High school won’t be renamed after billionaire donor after all
PHILADELPHIA—Apparently, $25 million can’t buy you the naming rights to a public high school.
In a letter released Saturday morning, Abington School District Superintendent Amy Sichel announced that the district had reversed its plan to rename the Montgomery County high school after Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone CEO who made the donation.
The school board’s decision to change the name Abington Senior High School to Abington Schwarzman High School drew public outrage.
Sichel, in her letter, said most of the community was not opposed to the name change.
“I have spoken to our donor’s representatives regarding the concerns raised by a minority in the community around the change of our school name,” Sichel wrote. “The purpose of this generous gift—the largest ever to a U.S. public high school in history—is to help Abington High School be the best it can be and to undertake a critical renovation that will dramatically improve the student experience as well as student preparedness.
“The donor’s representatives conveyed that nothing should detract from our important mission and agree that the school’s name should remain as is,” she wrote.
Schwarzman is a close friend of President Donald Trump. He is an Abington High alumnus.
According to the a school board agenda, “the Grantor (the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation) agrees to make a total contribution to the Foundation and District of $25,000,000 in return for, among other things, naming and recognition rights for the Abington Senior High School, to be renamed the Abington Schwarzman High School.”
Under the original agreement, Schwarzman would be able to name other locations within the gym complex as a memorial to his late track coach Jack Armstrong and former track teammates Billy Wilson and Bobby Bryant.
In addition, according to a person familiar with the agreement who asked not to be identified, Schwarzman would be notified if the district sells naming rights to any other benefactors.
Sichel, a friend of Schwarzman, did not say in her letter whether those conditions would remain intact.