Levering Grandparent: 'The Information's Not Coming Out'

Thursday's public meeting at Martin Luther King High School held to discuss the School District of Philadelphia's plan to close and merge various schools mostly focused on AMY Northwest.

The Mt. Airy middle school will likely move to the in Roxborough, which would then be closed. at focused largely on the effect Levering's closure would have on neighborhood school's like and ; Thursday's meeting, because it was closer to AMY Northwest, mostly featured parents from that school.

But Shelda Foster-Jones wasn't deterred. Foster-Jones has a grandson in seventh grade at Levering and attended both public meetings.

She left Thursday's meeting unsatisfied.

"I came with a list of questions and I got no answers as far as where the kids are going to be sent," she said afterward.

According to the recommendation, the school's children would be dispersed among Cook-Wissahickon, Dobson and Mifflin elementary schools. Some in middle school might even go to AMY Northwest.

That, however, doesn't assuage Foster-Jones' concerns. Part of the problem, she said, is that many of the decisions about these matters are coming from Harrisburg.

Still, she said, she wishes she had a better sense of what might happen next year.

"I don't think parents were involved in any of this decision," she said.

And she was somewhat reflective as well. "The kids have been together for all these years," she said.

Acting Superintendent Leroy Nunery and Deputy for Strategic Initiatives Danielle Floyd both attended the meeting and talked about why the district must close schools.

Some of those reasons include a desire to reduce the number of buildings the district needs to maintain and to help out students overall in their studies.