04/30/2026
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Friends,
Today, the Philadelphia School Board voted (6-3) to approve a plan that proposes to close 17 schools throughout the city and makes drastic changes to many other schools in the district. Despite many Philadelphians making their views clear on the matter, and amid multiple attempts to delay the vote on the part of Philadelphia residents and City Council members, the School Board proceeded to meet via Zoom to cast their votes.
The decision made by the Philadelphia School Board today promises to have immediate and lasting impacts on the education of hundreds of Philadelphia students and their futures. These changes, as it were, will be implemented with the upcoming 2026-27 academic year; the impacts of these changes will reach far beyond the year 2027.
On a personal note, these changes will affect families in the Fishtown and Kensington neighborhoods. Students attending Penn Treaty School and Hackett School are facing unknown and uncertain futures in regard to their education. Tonight, I grieve with these families and pray for them; I pray especially for the students of these schools whose lives will seemingly be upended in the name of budgets.
I know my voice is a small one, but tonight, I want to document what has taken place in our city; I want to document the disservice that has been done to these students and their families. And I ask you to join me in prayer for the future.
And so I pray:
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW, p. 317)
Vicar Connor J. Watson
Pastoral Intern
St. Michael's Lutheran Church - Kensington & Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement
The facilities plan had gone through multiple revisions after backlash from the community.
