{"id":174233,"date":"2026-04-23T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174233\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:02:10","slug":"philly-school-board-wont-vote-on-school-closing-plan-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174233\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly school board won’t vote on school-closing plan Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StudentsStudents from Lankenau High School protest the planned closing of their high school before the school board meeting on Thursday. A planned vote on the facilities master plan \u2014 and Lankenau’s closure \u2014 was postponed a week at City Council’s urging.Read more<\/a>Kristen A. Graham \/ Staffby Kristen A. Graham<\/a> <\/p>\n

Updated\u00a0April 23, 2026, 4:05 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

|<\/p>\n

Published\u00a0April 23, 2026, 2:31 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s school board will not vote Thursday on a controversial facilities plan that would close 17 schools, after all.<\/p>\n

A few hours before the board was set to meet to consider Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.\u2019s plan, officials sent notice that they would hold that vote off a week.<\/p>\n

The news came during a politically charged week, after City Council told district and board officials in no uncertain terms<\/a> they would look askance at future funding requests if the board voted on the plan on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that the future of our school facilities is a matter of significant interest that requires the highest level of collaboration,\u201d board president Reginald Streater said in a statement. \u201cIn the spirit of partnership, we are taking this time to ensure our stakeholders understand the proposal before the board votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vote on the sweeping $3 billion facilities plan \u2014 which would also modernize 169 schools \u2014 is now scheduled for April 30.<\/p>\n

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>, who spoke before City Council about schools<\/a> for more than an hour Wednesday, said she supported the delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that under board president Reginald Streater\u2019s strong leadership, when the board considers the plan on April 30, it will do everything in its power to help our students build on the progress that is already underway,\u201d Parker said in a statement. \u201cAs we work together as a united city, we can and will continue building a school district for the future, with sufficient resources, that we can all be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board will still meet Thursday to consider other business.<\/p>\n

A City Council member threatens to pull support for board members<\/p>\n

Before the delay, City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas<\/a> sent Streater a letter expressing his \u201cdeep concern\u201d that the vote was scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n

He said he and others were furious that Watlington made his \u201cfinal final\u201d plan public only on Monday morning and Streater wanted to push a vote just three days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoting to approve this plan at the next action meeting will only serve to sow public distrust in our school system, further traumatize children and families, and would leave legislators at all levels of government tasked with finding funding solutions to the district\u2019s deficit with less confidence than before this plan was announced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas then went a step further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the plan moves forward right now, in its current form, without the appropriate community engagement and collaboration with this legislative body, I cannot in good conscience support the reappointment of any board members who vote to approve this plan at this time,\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n

After Streater postponed the vote, Thomas said he was gratified.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Council remains committed to ensuring common sense adjustments to this plan are made and that it reaches a place where families can truly understand how their school communities will be affected by the time a vote is taken,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cI appreciate and thank Board President Streater for hearing our pleas and delaying this vote for the time being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition to the facilities plan still strong<\/p>\n

The delay, however, did not deter many who oppose the plan from voicing their opposition \u2014 loudly.<\/p>\n

Outside district headquarters on North Broad Street, students from Lankenau High School \u2014 which has been slated for closure \u2014 chanted and waved signs prior to the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t fix what works!\u201d they shouted.<\/p>\n

And at Hackett Elementary, in Kensington<\/a>, at least one parent chained herself to the school fence to protest a last-minute change to the facilities plan <\/a>that would make Hackett a K-8.<\/p>\n

Watlington\u2019s original plan called for Moffet, in South Kensington, to merge catchments with Hackett<\/a>, with Hackett becoming a K-4 school and Moffet a middle school.<\/p>\n

But the Moffet community fought back hard against that plan. On Monday, Watlington announced that Hackett would become a K-4 with its middle school students going to Ludlow Elementary,<\/a> which was closing but is now off the chopping block.<\/p>\n

Hackett parents were stunned by the change and had no information about how it would work. In the past months, they have been told that there\u2019s no room in their building for a K-8 unless special education students and pre-kindergarteners are moved out, moves they oppose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want a chance to be heard,\u201d said Cimone Berman, the parent who chained herself to the fence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students from Lankenau High School protest the planned closing of their high school before the school board meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,78157],"class_list":{"0":"post-174233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news","11":"tag-philadelphia-school-closings-board-vote-delayed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174233","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=174233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}