{"id":254114,"date":"2026-07-28T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254114\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T22:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:46:12","slug":"philadelphia-city-council-urges-school-board-to-change-plan-to-shutter-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254114\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia City Council urges school board to change plan to shutter schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) &#8212; City Council members pressed the Philadelphia Board of Education on Tuesday to revisit its Facilities Master Plan, which <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/philadelphia-city-council-urges-school-board-change-plan-shutter-schools\/19592241\/r\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">includes closing 17 schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The council has called for additional audits of district spending and revisions to the plan, but those efforts have already been rejected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We are here today to publicly ask the board to come back to the negotiating table,&#8221; Councilmember At-Large Isaiah Thomas said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">With a new school year beginning in one month, councilmembers urged the board to reconsider the plan before implementation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">RELATED: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/6abc.com\/post\/local-leaders-fight-philadelphia-school-closures-ahead-final-vote\/19004915\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia School Board votes to pass controversial $3 billion facilities master plan<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;This does not add up. I implore you to push the school district and our school board to come back to the table,&#8221; said Councilmember Nina Ahmad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Students from Sankofa Freedom Academy joined the press conference, despite their school not being slated for closure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Sometimes kids are not able to adapt, so it&#8217;s like we&#8217;re trying to keep talking about it and keep pushing for it,&#8221; said rising sophomore Khennedy Jordan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Community members also questioned the district&#8217;s reasoning. Overbrook Elementary is set to close and be repurposed for district network offices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;They still have to spend the $9 million to fix it up. They can spend the $9 million for people in the district to work there, but they can&#8217;t spend the $9 million for students and families to enjoy,&#8221; said Gregory Allen, president of Overbrook West Neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">In a statement responding to the press conference, the school board said it is moving forward with its Facilities Master Plan. The Philadelphia School District is promising to be collaborative and transparent.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) &#8212; City Council members pressed the Philadelphia Board of Education on Tuesday to revisit its Facilities&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[108368,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-254114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-108368","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254114","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=254114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}