Philadelphia鈥檚 school enrollment increased this year for the first time in a decade. But the still points to a declining number of students attending schools in aging buildings鈥攎ore of which might end up under capacity while others become overcrowded.
So, the 116,000-student, 220-building district is embarking on a yearlong process to assess which of its smaller, decades-old facilities might need to close, responding to an increasingly common bind for schools across America as they confront shrinking enrollments, tightening budgets, and aging infrastructure.
The exercise isn鈥檛 growing out of an immediate need to balance a deficit budget or respond to an abrupt enrollment dip, said Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. And the goal isn鈥檛 to close any school immediately.
Instead, Watlington said, the district is hoping to cut down on the number of campuses so it can redeploy its resources to better effect鈥攃losing shrinking schools where it鈥檚 difficult to maintain a full slate of academic offerings and improving offerings at those that stay open.
District leaders hope those 鈥渕ore strategic and purposeful鈥� choices can lead to improved academic and social-emotional success for students, Watlington said.
The approach will involve numerous community meetings as well as, potentially, the establishment of a minimum school size that could trigger reviews鈥攂ut not automatic closures鈥攐f campuses that fall below it. Most of all, the district wants to move more slowly today than it did during a round of closures more than a decade ago. It doesn鈥檛 expect to release any closure recommendations until December, almost a year from now. And it doesn鈥檛 plan to make closure decisions based solely on enrollment.
鈥淲e鈥檙e on this endeavor with our community to identify what it will take for us to resolve or address these issues, and, at the end of the day, to ensure that we have modern school facilities that, quite frankly, provide better curricular access, better and more rigorous course access, more extracurricular and more technical education access for our students,鈥� Watlington said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to give our families more, not less. That鈥檚 the whole point.鈥�
Philadelphia鈥檚 situation illustrates the convergence of several common problems for school districts: declining enrollment, aging infrastructure, finances that grow tighter as districts get smaller, and a need to recover from a slide in academic achievement. Philadelphia鈥檚 slower, longer-term approach to deciding on closures could offer an example鈥攁lbeit a large-scale one鈥攆or districts evaluating how many campuses they can sustain.
We've got to give our families more, not less. That鈥檚 the whole point.
Marguerite Roza, a research professor and director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, advised against a 鈥渇ormula鈥� or 鈥渇ill-in-the-blank mentality鈥� to maintaining school facilities.
Not every school needs to have the same staffing and course offerings, she said, and enrollment alone shouldn鈥檛 be the determining factor in a school closure.
鈥淲e could just say, 鈥業s the school successful with kids, and is it financially viable?鈥欌�� Roza said. 鈥淎nd, if not, regardless of the size, let鈥檚 consider closing that one.鈥�
Philly intends to apply lessons from a previous round of school closures
Closing schools generally doesn鈥檛 save districts a lot of money.
The Edunomics Lab, which analyzes education finance and models district spending decisions, estimates that when a district has under-enrolled schools, , largely in labor costs.
Still, a district with declining enrollment could get to a point where it can鈥檛 sustain all the facilities it has鈥攅specially if it鈥檚 attempting to keep staffing and offerings uniform across all its campuses, Roza said.
鈥淚n that situation, as your enrollment drops, you鈥檙e spreading your resources kind of thin across a lot of schools,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, you start cutting, and you think, 鈥業 guess I鈥檒l get rid of some athletics,鈥� or decide to get rid of electives, or don鈥檛 raise pay for teachers.
鈥淏ecause you鈥檙e trying to prop up these one-per-school positions, there鈥檚 a tradeoff for the entire district to sustain these smaller schools.鈥�
But districts need to approach closures carefully.
In 2012, Philadelphia closed more than two dozen schools to stave off a massive budget shortfall. It was an 鈥渆mergency situation,鈥� and the closures achieved the outlined objective, Watlington said.
But there were tradeoffs.
Students whose schools closed and who were reassigned were disproportionately students of color.
Those students鈥� 鈥渁cademic and attendance outcomes got worse,鈥� he said, confirming findings from academic research on school closures, which has found both short- and long-term consequences for students from shutting down their schools.
This time around, there鈥檚 no budget emergency, and there鈥檚 a desire to employ lessons from the 2012 closures: work more slowly, engage with more community members, and prioritize moving away from the most dilapidated buildings with the lowest enrollment.
鈥淗ow do we structure our district so that we can roster and schedule classes so teachers in the district can provide more art, music, and physical education, provide more access to Algebra 1 in all of our middle schools, and can help us to provide more Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes, as well as more career and technical education to all of our students?鈥� Watlington said.
The district plans to hold several community meetings and listening sessions with parents, local organizations, businesses, and elected officials to gather feedback before issuing its final recommendations for each school facility in December.
Philly is considering a minimum school size
The district is considering whether to establish a 鈥渕inimum school size鈥濃�攚ith details yet to be determined鈥攖hat would trigger conversations about whether a school that doesn鈥檛 meet it should close.
When a school falls below the threshold鈥攚hatever that ends up being鈥攊t wouldn鈥檛 automatically close. But it would be a detail to inform the discussion, Watlington said.
The district would also take into account students鈥� academic performance at the school and other measures, he said.
鈥淥n the one hand, schools have always been centers of communities in this nation, and Philadelphia is no different. When we think about investing in communities, those central institutions are part of that,鈥� Watlington said. 鈥淓quity suggests to me that some school communities need more investment, regardless of the school size, and regardless of where the population is growing or declining.鈥�
Some research has looked into how school size affects learning, with landing on 600-900 students as the 鈥渋deal鈥� size for a high school. Students at schools that were either smaller or larger learned less, the study found. The effects were greater in math than in reading, and greater on students of color and students from low-income families than others.
Still, it鈥檚 not a given that a small school should close, Roza said. But some changes could be inevitable.
In lieu of closure, Roza suggested alternative staffing models鈥攕haring positions like principals, nurses, and librarians across multiple schools鈥攐r having some schools that don鈥檛 offer the same slate of classes and extracurricular activities as every other building.
That can be tough for some communities to stomach, though, so it鈥檚 important to make decisions with feedback from and collaboration with families, staff, and other community members, Roza said.
鈥淪mall schools can be financially viable, but they don鈥檛 look like big schools,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where talking about it with the public to say, 鈥楲ook, we could hold on to all these schools, but it鈥檚 not going to look like a school you have now鈥欌�擨 think that helps people understand the choice isn鈥檛 to keep everything the way it was or close my school, because there is no, 鈥榢eep everything the way it was.鈥欌��
Closing a school is disruptive, but there are ways to limit the disruption
When districts do close schools, Roza said, a 鈥渘onnegotiable鈥� should be that they can鈥檛 close a building and send the affected students to a lower-performing school.
Closing a school is a big disruption to families, so it is critical that districts provide parents with some assurance that their children will be better off academically, Roza said.
Districts should also do what they can to smooth out the process, whether that鈥檚 reassigning cohorts of students to the same schools and even reassigning some of their teachers to move with them.
鈥淭he disruption is substantial enough that a little bit of accommodating those preferences can go a long way,鈥� Roza said.
In Philadelphia, Superintendent Watlington said he is committing to a process that鈥檚 as smooth as possible for affected families, students, and staff when the time comes.
鈥淲e know part of the work we have to do is to better utilize our limited resources, strategically use the additional resources we get, and develop a plan that our community can support and buy into,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to think very thoughtfully about how we鈥檙e doing this.鈥�
