Philly's building plan would close this high-performing magnet. Lankenau is fighting back

PHILADELPHIA — There's no place in Philadelphia like Lankenau High School.

It is the city's environmental sciences magnet school and the state's only three-year agriculture, food, and natural resources career and technical education program. It's set amid 400 acres of woods, with neighbors including a vast environmental center and farm that are active partners with the school. Lankenau's students have access to dual enrollment and an impressive array of internships.

But Lankenau just landed on the Philadelphia School District's closing list, one of 20 schools proposed to shutter for the 2027-28 school year as the district grapples with 70,000 extra seats citywide, billions in unmet capital needs, and a desire to modernize and bring equity to student experiences in the school system.

The Lankenau community is already gearing up for a fight ahead of a school board vote on the proposal, expected this winter. Community members say the school must be saved because it's one-of-a-kind, offering immersive education in agriculture and sciences and boasting a 100% graduation rate that's rare in Philadelphia.

Shutting "the Lank" would be a disastrous move, said Jamir Lowe-Smith, a junior at the school. The district's proposal would merge Lankenau into Roxborough High as an honors program, but you can't replicate what his school has built anywhere else, Lowe-Smith said.

"Lankenau takes education to the next level," said Lowe-Smith, president of the school's chapter of Junior MANNRS — Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences, which preps students for jobs in the growing green sciences industry.

"The environment is beautiful, the woods are — that's another classroom," Lowe-Smith said. "Nature is like therapy for a lot of people — it...