The gathering will take place at the Lingelbach garden and outdoor playground. (Photo: Maleka Fruean)

Do you have a child in any Northwest Philadelphia public school? This month, parents and caregivers are gathering to bring our entire region together to connect, meet, and possibly begin to plan for organizing and advocacy for all our city’s public schools. 

It will happen on Saturday, September 13, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Lingelbach Elementary School garden and playground at 6340 Wayne Avenue in Germantown. 

The idea of the meeting originated when C.W. Henry School in West Mount Airy was shut down in 2023 due to asbestos. It was one of six schools shut down for a temporary period of time due to environmental hazards that year.

Parents and staff were all distressed about the thought of returning to online learning following a challenging shift after COVID-19. 

There had already been an active and engaged parent-teacher association at the kindergarten to eighth-grade school, but after the asbestos shutdown, they felt a need to band together to advocate not only for the facilities’ improvements that many public Philadelphia schools needed, but also to advocate as a united group for public schools as a whole in the city. 

The C.W. Henry Advocacy Committee was officially established, and since then, parents and students have visited Harrisburg twice to fight for Philly public schools. 

Bethany Hartzell Hugghins, a local mom of three children who all attend Henry School, says many of the parents on the committee also attended Power Interfaith’s Northwest Philly Education Town Hall this past April, where local stakeholders gathered to discuss the state of funding and other issues in the education system. 

A major issue discussed was fair funding and the adequacy gap in public schools in some of the state’s poorest school districts.

Adequacy gaps mean a school district requires much more funding than it receives just to provide the acceptable standards of education in public schools. These gaps impact essential school resources, including a full staff, up-to-date curriculum, and technology, among others.

Philadelphia has an adequacy gap of $1.2 billion. In February 2023, the Commonwealth Court ruled Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional.

In response, lawmakers have acknowledged a statewide gap of about $4.5 billion and, in the 2024-25 budget, included an initial $500 million to help close it.

Parents like Hugghins and others were also able to connect with other parents from area schools at the town hall, including folks from Houston Elementary in West Mt. Airy and Shawmont in Roxborough.

Together, alongside other parents in Germantown, they discussed revitalizing a Northwest Schools coalition.

“I think historically in the Northwest, there has been a coalition of schools that network with one another. But I think in the last few years, since the pandemic, it’s just been harder to maybe make those connections,” said Hugghins.

Blithe Riley, a parent of a fourth grader at Henry School and another organizer in the CW Henry Advocacy Committee, says the work they’ve done building relationships with elected officials like State Representative Chris Rabb and State Senator Art Haywood has been great. 

But the officials and other organizers agree that building real power needs a broader base and a larger coalition. So, they knew the first step was connecting with more parents in the Northwest. And that’s why they created the NW Public Schools Meet Up.

Ebo Nunoo has lived in Germantown for the last ten years and has a first grader at Lingelbach Elementary. He met Hugghins through local business networking and helped secure a spot at Lingelbach for the gathering with the principal and staff.

For him, it made sense to start connecting with other Northwest families due to the numerous schools in the area and the significant activities families are undertaking in their own school communities. 

“You know, most of the time we don’t see the things that are happening within our schools if you’re just a member of the community and not paying attention”, Nunoo said. 

“All these students, there are such amazing things that are happening. There are parents and families and also people within the community that are showing up for these schools and creating such ripples of change within the schools that go unnoticed unless something like the outdoor playground that we just completed comes in.”

Nunoo cites the outdoor playground and outdoor classroom at Lingelbach as projects supported by both outside sources and the school community itself.

Hugghins points out that many people may only know what is going on in their own children’s schools. She and the other organizers want the gathering to start building meaningful connections with other families in the Northwest first. 

Then, both Hugghins and Nunoo hope to see families all across the Northwest connecting on similar struggles in their schools, learn about what other parents are doing, and start to build power organically, knowing all their issues are connected. 

“So for us at Lingelbach, I think it was important that we’re able to hold the meeting there and show the larger community how great things and wonderful things can happen when community comes together,” said Nunoo.  

His hope is that as people start to connect, the group is able to share both fiscal and intellectual resources. 

“I want to really hone in on this idea that being assets within our community, whether as individuals or as a school group, is really important. And that goes on to help our community become assets to us,” he added. 

All the parent organizers involved want to welcome caregivers from throughout Northwest Philly to Lingelbach for a fun, low-key afternoon of connection.

They know that connecting is powerful, and Blithe Riley reflects on the work they’ve already done as an advocacy committee, noting the ways they have seen some impact.

“We have really seen that parents do have some power within the system, and we just feel somewhat invigorated by the moments when we can come together,” she said.

Riley is clear that to move to a better future for schools, it needs to be done collectively.

She said: “You know, I think at this moment, we need to build as much community at a grassroots level as possible. It’s not going to get any easier.”