February 26, 2026
Molly McVety/PhillyVoice
Sophie Xu-Friedman, a social work intern at Lankenau High School, was one of hundreds of people who gathered outside the School District of Philadelphia headquarters before a Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Hundreds of people opposing the School District of Philadelphia's plan to close schools around the city gathered outside its headquarters on North Broad Street on Thursday ahead of a presentation of the facilities master plan to the Board of Education. The auditorium, which holds around 240 people, overflowed 15 minutes before the meeting began.
Joseph Blank, a math teacher at AMY Northwest Middle School, one of the schools the district recommended closing, said he hopes the board remains open-minded.
"Our school is really strong and the kids have shown every year that they are getting better in their math and English skills, but more importantly, it feels like a home," he said. "To close it is disrespectful to the work we do."
Jasmine Noble, 32, of West Philadelphia, stood on the sidewalk outside the headquarters with her 5- and 8-year-old children holding a sign that read, "We are more than a school. We are a family." Both children attend Overbrook Elementary School, which is slated to be closed and repurposed as district offices.
"I'm an alumni of Overbrook Elementary," she said. "The same people who taught me to read are the same people who taught my children to read. It's not acceptable because it's going to impact generations to come."
The district released an updated proposal that was slightly changed from last month's version, reducing the number of recommended closures from 20 to 18 schools.
Through data analysis and community feedback, the district came to the conclusion that Russell Conwell Middle School and Motivation High School would no longer be on the list of shuttering facilities. Instead, the updated plan calls for students from Lewis Elkin Elementary School to attend Conwell in Kensington, and shuttering Paul Robeson High School to move into Motivation in Southwest Philly.
Superintendent Tony Watlington said the reversal for Conwell came after the district considered "significant feedback" from the alumni base whose main concern was the roughly 2-mile distance between the school and AMY at James Martin in Fishtown, where students would have been transferred in the original proposal.
"Our community, quite frankly, made some suggestions that had merit," he said.
The update also recommends merging shuttering Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School with Walter B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences instead of Roxborough High School as initially proposed.
The move to sell the Lankenau building to the city came under fire in the days leading up to Thursday's board meeting when the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education alerted the district of a 1973 deed restriction that prevents the building from being conveyed to anyone other than the center, the Inquirer reported. Watlington said the district is aware of the terms and that the situation is actively under review.
Most of the rest of the 10-year plan for the district's 307 facilities remained unchanged from the outline that was released on Jan. 22, including the $2.8 billion price tag and the number of schools that will be modernized (159) and co-located (six).
"Though we had to make some difficult decisions, pending approval, this plan will be our roadmap to helping every student, in every neighborhood, every zip code, have access to the high-quality academic and extracurricular programs they deserve," Watlington said in a statement.
A database posted to the district's website shows what modernization projects are proposed for each school building. Improvements include a new performing arts center at Central High School, auditorium and security upgrades at Franklin Learning Center, and restroom and locker room renovations at Philadelphia High School for Girls.
The district says the plan allows it to consolidate resources, increase the availability of Algebra 1 classes for middle school students and complete dozens of accessibility improvements to its aging infrastructure.
Nearly 8,000 students would be directly affected by these changes, Chalkbeat Philadelphia, an online publication that covers the school district, reported in January, but district officials say almost all of them would be reassigned to schools with comparable or better academic scores.
The last time the school district approved school closures in 2013, thousands of students were displaced, schools saw declining academic performance and a number of buildings were left abandoned for years. District officials say they learned important lessons from those closures and have put safeguards in place in the latest plan to prevent those mistakes from recurring.
Many of the hundreds who showed up Thursday are skeptical that things will be different this time around and are hopeful they can make their voices heard before a vote on the plan, which has not been announced.
"My 8-year-old (said), 'I want to be homeschooled if my school is going to be shut down," Noble said. "As a mom, that's discouraging."
