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

Monday marks the first day of school for 114,000 Philadelphia School District students — and their new superintendent.

Tony B. Watlington Sr. is scheduled to ring bells with Mayor Jim Kenney, shake parents’ hands, talk to students, and tour classrooms and cafeterias across the city. And the new schools chief expects to feel butterflies.

“I get nervous before the first day of school every single year,” said Watlington, who started his job June 16. “Aspirationally, I want every bus to run on time. I want every student to feel welcomed and loved on the first day.”

But with a system as large, complex, and underfunded as Philadelphia’s, glitches are bound to happen. Not all classrooms will be staffed, for one. The district has 97.4% of teacher and counselor jobs filled, according to the latest available data. That means more than 200 jobs are open.

Still, Watlington promised that “all of our kids will have appropriate teachers and staff to welcome them and provide appropriate services” — meaning substitutes or staff with teaching credentials.

» READ MORE: 7 things to know about Philly’s new superintendent, Tony B. Watlington Sr.

Last year, staffing shortages were so acute at some schools that central office staff were recruited to fill in. Watlington said he hopes conditions won’t be so dire this year.

And though the district has a stock of aging buildings, some of which date to the 1800s, Watlington said in an interview that he expects them to be shining when students return.

“We’ve established a priority that even old buildings will be cleaned and welcoming, and the grounds will be appropriately manicured,” Watlington said. “We’re chipping away at those deferred capital needs.”

The district has at least $5 billion in unmet infrastructure demands and is in the beginning stages of a capital planning process that could result in school closings, building co-locations, new construction, and other changes. More information is expected on the capital plan by the end of this year.

Though no new school buildings are opening this fall, the district is completing an $18 million repair project at Richmond Elementary in Port Richmond and a $22 million project at Ethan Allen in Mayfair. It will soon break ground on a new Cassidy Elementary building in West Philadelphia, and work is underway on a new T.M. Peirce building in North Philadelphia.

“Despite the challenges, I think it says that the School District is still persevering to try to take care of our old and underresourced facilities while we think about strategies to get our students to better facilities,” Watlington said.

Students and staff will be masked for the first 10 days of the school year; after that, masks will be recommended but not mandated. (Officials have said similar requirements may be in place after long holiday breaks, depending on COVID-19 conditions.)

The district and school board have received some strong pushback to the 10-day masking plan. Other big-city districts, including New York and Chicago, are not requiring masks at all.

Watlington said he stands by the district’s plan, which was developed by Kendra McDow, the district’s chief medical officer and a pediatrician and National Institutes of Health-trained epidemiologist, in conjunction with the city’s health department. (Charter and private schools have no such requirement, but the district can mandate health and safety conditions only for its own schools.)

“While I can’t speak to the particular current circumstances in any of the other cities around the country, I think we landed on the best path for the School District of Philadelphia, based on the science and based on our desire to keep kids in school,” Watlington said.

Watlington has held dozens of listening sessions — in all, more than 80 have already happened or will happen through September — and he’s taking what he’s learned so far with him into the school year, he said.

Students, Watlington said, have told him “that they felt a bit disconnected from their classmates and, quite frankly, from their counselors, because the ratio is too large and the need is too high. Many of them are experiencing stress, a heightened sense of anxiety, some depression, and I’m told that the number of calls to suicide prevention hotlines have significantly increased, so we have that in our minds in terms of how we just take extra special care in welcoming students.”

Watlington said he’s eagerly awaiting a report from his transition team, which will help shape his specific priorities and action items. But broadly, the work he wants to do centers on “literacy and jobs — those are the two words that I think about all of the time.”