{"id":442127,"date":"2025-12-12T10:02:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/442127\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:02:34","slug":"abandoned-philadelphia-schools-could-be-given-to-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/442127\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Philadelphia schools could be given to the city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>A decision by the Philadelphia Board of Education to begin exploring and negotiating an agreement to convey vacant properties to the city was met with community concern.\n<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent Dr. Tony B. Watlington and his team will weigh the transfer of 20 abandoned district buildings to the city after the board authorized the decision at a special action meeting on Thursday. In the resolution, which passed 6-2, the superintendent said that it is \u201cin the best interests of the district and its students [that] the district explore and pursue negotiations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Cherelle Parker has stated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phillytrib.com\/news\/local_news\/philly-mayor-s-20-year-tax-abatement-to-boost-abandoned-properties\/article_3ddfcf3c-69fa-4a63-bd4e-a8e16392ef88.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her desire to use vacant school buildings<\/a> as a part of <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-city-council-proposal-housing-units\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her administration\u2019s plan to develop 30,000 housing units in the city<\/a>. Critics <a href=\"https:\/\/thephiladelphiacitizen.org\/shrinking-housing-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have expressed concern<\/a> over how much housing will actually be built \u2014 that the number could be closer to 13,000 new units \u2014 but the potential property acquisition could give the mayor a boost.\n  <\/p>\n<p>The decision also follows recent concerns surrounding vacant schools in the city. After <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/kada-scott-philadelphia-school-district-vacant-property\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kada Scott\u2019s body was found in the woods behind Ada H. Lewis Middle School<\/a> in late October, Germantown community members said that over time, the site had attracted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/philadelphia\/2025\/11\/14\/councilmember-cindy-bass-wants-ada-lewis-building-sold-to-a-charter-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criminal activity<\/a>, like graffiti and squatting.\n<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Wendy Galson worked as a psychologist at the middle school, and during <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-school-board-principals-contract-raises\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last week\u2019s board meeting<\/a> lamented its current condition, calling the building a \u201cdilapidated eyesore.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe site has been so neglected and trashed that someone thought it would be a good idea to discard a dead body there,\u201d Galson said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Public schools in Philadelphia are <a href=\"https:\/\/billypenn.com\/2025\/03\/17\/philly-school-district-successes-struggles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">underfunded by close to $1.25 billion<\/a>. Even though buildings like Ada H. Lewis no longer house students, the district still pays carrying costs for the properties, including maintenance and security. By offloading these empty buildings, the district could save money on a tight budget.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":442128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,18729,1311,203869,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-442127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-education","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-school-board","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115706025928147598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}