Skip to content
Education
Link copied to clipboard

Parents, grandparents, and elected official speak out to save Smith School

A group of Point Breeze community members say they want the district to stop fighting an earlier court ruling that blocked the sale of the Smith School, which was one of five schools it wants to sell to the Concordia Group.

Wilma Frazier (front center) and Maria Ortiz (front right) speak to a group of parents and community members at a news conference Oct. 19, 2016, asking the Philadelphia School District to re-open Smith School, at 19th and Wharton Streets, in South Philadelphia.
Wilma Frazier (front center) and Maria Ortiz (front right) speak to a group of parents and community members at a news conference Oct. 19, 2016, asking the Philadelphia School District to re-open Smith School, at 19th and Wharton Streets, in South Philadelphia.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer

AFTER THE elected officials had their say - declaring solidarity with Point Breeze neighbors who gathered Wednesday to demand that the Philadelphia School District stop its plan to sell Walter G. Smith School - and after all the news vans had gone, Aida Rivera quietly approached a reporter.

"I have lived in this neighborhood for 42 years," Rivera said as she stood outside Smith, at 19th and Wharton Streets. "All of my kids went to this school.

"But now, my daughter has to get up at 6 a.m. every morning to take her child all the way to school at Ninth and Oregon."

Rivera was one of about 50 people who had gathered at the school to denounce the sale and demand the reopening of Smith, claiming the elementary-age children and their families are being denied the security and convenience that a viable school in their neighborhood ensures.

The district closed Smith and 22 other schools in 2013 as part of its efforts to cut costs. In 2014, the district agreed to sell Smith as one of five campuses in a packaged "all-or-nothing" deal to the Concordia Group, a Maryland developer.

Barbara Murray, 60, who has custody of two grandchildren, said she travels from 24th and Wharton to take her 9- and 6-year-old grandkids to Stanton School at 17th and Christian. Sometimes she is able to take the fourth-grade boy and the first-grade girl to school via SEPTA.

Other times they walk - right past Smith - then they must cross busy Washington Avenue.

"Can you imagine what that walk is going to be like in the snow?" Murray asked.

During Wednesday's news conference, community members held signs - "Don't Let Greedy Developers Gobble Up Our Schools" and "Schools Before Condos" - as city and state officials spoke into microphones. State Sen. Anthony H. Williams, State Rep. Jordan Harris, and City Council members Kenyatta Johnson and Helen Gym said they agreed with the residents who want to reopen Smith.

"We are asking the School District to withdraw from the lawsuit and to keep this school in this neighborhood for this community," Harris said.

In May 2016, Common Pleas Court Judge Nina Wright Padilla disapproved the sale of the five schools, writing "the purchase prices for several of the properties were well below the appraised value of said properties ... This court could not in good conscience allow the sale of such large properties for such a low value."

At the protest, Johnson said: "We will continue to advocate; we will continue to fight to make sure that the School District makes it a priority that we have high-quality educational opportunities for our young people [in Point Breeze]."

Gym said parents and people all across the city "knew that mass closings were a bad idea" in 2013. "Nobody here is a fool," Williams told the crowd. "This issue of closing schools is connected with moving people out and moving other types of people in."

As for claims that there are not enough children in the area, Williams said officials "haven't been in this neighborhood." He also said the quality of education should be better. "You haven't given us the school we deserve yet. If you do those two things, you'll bust the doors wide open."