The city plans to open new schools (in part by using empty space in existing buildings), expand access to criteria-based middle school programs, create additional career and technical education pathways at neighborhood high schools, and update recreational and performance spaces. These investments lean into the district’s relative strengths. Suburban schools may have more resources, but they don’t have options like the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, or Central High School.
The plan, of course, is not perfect. One proposal the district should reconsider, for example, is the relocation of Lankenau High School. The facilities plan recommends relocating Lankenau to Roxborough High School, which would make it difficult to offer many of its nature-oriented programs. The district may be better off keeping Lankenau and closing Roxborough, which has just over 600 students and test scores that are lower than district-wide averages.
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The 46,500-student district, which has grappled with a longer-term enrollment slide over the past decade, projects 3,000 fewer enrollees over the next two years, Skipper said Wednesday. This year, the district said it lost 1,670 students compared to the previous year. Enrollment decline is driving down revenue, while fixed costs like “historically high health care premiums,” out-of-district special education spending and yellow bus transportation are squeezing the district, Skipper said.
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Madison taxpayers , are increasing taxes and funding bricks and mortar amidst declining enrollment.