‘Our Super Bowl’: It’s the first day for 114,000 Philly students

Cindy Hernandez thinks fifth grade might be a little difficult, but she approached the first day of school with her best foot forward.

“I’m excited,” said Cindy, 11, who attends Gloria Casarez Elementary, formerly Sheridan, in Kensington. “It’s a new year.”

Cindy and 114,000 Philadelphia School District students opened the 2022-23 school year Monday — some with nerves and tears, others with confidence and optimism.

» READ MORE: Monday is the first day of class for Philly’s superintendent, too. Here’s his preview of the school year.

Tony B. Watlington Sr. began his first day of his first school year as superintendent at the Broad Street Garage, home of the district’s bus fleet, and then waded into the crowd at Dunbar Elementary on North 12th Street, shaking hands and talking to students at the K-8 school on the edge of Temple University’s campus before he joined Mayor Jim Kenney and other dignitaries in ringing ceremonial bells.

Later, Watlington would go to Casarez, Thurgood Marshall Elementary in Olney, Strawberry Mansion High School, the Academy at Palumbo in South Philadelphia, and Patterson Elementary in Southwest Philadelphia.

“We think of this as our Super Bowl,” Watlington said of the first day of school. “Today marks an opportunity to steer our students toward a brand-new beginning.”

Sharon Thomas, mother of Joseph Gregg, a Dunbar second grader, sent her son off to school in high spirits. (She wanted to walk him in, but Joseph wanted to go solo.) Last year was a tough year, Thomas said, but she has high hopes for 2022-23.

“I’m excited to see what the year has in store for these kids,” said Thomas. “And hopefully, we don’t have to go virtual at all this year.”

The district begins the school year with 98% of its teaching positions filled, Watlington said. That means about 200 classrooms have no permanent teachers yet.

The number of vacancies is “not where we want it to be,” Watlington said, “but it’s not bad compared to other districts of our size.”

In a few cases, individual students may have to be moved until staff are hired, Watlington said. He has said classes without permanent teachers will have credentialed educators or another “appropriate adult” in front of them, whether it be a substitute teacher or another district employee with a teaching certificate.

While the teaching job fill rate is relatively high, other jobs have more openings. According to the most recent data, about 30% of jobs for district-employed school bus drivers and building engineers are vacant. Twenty-eight percent of climate staff jobs are not filled, and 22% of special-education assistant jobs are open.

Monday’s heat also highlighted a lack of fully air-conditioned schools; about 57% of district schools are not fully cooled. About 500 new room air-conditioners were installed over the summer, but many buildings lack adequate electrical service for full air-conditioning.

“We have a lot more planning to do regarding our air-conditioning,” Watlington said.

The district announced last spring it would no longer close or dismiss all schools early if heat forced such decisions; instead, it would only close those schools that were not fully air-conditioned. Decisions on heat-related closures are now made on a school-by-school basis when building temperatures are expected to reach 90 degrees or higher.

Students and staff were masked Monday, and will continue to wear masks for the first 10 days of the school year. Watlington has taken some heat for the district’s masking decision — other large districts are not requiring masks. But he said he stood by the decision, which was endorsed by Kendra McDow, the district’s chief medical officer and a pediatrician and epidemiologist.

Watlington said he can’t speak to other large district’s choices, but “we think that it’s really important to keep our students in school this year. To the extent that we can take steps to do that, we will.”

Both Watlington and Kenney pointed to a deal struck Friday with 32BJ as a high point of the new school term. The union, which represents 2,000 bus drivers, cleaners, trades workers, and other employees, reached a tentative deal Friday; its employees had authorized a strike vote if no deal was reached by Wednesday.

“We did not want to start the year with a strike,” the mayor said.

After a tough few years, Kenney said he was glad to see students smiling and ready to take on a new year.

“The most important thing we do as a city and as a government is educate our kids, and we need to continue to commit ourselves to doing that,” said Kenney.

At Casarez, the schoolyard overflowed with people celebrating the school’s new name — the school board in May approved a name change for the former Sheridan Elementary, at G and Ontario,to honor Gloria Casarez, an LGBTQ activist and alumnus of the school — and the first day of school.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” said Awilda Balbuena, the school’s principal. “I have been waiting for this day for so long.”

The community looked on as Watlington and Balbuena raised both the American flag and the LGBTQ Pride flag, which Casarez helped place at City Hall when she was Philadelphia’s director of LGBTQ Affairs.

Balbuena said the Pride flag and Casarez’s legacy will help set the tone for this school year.

“We are moving from visibility to belonging,” Balbuena said, leading hundreds gathered in the schoolyard to chant, “I see you, and you matter.”