Year-round school questions, 347 teachers still needed: roundup from the Philly school board meeting

On the cusp of a new school term, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. touted Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s “extended day, extended year” programming, scheduled to begin this year at 20 district schools and five charters.

Speaking at Thursday’s school board meeting, Watlington noted the program, slated to run from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., will include student enrichment and optional care during winter and spring breaks.

“That’s a value add,” Watlington said. “We commend the mayor and the team working together on this very important initiative.”

Watlington initially said the district aimed to start an “extended day, extended year” pilot with “up to 10″ schools, a priority he identified in his five-year strategic plan, released last year. But Parker, who ran on a campaign promising year-round school, this summer said the district and city would start bigger, with 20 district schools and five charters.

Those district schools are: Add B. Anderson Elementary, Carnell Elementary, Cramp Elementary, Farrell Elementary, F.S. Edmonds Elementary, Gideon Elementary, Gompers Elementary, Greenberg Elementary, G.W. Childs Elementary, Juniata Park Academy, Locke Elementary, Morton Elementary, Overbrook Educational Center, T.M. Peirce Elementary, Pennell Elementary, Solis-Cohen Elementary, Southwark Elementary, Vare-Washington Elementary, Webster Elementary and Richard Wright Elementary.

The charters are: Belmont Charter, Northwood Charter, Pan American Charter, Mastery Pickett, and Universal Creighton Charter.

But one parent of children who attend one of the 20 district schools in the pilot said there’s scant information available for families. Mallory Fix-Lopez, a former board member, said she doesn’t know what date the before- and after-care starts, how many seats are available, and who the providers are citywide.

“I would have thought that by now, at the very least, we would know the working definition of ‘all-year school.’ Shared vocabulary with shared meaning is step one to getting public buy-in and support,” Fix-Lopez said. The district starts school Monday. “But, it’s hard to buy into something that doesn’t even have a clear definition, shape, or framework, at least not a public one.”

“Extended day and extended year” is the city’s flagship education initiative, Fix-Lopez said.

“I don’t think these are unreasonable questions considering the significant financial and personnel investments put into this,” she said. “Families genuinely desire to champion the work of public education in Philadelphia … but it’s very hard to do that when you have no idea what’s going on. As I’ve said over and over for years, communication is our Achilles heel. Bring us along for the journey with the information so we can champion it.”

Watlington stressed Thursday night that schools operating in the first-year pilot aren’t guaranteed to be in year two of the pilot, which is expected to contain more academic programming delivered by teachers. The 2024-25 program requires no extra time or changed calendar for Philadelphia Federation of Teachers members.

In other board matters:

Watlington said that the district has a 96% “fill rate” for teaching positions. That translates to 347 open teaching jobs with school beginning Monday.

“The numbers change literally every day and they’ll continue to change,” Watlington told the board. “We’ll continue to hire as long as we find good-quality teachers in the pool.”

The district is in better shape, hiring-wise, than it was at this point last year and the year before, the superintendent said — it had a 93% fill rate in 2022-23 and 95% fill rate last year.

Watlington said every Philadelphia classroom will have a credentialed teacher on Day 1, even if that means a long-term substitute or central office staffer with a teaching license.

Speakers alternately decried what some said was “rampant antisemitism” in the district and others said was a lack of protection of Islamic, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students.

Community member Jill Altshuler said many Jewish students do not feel safe in the district, and raised concerns about teacher training offered by the district and by outside groups.

“Anti-Israel narrative is clearly making its way into the classroom ... how is that OK with you?” Altshuler asked the board. “What are you doing to address it?”

Brandy Shufutinsky, another community member, said teachers who are members of the Philly Educators for Palestine group are activists “not only engaging in Jew hatred” but are presenting falsehoods as facts. “Our children deserve better,” Shufutinsky said.

Parent and teacher Rayya El Zein said that growing up as a Muslim, she was told to keep her head down, to keep silent. She will not encourage her students to do the same, she said, though in the district “it is still not safe to talk about Palestine. It is still not safe to question U.S. foreign policy.”

El Zein said she was “asking the school district to condemn genocide.” Other speakers told the board not to conflate condemnation of Israel’s political actions with antisemitism.

District teacher Keziah Ridgeway’s work and personal social media posts became a flashpoint after she raised concerns over the removal of her Northeast High students’ assignment examining Palestinian art as an act of resistance.

Ridgeway told the board Thursday night that the district does not adequately support Black, Muslim and Palestinian students and questioned district training, which she said did not adequately educate about Islamophobia.

The board voted to spend $32 million on a new science curriculum, the third part of a plan that saw a new math curriculum, introduced last year, and a new English curriculum, which is rolling out this school year.

Three companies were named by the board — Amplify Education got a $20 million contract, Kendall Hunt a $3.8 million contract, and SAVVAS an $8 million contract. The funds will come from federal COVID-19 relief funds, which must be spent by Sept 30.