PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia is pumping the brakes on a comprehensive plan that would chart the future of its aging school buildings.
Schools Superintendent Tony Watlington wants to concentrate the district’s energies on developing his five-year strategic plan.
The district, under former Superintendent William Hite, had what it called a Comprehensive School Planning Review – a process that, with enrollment dropping, could have resulted in school closings or consolidations.
That plan hit the skids with the pandemic, but Hite last spring revived it in launching the district’s Facilities Planning Process.
Now, Watlington says he’s putting that analysis on hold while his five-year academic plan is devised, a process that is expected to be completed in June.
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“I believe it is appropriate to pause the Facilities Planning Process until the strategic plan is closer to completion,” he said.
Watlington told the Board of Education Thursday night that academic needs should drive building decisions, but he said construction and maintenance already underway would continue.
“I want to be very clear that we will continue to move forward with the many capital improvements and environmental remediation projects already approved by the board,” said Watlington.
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The school board also heard that the operator of the now-closed Daroff Charter School and the Bluford Charter School, which agreed to close after this year, was applying for a new charter to operate the schools in their district-owned buildings under the name Perseverance Leadership Academy.
“We just got the application two days ago, but based on our current review it does look like it’s the same board that currently governs the Bluford Charter School and previously governed the Daroff Charter School,” said Peng Chao, acting chief of the School District of Philadelphia’s Charter Schools Office.
Chao said after a hearing process, it’s expected the board would be asked to vote on the application in late February or early March.