Walking down 62nd Street, Debra Joell was lost. It was her first day as a substitute teacher at Overbrook Elementary School, and she was struggling to find it.
Disoriented, she walked to the nearby payphone and coughed up some change. After dialing up her new employer, Joell once again asked where to go. The response she received was simple: walk to the end of the block.
Moments later, she approached the street corner and saw a building with a nameplate reading “OVERBROOK PUBLIC SCHOOL”. Joell couldn’t have known it then, but this place would shape her life’s work for decades to come. Now, nearly three decades later, the same halls that once welcomed her may soon grow silent.
In late January 2026, the School District of Philadelphia released a $2.8 billion plan that sought to improve or maintain over 250 local institutions. To do so, however, the proposition also demanded the closure of 20 schools, with twelve to be repurposed for district use. One of those put on the chopping block was Overbrook Elementary School. Officials pointed to facility structural issues as one of the key components of the potential closure.
“The objective here is to uplift the educational experience for all students in the School District of Philadelphia,” said School District of Philadelphia Deputy Superintendent for Operations Oz Hill. “…If we get this plan right, we will improve the utilization of our buildings, maximizing their use for the education of our students.”
Hill joined Overbrook Elementary faculty, parents, and fellow district members to discuss the potential closure on February 19th’s Community Engagement Session. The event encouraged local citizens to share their thoughts and concerns regarding the proposition. As tense discussions unfolded, the meeting room filled with worry and frustration. Among those who opposed the proposed closure sat Debra Joell, a now full-time 5th and 6th-grade teacher at Overbrook Elementary.
“You get a precious period of time to develop into a lot of the human being that you’re going to be, and a lot of that is determined by the nurturing and care that you receive during those developmental years,” Joell said. “It’s completely developmentally inappropriate to take [Overbrook Elementary] students from a place where they feel safe and cared about and are not just a number [and put] them in a space where they will become nothing but a number.”
Over the years, Debra Joell quickly became known as Ms. Joell. To her students, she was their source for English and social studies knowledge. For parents, however, she served as an advocate for their children’s education.
“I’m concerned that they will be bullied,” said Joell. “I’m concerned that they will drop out or be forced to cyber school, which will stunt their maturity, their development, their social skills, and then ultimately will stunt their trajectory for their future.”
As an Overbrook parent herself, Joell is familiar with the concerns of her community. Her daughter, D’Lalah Joell, is an alumna from the same institution her mother currently works for. After graduating from high school, D’Lalah went on to pursue an undergraduate degree at West Chester University and a master’s at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined her mom in calling for the school’s preservation.
“[My mother] has worked here my whole life; she spends more time here sometimes than I actually see her,” D’Lalah Joell said. “She loves these kids almost as much as she loves me…these children are family to each other.”
The two will now turn their attention to the upcoming school board meetings, when the district will officially propose and then vote on the proposition. The Joells, along with the rest of the Overbrook Elementary community, hope to keep their school open–continuing a legacy of teaching that stretches across generations.
“If there’s no school as a foundation, then what is there?” said Debra Joell. “There’s nothing.”
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