Hundreds of Math, Civics and Sciences Charter students walked out of class to protest the school’s upcoming closure

At first, last week, students heard rumors: Big changes were coming to Math, Civics and Sciences Charter School, and they should brace themselves.

Then, this week, the shocking news came: The school would close at the end of the school year because founder and chief administrative officer Veronica Joyner was retiring and didn’t think anyone was capable of replacing her. She was also upset that the school, cited for academic and operational deficiencies, was going to be offered a one-year charter renewal by the district instead of the usual five-year term.

Malayah Nelson-Harris, an MCSCS junior, is furious. And heartbroken.

» READ MORE: Hundreds of Math, Civics and Sciences Charter students walked out of class to protest the school’s upcoming closure

“The school is closing because she doesn’t want anyone else to run it?” Nelson-Harris said.

Nelson-Harris and hundreds of other MCSCS students walked out of class Wednesday in an attempt to draw attention to their cause. They don’t want the school to close; other staffers can take over, they said.

Waving signs, snapping selfies and crowd shots, and breaking into spontaneous chants of “save our school,” the students put their frustration on full public display, with throngs of young people in MCSCS blazers walking out of their building and across North Broad Street to stand on the steps of Philadelphia School District headquarters.

Joyner said students “have a right to protest for their rights.”

“To me, it’s showing love for their school,” Joyner said Wednesday. She said she was permitting students to reenter: “I’m not penalizing anybody. But it doesn’t change my mind.”

Asked about students’ calls for the school to remain open under different leadership, “My principal said this is too much for them. They do a fraction of what I do.” She added that students “can say what they want, but I never made any of my decisions based on what my son said to me or what my kids said to me.”

Charter schools are publicly funded but independently managed — governed by boards of trustees. But it wasn’t clear what action the board had taken regarding the school’s closure. Joyner said the charter’s board had voted on the closure, though she wasn’t clear on when.

“My board agreed to this last year and they agreed to it now,” she said Wednesday. “We had taken that vote as early as last year.”

Asked when specifically the vote was taken, Joyner said, “I’m going to address that with the charter school office.” No board minutes have been posted online since 2020. Board members did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

The school, which opened in 1999 and educates about 900 students in grades 1 through 12, has faced scrutiny over its enrollment practices. A 2019 lawsuit brought by the Education Law Center alleged that a girl was barred from enrolling due to her special needs, while another suit by the center this year said a student was illegally expelled after an argument with another student. (A judge found that the charter hadn’t expelled the student because it let her attend online.)

The school district, which authorizes charters, recently evaluated MCSCS and moved to offer just a one-year renewal agreement after finding that the charter failed to meet academic and operations standards. (It met financial standards.)

Still, district officials said they were blindsided by the decision to close the charter. They vowed to help students transition to other schools.

But many students Wednesday were like Sekhem Robinson, a junior, who was worried about finding a new school. This is Robinson’s first year at MCSCS; he previously attended High School of the Future, a district school.

His parents wanted him to leave Future and go elsewhere to get a stronger education, Robinson said, and he thought he found it.

“My parents said this was the best school in Philly,” said Robinson. “The classes are smaller, and the education is better.”

Robinson said he and his family were “shocked” at the news.

“Why would you just close a school like this?” he said.

Jasiyah Love, a senior, can graduate from MCSCS, but she worries about other students.

“Some kids come here to escape the harsh realities of home,” said Love. “Some kids come here for a hot meal.”

In the crowd, many students said they were worried about getting accepted at new schools this far into their high school career. Others said that staff inside the school had expressed a willingness to step up and regroup under new leadership.

There was rampant speculation about the MCSCS building, a prime piece of real estate on North Broad Street, near the Spring Garden subway stop, and close to City Hall and other Center City hubs. The school building is owned by a nonprofit run by Joyner, and she said the building would be sold once the school closes.

That seems wrong, junior London Coleman said.

“She cannot monetize our education,” said Coleman.

After about 20 minutes of students milling around, district Deputy Superintendent Jermaine Dawson waded into the crowd and spoke to students.

“Because I see that you are passionate about your education, I had to come out here,” Dawson said. He said he could make no promises about what would happen next, but said the district’s charter schools office would “take the opportunity to look into and figure out what is actually happening here so we make sure that you continue to have the wonderful education you get each and every day.”

One student shouted a question to Dawson: With the district’s school selection process for the following school year closing Oct. 27, would applications for enrollment be accepted beyond that date for MCSCS students?

Dawson said that he didn’t know, but that said the students had an immediate job: “What’s most important is that you continue to get a high-quality education,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is getting all of these bright minds back in class.”

The rally broke up then, with some students returning to the building and others dispersing to other parts of the city.

“We made a movement here, y’all,” one young woman shouted on her way back into the building.