PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Cherelle Parker’s vision for year-round schools came a little more into focus on Tuesday during school district budget hearings in City Council.
Twenty schools are being selected for a pilot of year-round classes, according to Superintendent Tony Watlington. He told City Council that in the upcoming academic year, those schools would see expanded days with after-school programs such as chess and robotics — “the things that extend reading, math and science but that are also fun and engaging,” he said.
Watlington said he’d then work with the mayor and the school unions to develop a year-round schedule that would begin in the 2025-26 school year.
“We’ll be working closely with parents to extend the district calendar for those 20 pilot schools, where they actually start school before the other schools in the district,” he added.
Those schools would have breaks throughout the year, instead of one long summer recess.
“We eliminate the long break in the summer, but they’ll get breaks during the year, so they won’t go to school 365 or 300 days a year. They’ll have holidays and they’ll have small breaks built in,” he said.
The 20 schools have yet to be identified.