Board of Education Action Meeting: September 24, 2026
by 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
