Announcing the Proposed Facilities Master Plan

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Dear School District of Philadelphia community,

Today we are releasing the proposed Facilities Master Plan, with recommendations for 307 District facilities. The Plan contains recommendations for school buildings that make key investments including but not limited to: delivering access to Algebra I for every middle school student; investing in upgrades to existing Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming at three neighborhood high schools and a new 5th-12th grade CTE hub; investing in a new 5th-12th grade at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush; opening a new Academy at Palumbo Middle School and a new Bodine Middle School; increasing seats at five criteria-based schools; doubling the number of incoming students who have access to District-administered PreK; opening a K-8 and a 9-12 year-round choice and demonstration school; opening a new comprehensive high school program in the Northeast; and completing 56 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvement projects.

Throughout the Facilities Planning Process (FPP), we have worked collaboratively with stakeholders to produce the following recommendations for the Board of Education to consider at its February Meeting:

• Modernize – 159 facilities 

• Maintain – 122 facilities 

• Co-locate – 6 facilities

• Close & Repurpose for District Use – 12 facilities 

• Close & Convey to the City of Philadelphia for Repurposing to Affordable Workforce Housing or Job Creation – 8 facilities 

Every recommendation and investment included in the Facilities Master Plan is aligned to four guiding themes that emerged from in-depth facilities data analysis and extensive stakeholder engagement:

1. Strengthening PreK-8 programming through better use of space
2. Reinvesting in neighborhood high schools as community anchors
3. Reducing unnecessary school transitions for students
4. Expanding access to grades 5-12 criteria-based and CTE schools

➜ You can access a list the schools most impacted by these guiding themes, on the District’s Facilities Planning website. You can also review the facilities decision-making process, which explains how each school was evaluated and assessed before a recommendation was made.The recommendations will result in many significant investments in the future of education here in Philadelphia. Some examples include:

• Modernizing Bache-Martin facility to increase building quality and capacity.
• Modernizing South Philadelphia High School’s CTE spaces to be a state-of-the-art CTE hub and add a fifth through eighth grade CTE program.
• Building a new state-of-the art facility for Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush (which will become 5th-12th) at the currently vacant site of the old Fels school.
• Repurposing the existing Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush High School facility to become a new catchment high school to help relieve high school overcrowding in the northeast.
• Modernizing Central High School to create a performing arts center and increase capacity at the school.
• Opening a new fifth through eighth grade Academy at Palumbo Middle School co-located with George W. Childs School with a feeder preference to Palumbo High School to create a new fifth through twelfth grade pathway.
• Addressing overcrowding in the northeast by modernizing Watson Comly school, and adjusting the applicable catchments and grade bands, so that the facility can accommodate middle grades students from both Comly and Loesche catchments.
• Addressing overcrowding in the northeast by modernizing and adding space to Edwin Forrest and Laura Carnell Schools, and adjusting the applicable catchments and grade bands, so that both schools can accommodate more students.
• Co-locating a year round K-8 at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School.
• Partially repurposing the existing E. W. Rhodes School site without disrupting current programming, to accommodate a renovated pool facility.
• Increasing the number of locations offering Pre-Kindergarten from 75 to 91.
• Increasing the number of schools that are aligned to the District’s ideal 6 grade band configurations.

The guiding themes were overwhelmingly validated through a citywide survey that received more than 8,000 responses in November and December 2025. Families, staff, and community members from every Philadelphia zip code participated, with more than 70 percent of respondents rating each theme as important or very important, underscoring broad, citywide support for our direction.

If adopted later this winter by the Board of education, no changes affecting students or staff will take place before the 2027–28 school year. With the exception of the co-location of the new year-round choice and demonstration K–8 school, every impacted school will be provided a full planning year prior to implementation. The District will also establish a dedicated transition team to work closely with school communities and staff, ensuring a thoughtful, transparent, and supportive transition process.

The District will propose to the Board of Education a 10-year, $2.8 billion Facilities Master Plan and recommendations. This historic investment will fund 159 school modernizations and reduce the number of District school buildings rated unsatisfactory or poor from 85 to zero. Through its two-year capital borrowing cycle, the District will commit $1 billion of its own resources and seek an additional $1.8 billion in public and philanthropic funding to fully realize this vision.

The development of this plan was rooted in partnership and a commitment to community engagement including 47 public listening sessions, 35 data verification sessions with principals, two District-wide surveys that received over a total of 13,000 responses. The engagement is not done. We are scheduling another round of community conversations to take place in February, before the final plan is submitted to the board, so that the community can provide feedback on our recommendations. You can find the schedule on the FPP website, and I hope you will make an effort to attend.

I want to thank the Philadelphia community for being active and equal partners in this work. Though we acknowledge that some of the decisions we have to make will be difficult, I believe that we have developed a plan that incorporates deep, public feedback and will help us increase access to high-quality academic and extracurricular programs across neighborhoods and accelerate our journey to become the fastest-improving, large urban school district in the country.

In partnership,

Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D.
Superintendent
The School District of Philadelphia