COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE City Hall, Room 400 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 17, 2026 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE-RICHARDSON COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS JOHN CHRISTMAS, THE CLERK P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. Ramadan Mubarak to all of my Muslim brothers here today. This is the public hearing for the Committee of the Whole, 250895. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Mr. Christmas, would you please read the title of the resolution?
Resolution 21 250895, authorizing the Philadelphia City Council Committee of the Whole to hold hearings to discuss the current state of Philadelphia school facilities, how the School District evaluates those facilities and what the educational facility needs are for School District today and in the future.
Thank you very much, Mr. Christmas. Before calling our first panel, I have a statement for the record for myself, and I would also acknowledge the Chair of Education, Mr. Isaiah Thomas, as well. Good morning, everyone. Today's City Council Committee of the Whole hearing will discuss Resolution No. 250895. Councilmembers will examine the current condition of Philadelphia school facilities, how the School District assessed them and what educational facilities the School District requires now and in the future. The resolution was sponsored by myself and introduced by Councilmember-at-Large and Chair of Education, Isaiah Thomas. Thank you to my colleagues, members of Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration, representatives from the School District of Philadelphia, educators, parents, students, community stakeholders for joining us today. As President of Philadelphia City Council, I want to underscore the importance of this hearing on the School District proposed Facilities Master Plan. On January 22nd, School District of Philadelphia superintendent, Dr. 8-million, ten-year strategy to modernize aging infrastructure and address over and under enrollment in schools throughout the city of Philadelphia. Key actions include closing schools, initiating 159 modernization projects, creating six co-locations, and shifting toward kindergarten through 8th grade models to improve academic equity. The decisions we make about out school facilities are not just about brick or mortar, they are about opportunity, equity and the future of our children. Our facilities must be safe, modern and conducive to learning. Every student in every neighborhood deserves access to high quality learning environment that support economic achievement, extra- curricular engagement and overall well-being. Philadelphia City Council is doing our due diligence on the proposed School District Facilities Master Plan to make sure the voices of students, parents and community stakeholders city-wide are heard and their issues and concerns are addressed. The Board of Education has a duty to ensure fairness and transparency throughout this Facilities Master Plan process. Today's hearing is an opportunity for transparency and a accountability. City Councilmembers want to understand the District's vision, the criteria guiding its decision, the neighborhood implications of the plan, and how community voices have been incorporated throughout this process. I encourage an open and constructive dialog today. We are here to listen, to ask thoughtful questions and to ensure that the proposed Facilities Master Plan truly serve the students and families of Philadelphia today and for generations to come. The Philadelphia City Council is an independent legislative branch frequently acting as a check on the executive branch, agencies and the School District of Philadelphia. City Councilmembers will not just rubber stamp the current version of the School District's Facilities Master Plan introduced on January 22nd. Council will provide important input and recommendations to Superintendent Tony Watlington and the Board of Education before any final School District Facilities Master Plan is approved by the Board of Education this year. I want to thank all of you and look forward to a very productive hearing. At this time The Chair recognizes Councilmember-at-Large and Chair of Education, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas. CHAIR THOMAS: Good morning and thank you, Council President. Good morning, colleagues, good morning to the listening public. So many people tuned in because schools is that type of issue, it's one of those things that touches everybody. I want to start by thanking you, Council President, for your leadership and your support as it relates to this facilities crisis that we've been dealing with for probably as long as you've been in office, let alone I've been in office.
So I appreciate your support, your leadership and your aggressiveness as it relates to tackling this issue and tackling it right now. I do want to say thank you to Dr. Watlington as well as Colonel Hill, the School Board and the entire team at the School District of Philadelphia. We do appreciate you being here today and appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation. I also want to remind folks that today's conversation is about the current facilities plan. It's not about the vacant school buildings. So we've had a number of issues that specifically related to vacant school buildings, that's been a hot topic of discussion. Today we are not talking about the vacant school buildings, we are talking about the Facilities Plan that was recommended by the School District that will be introduced later this month. In the mist of looking at the Facilities Plan, there are some things I like. I like the idea of there being no comprehensive neighborhood high schools being closed. I think that's a good thing. There are some things I have questions about. There are some decisions that were made that puts us in a position where schools that currently don't have enough space in their building are going to be asked to add more seats. Decisions that will put neighborhoods in a position where they might not have elementary school, so we're going to need those questions answered. And then there are things I disagree with like the closing of Conwell or touching the Parkway schools or anything that would put Philadelphia in a position where we wouldn't have a school named Paul Robeson. I think the name of that school is important to our legacy and there are a number of examples of things that members disagree with and I'm not going to get into that right now. I just want to close out by saying that I truly appreciate all of the District Councilmembers. I already thanked you, Council President. But I just want to start by highlighting Councilmembers Gauthier, Young and Lozada. If you don't 5th District, 3rd District and 7th District were the districts that were hit the hardest. And if you've been paying attention to those councilmembers, they've been doing their due diligence at community meetings, working with the Council President and myself as well as other folks to try to address those issues. I also want to say thank you to Councilmembers Phillips, Jones and Bass. Phillips and Bass have been dealing with the Ada Lewis issue which everybody knows was significant when we watched what happened to that sister and this facilities crisis touched the entire northwest and Councilmembers Phillips and Bass have been leading the charge. And Councilmember Jones Overbrook, probably one of the most controversial buildings in the School District and everybody knows the legacy and history of Overbrook. And the reality is Overbrook probably would have been closed already had it not been for Councilmember Jones effort over the last couple of years. As I close out, Council President, this is a tough position for the Councilmembers-at-Large to be in, but my colleagues have found a way to advocate for what they believe in. So Councilmembers Brooks, Landau, Harrity, Councilmember Gilmore-Richardson who isn't here yet, Councilmember O'Rourke as well as Councilmember Ahmad, thank you all for the great work that you're doing. Thank you for insight. Thank you for being apart of so many meetings up to this point. Last thing, this is a legacy vote. When you think about what happened years ago, we're still impacted by those decisions today. I'm not going to get into individual examples, but I want the general public to recognize that Council President Johnson's words were very important. We are not here to rubber stamp anything, we are the checks and balances. And we recognize this could be one of the most important votes we'll take in our entire political career. And the crazy thing is we don't even have a vote. Right?
We're using our bulletproofs to put us in a position to fight for what the people are telling us they need as it relates to the city of Philadelphia. So, Council President, thank you for allowing me to give a few brief remarks and look forward to listening to the conversation today, as well as robust answers to the questions that are going to be asked. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Jeffrey J. Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. Just for point of information for my colleague, Councilman Thomas. There is a catchment high school that is scheduled to be closed in my district, which is Penn Treaty High School. So we want to ensure that those families understand what's happening as well. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Council President, I also want to thank you and Councilmember Isaiah Thomas for your leadership and for your guidance in this process. But I also want to recognize the presence of many of the families who are from my district who are being impacted. I'd like to ask them to stand because they've taken a very active role. They've made sure that we've heard their concerns, they've made sure that they organize and offered options for what could potentially happen in their neighborhoods. And their options have been some really great options that I think that we could work together with the School District to consider. So I'd like for the parents from Moffet, Stetson, Conwell, Harding and Welsh to stand up. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for being here today. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Jamie Gauthier.
You're queued up already? We haven't heard this testimony yet.
Absolutely. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
I, too, want to thank you for your leadership and our education chair and my Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada. I just want people to take notice of the districts they plan to shut these schools down in. Me, I'm for one tired. Every time cuts come, they come from a certain neighborhood. You know, I live there in Kensington, in the 7th District. I talk to these kids, they're good kids. They deserve everything that other kids in other neighborhoods are getting. And, again, I say strongly that we have to think as my colleague said of legacy. Right? Legacy. You can see that this isn't what our people want. And as Councilman Thomas said, I'm infuriated that we don't get a say. Right? But Council President, you and I both know, we do get a say because budget is coming and we will be looking at that. So mindful is the word I would use for the day. Be mindful. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. I'm going to ask for -- as the other members are queued up to reserve your comments for after the presentation. Is that okay? So we can get down to actually questioning and the purpose of why we are here. So at this time I'm going to ask for Mr. Christmas to please call the first panel.
Would Mr. Reginald Streater, Dr. Tony Watlington and Deborah Carrera please come up to the desk here. And then one of you can sit at the chairs just forward of the rail.
Good morning. Good morning. First and foremost, I want to thank you for being here today and look forward to your testimony. I have a good working relationship with all of you. And as we discuss the future of our young people here in the city of Philadelphia, I look forward to hearing your testimony. So I would ask for Dr. Tony Watlington to please start. Mr. Chairman, I was told you're going to go first, excuse me. CHAIRMAN STREATER: Yes, I would like to go first, Council President. Before I get started I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to you, Council President, for allowing us to have this conversation today. And it is true, we do have great working relationship, Council President. I also want to say a shout out to a good brother, Isaiah Thomas, Chair of Education, majority whip as well. Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore-Richardson, my new neighbor in Councilmember Jones district. I also want to say hello to majority leader Kendra Brooks. As well I want to make sure I give honor where honor is due in your house. Thank you all for allowing us to be here today. Before I get into my comments I would be remiss if I didn't introduce myself. I'm Reggie from Germantown. A graduate from Germantown High School, a graduate from Leeds Middle School. A father, a son, a husband, a proud Black man from the city of Philadelphia, who along with the other eight board members sacrifice time, energy, sweat equity, blood, tears, yes, tears to ensure we do the best we can with the resources and the energy in the space we have. So I want to say thank you all for allowing us to be here and for giving Reggie from Germantown, who happens to be president of the Philadelphia Board of Education, and my duty is to ensure the will of the board which is channeled through all the energy we get and engagement we get is implemented. So thank you. So again, good morning, Council President and members of City Council. Again, I really want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here to testify in front of you today. My name is Reginald Streater, as I mentioned before, president of the Board of Education for the School District of Philadelphia. As the proud product of public education and the parent of two children who attend district schools and more on the way in the School District of Philadelphia. A 207-year-old institution that has had to deal with a lot of struggles. Whether it's the great migration when our ancestors came to Philadelphia or whether it was when immigrants were infusing into the city of Philadelphia, this School District has striven to do what we can with the resources we have and the energy we have and the support we know we can get from our village. I know like you, like me, you all believe that public education is a public good just as important as running water. A civil right, a human right and that the School District of Philadelphia has the duty to ensure all of our babies, all of our children have access to quality public education and they don't have to go halfway across the city to get it, if they so choose. That is what I believe and I believe that's what this board believes, and that's what I believe Dr. Watlington is trying to do as we go through this process, which is indeed a process. This public good must be intentionally designed and continuously improve and iterated to serve the children and families of Philadelphia. Long ago we would use the pressure model, schools were designed to be what some would argue like an assembly line. But what the School District and the Board of Education is trying to do is to prepare a system and set forth the process through our resolution last year to ensure that we continue to iterate and reimagine all of our schools under our purview.
This means ensuring our children have the opportunities and the support and resources that we know they need while fulfilling the civil right that our Commonwealth court opined on and said clear as day that our children have, the civil right, to a quality public education. For our children to truly thrive, our village, and I mean that, our village which we know is a collection of villages must provide schools that are safe, welcoming and properly equipped. I also want to say I come here in good faith, no malfeasance. I say that also as an officer of the court allowed to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And I wouldn't be able to do it without my public education that I received at Germantown High School. Unfortunately, y'all, many of our school buildings fall short of these standards. The Board of Education will be the first one to admit that and we're leaning into that and we're trying to not kick that can down the road. Understand that there's still work that needs to be done before there is a plan the board feels comfortable voting on. And you all do have a say. I heard the earlier, you do have a say. You are very persuasive on the decisions we've made and I hope you see other decisions that we've made that have been responsive to the energy, the request and advocacy that you have done for everyday Philadelphians. As I said the average school facility is 73 years old. Actually I think it's older than that now and requires significant resources to maintain to ensure the safety of our students and our staff and our village. These challenges are not the result of neglect, but I would argue rather decades of inadequate, unpredictable and chronic under funding. And it's not just the School District of Philadelphia saying that. 4-billion. Much love and respect to our state delegation and the work the governor has done to increase those funds, but we are not yet at adequacy, but I have hope we will get to adequacy. And also thank you to this body that continues to put its money where its mouth is to support public education. We appreciate you more than you can ever know. These challenges are not from neglect, but from inadequate, unpredictable and chronic under funding. At this time we're not the only ones, like many urban cities across the nation, the District has faced significant and enrollment declined. Even though we had an increase of about 1,800 last year and potentially another increase this year that was impacted, we believe, due to issues with SEPTA. Dr. Watlington, I believe you can attest to that. With that being said, over long longitudinal times we've had issues with enrollment with more than one-third of the families enrolling their students in their choice of brick and mortar charter schools across the cities, the District has experienced declining enrollment. The current enrollment realities present misalignment between our building capacity and the number of students that we have the duty to serve. Doing this will make sure that we are thoughtful with our limited resources that are aligned with the needs of our students and our city. Underlying both of these challenges is the current system of funding of public education in Pennsylvania, which places districts like our in a difficult position of deciding not what we should do, but what we can afford. Chronic under funding, Council President, has forced us to stretch limited resources across the needs often delaying investments to students success. If the District were fully funded we could prioritize our investments in improving academic success for our students while simultaneously addressing safety concerns and ensuring schools are fully staffed. Instead we must make strategic and painful choices because the pie is simply not big enough.
Despite these challenges, as a Board, we remain grounded in our goals and guardrails which establish clear measurable goals for student achievement and define the conditions that must exist in every school to ensure progress towards these goals. Guardrails and in particular directly connect the facilities planning work to students success by requiring that schools provide safe, supportive physical environments and the spaces necessary for enriching well-rounded learning experiences. Imbedded within Accelerate Philly, Council, the District's strategic plans are clearly defined phases and strategic actions for the facilities planning work, recognizing that modern, safe and appropriately utilized school buildings are a foundational condition for improving student outcome and ensuring the equitable access to opportunities across our city. And as the board president, I can say to you clear, right now the way we are constructed, our footprint, our gray bands, we are unable to deliver in the way we know we can with the resources, the talent and everything we know is available in the city of Philadelphia, if we were to attempt to continue doing the same thing expecting a different result. It is with these challenges in mind that the Board adopted a resolution, September 24th. The Board directed Dr. Watlington to complete Phase 8 of the Facilities Plan reflecting our belief then and now that this work is essential to advancing student achievement and improving outcomes for all students throughout the city. Council President, it's very important for the Board to understand that while it's important for our children to be a firm and have a well-rounded education, we want to make sure our children have the skills, such as reading, math and science, so they can interrogate what this world means to them and have the skillset to navigate the ever-changing economy. The economy I know you all are working really hard right now to create for our students. We are trying to do our part and we believe the Facilities Plan can fit nice with that. It is with these challenges in mind we adopted that resolution. And in that resolution we called for a thoughtful, partially data informed and qualitative community center planning process that result in recommendation to do the following: And again, this was last year. Maximize the use of district school buildings and students rostering to expand equitable access to rigorous academic offerings, pre-kindergarten opportunities, access to high quality arts and music, physical education, career and technical opportunities, address enrollment trends and have created financial operational inefficiencies, and identify district schools and facilities to be modernized, co-located, repurposed, or where necessary, closed. The Board signaled this process was on its way and the process isn't done, but this is where we are today. Over the past year -- over the past two years the District has and continues to treat community engagement as a non-negotiable component of its work. For example, I, myself have been to eight of the community meetings that the School District has had as an active listener, listening to the concerns of the village, hearing them directly in my ear and other board members have as well. Our goal is ensure that every student has equitable access to the district facilities and educational opportunities they deserve while also addressing enrollment trends. And have created financial and operational challenges so that the district resources are used reasonably, efficiently and equitably. When asked, as the Messiah asks: How are the children? We want to and inspire, Council President, to be able to answer that they are well and have access to the programs, supports and opportunities they need to thrive.
And they don't haven't to travel halfway across the city with an infrastructure that's not designed for children to travel halfway across the city for an AP course or for access to Algebra in middle grade so their children can do and realize the future they desire. Within the vision in mind, Council President, the Board effectively handed Dr. Watlington the football. This is where we are now. The Board through the resolution handed him the football, giving him a clear directive to carry this work forward in partnership with families, educators, staff and community members across the city. And at the Board's February 2026 Action Meeting at the Constance E. Clayton Education Center which we renamed in honor of Constance E. Clayton. I no longer call it 440. Dr. Watlington will present to the Board at his Action Meeting his facilities recommendations, whatever they will be. I will not today opine on what the recommendation appear to be right now because I believe that will be governmental malpractice to do so as Dr. Watlington and the village continue to bake the cake. But once the cake is baked, the Board will have its say. The Board will not be voting on the recommendations at that meeting either, rather we will hear from Dr. Watlington and his team and begin a thorough review as The Board of Education of the proposed recommendation carefully considering community feedback as a critical component of our decision. I want to recognize the extraordinary leadership and dedication of Superintendent Dr. Tony B. , Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill, and Senior Advisor Claire Landau, who over the past two years have guided this complex process with rigger, care and commitment to equity. We know these processes are difficult. We know that, but they are necessary to ensure that all students have access to the opportunities and resources they deserve and we know you all know they deserve. This work is not only about closing schools, it's about strengthening our city-wide educational system and increasing access to high quality learning environments across Philadelphia so every child in every neighborhood can thrive. Before ending my remarks I want to express my gratitude for the partnership, support and advocacy of Mayor Parker, Council President, Chairman Thomas, and city and state officials throughout this process. Your guidance which has been baked in from Phase 1 until now and I hope you all can see parts of the plan being responsive to the things that you have set along the way of these eight phases, even though we are not done with the final plan, that you all see yourselves in the work. It is my hope that we can carry this work out, that we can count on this body's support to help us with addressing some of the many concerns that I heard, such as public safety. I know we have the Safe Path program which is a partnership with the district in the city so we can quail some of the concerns I heard from village and I know that you all are hearing from the village right now. This work is more about the buildings, it is about ensuring that every student across every neighborhood, I know I'm sounding repetitive, but it's important to state that every student from every neighborhood, that little Reggie at Germantown High School could walk five minutes down the road from Germantown and Walnut Lane to Germantown and High Street and have access to high quality education and a holistic educational experience. That I believe is part of the vision that Dr. Watlington is intending to put before The Board of Education. That is why we are here and hopeful for your continued support and partnership as we carry this work forward and I am here to answer any and all questions to the best of my ability in good faith with no malfeasance in mind. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for your detailed testimony. I just have a couple questions and I'll turn it over to my members. And I believe that every last one of us in this room is deeply interested in making sure we get this right. Right? Pretty much everyone inside this room, most of us, were born and raised in the city of Philadelphia, educated primarily through the public school system. Here, I'm a graduate of Childs Elementary School. It was on the chopping block a long time ago, but it still thrives today and is part of this plan. A graduate of Barratt Junior High School, where the late great Dr. King also just visited. Dr. King came and spoke and gave a speech about the blue print about your life. And also a graduate of Edward Bok High School, where I took a trade to be a machinist. I thought I was going to work at Boeing. And decided to go to Mansfield University where I got a degree in criminal justice and sociology. Came back home, went to University of Pennsylvania, studied government. And also did some course work in Harvard Business School in non-profit leadership and broad management. We all know that here in America, the great definers make sure you get a high quality education. For me it's the great equalizer on why this is so important for our young people. And our young people don't have lobbyist walking the halls City of Council, advocating fighting on their behalf. They have us. And I know all the work you have done and working with you in the past, I believe you are approaching this with a sense of sincerity. We want to address the devil in the details, right, because this is a process. So my line of questions are within that spirit. I just want to get an idea, first of all, of how you utilize the data that determine what schools stayed open, what schools close, what schools co-located. And I also want to get an idea of the timing of how that data was collected in terms of on-site assessment that allowed you to determine if a school stays open, if a school closed or if a school is co-located. And also, I know we talked briefly, Dr. Watlington, in our brief presentation when you and I met with my team. Just also for the right of the public talk about schools in this plan that expand academics versus schools that may have to be shut down based upon lacking infrastructure. Like a school might by built for 1, 000 students and you closed it because there's only 200. Versus we're co-locating schools because it's in the best interest of expanding more academic seats for our students. So that my first question. CHAIRMAN STREATER: So currently the football is still in Dr. Watlington's hands. The only thing I'll add before he responds is that nothing you just said just now as a consideration violates the spirit of resolution. And the Board expects Dr. Watlington to honor the spirit of the resolution that I believe everyone would agree with. Action item 27 passed on November 19th, 2024. There's room for that type of analysis and that consideration. With that being said, Dr. Watlington.
So let me -- let me do a little housekeeping real quick. So Dr. Watlington, you have testimony, correct?
And Dr. Deborah Carrera. Let me hear your testimony first, and then we'll get into our line of questions. Excuse me.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. I think we will answer very clearly the two questions that you just posed as part of our testimony. Mr. President, as a prelude or opening to the Facilities Master Plan background, let me first thank you, Majority Leader Richardson, Council Chair Thomas and all members of council for the opportunity to be here with President Streater and Dr. Carrera. Certainly we appreciate this Council doing its due diligence and very much look forward to your ongoing participation and helping us as we make informed decision. Second, later this morning we'll be joined by Deputy Superintendent for Operations Colonel Oz Hill and Senior Advisor for Strategy Claire Landau, who are co-chairs of the working group. I also want to note, No. 3, there's no such thing as a perfect Facilities Master Plan. And I want to say related to that, we're going to ask that Council continue to be our partners and recommend we take a position that we won't make good the enemy of perfect given the tough circumstances that we find ourselves in as Education Chair Thomas said earlier, because of a number of decisions made over a number of years. And also, I do want to note that we are listening. And so our thinking is continuing to evolve and will continue to evolve between now and February 26th, when we bring final recommendations to President Streater and The Board of Education on February 26th. And finally, I want to set the context for this Facilities Master Plan presentation: The School District of Philadelphia, which is located as you know in the sixth largest city, eighth largest school district is making significant progress. We've made improvement over the past three-and-a-half years in out of goal areas that we're 6 laser focused on, test scores are up 7 in a number of areas. No big city 8 in the nation has made more progress 9 in the nation's report card in 8th 10 grade math. No big city in the 11 nation has made more progress than 12 Philadelphia, and that's the Los Angeles Unified School District. Our teachers and kids and leaders are doing some fantastic work. One hundred percent of our high schools are accredited for the first time in history. The graduation rate is up and our drop out numbers have been cut by more than half. Really significant progress happening. And so I want us to think about that how we accelerate that progress as a part of this recommendation.
I'm going to always keep it real, right, and give you your props and give credit where credit is due. Because that level of academic achievement and progress is what we need as a city. So thank you for acknowledging those key points of progress.
Thank you, Mr. President. Slide, please. I just want to remind members of Council that this work is part of eight phases of work. Those eight phases began in the summer of 2022, as we began the process of developing Phase 1 of developing a strategic plan. An aggressive five- year strategic plan entitled Accelerate Philly that President Streater referenced earlier. That plan is making a difference, but we need to double down, use our resources to drive five times faster progress because our children of Philadelphia absolutely deserve it. We are at the conclusion of Phase 8. It will be fairly brief, Mr. President. We are not going to read all those slides. We know how you roll, Mr. President. Been here a couple times, figured it out. I'm learning the Philly way. Slide, please. I just want to remind you there's been broad participation in this process over three years with the project team with diverse members. I certainly want to thank Education Chairman Thomas for being a part of that team. We've had nine advisory groups representing 170 Philadelphians, a number of community conversations, and nearly 14, 000 people have weighed into this process via survey. Slide, please. Let's talk about -- take a moment to get to the desired outcome here. Mr. President, members of Council, we're going to continue to make the case that in order to drive more high quality academic and extracurricular programs into every neighborhood into ever zip code across the city of Philadelphia, we've got to make some decisions about how we are using our limited resources as a historically underfunded School District. That includes our time, it includes the budget we get from City Council, which Councilmember Harrity, I think I told us to be mindful. We are very mindful of that budget from the City Council that we need this year, the Board of Education needs this year. Time, budget, and we got to be really thoughtful and intentional about how which use our buildings. And so when we do that we can double down and drive faster progress in six areas. Number 1, we can do a better job of supporting communities and student achievement. In 2012-13, when we went through this progress students in displaced schools, what happened was student attendance and academic went down. We know how to do this different and better now, and we are committed to both going up, not down. We also know in 2012-13, when there were schools that closed there were a number of vacant buildings that sat for more than a decade. We know how to do that differently this time and we're going to suggest not to let that happen again. Number 2, we want to maximize our building utilization. At present about 35 percent of our buildings are not utilized. And that's not efficient in terms of heating, air conditioning, it's not efficient in terms of cleaning, square footage, et cetera. And so we want to significantly increase our building utilization. Third, we want to provide more access to Pre-K opportunities in district operating schools. In fact, we want to double it from percent of Pre-K opportunities to be 50 percent in district-operated Pre-K schools. I want to note, for the record, the District is not the only provider of Pre-K. Dr. Carrera will tell you that the city provides Pre-K and there are other Pre-K providers as well. Number 4, we want to use our resources in a better way, more efficient way so that we can drive more high quality, rigorous learning curriculums, so that all our young people, like you, Mr. President, have a chance to go to that phenomenal Fels School, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.
Before you got elected. Duly noted, sir. And we want to tackle clear and up front the disparity that currently exists in Philadelphia. Depending on your zip code and where you live, you may or may not have access to algebra in your middle grades in 5, 6, 7, 8. About 53 percent of our students do at present. We want to change that to 100 percent. Why is that important? A, algebra in all middle grades, which requires to use our resources differently. If the district had the resources to do it, we would have done it a long time ago. But it's important because, A, algebra in middle school is the gateway in which kids will get in the higher math track in high school and matriculate and persist in college. B, if you want to apply to a criteria-based high school in the School District of Philadelphia, whether that's Carver Engineering & Science or Palumbo, Masterman, Bodine down the line, you've got to have algebra. About half of our kids cannot even apply, even if they're the smartest person with the highest grade point average in their schools, they can't apply because we don't offer the same access to algebra in the middle grades. A similar story exists with advanced placement courses in our high schools and we'll be able to level the playing field there as well. The fifth area is we want to provide more high quality arts, music and physical education across all schools in the district. And then finally, we want to grow our career and technical education and building trade programs across the city. Slide please. Some of the other key district-wide investments in this plan will result in -- this is really important, members of Council. 8-billion plan once it's in its final iteration and we bring it to President Streater and his Board of Education on February 26th, if this gets funded, we have a once in a lifetime, and I want to underscore, once in a lifetime opportunity to reduce the number of schools in our city, district-operated schools in our city that have poor or under satisfactory ratings from 85 schools to zero. Once in a lifetime opportunity. I do not believe we will get this opportunity again in our lifetime. We will also be in a position over the next decade to modernize 159 schools. When we think about those new schools that got built, like TM Peirce and Cassidy and Thomas Holme and AMY at James Martin within the past four years, on time and on budget, by the way, state of the art schools. And when we think about a school like Frankford High School that we had to close to do some asbestos abatement, that Colonel Hill and his team were able to go in and do a $29-million refresh renovation of that building, where I was at just last week, we are to dream big and take full advantage of this opportunity after we've gone through the process of hearing all your feedback and potential edits we ought to think about. We will certainly offer algebra in our middle grades, we'll increase the number of schools, we will decrease the number of grade bands from to 6 to push in more 10 high quality resources through the 11 schools. We will also be in a 12 position to make significant ADA 13 improvements for students with disabilities throughout the district and will address significant under and overcrowding in our schools. Slide, please. Mr. President, if you look on the left side of this map, you'll notice some key investments that our Board of Education approved based on staff recommendations on the left side. 8-billion master plan is approved. What I want you to notice on the right side is that similar to the left there are some significant investments given the limited resources we have. But I want you to see that geographic distribution and the note that's geographic distribution of some of these key investments. And I want you to note that while it costs for building a new high school in the northeast part of the city, you'll see a distribution of key investments across every councilmatic district in the city of Philadelphia.
And we'll talk more later about what those numbers look like. I also want to note that the colored dots represent the key themes that we've heard from our community over the past year. Slide please. What are those key themes we've heard from members of our community? There were four major things that were validated by more than 8, 000 Philadelphians who completed the most recent survey. Those four things are we should strengthen Pre-K through 8 programming by better utilizing all the space and address how we're utilizing buildings. To reinvest neighborhood high school as community anchors. It's one of the reasons this plan does not prioritized recommended for closure comprehensive neighborhood high schools. Number 3, there was a theme around reducing unnecessary school transitions for students as they move from kindergarten to 12th grade. As a result, we're investing heavily in the K through strategy and will not be recommending significant increases in the number of traditional middle schools in the city. And we also have been encouraged to expand access to grades 5 through 12 criteria based schools and grow our career and technical education programs. Next slide, please. I do want to note that those 8, 000 surveys that we received, Mr. President, 70 percent or greater of the survey respondents said that those four themes are important. Now, we didn't get a large number of people to raise their hand and say close my school. I want to note that, for the record. And we understand it because schools have always been centers of communities and we certainly understand the concern among parents and staff and others. I do want to note that among those surveyed respondents we've got one of the most diverse response rates since I've been superintendent here since 2022, and that looks like about nearly half of the survey respondents were from families or had connections with students the disabilities. About a third of the survey respondents had family members or were connected to individuals who are English language learners. Less than a -- te majority of the participants in the survey reported they earned less than $50, 000 a year. And what's most significant to me at least, President Streater, President Johnson and members of Council, is that the survey responses came from every single zip code in the city of Philadelphia. It's one of the reasons why we are laser light focused on the survey result as well as the other feedback. On the next slide, Mr. President, I want to show you some school recommendations related to theme 1 strengthening Pre-K through 8 programming. In the interest of time, I won't read this, it's post in the website, it's entered into the record and we're happy to speak to it during our testimony today. On the next slide, you'll see the school recommendations related to revesting in neighborhood high schools. The second guiding thing from this survey. Again, I won't read it to you, it's entered into record and we're happy to speak to each of these recommendations and answer your questions and receive feedback today. Next slide. You'll see recommendations related to reducing the number of transitions specifically from reducing grades 4 bands down to 6. A parent who has 5 kids in K-5 and 6, 8, doesn't have 6 to take kids to multiple grades to 7 multiple schools. Once kids get 8 acclimated in the elementary grade, they don't have to transition to middle school, they stay there three years and then transition to a high school. You'll see the recommendations related to that that we'll speak to during the presentation. And on the next slide, you'll see on this page, "Guiding theme 4:" Expand our 5 through 12 criteria based schools as well as our career and technical education and building trades programs. And not just to expand those programs, Mr. President, but to expand these programs and to focus in on the jobs of the future in the Philadelphia metro area.
Where our young people will not just graduate and get a job, a minimum wage job, recognizing the minimum wage in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is already lower than our neighboring states of New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Ohio, but jobs that pay really strong middle income, middle America wages or higher, so they can support themselves and their family and make an economic impact on the city. And then relative to the Mayor's commitment that we have access to economic opportunity for all. And on the next slide, the final slide on this you'll see some additional investments that we want to have an opportunity to speak with you about today. With that, I wanted to say a few words about the timeline, Mr. President. 8 billion plan that if funded will reduce the number of poor and unsatisfactory school ratings from 85 to zero. We'll modernize 159 school campuses and will absolutely help us to more strategically push in more high quality, academic and extracurricular programs across every neighborhood and across every zip code. One-billion dollar of the plan will be funded by our bond borrowing program subject to President Streater year over year approval. 8-billion of this plan we'll be making the case that new government and philanthropic funding be secured for that purpose. I want you to note we'll modernize 159 buildings. We'll maintain 122 facilities which means we'll continue those schools and do routine maintenance, but won't make significant additional investments. You'll see six co-located schools facilities here. And you'll see 9 schools at this point will be 10 recommending to close and repurpose 11 for the district's use. 12 Tilden Middle School, for example, we'll recommend to tear that building down and build a state-of-the-art athletics complex in Southwest Philadelphia to compliment the other complexes already in the area. We're going to recommend -- the draft recommendations at this point are to also close eight additional schools and to convey those eight buildings to the city of Philadelphia for purposes of affordable and workforce housing.
Just a point of information. Is that eight a part of the 20?
8 Just a little clarity on that. 9 CHAIRMAN STREATER: I 10 think, Council President, are you 11 asking are the eight part of the 20 12 part of the previous resolution the 13 Board passed in December? 14
18 It's eight plus? 19 CHAIRMAN STREATER: This 20 would be eight in addition to.
Eight in addition to. I want to get clarity on that. So there were the eight that's already abandoned, correct? CHAIRMAN STREATER: No, there's about facilities that 4 could be -- that fit the definition 5 of the resolution that the Board 6 passed in December. These are eight 7 in addition to, that's what 8 Dr. Watlington is saying right now. 9
10 So eight plus 20 is 28. 11 CHAIRMAN STREATER: In 12 theory, if they're all conveyed to 13 the city. 14
15 Twenty-eight, correct. 16 CHAIRMAN STREATER: Yeah, I 17 don't want to get ahead of the 18 Board, but in theory. 19
20 I just want to get clarity on that part. Okay. You can finish.
Yes. Among our -- again, just for the record to be crystal clear, as Council Chair Thomas, Education Chair Thomas said at the top of the meeting, there are currently 8 persistently vacant properties that 9 are already vacant that the Board 10 has given some direction about how 11 to communicate and work with the 12 city about possible conveyance. 13 Separate and apart from 14 that, there are -- currently there 15 are 20 draft schools in this current 16 plan where children are currently in 17 schools right now, that in the 18 current draft of those 20 schools, 19 12 of those we intend where kids are 20 currently in buildings right now, 12 of those we currently have a plan to recommend to President Streater and the Board to close 12 and to repurpose for district use. In 8 of those 20 to close and convey to the city for purposes of affordable and work force housing and job creation. Do that answer that question, Mr. President?
Thank you. And you'll see that I also want to note that there will be no 11 changes in school year 27-28, the upcoming school year, because we want to take the time to plan thoughtfully. Also, we will staff up, Mr. President and members of council, a transition office that will report directly to me and Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill that will be a one-stop shop for any displaced families. So that they, No. 1, we ensure that unlike 2012-13 our children's academic performance and student attendance goes up and not down, as was the case in 2012-13. B, that office will provide one-stop shop service that range from social and emotional and mental health and wellness supports. To transportation needs, to whatever our parents and families need. And more to come on that. On the next slide I want to just note, Mr. President, that this plan provides for -- this slide outlines for you by Councilmatic district what the total investment would be in this plan. For example, in Councilmatic District 9, Councilmember Dr. Phillips' district, they'll be a $443-million investment all the way to Councilmatic District 1, $308-million investment in Councilmember Squilla's district.
Don't the Mayor live up there in the 9th District?
I won't read them for the record because you put me on a time clock, sir. But I want you and the public to note the millions of dollars that will be spent very strategically in every Councilmatic district. I also want you to note that we are very sensitive and paying attention to the number of school closures at present on the table. Again, I want to underscore we are listening to feedback as President Streater said to opine how this feedback will land on the final recommendations because we want to do our due diligence, just like you are. But you'll see the schools we're recommending at this point to close compared to 2020.
I'm going to ask you to summarize because I know at least for the members, we've gone over this extensively. And so...if that's okay, Dr. Watlington.
I want to summarize that this is the next to last slide, No. 1.
Number 2, the $2.8-billion you can see how it will be spent across all 10 councilmatic districts. I want to note that there were 30 schools that closed in 2012-13. In 2026, at present there are schools on that 17 recommended closure list. 18 Pleased to report to you 19 that this plan will modernize 159 20 campuses and reduce the number of schools with poor or unsatisfactory ratings from 85 to zero. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. With that, I'll go to the last slide and say thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.
Thank you, Dr. Watlington. Dr. Deborah Carrera.
Good morning, Council President Johnson. Good morning, Majority Learder Gilmore- Richardson, Chair Thomas and members of the committee. My name is Dr. Deborah Carrera. I'm the chief education officer for the city of Philadelphia. I'm grateful for the opportunity to testify on resolution 17 No. 250895, concerning the School District of Philadelphia School Facilities Modernization Plan. I, too, am a graduate of the School District of Philadelphia, Potter Thomas Bilingual Elementary School, Conwell Middle Magnet School, Northeast High School.
Before joining the administration I spent 27 years in the School District of Philadelphia as a teacher at Potter Thomas Bilingual School, as a Assistant Principal at Elkin Elementary, as an elementary principal at McKinley Elementary and as a high school principal at Kensington Creative and Performing Arts. And then as an assistant superintendent at Learning Network One, which were mainly South Philly high schools as well. In 2012, during the last round of school closures, I was the principal at Kensington CAPA High School. I have lived experience as a school leader and as a parent. And while the conversation is difficult, it's necessary and long over due. The School Facilities Plan has been carefully designed to improve the quality of education for Philadelphia students by providing more equitable access to programming and addressing chronic overcrowding in many of our schools. It offers a comprehensive road map to remedy the District's longstanding facilities challenges and a vision for schools that are suitable for a 21st century education. The plan would also end the decade-long disinvestments in comprehensive high school. I was as comprehensive high school principal. Which are anchor institutions in city neighborhoods which were once the pride of many communities. I was priviledged to serve the administrations representative on the Facilities Program team conviened by the School District. From outset it was clear that our mission was not just to consider te condition of buildings, but to look at the educational resources available to students in each school and determine how those resources could be delivered. The planning rubric included four factors. Educational programming, neighborhood vulnerability, building condition and building utilization. The District incorporated lessons from the 2012 building closure process when designing the rubric. Academic performance which contributed to the closure of low performing schools in our most vulnerable communities in 2012 was not included as a decision factor. As a former assistant superintendent of schools in the District, I traveled to these schools. I saw disparities in programming and activities available to students in the schools in my portfolio. At one time I had 28 schools. This plan is an important step towards ending this inequity. In addition to better quality facilities, students, all students will have access, as the superintendent said, to algebra 1. A foundational class for college or career in STEM or health fields. Students will have art and music classes. I went to buildings, there are buildings that do not have an art teacher and have an art classroom. Access to more AP classes. My high school was a small high school, I could only offer my kids two AP courses, where other schools like Central, where my son went, could offer them over plus AP 2 courses, or International 3 Baccalaureate program. 4 Students in smaller schools 5 will have more choices of clubs, 6 sports that are available in large 7 schools. As an educator I know that 8 these experiences are instrumental 9 to children's self discovery and 10 necessary part of their growth and 11 development. 12 The District has presented 13 a draft plan with reasonable goals 14 and a sound methodology and has 15 provided multiple opportunities for 16 engagement, but I want to emphasize 17 as the superintendent and president 18 has said today, it is still also 19 draft plan. The voices of the 20 school communities deserve to be heard and their input should be considered. The Mayor is a Philadelphia public school graduate, as we know, and she credits her schools with helping her to become the person she is today. It is her assessment that the current District foot print is unsustainable and to secure the long-term funding necessary to improve schools our funding partners require a comprehensive plan that accounts for both overcrowded and under utilized buildings.
There are a number of underlying conditions that make these decisions difficult, but they are necessary. School enrollment, and we heard the Board president talk a little bit about that today, it has declined. The school is doing better, as Dr. Watlington has said, with students who have dropped out, but over the last 10 years, the District Schools have lost over 15,556 students. While enrollment in cyber charter schools, and I worked for the State of Pennsylvania and I saw it, have grown from 547 students to 14,252 students. Cyber charter school enrollment accelerated during the pandemic and peeked in 2023-24 to 14,643, and it is unclear whether enrollment will level off or continue to grow. Philadelphia school facilities are old. You've heard that today. The average age of school buildings are 73 years and some are more than a century old. These schools have served a useful purpose, but lack updated wiring to support educational technology, have outdated heating and cooling systems, insufficient science labs, auditoriums and gymnasiums and limited space to accommodate diverse learners. Philadelphia City Councilmember, you were the first to acknowledge and advocate for the removal of environmental hazards from schools and we thank you for that. And you are often the first to hear about burst pipes, air conditioning failures, neglected playing fields and classrooms that attribute to students asthma. Currently the District faces a steady and unpredictable stream of facility problems that are disruptive to students, faculty and parents. Requiring them to move to swing spaces for weeks or even months. Family and staff deserve a facilities renovation program that is comprehensice, predictable and planned in advanced. City Council and Philadelphia legislative delegation has successfully elevated school facilities as a state wide problem that could not be ignored. Unfortunately the state has not yet put forth the necessary investment. Your efforts were instrumental in the creation of the Pennsylvania School Facilities Improvement grant program and we thank you, which provides $125-million in grants annually to address the needs of the states 500 school districts. Governor Shapiro has proposed $51-billion infrastructure bond in the 26-27 budget that could be used to fund housing, energy infrastructure and school facilities. But the Commonwealth still have not replaced the $340-million annual allocation for the Plan Con School Construction subsidy program which ended more than a decade ago, leaving a large gap in predictable annual funding. The $7-billion price tag for a thorough renovation of all school buildings recommended in the 2017 Parsons report beyond our reach. 8 billion proposal however is a realistic and achievable goal if we work together. This plan will support the modernization, as the superintendent has said, from 159 schools and reduce the number of unsatisfactory buildings in years from 85 to 9 zero. That is worth fighting for. 10 As a state representative the Mayor visited schools across the Commonwealth and her motivation is clear. Philadelphia students must have access to the same levels of quality programming facilities and opportunities as students do in other counties. It's not my intention today to diminish the uncertainty and disruption that is natural for a change of this magnitude. We know this is hard. Or the minimize a infection that Philadelphians have for our local public schools. I am proud graduate of Conwell Middle Magnet School and Northeast High School. They made me who I am today, but I believe we should honor our history, our legacy while also striving for something better for our children. Thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you very much. Just going back to the question I asked regarding the data that was utilized to determine what schools are closed and what schools stay open and what schools are co-located and how recent were these site assessments done of those particular schools?
Thank you, Mr. President. Two things I'll say very suscinctly. One, you'll recall that in previous years, maybe three years ago, we came before this council and talked about the former Parsons report. Since that time we completed a second review of every district facility and we did 35 data verification meetings directly with principals, so that we could make sure we had up-to-date accurate information on every school. Long story short that resulted in four key data points looking at things like the condition of the building, what's the building utilization of the building. We also looked at something called neighborhood vulnerability index. What were the schools that were closed? Are there some parts of the city that had a significant closure in 2012; are there some parts of the city have a hyper concentrations of poverty? Long story short we do not just take the four scores add them together, divide by 4, and say if you're number is here, here's what happens. If you're number is here, here's what happen. There is some complex thinking looking at the numbers and feedback we received along the way. So there's no really short simple formula, it's both quantitative and qualitative that feedback.
And that's great segway regarding this question. And the Philadelphia Inquirer found that among the closing schools about 68 percent of the student population is black compared to 40 percent. The rest of the district schools, meaning the majority of black schools are being disproportionately impacted, basically black and brown neighborhoods. So did the School District collect data on analysis regarding the potential racial inequity impact this proposal may have, and also did the District evaluate cumulative impacts? Meaning did they look at neighborhoods that have experienced previous closures, right, and the impact that had on the surrounding community? You kind of alluded to it, but could you clarify, have you done that part of due diligence regarding when the schools will be closed in certain neighborhoods? Which pretty much would create a educationally gap zone. Meaning, there'll be a vacuum in a particular area when that school shuts down. Because for most neighborhoods the school that hub, right, in an ideal world, I would hope we could do you one for one and that's in an ideal world. Meaning, if you are going to tear down this school, right, because of infrastructure, it was built for 1,000 students, it's only now and economically it don't make sense, right? But can we tear that school down, but in that very same location build another school for that same community, right? That would be smaller, right? Maybe put a health center on the side, maybe a rec center on the side in partnership on in the city. Then you have one for one and the neighborhood keeps that anchor, right, in that area and have a smaller footprint which I also think would be economicaly feasible in terms of saving money. Just something the Board can think about long term in terms of the vision if something like that could happen.
I think President Streater wanted to say something. CHAIRMAN STREATER: Not to minimize the point, but I think the way the resolution is drafted is to have a both/and approach. I think issues of equity should be kind of infused in the process, but also trying to ensure that in these parts of the city just because there's a facility there that serves students as it relates for education, that it's not an educational dessert. And I think the Facilities Plan is trying to figure out how to better utilize the resources, these are the directives we gave to the superintendent. So it's not just a quantity of the facilities, it's also looking at the quality of the programming that we are funded and we have the resources to do. So that's kind of the preamble based upon the resolution and Dr. Watlington can answer the sort of in the weeds question.
I'll say four things in 60 seconds. Number 1, we looked at vulnerability factors across the city. We could have come here to President Streater -- we could have released a draft plan that closed twice as many schools and been able to defend it. I want to be clear. Second, I read the article 8 in the newspaper that you referenced. And the context is about 50 to 51 percent is composed of African American students. About a third of our students in the School District are Hispanic or Latino students and that's our fastest growing demographics. So any changes are going to inherently affect black and brown students no 18 matter how you slice the pie. Third, I would ask the Council to take a look at that map we shared earlier. The map shows geographic investments across multi- million dollar investments across all 10 Councilmatic districts. And when you look at the current recommendations for closures, they're spread out and are not isolated to any one district, although I'm sure Councilmembers feel a little bit differently about that.
This has the most, but we'll accept that and we do see the investments across Councilmatic districts which I think it's great we can see the visual of where the investments are going from in terms of the $2.8-billion. Have we done an assessment of the proper value of these school buildings that are going up for closure, as well as the other eight that are sitting abandoned that will be transferred to the city of Philadelphia Land Bank. What's the property value of those particular parcels of land?
Short answer is yes. Under Deputy Superintendent Hill leadership and Senior Advisor Landau, they're looking to two key data points. One, the historic tax records for each of the properties for the school, as well as the most recent apraised values for all of those properties. That's correct, yes.
To clarify, on the record, how much the value are of those properties?
We have Senior Advisor Landau. I don't know if they have that on their person or we might want to submit it for the record. Colonel Hill, do we have that or do you want to submit it for the record? We'd like to submit that for the record.
Yeah, please submit that to the Chair of Education and he'll make sure we'll have a copy of it. And just for the record, that's the actual property accessment value of the proposed closure schools, as well as the eight that will be transferred to the Land Bank, just for the record.
In terms of the borrowing, the billion dollars borrowing, give us an idea of the debt service cost of the bond and its impact on our current operating budget. CHAIRMAN STREATER: The capital budget -- just for point of information for those listening, the capital budget we have to approve a five-year budget, but we do it every year. So just for point of information for those who don't understand what we're talking about, we have two budgets, we have our capital budget and our operating budget. The operating budget is separate. So the capital budget assuming that this plan or some iteration of it moves forward will likely be this year evolves it relates to some of the recommendations. I do know that the School District and the Board have done its due diligence to make sure we have the highest credit rating to lower the debt service to some extent. But Dr. Watlington, you can speak to the in the weeds question.
To your point, Mr. President and President Streater, thank you. The short answer to your question is we will -- we fully anticipate to keep our debt service at the gold standard, industry standard rate of less than 10 percent. Historically we run about 8 percent. To President Streater's points the bond markets -- our confidence is partly driven by the fact that we have the best investment grade credit rating that we've had in the history of the district.
That's BAA and we'll submit it for the record, too. Also, our credit outlook has been upgraded from stable to positive. And our investment rate credit by both Moody's and Fitch services has been upgraded every year over the past three years. So the bond markets understand that over time we have a structural deficit if we don't get the constitutional funding, but they have confidence in the decisions we're making.
And just for clarification, are you saying -- and I think, Mr. Chairman, I don't know if you were saying this as well, I just want to get clarity. Would the 1-billion possibly increase, therefore at the moment you can't give me the number -- the actual number it would cost for the debt service on the life of the actual billion dollar bond? But let me ask you this, what's the assessment as of now? Let's just say hypothetically we just stick with that billion. It doesn't grow, right? Have your team said over the lifetime of the bond this is how much it's going cost up to pay back in bond. What's that number, just for the record?
I can't give you that number off the top of my head, but I will tell you we'll submit, for the recrod, a detailed in depth multi-page calculation and the detailed information embedded therein. But we have absolutely costed out our best most conservative estimate for the debt service being repaid.
Please submit that to the chair. I want to see also the cost of debt service, and then obviously somebody has to pay for that, right? So are there any other plans beyond -- I know you're going to Council, I know you're going to Harrisburg for funding, right? What's the plan to pay down that debt service? How does that work? I'm just asking for clarification and understanding.
Certainly the $1-billion we believe the School District will be able to pay towards this $2.8 billion plan with a two-year, we borrow every two years, it will be completely consistent with how we borrow in the School District in the past. The $1.8-billion will be dependent upon government and perhaps philanthropic resources, that will just be contingent on what level of additional funding we are able to get.
Thank you, Dr. Watlington. And another question, in terms of the additional $1.8-billion gap, right, who are we in conversations with in terms of the philanthropic commitment to support the Philadelphia School District Facilities Plan. Right? And also it seems like the other aspect of the 1.8 hinges on, hinges on the environment in Harrisburg, right? I'm an idealistic pragmatic person. And I hope that in the leadership of our speaker Joanna McClinton, our Chairman of Appropriations Jordan Harris, as well as our Governor Josh Shapiro, that we're in a good position, right? But let's say the creek rises, right, and we don't get 1-billion from thhe administration in Harrisburg, how does that have an impact on this plan? So it's the philanthropic aspect, I want to know who committed thus far? Who has a interest in our great students in the city of Philadelphia and put some skin in the game to make sure our young people succeed from philanthropic community. And also, in the event the dynamics in Harrisburg may change. Hopefully that's never the case, but it could happen. How does that impact this particular plan?
Thank you, Mr. President. I'll start with Harrisburg. We believe consistent with the feedback that I've heard from members of both the House and Senate as I've traveled with President Streater and others to Harrisburg is that when the School District of Philadelphia does a better job of addressing significantly under enrolled schools and when we tighten our belt as appropriate, maybe we'll be considered for more support.
When you say the House and the Senate, are we talking about Republicans and Democrats?
I think we've visited both parties and it's been more of a conservative sentiment than members of the other party, but both have indicated that we've got to do some things to tighten our belt. CHAIRMAN STREATER: If I could add briefly, Council President. Also, I believe it's been the strategy with the Board of Education, whether it's the use of COVID dollars which we use effectively for supported learning, but also infrastructure upgrades that we know have came to past. That as we continue to strive toward holistically holding on tightly why we exist, which is to educate children, that those who hold the purse strings will feel even more confident to investing in our product. And I don't want to use the word product because I know we're talking about our babies and children, but that's how some individuals think who hold purse strings. And we believe with the higher graduation rates, student achievement is up and good physical stewardship that we can make the case and willing to take this tough decision as a village that we believe we've done everything we can do. And I'm a trial attorney, we've done everything we can do in front of the reasonable facts in front of the factfinder to make the right decision, which the Commonwealth court also said is the right decision as well, to fund us in a way to support this public good, that I would argue is more important than drinkable water.
And the reason we had this Commonwealth decision because folks in Harrisburg that's from the Philadelphia delegation, but there are other folks that do not perceive our students as high academic achieving students here in the city of Philadelphia. Hence, why we are always fighting year after year because if that wasn't the case we wouldn't need a court mandate to say, we need equity in terms of making sure that all young people get a high quality education. The reason I asked that question is because a key component of your proposal is contingent with us fighting with individuals in Harrisburg, but I want clarity on in the event that they say, well, we are not going to do it for a billion, right, how I does that impact this plan? And then also I still want to know, who are the private individuals? The private industry that are investing in our young people? Who has the interest interesting in our young people? I would like to know at least, for the record, who are they?
I'll say two things there, Mr. President. One, given the improvement that the District is making, we think this is great opportunity to reach out the philanthropist and others who have made investments to other sectors outside of district operated schools.
My guy, like who? Who are we talking about? Penn, Temple, Drexel, IBM, Comcast, talk to me.
Well, I want to be careful about naming all the people because it's their right to do what they want with their money. Let me give you one concrete example. Drexel raised money to build for that Powell Slam School. And I believe pays money --
Drexel raised dollars to build that Powell Slam School, that we pay a dollars a year. And it's that kind of creative, innovative thinking that we ought to make the case far and wide to people who care about education in the city who have additional resources and ask them to consider donating to the District.
I have to ask the question. That 1.8 is contingent, right? It's not factual, right? It's not actual.
It's if we get these things done, if the private sector wants to invest in us, if everything goes right in Harrisburg, we'll get that 1.8, right? In the event we don't or the private sector says, you know what, the market went left, therefore, we're not going to invest in our public school system, what happens to this part of the plan?
Good question. Thank you, Mr. President. If we do not get $1.8-billion, instead of bring the number of poor and unsatisfactory building ratings down from 85 to zero, we'll work our way down from 85 to more than zero, and we will not modernize 159 campuses, we'll modernize less.
Okay. So we want to be hopeful that we strategize and work that public/private partnership as well as keep that environment in Harrisburg conducive to one supporting what we are doing here for supporting our children.
Yes, sir. And we also think we need to continue to make the case that the former price tag of $7.8-billion on the Parsons report, this team has worked very strategically to get that number down to 2.8.
I'm glad you said that for the record. So the original number was 7?
So it really was 7.8 and you worked it down to --
2.8. Okay. CHAIRMAN STREATER: So that number likely would be even higher now than 7.8 because we've had the pandemic and there's inflation and things like that.
Okay. CHAIRMAN STREATER: But can I say one quick thing on the record. I've done a little research on what the School District under former Mayor who was president of the Board, Richardson Dilworth did after the great migration and I read their Facilities Plan. And I think what makes this plan unique and I hope those can agree to help support it, help fund it, is that it is not just buildings. We are actually trying to recreate the system of public education in service of why we exist which is to educate children. That School Board had an emergency of black folks, my people, our people coming to Philadelphia with their hair on fire just building and building, but it wasn't in service, I would argue, to the core mission, it was just being responsive. We are trying to do it in a methodical and logical way that's responsive to what I would argue is the real emergency which is historic and chronic under achievement.
Chairman, I want to acknowledge that same point because I heard Dr. Deborah Carrera talk about what we didn't do the last time was focus on academic achievement. The last time was a land grab to shut down schools to take care of budget. That was just really clear. So I'm smiling when you're saying, let's look at academic achievement because that's the most important component, probably the most important component. But I also want to make sure -- my segue into my last question is how we are looking about strategy around -- and I talked about this to Dr. Watlington in our private meeting as well briefly. We're a city of neighborhoods. We're a city of neighborhoods. And let's say you want somebody to go from Gompers to Lankenau, right? They're two totally different neighborhoods, right? So I have to feel comfortable as the parent, right, to travel from one neighborhood to the next neighborhood. Right? And I'm happy that we're at a 60-year historical low when it comes to homicides and shootings, right? But I also remember Member Bass in her district where some young men came, and also President Streater you were with me as well, at one of the schools where some folks came up to a SEPTA bus stop and unloaded on a group of students. So when I think about the merging, when I think about the closures, I know we are a city of neighborhoods, but I also think about the reality and safety of our young people. What has been the strategy and plan thus far in examining how our young people will be safe as a part of this particular plan that's presented us to? CHAIRMAN STREATER: As a precursor I'll just say as a board member whose been on the Board for five years, president for four, part of this confidence is a reflection of y'all. We have confidence that City Council will continue to do the work you-all have been doing to make this city a safer, more welcoming city and our Mayor. So I think that we wouldn't even call this question if we thought we were in an ecosystem where the superintendent wouldn't create the mechanism --
Mr. Chairman, I hear you. I think how you put on us that we're doing great work to reduce gun violence and shootings which is great. That's not question, though. I just want you to get to, Mr. Johnson, thus far this is our safety strategy plan that goes in partnership with what we're presenting to you to make sure that when we merge these schools, shut down these schools and co-locate students in these environments, our data shows that we have a game plan to ensure our young people are safe. And if I cut you off, excuse me. CHAIRMAN STREATER: No 10 worries, brother. Attorneys have a big wind up before we make our point so I'll be more quick with my point. I think we have exemplars, that's the point I was going to make from continuing to perfecting our union to getting back local control. Our operation Safe Pathways is an example is how we have as a city worked with City Council, our police depart, our Mayor to find ways to create pathways for our babies to get to school in the most safest way possible.
Is it in this plan already? I'm just asking. Is it in the plan, though? CHAIRMAN STREATER: What I'm saying is The Board of Education wouldn't have triggered the resolution if we didn't have a confidence. And that's an example to us to say this is something that could be workable and now Dr. Watlington's job is to answer your question in a more direct way. My job is to at least put the energy as to why we're doing this as a Board. And Dr. Watlington's job to answer the in the weeds question.
Because that last board they also did a resolution and they had the confidence that we would address the issue of safety, but they didn't actually have a strategy on doing it. That's why I was just thinking maybe if we're being proactive, and your team is already on the ground knowing this can be an issue, that could be a part of the plan. So Mr. Watlington, what is that plan, sir?
In 60 seconds or less. Number 1, the team has taken a deep dive -- has already and continues to take a deep dive into the children and young people who are already moving across the city to study that pattern to make sure we try to accent and not make it more pronounced. Number 2, part of the role of the transition office will be invest in additional Safe Path opportunities as needed and appropriate and increased safety supports. And No. 3, we intentionally released this draft plan five weeks prior to taking it to President Streater and the Board to hear more detailed feedback.
You told me that as well. You said the reason why we are not going to wrap it up, we're going to hear from the people.
What's the role of the neighborhood stakeholders and parents in terms of the recommendation? What role have they played? Is there a parent neighborhood working group? I want some clarity, what role has parents played in these recommendations? What role have neighborhood stakeholders played in these recommendations?
We prioritized over a five-week period getting in front of every one of the 20 school communities face-to-face.
Not getting them in front of them. Are they part of the actual planning process? Not getting in front of them.
I would say two things then. One, we had diverse representation on a project team, diverse parent and community representation on nine advisory groups that helped shaped the recommendation.
And certainly third, we added to that nearly 14,000 survey responses and we're continuing to listen to them.
All right. I'll wrap up because my members have questions. I know you have three town halls coming up, I know you also have to put your recommendations by the 26th. Which I said this privately and I'll say in public, this project seems rushed to me, right, but nevertheless it's nothing I didn't share with you privately but I think it's a little rushed. I know you have three town halls that are coming up, right? I have to ask the question, how many town halls have you done with members, district members whose districts are actually going to be impacted? Like I'm doing one in the 9th; I'm doing one in the 3rd. I'm partnering with Quetcy to do one in the 7th. I'm partnering with Squilla in the 1st. Mr. Johnson in the 2nd. And really, it's not just about, I'll just say the plan, because who knows, you might be in the 1st Councilmatic District and southern is going to get a brand new building and folks are going to get a chance the hear this plan directly in partnership with 1st Councilmatic Councilmember about what's coming to his district. I just want to get an idea why wasn't that the thought process? I'm just trying to understand.
Thank you, Mr. President. For each of the current draft recommended school closures, we've done not less than two townhall meetings, one virtual and one in-person. And we've been very intentional about ensuring that we invite Councilmembers to be present, as well as board members to so they can see what's going on firsthand.
For each school. And because I as superintendent could not go to every single one of those, we scheduled three additional.
Not just be at, but I will lead, including this afternoon at Franklin High School.
Thank you, Dr. Phillips. Thank you, sir. I'm going to turn over to my members and I'm going to start with Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. I was listening to your questions and thinking you're spot on with a lot of them. I do want to mention to Board President Streater and also Dr. Watlington that I think it's really important that we are having this facilities conversation and we are glad that it's finally happening. You know, how it happens is something that we're continuing to discuss, but I'm happy that you all have presented a plan in this fashion. I have questions about transportation. We have in our district Penny Packer School who has been suggested to close. The school options closer to Penny Packer would include AB Day and also Edmonds down the street. The problem is that from a geographical standpoint, you know, historically the reasons why these schools were built in these neighborhoods is because they were in a four-block walking radius, easy to get to. That school is not as close to Edmonds. I just want to put on the record, how are you going address commuting now for K through 6th grade students, you know, who oftentimes come to school with their parents? Is there going to be -- I want to put on the record, is there going to be a school bus that's going to be now brought to the School District and paid for? Are there going to be SEPTA passes for adults and children in the morning to help with these commuting? All this has to be thought of in terms of the operations since these schools are no longer as close as they used to.
In terms of Penny Packer, one of the reasons we're recommending Edmonds and Day is because we are doing our level best to try to keep our young people as close to the schools that make sense. We also at Penny Packer in particular want to increase the access that our young people have to ADA accessible facilities and improve educational facilities. To your point about transportation, that transition office will do everything that needs to be done to ensure that we support our parents and families with transportation. Whether it's SEPTA passes, whether it's additional Safe Pathways, we are committed to doing that.
Okay. That's important that the public heard from you that they are going to do whatever they can do to make sure transportation happens not just for Penny Packer, but over school in our district as well. Also, have you thought about the following: For special education services, what is the step-by-step plan and timeline for special education placement tied to closure related moves? Like IEP meetings, classroom readiness, staffing, how are you going to make sure everything is in compliance when it comes to special education with all these changes?
Three years ago we organized the special education area and actually brought in a chief special education and diverse learners because we wanted to elevate it and place it in the position in my cabinet, No. 1. And No. 2, we will follow the letter and spirit of federal law that requires us -- it's not an option that we follow students individualized education plan. We anticipate those services to be uninterrupted by this plan.
Thank you. And I just have an additional question, I think it's important to put it on the record. I'm concerned as well about the operations part of this process. For me one of the things is that teachers and staff are in need of understanding what is your future going look like? And how soon can that information get back to them in terms of, you know, you've mentioned that, you know, we're going to make sure that teachers and staff continue to have their job. But what does that look like and how soon can you get the information to them? And I'm also concerned about the operations about making sure that each -- like understanding the how behind modernization of a school. You're saying that we're going to be -- some schools are going to be modernized by 2028 or 2029. What does that look like? You know, when are we going to start getting templates in terms of hard details around what relocation means, what modernization means? What do all these terms mean in terms of the full fledged details beyond just the recommendations?
Relative to the first part of that question about jobs, I just want to note that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers have clear rules and guidelines in the collective bargaining agreement about how that would work. I do want to note that I would recommend zero cuts in those whatever number of schools are recommended for closure. That's our commitment unlike 2012-13. What does modernization look like? It's a bit different by school and it could vary on one end from replacing chillers and boilers that don't work currently, so we don't have to shut schools down when we have a cold snap like we just had or schools having to close early when it's warm outside, all the way to a refresh of the school building, just like we did at Frankford High School. And on the far end it could look like TM Pierce or Cassidy, a brand new school.
Thanks a lot, Council President. I just want to mention that I know all of this is contingent upon funding, however I think with some families if you're going to do something, they'll be much more interested around the details behind. Once the funding is placed, we're going to be able to do X, Y, Z in a certain amount of time. So being able to give the whole construction timeline as well to be very clear to folks in that particular way. And I think that's half the battle, too. Thank you. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, sir. I just want to let everybody to know housekeeping rules, we're on a two-minute rule for questions for members. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to be brief and kind of leave my questions. I don't know if they'll get a chance to answer. But I firmly believe that if you create the conditions, then you are responsible for the results. And the state that we're in at this moment is a direct result of the decisions made by the Board, most of them before you arrived here, Dr. Watlington. But nonetheless, the reactions that we're having are a result of past policies and changes that really worked against public education in the city of Philadelphia. I feel like this is the breaking down of public education in Philadelphia. What we're doing here, what you're proposing to do here is a step along the way to fundamentally breaking down public education for our children in the city. And rather than adjusting an admissions policy at special admit schools that had the unintended consequence of lowering enrollment, you know, why not go back and fix that before we close anything? Why are we even talking about closing anything when we know that decisions were made by the Board and a district that essentially had adverse affect. It lowered enrollment. And so it's almost as if we cut off a limb like if you're in a medical state of emergency, you know, cutting off a limb instead of addressing the symptoms of the problem. And that's what we're doing here, we don't have to take sledge hammer approach by closing these schools. We don't have to. Further more, I just wanted to address something that has happened in the city of Philadelphia for years. And that is the east versus the west. When I say east versus west, a lot of people think northeast gets more, you know, parts of South Philly gets more, parts of everything on the east side of Broad Street gets more. I think when you looked at your map, the one you all produced and gave to us, it showed that essentially that is accurate. That over the last 10 years those investments really went on one side of Broad Street for the most part. And now it's sort of like, okay, we'll make investments here and there and we're going to make them all over. But we're not addressing the changes that those investments had in the areas where there was no investment. We're not addressing that at all. So that's something that has to be done. The district can't keep circling the wagon when these major changes need to happen. You know, you have to bring us in, you have to bring all of us in. And we have to all be partners at the table to say exactly what we think, what ideas we have. It can't be, here's a presentation, this is what we're going to do and now you fund it. No, no, it cannot be that. And listen, you know, again, we're going to have a budget vote sometime soon, I'm not for it. You know, what is presented here is just totally unacceptable. There has been very little interaction with district members -- well, I'll say me. I don't know about other district members, but I would say with me and conversation around zoning, you know, you're moving these properties to being residential properties, you know, multi-unit properties. I'm going to assume you're going to need zoning. Don't you need a conversation with us? Don't we need to talk? Don't we need to know be a part of what's happening? When is that going to happen? And a lot of conversations that are happening, I hear about them here and there. I have not been contacted directly by the District about what meetings are happening and where and when. I have to find them myself. So you have to include us, we have to be a part of whatever happens. We know that we lost children, we lost some young people when we closed the schools back in 2013. We lost children during COVID. And if we do this, we are going to lose more children. And so, you know, we need the District to, sort of, own some of the problems that have been somewhat, in my opinion, self-created and figure out how do we address them and address them now.
And how do we make sure that we address these inequities that have led to certain areas getting more resources than others. And even some young people having accessibility in the same school district, right, how is it that some young people were receiving algebra and some weren't? Who made those kinds of decisions? And when were they made and how long have they been made? Because until it just came up, I had no idea that every child wasn't receiving algebra class so that they can at least begin to prepare whether college was their track or not. So Mr. President, that was longer than two minutes and I don't know if I have time for any response.
You have a time for response. Response, please. CHAIRMAN STREATER: I'll be brief --
And just for the record, unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, I was told you have to depart by 12:45? CHAIRMAN STREATER: Yes, sir. I'll be brief.
Okay. You know I rearranged my whole schedule to be here until 5:00 today because I knew it was just that important. CHAIRMAN STREATER: I did as well and my client and I have things to do as well. I take this work very seriously.
I'm not giving you a hard time, but just so you know, if members want to get a question in to Mr. Chairman, who will be undertaking these recommendations you have to get them in before 12:45. I'm not saying you think any less I'm just saying for me, I rearranged everything to be here today. And I know you're volunteering and have another life as well. So any response to Member Bass? CHAIRMAN STREATER: Briefly because the Board of Education was mentioned. I can't opine on the criteria base issue because currently we're in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals where a certain alcalade of our current president is seeking to create a circuit split so that could potentially lead to us losing all criteria-based schools. So with that being said, I will not opine on that because I'm concerned about saying something on the record that can be misconstrued and I don't want our case to be the lead case in the Supreme Court where we lose the ability to have criteria-based schools all over the America. So that's something that's going on behind the scenes. Thank you so much.
Consistent with what President Streater said, I'd ditto relative to criteria-based schools given their litigation. The only thing I want to say now to Councilmember Bass is we had two-day retreat with all of the criteria-based principals. Myself, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jermaine Dawson and Dr. Tonya Wolford who leads our research and accountability department. And we solicited feedback directly from them about changes. We're not so sure that -- and we agreed that it doesn't make sense for all the criteria-based schools to have the exact same criteria and I signed off on that. Secondly, to your question of the west versus east side of Broad Street, we hear you loud and clear. We've tried to address that by looking at it in terms of councilmatic district. We're happy to go back and look at that pursuant to your question. In terms of priorities and involvement of council. As we make recommendations it's my understanding that there are some built-in processes by which the executive and legislative branches of government worked together over time to figure out what happens with -- how we think about properties in Councilmatic districts. And so we think that process would happen at the appropriate time. In terms of losing children as a result of this plan, the District unfortunately for a 10-year periods consistently was losing children already. A couple of years ago we were able for the first time in a decade to increase the enrollment by 1,841 students. I think we could have increased it this year, too, if we had not had the interruptions at the facility of SEPTA transportation. However, we're very conscious to do everything we can to grow the enrollment and not to have parents leave. And then finally, in terms of algebra, I think it's been a sheer resource issue. I don't think people have been trying to harm kids in the School District. It's one of those messages of historic under funding.
I don't think people are intentionally trying to harm kids, but you have to see the end result of the actions that are being taken. There is some level of harm being done. And I don't want to make it seem as though -- I get what you're saying about criteria-based schools. But at the same time, who made the decision that, you know, little Mark Squilla's classroom can have access to algebra and little Cindy Bass's classroom does not. Who made that decision? And whose parent did we tell, he's getting algebra, but yours not. Come on, some of these decisions made along the way have not benefited our kids and left them behind and not given them the opportunity that they should have had that every kid should have had in the city of Philadelphia.
Mr. Chairman? CHAIRMAN STREATER: Councilmember Bass, and this is not to punt, not saying it's our fault. But I think there was a time we lost local control where decisions were made where many of these decisions we're talking about were going forth. I want to give Dr. Tony Watlington the credit. He has come here and he has opened up the car while it's moving a thousand miles down the road and say, hey, you guys are missing an alternator. There are things like that that occurred in our School District, so I would say a lot of these decisions we are trying to unwind decisions that were made when we didn't have the pre-requisitability to have this conversation because there was a thing called the SRC. Not to say it was a bad thing, there are some good things he did. But I think we should look at ourselves and see what the Board of Education is trying to unwind and hold us accountable for things we need to fix.
Thank you very much. I also want to acknowledge the presence of Mr. Edward Santana, Philadelphia School District. Sir, thank you for being here. Thank you for your hard work and always making sure we move the city of Philadelphia forward in terms of all things School District. At this time I want to acknowledge the chairman of education, and then I'm going to Jamie Gauthier next. CHAIR THOMAS: Good afternoon. I'm going to try -- I have questions that I'm going to try hold off because I know district members are going to ask about specific schools, so I'm going to try to stay away from that. A couple things, so I spoke earlier about my feelings on certain things and I want to try to get a little more some clarity on top level stuff. Let's start with transportation because I heard Dr. Phillips talk a little bit about transportation. He gave an example of a school being closed that would force people travel to get to and from school everyday. Right now we spend about $64-million a year on SEPTA passes for people and about $120-million total on transportation between yellow buses and SEPTA passes. Transportation is one of the biggest problems we have in the School District, whether we're talking about safe corridor travel or some of the expenses I just communicated. We can do a whole dissertation on the issues with the yellow buses. When we look at the plan as proposed right now, do we anticipate the transportation cost going up, staying the same, or coming down if these recommendations were to be adopted as is?
Colonel Hill, do we have that number? I'm going to ask if you could speak to that because I want to make sure since you're closest to it, I want to give you the right answer on the record. CHAIR THOMAS: So I'm hoping that we've considered this in the mist of some of the decisions that were made. To me it seems like in the mist of rethinking and reimaging what public education could look like, one of the things we can consider is how do we bring cost down as it relates to transportation and travel. The $120-million line item in the budget is one of the highest that you'll see in any major city in the entire country because so many of our young people are forced to go to school in neighborhoods they don't live in.
As Colonel Hill takes the microphone, let me just remind you, we're looking at a lot of ways to optimize transportation. We're a district, for example, in Philadelphia that have vendors, whereas there's some 4 districts that run that operation 5 themselves as part of the School 6 District. We're looking at 7 operational efficiency in a lot of 8 ways relative to the $120-million 9 spend you referenced. 10 CHAIR THOMAS: Okay. 11 Colonel, can you just be quick 12 because my time is limited, that's 13 the only reason why. 14
Right. 15 Sure. 16 COLONEL HILL: Thank you 17 very much for the question, sir, and 18 the opportunity to respond and add a 19 caveat to what the superintendent 20 said. 21
Could you state your name for the record, sir? COLONEL HILL: Oz Hill, Deputy Superintendent for Operations, School District of Philadelphia. Objectively, we do not intend that there will be any diminished service for our students as we implement recommendations from the plan. We anticipate that we will maintain the level of service not only with our yellow bus organic resources, but also with contractors that without a doubt no diminishment of services for our special needs community. There are likely to be some savings, but the objective has always been with savings we are going to reinvest those savings for the benefit of students to improve student achievement. CHAIR THOMAS: So when we come back with the edited version of the plan, can we have that plan reflect a transportation amount that's below $120-million? Because I think this is an opportunity for us to try to save some of the money we are spending as it relates to transportation. That's just one request. Second request. We've seen a huge shift in population and we know that the population increase in the northeast has dictated some of the plans that exist here. I'm not even going to ask this question. I'm going to ask that you consider the population shift that's also happening in the 7th Councilmatic District. We've seen a lot of development, a lot of movement over there. It would be unfortunate for us to close schools and then have to open more schools when we see a population shift happening in certain areas. So I did want to put that out there. I know we did it with the northeast with the population shift up there, but there are other parts of the city that's seeing an increase of population. I don't want to close schools just to have to open them, or even in the recommendations you have you have situations where we're talking about using current school buildings for office space and transition space when we already have vacant buildings. I know that those buildings are deplorable conditions and thing like that, but it's about the message that it send to constituents when we make these decisions. I hear it, Council President. Let me get one more thing on the record and I'm going to wrap up for now. We talked about population, we talked about transportation cost coming down. The concept of moving away from middle schools. I'm not going to fight you there. I'm going to leave at that fight to somebody else. Right? You're going to have a lot of people offering push back on that. Let me attack it from a facilities perspective. Harding, Wagner, and a couple other schools, Dr. Phillips named one, too. If you were to close those schools the places that you're recommending that they go, those buildings already don't have enough space for the students that go there right now. So when I think about the schools that I just named, Elwood, for example, that's in Councilmember Phillips district. Elwood right now, if you don't know, is a K through 6 school, but the building itself only has enough space for K through 4, and 5th and 6th already go to an annex that we rent which costs us more money. So if we're saying Wagner, Harding, Conwell, some of these middle schools we're going to close, I don't understand how we expect these buildings to receive the young people when they don't have enough space for the children that's currently in the school as is. So we got to do a deeper dive into some of this stuff as it relates as to how we're going to do it. But if you can just answer anything, help the public -- it's not your fault, it's because I'm talking the whole time. Help the public understand your position on middle school specifically because we're talking about closing some, then we're saying opening some, then we're redirecting young people and the schools that we're saying for them to go to already don't have enough space. I'll stop right there, Council President. If you can just provide me some feedback on that, I'll queue up for the second round.
I'll do this very quickly. The middle. The research in over two decades says that kids do not perform better in traditional middle schools than K-8 schools. Two, the second thing about traditional middle schools is we're trying to be consistent with the survey responses and what we heard from feedback sessions. Secondly, in terms of Harding and other schools, we're committed to make modernizations where needed to accommodate any schools you referenced with population concerns. And then third, in terms of enrollment, I just want to note that we absolutely are not presenting -- will not present a plan that just push resources in the parts of the city that's growing fastest. I think this is as strategic a plan that we can create. Because when we looked at the 1,041 students who grew in the district enrollment for the first time in a decade, Mr. Chairman, it was interesting the students were primarily high school young people. And they came in every one of the learning networks, geographic learning network. Every geographic network grew, neighborhood high school enrollment grew, and our criteria- based enrollment grew. We're not growing heavily at the elementary level two years ago, but we did at the high school level. And that's why we make strategic investments to try to grow that high school enrollment. CHAIR THOMAS: So, Doc, you're saying your position around middle school is focused on growing the high school population and that these decisions will put us in a position to grow the high school population?
No, sir. Our position on middle school is driven by, A, students in middle schools don't perform better than students in K-8 schools. Number 2, parents have asked us to limit the number of transitions. And No. 3, we can more efficiently distribute our resources in a K-8 model, than operating 13 grade spans as opposed to six. This is an efficiency issue. CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. I'll queue back for the second round. Thank you, Council President.
Question? CHAIR THOMAS: I'll wait until we -- no, that's fine. Other members got to go.
You ARE the Chair of education, do you have another question? CHAIR THOMAS: No, I mean I do. I'm sorry, Council President.
Might as well. CHAIR THOMAS: Yeah. All right. This is the thing, so when you hear it, right, it sounds good. But then when you look at it on paper and you hear what you're saying, right? And then you have a decision like engineering and science. Okay. We want to phase out middle school, but when it's appropriate for Engineering and science in Masterman, then we will have middle. But when it comes to Conwell and Harding, we kind of won't have engineering and science. I'm not trying to be the spicy guy here. I'm trying to avoid that because I really want us to have nuisance dialog around where we are and what we need to do. And I also recognize that there's push back on every decision that you've made. I have it all on my desk. So I understand that we have to make a tough decision somewhere or else there is no real facilities plan, and we do need a plan. And I do commend you for taking it from $7-billion, which is what it was when I came in, to about $2-billion. So I get all that. But the reality is that we're still not sending the right message to people. And I think our position around middle school is problematic. It's not just about the kitchen, it's not just about saving money. You know, I have an 8th grade son and when I think about my 8th grade son, it's difficult to ask that 8th grader to be in the same space as kindergarten and first graders and deal with that food. And then it's also difficult to ask him to deal with high school students and to deal with that majority level. I know the model that you're looking at doesn't necessarily put the middle school students with the high school students per se. But that K through 8 model, you know, it kind of worries me a little bit. So ease our anxiety at least around the K through 8 model and help us understand why it's not hypocritical to push that for Masterman and Engineering and Science, but not for Harding and Wagner.
Thank you, Councilmember Thomas. I absolutely understand your question, and I think it's a good legitimate question. Two things were true at the same time in the feedback we got from parents across the city. Number one, there was a strong theme around reducing the number of transitions, which we agree with because we can use our resources, we can push in resources more efficiently into schools if we do that. Number two, there was also a theme around in some of the criteria-based schools, expand the 5-12 configuration, not by creating new middle schools, but expand that configuration so that students would be able to better best unify -- utilize those criteria-based schools, like Carver E&S would be 5-12 versus not being 5-12. Two different things that may look like they're inconsistent, but both were strong themes in the feedback we've heard.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. Dr. Watlington, as I've shared with you privately, I remain deeply concerned about the level of detail behind your proposal and the disproportionate impact that it would have on West and Southwest Philadelphia in addition to Black and Brown neighborhoods across the city. I urge the district to slow down the implementation of these recommendations until the methodology, sequencing, and community impact are fully examined and addressed. My questions for today are focused on Paul Robeson High School and Motivation High as case studies to better understand your logic in the plan, especially as it relates to closures and mergers. Robeson is not an academically failing school. After fighting closure in 2013, it was recognized as the district's most improved high school in 2017. Its principal was recognized nationally. Its teachers have been honored by the district. Its students have earned admission to highly competitive colleges, including Harvard. And I know in your opening comments that you noted we should be sending students to Harvard. I acknowledge that Robeson's facility condition is poor. That is a reality. But my questions are as follows: when a school's academic performance is improving, but the building requires capital investment, why is closure the quick remedy rather than modernization? In your comments about this, you've mainly cited the size of Robeson's program as a key factor in your recommendation. Can you provide any data showing that Robeson students are experiencing worse academic or post-secondary outcomes because their program is small? And is the district's position that small high schools, even those that are incredibly successful, are no longer viable and sustainable in Philadelphia? And then lastly, if modernization funding were secured for Robeson's facility, would your closure recommendations still stand? And I ask this while noting that your own chart shows that my district, the 3rd district, is recommended to receive the second lowest amount of investment in your entire plan. And the gap between the investment recommended for the 3rd district and the highest level of investment that you're recommending is about $240 million. And so why, within that huge gap, could there not have been a more creative solution for Robeson? And then I'll just tack onto that, and this is for President Streater. You speak wonderfully, and you come from this background of activism. What are we saying to the students at Robeson who have fought so hard to improve their school, both academically and with respect to physical improvements, that after all that activism, we want to come and close it right in their faces? I would like for you to answer -- I would like for you all to answer those questions. And then my next set of questions on the second-round deal with the data that you've presented for your closure recommendation for Motivation High.
Councilmember Gauthier, I thank you for your question and your energy. And I understand all too well what it means to advocate for something and it no longer exists as a graduate Germantown High School. I get it, 100 percent. I do get it. So with that being said -- with that being said, Councilmember Gauthier, just as Dr. King said, "The arc toward justice bends, not a straight line."
Mr. Chairman, can you hold just a moment? I just want to ask everybody in the listening audience, wherever you support or not support on the testimony that you hearing and disagree, please refrain from any sidebar comments and allow the individuals to provide their testimony respectfully, please. Mr. Chairman?
And understanding that this answer might not be applicable to all of our children and all of the way they would like to advocate, as an adult, I could have took my bags and ran home and moved to Plymouth Meeting, moved to Exton, moved out the state, but I decided to be a volunteer using my legal acumen, my lived experience as a Black man, a Black boy, house insecure boy, to do what I can to push the needle on student achievement in this School District of Philadelphia. So understanding that, and also, I would say keep advocating, because the final decision has not been made yet. Keep advocating. But with that being said, I will say, don't be discouraged. Keep pushing and find a way to either, if you -- to advocate now, but to continue advocating in public education. And only -- another thing I would like to say on the record is I'm hoping that this moment, irrespective of what the outcome is, will allow those who are activated and energized to stay connected so that we can continue to fight for public education Philadelphia. But to that young man, or young woman, or person at that school, I will say don't give up and keep pushing, because I do believe that my work as the Board president, even though some of the decisions I have to make are tough, I still -- I still have a seat at the table and I'm pushing, doing the best I can with what I have. Thank you.
Councilmember Gauthier, I'd start with Paul Robeson. And I do want to note that in my first year here, I think I recall visiting the school with Governor -- former Governor Wolf was there speaking, McClinton, Senator Hughes, and heard really great things about Paul Robeson. So I want to let you know it's not lost on me the very fine things that have happened in that school. I would also say that part of the reason that the draft recommendation -- the recommendation has been to move Paul Robeson into Sayre, one, there's a strong theme around investing in neighborhood high schools. And unfortunately, we can't keep all of our small boutique high schools and all of our neighborhood high schools, so we're in a place where we have to make some hard choices. Part of that choice, the recommendation, was built upon students being able to go to a more modern facility. Where we're -- as we were proposing a $41 million investment in Sayre. A building that has better ADA compliance, then it would make sense to put into -- financially to put into Paul Robeson. Also, in terms of English language arts and math, it does slightly over perform Paul Robeson at present, 2.7 percentage points in English language arts and 2.2 percentage points in math. Not that that's the end all to be all, but that was part of the thinking there. And we thought that we could be consistent with the programming in another school building. In terms of Motivation High School, which my understanding is at one time was housed within the Bartram facility, with the $54.5 million proposed investment into Bartram, you know, there are people who say, well, kids won't come, and say, well, sometimes you build it they will, and maybe sometimes you build it and folks won't. But we at least want to put that as a vision.
May I have a -- may I have a point of information?
And so I'm trying to understand, so the children from the magnet school, right, are going to Bartram, the traditional public school, correct? Will the same magnet programs be offered in John Bartram High School? And also, if that's the case or not the case, I'll let you explain it to me. How does that model work, putting the magnet school students in the same environment as the traditional public-school students? How does that work? And I'm just -- I'm just trying to understand. When I saw it, I was like, how does that work? It's like putting Masterman and Strawberry Mansion students together, right? And if I'm a parent, right, I'm probably going to have some questions because, you know, I think all children can succeed. I know that for a fact. But if my child is in a magnet school like Masterman, and then you call me one day and say, by the way, Masterman students are now going to go to Strawberry Mansion, I want to know how do my child still get that magnet education?
Council President, can I just tack onto that to say this deserves a detailed response? How do you plan to keep the integrity of these high- performing magnet programs once you move them or "merge" them in schools where they do not currently exist?
I will just, again, visualizing this, and this is not me opining on the plan, because again, that will be -- I will -- you would hear my perspective when the Board deliberates, when the football is handed off to us. But again, I'm looking back on my experience at Germantown High School. We had small learning communities. I was in Junior Air Force ROTC, and there was ways for there to be an individualized approach in the district, in the school that I was at, where children were able to kind of grow together, but also access all the bells and whistles of a school that had over a thousand students in it as well. So that's just to visualize potentially how this could work. I know this thing happens right now in Northeast High School, I believe there's other schools in School District Philadelphia where there are honors program or magnet citywide or criteria-based programs where babies -- our students can get into those spaces and the integrity is protected. So I'm not saying that it's going to work in every case, Councilmember Gauthier, I'm just saying that I think there are examples or exemplars of this existing in the past and existing now that could be -- that could be a guideline for how this goes. Dr. Watlington?
President Streater was spot on there. I'll just give you two concrete examples. Lincoln High School, one of the largest schools in the district, has a district-wide CTE program within it, and it works very well. George Washington High School has an International Baccalaureate program embedded within the school. Not all students in George Washington High School participate working very well. We replicate that kind of success.
I'd just like to note that we did not receive a detailed plan in those responses for how we will keep the integrity of these programs. And then lastly, I again want to call out, there is a $240 million gap between the district that you're investing the highest in and my district. Within that $240 million gap, I think you could have come up with a more creative solution for schools like Robeson, for schools -- and for schools like Motivation. And if other kids in other parts of the city deserve it, so do the kids in the 3rd District. Thank you.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones. The next Councilmember, Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. We have provided a Snickers bar.
But after closing in on two-and-a-half hours of listening, I will try very hard not to be repetitive in my two-and-a-half minutes. So let's start with things that I agree on. Take off the plate for the 4th District. We approve. Not that we have the ability to ratify, but we approve what you're doing at Overbrook. You have invested money on the fourth and fifth floor. You have picked a school to take and merge with that is complimentary to some of the CTE things we're going to do. We're going to have an auto shop there. You're investing in upgrading the base there. I cannot thank you enough for that. So -- there we go, Overbrook. So you don't have to -- we did an analysis, we took the liberty of looking at every one of your proposals, and we've codified the ones we agree with. Secondly, you don't have to come to me about SLA, Science Leadership Academy. That merger, I've talked with the stakeholders in that area, they are tickled pink about. So we don't have to waste time talking about those schools. Now let me transition to some things that I think we need to give a greater insight on. For you to try to -- for you to recommend closing Lankenau, which is a high real estate value area, located in a bucolic Schuylkill Nature Preserve that a lot of people would like to get their -- have always wanted to get their hands on to develop, is not a good look. Particularly, when you take those high-performing kids that are environmental students from around the region and want to send them all the way down the hall -- all the way down the road to Roxborough, passing right by Saul, that is also in that bucolic area, does not make equitable education sense to me. So I need some thought given to that to make sure that we are not being subtly discriminatory, saying now you-all go down here. You don't have to be by the farm, you don't have to go with your mandates. Please take a hard look at that. Third thing is Overbrook Elementary. Another beautiful building. Are you-all here? Is that -- yeah, talk to me. Overbrook Elementary is a beautiful high- performing school, once again, where parents and local leaders alike support it. You want to -- or considering utilizing that facility for a headquarters. We want you to be comfortable. I think 400 North Broad is a nice building, but even closer, Lankenau right down the hall, the high school is vacant. You could invest in that, not disrupt those kids, and we could -- we could -- we could support -- we could support what you're doing. Finally, what I would say to you, and I know my time is up, is geography matters. Location, location, location. When you start to want to merge schools, as the president said, that historically have had issues with other neighbors, I remember when we merged, we lost University City, and they went all the way up to Overbrook. If you don't know down the bottom don't like up top, then you are missing the point. And we had increases in student-to-student violence, student-to-teacher violence as a result of that. So a lot of emphasis. You got Dr. -- the Head of Security Johnson over there who does a wonderful job of understanding geography. We got to take our time to get it right. You could take those other schools that I mentioned as a plus off the -- off the -- you don't have to come back to me about that, therefore. But the ones that I identified, please consider the unintended consequences that goes into those decisions. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Member Jones. Councilor Dr. Nina Ahmad and Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, then Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Superintendent and our school board chair. Thank you for being here. As an at-large Councilmember, I'm coming at this with a citywide set of concerns. Three things I want to focus on. First, transparency, not just a rating but underlying data, the dates and the assumptions that drive these recommendations. Second, readiness. If students are moved or programs -- and this has been referred to already, are consolidated, receiving schools must be ready on day one with space, staffing, supports, and critical building systems in place. And third, accountability for the funding gap, especially where improvements are described as contingent on outside government or philanthropic dollars. And I was really -- I am really pleased to go after my colleague, Councilmember Jones, because I want to bring special attention to Lankenau. I was very privileged to visit Lankenau last year and see the kids in action. They were getting ready to go to a national conference in Chicago, and they were presenting to their -- to their school student body what they were going to do. They got question & answers. I was so impressed with the preparation that was poured into them by the -- by their teachers and all support staff. This is a school that is close to 90 percent -- over 90 percent people of -- children of color, 90 percent -- close to 90 percent African American children. It's 70 percent economically disadvantaged. And yet we have the premier school, the only school in the state which is a three-year CTE completer school, right? Agriculture, food, natural resources, and is dependent on a green campus that they're on. This is -- Pennsylvania is -- agriculture is a major industry in our state. We are a feeder for that. These are jobs. These are high-paying jobs for our children. So all of that to say that we -- I looked at the data you gave us around this. That is fair, the school building score, fair. Program alignment, fair. What was under capacity was the under severely under utilized meaning enrollment. Can we fix that instead of disrupting everything that is a premier program? Can we -- in this day and age, we are facing climate change in a very detrimental way for the entire globe, and this is the Environmental Science High School where teachers are creative in how they teach chemistry and physics. I've been reading about that. Why are we taking something that is working and disrupting it? So I would love to get your feedback on that, I would love to make sure that these were recommendations, not set in stone, because for children, and clearly the statistics of the children tell us that children can perform when they're in a good school, regardless of their economic status, regardless of race. We can have our children perform when the schools deliver, and this school delivers. So I would like to know how we are going to address this.
Thank you, Councilmember Ahmad. Right or wrong, the reason we put this recommendation in is because it was consistent with building the enrollment in our neighborhood high schools. We believe that right or wrong and not making an assessment at the moment, because we're going to take the time to listen and hear this feedback -- continue to hear the feedback. We think there absolutely can be more schools like George Washington High School, Lincoln High School, and Northeast High School. You know, a few weeks ago, I ran into the State Secretary of Education for the state of California, and I didn't know that he's a Northeast High School graduate. He said, "How's my school doing? Is it still --" I said, "They've got all these programs out there and got a still a very large enrollment." I saw Will Smith in your district, Councilmember Jones, a couple years ago. He said, "Look, why is the enrollment keep going down at Overbrook? I want to make a contribution to make sure that there's always a -- the 'brook'," as he called it. And it made me think about some of these high schools have not seen their best days, and we need to just give up on them. I think we can have more. We can grow the enrollment for three reasons. Number one, two years ago, the enrollment increased after a decade of not decreased. Number two -- of going down. Number two, it grew across every learning network and most of it was at the high schools. And number three, dollar investments have a way of attracting attention. Could potentially attract attention. Now, specifically to Lankenau, right or wrong, just know we're listening to the feedback. We hear you loud and clear, and we hear the students at Lankenau, who I have personally heard say there's something unique and special about the environmental conditions at the school. Now, do you have to have a large acreage to learn environmental science? No. Just like an international high school doesn't have to be sitting right beside of City Hall in order to make that a part of the curriculum. You can do that through field trips, other experiences. But long story short, we're not being tone deaf, and we hear you loud and clear.