Brace yourself for Philadelphia school closings

LAST WEEK, the School District unveiled its proposal for a facilities master plan, which will cover school closings in the city. Among the bombshells was the announcement that some (unnamed) schools may close before September.

School closings should come as little surprise. From Kansas City to Chicago to Detroit, districts across the country have been shutting huge numbers of public schools. But in Philadelphia, school closings have been relatively sporadic - and they've been done poorly.

School closings are always going to be painful, but the district's last-minute timing, failure to give communities options and benefits, and refusal to share information have turned troubling situations into traumatic ones. In the process, they've alienated communities and created a sense of arbitrary and politically influenced decision-making.

These five issues emerged for me as the most important ones for the School Reform Commission to consider around its facilities master plan:

PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE PUBLIC RESOURCES: The district is one of the city's largest holders of public land, often in places where communities lack access to resources or community space.

The district must make strategic use of land from a long-term perspective - 10, 20 or even 50 years - that balances its needs with larger community and social needs.

Land-banking, long-term leasing, creating a land trust for a performing arts space or a state-of-the-art science and demonstration laboratory for high schoolers – all are examples of strategic reuse of buildings rather than wholesale dumping of land in one of the worst real estate markets of the last quarter-century.

CRITERIA MATTER: The district's new land-management policy contains such subjective measurements as "fair market value." By that measure, it would be more profitable to shut down Greenfield Elementary in upmarket Center City than two or even three schools elsewhere.

The district needs to think more broadly, and not limit itself to such narrow criteria. For example, "under-enrollment" has often been cited as a reason to close schools. But we have schools performing well that are small. We also have the highest class sizes in the state - are we judging enrollment capacity against class-size numbers that have long been criticized by parents and educators?

The district needs a clear mandate on this topic with a mix of criteria that must be publicly conveyed, assessed and reviewed in any closing decisions.

DON'T RUSH IT: Poor timing is one of the primary reasons school closings fail in the public arena. The district's refusal to announce until spring which schools may be targeted for closure by September means families at those schools have already been shut out of the fall school-selection process.

It's troubling that the district's own "School Closing Protocol" recommends informing staff only in the spring about how to handle a June school closing.

But closings should incorporate a multiyear transition process to give time for families to seek options. Middle-grade students should be allowed to finish K-8 schools rather than transfer during critical academic and socially vulnerable years.

The timetable needs to align with the teacher transfer process as well as the fall student transfer process.

ENGAGE THE PUBLIC IN A REAL PROCESS OF MEANINGFUL INPUT: The district says it will hold dozens of regional meetings, with many opportunities for public comment. These meetings could be an important way for communities to gain understanding of and built consensus for land use and management decisions by the district.

But it's also clear that the May budget deadline is driving this conversation. The issue isn't just how many people participate, but how meaningful the process is.

How will communities have real input into the criteria for school closings if a process is rushed for budgetary reasons?

If meetings are held regionally, involving 20-30 schools apiece, how will individual school communities faced with possible closure have the chance for substantive dialogue about their options before decisions are made?

MAKE SURE COMMUNITIES "WIN": Ex-district chief Tom Brady, observing the disastrous process of the Ada B. Lewis closing, pointedly declared that school communities must be offered benefits for the process to work.

Something positive must be gained from a school's closure, whether it's a community learning center or a public playground. It's simply unacceptable that the community is made to feel like losers in an often arbitrary, political and secretive process.

School closings may be inevitable, but school chaos and a sense of public loss don't have to be.

Helen Gym is a public-school parent and a member of the leadership board of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook (www.thenotebook.org), where this was first published.