{"id":146358,"date":"2026-03-23T22:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146358\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:03:08","slug":"students-rally-against-proposed-closure-of-5-west-philly-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146358\/","title":{"rendered":"Students rally against proposed closure of 5 West Philly schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>As the School District of Philadelphia considers shutting down five schools in West Philadelphia, city officials, parents and students are working to prevent closures.\n<\/p>\n<p>Outside Paul Robeson High School, at 47th and Market streets, the school\u2019s drum line led an afternoon rally Monday to preserve the institution.\n<\/p>\n<p>The school has a 16:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Samantha Bromfield, president of Robeson\u2019s Home and School Association, said the school should be considered a model and not be on the <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-school-district-closures-plan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">closure list<\/a>. Bromfield believes the building, built in 1960, is being shut down because the property is highly desirable.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a gentrification issue, not just right now, but for later generations,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Cecelia Thompson, a former member of the Philadelphia Board of Education, said even though the properties are highly coveted by residential developers, that should not be a deciding factor.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom here to Haverford Avenue, right across the street [from where] the Rite Aid used to be, they put senior housing. Then right off of 40th and Market, they\u2019re putting more housing in. So, there\u2019s more than enough housing,\u201d she said. \u201cYou do not need to create an academic desert.\u201d<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-736104\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/school-closures-rally-2026-03-23-west-philadelphia-2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Cecelia Thompson speaks alongside students\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\"  \/>Former school board member Cecelia Thompson speaks at the rally, March 23, 2026. (Tom MacDonald\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n<p>Alumnus Tyrese Prince graduated four years ago from Robeson. He said the small classes and individual attention made him a better person.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat truly sets Robeson apart is the access to opportunities it provides. This school doesn\u2019t just prepare students academically, but it prepares them for life through exposure to careers and human services, mentorship programs and college readiness initiatives,\u201d Prince said. \u201cStudents are given real pathways to success.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[223,69,71,70,3478,16381],"class_list":["post-146358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-rally","tag-school-closures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}