SRC faces a loud, angry crowd over school closings
Parents and students proclaim their opposition to closing 37 city schools. SRC Chairman… (STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer )
Shouting, waving signs, and drowning out officials, hundreds of students, parents, and community members angry at plans to shut 37 Philadelphia schools lashed out Thursday night at the School Reform Commission.
"I have never been more disappointed in this city as a whole," said Naeemah Felder, parent of a daughter at Pepper Middle School, one of the schools slated for closure in June.
"I want to stay in my neighborhood, because McCloskey is closest to where I live," fourth grader Lamar Robinson said. McCloskey School is also on the closure list.
"AMY is a unique school. You will destroy it," said Dennis Dorfman, longtime counselor at Alternative for Middle Years Program at James Martin School. AMY at James Martin is slated to move to the Penn Treaty Middle School building.
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"We know what you want. Stop privatizing our schools," an audience member yelled.
District officials have said they must close dozens of schools to save the nearly bankrupt school
Philadelphia School Reform Commission votes not to renew city's oldest charter school
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission said Thursday night that the district's oldest charter school did not deserve to be renewed because of low test scores and financial problems.