And some at the community meeting worried that even if the district reopens the Morris building as a new school, it would be as a magnet that excludes local students.
Undergirding many of their concerns is the reality of race. Morris’ student body is 82% Black, and its community members said its potential closure was another indicator of the major impact the district’s plan would have on Black families. Bache-Martin in Fairmount, poised for significant financial support, has only about 34% Black students.
“When closures disproportionately affect minority communities, we cannot pretend race is not a part of this story. … What message are we sending to our students, my fifth- and sixth-grade students, when [the] place that nurtured them is going to disappear?” Adrienne Ramsey, a math teacher at Morris, said at the community meeting.
Freeman insisted that there must be a public education option for elementary school students in the neighborhood. She said she is concerned that charter schools, which are privately run and publicly funded, do not have enoughpublic oversight, and public schools are critical tocommunities.
“Schools are one of the places that the real community building and community weaving starts,” she said.
She said shebelieved interest in a public elementary school in the Brewerytown-Sharswood area would return, particularly as incoming residents occupying the new developments look for places to send their childrenand current neighbors reconsider their education options.
“People want to be part of their communities. They want to be part of their neighborhoods. They want their children to have friends whose home they can walk to,” she said.
Frustration and anguish spilled over Thursday night as Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. presented his sweeping, $2.8 billion facilities plan to the school board at a heated, lengthy meeting.
Watlington revised the plan to include 18, not 20 school closings — saving Conwell Middle School and Motivation High — and still wants to modernize 159 schools over a decade. He pitched it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to drive academic improvement.
But the community did not seem impressed — at an anti-school-closure rally prior to the meeting, and at the public session itself, which stretched on for more than eight hours, into the early hours of Friday morning.
Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, presents his facilities plan during Thursday’s board meeting.
“Dr. Watlington, you’re breaking my heart,” said Amanda Chandler, a teacher at Harding Middle School, one of the schools on the chopping block.
The district’s plan “isn’t an opportunity — it’s calculated abandonment,” said Beth Cole, a teacher at Stetson Middle School, which is also slated to close.
Watlington first unveiled the facilities plan, which was years in the making, in January. After weeks of community meetings, the superintendent formally presented the blueprint — with some tweaks — to the school board Thursday. The board has not yet said when it will vote on the plan, but has scheduled a March 12 town hall to hear more public feedback.
‘Massive upheaval’
The district has 70,000 empty seats in schools citywide. For example: Watlington said he recently watched a recording of a 1969 Overbrook High graduation. The school educated 5,000 students then. Now, it has fewer than 500.
And while some schools are underenrolled, some are overfull, particularly those in the Northeast. Inequities are widespread, also. For instance, only half of city students have access to Algebra 1 in eighth grade, barring them from admission to Masterman, a top city magnet that requires algebra for admission.
The board must address all those issues, said Reginald Streater, school board president.
School board president Reginald Streater said the board must deal with 70,000 empty seats in city schools.
“We have chronic underfunding, coupled with enrollment shifts that have materially created structural challenges that no district board can simply absorb without consequence to the district,” Streater said. “These realities have materially affected our ability to accelerate our fight against systemic chronic underachievement within the School District of Philadelphia.”
Streater did not weigh in on the details of the plan, but some other board members did, indicating there may be some pushback when it comes time to vote.
Board memberCrystal Cubbage said she wanted a “bolder plan” including more new buildings. (Watlington’s version proposed a single new building in the lower Northeast for the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush.)
“I’m struggling to reconcile this massive upheaval, and the $2.8 billion price tag, with the fact the plan is not explicitly designed to produce better outcomes for all of our children,” Cubbage said.
Audience members in the packed board room cheered as board member Wanda Novales voiced criticisms of the plan.
Novales said she recognized the complex challenges the board and district face, but “the standard cannot simply be operational efficiency,” Novales said. “I am struggling to see the heart …that sees the lived realities of our neighborhoods.”
Areas like Kensington and Fairhill have long been underresourced, Novales said, and the plan falls short in providing opportunities to students there.
“This conversation cannot just be about buildings. It must be about students,” Novales said.
Joyce Wilkerson, the longest-serving member of the school board, and a member of the School Reform Commission, the board’s predecessor, said the district has known it had to “rightsize” for years.
“We can’t afford to be locked in inaction,” Wilkerson said.
More pushback
Students from the affected schools spoke pointedly about the proposed changes.
Jade Colon, a student at Stetson Middle School, in Kensington, said her school’s roof has leaked for years. It’s never been properly fixed.
“We are told this plan is about equality, yet we see our neighborhood — one that has already faced decades of disinvestment — being asked to sacrifice yet again,” said Colon. “True equality isn’t found in a swing space or a longer walk to a different building across dangerous intersections like Kensington and Allegheny. True equality is found in investing in schools we already have.”
Students rally before a School District of Philadelphia board meeting Thursday outside the district’s headquarters in Philadelphia, as community members protest proposed school closures.
David Samuel, who attends Parkway Northwest, another school on the closing list, said the school is “building strong children.”
Virtually all Parkway Northwest students are on track to graduation.
“Those are lives being moved forward,” Samuel said. “Closing Parkway Northwest wouldn’t be closing a school; it would be closing my home.”
The plan drew pushback from a number of politicians who showed up to voice displeasure to the board.
“I do not have the words to describe how disappointed I am by the district’s proposal today,” City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said, underscoring concerns about harm to Black and brown students.
Removing Motivation from the closing list is a good step, said Gauthier, who represents a West Philadelphia district. But she wants Watlington to consider removing Robeson, Blankenburg, and Parkway West, too.
The superintendent said the district has done its best to spread opportunity, but he acknowledged the difficulty of the decisions in front of the board.
“In an ideal world, I never believe in closing schools,” Watlington said, a remark met with some groans from the crowd. “I would never want my child’s school to be closed, to be frank.”
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. on Thursday presented the Philadelphia School District’s long-awaited facilities master plan to board members, with revisions leaving two fewer schools slated to close than initially proposed.
Plans now included 18 closures and six other co-locations, as well as one new school building and other investments.
Of the district’s 307 buildings, most schools — 159 in all — would be modernized under the proposed plan. The district in January 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, 18 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. 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 last month.
Initially targeted for closure were Conwell Middle School in Kensington and Motivation High in Southwest Philadelphia, but both have since been spared. Both magnet schools accept students citywide, and their proposed closures saw opposition from powerful allies including several City Council members and Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton.
That change, Watlington said, was not due to politics, and came after the district “poured through thousands of feedback loops from a number of Philadelphians.”
The board, meanwhile, is expected to vote in the coming weeks, though no date has been set.
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.
Two of the 20 Philadelphiaschools originally targeted for closure under Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s facilities plan have been spared and will remain open.
Conwell Middle School in Kensington and Motivation High in Southwest Philadelphiawill not close after all, Watlington announced at acharged school board meeting Thursday.
Watlington said the change from 20 to 18 school closures was not because of politicians, though.
“We pored through thousands of feedback loops from a number of Philadelphians, to include parents, students, grassroots organizations, and certainly elected officials,” the superintendent told reporters during a briefing this week. “We took all of that feedback together and, in tandem, we landed on these recommended changes, not reflecting one voice or sector more than the others.”
Watlington’s $2.8 billion facilities plan, which now includes closing 18 schools, colocating six, and upgrading 159, is not yet final and continues to face strong opposition from affected school communities. He formally presented it to the school board Thursday, and the board is expected to vote in the coming weeks, though no date has been set. Schools would begin closing in 2027, and school building upgrades would take several years.
Under the revisions Watlington presented Thursday:
Conwell would remain open and continue to be a magnet, but would also add a neighborhood admissions component. Students from nearby Elkin Elementary, a K-4, would move to Conwell beginning in fifth grade, and the school would still accept students from around the city.
Motivation would absorb students from Paul Robeson High, which is on the closure list. Robeson and Motivation are both citywide admissions schools, and Motivation would remain so under the plan. Robeson had previously been scheduled to move into Sayre, another citywide admissions school.
Lankenau High, the city’s environmental science magnet, had been targeted for closure and would have moved into Roxborough High. It would still close under the revised plan, but would instead move into Saul High School, the city’s agricultural science magnet. Both are in Roxborough.
‘Accelerating Opportunity’
In his presentation to the board, Watlington called the 10-year plan “Accelerating Opportunity.”
The proposed changes were spurred not by finances — though the district has 70,000 empty seats and has indicated it needs to shrink its footprint — but by a desire to accelerate progress, Watlington said.
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The district is making gains in academics, attendance, and dropouts, but still, the superintendent said, “the majority of our young people still don’t perform at grade level of reading and math.”
Philadelphia, Watlington told reporters, “must multiply that acceleration curve by five or 10. Because we can’t wait for generations to improve these outcomes and opportunities for all of our children. And we know that there’s a huge disparity based on where you live in Philadelphia.”
The 159 modernization projects to upgrade schools range from new roofs and fresh paint in some buildings to larger projects, including a $58 million refresh at South Philadelphia High. The district released the full list of proposed modernization project details this week. But funding for them is not yet certain; the district plans to pay $1 billion of the $2.8 billion cost and hopes state and philanthropic funding will cover the rest.
How did Conwell and Motivation get spared?
Students, parents, and staff at each of the 20 schools proposed for closure have made cases for why Watlington should change his mind since their schools landed on the closure list last month.
In Conwell’s case, Watlington told reporters the advocacy work of the “large, historic alumni base” of the magnet middle school helped move the needle.
Philadelphia School District Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill and student moderators listen to Andre Sanford-Adams, the school’s health and physical education teacher, speak about why he thinks it’s a mistake to close Conwell at a meeting at the school.
So, too, did “significant feedback from individuals about a part of the city where individuals felt very strongly that we have to figure out how to invest more in.” Conwell supporters spoke out strongly against divesting from a school in Kensington, the center of the city’s opioid epidemic. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, for example, said at a meeting at Conwell that “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, and that is just not fair.”
Also, Watlington said, the distance between Conwell and the school its students would have been sent to — AMY at James Martin, more than two miles awayin Fishtown — was significant.
Conwell would remain a magnet school, open to students citywide only through the school selection process. Elkin students would be in separate classes, and Conwell would continue to offer accelerated classes to its magnet students.
Closing Motivation would have leftSouthwest Philadelphia with no magnet school. Watlington said officials liked the idea of routing Robeson, a strong citywide school in West Philadelphia, to Motivation.
“The building itself at Motivation is not at the bottom of the heap in terms of programmatic ratings,” the superintendent said. “The problem with Motivation is that we’ve lost enrollment.”
Relocating Robeson inside Motivation solves “the number one problem we’re solving for, is how do we build our enrollments, address under- and overenrollment so we can push in more high-quality academic and extracurricular programs. Our community, quite frankly, made some suggestions that had merit.”
Teachers, students and community members rally against closing Lankenau High School on North Broad Street outside the school board meeting last month.
Disappointment for Lankenau and other schools
The outcry around closing Lankenau was also significant; Watlington’s team did not retreat from a closure recommendation, but now wants to locate the school at Saul, another magnet with a complementary mission.
“We have to do our due diligence, and those sometimes can be a bit complicated, but we’ll work through all of the details as appropriate,” he told reporters.
The ball is in the school board’s court now. It has not set a date for a vote on the plan or said whether it will consider further public engagement.
But, Watlington said, “we look forward to the board of education receiving these recommendations and doing some thoughtful digesting of these very well-thought-out recommendations that reflect our community at large’s feedback.”
The Philadelphia School District is considering a sweeping facilities plan. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has proposed closing 18 schools, colocating 6, and modernizing 159.
Watlington presented his plan — sparing two schools from the initial list of 20 closures — to the school board Thursday.
Watlington’s recommendations are not yet final. The board is expected to vote on his plan later this year.
The plan has already faced opposition from students, parents, staff, and political leaders who are fighting to save their schools. Community members gathered for a rally outside school district headquarters ahead of Thursday’s board meeting.
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Recap: Students, parents, and teachers beg board not to close their schools
The Philadelphia school board heard several hours of public testimony Thursday evening — and into Friday morning — about a proposal to close 18 schools.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington presented his proposed facilities plan to the board Thursday. It includes closing 18 schools, colocating six schools, and modernizing 159 school buildings.
Meeting ends after hours of testimony about school closures
More than eight hours after the school board meeting began, it ended early Friday morning.
After concluding hours of public testimony, largely criticism of the school facilities plan, the board spent only a few minutes quickly passing items on its agenda.
Last speaker: ‘I beg you, do not close our schools’
Carin Bennicoff, a longtime teacher at Ludlow Elementary, notes that school closings hit vulnerable communities hard, and disproportionately. “Please – I beg you, do not close our schools,” Bennicoff said.
Here ends the speakers list.
“I think this board has been listening tonight,” said board president Reginald Streater, and more feedback will be heard on March 12.
Retired teacher says plan would ‘rip apart people’s communities’
Lisa Haver, a retired Philadelphia teacher and founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, said that no member of the board should vote for the plan.
“Do you really have to rip apart people’s communities?” Haver said.
Parent and student speak out about accessibility concerns
Kim Nelson, a parent, spoke on behalf of her daughter. Nelson said she is concerned about many schools that are not accessible for those with disabilities.
“My daughter wanted to express her concerns, and we’ve been here for the last seven years,” Nelson said. She said she wants fixes at Overbrook High, her daughter’s school.
“My school has over 60 bathrooms, and not one of those bathrooms is ADA accessible,” Nelson said.
Nelson’s daughter also spoke about problems accessing bathrooms at Overbrook.
Watlington asked Teresa Fleming, the district’s chief operating officer, to “attend to those issues immediately.”
Jonathan Hoffmeier began as a teacher at University City High School, which closed in 2013 and is now a parking lot.
He now works at Lankenau, which he urged the board not to close.
Lankenau has been evaluated “as an asset in a real estate portfolio,” Hoffmeier said. “Closing Lankenau sends a message. It tells students, ‘You don’t deserve these opportunities.’”
Amy Szymanski, a Lankenau staffer, is reading another staffer’s statement. The art teacher couldn’t attend the meeting because she led Lankenau students competing at the Philadelphia Flower Show. “You haven’t expressed your vision effectively,” wrote the teacher, who is certified in both art and agriculture.
Parkway Northwest teacher says ‘our students deserve better’
“Our students deserve better than promises,” said Beth Ziegenfus, a teacher at Parkway Northwest. “They deserve action.”
For years, middle school teachers and parents used neighborhood high schools as a warning or a punishment — and it will take years to undo that damage, said Ziegenfus, who taught for years at Frankford, a community high school, before she moved to Parkway Northwest, a magnet school.
Leah Clouden: “let’s call this what it is: a land grab and shell game that we already experienced in 2012. This plan is an egregious breach of trust.”
Clouden asks the district to stop holding up access to Algebra 1 in eighth grade as the be-all, end-all, when most district students cannot do math on grade level.
District staffers and teachers fight for their schools
Tanya Edmonds, a district staffer, questions the plan and the district’s move to give some schools to the city. The district’s website is not easy to navigate, she said, and data is tough to find.
Benjamin Grivensky, a history teacher at Parkway Northwest, opposes the plan.
“The closures will have an outsized impact on our minority students,” Grivensky said. The school’s graduation rate is 98%. “Simply put —Parkway works,” Grivensky said.
Patricia Rich, a teacher at Lankenau, notes that the district’s visual impaired life skills students learn at Lankenau. It’s small and safe, Rich said.
“We have shown that Lankenau cannot be transplanted,” Rich said.
‘Please do right by our kids,’ Stetson teacher tells board
Eugenia Giannoumis, a teacher at Stetson Middle School, said the survey that formed the basis of the district’s recommendation, was imperfect — and not reflective of most of the wishes of people in the Stetson community.
Lankenau’s principal says her school helps close district-charter gap
Jessica McAtamney, principal at Lankenau, notes the school is unique in the district — it has relationships with two separate charter schools. It’s closing the district-charter gap.
Watlington’s proposal would close Lankenau and send its students to Saul High School.
“Sending us to Saul does not fix why we are here,” said McAtamney, who said she worked at Saul for years and loves it.
Parkway Northwest is a unique environment for kids with disabilities, teacher says
Nicholas Shute, a special education teacher at Parkway Northwest, underscores his “firm opposition” to the plan. Moving Parkway Northwest into Martin Luther King is a “fundamental misunderstanding of what we do,” he said.
Parkway Northwest, which has a peace and social justice theme, focuses on safety, and creates a unique environment, especially for students with disabilities, Shute said.
Kyana Hopkins, a teacher at Robeson High, said the school lacks many resources, but “we worked with what we had” and experienced great successes — academic growth, sending a student to Harvard.
“Culture is not transferrable,” Hopkins said. “Make it make sense.”
The governor of Pennsylvania and other politicians held up Robeson as a model, Hopkins said. “Let us keep working the magic that we can keep producing,” said Hopkins.
Megan Murphy, a Waring teacher, said the school district has “obstructed opportunities for Waring” to overcome barriers and the school is now being penalized.
An emotional Renee Gair, a teacher at Fitler Elementary, said the school is a gem, with soaring academics and a real community. “Once students come to Fitler, they do not leave,” Gair said.
Horace Clouden, a retired building engineer and education activist, urges the board to invest in putting building trades programs in neighborhood schools.
Clouden is an ardent advocate of junior high schools. He and his family have attended school closing meetings around the city urging the district to commit to junior highs.
Charisma Presley, an advocate for year-round aquatics, is asking the board to recommit to reopening pools. A single year-round pool operates in the city now — at Lincoln High in the Northeast.
“We’re asking for concrete action,” Presley said.
Ariel Presley, another aquatics booster, pushes the board to commit to year-round pools and swimming instruction.
‘Data without context tells an incomplete story,’ says Stetson teacher
Kathryn Lajara, a teacher at Stetson Middle School, underscores the upheaval at the school in the past 20 years. First, it was turned over to Edison Schools, a for-profit company, to run. Then, it became a charter school run by Aspira, and then returned to the district, she said.
No major repairs were ever made to the building, and every change meant a new administration, new curriculum, and new expectations, she said.
“Data without context tells an incomplete story,” Lajara said. You can’t talk about Stetson without noting that the “foundation beneath it has been repeatedly shaken.”
Stetson has “endured systemic disruption” and is now being penalized for it, Lajara said.
Middle schools are taking a disproportionate hit, says district staff member
Cashonna Thomas is speaking in favor of Harding Middle School.
“Middle schools have taken a disproportionate hit,” Thomas noted.
Keeping students in K-8 schools “ignores child development,” Thomas said.
Kelli Gallagher, the next speaker, teaches at Harding Middle School now; she previously taught at Reynolds Elementary, which was closed in 2013.
Reynolds closing “created no positive effect on the community,” she said. It just benefitted developers and drove up house prices for long-term residents.
“We’re being asked to trust the process that lacks transparency,” Gallagher said.
Robeson High Home and School president calls district’s recommendations ‘trashy’ and ‘tasteless’
Samantha Bromfield, the Home and School president at Robeson High, said families want small schools.
“Understand that a parent like me will send my child back to being homeschooled” if Robeson closes. “Your choice doesn’t fit my criteria of what I’m looking for my children. Your recommendations and your data seems trashy. Tasteless.”
Rasheeda Simpson, a Robeson parent, said she chose Robeson — not Sayre or Motivation.
Closing Waring will hurt students with ‘complex trauma,’ teacher says
Hannah Myers, a teacher, is speaking about the proposed closure of Waring Elementary, where students have “complex trauma,” she said.
It’s a small school, but it’s a model of stability for the kids who need it most, she said, pointing out that 13% of its population is students experiencing homelessness.
Moving Waring students to larger classes at Bache-Martin is unwise, Myers said. “And thank you for keeping teachers here for six and a half hours waiting to speak,” Myers adds.
Megan Acedo, an AMY Northwest parent, told the board: “I don’t understand as a parent why we are closing a school that has incredible academic performance and is an incredibly supportive environment.”
The district ‘systematically denied students’ the ability to attend many small schools, Motivation teacher says
John Young, a teacher at Motivation High School, asks the district to slow down and show more data. (Motivation was recommended for closure, but is now off the list.)
“Our students thrive because of our safe, small, supportive settings,” Young said.
Young said the district’s data is often wrong, and noted the district “systematically denied students” the ability to attend many small schools.
Blankenburg is ‘the best environment for our students,’ teacher says
Mia Svendson, a teacher at Blankenburg, a West Philadelphia elementary school on the chopping block, said the school is “the best environment for our students.”
The school is part of the Acceleration Network — schools that receive more intense supports because of academic achievement needs. But the supports are working, Svendson said. The school should not be closed, she said.
“Dr. Watlington, you’re breaking my heart,” said Amanda Chandler, a teacher at Harding, who said the district’s plan is “not creative. It’s perfunctory.”
The district has not adequately maintained the Harding building, Chandler said. “Why can’t Harding have a swing space while you fix our building?”
// Timestamp 02/26/26 9:40pm
The facilities plan will cost the district students and teachers, AMY Northwest teacher says
“We’re running a school that serves our students well,” says Joseph Blank, a teacher at AMY Northwest. The only problem is low enrollment, which is a problem with the district’s enrollment system, Blank said.
“We expect better,” Blank said. “We demand better. If this plan goes through, the district will lose many students and many teachers.”
‘Slow down, send it back, mark it incomplete, save Robeson’
Andrew Saltz, a teacher at Robeson, said this plan isn’t a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
In 2013, the district closed schools and tried to close Robeson, which he said deserves a new building — just like the students at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush in the Northeast.
“The thing about boutique high schools — we fill them, and they work,” Saltz said. “Slow down, send it back, mark it incomplete, save Robeson.”
Lankenau parent urges the district to invest in the school building
Tiona Brown, a Lankenau parent, calls on the board to reverse its plan to close Lankenau.
“You guys are smart people, I trust you can find another way,” Brown said. Her house is over 100 years old, but its value is strong because she made investments in it. Lankenau, with its 100% graduation rate, is worth investment, said Brown.
Robeson teacher says closing the school will push ‘Black and brown kids out of University City’
Paul Robeson High School on Ludlow Street in Philadelphia.
Gwen Franklin, a teacher at Robeson High and West Philadelphia resident, said she was speaking to support all West and Southwest Philadelphia schools on the chopping block.
“Forgive me if I fail to see the transparency of this process,” Franklin said.
We ask our kids to show their work, so show yours, she said.
“This plan pushes Black and brown kids out of University City.”
Robeson deserves a new building, and to keep its esteemed name, she said. And Sayre, which Robeson was first scheduled to merge with, deserves investment too. (Robeson is now proposed to close but move into Motivation High.)
State Rep. Darisha Parker pushes against the plan to close Fitler
State Rep. Darisha Parker is against the Fitler closure. She questions the plan to close the school and give it to the city for workforce development and housing.
“You cannot displace, families, children and a community that deserves to be educated,” Parker said.
“I do not accept your proposal to close Fitler,” Parker said.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada asks the board to visit each school personally before deciding to close it
City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada said even revisions to the plan leave questions.
She asks the district to reconsider changes to Moffet and closing Harding, Welsh, and Stetson. “Why should our children bear the consequences of all of the school district’s failures?” Lozada said.
Lozada asks the board to visit each facility personally before casting votes to close them.
Councilmember Cindy Bass calls school closures ‘a self-created’ problem
Councilmember Cindy Bass is “greatly disturbed” by school closures. “This is, in my opinion, a self-created” problem.
Revisit the special admission policy, Bass said. “We can also move students to some of these empty spaces. We can provide transit. Why is that not an option?” she said.
“This just cannot happen,” said Bass. “We cannot allow more school closures.”
Even moving it to Saul is unacceptable, she said, because Saul does not have access to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.
Moving Waring to give Masterman an extended middle school is not acceptable either, Ahmad said. “Why are we targeting that space where vulnerable students live?” she said.
“You are going to disrupt Lankenau so you can have high-value real estate,” Ahmad said. “We are a creative bunch. We can think of ways to address the issues that have come up. To disrupt solutions that are working makes no sense to me.”
Principals union president asks district to ‘slow the plan down’
Robin Cooper, president of CASA, the district’s principals’ union, asks for the board to “slow the plan down.”
Developing a blueprint for the district is complex, Cooper said.
“Improving facilities should not automatically require closing schools. This plan is full of bias, and I’m asking you to please slow it down,” she said.
Sen. Williams criticizes Watlington for bragging about incremental academic growth, and says superintendent has only called him once
Williams said he has heard only once from Watlington since the superintendent’s arrival in Philadelphia. (He says he speaks to William Penn Superintendent Eric Becoats weekly.)
Williams zings the district for bragging about incremental academic growth. Folks in his neighborhood want transformation, he said.
“I don’t pat myself on the back about 2% increases in anything,” Williams said. He invites members of the board and district to walk with him through the communities he represents.
State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams speaks to the board alongside his mom, a 93-year-old retired district teacher
State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams is up now.
He brought his mother, Carole Williams, a 93-year-old retired district teacher, to speak alongside him.
Carole Williams, a former science supervisor for the district, is a founder of the citywide George Washington Carver science fair.
“You don’t have an easy task,” she told the board. (She also encourages the board to hit up her son, a state senator, for more funding to help.)
The senator said his district, including West and Southwest Philadelphia has been “discriminated against” by the city and district. He acknowledges that some schools must close, but said the “ones you’ve identified clearly contradict” the ideals of improving education. “There are some schools that do not need to be on this list simply because their buildings are in decline.”
Williams was bussed as a student “into a neighborhood that did not welcome me,” he said. He attended Conwell.
“We’re talking about moving students to other neighborhoods without a commonsense plan,” he said.
“The problem with this plan is it’s top down,” Williams said. He said parents would come up with smart plans and would compromise on difficult decisions — if the district asked them in meaningful ways.
Families will have to cross “invisible lines” to get their children to new schools, Hunt said. Safety is a factor.
“We have been here before, and it didn’t work in 2013, and it’s not going to work now,” Hunt said. “If this is an open and honest plan, let us know who you’re selling our students’ future to.”
“Nothing for the people without the people,” Hunt said, saying the plan is really “a closure plan.”
Councilmember Jeffery Young says there are contradictions in the district facilities plan
City Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young, holding a sign that says “Ludlow is the Cornerstone of our Community,” said the goals of the plan are worthy. But the current iteration of the plan has many contradictions.
Students at Ludlow would lose not just their elementary school, but also their high school, Penn Treaty.
‘You are handing our students to a charter,’ says city committeeperson Delise Williams
Delise Williams, a city committeeperson who opposes the planned closure of Parkway Northwest, worked in the district’s central offices and at Martin Luther King. “We must fix MLK, but not by dismantling excellence,” Williams said.
“You are closing a budget gap,” Williams said. “You are handing our students to a charter on a silver platter just to fix a spreadsheet.”
Next to her, another community member holds up a silver platter with dollar bills taped all around its perimeter.
Teachers union leaders urge the board to slow down and consider what’s missing from the plan
Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, urges the board to delay implementation of the facilities plan. Inadequate information has been presented to the public, Steinberg said.
PFT members and students know the realities of the city’s schools. They’ve gotten sick from lead, asbestos, mold, and buildings that were too hot or too cold.
“The negative impacts far outweigh the benefits,” Steinberg said of school closures.
Steinberg talks about the “lasting harm” of the 2013 closures.
“Our schools need fixing and funding, not closure,” Steinberg said. If the district can raise $1.8 billion for its plan, then it can fix schools.
Jerry Roseman, director of environmental science for the PFT, said an effective plan is needed. This isn’t it, he said, and there’s a lot missing. Roseman cited a “transparency and data gap” raised in various stages of the process. “The lack of detail and specificity is of serious concern,” Roseman said.
Roseman blew holes in the district’s $2.8 billion pricetag, which he said is “far too low.”
“Robeson did send a student to Harvard, and you still want to close it,” she said.
Robeson students fought the district for air conditioning when students got sick from the heat. Its staff found funding to renovate the cafeteria.
“Help us, instead of throwing away everyone’s ideas and hard work,” said Gauthier, who said the plan showed “a profound lack of care” for West and Southwest Philadelphia and vulnerable Black and brown communities.
“I will fight these closures with every ounce of energy that I can muster,” Gauthier said.
Waring ‘may seem poor in appearance,’ but ‘we are rich in love,’ student says
Nylan Williams, an eighth grader at Waring Elementary School, has attended Waring since kindergarten.
“Today I sit here because of the foundation Waring gave me,” he said.
He said “students stay, grow, and become family” at Waring, and has teachers who mentor and support the students. They celebrate students like their own children, he said, and stay after school to help students.
“Our building may seem poor in appearance … we are rich in love,” he said. “You cannot replace that by simply moving students somewhere else.”
Elementary school student shares concerns with board over teachers leaving mid-year
Evangeline Routh, a student at Houston Elementary School, said she is facing the second year in a row that her teacher left in the middle of the school year.
“Both years it was right before the PSSAs,” she said.
Lankenau High students show up in force to defend their school to the board
Messiah Stokes, a Lankenau student spoke against closing his school.
“The school’s culture is built on the idea of simply going outside and exploring,” he said.
He also noted a legal agreement that may require the district to sell Lankenau’s property to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education rather than giving it to the city to use for housing plans, as the district had planned. Closing Lankenau and moving it to Saul High School isn’t adequate, he said.
“At Lankenau we can simply walk less than a mile to the Schuylkill River and collect water samples,” he said, which allows students to learn about things like clean drinking water.
Juniper Sok Sarom, another Lankenau student, spoke out against closing the school.
“Why is a school that achieves all of the goals and guardrails that you set being recommended for closure?” she asked. “Do you prioritize land and money over our kids?”
She said the school board needs to look out for the city’s children.
By passing this plan, she told board members, “you fail the students of Philadelphia, you fail our parents, you fail the entire city. You fail all of us. Protect the children, OK? Prioritize us.”
Lankenau student Jesse Hall showed a poster of a city map to the school board. His map had dots showing that many of Lankenau’s students come from “high-risk” neighborhoods across the city. Lankenau’s neighborhood is “low-risk.”
“To our students, it is a safe space from the struggles they face at home … That’s what a magnet school is for,” he said.
Samad Groves, another Lankenau student, said “do not ignore our family members who are already a part of vulnerable populations.”
The data used to make decisions does not capture what the school community means to students, he said; “Lankenau remains unquantifiable.”
Student urges the board to open pools at district schools
Moving briefly to another topic, student Phinneas Dougherty spoke about the need to have swimming pools open at schools, which is part of the board’s strategic plan.
“This isn’t just an extracurricular activity, it’s a survival skill,” he said.
He said he wants to work as a certified lifeguard and make sure that kids learn to swim. Pools should be opened immediately, he said.
‘Lankenau cannot be erased,’ freshman tells the board
Justice Ray, a Lankenau sophomore, says its students “truly need this environment.”
Ray says she believes the district is closing Lankenau because of its valuable land.
Amari Reynolds, a Lankenau freshman, was “so excited” after he was admitted to the school. He was a quiet kid, but the school has brought him out of his shell.
‘Losing Parkway feels like losing my future’: More students address the board over schools on closure list
Alejandro Alvarado, a student at Stetson Middle School, tells the board: “We deserve more … Stetson has been neglected for decades … It isn’t fair to close our school because of maintenance issues that the district knew about years but chose to ignore.”
Melody Jenkins, a 10th grader at Parkway Northwest, said that “losing Parkway feels like losing my future.”
Parkway Northwest’s bell schedule had to be adjusted to avoid interactions with Martin Luther King students, Jenkins said. “I ask you tonight to reconsider this decision,” she said.
Khloe Polite, a Waring eighth grader, describes her school: “It is small and old,” but important. It’s a family, Polite said. “I understand we’re underpopulated, but maybe it’s what we need.”
Students speak in support of two magnet schools slated to close
Treasure Flowers, a sophomore at Parkway Northwest, says “small, specialized magnet schools are important to the people around them” and the voices of affected students must be heard.
Wyntir Alford, a Lankenau High student, said: “We have not come across a single person who agrees with the school board’s decision to close it.”
Lankenau, Alford said, deserves “stability and support. I hope that before making any final decisions, you take a look at the serious evidence and the strong resistance from the community. We are not just numbers on a page. We are young people with goals, dreams, and opinions that matter.”
Lankenau’s enrollment issues “are the district’s fault,” Alford said. “You say this isn’t about money, but the timing and patterns of these decisions makes your priorities clear.”
Even the changed recommendation — moving Lankenau to Saul instead of Roxborough — still won’t do, Alford said.
Noelle Alford, Wyntir’s mom, takes the microphone. She’s not registered to speak, and the board cuts off Alford’s mic. Alford continues to speak, and the restless audience shouts: “Let her speak! Let her speak!”
“You still have yet to answer our question — would you send your children to Saul?” Alford yells without a mic.
Students, staff, and community members who support Lankenau High School, including some dressed as trees, packed a community meeting at the school earlier this month.
‘If a roof leaks, you fix it,’ Stetson Middle School student says
Jade Colon, a student at Stetson Middle School, is speaking to the board about her school: “When we talk about closing a school like Stetson Middle, we’re not just talking about moving desks,” Colon said. The neighborhood has faced “decades of disinvestment,” and its residents are being asked to be able to sacrifice again.
“If a roof leaks, you fix it,” Colon said. “You don’t tear the family down.”
Student speakers begin to address the board, speaking in support of AMY Northwest and Parkway Northwest
AMY Northwest on Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia.
We’re onto student speakers now.
Naveh Mahan, a student at AMY Northwest, asks the board to spare her school.
David Samuel, who attends Parkway Northwest, said the school is “building strong children.” Virtually all Parkway Northwest students are on track to graduation.
“Those are lives being moved forward,” Samuel said. “Closing Parkway Northwest wouldn’t be closing a school, it would be closing my home.”
Naomi Acedo Moorhead, a sixth grader at AMY Northwest, is speaking “to advocate for my school.”
It’s got great extracurriculars and a newly updated schoolyard, she said. Students feel “welcome and supported,” and strong academic achievement, including offering Algebra I. Her family toured eight schools, and AMY Northwest was her first choice. It’s worthy of investment, Moorhead said.
Lyric Jenkins, a student at Parkway Northwest, said the school is “a model of consistency” with strong student attendance. “We are on an upward trajectory,” Jenkins says.
Merging Parkway Northwest and Martin Luther King High School is a bad idea, Jenkins said. “Don’t dismantle a success story,” she said.
Dakota Turner, a student at AMY Northwest, says the school is “a good school,” and provides opportunities many other schools don’t have. It should not close.
Evan Mohr, another AMY Northwest student, said “the only problem with our school is that the building is old … Closing this school is not a logical conclusion.”
President Streater says he’s ‘very angry’ over the underfunding that brought the district to this point
Board president Streater said he’s “very angry” that the board must deal with closures.
“It infuriates me,” Streater said of underfunding and the pressures that led the district to this point.
He said it’s a “call to arms moment, irrespective of how this thing goes.”
If the district had “inadequate running water,” help would be on the way. It has “inadequate public education” because of underfunding, Streater said, and it’s on its own to figure it out. The district must shrink its footprint, Streater said.
‘We can’t afford to be locked in inaction,’ says board member Wilkerson
Board member Joyce Wilkerson says the district has known it’s needed to “rightsize” the system for a decade. Wilkerson is a former member of the School Reform Commission, which was the predecessor to the school board, when the district was under state control for 17 years.
“We can’t afford to be locked in inaction,” Wilkerson said.
“While there is lots that’s being proposed that we need to understand better, I appreciate the fact that this is aligned with our goals and guardrails,” Wilkerson said. She said she will comb over the plan, and appreciates the work that went into it.
‘This affects all lives in the city, including old people like me,’ says board member Stern
“We’re not adopting this plan tonight,” board member Joan Stern said. “We’re going to take time to do our necessary due diligence.” Stern invites people to come to the March 12 facilities town hall with the board, and communicate in other ways. “This affects all lives in the city, including old people like me.”
Stern says that former Philadelphia Superintendent Constance Clayton was also her mentor. When Clayton became superintendent, “we had no market access at all,” and the district’s credit was poor. “That we can borrow a billion dollars now is an amazing feat that we had to accomplish over many, many years.” (Stern was a groundbreaking bond counsel who helped the city and the district onto more solid financial footing.)
Student board member Reyes asks about the closure process for schools
Semira Reyes, another student board representative, asks about the phase-out process for closing schools.
A slow phase-out can cause trauma, Watlington said. (Though some schools will be phased out; Penn Treaty, for instance, would take four years.)
Reyes also asked about swing spaces: How do we maximize their use? They’re buildings or parts of buildings that are used to relocate school communities when they need to move. It’s impossible to guarantee their usage 100% of the time, Watlington said.
She also questioned what supports would be in place for students in newly colocated or merged schools as a result of the plan, saying that as a student who had experienced colocation, it “can be extremely stressful and disruptive.”
Watlington said affordable workforce housing “benefits communities, moreso than this district choosing to outright sell buildings to the highest bidder.” He noted that following the district’s last round of closures in 2012-13, some buildings were vacant for more than a decade.
Workforce development and job creation are worth it, Watlington said. “We think these facilities that have always belonged to the people of this city, that they should benefit students in their respective communities.” The district’s core business is academics, and “the city just has more resources” to handle real estate and development.
He said the district wanted to be sure “we don’t contribute to the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer” — to some objections from the audience.
‘We need a bolder plan,’ says board member Cubbage in a call-to-action to the district
Another board member, Crystal Cubbage, is also voicing skepticism.
“I’m struggling to reconcile this massive upheaval, and the $2.8 billion price tag, with the fact the plan is not explicitly designed to produce better outcomes for all of our children,” Cubbage said.
“We need a bolder plan. This is a false choice that we have here,” Cubbage said.
Board member Novales says she’s ‘struggling to see the heart’ in this proposed facilities plan
Audience members in the packed board room cheered as board member Wanda Novales voiced criticisms of the facilities plan.
“This conversation cannot just be about buildings, it must be about students,” Novales said.
While saying she recognized the “complexity of the challenges” facing the district, Novales said, “the standard cannot simply be operational efficiency,” but student success.
Of the plan, Novales said, “I am struggling to see the heart … that sees the lived realities of our neighborhoods.” Areas like Kensington and Fairhill have long been under-resourced, Novales said, and the plan falls short in providing opportunities to students there.
To students at Stetson, a school proposed for closure, “I am sorry for the years of underinvestment,” Novales said.
Board member Jones draws applause as he asks how to ensure ‘we don’t end up in this position again’
In addition to questions about funding and how much the plan would save the district, Whitney Jones drew applause from the crowd when he asked Watlington how the district would approach catchment design going forward, “so we don’t end up in this position again.”
He also asked about the plan’s proposal to merge some magnet schools: “What does it actually mean to merge two programs that are distinctly different?”
Watlington said he was committed to growing enrollment, but if numbers continue to drop, “I assure you we’ll be back in this boat again at some point.”
The superintendent said magnet programs could be successfully located in the same building as another school, and he didn’t anticipate problems.
Board member Harper asks: What will the district do to prevent student achievement drops as schools close?
Student achievement has dropped after school closures, board member Cheryl Harper says. She wants to know how Watlington will solve for that this time around, and asks about staff impact.
Watlington responds: The district will not cut staff in schools that absorb students, and it will begin a transition office to directly support students in schools that are closing or taking in another school.
The board has had to make decisions based on ‘what we can afford, rather than what our students deserve,’ Streater says
At one point, the district was looking at an $8 billion bill to address all of its facilities issues, board president Streater said. The board has had to make decisions based on “what we can afford, rather than what our students deserve,” Streater said. These decisions are based on “structural funding inequities.”
Like many major cities, the district has lost enrollment. But now, it’s “calling the question,” Streater said.
“We have a misalignment,” Streater said. The district is unable to pay for the programs it needs to provide to accelerate academic achievement with the footprint it has.
Streater called for “an open heart and an open mind” as the board starts to deliberate.
But, he stressed, the board will not vote tonight.
Watlington shares changes to his initial proposal, including sparing two schools from the closing list
Watlington runs down the changes between his initial proposal: Conwell Middle School and Motivation High are off the closing list. Robeson will still close, but move into Motivation, not Sayre; and Lankenau High will still close, but merge into Saul, a magnet, not Roxborough, a neighborhood high school. Saul is an agricultural magnet, and Lankenau an environmental magnet.
Watlington is also modifying the phase-out plan from Penn Treaty from seven years to four years.
There is murmuring from the crowd, and scattered applause, as Watlington presents the revised recommendations. Some people are taking photos of the PowerPoint with their phones.
‘In an ideal world, I never believe in closing schools,’ Watlington says
“In an ideal world, I never believe in closing schools,” Watlington said, a remark met with some groans from the crowd. “I would never want my child’s school to be closed, to be frank.”
But, he said, the district is in a place where it has to think about ways to “better use our limited resources.”
“We’ve done our level best to spread opportunity across learning networks, 10 City Council districts,” he said.
“We have listened with a third ear” to the public, Watlington said. “We’ve heard lots of feedback.”
District will double access to pre-kindergarten and bring Algebra I to all eighth graders
The district will be able to double access to pre-kindergarten, and create more academic and extracurricular programs.
It will be able to offer Algebra I in eighth grade to all students, Watlington said. Currently, just half of eighth graders have access. There will also be more Advanced Placement courses.
“We have a chance to level the playing field, I believe,” Watlington said.
Two of the schools initially proposed to close will be spared under revised plan
Big news out of the facilities plan: Two of the 20 schools Watlington initially proposed for closure will be spared under the revised plan.
Conwell Middle School in Kensington and Motivation High in Southwest Philadelphiawill not close after all, Watlington announced at acharged school board meeting Thursday.
Watlington is calling the plan “Accelerating Opportunities,” a nod to “Accelerate Philly,” his academic strategic plan.
“This is a landmark, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to reduce the number of buildings in poor condition from 85 to 0, Watlington says. He acknowledges that there will be opposition to the plan, and he respects people’s right to disagree.
‘I see a tale of two cities’: Watlington presents facilities master plan with the board
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. speaks during the school board meeting on Thursday.
It’s the big moment now: Watlington is presenting his facilities master plan.
He name-checks Constance E. Clayton, the legendary former Philadelphia superintendent, whom he called his “#1 mentor.”
“We’ve lost tens of thousands of children” since Clayton’s day, because of the growth of the charter school sector and a flat birth rate, Watlington said.
Watlington watched a 45-minute movie recently about Overbrook High, which in 1969 had 5,000 students. Today, Overbrook has 466 students.
Schools, 100 years ago, were built “big, bold,” sometimes with stained-glass windows, marble floors, and grand architecture.
But now, Watlington said, “I see a tale of two cities.” Kids in some places have ample access to high-quality academic programs, and in others, they do not, he said.
As Watlington continues to give his assessment of the district, there were some cheers from the crowd as the superintendent promised to “whiz through some slides quickly.”
Watlington says he will recommend cutting half days, as he shares attendance stats
Student regular attendance was 53% this past January, as compared to 51% in 2025, Watlington says.
Watlington will present a recommendation to eliminate half days, which affect student attendance negatively.
“We need to eliminate and sunset half days from our school calendars for now, and forevermore,” the superintendent said.
Teacher attendance was 76% in January, up from 74% in 2025, Watlington said.
As of this January, 1,071 students have dropped out of the district since the start of the school year, up slightly (1,069 students) from the same period last year.
Watlington begins his report with updates on the wellness campaign the board will consider
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. is shouting out Lift Every Voice, a grassroots parent organization, for its work.
LEV’s “joy campaign” helped advance the new wellness policy the board will consider tonight. LEV campaigned hard for things like the end to silent recess, plus mandatory bathroom and water breaks.
Student board members urge the board to pass school wellness policy
The student board members, in their report, urge the board to pass the school board wellness policy, and say they’ve attended multiple school closing community meetings.
They encourage students to continue to speak out about issues important to them.
The facilities plan being shared tonight has been long in the works, Streater says
Streater is talking about the history of the facilities master plan, which he says began with the board’s hiring of Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr in 2022.
It’s expanded its speaker policy Thursday to allow extra comment on the important topic, he said. The board will hold a special town hall on the facilities master plan on March 12, Streater said.
“We understand this works brings forth a range of mixed and often strong emotions,” Streater said.
Honored teacher of the month is from a school slated to close
Jessica Peruso, an autistic support teacher at Harding Middle School in Frankford — one of the 20 schools slated for closure under the district’s facilities plan — was honored as Teacher of the Month.
Peruso has taught at Harding for 13 years.
“Her work is more than teaching — it is advocacy and community building in action,” Superintendent Tony Watlington said.
The announcement drew some loud cheers from the audience, and a shout of “Harding!”
School board kicks off a meeting expected to be lengthy
Board meeting, here we go!
There’s a packed room and a packed agenda.
Board president Reginald Streater explains that given the length of the meeting, the board will take at least one break to help members maintain focus (and switch out batteries).
There are a whopping 98 speakers tonight between students, elected officials, and other members of the public. The board has allowed extra speakers on facilities issues.
The facilities plan is a ‘bad deal,’ says Councilmember Jamie Gauthier
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier delivered a fiery speech to close the rally on behalf of all of the elected officials present. She called the proposal “a bad deal” for students, teachers, and staff across the district.
“Our kids, especially the Black and brown young people being disproportionately impacted by this plan, deserve better than a plan that’s dependent on raising an additional $2 billion informed by inconsistent data, and is missing so many crucial answers,” she said.
Gauthier said several well-performing schools, like Paul Robeson High School and Parkway West High School, are slated for closure, and implored the district to reevaluate its plan and slow down.
She also shared concern about the plan to close Motivation High School because of underutilized space, despite it sharing a building with another high school.
Lankenau students fight for their school to be saved
Midway through the rally, a busload of students and staff from Lankenau High, an environmental science magnet school, arrived in front of the school district headquarters, armed with signs calling the school district’s plan to close “trash.”
“I feel safe here,” said Zhanel Osmonova, a first-year student. At her previous school, she felt less welcome and struggled to fit in. That changed at Lankenau, and she said she’s worried about having to start over again.
“In this school, I find my voice and my safety,” she said.
Jesse Hall, a junior, said the district ought to understand that the characteristics that make Lankenau special won’t necessarily transfer if students have to move to Roxborough High School. Though he will have graduated by the time Lankenau would close, he feels close to and worried about his teachers and underclassmen friends. Hall will deliver a speech to the school board later today imploring them to keep Lankenau open.
“I hope they realize what they’re going to do to the students,” he said.
Stetson Middle School students get the energy rising as rally begins
Students rally before the school board meeting on Thursday.
Ahead of the official start of the rally, students from John B. Stetson Middle School are raising the energy with whistles, noise-makers, and the kind of cheering you’d expect at a college basketball game, except these chants are: “Save our school!”
Some passing cars honked their support.
David Orellana, pastor of CityReach Church in Kensington, said that he and others in the Stetson community have not received adequate answers from the school district about why Stetson is recommended for closure.
“We believe that the school is a staple in the community. It’s a heartbeat in the community,” he said.
Watlington to present facilities plan to school board
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington St. is set to present his $2.8 billion facilities plan to school board members at Thursday’s meeting.
The board will not vote Thursday on the plan, which remains just a proposal until members act on it. The board has not yet set a date for that vote but it is expected in the coming weeks.
Opponents of school closures gather for rally outside district headquarters
Before a scheduled 4 p.m. Philadelphia school board meeting, a large turnout is expected at a rally on the steps of the school district’s North Broad Street headquarters.
Union members, students, parents, teachers, and community members plan to rally against the proposed closure of 20 Philadelphia public schools. At the board meeting, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. is expected to present a $2.8 billion facilities plan to the board. The proposal, unveiled last month, includes closing 20 schools, colocating six and modernizing 159 school buildings.
The demonstration is being organized by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and other labor unions.
Lyric Jenkins is a strong student, with a report card full of As and Bs.
She approached her high school selection process seriously, finally zeroing in on a school that checked all her boxes. Jenkins chose Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice, she said, because it was an academically rigorous magnet school, safe — and not huge.
“I wanted a small community where I could be seen,” said Jenkins, now a 10th grader at Parkway Northwest in East Germantown.
Last month, Jenkins was “shocked” to find her school was being targeted for closure, in part because of the very size that drew her to choose it.
Philadelphia School District officials have proposed closing Parkway Northwest and 19 other schools, colocating six more and modernizing 159 under a sweeping facilities plan. The proposal calls for closing Parkway Northwest in 2027 and making it an honors program inside Martin Luther King, a large comprehensive high school about half a mile away.
Student Alasia Payne speaks during a rally for peace and social justice on Wednesday outside Parkway Northwest in protest of its potential closure.
That plan has drawn fire from many, including more than 100 Parkway Northwest students, who walked out of school en masse Wednesday to protest — waving signs, singing, and banging drums.
Those fighting to save the school argue that its small size is an asset, and enrollment has been growing, and they have expressed safety concerns about sending children to Martin Luther King.
More students choosing Parkway NW
District leaders have said their plan is not motivated by finances, though there is clearly a desire to shrink the school system’s footprint, with 70,000 empty seats citywide. Some schools are less than a quarter full, and others, mostly in the Northeast, don’t have enough room to accommodate all the students enrolled.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said the plan will provide a stronger and more equitable education for students citywide.
Closing Parkway Northwest is part of a strategy to shut a handful of small district magnet or citywide schools, moving them into reinvigorate neighborhood high schools.
That strategy has been uniformly denounced by staff, students, and parents at Parkway Northwest and the other schools that would be forced to surrender their independence — Parkway West, Motivation, Lankenau, and Robeson. All have been affected by changes to the district’s special admission process, which shifted the district to a strict centralized lottery, stripping away from schools the ability to have any discretion over their incoming classes.
Student Dane McFarland speaks during a rally outside Parkway Northwest High School on Wednesday.
The school has worked diligently to build enrollment back up, said Beth Ziegenfus, Parkway Northwest’s school-based teacher leader and the coordinator of its robust dual enrollment program.
“More students have been choosing Parkway,” Ziegenfus said. “If you think about what our projected enrollment is for next year, we’re looking at an extra 150 kids that we could have here.”
The closure recommendation discounts that growth, Ziegenfus said, and it also threatens students like Jenkins.
“These small schools offer something to students who don’t thrive in large environments,” said Ziegenfus. “There is something to be said about kids knowing every single adult in the school — it contributes to the safety. When every child knows you and you know every child, you’re able to offer support, or redirect behaviors, or offer assistance.”
Ziegenfus spent years teaching at Frankford, another large neighborhood school. She said shecares about comprehensive high schools, sees their value, and believes they need more resources. But those resources shouldn’t come at the expense of Parkway and other small schools.
“We should invest in King, but two things can be true at the same time. We need Parkway,” said Ziegenfus. “They’re really disrupting the children here, and the children at King, and the incoming kids who are going through the school selection process.”
‘They’re going to flee somewhere else’
At recentdistrict meetings about the proposed Parkway Northwest closure, anger bubbled over.
Students, teachers, and community members disputed the district’s statistics around the school in a meeting with district officials, saying its 60% building capacity score was off.
But mostly, they raised alarms about safety.
“My question is, how will I be able to grow my education at a bigger school if I don’t even feel safe there?” said Sanai Williams, a Parkway Northwest 10th grader. “I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to grow my education if I’m watching my back, thinking I’m going to get attacked every which way at King.”
Parkway Northwest High School in Philadelphia.
Rodrigo Fernández, the Parkway Northwest Spanish teacher, said he was frustrated by a perceived lack of real opportunity to shape the plan.
“You are not listening to us,” Fernández said. “You haven’t heard one single person saying, ‘I am excited about this plan.’ If you want to retain our students, you won’t retain them by doing this. They’re going to flee somewhere else. They didn’t choose that setting.”
Over 1,500 community members have signed a Change.org petition calling for the district to reverse the closure recommendation.
A peace and social justice mission
Parkway Northwest, said Elliott Seif — a retired educator and author who’s volunteered at Parkway Northwest for 15 years — is being offered up as “sacrificial lamb to do something at Martin Luther King, which it may not be able to do.”
And Paula Paul, another longtime Parkway Northwest volunteer, said the very nature of the school makes it essential in the city.
Students walked out of Parkway Northwest on Wednesday to protest its closure.
“Does not our city need a school devoted to peace, social justice, and violence prevention, and one where people have formed a community that is functional, a school that works, a school where kids want to be?” Paul asked district officials. “We’ve been struggling to get schools that are functioning, not to lose students, for students to feel safe, to feel connected. Why would we close this school?”
Watlington is expected to present his plan to the school board Thursday, but the board will not vote then. A date for the final decision on closures and other changes has not yet been set.
Philadelphia School District officials said they considered poverty rates and prior school closings in a neighborhood when weighing which schools to close.
Each school had a score based on its surrounding neighborhood, and only one of 20 proposed closures is in a “very high risk” neighborhood: John Welsh Elementary.
Welsh, on the northern edge of the Norris Square neighborhood, has 185K-8 students and operates atunder a quarter of the building’s capacity. Enrollment has declined over the past several years and the school now holds an average of 20 students per grade, including only 9 second graders. About two-thirds of the students are Latino, and the other third are Black.
While it’s small and its building is not in good shape, it was not necessarily obvious that the district would target Welsh for closure — because so-called neighborhood vulnerability was a factor in officials’ decision-making.
But Welsh parents and studentsargue the school shouldn’t be closed because its students were performing well, despite the lack of investment from the district, as well as the condition of the building and its surrounding neighborhood.
Kareemia Boyd, the parent of a Welsh eighth grader, credited the school with helping her son turn around his grades after he came from a charter school. She transitioned her son to Welsh in fifth grade, when his grades were suffering and he experienced bullying. Now poised to graduate this year, she said he gets A’s and B’s.
“I didn’t expect he would actually grow in so many ways,” she said at a recent community meeting about the closure plan.
The district’s draft plan calls for the Welsh building to be upgraded andconverted into a new year-round high school which would open for the 2029-30 school year.
Pedestrians walk along Susquehanna Avenue in the Norris Square neighborhood in 2022.
Current Welsh students would transition to John F. Hartranft School or William McKinley School. Hartranft and McKinley would receive new ADA investments and other renovations, Algebra I instruction, and pre-K programming, officials said.
Several students asked district officials at the community meeting why they would be transitioned to Hartranft and McKinley, when those schools have performed worse academically than Welsh. About 14% of students at Hartranft and 10% of students at McKinley scored at least a proficient level on state English language arts exams last year, compared to 20% of Welsh students.
District representatives said they did not consider academic performance when deciding whether to close schools. Instead they focused ongetting proper resources to students and schools, they said,which will be more feasible once schools areconsolidated.
Boyd said her son’s teachers at Welsh pushed him to improve, and wouldn’t let him settle for less than what he was capable of. She appreciated how much they cared about him, and said they had “a big impact.”
“I want somebody to care about my kid as much as I do,” she said.
She said she believes the declining enrollment has to do with the school’s neighborhood. Boyd said people are concerned about crime and drugs, and don’t feel safe sending their kids to the school, particularly when school security is limited.
But for those who have stayed, Sary Rodriguez, a parent of current Welsh fifth and eighth graders, said it’s a community where everyone looks out for others.
“We all know each other. We all support each other. So it’s hurting a lot of people,” she said about the district’s plan.
Young people enjoy Norris Square Park in the Norris Square neighborhood, where Welsh Elementary School is slated to close under a proposal from the school district.
Rodriguez also has a 19-year-old daughter who graduated from Welshand works at the school. But Rodriguez said she’s considering moving her children to charter schools if the school closes, in part because of her concerns for the academics at McKinley and Hartranft. No matter where they go, transitions are difficult for all involved, she said, including parents.
“It’s not only the students that have to meet new people and new friends and new teachers, their parents have to start all over [with] a new relationship with teachers and students, the neighborhood … I don’t know nothing about those schools,” she said.
Rodriguez implored the districtofficials at the community meetingto genuinely consider pleas to keep the school open.
“I really have the feeling it doesn’t matter what we say or what we do. It’s just going to be a decision that they’re gonna make,” she said.
Rodriguez said she’s upset that the district hasn’t invested in Welsh, but plans to put resources into a new school at the same location.
“It bothers me that they’re going to spend the money to fix it for a high school and they can’t fix it for our kids,” she said.
Ava Huertas, a sixth grader at Welsh, planned to graduate from the school just like her grandmother, mother, and sister did. She’s been enrolled there since she was in kindergarten, and now would have to move to a new school for eighth grade before transitioning again for high school.
She asked several questions to district officials about why they were planning to close her school, reading off notecards and avoiding eye contact. As she wrapped up her final question, she thanked the officials for listening, but had to be honest about her feelings.
“I hope that the plan doesn’t go through, I’m not gonna lie,” she said.
Could a 1973 legal agreement help save Lankenau High?
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education hopes so.
The Philadelphia School District has proposed closing Lankenau, the city’s environmental science magnet school, and giving it to the city to help further Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s affordable-housing goals, or for job creation.
But the Schuylkill Center, Lankenau’s neighbor, believes it’s prohibited from doing so, and just notified Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.
The Schuylkill Center “holds a right to repurchase the property in the event that it is transferred or conveyed or used for any purpose other than school purposes, pursuant to a restriction in the October 4, 1973 deed by which [the Schuylkill Center] conveyed the property to the Lankenau School,” a lawyer for the environmental center wrote in a letter sent to the districtMonday.
Students, staff, and community members who support Lankenau High School – including some dressed as trees – packed a recent community meeting at the school about its proposed closure.
If the district is “considering a sale of the property or using the property for any purposes other than continued use as a school, this letter serves as written notice of [the Schuylkill Center’s] right to repurchase,” lawyer Sean T. O’Neill wrote to Watlington, “The school district must provide [the Schuylkill Center] with reasonable advance notice of any potential conveyance or change in use and allow [the Schuylkill Center] the opportunity to exercise its right to repurchase.”
The center, which touts itself as “one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country,” was founded in 1965. It has trails and a visitors’ center and runs educational programs and a wildlife clinic.
District officials had no immediate comment.
Lankenau’s history
Lankenau sits amid 400 wooded acres adjacent to the Schuylkill Center. The 17-acre parcel Lankenau High now sits on was originally the site of the private Lankenau School for Girls; after that school closed, the Philadelphia School District purchased the land.
What is now Lankenau High was first a program of Saul High and then Germantown High, but in 2005, it became a standalone school as part of then-CEO Paul Vallas’ small schools initiative.
Since then, Lankenau has soared as a diverse, hands-on magnet with a 100% graduation rate in a location like no other.
News that Lankenau landed on the district’s closure list infuriated students, parents, community members, and elected officials, who have mounted a robust campaign to fight plans to shut the school and relocate it as an honors program inside Roxborough High.
Teachers, students, and community members from Lankenau High School rally outside a Philadelphia school board meeting in January.
The Schuylkill Center’s first priority is for Lankenau to remain as it is, said Erin Mooney, executive director of the 60-year-old organization, which now partners closely with Lankenau.
“We are in opposition to Lankenau’s closing,” said Mooney, “but should something change with Lankenau, we want to ensure that the site continues to be used to teach people about nature.”
Mooney, who has been public in the Schuylkill Center’s support for the school, discovered the language giving the Schuylkill Center right of first refusal if the property ever ceases being a school in the 1973 agreement.
Watlington is scheduled to present his sweeping facilities plan — which as of January included 20 closures, six co-locations and 159 modernizations — at a school board meeting Thursday.
The Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School in Roxborough on Saturday, January 24, 2026.
But the superintendent has said what he presents to the board may include some tweaks to his initial recommendations.
Mooney hopes the information the Schuylkill’s lawyers sent Monday helps Lankenau come off the closing list.
“We want Lankenau to stay,” she said, “and I wanted the school board to have this information as part of its decision-making.”
Watlington’s recommendations are just that; the school board has ultimate say. It has not given a date for the final vote on school closings, but said no vote will happen Thursday.
