Girls’ High students protested overcrowding, including multiple classes with 50-plus students

Sa’Mya Cook is a bright, eager 10th grader at the storied Philadelphia High School for Girls, but second period is tough for everyone.

Cook is crowded into a classroom with 50 other teenagers. It’s hot, and there are not enough desks, with spillover students grabbing seats in folding chairs lining the classroom.

“It’s too much,” Cook said of her Girls’ High African American history class. “My mom offered to take me out, she said it’s a fire hazard.”

Cook and 150 of her classmates converged on Philadelphia School District headquarters Thursday to protest conditions at their school, a magnet where rising enrollment has not been met with matching resources, students and teachers said.

Girls’ High lost enrollment for several years. But, under Principal KaTiedra Argro, the school has reversed the trend. (The school had nearly 900 students in 2022-23, and nearly 600 last school year.)

As early as April, Girls’ High projected a bumper 9th-grade crop for 2026-27. But the staff allocated by the central office was inadequate, those inside the school said.

“This is not OK,” said Brooklyn Robinson, a Girls’ High 9th grader. “I am saying this because there is one teacher teaching two classrooms worth of students. We cannot hear the teacher over the amount of students that are conversating in a class. We are not fish in a barrel.”

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., addressing the Girls’ High students at a Thursday evening school board meeting, said he would ensure fixes.

“We want more schools to grow their enrollment, and I was not aware of the class size imbalance, but it will get immediate attention,” Watlington said.

Students and teachers said they were not presenting new information — they had begun taking their concerns to Watlington’s team shortly after school began on Aug. 24.

“I hope this can be a teachable moment for us when the enrollment does grow,” said school board president Reginald Streater.

Though the Girls’ High students secured promises of relief, they were clearly frustrated that the process had taken this long, and wary of the district’s promises.

“It’s been like this for a month,” 11th grader Jazaiah Smith said. “Nothing has changed.”

Huge classes tax students and teachers, said Smith.

“There’s not even enough room for everyone to sit — we have to sit on the floor,” she said.

Prior to the board meeting, Brenda Elliott, Watlington’s deputy superintendent for academics, waded into the crowd of Girls’ High students gathered outside district headquarters to offer assurances.

After getting precise enrollment counts, the district added two teachers to Girls’, Elliott said, but has not been able to change students’ schedules to add classes because a new roster chair was unable to complete the work. Central office support should arrive Friday, Elliott said.

“The report I received was that all of the positions had been added,” Elliott said.

Students holding signs that said “53:1 since 8/24″ and ”Gazelles, Not Sardines," a nod to the Girls’ High mascot, the gazelle, shook their heads.

“We shouldn’t have to come up here and do this to get answers,” one student shouted at Elliott. “That’s ridiculous!”

Students and teachers said there’s been shifting, inconsistent messaging from the district on how much help is forthcoming, and when it will arrive.

Nyjera Choice, a 10th grader, has Advanced Placement (AP) African American history, a class with 40 students. Under district policy, classes are supposed to be capped at 33 students.

The overcrowding “affects learning,” Choice said. “It affects how you focus. There’s students not receiving the proper attention that they need. We’re the next generation of Philadelphia leaders, and we expect better.”

Christopher Canary, a history teacher who has several oversized classes, including one with 53 students, said luckily, classroom management isn’t a problem for him, even in rooms that have nearly double the number of students they should.

“But the students are being shortchanged,” Canary said. “They have to rely on a 50th of my attention, when they deserve more.”

Canary said he is frustrated that when Girls’ delivered on the district’s challenge to enroll more students, the district failed it — and even, for a time, said it was cutting at least one AP class to fix the issue. (It has since reversed that decision.)

For nearly 180 years, Girls’ High has promised young Philadelphia women an excellent education.

“And now that our new administration has done what they thought impossible, reigniting public enthusiasm for Girls’ High and miraculously raising enrollment to levels not seen in years, the district has refused to provide us with the staff necessary to adequately serve those students,” Canary said, “effectively setting us up to fail.”