The Philly superintendent will give his first-ever ‘State of the Schools’ talk Tuesday. Here are three things to expect.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. will examine the Philadelphia School District’s performance at the system’s first-ever “State of the Schools” address Tuesday.

Ahead of the event — scheduled to take place at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts in South Philadelphia — Watlington previewed his vision for where he intends to take the district of 113,000 students.

Among the changes the superintendent previewed: a reorganization of the district’s academics division; a shakeup in algebra and biology instruction; and financial help from the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, the district’s nonprofit arm.

Here are some takeaways from Watlington’s conversation with The Inquirer:

Watlington said the public deserves to get a clear, honest evaluation of how the system is doing, and he’s planning on delivering such an evaluation every January. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is expected to speak at Tuesday’s event.

The superintendent said he would tell Philadelphia “what we’re doing well, where we’re making progress and also tell the public what our challenges are and where, perhaps, we’ve fallen short of the mark.”

Overall, Watlington said, “I think we’ll have a good story to tell.” Most of the district’s academic indicators, including graduation rate and teacher and student attendance, are up. (Overall proficiency remains worrisome, though: Only 34% of district students meet state standards in reading and 16% in math.)

But Watlington said he will issue some warnings, too.

“I’m not happy or pleased or satisfied with our Algebra I performance,” the superintendent said. “We went the wrong direction in Algebra I.”

Just 16% of district high-schoolers passed the state Keystone biology exam in 2022-23, down from 20% the prior year. Biology performance also decreased, to 23% passing, from 28% passing the year before.

» READ MORE: The Philadelphia School District is spending $70 million on new curricula. Here’s a primer on the coming changes.

“Those are two areas that we know we’ve got to focus more heavily on and do something different, because we can’t do the same things and expect to get different outcomes,” said Watlington.

The district has already invested $20 million in a new math curriculum, Illustrative Math, rolled out this fall. Most staff had little to no training on the program before they were expected to teach it.

“Teachers overwhelmingly tell me they really like the new curriculum and the support resources,” Watlington said. “What they also tell me is they needed more time; they wish they had more time on the front end.”

In order to move the system forward, Watlington has orchestrated a central-office reorganization in the district’s academic division.

The goal, he said, is to “drive greater supports into schools that are meaningful and helpful to the classroom teachers. We’re trying to shift the district so that schools become the unit of change. We here at 440 should support the work in schools, not the other way around.”

He is adding a third associate K-8 superintendent — Evelyn Nuñez and Tomás Hanna are currently associate superintendent of elementary and secondary education, respectively — and an assistant superintendent for dropout prevention, as well as a special assistant of academic finance operations and a special assistant of academic services.

Watlington is also moving translation services and Multi-Tiered System of Supports from the district’s Office of Student Support Services to the Office of Special Education and Diverse Learners, and shifting Professional Learning Specialists to reporting to the Office of Curriculum and Instruction and the Office of Professional Learning. (They had reported to learning networks directly.)

The changes will be revenue-neutral; Watlington said he is eliminating vacant positions.

Too often, staff now tasked with supporting schools are burdened by tasks that take them away from schools, and Watlington wants that to change.

“We want our school leaders out in the field the majority of the day, the majority of the week, coaching, supporting teachers and principals,” Watlington said. Things like clerical tasks and handling parent concerns will be handed off to central-office staff, he said.

As federal COVID-19 relief funds dry up, Watlington and the school board have already indicated that they face rocky financial waters without additional money from the city and state. The district is alone in Pennsylvania as unable to raise its own revenue, and a state court last year agreed in a landmark decision that the state’s system of funding schools is unconstitutional and inequitable, illegally disadvantaging low-wealth districts like Philadelphia. It ordered legislative fixes, though the timeline for solutions is not clear.

Absent new money, the district projects a $407 million deficit in its $4.5 billion budget.

Of that $4.5 billion, $1.2 came from COVID-relief funds. That money often covered necessities, including the salaries of teachers, administrators, and other student-facing workers.

“We’ve been good stewards of those dollars and that’s what’s helping to drive some of the improvements we’re seeing,” Watlington said. “Because of that, we’re hopeful and optimistic that more dollars will flow to the district.”

Watlington said he will be in Harrisburg for Gov. Shapiro’s Feb. 6 budget address.

But if City Hall and Harrisburg don’t come through, “it would be impossible not to at some point get to people cuts,” Watlington said. But “I want to do everything I can as superintendent to always protect the classroom from budget cuts.”

Part of the district’s strategy going forward will be to rely on the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia for direct help. The fund, started nine years ago, has pledged $40 million over five years — including $6 million this school year — to support specific projects within Accelerate Philly, Watlington’s strategic plan.

Kathryn Epps Roberson, the fund’s CEO, said “Funding Accelerate Philly” will provide recurring money to support specific projects such as hiring parents to build credibility in underrepresented communities, running a parent-education program, and helping fund staff recruitment and retention programs. Professional-development opportunities for teachers and teacher-pathway programs will also be a focus, Roberson said.

The fund raises money from corporations and philanthropists, but Roberson said it will also look to regular folks to contribute through Philly Fundamentals, a crowd-funding platform that raises money for school-based projects.