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Advocates warn Philadelphia schools face secret review, urge pause on closures and library restorations
Summary
A retired teacher and union members told the City Council Education Committee that a confidential facilities review could target under-resourced schools for closure; they urged council oversight, immediate deployment of librarians to at-risk schools and a pause on school sales.
Barbara McDowell Dowdle, a retired teacher and member of education advocacy groups, told the City Council Education Committee that Philadelphia’s facilities review process risks sudden closures of under-resourced schools and called for immediate steps to protect libraries and neighborhood schools.
“This remains true. True in the 3 privileged schools with fully resourced professionally staffed libraries, true in the 200 plus schools without, and especially true in the under resourced schools currently on the secret hit list of the secret facilities review group,” Dowdle said during public testimony. She urged the council to “Pause school closures,” deploy new librarians to the schools on the “secret hit list,” and require more transparent review practices.
Dowdle told the committee the district has used consultants to produce utilization studies that she said are euphemistic and part of a broader pattern that prioritizes cost savings or redevelopment over neighborhood schools. She listed factors she said have contributed to the district’s present condition, including desegregation, redlining, white flight, disinvestment, privatization and gentrification.
Dowdle tied library staffing to equity and student outcomes, urging the council to implement proposals from the district’s director of library services and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ (PFT) contract proposals. She also recommended that the City Council assign at least one staff member to regularly attend School Board meetings and report back to the council, saying this would provide more timely information than recent questioning of Board President Streeter and Superintendent Dr. Watlington.
The testimony named several specific concerns but did not cite a particular ordinance or statute governing the review group. Dowdle described the group as a “secret facilities review group” and said communities “facing loss will have no time to fight back” once closure plans are announced.
Council members in the chamber received the testimony during public comment; there was no formal vote on the recommendations. The committee later recessed and scheduled continuation of business for Friday in Room 400, City Hall.
The testimony came amid wider discussion elsewhere in the meeting about extracurricular funding and school programming, but Dowdle’s remarks focused solely on facilities, libraries and the transparency of closure processes.
