Community Pushing Back Against Comprehensive Plan That Could Reshape School District Of Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Parents fought to save schools at a big meeting in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. The public weighed in on a comprehensive plan that could reshape the School District of Philadelphia.
Community forums are being held this week as the school district assesses the state of its schools. That has led to plenty of uncertainty, even anger, as emotions were on display at Wednesday's forum.
Students, parents and faculty from the Isaac Sheppard School gathered in protest in front of Roberto Clemente Elementary School in Hunting Park.
Sheppard supporters fear their school, plus others, will be forced to close.
"We love our community here and we don't want the school to close," Sheppard Middle School teacher Colleen Lutz said. "It's for the kids. It's really all about the kids."
Lutz hopes the district will keep the middle school open. It's the second time the school is on the chopping block.
"We want people to know that this is a chance to be fully -- for us to be transparent and also to hear from individuals what they want done for the schools and their children," Philadelphia School District spokesperson Monica Lewis said.
Last fall, the district's Comprehensive School Planning Review kicked off across the city. The goal has been to assess the state of city schools, determine which are underutilized, perhaps have declining enrollment and come up with options.
A major point at the forum was no decisions have been made to close any schools.
Consolidation is among the options though, including for Sheppard, where enrollment is declining and building utilization is just 43%.
The future of seven schools was discussed at the forum.
The current phase of the review includes three areas of the city and 21 schools total.
Final recommendations will be made to the board in June and implementation would not be until the 2021-22 school year.
Another forum will be held Thursday at Overbrook High School.
CBS3's Alecia Reid and Alexandria Hoff contributed to this report.
