May 15, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Global Leadership Academy Charter School Southwest at Huey and Philadelphia Montessori Charter School were recommended for nonrenewal by the School District of Philadelphia on Thursday.
The School District of Philadelphia recommended that the Board of Education not renew agreements with two charter schools in the city — Global Leadership Academy Charter School Southwest at Huey in West Philadelphia and Philadelphia Montessori Charter School in Paschall — citing academic and financial shortcomings.
During a board meeting Thursday evening, district officials also recommended a one-year renewal for Lindley Academy Charter School at Birney and eight other full, five-year renewals. If the nonrenewal recommendations are eventually approved by the board, it would mark the 16th and 17th charter school closures in Philadelphia in the past 10 years.
Roughly 64,000 students, or around one-third of the city’s student population, attend one of Philadelphia’s 81 brick-and-mortar charter schools.
Since charter programs are publicly funded, every year the district’s Charter Schools Office conducts reviews of each school seeking renewal to determine which are meeting performance goals and which should be cut. The metrics it takes into account are related to academic growth, financial sustainability and organizational compliance.
Agreements between the district and charter schools are typically doled out in five-year increments, but one-year renewals are also handed out to allow for additional evaluation of school performance.
An evaluation of Global Leadership between the 2021-22 and 2024-25 school years showed that the charter did not meet academic standards for PSSA English and math proficiency or standards for attendance or board governance, according to the district.
The district also reported that the school owes nearly $82,000 to its sister program, Global Leadership Academy West. Several “egregious incidents” were also cited that showed the school did not provide proper documentation or evidence of expulsion hearings.
Philadelphia Montessori Charter School has been operating on an expired charter agreement after administrators did not agree to the terms of the last proposal. The district’s report showed that the school did not meet standards for attendance or PSSA proficiency in English or math for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. The school also operated without a certified school nurse on staff for over half of the 2024-25 school year.
A representative with the Charter Schools Office declined to comment on the recommendations.
The board will consider the proposals during its May 28 meeting. If it agrees to issue notices of nonrenewal to both schools, it would kick off a process to close the schools that would involve hearings with administrators and public comment sessions before board members would make their final decision.
Even after a decision is made by board members, schools are able to appeal to the Pennsylvania Charter School Appeal Board. In the past few years, three schools have filed suits directly with the district and board after being recommended for nonrenewal. Charter schools are allowed to remain open during pending litigation related to their potential closures.
Last year, both People for People Charter School and KIPP North Philadelphia Academy filed a suit in the Court of Common Pleas against the board over their recommendations to end their charter agreements. A judge ended up overruling the board’s decision and allowed the schools to remain open.
Another suit was filed by Memphis Street Academy in 2022 after it was recommended that the charter school be shut down following poor academic performances. A federal judge ruled in the district’s favor, but administrators appealed and the school remains open.
Fifteen charter schools closed in Philadelphia between 2016 and 2024, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Last year, the board approved an application for the establishment of the Early College Charter School of Philadelphia, the first new charter school in the district since 2018. It is scheduled to open this fall.
Just hours before Thursday’s board meeting, local advocacy group Philadelphia Charters for Excellence filed a lawsuit against the district and board, alleging that the renewal policies are carried out in a “coercive and exploitative” manner. The filing cites waivers and surrender clauses that are used to amend charter agreements by requiring schools to meet certain conditions or voluntarily shut down, a practice that the group sees as unlawful.
"Fearing the consequences of refusing to accept terms proposed [by the School District,] charter schools face a Hobson's choice," the suit says. "Refuse conditions unilaterally developed by the [Charter Schools Office] ... and face retaliation, or accept what they perceive to be the lesser of two evils."
