October 10, 2019
Benjamin Franklin High School/Google Maps
The shared campus of Benjamin Franklin High School and Science Leadership Academy on North Broad Street is closed until Thursday because inspectors found asbestos in the building.
Students at Benjamin Franklin High School and Science Leadership Academy will be relocated to three different buildings in Center City as a result of the asbestos discovered inside school building they share.
The School District of Philadelphia on Thursday announced the plan that will impact about 1,000 students — who have now been out of school for 10 days since asbestos was first found inside active construction zones in multiple areas of Ben Franklin and SLA's shared campus at 550 North Broad Street.
Benjamin Franklin students will be relocated to the former Khepera Charter School site on the 900 block of West Sedgley Street, and SLA students will be attend classes Rodeph Shalom on the 600 block of North Broad Street and a district building on the 400 block of North Broad.
An initial plan had been to put Ben Franklin students at Strawberry Mansion High School and the SLA students at South Philadelphia High Schools, but at two contentious town hall meetings this week — when superintendent William R. Hite Jr.'s resignation was even suggested — angry parents quickly shot down that idea.
Officials confirmed at the meetings the shared Benjamin Franklin and SLA campus on North Broad would not reopen until January, at the earliest.
