After a Philly HS team won a robotics world championship, the district is cutting ties with the nonprofit it formed

Months after a Philadelphia School District team won a robotics world championship, the fate of the city’s robotics community remains unsettled.

The upheaval began when the Philadelphia School District declined to continue funding the Philadelphia Robotics Coalition (PRC), the nonprofit started by the Central High team that in May won a world championship.

Then, because of the loss of the district contract as stimulus funds dried up, the coalition told coaches this month that it could no longer run events or offer financial support in the 2024-25 school year. Finally, the Central RoboLancers’ longtime coach resigned from the coalition, but said that with the help of other partners, his team will support others and offer local programming themselves.

All of this comes as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. tout Parker’s extended-day and extended-year school plans, which rely heavily on after-school providers and activities such as robotics for student enrichment. Twenty-five schools will begin offering extended-day and year-round programming this fall, though details beyond the names of those schools have not been announced.

» READ MORE: These Philadelphia schools will start offering year-round school

Here’s what to know about the situation.

Central High’s successful robotics team started PRC in 2016. Though a handful of robotics teams existed in the city, the RoboLancers and the adults who coached them wanted robotics to be available in any school that wanted a program, not just concentrated in elite schools.

When federal American Rescue Plan Act money became available, PRC scaled up at the district’s request. At its peak, it had robotics programs for K-12 students in 55 schools, fielding more than 100 teams and serving about 1,000 Philadelphia students.

Eventually, the RoboLancers earned a spot in the Robotics Hall of Fame for their equity work. In April, they won the world championship.

The coalition’s contract with the district ends Sept. 30. This month, PRC sent out messages to coaches letting them know that “our financial support from SDP [the district] has ended” and that the organization will not host any events because it lacks the money and staff.

Dia L. Jones, PRC’s executive director, said in a statement that “PRC had to streamline programming support, meaning there will be fewer robotics opportunities for [district] students and schools through PRC. We had to make the tough decision to phase out our high school support and hosting events, but we will continue to support elementary and middle school teams through non-financial support. Ultimately, the reduction in funding will lead to fewer [district] students having access to robotics programming, especially those students in Philadelphia who are often marginalized and face many academic barriers.”

Christina Clark, a district spokesperson, said the district appreciated PRC’s work “to bring high-quality STEM programming and support to teachers who hosted robotics clubs” but said now that there’s no more federal stimulus money, officials “made an intentional decision to sustain vendor-led opportunities with a focus on kindergarten-through-eighth-grade opportunities in up to 40 schools.”

The district did not answer who might be providing that K-8 robotics programming.

Jones said PRC is not going away, but will use 2024-25 as a “development year to reimagine how to provide STEM education through robotics so our students are prepared for life after high school. The goals this year are to increase partnerships, fundraising and development efforts to support high school robotics teams next season with our K-8 division.”

Michael Johnson, the RoboLancers’ longtime coach and PRC founder, resigned last week from the organization, where he most recently served as a board member, senior adviser, and event director.

Though Johnson declined to discuss the specifics of his split from PRC, he noted that when the organization was founded, “there were very few schools in Philadelphia offering robotics, very few students with that access, and that access was concentrated at special-admit schools. On behalf of myself and the RoboLancers, I can say, we’re not going back.”

Support for robotics is out there, Johnson said, and he and the RoboLancers will marshal it quickly.

Johnson said he had already secured commitments from “our partners in the robotics world, partners around the city. I’m committed to keeping these teams alive and keeping these students engaged in robotics programming this year. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like yet, but it’s happening, one way or another.”

Frank Farrell, executive director of FIRST Mid-Atlantic, a key robotics organization that works in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology network, agreed. With FIRST support, Johnson and the RoboLancers “have been running the events locally,” and that won’t change, Farrell said. “The chain that goes up to the championship, those events are all secure right now.”

The district’s support of robotics programs has come in fits and starts. Earlier in the 2000s, a federal grant supported robotics teams; when that money dried up, so did robotics, except in a handful of schools.

But Daniel Miller-Uueda, a current district science, technology, engineering, arts, and math curriculum specialist and former Central teacher and RoboLancers coach, worries about what a pull-back of district support for robotics will mean for many district schools that had fledgling programs.

Schools can still choose to field robotics teams or start robotics clubs, but without significant financial and technical support, it will be tough, said Miller-Uueda. Starting up a team costs thousands of dollars in materials.

“The schools that are better resourced are going to be able to make the decision to put that money toward robotics as opposed to other things, but a less-resourced school might not be able to make the same decision,” said Miller-Uueda. “From my experience, the students who go through these programs gain so much. Every student should be able to have the option to access that kind of opportunity.”

Trey Smith, the digital literacy teacher at Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy in Southwest Center City, is building a robotics program at the K-8 school. To date, with PRC support, it’s been popular — 60 students joined last year, and Smith expects to field more teams this year.

The shock of losing support it had received from PRC in the past is tough, but Marian Anderson has an involved parent group, and Smith has already received a commitment that he’ll get the funding he needs to field teams.

“I haven’t ever been worried about us,” said Smith. “But I know what it’s like to work in less-resourced neighborhood schools. This is an equity issue. A lot of schools aren’t like us.”

The uncertainty is a source of frustration, Smith said. He and his fellow robotics coaches are texting each other: How are you making this work? Can we pull this off? Can we find accessible tournaments to give our students a real robotics experience?

“There’s so much turmoil,” Smith said.

Farrell, of FIRST Mid-Atlantic, said the organization is focused on “making sure there’s no disruption in the ability of teams to attend events and go through the advancement process with the entire FIRST organization.”

It’s about more than clubs kids like, Farrell said. The adults in the robotics world often say that it’s the only sport where student participants can easily turn pro after school — not just as engineers, but in other fields.

“These young people come out job-ready,” Farrell said. “They can be installers and fabricators, which Philadelphia is in desperate need of. If we’re going to rebuild the infrastructure in Philadelphia, we need these people.”