Renewed opposition to Philadelphia school closures; city council members call on mayor to intervene

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Opponents of the School District of Philadelphia's facilities master plan rallied Thursday outside district headquarters, calling on officials to reverse plans to close 17 schools beginning in the 2027-28 school year and urging Mayor Cherelle Parker to intervene.

Parents, students, teachers and elected officials gathered outside district headquarters in Spring Garden.

"The hardest part feels like the people most affected by these decisions aren't being heard," one student said to the crowd.

The district has said it is moving forward with the plan because there are 60,000 empty seats across the school district and because millions of dollars are spent each year maintaining aging, under-enrolled buildings.

Arthur Steinberg, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, criticized that rationale.

"Guess what? The solution should be to win students back, fix the buildings, do not close them," Steinberg said.

The Philadelphia Board of Education approved the $3 billion, 10-year facilities plan in a 6-3 vote in April. The plan calls for the closure of 17 schools and the modernization of 169 others.

Several members of Philadelphia City Council used Thursday's rally to press Mayor Parker to become involved, arguing that school board appointees are moving ahead despite community opposition.

"The same thing I'm saying publicly is what I said to the mayor: we need you to get involved," Councilman Isaiah Thomas said.

"The way that the power flows, it flows up to her; she's the only one who could stop this, and she could do it right now," echoed Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier.

Action News said it reached out to Parker's office for comment but has not received a response.

District officials maintain the plan will place more students in schools with stronger academic programs and better facilities. However, some educators remain unconvinced six months after the board approved the proposal.

Rodrigo Fernandez, a Spanish teacher at Parkway Northwest High School, said the changes could significantly affect students and families.

"Students that went through a whole high school selection process and now you are going to tell them that they cannot go there? Even students that are going to the neighborhood school and the neighborhood school is closing, and now they need to travel 10 blocks, 20 blocks to get to a new school? That's unfeasible for many families," Fernandez said.

On Thursday, a district spokesperson reiterated that the plan was informed by 47 public listening sessions, 35 meetings with principals and two districtwide surveys that received 13,000 responses from every zip code.

Following the rally, many participants attended the school board meeting and continued voicing their concerns during public comment.