PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia is moving ahead with its plan to close 17 schools, but parents and staffers haven’t given up the fight to keep them open.
At a school board public hearing Thursday night, teachers at Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School continued their campaign to keep the district from closing their school next year.
Celia Flores-Rivera pleaded with the board to reconsider.
“This is the point that you guys say that you are listening to the village. This is what this meeting is about. And I’m going to say it over and over and over again: Don’t close Lankenau,” she said.
Teacher Jonathan Hoffmeier questioned the transition committees that the district is forming at each affected school.
“Instead of truly working with us, decisions were made. And now you’re asking communities to plan to shut down the traditions of their own schools? That’s not community engagement,” he argued.
Hoffmeier said they have repeatedly invited school board members and the superintendent to the school, but “no one has come.”
“It seems like members of the board will only show up if the media’s around,” he said.
Superintendent Tony Watlington didn’t address the issue at the hearing, but in a back-to-school interview with KYW Newsradio, he said the facilities plan was proceeding as planned.
“We certainly don’t want to be inflexible,” he said, “but we’ve got our north star, we’ve got our marching orders, and we’re moving forward with a fierce sense of urgency to get this work done.”
Lankenau High parents and teachers continue to plead for school to be taken off the list
Lankenau High parents and teachers continue to plead for school to be taken off the list
