PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the Philadelphia School District decides whether to fix, consolidate or close its aging school buildings, a community advisory panel Monday night was shown how the process will work.
They had been meeting virtually, but Monday night marked the first time the advisory panel of parents, educators and community members got together in person to see the district pull back the curtain on the factors considered in deciding to keep, modernize, co-locate or close schools.
The group was presented with publicly undisclosed data on school buildings and how much of their capacity was being used. Reporters were allowed to watch but not record as members plotted schools on a grid based on their utilization and what’s called a neighborhood vulnerability score — a measure that accounts for safety, poverty and whether a school in that area had been closed before.
Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill, in an interview, said the district isn’t just weighing a building’s physical condition but its ability to support learning.
“Relative to the other schools that are having possibly the same challenges or different challenges, are there any things we should be considering as we look at this data?” he questioned.
The advisory panel is asked to provide insight. Hill said members will be urged to look for patterns and suggest solutions.
The school building scores will be released to the public by the end of June. A final plan is expected by the end of December.