Philly school board OKs tax changes for a new Sixers arena over objections: board meeting takeaways

The Philadelphia school board paved the way for City Council’s approval of a new 76ers arena Thursday night, endorsing a change to a tax increment financing district necessary if Council is to sign off on the controversial $1.3 billion project in the coming weeks.

The approval came over community objections. Students, teachers, parents and members of several community groups, including Asian Americans United and the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, asked the board to reject the changes, which they said did not serve students.

In tax increment financing districts, the city can use a portion of tax revenue to support development and job growth. But if the arena goes through, it will sit on land owned by the city and won’t be taxed, though the Sixers will contribute a payment in lieu of taxes.

The board voted to remove the 1000 block of Market Street from the TIF district should the arena move forward. City officials — city finance director Rob Dubow and Sam Rhoads, an executive vice president of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, made a presentation on the TIF change — framed the vote as procedural and not an endorsement of the arena project.

But some members of the public did not agree.

“You’re giving away everything,” said Cinthya Hioe, who works with youth at Asian Americans United. “Give our schools air-conditioning, libraries, playgrounds. Invest in our youth. Why should we invest in a billionaire’s playground when our schools don’t even have playgrounds?”

When the Sixers proposed a waterfront arena in 2020 on Penn’s Landing, they promised to build a public school; the Market East proposal includes no such promise, the groups pointed out.

“The school board should not cede its authority and quickly sign off on financial matters which could impact imminent decisions on school development opportunities,” a number of community groups said in a letter to school board members.

City officials said the Sixers arena would yield $2.8 million annually for the district, with the possibility for more money — more than the $550,000 currently paid by the arena site, which is currently part of the Fashion District mall. The project would gross the district $152.7 million through 2061, the term of the arena.

But critics say the Sixers’ projections are inflated, and the district could get much more in money and services if the arena did not happen.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has endorsed the Sixers project, which has been the subject of City Council hearings this week and is due to be voted on soon. A disgusted Lisa Haver, a retired district teacher and founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, said the board “can be counted on to do whatever the mayor that appointed it wants it to do on behalf of billionaire developers.”

Two board members voted against the changes.

ChauWing Lam asked her fellow board members to postpone a vote, saying she “feels very uncomfortable not having the full picture” on the financial implications of the TIF and its long-term effect on district finances.

Wanda Novalés, the board’s vice president, was similarly uncomfortable.

“I don’t believe the benefits presented sufficiently consider the needs of our students,” Novalés said. “I feel we need to advocate for a more comprehensive approach.”

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. made a surprising announcement Thursday night: After nearly a decade of declining enrollment, the district’s student population grew in 2024-25.

The district’s official student enrollment for the year is 117,956 — 1,841 students more than in 2023-24. The student population rose in 10 out of 15 geographic networks.

“We sure are excited about that,” Watlington said. “We are absolutely thrilled that more families are choosing to enroll their children in the School District of Philadelphia.”

The school system’s graduation rate also went up, Watlington said. Last school year, 77.5% of students graduated, up from 74.1% the prior year.

At the board’s October session, supporters of embattled, acclaimed Northeast High teacher Keziah Ridgeway took over the meeting, causing the board to remove itself and finish conducting business behind locked doors.

Supporters of the social studies teacher were back at the meeting Thursday. There was a greater presence of school safety officers and more rules about where people could congregate and what they could carry, but no disruptions.

Ridgeway was removed from her job because of personal social media posts and activism around Palestinians and the war in Gaza. An investigation is ongoing.

Ridgeway herself spoke Thursday, reading an original poem to the board and audience.

“What motivates me has never been hate,” said Ridgeway.

Former board member Mallory Fix-Lopez also testified Thursday night, asking the district to double down on its protection of immigrant students in light of the coming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. But she also apologized to Ridgeway — and to her students, whose podcast comparing Palestinian resistance art to enslaved Black people’s use of spirituals was removed from a Northeast High assembly.

“We aren’t teaching our young people how to have discourse, how to have constructive conversations and navigate spaces where there may be opposing views. This is our job as educators, and we are failing at it,” said Fix-Lopez.

She said her biggest regret as a board member was, in October 2023, “not demanding that we support teachers and schools immediately on how to navigate the conversations and tensions around the Israel-Palestine conflict. We absolutely failed in that instance and it’s caused great distress. The board at that time is to blame for not leading through crisis, myself included.”