PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Superintendent Tony Watlington says the School District of Philadelphia has spent the summer getting its people and its buildings ready for the start of classes on September 5.
Students at the four district schools closed for asbestos last year are all expected to be back in their buildings, except for ninth graders at Frankford High School. They'll start the year at Roberto Clemente Middle School.
In a back-to-school interview, Watlington says the district is identifying alternate sites for each building, for the inevitable event that a school will have to close for asbestos. "The plan is nearly complete," he said. "Some of the swing spaces need some attention and work, and we're already at work on those."
Keeping students safe, he said, is the district's top priority. "This year we're going to have a laser focus on safety as a part of this strategic plan," Watlington said, adding that the district planned to spend $47 million on upgrading school security cameras. "We'll be replacing analog cameras — all of the analog cameras in 150 schools.”
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Thirteen schools are part of the district's "Safe Paths" program which pays community groups to supervise routes to school, and Watlington said the district would expand the program this year if funding is available.
The superintendent explained there are several schools where the year may begin with an interim principal, with permanent principals to be named later. Even though the district hired 700 new teachers for the fall, there will be teacher vacancies, Watlington said.
"On the teacher side, it's likely that we will not hit 100%," he said, adding jobs were projected to be 95.1% filled for the start of school.
Watlington is introducing a new math curriculum this fall, under his five-year school improvement plan dubbed "Accelerate Philly." "Teachers tell me they appreciate the way this curriculum is designed. It helps teachers not to have to go on the internet, spend hours of time weekly trying to find resources that engage students," he said.
"I've heard from teachers that they would have liked to have had more time, quite frankly, to prepare. But we're doing our level best to understand that this is a process. We don't expect our teachers to be perfect at this on September 5."
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