PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Board of Education this week will consider turning over some of its vacant school buildings to the city for Mayor Cherelle Parker's affordable housing initiative.
The only item on the agenda at Thursday's school board meeting is a resolution directing Superintendent Tony Watlington to explore a deal that would convey about 20 vacant School District of Philadelphia buildings to the city. Parker has a goal of using surplus district property for her goal of creating 30,000 housing units. Watlington, in an interview, said he supports the plan.
“Certainly if it's the Board of Education's prerogative, I think it makes a lot of sense — a great deal of sense — to align with our mayor's aggressive vision,” he said.
Watlington said the district spends money each year to maintain vacant buildings with no benefit for the district.
“We're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on upkeep and maintenance of vacant properties, many of which we've not used in a decade,” he said.
“Think about how many teachers this school district could hire. Think about how many climate managers. Think about how much more we could invest in teacher professional development.”
Any agreement would cover currently vacant schools, such as the Ada Lewis Middle School in East Germantown, but not any schools that would close under the district's ongoing facilities planning process.