Category: school closings

Board Members Double Down on Unfunded Facilities Plan

Board of Education Action Meeting: October 29, 2026

by Lisa Haver

Students from the 17 schools targeted for closure rally on the steps of 440. (Photo: Lisa Haver)

If we are the leaders of tomorrow, we deserve to be heard today.
Student, Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Justice

If you are not going to represent our interests, put your resignations in tonight.
CASA President Robin Cooper

Why do we need a local school board if you are going to do the same thing the School Reform Commission did?
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier

Students, teachers, principals and parents from the 17 school communities under threat of closure rallied on the steps of 440 before the board action meeting. Student drum lines played, accompanied by Philly Elmo. Several elected officials spoke, vowing to fight the facilities plan. Ninety people had signed up to speak: 21 students, 63 adults, 2 union leaders and 4 elected officials. Yet the board set up only 165 seats in the auditorium, 75 fewer than capacity. APPS members demanded that more chairs be set up, promising to interrupt the meeting if people were detained in the atrium despite plenty of room in the auditorium. After initially saying it wasn’t possible, district staff brought in 40 more seats. When we fight we win.

Continue reading about the meeting here

Watlington Administration Fails to Fully Staff Schools

Board of Education Action Meeting: September 24, 2026

by Lisa Haver

Girls High students protest overcrowded classrooms before Board meeting. (Photo: Lisa Haver)

At the Board of Education’s September 3 mandatory public hearing, fourteen members of the public addressed the board on a number of issues, including the facilities plan and the impending closure of seventeen public schools. APPS member Deborah Grill testified at this meeting, that the board, with little public notice, moved the date of the hearing up from October 15 to the day before Labor Day weekend; that is probably why attendance was lower than usual. Lisa Haver asked the board how it could adjourn that hearing without uttering a single word in response to the parents, students, educators and community members who came to speak to them. The board, which is made up of religious leaders, civic leaders, educational leaders and a mental health practitioner, did not offer one word of comfort to the Lankenau teacher who broke down in tears, begging the board, “Please do not close Lankenau.” The board has hung banners in 440 with slogans including “the children come first”. A board that closes children’s schools is not for the children. They serve as little more than lackeys for the mayor who appointed them and her political backers.

Girls High Students School the Adults
About 150 students from Girls High rallied before the meeting to demand that the district fix the ongoing understaffing at their school. Three testified about the severe overcrowding in a number of classes. One freshman told the board that she is in a class of 50 students with only one teacher. She told the board and Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr, “We need what we say we need. You cannot say what we need until you talk to us and come to our school.”

Continue reading here

Failing Charter Schools Sue to Remain Open

Board of Education Action Meeting:  June 18, 2026

by Lisa Haver

“It is with a heavy heart”, Board of Education President Reginald Streater said, then he cast his vote to initiate non-renewal proceedings for Global Leadership Academy at Huey. Non-renewal for Renaissance charters does not mean school closure. It reverts management of the school back to the district. Is Streater sad that GLA administrators will lose control of the school and its finances? Streater did not express any sadness when he voted to close 17 public schools in April. He had no words of comfort for the students who came to the board who tried in vain to explain how devastating the loss of their schools would be. The board’s decisions on charter renewals shows its consideration for the business interests of the administrators over the best interests of the children who attend those schools. Although the agenda contained 52 action items, most of the board’s deliberation at this meeting focused on a few charter schools. Streater gave no explanation for why the board last week moved the scheduled June 25 action meeting to June 18.

Continue reading here about June 18, 2026 action meeting.

https://appsphilly.net/failing-charter-schools-sue-to-remain-open/

Board Votes in Private Meeting to Approve Facilities Plan

Board of Education Action Meeting: April 23 and April 30, 2026

by Lisa Haver

APPS members protest at April 30 Board of Education meeting. (Photo: Lisa Haver)

At the April 30 action meeting, board members finally addressed their constituents on the district’s proposed Facilities Master Plan. Some had attended the public meetings held over the past 18 months  as observers. They did not respond to  testimony given by students, parents, educators and community members at board meetings and town halls over the past 3 months. Not until this meeting, continued from April 23, did board members disclose their positions on the plan. Board President Reginald Streater, on the other hand, had made his position clear early in the process, before public meetings had ended, in City Council hearings and in an Inquirer op-ed.The district brought in heavy police protection, including bike cops who lined up outside the board’s first floor office. An additional metal detector was set up outside the auditorium. Philadelphia police blocked some elected officials from entering the auditorium. Some on the speaker list were able to access microphones, others were not. In the end, most board members betrayed their constituents, voting to pass a plan that had close to 100% opposition. The board of education is unelected and unaccountable. If the plan fails, there is no mechanism by which they can be held responsible.

Continue reading about April 30 board meeting here.