Posted on April 20, 2026
Categories: News from SDP

Dear School District of Philadelphia community,

This morning, I presented the final proposal of Accelerating Opportunity: The School District of Philadelphia Facilities Master Plan to the Board of Education. You can read the message I shared with them below, and view all recommendations at Facilities Planning website.

The Board will consider this final plan at its meeting this Thursday, April 23, 2026.

Thank you for your dedication and dilligence as the District has worked to finalize this plan. I believe we have delivered a plan that reflects the District’s goal of expanding access to high-quality programs and improving facility conditions across the city, and will help us continue on our journey of becoming the fastest improving, large urban public school district in the nation.

April 20, 2026

Dear Board of Education Members,

From the launch of the Facilities Planning Process in the summer of 2022, the District has engaged in robust community feedback from across the city, and we have maintained a laser-like focus on student needs and achievement. Becausemore students must have access to the best that our District has to offer, we have remained steadfast in our commitment to produce a final plan that increases access to high-quality academic and extra-curricular programs across neighborhoods, and that reduces the number of district operated schools with poor or unsatisfactory ratings from 85 to 0.

On January 22, 2026, we released the initial set of School District of Philadelphia Facilities Master Plan (FMP) recommendations, followed by continued engagement with students, families, staff, and community stakeholders across the city. On February 26, 2026, I presented the first version of Accelerating Opportunity: The School District of Philadelphia Facilities Master Plan to the Board of Education. And today, I am presenting a second and final version of Accelerating Opportunity: The School District of Philadelphia Facilities Master Plan.

This final plan differs from the recommendations we shared in January as follows:

  • Increased the price tag from $2.8 billion to $3 billion.
  • Increased the number of school modernizations from 159 to 169 campuses,
  • Maintained 6 school co-locations.
  • Reduced the number of school closures from 20 to 17 campuses.

In addition, the final plan includes 12 revised recommendations from what was presented in January:

  1. Remove Conwell Magnet Middle School from closure recommendation and make Elkin Elementary feed into Conwell beginning in SY 2027-28 to increase enrollment.
  2. Remove Motivation High School from closure recommendation and merge Robeson High School into the Motivation site beginning in SY 2027-28 to increase enrollment.
  3. Close Robeson High School and merge with Motivation High School for SY 2027-28, rather than with Sayre High School.
  4. Close Lankenau High School and merge with Saul High School for SY 2027-28, rather than Roxborough High School.
  5. Remove James R. Ludlow School from closure
  6. Transition Moffett Elementary School to a K-4 school, with middle grades attending Ludlow,
  7. Expand Hackett School to a K-8 school.
  8. Retain ownership of the Lankenau High School property as an environmental education center for use by all District students, given the access to the The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.
  9. Retain ownership of the Robeson property and plan for its future use in partnership with the community, given its close proximity to one the nation’s premier science and innovation hubs.
  10. Increase the planned investments in Council District 3 (that we shared on February 17) from $205 million to $331 million, which will fund modernizations at Anderson Elementary School, Bryant Elementary School, Mitchell Elementary School, and a pool renovation at Motivation High School.
  11. Increase the planned investments in Council District 5 (that we shared on February 17) from $299 million to $330 million, which will fund infrastructure for the North Philadelphia Promise Zone.
  12. Withdraw the recommendation to convey closed schools in this plan, which has been reduced from 10 to 7, to the city at this time in order to provide the Board with more time to consider legal and policy considerations.

I thank you for your ongoing and thoughtful consideration of this master facilities plan that will, if funded properly, provide a historic opportunity to increase access to high-quality academic and extra-curricular programs across neighborhoods, and reduce the number of district operated schools with poor or unsatisfactory ratings from 85 to 0, You can access the full plan at www.philasd.org/fpp.

In Partnership,

Tony B. Watlington, Sr., Ed.D.