There is no single formula or algorithm by which the Philadelphia School District will close schools, officials say.<\/p>\n
But the data it will use to help make those calls soon<\/a> \u2014 which officials released widely for the first time on its website Wednesday \u2014 is sobering. <\/p>\n A significant chunk of the district\u2019s buildings<\/a> have been judged to be in poor or unsatisfactory condition or have poor or unsatisfactory program alignment, meaning they lack adequate spaces for the programming the district wants to offer, like art, music and physical education. And some schools fall into both categories.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philly school district leaders are identifying schools to close. Here\u2019s a look at the data that will inform those decisions.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n And while some buildings are significantly overcrowded \u2014 15% of all schools, by the district\u2019s count, mostly in the Northeast \u2014 23% of the district\u2019s buildings are considered severely underutilized and another swath are.<\/p>\n System-wide, the district educates 118,337 students in 307 academic buildings. But it has seats for 186,736.<\/p>\n The majority of the district\u2019s schools fall into the \u201cmoderately underutilized\u201d category.<\/p>\n A school board vote is expected by the end of the year on whether to close, co-locate, repurpose, or rebuild some school buildings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials underscored that the decisions are complicated, and have vowed to carry out a more sensitive process<\/a> than in 2012 and 2013, when dozens of schools were closed<\/a>. This time, there\u2019s a major factor not considered in the last round of mass closures. <\/p>\n The \u201cneighborhood vulnerability index\u201d considers whether the community surrounding a school has withstood closures in the past, and whether it struggles with transportation, housing, or unemployment.<\/p>\n Schools\u2019 academic achievement levels were also part of the calculus in 2012; that\u2019s been removed from the equation this time around.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data alone does not dictate the outcome of a school, and it\u2019s just a piece of a puzzle that will be a part of deeper analysis \u2014 for a short term, midterm and long-term recommendations,\u201d said Alexandra Coppadge, the district\u2019s chief of communications and customer service. <\/p>\n Months after promising a public airing of the data, the district released a searchable database Wednesday, the first time it has made such information available. The Inquirer, using numbers school leaders had made available via paper copies at <\/b>in-person planning sessions, compiled and analyzed the district data earlier this summer, with similar findings<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no fixed decisions at this point,\u201d Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. told reporters at a briefing Monday, \u201cand the short answer is we can\u2019t answer any of those questions right now about which schools will close, but we can surely say some will.\u201d<\/p>\n Poor scores aren\u2019t the same as safety or school quality<\/p>\n Officials acknowledged whatever plan Watlington presents is likely to stir deep emotions \u2014 some community members are already galvanizing to fight it. <\/p>\n But given Philadelphia\u2019s status as a historically underfunded school system, and the disappearance of federal COVID-19 relief funds, \u201cwe\u2019ve got to better utilize our budgets, our people, our buildings, all of our resources in service of providing more high quality academic and extracurricular programming across all the neighborhoods of Philadelphia,\u201d Watlington said.<\/p>\n