Philadelphia board approves plan to close 17 schools

The Philadelphia school board has approved a $3 billion facilities plan that would close 17 schools and renovate 169 over the next decade.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the board acted despite the objections of hundreds of students, parents and teachers. A majority of City Council members shut down the school board meeting twice, and board members finally left the auditorium and cast their votes remotely.

The schools in line to shut permanently: Blankenburg, Fitler, Morris, Overbrook, Pennypacker, Welsh, and Waring elementary schools; AMY Northwest, Harding, Stetson, Tilden, and Wagner middle schools; and Lankenau, Parkway Northwest, Parkway West, Penn Treaty, and Robeson high schools. No schools would shut until 2027 under the plan.

The vote, which had been delayed for a week after pressure from the City Council, passed 6 to 3.

Board member Crystal Cubbage, who voted to reject the plan, said she believes the plan, which relies on $2 billion from yet unsecured state and philanthropic sources, "is not financially viable." 

Board President Reginald Streater said adopting the plan was painful but necessary.

"We cannot continue doing the same things and expect different results," Streater said. "If we are serious about improving student outcomes, we must be willing to disrupt the status quo."

Council member Curtis Jones Jr. said the school board vote will kill Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s proposed $1-per-trip rideshare tax, which she proposed to close a $300 million district budget gap.

Though the board approved the plan, it is not necessarily the final word.

Accelerating Opportunity, the district’s name for the facilities blueprint, is a "living plan," the board resolution said, "based on currently available data and reasonable assumptions regarding enrollment trends, population movement, programming needs, and fiscal conditions."

The board, it said, "retains the authority to require modification of sequencing, timing, scope, and prioritization of recommendations determined to be necessary after consultation with the superintendent."

The plan is necessary, district officials say, as the nation’s eighth-largest school system deals with 70,000 empty seats and many aging buildings it struggles to maintain.

Closing schools will enable the district to bolster academics and extracurriculars in the schools that stay open, officials say. 

But funding for the plan is uncertain. The district will put up $1 billion of the $3 billion price tag itself through capital borrowing, but is banking on $2 billion from the state or philanthropic sources.

Multiple versions of the plan have been presented to the public since its introduction in January: The first iteration had 20 school closures, six colocations, and 159 modernizations.