Kensington High students can begin the 2026-27 school year at the former Austin Meehan Middle School in the Northeast, on Monday — despite a lawsuit that hoped to halt the relocation before classes begin.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher R. Hall on Friday declined to issue an emergency injunction that would have prevented moving Kensington students to Meehan, a now-empty Northeast middle school.
Asbestos issues rendered Kensington’s E. Clearfield Street building temporarily unusable. District officials decided to move Kensington’s 400-plus students and 90 staff to Meehan — on Ryan Avenue in Mayfair — until Kensington’s building is ready, likely in January.
Meehan shares a campus with Lincoln High and Northeast Community Propel Academy, which are both already overcrowded.
Harold Brown, parent of a rising sophomore at Lincoln, and Peter McDermott, a former district teacher and Mayfair civic leader, objected to the relocation, saying that moving Kensington into the Meehan space would create safety and other concerns.
After a four-hour hearing, Hall said he did not “believe that there is evidence of an immediate and irreparable harm” if Kensington students start the year at Meehan on Monday.
In fact, the judge said, “I think granting the injunction would throw off the Kensington families,” forcing the district to pivot to virtual instruction on short notice, which would harm students’ academics, food security and social and emotional needs.
“The balance does not tip there,” Hall said in court.
Hall’s ruling rests on the district meeting a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to submit a safety plan for the Kensington-at-Meehan campus. Hall and McDermott’s lawyers said they would file another injunction request.
More police, and yellow bus service for most Kensington students
Witnesses for both sides made their case over several hours.
The school system rejected two alternative sites closer to Kensington — Roberto Clemente Middle School, in North Philadelphia, and Penn Treaty High School, in Fishtown — before settling on Meehan, Teresa Fleming, chief operating officer, told the judge.
Clemente was considered the better alternative, but ultimately could not accommodate all Kensington programs. Penn Treaty didn’t meet accessibility needs for students with disabilities, Fleming said.
And Craig Johnson, the school system’s chief safety officer, said the district is adding police officers to ensure student arrival and dismissal run smoothly.
Kensington typically had four school safety officers; it will get a fifth full-time officer with the relocation to Meehan, and a sixth part-time officer to help with arrival and dismissal.
Answering concerns about additional students complicating the transit situation at the Lincoln-Meehan-Propel campus, Fleming said there will be no more than 90 Kensington students traveling to Meehan by SEPTA buses.
Just under 70 Kensington students already receive yellow bus services, and those will continue, Fleming said; an additional 250 students now live close enough to walk to Kensington, and will take yellow bus shuttles from Kensington to Meehan. The remaining 90 students, who are out of catchment for Kensington, already receive SEPTA fare cards and will continue to do so, but may also opt to use the yellow buses if they so choose.
‘The kids are just kids’
Brown, on the witness stand, said he had no problem with Kensington students specifically.
“I don’t even want to say the kids are bad, the kids are just kids, but if you have more kids, things arise,” said Brown.
After Hall made his ruling, Michael van der Veen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said his clients remained concerned, despite the district’s plans.
What if “a week from now, or a month from now, we get a shooting, a stabbing, a killing, or violence that breaks out there?” van der Veen said.
Regardless of Hall’s rejection of the injunction, the lawsuit will continue, van der Veen said, and “we’re going to continue to look at what the legal options are.”
William Brennan, another lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the relocation of Kensington students to Meehan is “a neighborhood safety issue, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep the neighborhood safe.”
Hall, during the hearing, asked Brown and McDermott’s lawyers why parents and the neighborhood groups – who also say the district is violating 2019 and 2020 community benefits agreements – did not object to other students using Meehan.
In the past, elementary school students from Mayfair Elementary — which was overcrowded, and Thomas Holme Elementary, which needed a temporary building while its new school structure was being built — learned in the Meehan space.
“There’s a significant difference in that they were K-8 students, and now we’re looking at 9-12 students,” said McDermott, who previously taught in the district, at Benjamin Franklin High, when it and Science Leadership Academy were relocated after construction on their shared building went awry.
Brennan expressed skepticism that the district’s safety plan, finished a few days before students return to class, will be adequate.
“It sounds like the plan is to drop the bomb on the neighborhood,” Brennan said, “and just hope for the best.”
