The School District of Philadelphia has proposed extensive changes under a sweeping facilities plan, including several closures in Northwest Philadelphia.

Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr. released some details of the 10-year, $2.8 billion blueprint on Jan. 22. The plan, which has been years in the making, would close 20 schools, co-locate six facilities into existing buildings, and modernize 159 schools. The 20 closures would not take effect until the 2027-28 school year.

The recommendations will be presented to the Board of Education for approval on Feb. 26.

Northwest impact

In Northwest Philadelphia, there would be multiple notable changes. Samuel Pennypacker School in West Oak Lane would close and students would be reassigned to Franklin S. Edmonds Elementary School and Anna B. Day School.

Fitler Academics Plus in Germantown would close after a phase-out process. The Fitler building would be conveyed to the City of Philadelphia or sold. Also in Germantown, Parkway Northwest High School would close and be merged into Martin Luther King High School as an honors program. The Parkway NW building would be repurposed as “swing space.” Building 21 Philadelphia would be closed and the facility sold or given to the city with students and programming relocated to MLK High School.

According to State Rep. Andre Carroll, who represents the district in which Parkway Northwest sits, the closure of the high school would be “detrimental to the community.”

“I’m a Germantown High alumnus and spent four years of my life at my neighborhood high school. I know how essential it is to have a school close to home to be able to attend,” Carroll told the Local, referring to the closure of Germantown High School in 2013.

He continued, “I’ve had the opportunity as a state representative to visit Parkway Northwest a few times now and build relationships with the faculty over there. Losing Parkway Northwest is going to be a hit to the community. And if this potential proposal was to succeed, there will be a disruption to a lot of young folks’ education experience in the Northwest.”

Carroll said he is looking forward to “finding alternative routes” to try to keep Parkway Northwest open and give community members an opportunity to speak to the school district.

In Roxborough, Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School would close and merge into Roxborough High School as an honors program. The Lankenau building would be conveyed to the city or sold. Also in Roxborough, the Academy for the Middle Years at Northwest (AMY NW) would be phased out in hopes of growing its feeder schools. The AMY NW building would be conveyed to the city or sold.

State Rep. Tarik Khan, who represents the district in which Lankenau sits, believes the potential closure of the city’s only environmental high school is “absolutely heartbreaking” and “cruel.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time at Lankenau talking with the students. I spoke at graduation. I’ve seen their science projects. The talent at Lankenau rivals the talent at any school in the city,” Khan said. “The graduation rate for these kids is 100%. So when you’re looking at right sizing, leveling up, and making sure that the school district is using its resources efficiently and effectively, closing your highest performing magnet school does not make sense.”

Khan also emphasized the unique location of Lankenau, situated in a wooded area near the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and how taking that away from the students would be a poor decision.

“If you were starting from scratch, you would say ‘Where do we want to put these students to get them the best education?’ It would be exactly where they are,” Khan said. “This decision saves you a few dollars, but what you’re taking away is not the right move. What you’re taking away is extraordinary.”

The final change potentially coming to the Northwest is not a closure. In Mt. Airy, Hill-Freedman World Academy would add a fifth grade.

Difficult decisions

Watlington noted that these closures and adjustments would be hard for the affected communities.

“Though we acknowledge that some of the decisions we have to make will be difficult, I believe that we have developed a plan that incorporates deep, public feedback and will help us increase access to high-quality academic and extracurricular programs across neighborhoods to accelerate our journey to become the fastest-improving, large urban school district in the country,” Watlington said in a news release.

According to the School District of Philadelphia, with this plan the number of school buildings with “unsatisfactory” or “poor” ratings would be reduced from 85 to zero through either closures or upgrades over the next 10 years. The details on such upgrades are still forthcoming. Several of the Northwest’s public elementary and middle schools — including C.W. Henry, J.S. Jenks, Henry H. Houston, and Emlen — are rated as having “unsatisfactory” facilities.

The district was informed on these recommendations by four main themes, identified by families, staff, and community members: 1) strengthening K-8 programming, 2) reinvesting in neighborhood high schools, 3) reducing transitions for students, and 4) expanding access to grades 5-12 and Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools.

The district intends to commit $1 billion of its own resources to realize this plan, seeking the additional $1.8 billion in public and philanthropic funding.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.