Alternative Middle Years at James Martin, in Port Richmond, is all but finished and ready for students to occupy after winter break.
Community members, district officials, and dignitaries gathered Tuesday to take tours and trumpet the new construction, a bright spot in a district grappling with a large stock of aging and sometimes environmentally troubled buildings.
“This is what growth looks like,” said Paula Furman, AMY at James Martin’s principal. The middle school educates 200 students in grades 6, 7, and 8.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and Debora Carrera, the city’s chief education officer, applaud a student performance Tuesday at AMY at James Martin, a new middle school in Port Richmond.
Sarah-Ashley Andrews, the school board vice president, noted that of the district’s roughly 300 buildings, more than 200 were built before 1978.
“Projects like this underscore why continued investment is essential,” said Andrews.
On time, on budget
Inside, the 88,000-square-foot, four-story structure at Richmond and Westmoreland Streets just off I-95 is a marvel: all light and flexible seating, makerspace, “digital flex lab” (think: computer lab), and “gymnatorium” (spiffy gym and auditorium). It has modern science labs, dedicated spaces for instrumental and vocal music, and a killer view of Center City from its rooftop outdoor classroom.
The outdoor space with a view of the Center City skyline at the new AMY at James Martin school.
The school replaces an 1894 structure razed to make way for new construction. It is the Philadelphia School District’s sixth new building in 10 years.
“It is kind of crazy, just the giant leap forward that students will be taking, just in terms of furniture, not to mention the technology,” said Melanie Lewin, a district school facilities planner who led tours of the new building. AMY at James Martin students, who have been temporarily learning in classrooms at Penn Treaty High School, used to learn in a 19th-century building; they’re relocating to a building with built-in charging outlets and “noodle chairs” that let them fidget securely while in class.
The instrumental music classroom at the new Amy at James Martin School in Philadelphia.
“This school was not just built to look fantastic,” Watlington said. “I want everyone to know that it was built on time and on budget. That is no easy feat when the price of everything is going up — inflation, tariffs, everything.”
Some neighbors showed up at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting to celebrate. But the process was controversial at first — some protested the loss of the old AMY at James Martin historic site.
City Councilmember Mike Driscoll alluded to the past pain on Tuesday.
“It’s been a struggle, I’ll admit that,” Driscoll said. But, he said, the new school is lovely. “When you see the plans on paper, it doesn’t do it justice.”
A looming facilities master plan
AMY at James Martin’s opening comes with the district approaching a crossroads: Officials are awaiting a years-in-the-making facilities master plan, the first in decades.
While schools in the Northeast and in a few other spots are overcrowded or nearing capacity, schools in many parts of the city are dramatically underenrolled.
Custom cushioned seats in a classroom at the new Amy at James Martin School in Philadelphia.
Officials have said that some schools will likely cease to exist as part of the process, now expected to culminate early next year with Watlington making recommendations to the school board for grade reconfigurations, closures, co-locations, significant renovations, and new construction.
AMY at James Martin, in its current form, is likely to come in under the district’s minimum recommended school size, at 200 students. The school’s capacity is 500, officials said.
But Casey Laine hopes the school count grows by two in January.
One of the bathrooms for students at the new Amy at James Martin School in Philadelphia.
Laine, who lives around the corner from the new AMY at James Martin and attended Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting, is the mother of a sixth and seventh grader who currently attend Bridesburg Elementary.
She’d like her kids, a son and daughter, to transfer to AMY at James Martin if possible.
“This is beautiful,” Laine said. “I’m so excited.”
The Philadelphia school board on Monday signaled its intentions to play ball: Later this week, it will hold a special action meeting to vote on a resolution authorizing Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and his team to consider handingover a portfolio of unused school buildings to the city.
Watlington, the resolution states, “recommends that, in the best interests of the district and its students, the district explore and pursue negotiations with the city to potentially convey certain vacant and surplus district property.”
Parker, in a statement, said the process was about “public health and public safety” and the school buildings can be used to improve residents’ quality of life.
Officials “cannot let blighted buildings in the middle of residential neighborhoods lie vacant — many of which have been vacant for many years — from two years to over 30,” Parker said. “It’s unconscionable to me that we are in the middle of a housing crisis and we have government buildings sitting vacant for years or even decades. That cannot continue.”
School board president Reginald Streater said that no decisions are final and that public deliberation will still happen at the special meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday. But, he said, the move makes sense with “the board moving toward being much more willing to be intergovernmental partners” with the city.
“Many of these properties have not been used in the last decade or more, and they require a significant amount of upkeep and maintenance,” Streater said. “These properties are unused, for the most part, and unnecessary for K-12 education.”
The district is in the business of running schools, Streater said.
“I do believe that the city possesses considerably more expertise and capacity than the district does regarding property development,” Streater said. “We are an education institution. To build the capacity to do such things is out of our wheelhouse, and economic development would take us out of our lane.”
According to the language of the resolution, the district is urging Watlington to consider all angles — bond obligations, property conditions, financial protection of the district, any legal processes that would need to happen, and more.
The action comes as something of a surprise, happening just a week after what was to be the final voting meeting of the year. Streater said he did not want to add it as a walk-on resolution to the December school board meeting, but wanted to give members of the public time to understand it and provide testimony, if desired.
Giving unused school buildings to the city could further academic outcomes, the school board president said.
“It’s possible,” Streater said, “that conveying these vacant and surplus properties to the city for redevelopment and revitalization could help stabilize and grow the city and district’s tax base … and consequently positively impact future revenues to the district and educational experiences for students.”
Asked for a list of the unused buildings the resolution would cover, school board officials said more internal evaluation is needed before such a list is released.
The possible transfer of district properties to the city comes as officials debate the specifics of one of Parker’s signature initiatives.
The mayor wants to spend $800 million on her housing initiative, Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E. In a rare sign of division, Council last week allotted more housing funds to the city’s poorest residents over the Parker administration’s objections.
Because of Council’s move, more legislation is now needed to advance H.O.M.E. It will not come until January at the earliest.
Thomas, chair of Council’s education committee, has long been pushing for a school facilities plan.
“It’s unclear to say what this step forward means, but I want to understand how it fits into a larger plan for Philly’s educational institutions,” Thomas said in a statement.
“Without getting into hypotheticals, and due to a lack of communications with City Council, there are a lot of moving pieces and still many questions about what this means and what is the overall plan for the future of our school buildings,” Thomas said.
The massive construction project rose outside Room 221, where 22 curious second graders peered outside their classroom daily, noting daily progress with great interest.
Sometimes, the kids at Fanny Jackson Coppin School, on South 12th Street in South Philadelphia, cheered for the workers, spurring them on as the summer heat gave way to chillier temperatures.
But they had so many questions: “What colors are for the building, and how many colors are you going to use? Red or pink?” and “How does the building not fall down?” and “When will you stop making it taller and taller?”
Teacher Kate Atkins collected the 7- and 8-year-olds’ queries, compiling them in a letter she left at the job site with her phone number. “We think you should come and tell us about construction because it is getting better and better,” the kids wrote.
Jack Delaney, the project manager on the job site, found the letter. He was charmed; he reached out to Atkins.
Zach Winters, cofounder and partner at 3rd Story Philly, second grade teacher Kate Atkins, center, and Jack Delaney, right, Project Manager at 3rd Story Philly, talk with students at Fanny Jackson Coppin School, in Philadelphia, December 05, 2025.
And on a frigid Friday, Delaney and Zach Winters, construction manager and a cofounder of 3rd Story Philly, the development and construction company working on the house project, walked into Room 221 with tools to show and energy appropriate for a roomful of enthusiastic second graders.
For 50 minutes — a long time for second-grade attention spans — the students talked about tools and examined pictures of the project in progress. They donned their own hard hats. But mostly, they gleaned information.
Zach Winters, cofounder and partner at 3rd Story Philly, left, and Jack Delaney, Project Manager at 3rd Story Philly, right, talk with students at Fanny Jackson Coppin School, in Philadelphia, December 05, 2025.
Here are some of Room 221’s greatest hits:
Question: Why did you decide to make the house bigger by making it taller instead of making it wider?
Answer: “We build additions on top of existing homes or sometimes behind existing homes, because there’s not a lot of space in the city,” Winters said. “We make the house bigger by going up.”
Q: Do you ever worry that you’re going to fall off the building?
A: “Yes, I do,” Winters said. “You should always be worried that you’re going to fall off something high. We try to be very careful. We try to stay away from the edge of the building. If we’re close to the edge of the building, we put on safety harnesses, so if we were to fall, that could catch us. But, yes, I’m worried, and my wife worries, and my mother worries.”
Students Landon Watkins, center, and Leo Horn, right, try on hard hats at Fanny Jackson Coppin School, in Philadelphia, December 05, 2025.
Q: How much will the house cost to build?
A: The project is a full remodel, with third- and fourth-story additions, basement excavation, and two roof decks.
“Often today, we are building a new construction at around $200 to $250 a square foot,” Winters said. “And it depends on how fancy the building is. A project like this is close to a half-million dollars. That’s a lot of money — but it’s a lot of house.”
Q: How long will it take to finish the house?
A: “Eight months to a year,” Delaney said.
“That depends on how many problems we have. Sometimes, it rains for a week, and we have to get the roof done,” Winters said. “Sometimes, it gets really cold, and the masons can’t work.”
The Coppin kids did not let Delaney and Winters off easy.
“Will it be done by Christmas?” one student said. No, Delaney and Winters said. The job started in March. It won’t finish until next year.
“Maybe you should try to finish it by Hanukkah,” another student said.
Q: (To Delaney) Do you do any drywall?
A: “I don’t, but the drywallers do,” Delaney said. “They are very strong. They hold up giant sheets of drywall.”
Winters interjected: Delaney knows how to drywall, but that’s not his job right now.
Delaney smiled.
“I get to say, ‘Hey, you go do the drywall,’ and then I run away,” he said.
The kids loved the level Delaney showed them. They had excellent guesses about how many bricks were used on the project.
“Four thousand million,” one girl shouted.
(Close — it’s 17,500.)
At the end of the visit, Atkins had a question for the kids.
“Who might want to work in construction someday?” she asked.
Nearly every hand shot up.
Delaney and Winters looked triumphant.
“We’ve got a labor shortage now,” Winters said. “Let’s go!”
Zach Winters, cofounder and partner at 3rd Story Philly, talks with students at Fanny Jackson Coppin School, in Philadelphia, December 05, 2025.
Craig Romanczuk’s voice barely gets above a whisper these days.
But speaking at all feels like a miracle, he said.
Five months ago, the retired Philadelphia police officer, a Philadelphia School District safety officer of nearly 20 years, was shot 11 times while driving in a marked patrol car. He almost died.
Life is crowded with medical appointments, surgeries and therapies now. But Romanczuk takes it in stride, with the kind of gruff and jovial banter born of his one-of-nine-kids-growing-up-in-Kensington roots and the near-death experience that still feels very close.
After almost dying, “you appreciate your family, your brothers and your sisters,“ said Romanczuk, pausing. ”Even though they’re still jerks. Now you get a chance to tell them that they’re jerks and you still love them.”
‘Officer, can you help me?’
It was two hours past midnight, a warm June evening, when Romanczuk wrapped up his patrol assignment, checking on a Kensington high school building just before 2 a.m.
It was a night like many others — after graduating from North CatholicHigh School, Romanczuk joined the police force at 19, spending his career in the 3rd district, in South Philadelphia, and finishing it in the 19th, in West Philadelphia. After he retired in 2004, his sister encouraged him to take the school police officer test. He spent years as an officer in schools, then took a patrol job in 2017, driving around the city to check on school buildings between 10 p.m. and 8:30 a.m.
On June 29, Romanczuk took Front Street to North Columbus Avenue on his way back to a district garage after theKensington High School for the Creative and Performing Arts job. He was stopped for a red light near the Dave and Buster’s when a car pulled up to him.
“The man said, ‘Officer, can you help me?’” Romanczuk remembered. A driver exhibiting road rage had been following the man since they were both driving on I-95, he told Romanczuk, who agreed to assist.
District safety officers are not armed; Romanczuk said he planned “to say, ‘Yo guy, knock it off, go the other way.’“
He opened his car door, stepping out onto the street. He didn’t even have time to say a word; bullets started flying immediately.
Romanczuk was shot 11 times — in the shoulder, in the armpit, through the bicep. One bullet cut across his chest, striking the cell phone in his pocket. One pierced his neck, breaking his collarbone, damaging his Adams apple and his vocal cord. One exited out of the left side of his face, breaking his jawbone and taking nearly all of his upper teeth with it. One hit the side of his face, going through the roof of his mouth and coming out of his nose.
He was wearing a bulletproof vest, but was still injured enough to nearly bleed out.
“It isn’t like a movie,” said Romanczuk. “You feel the bullets break your bones, you feel them going through your body. That’s the pain I felt. I thought, ‘I hurt too much, I’m not going to live through this.’”
Somehow, Romanczuk managed to get back into his car, an attempt to elude the shooter.
“I put the car in drive and I felt more bullets hitting the car seat. I was thinking, ‘Why am I being shot? I didn’t do anything. He’s not mad at me,’” he said. “It’s like the Hallmark movie – you think of your kids. I thought, ‘Tell them that I love them.’”
His car hit a tree. His last memory is staggering out of his patrol car.
‘This ain’t heaven’
A Philadelphia Parking Authority tow truck sat across the street, its operator watching the whole scene unfold. The tow truck driver called 911 and a buddy of his who was a school police lieutenant. City police responded, ready to scoop Romanczuk and take him to the hospital, when a fire department paramedic unit drove by.
The paramedics got Romanczuk to Jefferson. He remained unconscious for two weeks.
When he eventually woke up, he thought he was dead.
“I’m looking around, I’m on the ninth floor in a dark room. I said, well this ain’t heaven. This must be purgatory. A nurse leaned over and I went, ‘Lucifer?’ I went, ‘Where am I?’ He said, ‘Jefferson.’ I said, ‘is that hell?’”
It turns out it wasn’t hell. Romanczuk remained in Jefferson until the end of July, then spent a month at Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Center City, astonishing staff with his progress. He received a hero’s send-off on his release.
School Safety Officer Craig Romanczuk displays the donuts brought by son Erik Romanczuk as he is celebrated by fellow safety officers, school district officials, his care team and hospital staff Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025 as he leaves Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. Romanczuk has been undergoing since June, when he was shot 11 times after a road rage incident when he stopped to offer assistance while heading home following an assignment. Romanczuk served close to 30 years as a Philadelphia police officer before joining the district’s Office of School Safety almost 20 years ago. He has served both as a patrol officer and been assigned to schools. Erik is a Philadelphia police sergeant.
Romanczuk is full of effusive praise for the staff at Jefferson. He’s not a hero, he said.
“The doctors and God are,” he said. “I think God was working through the doctors. They were so skillful.”
Politicians like to take credit for improving homicide rates, Romanczuk said.
“But it’s not the politicians, it’s the doctors,” he said. “They’re so good at saving people.”
‘He will do this again’
Romanczuk could not speak at all for weeks. Now that extensive therapy has allowed him to regain a quiet voice, he wants to use it.
“I think he should spend the rest of his life in prison,” said Romanczuk. “I believe if they let him out, he will do this again somewhere.”
Romanczuk worries that prosecutors leading the case against Giansteban and other alleged criminals do not think enough about the victims of violence.
He will continue to show up at Giansteban’s court appearanceswhen he can, Romanczuk said, to make his voice heard and remind people what he has suffered.
And he’ll continue to be grateful for being around to crack jokes.
Romanczuk is able to live alone at his house in the Northeast, “with my sister yelling at me, and my son,” he joked. (His son is also a city police officer.)
Until the shooting, Romanczuk had no plans to retire, but his massive injuries forced his hand. The steady stream of visits from his colleagues and his family and friends buoyed him, he said.
“I love my co-workers and my family,” he said, “and I got 20 more years to tell them so.”
Philadelphia’s principals are getting raises and, for the first time, paid parental leave.
Members of CASA — the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, Teamsters Local 502 — overwhelmingly approved the new four-year deal on Wednesday night, and the school board sealed the deal at its meeting Thursday night.
Nearly 1,000 district principals, assistant principals, climate managers, and other administrators will get 3% raises every year, plus a $1,500 bonus this year and a $1,500 bonus in 2029.
They’ll also get five weeks’ paid parental leave, a new benefit also achieved by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers earlier this year, and more: a take-home vehicle stipend and incentives for principals who work at hard-to-staff schools.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we are leaving feeling heard, and we are leaving with a what we believe to be a fair contract, and it was never our goal to try to break the bank or not be fiscally responsible,” Cooper said.
Cooper had concerns going into the contract about little differentiation in the salary scale between new administrators and veteran ones. Adjustments to the salary schedule will help, she said.
Principals at the top of the pay scale now make $167,608 annually; at the end of the contract, they will be paid $187,720. The union’s lowest-paid workers, school safety supervisors, now start at $40,256 annually. In 2029, a brand-new school safety supervisor will make $45,087 per year.
School board members and district administrators were full of praise for Cooper and CASA.
“You and your team are always strong advocates for all of your members and deeply committed to improving the lives of students, families, and employees,” chief financial officer Mike Herbstman said. “We appreciate all that you and all of the CASA administrators do.”
In November, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) said that the House Education and Workforce Committee — which he chairs — would probe “disturbing reports of Jewish students being harassed and subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways” in three school systems: Berkeley Unified in California, Fairfax County in Virginia, and Philadelphia.
Ridgeway, who testified Thursday night, is suing the school district over alleged civil rights violations. She was suspended and ultimately disciplined after allegations of antisemitism and violations of the district’s social media policy surfaced, but is now back teaching at a district school.
“All I’ve ever wanted was to protect students in the ways that I wasn’t protected from the racism and discrimination that permeates the SDP schools,” she told the board. “While recently the district has addressed antisemitism, it has not addressed racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian discrimination with the same rigor.”
Ridgeway said the district “is at a crossroads right now, with a national spotlight looming.” She wondered whether it will “capitulate to McCarthyism tactics” or “channel the spirit of Harriet [Tubman] and Martin [Luther King Jr.] … our Black children deserve better. Our Muslim children deserve better. Our Palestinian children deserve better. Will you give it to them or will you disappoint them?”
Alex Volin Avelin, a district educator and member of Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia, called the congressional investigation “political theater. It’s government overreach. It is not about protecting students. It’s about intimidating and silencing teachers.”
Volin Avelin and Thomas Quinn, another district teacher, urged the district to learn from history. In the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee singled out Philadelphia teachers for alleged communist ties. Twenty-six were ultimately fired.
“Looking back, we can all see the injustice and cowardice in the district’s choice to capitulate,” Volin Avelin said. “I urge the board today to learn from this shameful history and stand up for educators teaching critical content.”
Streater and Andrews stay on in leadership positions
The board, in its final action meeting of the year, also formally reorganized, setting meeting dates for 2026 and naming leaders.
Reginald Streater and Sarah-Ashley Andrews held on to their president and vice-president positions. Every board member supported Andrews’ candidacy; Streater won 8-0, with board member Crystal Cubbage abstaining. She gave no reason for the abstention.
Streater complimented his fellow board members for their work in the past year.
“We have demonstrated that steady leadership, not reactionary swings, produces real results,” Streater said.
The board has an enormous job in front of it in the next year: the facilities master planning process, which will bring school closures that will surely be unpopular.
“The responsibility is not lost on me,” Streater said, “and I gratefully accept.”
The board unanimously approved the new contract for the principals union. A deal with the union had been struck last week after the principals spent three months working without a new contract in place.
Board approves the rest of its agenda and adjourns the meeting
And the board approved the rest of its agenda unanimously, too.
Goals and Guardrails happens this time next week, but this is the last action meeting of the year. That’s a wrap!
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:50pm
Board member Lam requests more information from the district on controls in place to prevent cost overrun with vendors
ChauWing Lam said she’ll support a $43,390 contract with Mothers in Charge for violence prevention services, but has concerns about the cost overrun and controls in place to prevent that.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said there are controls in place, and promises more information.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:47pm
Board unanimously approves new contract for principals union
The board also approved CASA’s new contract, also with a 9 to 0 vote.
Board unanimously approves meeting schedule for 2026
Ultimately, the board decides to move forward with its schedule as written: separate action meetings and Goals and Guardrails meetings for 2026.
The vote was unanimous.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:35pm
Board moves from speakers into its agenda for voting
That’s the end of the speakers list. Now we’re onto voting.
The board is voting on its 2026 meeting schedule.
Board member ChauWing Lam has concerns about keeping the board’s “Goals and Guardrails” meetings separate from action meetings. She’d like more progress monitoring as part of the board’s action meetings.
Board member Crystal Cubbage says Goals and Guardrails should remain separate. She appreciates Goals and Guardrails happening in a space that’s separate, where she can think about them with a fresh mind.
Board member Whitney Jones concurs with Cubbage, and says perhaps it’s possible to pilot some Goals and Guardrails in one meeting.
Joyce Wilkerson, who was president when Goals and Guardrails was developed, said she supports keeping Goals and Guardrails separate. The board often starts its work at 9 a.m. on board days, she said, and it’s better for them to approach Goals and Guardrails with fresh eyes on a different day.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:28pm
Clouden family speaks to the board about the state of Philly schools
Horace Clouden, a retired district employee, wants to know the true number of underperforming district and charter schools.
“Families have no confidence” in district schools, Clouden said. Clouden is a proponent of traditional junior high schools, and believes that K-8 schools are leading to poor academic outcomes.
Mama Gail Clouden (who is married to Horace Clouden) said the district “needs to stop ignoring what we know is happening.”
“We have too many schools where people don’t know how to teach our children,” Mama Gail said.
Mama Gail suggests that the superintendent not just go out to schools for photo opportunities. Go into struggling schools, she said.
Leah Clouden, Mama Gail and Horace Clouden’s daughter, says the district is “warehousing students.”
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:22pm
Retired teacher speaks in support of Keziah Ridgeway and Ismael Jimenez
Barbara Dowdall, a retired district teacher, said her mother was denied a job as a school librarian because she was Jewish.
She asks: “What is the school district’s lesson to students” when it mistreats educators Keziah Ridgeway and Ismael Jimenez?
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:20pm
Retired teacher and activist tells board to stop renewing ‘substandard charters’
“More than half of district charter schools are underenrolled,” said Lisa Haver, a retired district teacher and founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools.
“It’s not right for this board to renew substandard charter schools” but close neighborhood public schools, Haver said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:17pm
District school psychologist asks the board to halt the facilities planning process
Paul Brown, a district school psychologist, asks for a re-examination of community engagement around the facilities planning process.
The current survey does not “truly capture the needs of Philadelphia,” Brown suggests.
“I’m asking the district to halt the process,” Brown said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:15pm
Schools need more time for student relaxation, parent says
Toya Diggs-Clay, a district parent, says schools need more time for student relaxation and movement. They need better breakfasts and lunches, hygiene bundles going home with kids, and more.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:13pm
District speech language pathologist sounds the alarm on lack of pathologists
Tamara Sepe, a district speech language pathologist and parent, sounds the alarm about a lack of speech language and pathologists in the district, and asks for more transparency around the number of SLP positions in the district.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:10pm
Teacher wants the board to ‘resist’ the congressional investigation ‘as strongly as you can’
Freda Anderson, a district teacher, said the congressional investigation “is a witch hunt” and “does nothing to protect Jewish people.”
Anderson suggests the board and district “resist as strongly as you can.”
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:07pm
Teacher tells the board to ‘look closely at which schools have high turnover’
Philip Belcastro, a teacher at Hill-Freedman World Academy, tells the board: “Teachers aren’t leaving students. In some cases, they’re leaving administrators.”
Belcastro: “I’m asking you again to look closely at which schools have high turnover,” and to make it publicly available.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:05pm
District educator calls the congressional investigation ‘political theater’
Volin Avelin, an observant Jew, said: “Don’t waste time complying with a redundant investigation.”
In the 1950s, the House Un-American Activities Committee dismissed 26 teachers for alleged Communism. “Learn from this shameful history and stand up for teachers teaching critical content,” Volin Avelin said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:03pm
Schools became underenrolled because of disinvestment, parent tells the board
Melanie Silva, a district parent, tells the board: Schools became underenrolled because of your disinvestment.
Families aren’t ignoring middle schools because of transitions, Silva said, continuing: We’re ignoring them because you under-resourced them.
“We expect investment, not displacement,” Silva said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 6:00pm
Teacher Keziah Ridgeway tells the board: ‘You are at a crossroads right now, with a national spotlight on you’
“All I’ve ever wanted is to protect students in the ways that I wasn’t protected from the racism that permeates the SDP schools,” Ridgeway said.
“Being a teacher should be heart work,” Ridgeway said. “It’s December and I probably spent $2,000 of our own money on our babies — because they are our babies.”
“You are at a crossroads right now, with a national spotlight on you,” Ridgeway said, asking if the district will “capitulate to McCarthyism.”
Keziah Ridgeway, a district teacher, speaks to the Philadelphia School Board during meeting on Dec. 4, 2025.
Hannah Gann, a district staff member, then spoke to the district about Ridgeway and other educators: “The baseless attacks on some of Philly’s best Black teachers” is meant to distract them, Gann said.
Allegations of Islamaphobia are just as serious as antisemitism, Gann said. “The district has far more culpability to act when its staff harms students than when its employees feel uncomfortable when they see the word Palestine on a T-shirt,” Gann said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:52pm
District teacher and former teacher each testify in opposition to any school closures
Julian Prados-Frank, a district teacher, is testifying “to oppose any plan that would close schools.”
Schools represent a safe haven for students — sometimes the only place where they get nutritious meals and get social services, Prados-Frank said.
“Our students rely on their schools as a stable refuge,” Prados-Frank said. In his first period math class, many kids miss because of transportation issues. “These kids can’t miss more math,” he said.
Jess Morris-Horowitz, a former district teacher, also tells the board: “The anxiety-inducing phrase ‘school closures’ has been coming for months now.”
The district has spent millions on unnecessary changes, and let buildings languish, she said.
“I’m here to advocate for a focus on human-centered processes and decision-making,” Morris-Horowitz said. School closures will “critically disrupt” students’ and families’ lives.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:50pm
KIPP North parent speaks to the board in support of the charter
Pro bono librarian tells the board: ‘School librarians are not expendable.’
Deborah Herskovitz, a district parent who acts as the pro bono librarian at Vare-Washington, which has one of a clutch of “small guerrilla libraries” around the district, wants the board to know that what she provides is not the same has having a certified school librarian. “The district only has about three of those.”
“School librarians are not expendable. They are not extras,” Herskovitz said.
Suburban schools all have school librarians, she said, and these are the schools parents are leaving Philly for.
“Our library is a signal to perspective parents — we value reading here,” Herskovitz said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:41pm
Another Mastery charter parent speaks in support of the school
Amberia Perkins, a parent at Mastery Charter Wister, said her kids love the school, and asks the board to support it.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:37pm
There is too much anti-Blackness and racism and not enough consequences, retired teacher says
Kristin Luebbert, a retired district teacher, says she witnessed many instances of racism, anti-Islamic, and anti-Palestinian behavior in the district.
“No consistent effort has been made to make white teachers interrogate their whiteness” and confront racism, Luebbert said.
“This leads to too many teachers and staff upholding racist and anti-Black attitudes,” said Luebbert, who is white.
There is too much anti-Blackness and racism, and not enough consequences, Luebbert said. The district must ensure that the staff that should be nurturing students “is not harming them instead,” she said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:35pm
Teacher shares concerns about ‘politically motivated attacks’ on educators
Thomas Quinn, a district teacher, tells the board: “Right now, Philly schools are under politically motivated attacks.”
Another parent speaks in support of Mastery schools
Shavon Almodovar, a parent with children at Mastery schools, is also praising her kids’ schools. Mastery has pushed her kids to grow, given them challenging and fun content, and has developed her kids in all areas.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:30pm
Parent urges the board to consider standing behind KIPP North, rather than nonrenew it
“Our children … [should] be in schools where teachers truly love the work, and not just show up to do the work,” Hazel said.
“If we truly believe in equity … then we have to stand behind the places that are already doing that,” Hazel said. She asks the board to keep KIPP North open. (The board has moved to nonrenew KIPP over academic concerns.)
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:27pm
Parents speak in support of two Mastery Charter schools
Yolanda Williams, a grandparent at Mastery Charter Clymer, says the school has done wonders for her granddaughter.
“Me, I don’t worry when I drop her off at school because she’s at Mastery. I know she’s fine, I know they’ll treat her right, and I know she’ll get her education,” Williams said.
Joyletta White, a parent at Mastery Charter Gratz, has had a positive experience at Gratz, where her son is thriving.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:20pm
Principals union president expresses gratitude to the board for their newly ratified contract
“It was very clear from actions over the weekend that we were heard loud and clear,” Cooper said. “Any time that men will meet with you on a Sunday — on a football Sunday — you know that a contract is in the making.”
There were no raises in the 2016 contract (though principals became 12-month employees again, as opposed to the 10-month employees they had been.) There were just bonuses.
But the board was listening this time, Cooper said. Over half of CASA’s 1,000 members voted on the contract, and 97% voted for it.
“We are partners with the district,” Cooper said. “We try to lead by example.”
“We didn’t get everything that we wanted, but we are leaving feeling heard, and we are leaving with a fair contract,” Cooper said.
Robin Cooper, president of CASA, the principals’ union, speaks to the Philadelphia school board at a meeting on Dec. 4, 2025.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:16pm
Public speakers begin
We’re onto public speakers now.
There’s lots of written testimony defending Keziah Ridgeway and Ismael Jimenez, district educators who were alluded to in an order for a congressional investigation into alleged antisemitism in the district.
Sarah-Ashley Andrews is unanimously reelected as vice president
Andrews is unanimously reelected vice president, 9-0.
Andrews thanks her fellow board members “for your continued trust and support, and the push. I really appreciate the push. Thank you for the opportunity to serve again.”
Streater also responds to his reelection: “This was not a box-checking moment,” and he appreciates that the board still has confidence in him.
Sarah-Ashley Andrews speaks at City Hall on April 2, 2024.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:04pm
Board moves on to election of vice president
Sarah-Ashley Andrews is renominated as board vice president.
Cheryl Harper speaks out for her as a hard worker and steadying force, someone who works with students and community members especially well.
Crystal Cubbage says: “She has a great sense of the city and her dedication to the residents of the city in all neighborhoods is admirable. I’d like to see her play an expanded role as our vice president if elected.”
ChauWing Lam, who joined the board at the same time as Andrews, said she admires “the proudness with which she represents this board, her hardworking nature, and the style in which she welcomes those around her, brings people in.”
Streater is now praising Andrews. “It’s been a blessing to see a young powerful Black woman show up in spaces,” he said. Streater said he sees Andrews as a future president. “I’ve seen you in action and I know you’re ready to take it to the next level,” he said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 5:03pm
Streater is reelected as board president
Streater is reelected 8-0.
But there was a bit of a suprise: Board member Crystal Cubbage abstained from voting.
Reginald Streater spoke at City Hall on April 2, 2024.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:57pm
Board prepares to elect its president and vice president for 2026
We’re into the board reorg now. As secretary, Watlington presides. Reginald Streater is renominated quickly.
Streater accepted the nomination “humbly,” he said. He praises the whole board for its work in the past year. “We have demonstrated that steady leadership, not reactionary swings, produces real results,” Streater said.
The board has an enormous job in front of it in the next year: the facilities master planning process, which will bring school closures that will surely be unpopular.
“The responsibility is not lost on me,” Streater said, “and I gratefully accept.”
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:45pm
Board members respond to superintendent’s report
Board member Cheryl Harper applauds the CASA contract. Principals, Harper said, “are the backbones pushing education in the schools…you deserve the contract, and I’m so happy that you have it.”
Lots of praise for CASA from the board, generally.
Board president Reginald Streater on district principals: “You are first in our line fighting for our babies,” he said.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:43pm
The district has made improvements to the school selection process, Watlington says
An update on school selection: The superintendent says the district has made improvements to the process, changes recommended by an outside consultant including optimizing the lottery, ranking and waitlist features, and enabling schools more leeway to select criteria for their best-fit students.
This year, 21,624 students applied to criteria-based schools, up from 16,878 students last school year. There were 67,928 total applications submitted, and 17,744 career and technical education applications submitted (that number is also up).
Superintendent Tony Watlington shared this slide on progress with the district’s school selection process during a school board meeting on Dec. 4, 2025.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:37pm
5,000 people have taken the facilities planning survey so far, Watlington shares
An update, now, on the facilities planning process: 5,000 people have responded to the district’s new facilities survey.
“It’s been an honor to work with Teamsters Local 502,” Watlington said, noting principals’ key role in student learning. “We ask the board for your favorable adoption of the contract tonight.”
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:22pm
Two students share their love for KIPP North
Student speakers are up now.
First is Jovahni Hazel, a student at KIPP North. Jovahni said he never got help at his old school, but he gets lots of help at KIPP. His sister used to hate school, but she loves school at KIPP.
“Kids like me work hard, we try, we show up, we push through things most people never see … Please keep [KIPP] open.” (The board has moved to nonrenew KIPP over academic concerns.)
Timothy Fontaine, another KIPP North student, loves his school. Timothy loves music.
“At KIPP North, they’re really the ones who let me grow with it.”
A drummer, Timothy has had chances to lead music class. The staff has helped him in many ways.
“This school is more than a school to me. It’s my home.”
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:17pm
Attendance taken as the meeting begins
All nine board members are present at tonight’s meeting.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:09pm
Seniors and teacher of the month are honored
Seniors of the month are Juan Aquino of Olney High School and Andre Carter of Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice.
Teacher of the month is Cynthia Carr from Swenson Arts and Technology High School.
// Timestamp 12/04/25 4:06pm
Final school board meeting of the year begins
School board meeting, here we go!
The final school board meeting of 2025 is the annual re-organizational meeting, when officers will be elected for 2026.
School board president Reginald Streater kicks the meeting off.
Philly school board to host its monthly action meeting
// Timestamp 12/04/25 3:45pm
The Philadelphia school board is set to host its monthly action meeting — the last of 2025 — starting at 4 p.m.
Among the topics on the agenda is the election of the board’s president and vice president for the coming calendar year.
Quinta Brunson wants you to dig into your pocket to make free field trips possible for Philadelphia students.
The actor, writer, and comedian — along with Philadelphia School District officials and the leader of the district’s nonprofit arm — announced the “Quinta Brunson Field Trip Fund” on Tuesday.
District teachers and administrators will be able to apply for money for field trips by completing a short application subject to evaluation by an independent, internal group of educators. Field trip grants will be made twice a year.
“They opened my world, sparked my creativity, and helped me imagine a future beyond what I saw every day,” Brunson said. “Going somewhere new shows you that the world is bigger and more exciting than you believe, and it can shape what you come to see as achievable. I’m proud to support Philadelphia students with experiences that remind them their dreams are valid and their futures are bright.”
“Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson watches the Phillies play the Atlanta Braves during a taping of the show in Philadelphia in August.
Every Abbott Elementary season has featured a field trip episode, including visits toSmith Playground, the Franklin Institute, and the Philadelphia Zoo. Brunson’s fund “will remove the financial barriers that too often limit our children’s access to these enrichment opportunities,” officials for the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia said.
The GivingTuesday launch kicked off with an unspecified donation from Brunson herself.
Kathryn Epps, president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, said getting students out of their classrooms is crucial.
“We are honored to partner with Quinta to expand these experiences for children in Philadelphia’s public schools, helping them to envision and realize any future they desire,” Epps said.
Tony B. Watlington Sr., Philadelphia School District superintendent, said he was grateful to Brunson.
“We want our students to venture out and bridge what they’re learning in the classroom to engaging, real-world learning experiences,” Watlington said. “This commitment to equitably expanding opportunities for students to have experiences outside of their classroom will help accelerate student achievement and we are becoming the fastest improving, large urban school district in the nation.”
Kateryna Sobolevska’s life is full: classes, homework, and activities at George Washington High School, managing an ambitious college search, serving as her mother’s English translator, sometimes picking her younger brother up from school.
But part of the 17-year-old’s mind is often 4,500 miles from Philadelphia — in her former home along the Stryi River in Western Ukraine, in Zhydachiv, where Sobolevska’s father and extended family still cope with the realities of a yearslong war.
She speaks to her father daily.
Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
“He’s at risk every single day,” said Sobolevska, now a 12th grader. “They keep bombing the power plant, so he doesn’t have electricity all the time. He has to do laundry at a certain time. He has difficulties with work; it’s really overwhelming. There’s sirens every day.”
Still, Sobolevska is more than managing in her new home.
Less than four years after arriving in the United States, Sobolevska is at the top of her class at George Washington, with an Ivy League summer program under her belt, waiting to hear from a bevy of stellar colleges — and recently named to a select list of Philadelphia School District students.
When Sobolevska arrived in the U.S. at 14, American traditions were unfamiliar — something from a story or a book. She had never celebrated Thanksgiving.
This year, she’ll be sitting down to a turkey dinner with family, a little incredulous at the recognition that is beginning to come her way.
“But,” she said, “I am very thankful.”
‘Everything is so different’
In 2022, as war closed in, Sobolevska’s parents made a quick decision: Things were too dangerous in Ukraine. Sobolevska, her mother, Oleksandra, and her brother, Oleh, had to flee.
Her father, Rostyslav, could not join them — men between the ages of 18 and 60 were forbidden from leaving the country.
“All of us hoped that it would only be a couple of months,” Sobolevska said.
The three traveled first to Prague, then to New York, then on to Philadelphia. Every move felt unsettling, Sobolevska said.
Sobolevska had been a strong student in Zhydachiv — class president three times, a member of her student government, chosen to represent her school at language competitions.
But she had to start over at age 14. She began ninth grade at George Washington High in sheltered English classes, learning the language with other newcomers.
George Washington High School on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025 in Philadelphia.
With more than 1,800 students, George Washington is imposing; it felt forbidding. It was tough to navigate, and her class schedule was changed three times.
“Everything is so different here,” Sobolevska said. “In ninth grade, it was really hard to get used to the language, to expectations, to all those processes. Ninth and 10th grade were really difficult for me.”
One of her teachers flagged Sobolevska to Billy Marchio, the coordinator of George Washington’s International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous academic course of study.
“She told me, ‘She’s really bright, she’s really improved her English. Give her a shot, I think she can do it,’” said Marchio, who agreed.
Making an impression
Entering IB in her 11th-grade year was a revelation for Sobolevska.
“I was excited,” she said. “IB is more close to what is expected from students in my country. It just gives me more stability — it’s very difficult courses, and a lot of expectations.”
Sobolevska met the expectations and then some. She was one of just 14 students nationwide — chosen from a pool of hundreds — who won a place in a summer journalism program at Princeton University.
Living on a college campus and learning from top professionals and peers from around the country provided more challenges that Sobolevska slayed. She publishedtwo stories, one about her frustration with comparisons between the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, a call for global solidarity. She felt at home inthe Ivy League environment.
Senior year has been a blur — applying to a laundry list of colleges, including Harvard, a top choice, and, most recently, being honored as one of the district’s seniors of the month, singled out for her “courage, perseverance, and quiet strength” as well as for her academic skills.
Teacher Billy Marchio in his classroom on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025 at George Washington High School in Philadelphia.
Marchio has been wowed by Sobolevska — both as a student and as a leader, serving as an IB officer, tutoring peers in the National Honor Society.
“Through all of her anxieties and all of her stress, she produces spectacular work,” Marchio said. “She’s so critical and analytical. She makes an impression on everyone.”
Shouldering significant responsibility
Sobolevska is quiet, unassuming. When she talks about her college search, she mentions that she’s applying to schools in “Boston, Connecticut, New York,” not Harvard, Yale, and Columbia.
She grows more animated when she talks about her family: her father, who works in sales management, her mother, who works at a grocery store, and even her brother — they argue, as siblings do, but are still very close.
“We’re really close with my mom, especially since she moved here,” said Sobolevska, who has significant responsibility on her shoulders. “I’m the main translator in the family. I help her with English; all the doctor’s appointments are on me.”
When she won the district’s Senior of the Month honor, her mother bragged to relatives and coworkers. Thousands of miles away, her father “was really excited. He was just so proud. But it was weird for him, difficult to understand because I’m very far away.”
Sobolevska, who now goes by Kate, longs to be reunited with her father, the rest of her family, and the friends she left behind, but living and learning in the U.S. have changed her, she said.
Here, “I think people here are not as stressed,” Sobolevska said. “They’re just more easygoing. It’s really warming to see how people can listen to music outside or talk loudly outside, or just say hi to everyone. In Ukraine, we don’t really have that. It’s nice to see how people are really friendly here.”
Her father “doesn’t want us to go back” home now, she said. “It’s not safe; it’s really stressful.”
Looking ahead to her future, “I would like to visit” Ukraine, Sobolevska said. “I’m not sure if I would want to live there. When I grow up, I would love to travel a lot — I don’t want to stay in place.”
Sobolevska’s rise is remarkable, but that’s who she is, Marchio said.
“She’s just trying to make her father proud, to make her father’s sacrifice worth it,” Marchio said. “She’s putting a lot on her plate to make everyone happy and proud of her, and I couldn’t respect that more.”
A congressional committee is investigating allegations of antisemitism in the Philadelphia School District.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) said this week that the House Education and Workforce Committee — which he chairs — would probe “disturbing reports of Jewish students being harassed and subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways” in three school systems: Berkeley Unified in California, Fairfax County in Virginia, and Philadelphia.
Walberg and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a freshman Republican who represents the Lehigh Valley, informed Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. of the investigation in a letter sent Monday.
The committee, the lawmakers said, “is deeply concerned” that since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, it has “received allegations that SDP is rife with antisemitic incidents, including allegations of teachers spreading antisemitism in the classroom and SDP approving antisemitic walkouts that isolate Jewish students.”
Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the district, said she cannot comment on ongoing investigations.
The Office of Civil Rights found in December 2024 that despite “repeated, extensive notice” of acts of antisemitism and other harassment in its schools, the district did not adequately investigate the claims, take appropriate steps to respond to them, or maintain all necessary records.
Walberg and Mackenzie’s letter said that even after the Office of Civil Rights settlement, antisemitic incidents have continued unanswered.
Allegations of antisemitism against certain educators
The representatives also referred to the district’s director of social studies curriculum, who they said “has been widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups in light of his ‘pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence.’”
Philadelphia, the letter said, failed “to exercise oversight of antisemitic materials in the classroom.” Officials also took issue with what they said was a partnership between the district and the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Philadelphia. (The organization this summer announced it was available to partner with local schools and administrations to provide religious accommodations and build inclusivity.)
Ahmet Tekelioglu, executive director at CAIR-Philadelphia, said it “takes pride in offering these resources” but had no special partnership with Philadelphia’s school district. Instead, it was broadly offering its educational materials and training to any school, educator, or district, he said.
Tekelioglu dismissed the investigation as the machinations of “wild, right-wing” congresspeople.
“It’s a continuation of McCarthyism, what they are trying to do against colleges,” Tekelioglu said. “They are trying to quell and suppress academic freedom in school districts.”
What are the representatives calling for?
The committee requested documents “to assess SDP’s compliance with Title VI and determine whether legislation to specifically address antisemitism discrimination is needed.”
The district was given a deadline of Dec. 8 to produce documents including an anonymized chart of all allegations of antisemitism against students, faculty, or staff since Oct. 7, 2023; all documents and communications since that date “referring or relating to walkouts, toolkits, workshops, curricula, course materials, educational material, guest speakers, lecture series, partnerships, teacher training, or professional development, referring or relating to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or antisemitism, in the possession of SDP schools or offices”; and more.
Philadelphia School District principals have a contract — and raises.
The tentative, four-year deal was struck Monday night, nearly three months after an August contract deadline for the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, Teamsters Local 502.
It also came days after CASA members publicly called out district officials, accusing them of negotiating in bad faith.
Robin Cooper, president of the nearly 1,000-member union — which represents principals, assistant principals, climate managers, and other administrators — said in a statement that the contract “will provide continued stability for our administrative leaders.
The pact, Cooper said, “affirms the dedication and innovative leadership of CASA administrators, recognizing them as pivotal change agents, who drive both student and teacher success. It also represents a meaningful step toward honoring and uplifting our exceptional leaders by addressing wage compression, providing across-the-board salary increases, and including collaborative language that acknowledges administrators as vital partners in the educational process.”
Details of the contract were not immediately available; neither was the date CASA members will meet to consider ratifying the contract.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative four-year agreement that both honors the dedication of our CASA members and upholds our commitment to strong financial stewardship,” Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said in the statement. “This agreement provides the stability, clarity, and momentum we need to continue our strong partnership with CASA and to advance our five-year strategic plan, Accelerate Philly.”
Last week, Cooper rallied her members publicly, appearing at a hearing on district matters before City Council and at a school board meeting to draw attention to CASA’s lack of a contract.
Cooper had said that the main sticking points in the negotiations were related to finances.
“First-year people are making what senior people make,” Cooper said.
