PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Board of Education has passed a preliminary budget that cuts spending by $225 million for the next fiscal year. Students, parents and teachers attended Thursday night’s school board meeting to voice ongoing concerns about the district’s school closure plan.
The School District of Philadelphia’s plan calls for the closure of 18 schools, and it would modernize or reconfigure dozens of others.
The K-5 John Moffet School in North Philadelphia would become a middle school and send elementary students a mile away to Hackett.
“We can’t walk to Hackett because it’s too far,” 6-year-old Ellison Minarik told the board. “Some of my friends may not have good attendance because they don’t have cars.”
There were similar calls for the board to reconsider planned changes to high schools like Bodine and Paul Robeson.
John B. Stetson Middle School in Kensington would be repurposed as a flexible learning swing space and transition students to Elkin and Cramp. Stetson student Jade Colon told the board she thinks the move is short-sighted.
“Even with success and growth being shown, you, as the board, are still deciding to throw something with so much potential away,” she said.
Vik Raghupathi/KYW Newsradio
The board also adopted a preliminary budget with cuts that mirror those Superintendent Tony Watlington proposed earlier this month, intending to eliminate a $300 million structural deficit by 2030.
In his lump sum statement to the board, district CFO Mike Herbstman said the proposed $225 million cut in fiscal year 2027 will be expanded moving forward.
“We will have to make additional reductions in each year after this,” he said. “Going from the $225 million [in fiscal year 2027], each subsequent year would need an additional $40 million.”
Watlington said under this current plan, there would also be major personnel changes.
“We will move forward with our recommendation to eliminate approximately 220 building substitute positions and reassigning those 340 school-based positions,” he said, as well as cutting 130 central office roles that are currently vacant.
However, if Mayor Cherelle Parker’s proposed $1 tax on rideshares is implemented, officials said 240 school-based positions could be saved.
The $4.5 billion spending plan will be presented to Parker and City Council and be subject to public hearings before the board’s final vote in late May.
