PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia school principals say their budgets are being squeezed, and they want the district to pick up the tab for essential staff positions at schools.
The principals' union, Teamsters Local 502 of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, wants positions including assistant principals, math and reading specialists and climate managers paid for by the central office. School allotments are based on enrollment.
But union president Robin Cooper, at a Facebook town hall Wednesday, said that means principals with fixed budgets often have to leave vital positions unfilled.
"As the work intensifies, the supports have to intensify along with it," Cooper said. "So when your plate is full, you don't get another plate. You remove some of the things off of your plate."
"We cannot make the necessary gains when we are lacking in the resources and the fact that the resources must reach the schools," she urged.
School District of Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite, at a news conference Thursday, said the district asks principals what they need as part of its budgeting process. Hite also said the district needs to support those schools that are off-track academically.
"How we plan to apply the resources to schools is through an equity lens. That means that there are schools that will need quite a bit more that will receive more," he explained.
"I do know that some individuals who have made those requests are at schools now that actually get a lot more than others. That's not equity. That's equal. And equal is not going to solve our problem."
Hite said he appreciated the principals' advocacy, and noted the district has launched an online survey to gather input from on how the district should spend the $1.2 billion it's getting in federal COVID-19 relief.
