Tag: Facilities and Finance

Reckless Facilities Plan Will Devastate Philadelphia Communities

by Lisa Haver and Deborah Grill

Moffet Elementary parent Katy Donoghue testifies at March 12 district town hall.
(Photo: Lisa Haver)

You didn’t answer my question.”
Parents, teachers, students, community members at district facilities meetings

‘This is not a budget issue.”
From the District’s  2024-25 facilities plan presentation

School District of Philadelphia Tony Watlington Sr. has released a $2.8 billion Facilities Master Plan that, if passed by the Board of Education, will have a devastating effect on communities in every part of the city. The latest draft of the plan, issued on February 27, recommends 18 permanent school closures, 12 co-locations, 8 buildings to be given to the city at no cost, grade band changes in 34 schools, 16 catchment areas redrawn affecting approximately 33 schools in over 20 zip codes, and modernization projects at 159 schools to begin in 2032. Schools targeted for closure are fighting to stay open. With a couple of exceptions, no meetings were held at schools facing grade conversions or catchment area changes. Most of those recommendations, in fact, were issued weeks after the original plan. 

There are no projected costs for any of the recommendations or modernization projects in the plan. 
The Watlington administration and its consultants have assembled a house of cards. If a middle school is built in South Philadelphia, then students would feed into certain high schools. If a school is built in Kensington, then the catchment maps would be redrawn for the three high schools in that neighborhood. If the district creates an honors program in one high school, the students who transfer to the school after theirs was closed might get into that program. And the one that the entire plan balances on: If the district receives more funding from the state and if the district raises funds from unnamed philanthropic sources, they might be able to make improvements to over 150 school buildings. At almost every meeting, board members implore the public to call their representatives in Harrisburg and ask them to fully fund public schools. Yet this plan assumes that Harrisburg will fund a large part of it.  How can the district base a comprehensive 10-year plan on imaginary funding?

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Board of Education Holds Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting

by Diane Payne

The new Board of Education held its first Committee meeting on Thursday September 6 as part of an effort to have more community engagement and information before the Board votes on Action Items. Three members of APPS attended the first meeting of the Facilities and Finance Committee; two testified. This Committee will meet on the first Thursday of every month, unfortunately the 10:00 AM meeting time is impossible for many parents and SDP staff. Several speakers asked the Committee to consider changing the time.

The meeting was co-chaired by BOE members Lee Huang and Leticia Egea-Hinton; Joyce Wilkerson and Wayne Walker are Committee members. Present in the audience were Board members Angela McIver and Chris McGinley. A representative from State Senator Vincent Hughes office was also in attendance.

The Co-chairs acknowledged that the Committee is a “work in progress.” For now, they are not setting a three-minute timer for speakers; they asked that speakers be mindful of time. The Action Items that pertain to Finance and Facilities will be available before Committee meetings in the future but they were not available before this meeting.

There were two staff presentations. Chief Financial Officer Uri Munson gave an overview of the budget process along with a manager’s report. Chief Operating Officer Danielle Floyd gave a facilities renovation and remediation report. In addition, Sylvie Gallier Howard, the City’s First Deputy Commerce Director, gave a presentation on Keystone Opportunity Zones. All of these power points are available on the SDP website under the BOE’s Committee menu.

Munson noted that all budget information can be accessed through the SDP website as well as every vendor who is paid $100,000 or more. In answer to a question from Ms. Egea-Hinton, Munson said a teacher vacancy update would be available by October or November after staff leveling is completed. Floyd’s presentation included information on: paint and plaster stabilization, renovation projects, environmental projects (asbestos abatement and mold remediation), and preparing buildings for school openings.

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