Leaders of the five unions representing School District of Philadelphia employees will hold a rally calling on the Board of Education to not rubber-stamp the District’s 10-year Facilities Master Plan (FMP), which would close 20 schools and co-locate and move other schools and programs.
Arthur G. Steinberg, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Local 3; Bernadette Ambrose, President, School Police Association of Philadelphia (SPAP); John Bynum, Assistant District Leader, SEIU 32 BJ; Dr. Robin Cooper, President, Teamsters Local 502 (CASA); and Nicole Hunt, President, Unite Here Local 634 will describe the most serious flaws and concerns about the FMP, and urge the Board to order the District to disclose all of the underlying data and methodology used to reach their conclusions in the FMP. They will remind the Board and District that the last mass closure of public schools did not result in meaningful cost savings to the District; led to worse commutes and learning conditions for students in the most vulnerable communities; and robbed neighborhoods of their “beating hearts,” leading to worse quality of life when schools that were closed sat vacant for years, and sit vacant today.