PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia's school headquarters could soon be named after a former superintendent and trailblazing educator.
Constance Clayton died on Monday at the age of 89. She led the city school system for more than a decade — the district's first female and first Black superintendent.
At Thursday night's school board meeting, Superintendent Tony Watlington proposed the change.
"I recommend that the Board of Education waive its five-year provision and rename this central office building, located at 440 N. Broad St., as the Dr. Constance E. Clayton Education Center," he announced.
The district currently has a policy that a person must be deceased for at least five years before a building can be named after them.
Watlington said Clayton had offered him advice. Less than a week before her death, she called him to set up a lunch, saying she had "some thoughts about the children."
"I took a special liking to my mentor," he said. "It's like having that student-teacher relationship."
School board members signaled that they would support naming the central office for Clayton at a future meeting.
