PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Tony Watlington is realigning district leadership to tackle concerns raised during his 100-day listening tour.
On Tuesday, he announced two new deputy superintendent positions and filled three executive jobs, to address four main concerns that came up again and again in a series of community meetings:
1. The poor condition of district facilities.
2. The need for better academic achievement.
3. A desire for a more user-friendly experience.
4. The need for better communication.
“I heard loud and clear that our internal and external communication and engagement lacks consistency and transparency, leading to an overall lack of confidence among some in the school district,” Watlington said at a news conference at school headquarters on his 110th day as superintendent.
Chief Financial Officer Uri Monson was named to the new position of deputy superintendent of operations. Former teacher and educational consultant ShaVon Savage was appointed to the newly created job of deputy superintendent of academic services.
Watlington tapped Alexandra Coppadge to be the new chief of communications and customer service, named Edwin Santana to the position of director of community relations, and ade former NBC10 reporter Monique Braxton the new deputy chief of communications and district spokesperson.
“We have an awful lot of talented, smart, enterprising and resourceful people right here in the City of Philadelphia,” he said. “We don’t have to always go to California or North Carolina to find them.”
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Watlington says having deputy superintendents will give him time to build relationships in Harrisburg and at City Hall. “I anticipate spending about 50% of my time inside of the building and 50% of my time outside in the fields, if you will. And so the deputy superintendent model will work best for that.”
Watlington said the district has seen incremental improvement on reading and math scores over the last decade.
“We’ve made progress, but we’ve got to build on the progress that was made during the Hite administration and continue to accelerate up,” he said.
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In the wake of last week’s deadly shooting outside Roxborough High School, Watlington said student safety was his top priority.
“I recognize there’s a crisis of confidence across the city, and we’re going to do our level best to win our parents’ trust based on the actions we take,” he said, acknowledging that gun violence was taking an emotional toll on the district’s students.
Watlington said, while safety was his top priority, it wouldn’t deter the district from working to improve academic outcomes.
The superintendent’s transition team is expected to present short- and long-term recommendations to the Philadelphia Board of Education at the Oct. 20 meeting.