Thank you. One of the issues we discuss every year around this time is the start date for school. We always push back on the idea of starting school before Labor Day. We listened to Dr. Watlington in his testimony talk about over $200 million in damage to facilities to specifically address temperature and climate. And while Dr. Watlington comes back to us every year with a detailed explanation as it relates to why he has to start school before Labor Day, while we comprehend we often push back. For the start of the school year of 2024 -- I'm sorry. For the start of the school year of 2025-2026, do you anticipate school starting before or after Labor Day?
Mr. Chairman, there is a diverse internal and external committee currently working on a draft calendar for the next two years -- for the following two fiscal school years. That diverse team is considering everything. The short answer is it's premature to say. But the long story short, that committee under the leadership of Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jermaine Dawson is considering the impacts on student achievement, state law relative to the number of days and when schools cannot be in service, a very diverse holiday footprint across the District representing our diversity, and we'll be bringing a recommendation to President Streater and the Board some time in early to mid-2025 and we will be happy to keep you updated.
Yeah. So I want to go on the record as again encouraging us to start school after Labor Day until we address the facilities crisis. What happens far too often is we start school and it's often disrupted because of things that are beyond our control, like issues related to climate and things of that capacity. So I did just want to put that on the record. In the second round, I'm --
Mr. Chairman, may I just note for the record that more than 16,000 Philadelphians have weighed in on a survey, don't have the details of that because it's still out in the field, but we're getting a lot of --
So 15,000 say that we want to start school after Labor Day. Is that enough?
We're going to defer to Dr. Dawson's capable leadership. I'm sure he'll do a good job.
Thank you, Dr. Watlington. I'm just joking. In all seriousness though, I'll get to the facility stuff afterwards. But I'm going to ask that in the midst of our break I do want to give a huge thank you to Mr. Craig Johnson, who does an excellent job as it relates to his work and what he's charged with. Far too often Mr. Johnson who to no fault of his own, or yours, Dr. Watlington, or yours, Board President Streater, or pretty much anybody in this room, he has to communicate issues to myself and members of the Education Committee as it relates specifically to a school being evacuated to a condition of the building that has happened far too often. I'm hoping that after the break you can tell us how often does a school have to be evacuated because of a facilities-based issue that again is beyond your control but also puts us in a position to disrupt education? I think that's something important for the general public to know. As you know, Dr. Watlington, since you've gotten here I've screamed and cried about the facilities crisis. I believe that's the biggest concern that we have as a city. I think there's no 5 other concern that's more important in public education. And when you look at the job of public education, I commend you and your team for the focus on academic progress. But it's hard for people to step into a building every day and get a quality education when they're worried about the infrastructure, and the infrastructure tells them something different than what we're saying here, which is that we care about our children. So we'll dive into that when we come back from the break. Last question on my behalf: Local procurement is a really important thing for me -- oh, I'm sorry. Let me take a step back. We talked about facilities. I do want to give a special thank you to Dr. Oz Hill as well too. He inherited one of the toughest jobs that anybody can inherit in all the government and he's been handling it in stride, so I just wanted to put that on the record as well. Local procurement is something that's been really important to me and working with our new CFO, we've been able to put us in a position to see some significant strides. When we first started this work together, less than percent of all School 17 District contracts went to 18 Philadelphia-based businesses. 19 For those who don't 20 know, Keeping Local is a bill that 21 I passed in City Council coming out 22 of the pandemic in order to 23 encourage the City to put a large 24 percentage of our City contracts to Philadelphia-based businesses. Now, as a city we have over 50 percent of our contracts going to Philadelphia-based businesses and now the School District is trending in that exact same way. Based on the work that I do on a quarterly basis with the CFO, while we're able to adopt and amend some things in that meeting, there are some things that are beyond his control, and I want to put some of that stuff on the record today. Some of the big contracts that we have that are out there does not put us in a position for our local businesses to bid on. We've pushed the CFO and his team to reduce those contracts. Let me give you an example. The cleaning contract for the School District of Philadelphia is one that we outsource. Now, I understand that when we outsource these contracts these providers often use Philadelphia-based businesses as their prime, and that is a good thing. But if we really want to grow our economy, right, because that also benefits you, I'm wondering and I'll use the substitute teaching contract as another example, why don't we break these contracts down into smaller RFPs so Philadelphia-based businesses can be more competitive as it relates to bidding on School District contracts?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll say two things. Number one, under the leadership of Deputy Superintendent Hill and CFO Herbstman we've held a number of sessions with local vendors to include MBE and WBE vendors to make them aware of the processes established by the Board to help them understand how to get registered as a potential vendor with the School District and to navigate all the areas where they have to do. Secondly, when we look at following a competitive process for services and construction and the like, we are very laser-focused on making sure that we follow the letter and the spirit of state, federal and local ordinances and laws as well as the Board's policy. But it is always something that we're reviewing, because we believe that most school districts in the country tend to be among the largest employers and absolutely where possible within the letter and spirit of the law ought to have opportunities for local participation. We agree with you, sir.
So I started by commending the CFO because everything you've talked about is things that him and his team has done an amazing job on to move the numbers based on where we were, which was pretty bad, to where we are which is some progress. But we need a commitment from you, Dr. Watlington. We need a commitment from you, Board President Streater. We need you to go on the record and let us know that you're going to be willing to take a look at some of these bigger contracts that Philadelphia businesses unfortunately cannot bid on, break them down in smaller RFPs and try to give Philadelphia businesses an opportunity to be able to bid on some of these contracts. These are the type of things that can change generational wealth in municipalities. These are the type of things that can help us overcome the deficit that you have as well as what we have on our end. And if we do a good job of this, I think that it could put us in a position where some of the struggles that we have economically can dissolve. So I just want to put that on the record and we're going to continue to push on that on the legislative side.
Before I recognize Councilmember Gilmore Richardson and then Councilmember Phillips, let me just put something on the record from Councilmember Driscoll. And hopefully, you can address it after the break. Councilmember Driscoll unfortunately couldn't be here but this is a huge priority to him and his team. Councilmember Driscoll if you don't know represents the Northeast section of the city of Philadelphia and he had a huge concern as it relates to overcrowding at Northeast schools, specifically looking at Lincoln High School. With the status of capital funding for projects in the 6th District, he's concerned that this overcrowding and some of the legal issues can impact some of that work. And we will get you his other questions as it relates to the capital funding. But before I pass it to Councilmember Gilmore Richardson -- I'm sorry, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, then Phillips -- let me just put some of the issues that was communicated to this body specifically related to Lincoln High School. Lincoln is supposed to have a capacity of 1585. It has over 2500 students enrolled. Lincoln's lunch period begins at 9:05 a.m. for a school that starts at 7:30, so imagine a high school student having lunch at 9:05. Lincoln is one of our better facilities in the city, brand new built. We're told, and I don't know how true this is, that the Lincoln library has six classrooms in the actual library. Now, when I think about a school like Frankford High School that has all the construction issues, I can understand that being in place, but a school like Lincoln I'm not quite sure why that is. We're also told that science classes are not taught in science rooms. We've been told that there have been over five assistant principals who've been driven out of there. And I have about seven other pages of issues, including contract violations and a whole bunch of other stuff that -- again, I'm still turning the page, I'm not going to read all this stuff, but these are the things that's been communicated to myself and Councilmember Driscoll. I'll put Councilmember Harrity in that category as well too. So when we come back from the break, hopefully we'll be able to put some things on the record specifically to answer Councilmember Driscoll's questions as it relates to Lincoln High School. Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson followed by Councilmember Phillips. And, colleagues, if it's okay with you, we're going to try to stick to three minutes per round and then we'll take a break. And then whenever we take that break, we'll just come back 45 minutes later. Majority Leader Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you so much to our Education Chair, my colleague Councilmember Thomas. I appreciate the break because I have to pause here to go pick up my kids from school. I have them in a reading camp to help them try to get on grade level with their reading. So everyone knows I have to leave at 3:00 no matter what on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays so I can get them to this program that I've enrolled my children in to try to get them on grade level with their reading. So at any rate, I will stick to the time limit and just put all my questions on the record. I wanted to start with a thank you. Thank you to Dr. Watlington for assembling what I believe is a great team to help address some of the longstanding challenges that we know we face as a district. I am especially thankful for Laurel, who's our day-to-day person that we work with here in Council, and then also for Dr. Dawson, who I have said many times I think is just one of the best professionals that you have on your team, and also to Mr. Hill who I've recently communicated with, but I am especially thankful for Dr. Dawson. I wanted to say thank you also for the leveling that you have addressed and utilized a portion of your budget to ensure that we are no longer leveling in the District. It has been received with very positive reviews not only from teachers and families but from those who have been impacted in the past. And finally, thank you for working with my office and with Councilmember Jones to add a meeting to the facilities planning process west of the river, which was held two weeks ago now in Wynnefield. I am especially concerned about what may happen based on some of the neighborhood trends across the city relative to which schools have underenrollment and which schools are bursting at the seams as we just heard about the schools in the Northeast represented by Councilmember Driscoll. So I wanted to start there. As you all are undertaking this facilities planning process, if you all could just think about how you are working on the catchment boundary plan as well and ensuring that families are able to utilize the school finder application in a way that points them to their closest local public school. It was funny -- on Friday I received an inquiry from a family in Wynnefield. They actually live in my division where I serve as a committee person. They are interested in transitioning their child from cyber charter school back to the closest local public school. And so, I actually just sent that case over to your office, so please help us help the Jones-Hyman family. So please consider that as you undertake the facilities planning process because I think that continues to be a challenge with not only underenrollment and schools that are bursting at the seams but also routing families to the correct places within their communities. Staying on some of the other issues around facilities, and I know you have a meeting forthcoming on the 10th for families with students who have IEPs, we found in the past that those students and also low-income students and minority students are typically disproportionately impacted when there are facility closures. And so, I wanted to put that on the record relative to students with IEPs. And then also, I wanted to mention specifically Girls High. I know I used a large portion -- thank you, I hear the bell. I used a large portion of my time to talk about Girls High. I'm very thrilled to have new leadership and Principal Argro and last year you all committed to holding Girls High harmless even if they did not meet their full enrollment. And so, I know that we are working to ensure that enrollment is increased there amongst other schools obviously. But I wanted to ensure that you all would at least commit to holding them harmless again this year on the record so that we can give them an opportunity to rebuild over at the Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Finally, we noticed that it was around 13 percent increase for the career and technical education schools around the passage of the NOCTI exam. But I wanted to put on the record that we have received outreach from a few former teachers now who were in the CTE programs who have since left the District over an issue with the education requirement that they were unable to meet. And we lost some really seasoned CTE professionals. I think a few from Ben Franklin High School and some of our other CTE programs because of this requirement. If you all could just address that issue. There is an easy fix for the issue, but it just needs to be addressed at the leadership level at the District. That would be helpful. And then finally, so I can respect time, we would like to see CTE begin in 9th grade so that as a district we are eligible for additional funding from the state to have CTE for a total of four years instead of three years. And I know a big part of your push is increasing the students who are proficient in Algebra 1 and having Algebra 1 earlier in their academic career. But doing that will also help us to have CTE starting in 9th grade instead of 10th grade so that we could receive additional funding. I know that when I was in the District back in the mid '90s I had Algebra 1 in 7th grade at Masterman. We already had two languages at that point by 7th grade, but that is not the case with a ton of other schools, particularly our neighborhood schools. So I wanted to put that on the record. Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, the remainder of my questions I will submit for the record. But I just wanted to say that we are concerned in ensuring that we are incorporating financial literacy as a priority in our School District and wanted to know what metrics the District will use to assess the effectiveness of financial literacy education as it does become an education requirement in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. What plans are in place to involve families and financial literacy efforts with the new work with Parent University and recognizing that intergenerational benefits of programs like the Adult Financial Empowerment workshops that you all have been doing I think with Philadelphia financial scholars? They offer work to parents and caregivers. And finally, how does the District see financial literacy as a tool not only for academic success but also for addressing the broader systematic economic challenges faced by our city? A few of those answers I'd like to ask for the record to get on the record, particularly around Girls High and financial literacy. I will submit all of my questions for the record for a written response. And I do apologize in advance for my departure as I'm a working mom and have to pick up my kids from school.
Mr. Chairman, may I have 60 seconds for just a quick high-level response?
We've heard loud and clear the catchment boundary issues in our sites. You are absolutely correct, Principal Argro is doing a fantastic job at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She has been all over this city recruiting and I think we're going to have some good things on the other side of this. Relative to financial literacy --
I apologize, Mr. Chair. If you could just commit to holding Girls High harmless relative to the amount of teachers versus based on the enrollment, like you all did last year.
Thank you. We're considering an ongoing commitment to do whatever is necessary to rebuild the enrollment consistent with the approach we took last year. Let me also say relative to your question about financial literacy, absolutely, A, in the Parent and Family University relaunch that Dr. Dawson and Chief Coppadge are leading, there will be a financial literacy for parents and guardians and caregivers. We also as a part of Accelerate Philly will launch a financial literacy module as part of the K-12 curriculum. We're doing reading, math -- and we're doing math first, reading this year, language arts, science after that and then we're going to integrate financial literacy as well. More to come. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Chairman Thomas. I just want to begin by stating that thank you, Board Chair Streater as well as Dr. Watlington. There's been some amazing progress since our last time that we've had in this body and I want to applaud you for that, so thank you so much. One, let me just begin by stating as you know -- this is a question -- this year we have seen high-level community issues that have been addressed publicly here in the city of Philadelphia, particularly the arena. And now, with the school closure that is being proposed I wanted to make sure that we get on record that it's really important that we begin with community engagement throughout this entire process, and I love the fact that we've had 32 community meetings. I just want to make sure that if we can get on record that you work closely with City Councilmembers, stakeholders, agencies that we work with so they could be more involved with this process at the beginning of the conversation as opposed to now we're on defense. We want to be in concert together. And I just was concerned about the fact that we did have community meetings recently which is wonderful, but I just want to make sure we do that with Philadelphia City Council going forward.
Yes, sir, Councilmember Phillips. President Streater and the Board have been very clear about us having a throughline of high engagement from beginning to end of the process. We'll stay on that path.
Awesome, because one of the things that I wanted to note, which was really important for us, is that when presenting to the neighborhood, we want to be very clear about the why, why we have to do the closures. And then after that, we want to present what options are available and then see if we can negotiate a consensus relevant to making sure that every family feels good about where their children are going to go. So I just want to see if maybe as you're building out this plan we have community agencies and organizations that we work with as well as State reps and so forth, maybe we all could be in concert together so this is not like we didn't know. There's no, you know. So we're at the beginning stages so I think we can fix this. I'm happy about that. The last thing I just want to ask about -- and I'll submit the rest my questions on record to you all in an email and so forth, but I just wanted to put on record that recently many City Councilmembers have gone to prisons, other community -- like a prison where we heard about the issue of bullying in the city of Philadelphia public schools and also sometimes we've gone to -- that was in Phoenixville. We've also gone to different community meetings and we've heard about bullying. And I think this is a time -- and I was bullied growing up in Philadelphia public schools. I'm really hoping that as part of our goals for the incoming year we can assess that for the upcoming year it's like how do we address school bullying in its totality so we can make a capital awareness campaign to fix that. So that's one thing. And then the last thing I want to get on record is about Olney High School, which is really, really important to the 9th District, where we have an opportunity to really fix a facility there with their athletic facility, which I think would be pivotal because we haven't had any renovations in the 9th District for any of our facilities in -- well, we had one -- no, actually -- no, we haven't. So with that being said, I just want to see if this could be something that could be a PIAA huge banger for our neighborhood and it could be community accessible to have a track, outstanding football field, baseball field and so forth. And I just want to make sure that as part of the budget process that we're really considering how to make that work. I know Dr. Oz Hill talked about that with me, but I just want to make sure our Board and you and everyone else is really going to work together to see how we can make this happen.
I'm sorry, Mr. Superintendent. Can you please be as concise and efficient in your answers as possible.
Relative to Olney, President Streater and the Board have asked us to bring a plan in the early fall, too soon to get ahead of that. It will be the Board's decision about the expenditures as that support responsibility, but we'll bring very informed, well- thought-out recommendations for it, and we absolutely will double-down on our commitment to preventing and mitigating bullying in the schools.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity and we'll close out with Councilmember -- oh, I'm sorry. Well, Councilmember Harrity, then Councilmember O'Rourke and we'll close out with Councilmember Gauthier. Councilmember Harrity.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you guys for coming out and to answer our questions as far as the year-round school is concerned. I'm the labor guy on Council so I figure I might as well get it out of the way. Have we discussed the year-round plan with the teachers union and the other unions for the School District? And if so, is the PFT in support of the year-round schooling?
We're in constant communication with the PFT and other unions. We have begun a process. We have a labor union contract up next fall and that's part of our communication. Yes, we're in regular communication.
All right. With that being said, what is the plan for the maintenance that's usually done in the offseason?
I will ask Deputy Superintendent Hill if he might could speak to anything related to maintenance in the offseason since that is a part of our facilities work. Could you speak to that? I think the Chair has given us 30 to 90 seconds. Is that right, sir?
Can I ask a clarifying question? Is it what is the plan for the offseason upkeep --
Yeah, all the stuff that we usually repair and all that stuff --
During the time when the students are in school all year --
Yeah. All I want to know is do we have a plan to deal with the new circumstances if we do year-round school that made it -- that will have to be done at some point. Just trying to figure out what that plan is.
Thank you very much for the question, Councilmember. Absolutely we have a plan that focuses on a robust effort during the peak periods when students are not in school to ensure that we don't expose them to any hazards, whether it be for environmental maintenance work or major renovation. Additionally, we are performing scheduled maintenance on major building systems to ensure their functionality and operability.
Okay. So that's all in preparation for -- good. All right. And then the last thing I have is on you guys said that you added 60 schools with air-conditioning in the three years. How many schools now have adequate AC and what's the plan to have schools ready with AC for '26?
Sir, currently we have 58 schools that have instructional spaces that are inadequately cooled. The process of preparing those spaces includes not only the installation of the mechanical systems, but the upgrading of the electrical backbone in those facilities so that we have the capacity to support the mechanical systems. That process is ongoing. We're looking at funding and resources to accomplish those objectives.
Yeah, I appreciate that. But it goes to show that we need to build new schools. Not having the adequate electric is ridiculous. And I get it. You know, back -- it gets a little hotter nowadays than I guess it did years ago. But I just think that at some point we have to, you know, coming from a labor standpoint I know that some of these schools the cost to abate the asbestos and lead would cost you more than it would be just to knock it down and build another one. So I hope we're thinking about that in the next coming school year also.
Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke. And let me just put something on the record real quick. I've been told by my supervisors that we won't be taking a break shortly because we won't be coming back for a second round, so we're going to ask that all members get your questions in now. And instead of taking a break, we're going to go ahead and adjourn today's dialogue. Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke, followed by Councilmember Gauthier. And then after that -- oh, and then we'll close out with -- well, then followed by Councilmember Lozada and then I'll close it out with the final round of questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And good afternoon to all the panelists. First time I get a chance to speak to you all today. It was morning time when we got started and now it's the afternoon. And it's already been lifted up by the Council President before he left. Many of us are deeply concerned about the incoming Presidential administration as we already talked about quite a bit, particularly how it will affect migrant students and families in Philadelphia. To your point, Chairman Streater, we're grateful to have a school board that is already committed to the Sanctuary Schools resolution, which was passed in 2021, sets out critical policies to safeguard immigrant students, including rapid response protocol, sets out things like comprehensive staff training to prevent discrimination and harassment, a community table that gives migrant families a voice and decisions that affect their children's education. All these are wonderful things. And grateful and need to shout out Juntos as an organization that has been there to really drive that policy or drive that resolution and getting the work done there. As I understand it, to date though the implementation of the Sanctuary Schools policy has been consistent which has left migrant students and families vulnerable. We do understand that you are going to be working on what implementation on that looks like. I do want to say though on Juntos' point though, they've also proposed a newcomer program to the School Board as well, which requests comprehensive and guaranteed access to critical resources, support services and culturally competent education for every immigrant and newcomer student in our city. Will you commit to implementing the newcomer program to protect the vulnerable immigrant students and families in Philadelphia?
If I can briefly say it's a sad state of affairs that we've had to have this conversation, that we have to pass resolutions to do things that some would say should just be a fundamental right of all the children in the School District of Philadelphia. But what I can say is the Board of Education is in partnership with our Superintendent and committed to ensuring that we can make sure every student is safe, feels safe and that we support them any way that we can. So I can say that in response to that. And we look forward to working with Juntos as we have in the past with the resolution, and that's just the beginning of the conversation that must continue.
I'm glad that is the beginning of the conversation. Mr. Chairman, just so I'm clear are you aware of the newcomer program that has been proposed?
Yes, I believe in your public comment that you submitted to the Board of Education I read that as well as you've mentioned it, and I believe we got some other feedback from Juntos as well.
Beautiful. Thank you so much, Chairman. Appreciate you.
Thank you, colleague. Chair recognizes Councilmember Gauthier and we'll close out with Councilmember Lozada. And, colleagues, for the record we do have six people who've signed up for public comment.
Good afternoon to the both of you and thank you for being here today. I was struck in your presentation by the slide that showed what you learned from the past school closures, and I don't think that's the first time you showed that information to Council. And I'm struck every time that I see it, that we were trying to close a billion dollar- plus gap that we saw closing 30 schools as a means to help with that goal, that it saved us $24 million in terms of dollars but it also cost us a lot in terms of student achievement and performance. I think today was the first time that I heard the statistic that you gave that every student that drops out costs us almost a half a million dollars. So when I think about that statistic and then I think about the million, I'm not really sure 6 we saved it, right, because there 7 could have been an impact on 8 increased dropouts due to the 9 closures as well. 10 And so, what I wanted to 11 know, I definitely liked 12 Councilmember Phillip's question 13 about how you'll engage the 14 community and work with Council. 15 But I want to know as we embark on 16 this path again what are we going 17 to do differently, right, because 18 it's more than about just sort of 19 real dollars and cents. There's 20 also a cost that comes with a 21 school being closed in the 22 community that's almost 23 incalculable. 24 So I'd love to hear -I'm glad to see what you learned, but I want to know how we will employ what you learned as we head down this path again? (Applause.)
Thank you, Councilmember Gauthier. On the one hand we're approaching this with the benefit of more time and we're being very thoughtful about an equity-centered approach. For example, in schools that closed the lionshare of the savings came from position cuts. Equity-oriented thinking says that for the kids who need more we give them more. We just don't balance the budget just by sheer number of kids. So we intend, as we bring recommendations to President Streater and the Board, to be mindful of how we make more investments in some communities where kids are underrepresented, underresourced and need more instead of just balancing the budget by cutting. Secondly, we'll be making sure that we continue to hear the voices of all communities in Philadelphia as we build this plan to bring to the Board.
And can I also add, what's a little different there's a resolution where the Board spoke unanimously that protects students and takes a more equitable approach where we're not running to close a budgetary shortfall, we're actually trying to do things that can actually support student achievement. So I'll just say that that's also a difference and I believe this Board will reject a plan that doesn't deliver on the spirit of the resolution 23 that we passed.
Okay. I appreciate that. And I want us to be looking at this with every site that you suggest, I want to see not just a plan or a recommendation for closing a site because a school building is more than a building, right. A school building is a center of community and it could have all kinds of implications. It could have implications on violence, implications on student morale, student learning. And so, as we go down this road I'm going to be looking to see with each closure that's recommended how we avoid some of those outcomes, negative outcomes, that we know we experienced when we did this the first time around. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up on the school closure conversation but more towards the school that actually have already closed and are kind of sitting vacant in the community, some of which are blighted, right. I know that you guys have done listening tours across the city of Philadelphia. Some residents have not been able to participate. But part of what they wanted me to share with you was the fact that there are some schools that have closed. I'm going to use Fairhill School as an example that is vacant, is blighted. We have a parking lot that's on 3rd and Dauphin, somewhere that is in deplorable condition and it belongs to the City of Philadelphia. What are we doing to make sure that these facilities that are closed don't become problems in the community. When I mention that, I think of Fairhill because it has become one of those spaces where some of our outdoor neighbors have gone to break in and to seek shelter, right, but it also becomes a situation that community residents are afraid of because it can catch fire because people won't know that folks are in there and may need additional attention. The parking lot over at 3rd Street has so much overgrown vegetation that when people go in there and they light fires, they're afraid that that is also going to catch on fire. So what are we doing about making sure that some of these facilities that we can maybe take out of our inventory and use some of that money to be able to invest in some of our existing active spaces is used?
Separating apart from the facilities planning process and the resolution that the Board directed the Superintendent on, I'm going to ask Colonel Hill to come back and say a word about what we're doing about the closed schools to ensure that they're not nuisances and how they're being looked after --
And I apologize if you guys talked about that. I've kind of been dealing with an emergency in the District so I've been in and out. So if you all said it and I didn't hear it, I apologize for that.
And I'll defer to President Streater about the Board's position as far as current facilities that are on its footprint that it owns that are closed.
Yeah. I'll be brief in the resolution. Again, the resolution matters. This is something that the Board has bound itself to. There's a commitment to working with our City partners so that we can be thoughtful and strategic about facilities that may need to be reimagined for now. And I say this -- I also have personal experience with Germantown High School, which was for far too long sitting empty and became a nuisance in some ways but now it's being repurposed. But, yeah, that's embedded in the process, again learning lessons, learning from our past mistakes on that topic.
Thank you very much for the question, Councilmember. Just as the Superintendent and the Board President have said, the facilities planning process certainly will inform the long-term disposition of those properties. We are working in tandem right now with the Mayor's Clean and Green initiative to ensure that those properties are maintained and they are not eyesores in the communities in which they sit.
Have you all considered partnering not just with Clean and Green but with PHS as well?
Absolutely, ma'am. It's a collaborative effort and we're talking to our counterparts, both governmental agencies as well as nonprofit advocates in communities to ensure that those properties don't become eyesores.
Awesome. Thank you. And then my last question is around the maintenance backlog. Do you all still have a maintenance backlog? And if so, how backlogged are you and what is being done to address that backlog?
Great question. Thank you, ma'am. We do have a maintenance backlog. On average we get about 650 new work orders every week. That on top of the maintenance backlog that can be attributed to the historic underfunding of our facilities and maintenance in the District it creates a cycle in which we're always catching up, if you will, in terms of addressing the backlog. Because as soon as we take two steps forward in addressing the backlog, we have just received again every week on average about 650 new work orders. We are looking at the resources that we have. We have delineated a component of our internal staff to address the backlog as well as work on the current work orders as they're coming in. We prioritize those work orders which impact the safety and well-being of students, faculty and staff.
Okay. Is there a way that you can provide this body with a list of what number is your current backlog number and where they are by Council District?
Thank you. Let me just go to another quick line of questioning. One of the issues that was communicated to us was concerns around school crossing guards. We talked a little bit about this in our monthly meetings. We asked for there to be some type of communication plan. When there's an emergency in the school currently right now, there is no line of communication to the school crossing guards to be able to communicate whatever incident might have taken place. Again, Mr. Craig Johnson does a great job of keeping City Council informed, specifically the Education Committee and the District Councilmembers when there's a serious incident that takes place. So I'm wondering where we are in that communication plan for the school safety officers and what do we have in place so when there is an emergency that emergency is communicated to our crossing guards who we love and adore?
Mr. Chairman, are you asking us to follow up that issue in writing or to speak to it at this time?
If you don't have an update, please follow up in writing.
The Colonel maybe will have it. Colonel, do you want to follow up in writing or you want to say anything?
I can share a comment right now. Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman. The school crossing guard dilemma is one that challenges us every single day based on the shortage of school crossing guards. What we do to mitigate that challenge is using our patrol officers to also cover, to assist with those known locations where it presents a challenge for pedestrian traffic, also working with the school communities for greater awareness in terms of safety while pedestrian traffic into the schools during bell times.
How long do you think it will take for you to come up with a comprehensive plan that could be communicated to them?
Mr. Chairman, I would like to do a little bit of research, but certainly by the time that the Superintendent updates this body on the next biannual update we'll certainly have a plan.
It would be disappointing for you all to go into contract negotiations with them next year and it kind of not be one of the things that's done as you head into contract negotiations. One of the things you talked about with staff being an issue, you're sitting on an extra pot of money this year. I believe we talked about it being about -- how much?
You're sitting on -- no, that's -- you're sitting on 700 million right now while operating in a deficit. But this year's deficit was projected to be 80 million, and that number is down to about 66 million. You said earlier that you got three contracts coming up. Clearly, school crossing guards is one of the issues that we have as it relates to being able to hire. We clearly have the revenue. Clearly, you can't talk in-depth about contract negotiations, but do you think that you will have an appetite to provide a raise for the school crossing guards similar to what you did for the teachers and the UNITE HERE workers?
Sir, I would like to defer a response to that after having an opportunity to consult with the CFO and with the District staff.
I would say, Mr. Chairman, that we are so early into the budget development process I wouldn't want to be on the record at this point saying anything other than we value all our employees and we'll have some hard decisions to make and we're committed to making good recommendations to the Board.
That sounds very responsible, Dr. Watlington. But I can go on the record and say that we do want to see an increase in pay for a lot of the people who we know are struggling to do the work that they're doing and we know that that's the only way we can address some of the staff and vacancies that we see, but I understand your responsible answer.
To be clear, Mr. Chairman, we have lots of hardworking employees across the School District of Philadelphia and we certainly wish we could pay all of them better than we are now. Thank you.
Thank you for that. That's the appetite that we love to hear. Are there any answers around Lincoln High School yet?
Lincoln High School, can you identify -- I'm going to recognize Councilmember Bass. But as I'm recognizing Councilmember Bass, I did give Laurel some of the issues that was communicated to us around Lincoln High School. So at some point can you guys identify someone to be able to come answer questions around Lincoln High School before we adjourn for today?
Mr. Chairman, if you'll give me 60 seconds, I'll be glad to give a high-level overview and follow up in writing.
Can I recognize Councilmember Bass first. She's been patiently waiting, and then we can go back into that dialogue if that's okay. Thank you, sir. Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
Good afternoon almost good evening. Well, listen, I just want to ask just a couple of questions and I want to follow up first on my colleague's question around school crossing guards and I want to pivot to the position of safety because as most of us probably realize, there was a crossing guard who actually passed away over the weekend over I think it was in Jersey, who they showed the videotape footage of them basically trying to stop cars. They stopped one car from, you know, and she was protect -- he or she I should say, was protecting students which were trying to cross the street. And in one case this person was able to stop the car and then the next they weren't and they were hit and they were killed. And so, I wanted to know what we're doing around school safety around crossing guards and also how closely are we working with the Streets Department and the Philadelphia Police Department and school crossing guard network to make sure our kids get home safe? It never ceases to amaze me that people will run right past a school bus with the stop sign extended. They will think nothing of just ignoring it. And so, I would like to see the highest penalty possible placed on them, and I don't know that we're there yet but that's something that we would like to explore and we want to get feedback from you all first.
Given that safety is the number one priority in our strategic plan, I'll ask the Colonel to speak to that. I'm sure the Chair will entertain 60 seconds or less, right?
Just as -- thank you for the question, ma'am, and just as a follow-up to my previous comments, as I mentioned having our Patrol Office from the Office of School Safety provide support to mitigate the shortage in terms of staffing of school crossing guards, unless I am incorrect I believe that crossing guards are City employees and through coordination with the School District we highlight our priorities in terms of their posting.
Yes. So how do you all coordinate with the crossing guards, with the School District, with the Police Department, with the Department of Streets and Safety? Is there coordination, because in my mind at least there should be because you have the need for speed, like traffic-calming measures. This Council enacted a bill last year that said that, okay, we're going to make priorities -- schools for traffic calming. And so, when it comes to placing speed bumps or speed cushions or whatever you want to call them, schools, particularly elementary schools I would imagine get a priority. I know my colleague Council Lady Lozada also introduced a bill to have speed cushions around recreation centers, correct, Council Lady?
Recreation centers, your bill 7 around recreation centers and speed cushions?
and I did one around senior facilities. And so, I know you all are just focusing on the School District portion. So can you give us some sense of where we are with that?
Yes, ma'am. Within the last 90 days we've met with senior members of the City's administration regarding the installation of those traffic- calming devices. At this time we have the devices installed around approximately 50 of our schools and we have shared a prioritized list with senior staff members regarding where we believe the next traunch of calming devices should be installed. In terms of our coordination, yes, ma'am --
I'm sorry. Not to cut you off, can you give us an idea on what that was based on and where they are? What data that was based on, like who determined, you know, we're going to put one at E. Washington Rhodes and we're going to put one at John Greenleaf Whittier and we're going to put one at Emlen Elementary and we're going to put one --
That was based on our serious incident data as captured by the Office of School Safety.
Excellent. Okay. Based on the number of incidents, so it's based on --
Okay. And you have that list available as to where those incidents occurred and what schools are next up?
Yes, we have the list, the prioritized list that we submitted. I'm not certain what the capacity is of the City staff to actually install the devices. I'm not able to speak on that.
Additionally, the coordination with the crossing guard supervisors was a fluid process because at one time we were providing the crossing guard supervisors with space, office space and L.P. Hill as well as MLK. Based on some of the space demands that we've had to support academics and professional development, they are no longer in that space. But through civil affairs coordination through the Office of School Safety, we're still maintaining that coordination with the crossing guards.
Okay. That brings up a whole different line of questions that I do want to ask you about offline because the idea -- it sounded as if what you were saying is that Martin Luther King ran out of space for housing our traffic safety professionals.
What I'm saying is that as we have identified swing space in MLK and we have prioritized the instructional space for our students, the crossing guards have relocated or moved out of -- the supervisors have moved out of MLK and L.P. Hill.
I'll just put it on out there. Martin Luther King has a ton of space. They just have so much space. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. But unless something happened very, very recently, there's a lot of space at a lot of our schools. And that actually brings me to my next question if I can which is, is there any consideration -- I know we have an overcrowded population of schools sort of east of Broad Street, and then on the west side of Broad Street we have what I would describe as almost somewhat some schools are almost empty and there's this conversation around rightsizing and school closures and all those kinds of things. Is there any consideration of where we have classes that are in hall closets and in hallways and stairways? This is what has been reported. Is there any consideration of moving some of the students to prevent those kinds of learning environments which are unhealthy and just not a good thing? Is there any sort of consideration of moving students to a school that has excess space? Is that ever on the table?
Councilmember, I think that's one of the central parts of this whole planning process to address the underenrollment and overenrollment so that we can address those kind of issues, absolutely.
In the near term if you take a school like Lincoln High School, we have essentially capped the number of students who are out of catchment who would go there through some kind of school selection process with the exception of a small number of CT, career technical education students. And we're also making parents aware or people who move into certain areas of the schools that are closest with open space. The Board also has a policy that allows a family to go to any school where there's space available that may not be their catchment area.
So if a student is out of catchment, let's say they're a student at Lincoln and they're out of catchment. And so, you've basically said, okay, you have to choose, select another option. But if you're within the catchment area, which I suspect a lot of the overcrowding likely is, what about those students? Would there be any thought process by the District to move those students into areas where there's a lot of space, a lot of vacancies because I would guess that most of the population, most of the city's growth is east of Broad Street, so the Northeast, the Far Northeast, anything east of Broad Street has seen a lot of growth, not so much on the west side of Broad Street?
For Lincoln in particular as an example, we no longer are admitting out-of-catchment students for the general admission 9 through 12. Any schools that have more students than their capacity on record we are not entertaining at this time moving kids out. We're controlling for the immigration of more students so that we don't keep kicking this can down the road and exacerbating the problem. But over the term of this between now and August when we bring a plan to President Streater and the Board, we absolutely will address all those issues. Thank you.
Okay. And one last question, Mr. Chairman. Can you talk about school lunches?
We're going to let the Colonel talk about school lunches. What would you like him to talk about?
I don't know. What would we like him to talk about? I have a constituent at my home and I get a regular report of school lunches, and some of the concerns and the issues around the likelihood that a school lunch is actually going to be consumed by a school student. And from what I understand, it is not. Now, I know that one of my colleagues, I can't remember if it was Councilman Jones I think maybe who had offered a resolution 4 to have a hearing on the school lunch situation and the amount of lunches essentially that we waste. We waste a lot of money. They don't get consumed. They're not really consumable in the eyes of most of our young people. And so, it just requires in my opinion another look, another thought around, okay, how are we going to make sure we have a delicious and nutritious meal that they're actually going to eat.
If the Chair will give me 60 seconds, I'll take 30 and yield the other 30 to the Colonel. In my 30 seconds, I want to note that Board members and I get a chance to go visit district-operated schools together and we started that process where we actually eat lunch together in the school as well as lunch in the school. So they can opine on what they think about that. I won't speak for the Board.
So your thoughts then since you've consumed the school lunches?
Yes, we eat the same lunches that kids eat. Number two, I could tell you what my favorite is offline. Two, the Colonel's staff brings in food vendors and we bring students to the Dr. Constance E. Clayton Education Center to have them sample a lot of different kind of foods to give him input and the food services staff about what menu options they like.
We're committed to making our lunches as tasty and nutritious as possible with our vendor fairs where we provide students with an opportunity to sample the food items offered by our vendors. We take that and factor that into the resourcing that we have to provide nutritious and tasty lunches to students with the intent of improving the overall experience for them.
Okay. I'd like to follow up on that in the future. Again, I can't remember which of our colleagues actually introduced a resolution 20 calling for us to have a hearing around school lunches and what is offered, because again it doesn't necessarily seem to be nutritious or something that would be palatable to our students, to our constituency. I have a whole other list of questions, Mr. Chairman, but I know that we need to break at some point so --
-- the members don't want to come back from the break. So this is what we'll do, Councilwoman Bass. If you could come, I'll talk to you in a second. Do you have a response to the Lincoln issue? And while the Lincoln issue, Council colleague, can we huddle real quick?
I'll do this expeditiously. In School Year '23-24, Mr. Chairman, classes 8 were added to Lincoln High School. 9 It's no secret that the 10 northeastern part of the city and 11 county are growing. This year we 12 added two new teachers to Lincoln 13 so that we could reduce the oversized classes by some 25 sections. Also, in November we conducted a class audit at Lincoln and we found two classes that were oversized based on the actual student attendance. As you know, we have very clear guidelines in partnership with the PFT in terms of what class sizes can look like. So at Lincoln High School we've scaled back participation in the school selection process so that we don't continue to add to this problem and we have no out-of- catchment continued admissions to the school in Grades through 12. 7 We do have a small number of CTE 8 spaces that we are still continuing 9 to fill. Now, I will say that what are we doing right now, one, the HR Talent Division is focused on getting people hired in some of those vacancies. They moved to the top of the list. We've just filled three instructional positions. As a matter of fact, we've added an additional school safety officer and an additional climate staffer and extended offers to an additional three individuals. We will stay focused on this until we get every single one of those key positions filled, sir. Please know that it's at the top of the priority list and we'll continue to work very closely with the administration at Lincoln High School.
Thank you. One second please. So sorry. Respectfully, I think just in the spirit of Councilmember Driscoll, some of the responses that we've heard around Lincoln is just not where we need to be. I submitted to your Government Relations staff -- and thank you, Laurel, for all the great work you do, got to shout out Laurel -- 10 pages of complaints that have come to our office. I will be at Lincoln High School tomorrow at 3:15 for a basketball game. I won't be cheering for Lincoln, right, but I'm sure I will get a lot of complaints as it relates to what's going on with the school and some of the issues that we've communicated today. We're going to ask that you have a much more comprehensive approach as it relates to these issues. Six classrooms in the library, a lot of us read the story in The Inquirer that talked about issues with young people in and out of school, coming and going as they please, the overenrollment issues, the staff morale, principals being pushed out. And again, that's probably just about 10 out of the -- this got to be over 300 complaints that have came to us from Lincoln High School. And so, we have to put this on the record because it's a huge priority and, most importantly, we want all of the stakeholders at Lincoln to know that this legislative body and I'm sure you would agree as it relates to the School Board and the School District truly cares about the work that they're doing and truly appreciates the effort that they put forward on a consistent basis. So please, Dr. Watlington --
Mr. Chairman, let me just say we hear the urgency of the Councilmembers, the Council Chair just like President Streater, Vice- president Andrews and Board members. Let me assure you that we are doing everything within our resources at the moment to get key positions, teaching positions, unfilled teaching positions, unfilled climate staff. We're assigning additional staff and doing everything we can to support the administration. We'll double- down on that. One of the things that we have not put on the table because we don't think there's support for it is to take an overenrolled school and to move existing registered kids out. We're choosing for --
Have you met with the Lincoln High School community, stakeholders, teachers, residents of the neighborhood to tell them the dilemma that you're in?
Our Deputy Superintendent for Academics and his staff, including I believe Assistant Superintendent Richard Gordon, they are regularly engaging with the Lincoln community and helping the community understand that we're just not sitting here twiddling our fingers --
Doc, respectfully, right, because I just want to move on because we got a lot of other stuff and I'm trying to really be efficient, and I don't think it's fair to you how long you all have had to sit here with no 5 break so I just want to move on, but respectfully there's no way that those folks would complain to us if they felt like they like the responses they were getting from you. So I don't want to accuse you of not doing something, but something isn't working because people feel like they have to sound the alarm. By the time something comes to City Council, that's folks' version of sounding the alarm. And when it comes to me directly, I always tell people, are you sure you want me to know this information because if you want me to know it, I'm going to put it on the record. So I do think that the sense of urgency is a little more present than what's being communicated from you all today. And again, I'll be there at 3:15 tomorrow. And hopefully, Wednesday communication back to you based on my experience there will be a positive one and not necessarily a negative one.
Thank you, sir. Let me move on. You talked about enforcing the Welcoming resolution. I know we're running low on time, but I have to put on record on behalf of the organization Juntos, they submitted concerns around the enforcement of the Welcoming Schools resolution 21 that you spoke a little bit earlier about today. They said that they documented those concerns and sent them to you. I'm hoping I don't have to read them. Are you familiar with these concerns and what do you all plan on doing about that as it relates to the School Board?
I can't cite the concerns verbatim. I am aware that some concerns have been submitted --
I am the king of efficiency. I will give you the concerns. I will pass it back to Councilmember Bass, and then after Councilmember Bass hopefully somebody on your team can read the concerns that was communicated to us and put something on the record to be able to address what this organization is concerned with. I think that it's -- I'm tired, I know y'all tired too, but when we have organizations like this who do it from the muscle because they care about our city, with issues that's important as this we've got to put it on the record. So let's do it that way --
7 seconds left, Mr. Chairman. 8 President Streater and the Board 9 have already requested an update 10 from staff and it's in progress, so 11 we're working on that. 12
I think 16 we have a copy, but we're always 17 happy to have it just to be sure. 18 Thank you. 19
So 20 are you committed to having somebody from the Board meet with this organization so that they feel like their issues have been listened to and you're moving in a way that's reflective of their best interest?
Staff is absolutely committed to working with these individuals. I just wanted you to know that the Board has already requested an update on the plan pursuant to its resolution.
Okay. I'm sure the folks from that organization if they're not listening to this hearing right now, they'll listen to it on replay. And hopefully, they don't make a fool out of you and me and everybody else in here. Councilmember Bass, I'm sorry. Can I recognize Councilmember Ahmad? I did not see her walk in and she has not gone for a first round yet?
Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad followed by Councilmember Bass. I apologize.
Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here staying so long and, most importantly, sharing good news with us. That's really encouraging, the advances you have made, particularly in the proficiency levels. I hope we keep doing it and hope we can correct Algebra. My question is in light of the recent state legislation banning mental health services, could you share how many School District students use their services and is there a plan to fill the gap in mental health services? Our illustrious Chair shares with us on a regular basis the altercations that go on in the School District. And I think not a day goes by without us hearing about something, and it seems like emotional regulation is at the base of these altercations and problems, which is why not having these mental health services makes it even more serious and how we're filling the gap.
Thank you, Councilmember Ahmad. I know you're particularly interested in science performance in particular.
As well as the others. As you may well know, historically we've used an online service called Kooth that was provided to the District at no 23 cost to the Board by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has sunsetted that relationship. And to date, there is no designated replacement yet. And I anticipate that we'll bring in some competitive process to the Board to procure some replacements that's in progress. But in the meantime we'll continue to utilize our counselors, other trained support staff and others to support our students because there are a number of trauma-informed needs that our young people must have met.
So I just wanted to dig into that a little bit. How did this abrupt end happen and were you informed so that you could prepare? It seems somewhere we need to send a message if you're going to do something like that. From what I understood 18,000 students used these services and that's a huge gap. And for you to be able to fill it in with already beleaguered counselors is asking a lot, right.
So maybe we send a letter to our state partners or do something to assist you in making sure we don't face something like this again. And what -- I don't need to know what exactly happened, but why was there no advance notice given to the School District? I would like to sort of get to the bottom of that.
Very quickly in seconds or less, 17 Mr. Chairman. We were caught a bit 18 flat-footed in the sunsetting of 19 this Commonwealth expenditure so we 20 didn't have a lot of advance notice before that work was terminated. But we do have it in our sight to figure out how to procure something in replacement.
So will the state pay for that again since they were paying for this because that just helps with our budget?
I would not be able to speak for the state and I've not personally talked to Secretary Mumin -- is he still there? I think --
His replacement, I have not talked to the current Secretary.
Just for the interest of time, I would love to circle back to understand what transpired, how the state will fill that gap as you are filling it right now and are they going to pay for that because that's less money out of your budget?
We're glad to take that as a homework assignment and submit it in the record, Mr. Chairman.
Before I pass it back to Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Bass talked about some issues as it relates to safety. Councilmember Ahmad brought that up as well too. Real quick question and if you don't know the answer, you can get it back to us in writing. That'll be great. How was the weapons system chosen that we use as it relates to security in our schools and were there any labor laws that were considered in the midst of choosing the systems that we have in place right now?
Mr. Chairman, with your permission we'd love to take that as a homework assignment and submit it with our responses.
Thank you, sir. One other thing and then I'll pass it to Councilmember Bass. Girard Academic Music Program, one of our special admission schools, we know we have issues as it relates to filling seats in the special admission schools. At some point if you can get us something in writing as it relates to an update that could be shared with all members of Council as it relates to where we are with special admission schools, that'll be great. But specifically, one of our special admission schools have been without a principal for a significant amount of time. What's being done to put us in a position to put a principal at Girard Academy Music Program?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We absolutely will do as directed. Also, we have a principal search underway and our staff is in communication with several members of the GAMP community inviting their participation in the process. You may or may not know that several members of the GAMP community spoke to President Streater and several of the Board members at our last meeting. We are engaging the GAMP community and we will have Dr. Dawson, Dr. Jermaine Dawson, is scheduling an open mic session with the GAMP community to talk directly to those constituents.
Thank you, Dr. Watlington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple more questions for you. Bathrooms, so my office did a study around bathrooms in the School District. Well, actually we didn't do a study around bathrooms. We did a survey which as I understand it became very popular, because I know that after we did our survey that you all said, oh, we want to do a survey too and sent it out. And so, it's great to partner with you all on that kind of thing and work together so that we can get information at the same time like in realtime. But one of the things that came back in our survey when we just asked parents of School District students what was one of their concerns around facilities, bathrooms came up over and over and over again. And so, can you tell us is there sort of like just a master plan or facilities plan? I see somebody over there -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah (inaudible).
Okay. I heard that. Okay. The bathroom, that's the bathroom crew. But seriously, around the cleanliness, the condition, the care, the maintenance around bathrooms, something everyone needs and no one wants to use a facility that's not well-maintained. Can you talk about that, where we are, what kind of survey you all have done? We'll be happy to share ours with you, but restrooms are an issue in the School District.
Absolutely, Councilmember. I meet with the Student Advisory Council every single month and it's an issue that I hear about from students every month.
It's our expectation that no matter how old a school is or a bathroom, it ought to be clean. It ought to be stocked with paper, paper towels, toilet tissue, soap and the like. Colonel Hill and his staff are working expeditiously on that. We're not where we need to be yet. Every time I go to a school I make it a point to go into a bathroom as does President Streater and members of the Board so that we can stay on top of that. Now, there are some places where I think we've got what, Colonel, like maybe eight plumbers for 200 -- how many?
plumbers for some 249 buildings. And so, there are some things that get a little delayed on the pecking order, but we will be absolutely accountable for --
8 Dr. Watlington, I'm sorry. If you could just repeat what Dr. Hill said for our transcript and for our stenographer. Thank you, sir.
At this time we have 8 plumbers and over 2,000 restrooms in the School District of Philadelphia.
That's not, you know. I don't mean to laugh but it's crazy. You will never be able to get to the need. You'll never be able to get to the need with 2,000. If you said to me you had 2,000 students and 8 teachers, that would sound crazy, right?
Yes, ma'am, it does. It's a daunting task. But by the same token, we bring to bear general service contractors to supplement or augment our internal staffing, and then quite frankly with our site-specific facilities management plan we're doubling-down and providing the supervision and leadership to ensure that every student has access to a clean restroom every single day.
I mean, maybe that's the end goal, but right now you just can't with those numbers.
Upon my arrival in the District, one of the most glaring instances or impacts of historic underfunding is clearly in those facilities in the bathrooms across the District. And no excuse, we still should have clean bathrooms with soap, paper towels, toilet tissue and the like, and we'll stay very focused on that.
Yeah. We're kind of far behind and that's an understatement. I just don't get the sense that we have a plan of attack for this action. And I understand the budgetary constraints and the concerns, but it just doesn't feel like we have a real plan that's going to be transformative of the situation in the next six months, in the next year, in the next two years, in the next five years. 8 plumbers in 2,000 facilities is just insurmountable in my lifetime. I mean, you're just not going to be able to get to it. There was a podcast that I listened to around public education in New York City and there was the story being told about a bathroom in an elementary school that had been in place up until recent time that was in place from, I don't know, the '40s or '50s, it was a really old building and it was similar to what they had encountered at T.M. Peirce before we tore it down and rebuilt it, which was sort of like a long trough or traugh in which young men would go to the bathroom and then there would be little holes where if you needed to sit down and go to the bathroom, and then every once in a while some water would come along and splash everything away. And I actually saw that at T.M. Peirce and it was pretty horrific and pretty disturbing and not something that offered dignity to our young people. And so, I think that there has to be some sort of a sense of expediency moving a little bit faster. Not to say that you all don't care. I'm not trying to suggest that at all. You're working with what you have, but what you have is just not enough and it's just not going to get the job done. And so, Mr. Chairman, I don't know what we can do about that but that was the number one thing that came up on the survey my office did, was bathrooms.