The School District of Philadelphia opened the 2026-27 school year on August 24, 2026, and most of its 113,000 students returned to class, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Kindergartners are due to start Thursday. But at nine schools, including Overbrook Elementary, the first day was also the start of a final year. Those nine schools are set to close at the end of this school year, Chalkbeat and the Inquirer report. The Inquirer reports Overbrook will close in June.
The closures are part of a larger plan the school board has already approved. In April, the Board of Education voted 6 to 3 to approve Superintendent Tony Watlington's $3 billion, 10-year facilities plan, according to WHYY. The vote came after an earlier meeting set for April 23 was delayed. The plan would close 17 schools and modernize 169 others over the next decade. Nine of the 17 close at the end of this school year. The other eight are set to close in later years. Chalkbeat reports the plan would affect the schools of more than 4,000 students over the decade.
The board has the final say over which schools close, and it has already approved the plan, Chalkbeat reports. Even so, teachers, union leaders, and members of the City Council and state legislature say they plan to keep fighting. Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who represents the area around Overbrook, said he will introduce a bill to stop the Overbrook property from being turned into condos. "We want to be civil; we want to be cooperative with the school district," Jones said, according to Chalkbeat. "But we will act up." Other politicians said they want Overbrook, Robeson High, and Lankenau High taken off the closing list, the Inquirer reports.
District officials say the changes will help students. They have promised strong support for families at closing schools and said students will move to schools that are higher-performing or in better buildings, according to Chalkbeat. The plan reassigns Overbrook students to Guion S. Bluford and Lewis C. Cassidy schools. No teachers will lose their jobs because of the closures, Chalkbeat reports. Instead, they will be moved to open jobs at other schools.
Overbrook is a small school in a very old building. The Inquirer reports its tight-knit community has mounted a fierce fight to keep it open. The school has operated for 120 years, according to Chalkbeat and the Inquirer. "I've been to this school since I was in kindergarten," said Overbrook fifth grader Mahogany, according to Chalkbeat. "I don't want to lose something that I feel safe to have."
At a back-to-school press conference, Watlington did not mention the closures directly, Chalkbeat reports. He said the district would keep working to improve. The district "won't rest until all of our children are at grade level in reading and math," he said, according to the Inquirer. State data from 2024-25 showed 34% of district students met state standards in reading and 23% in math, the Inquirer reports. The Inquirer notes that more recent test scores have not yet been shared by district leaders, so it is not clear whether those numbers have changed.
Money is also part of the picture. The Inquirer reports that Mayor Cherelle Parker's $48 million agreement restored some of the 340 jobs that would otherwise have been cut. The Inquirer does not say how many of the 340 jobs the agreement saved, so it is not clear whether it saved all of them. WHYY reports the plan was revised more than once before the vote and first called for closing 20 schools.