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At community meetings across the city, the School District of Philadelphia is warning families that school closures are coming, but unlike the last time the district closed schools, officials say this time, they want parents, students, and neighbors to help shape the decision-making from the beginning.
“We first and foremost have learned that there has to be increased community engagement,” said Oz Hill, the district’s deputy superintendent of operations, at the first facilities planning meeting on Nov. 4 in Northeast Philly. “We didn’t do that well the last time, and we’re not going to make that same mistake going forward.”
Philadelphia, along with other public school districts across the country, is confronting declining enrollments, a persistent teacher shortage, the rise of cyber charter schools, and a shrinking birth rate. As a result, Philly has many underutilized or half-empty school buildings that are costly to upkeep and renovate. And those buildings are on average 73 years old — riddled with environmental hazards like asbestos and lead, and many lack adequate heating and cooling.
The district says consolidation, colocation, and a reimagining of the school system is necessary to improve student academic achievement and keep the district’s fiscal and infrastructural house in order.
Philadelphia’s public schools have classroom space for 180,000 students and currently serve 116,000 students, according to district data. Charter-operated schools in district-owned buildings have classroom space for 19,801 students and currently serve 14,387 students, the district said.
But closing schools is nasty business. Recent studies have found persistent negative effects from school closures, something district officials readily acknowledge happened in Philly in 2013 when the district closed 23 schools.
“It was not worth the cost,” Hill told families at a meeting Nov. 13 at Finley Recreation Center in East Germantown. “The students that were displaced … their performance declined. The students who were in schools where those displaced students were reassigned, their performance declined. Absences increased.”
This time, Hill said, “rightsizing” the district is less about saving money and more about ensuring students are in environmentally safe and comfortable classrooms with credentialed teachers.
The district has held nine sessions already and plans to hold 30 in total. For a list of the upcoming meetings and how you can participate, check out the district’s website. You can see the district’s full presentation here.
The meetings are being organized and hosted by representatives from the consulting group Brownstone PR, which the district has contracted with for $179,500.
Here are some takeaways:
- There’s no list of targeted schools yet. The district says these community meetings are the first step to determine the criteria by which schools will be identified for possible closure, colocation, or reuse. Hill said the district will be looking at the condition of school buildings, their enrollment trends, and other factors. He said he wants Philadelphia parents, students, and community members to help shape what those final criteria will be.
- A draft plan will be released next year. When the district releases a draft facilities plan with a list of schools identified for closure — likely in August or September of 2025 — there will be a window for community response before the next phase. Public feedback on the list will happen in October and November of 2025 and the district intends to finalize the plan by November or early December 2025.
- The district is haunted by the school closure process in 2012-13. District officials have sworn not to repeat the meetings of the past, which saw thousands of angry students, parents, and community members railing against district representatives for closing their schools in pursuit of financial savings. In the decade since, Hill says the district has saved $24 million annually from those closures but this time, the motivation is not to save money — it’s to improve conditions for student learning.
- People are not packing the rooms. The quantity of meetings (both in-person and virtual) means more opportunities to attend, but at several of the meetings Chalkbeat has observed, there have been fewer than five parents in attendance. At least one meeting was very well-attended, when several principals from Northeast Philly spoke passionately about overcrowding issues at their schools. According to Megan Smith, founder of Brownstone PR, there have been 134 participants at the nine meetings so far.
- Closed schools will be used for community purposes. Hill said any schools closed as a result of this process won’t be sold off “for mere pennies on the dollar.” Hill said the district will “repurpose our schools for the benefit of our communities.” The buildings might be put to use as community centers, recreation centers, or other public gathering spaces.
The parents and teachers that have attended these meetings have raised several issues they want the district to consider. Rhawnhurst parent Melanie Silva wanted to know what’s going to happen to current renovation or construction projects. Hill said those will continue as planned. Martin Luther King High School educator Cheryl Jones said she believes it’s important to keep students in their local neighborhoods and asked that the district consider the role schools like King play as a community hub. Hill said he understands that perspective and reassured Jones that he sees King as a viable long-term option.
Other parents raised issues with violence in schools and asked for consideration about more school safety measures, improved athletics facilities and programs, funding for extracurriculars, places for young students to play, and more.
Parent Saterria Kersey said the district should also improve its communication efforts.
Hill told Chalkbeat that after speaking with families at these meetings, he’s learned a lot. Above all, he said, the one thing he would like to see at future meetings “is mass participation. I would want every parent in the district, every parent that has a student in the district, to be part of a forum.”
Clarification: This story has been updated to include the number of meetings held so far and to clarify the amount contracted for community engagement.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
