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 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.
Uri Monson, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s longtime confidant and Pennsylvania’s budget secretary, is the new executive director of the $80 billion-asset Pennsylvania school pension and investment system, known as PSERS.
The move puts Monson, a former top finance officer for the School District of Philadelphiaand for Montgomery County government while Shapiro was its top elected official, atop the agency responsible for paying retirement checks to half a million current and retired school employees.
Monson has shown “exceptional financial leadership and integrity,” Shapiro said in a statement, citing Monson’s bond refinancing work that shaved state interest costs and helped boost its credit ratings so they are no longer among the lowest of the 50 states.
Zachary Reber, a deputy secretary in Monson’s office with 30 years of state government experience, will become the state’s new budget secretary. Shapiro credited Reber as a top negotiator for the 2025-26 budget, helping clinch the deal with legislators.
At PSERS, Monson will lead a staff of 350. The board picked Monson “because of his extensive public-sector financial experience,” board chair Richard Vague said in a statement that also said Monson’s hiring followed “a nationwide search.”
The new executive director “understands both the financial demands of a pension system and the responsibility” to school staff and retirees, said vice chair Sue Lemmo, a retired teacher.
Monson pledged to work with the board, staff, and other stakeholders — who include taxpayers and pension system members — to ensure “retirement security.”
He holds both a master’s degree in public policy and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a second bachelor’s from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
PSERS is one of the most expensive state programs, consuming $5.5 billion directly from public revenues last year, including both state and local property tax funds, plus $1.2 billion routed through school workers’ paychecks.
The system also collects profits from its wide-ranging investments, totaling $5.7 billion last year.
The switch will likelymean a significant pay raise for Monson, who earned $211,000 a year as budget czar, the most of any Pennsylvania cabinet officer and more than the lieutenant governor.
While working as the top budget officer in the state since 2023, Monson oversaw Shapiro’s annual state budget proposals, which guide spending for the next five years.
Republican lawmakers criticized Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget proposal for counting on new revenue streams, such as marijuana taxes, that had yet to be approved by the General Assembly.
Monson’s predecessor at PSERS, Terrill Savidge Sanchez, was paid $317,000 in fiscal 2024. A longtime PSERS employee who also headed the smaller Pennsylvania state workers’ pension system (SERS), Sanchez announced her retirement earlier this year. Chief investment officer Ben Cotton stepped in as interim director after she left.
Sanchez was tapped for the top PSERS job in 2022 after the departure of Glen Grell, a former state representative and lawyer who tripled his legislative paycheck by joining PSERS in 2015.
Grell and other top staffers retired during a federal investigation into the system’s exaggerated earnings and secretive land deals, which was followed by changes in pension investment, financial reporting, audit, and travel practices.
As governor, Shapiro has not attempted such a purge, either at PSERS, where he controls three of 15 trustee seats, or at the SERS state employee pension system, where the governor appoints six of the 11 trustees.
PSERS trustees on their own have scrapped hedge funds and cut back on private-equity funds in recent years, citing high fees and poor returns compared to the rising U.S. stock market.
PSERS, like the state workers’ pension system, was among the first state pension systems to invest heavily in private assets in the late 1990s and 2000s.
PSERS’s private investments underperformed U.S. stocks during the 2010s bull market. Those investment returns, plus rising retirements and pension underfunding in the early 2000s, required higher taxpayer payments in recent years to keep the fund from growing less solvent.
Pennsylvanians now pay 34 cents into the PSERS plan for every $1 in school staff wages.
Some owners of private money managers who solicit top leaders of PSERS and other state pension funds for investments are major political donors at the national level, though an SEC rule has barred them from collecting state and local pension fees after donating to state or local candidates.
U.S. Sen. David McCormick (R., Pa.) was chief executive of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates when it was PSERS’s largest money manager. It oversaw about one-tenth of the state’s investments and collected more than $750 million in Pennsylvania investment fees over the 20 years before PSERS trustees voted to drop hedge funds in 2021.
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.
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.”
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.
City principals — working without a contract for nearly three months — showed up in force Thursday night to urge the Philadelphia School District to take their demands more seriously.
Dozens of administrators waved signs and chanted as their union president addressed the school board.
From the #phled school board meeting – members of CASA, the district’s principals’ union, showed up in force. pic.twitter.com/Xnl5jbIXLl
“When is it time for the district to give back to those who consistently have your front and back?” asked Robin Cooper, president of the principals union. “We get pushed to the background with no mention of our blood, our sweat, and tears in the ongoing transformation of our beloved district.”
Cooper said the district was “negotiating in bad faith.”
CASA — the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, Teamsters Local 502 — represents just under 1,000 principals, assistant principals, climate managers, and other workers.
The union can’t strike, but Cooper and CASA members have ratcheted up public pressure. On Tuesday, many union representatives attended a City Council hearing, prompting Council members to ask Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. why CASA still has no contract.
Watlington and board president Reginald Streater both said they cannot comment on negotiations in public.
“You are valued, and we’re going to get this done,” Watlington told Cooper and members of CASA.
But Cooper was clearly frustrated, and skeptical. At the last negotiating session, held this week, CASA presented multiple proposals, but the district countered with the same offer it put on the table previously.
CASA’s current contract expired Aug. 31, as did pacts with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and School Police Association of Philadelphia — but those two unions reached deals that included raises.
The main sticking points for CASA, Cooper said in an interview, include issues related to wages.
“First-year people are making what senior people make,” said Cooper.
Robin Cooper, president of the city’s principal union, speaks at the monthly school board meeting on Aug. 21.
The union also takes issue with the fact that some workers have to take pay cuts to become administrators — the district’s senior career teachers earn more than assistant principals are paid.
“You can’t have a promotion and make less,” said Cooper, who said she believes that after agreeing to PFT and school police deals, the district “came to the table with whatever was left over.” She also takes issue with the school board paying millions to outside contractors but not settling with CASA.
Her members will continue to show up to work, Cooper said, but CASA isn’t finished showing its muscle.
“I’m not one to be bullied,” said Cooper.
No facilities master plan, but community pushback over what’s to come
In other school board happenings, officials did not present a facilities master plan — expected to include school closings — this month, as originally planned.
Watlington said earlier this week he was extending the timeline to gather more public input around four emerging themes: strengthening K-8 schools, reinvesting in neighborhood high schools, reducing school transitions, and expanding access to 5-12 criteria-based schools.
“We’re committed to not fumbling the football on the 2-yard line,” Watlington told the board Thursday night.
Still, members of the public said they wanted no school closings at all.
“Public education is not a business,” said Deborah Grill, a retired district educator and member of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools. “It is a civic obligation. The school district is not a business to be rightsized.”
The school system has 70,000 excess seats, a large number of old buildings in poor condition, and some schools that are overcrowded. Officials have said they will close schools — but also order colocations and other repurposing, as well as new construction and major renovations — not to save money, but to offer students citywide a more equitable and better education.
Paul Brown, a psychologist in the district, said schools are still dealing with the fallout of mass building closures in 2013.
“We need to keep our schools open,” Brown said. “The goals of efficiency should not come at the expense of our most vulnerable.”
Seeking a better wellness policy
The board also heard impassioned testimony about its wellness policy, which was to be considered at Thursday’s meeting, but was temporarily withdrawn.
Watlington has said he agrees that children should be able to use the bathroom, but said policy shouldn’t dictate it, that it should be left to schools to work out how best to handle things. At a board hearing earlier this month, he also pushed back on parents’ statements that some children wear diapers to school because they fear having accidents without guaranteed bathroom access.
Inella Ray, a Lift Every Voice board member, told the board and Watlington that “we do not want our stories dismissed as lies. Girls wear Depends because they cannot always change their pads. And we must believe them.”
Parents will not “scapegoat, report or target teachers,” Ray said.
“When harm occurs across dozens of schools, it is a policy and leadership issue, not a teacher problem,” Ray said.
Recap: Philly school board hears concerns over the principal’s union contract negotiations, potential school closings, the district’s wellness policy, and more
The Philadelphia School Board held its monthly action meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday. It lasted a little over three hours.
Here are a few takeaways:
Principals showed up to the meeting in full force, urging the board to give them a fair contract after working without one for three months. Principal’s union president Robin Cooper spoke early in the meeting, asking the board: “What about the administrators?”
Many parents and members of advocacy group Lift Every Voice Philly spoke to the board about its wellness policy, emphasizing the need for guaranteed bathroom breaks, lunch time, access to recess, and more. Some took issue with Superintendent Tony Watlington’s comments at a meeting earlier in November that some parents could be making claims without evidence.
The facilities planning process was also a hot-button issue. Many urged the board not toclose schools. The school board and superintendent asked the public to take their survey by Dec. 11 to share their concerns.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:22pm
Board approves its final item and adjourns the meeting
And the board approved the Intermediate Unit action item unanimously. The IU item included contracts with various vendors for a school safety grant for non-public schools, worth $1.5 million.
And now the meeting really is over! The next board meeting will be held in two weeks, on Dec. 4.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:20pm
Board approves all the items on its agenda
The board zips through its consent agenda, adopting all items unanimously.
The board meeting is over — but not really! In a Philly-only quirk, the board is also the board for the Philadelphia Intermediate Unit, which handles some special education matters.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:18pm
Streater tells the public: ‘We are chronically underfunded’
Board president Reginald Streater wraps up public comment by reminding the public that “we are chronically underfunded” and said that everything folks asked for “has a cost.”
But he says the board is listening, even if they don’t say anything.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:17pm
Retired district staffer speaks out about charter schools
Lynda Rubin, a retired district staffer and a member of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, decries charter schools.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:13pm
Retired Philadelphia teacher urges board not to close schools
Deborah Grill, a retired Philadelphia teacher and member of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools: “public education is not a business. It is a civic obligation,” she said. “The school district is not a business to be rightsized.”
“The facilities planning process has been a disaster from the start,” Grill said. A “last-minute” survey will not fix it, she said.
“No community wants their neighborhood school closed,” she said.
“You’re failing as a business to give the customer what they want, so my question is: What community are you catering to, because it’s not your school communities?” Grill said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:11pm
Community member tells the board the district is ‘dooming these children to slavery’
Leah Clouden, daughter of Mama Gail and Horace Clouden, tells the board: “K-8 in our urban area do not work.”
“We need the basics put back in school — phonics and cursive writing,” Clouden said. Without the basics, the district is “dooming these children to slavery.”
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:07pm
Mama Gail Clouden, a regular speaker at school board meetings, calls ‘on the ancestors to fix this’
Mama Gail Clouden is “calling on the ancestors to fix this” — issues in the district.
“We have been better, and we’re going to be better with or without you,” Mama Gail says to Watlington. Talking about the district’s accolades is great, but “when the children in my neighborhood aren’t doing well, that’s a problem.”
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:03pm
Retired district building engineer urges board to consider a junior high model
Horace Clouden, a retired district building engineer, is again emphasizing his belief that restoring a junior high model will improve the entire district.
Students aren’t prepared for high school coming from a K-8 setting, Clouden said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 7:02pm
Retired district teacher speaks to the board about Ada Lewis
Barbara Dowdall, a retired district teacher and member of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, is talking about Ada Lewis, namesake of a now-closed school and a teacher who authored the report that helped integrate Philadelphia schools.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:56pm
Parent and Lift Every Voice member asks Watlington not to question their group’s honesty as they fight for students’ bathroom rights
LaTi Spence, a parent of two students at Houston Elementary, stresses that there are no guarantees for student bathroom breaks, and no guidance to teachers on how to make this happen.
“The superintendent has publicly called parents’ concerns unsubstantiated, said he has never seen a child in a diaper,” Spence said. “Lift Every Voice would never question the superintendent’s honesty. We expect the same good faith in return.”
“Bathroom accidents are humiliating — ask any child,” Spence said. Parents send girls to school in Depends because they’re not always able to change sanitary pads when they have their periods. “This is a lived experience — this is not a rumor.”
Parents won’t scapegoat teachers, she said. Watlington has said he knows some children need to use the bathroom multiple times a day. “Right now, the child that needs to use the bathroom seven times a day has no guaranteed right to use it even once,” Spence said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:55pm
District parent draws attention to 88 schools with poor/unsatisfactory building scores
Emily Pugliese, a district parent and staffer at a climate nonprofit, is drawing attention to the 88 schools that received poor/unsatisfactory building scores in the district’s assessment.
“I hope that you will pause this process even further,” and work with the community to prioritize safety and comfort, and building upgrades.
“We know the current administration and school board isn’t responsible” for the poor condition of many district schools. But it has a host of organizations and community members ready to help, Pugliese said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:52pm
District climate manager asks the board for a fair contract
Shawn Viera, a district climate manager, tells the board: “Climate managers and other members of CASA deserve a fair contract.”
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:49pm
Lift Every Voice board member and Philly graduate questions Watlington over wellness issues
Inella Ray, a community member, is questioning Watlington’s assertion from a previous meeting that he never heard a report of a student wearing diapers because they couldn’t use the bathroom.
Parents from Lift Every Voice have been reporting this issue for years, she said.
“Girls wear Depends because they cannot always change their pads, and we must believe them,” Ray said.
Ray was suspended at age 12 because she asked to use the bathroom and was ignored, and when “I took care of my basic needs, my humanity was dismissed,” Ray said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:47pm
Olney High principal says district is ‘experimenting’ with charters at the expense of traditional public schools
Michael Roth, principal of Olney High, said he is not against charters — he used to work for one. But the district is “experimenting” with charters, Roth said, at the expense of traditional public schools.
The board just approved a dual enrollment school to serve schools in Olney’s zip code, even though Olney offers dual enrollment.
“Let’s support all students,” Roth said. He tells the board: Get our house in order before authorizing new schools.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:45pm
Volunteer with the Friends of Bache-Martin shares the value of school libraries
Barbara O’Connell, a volunteer with the Friends of Bache-Martin, talks about her group’s efforts to run the school library, and how beneficial it’s been to students.
“The library is creating kids who not only can read, but also will satisfy their curiosity, and that will transport them, and stay with them throughout their lives,” O’Connell said. She urges the board to provide school libraries for all students.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:41pm
School psychologist tells the board: ‘We need to keep our schools open’
School psychologist Paul Brown said the facilities planning process overemphasizes efficiency and under-values sustainability.
“The demographics of my high school is a direct result of the closing of Germantown High School in 2013,” said Brown, who works at Roxborough. There’s “unsustainable stress on our public school system. We need to keep our schools open. The goals of efficiency should not come at the expense of our most vulnerable.”
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:40pm
Lift Every Voice member advocates for guaranteed bathroom and lunch breaks
Sarah Burgess, a parent at Lea Elementary and a Lift Every Voice member, is advocating for guaranteed bathroom breaks and time to eat lunch.
“Parents aren’t looking for scapegoats. We’re asking for a system-wide policy,” Burgess said. “I know implementation is easier said than done. I know there can be staffing challenges, and I know there are competing priorities,” but this is an issue we all agree on, she said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:35pm
‘When is things going to change?’ community member asks the board
Jason Grisby, a community member, said the same issues have plagued city schools for years. “When is things going to change?” Grisby said.
He also shared concerns about the security of schools. He walked into a city school without being questioned as an outsider, Grisby said. Superintendent Watlington tells Grisby that a security official will speak to him, and no one should be able to walk into a school.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:33pm
Community members speak to the board about using data to support schools and the importance of family engagement
Donna Fields, a mother of three former district students and community researcher, urges the board to consider data to support schools.
Quibila Divine, another community member, said 98% of parents in a North Philadelphia survey felt unwelcome in their child’s school. Meaningful family engagement leads to better student outcomes, Divine said, but teachers are often not trained on how to do this.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:27pm
Legislative aide for Councilmember Thomas speaks on his behalf in favor of joy campaign
Zach McGrath, a legislative aide for Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, is reading a statement on behalf of Thomas. He supports Lift Every Voice’s joy campaign and its call for explicit promises for bathroom and water breaks for students.
“We maintain our support for their five wellness policy recommendations,” Thomas wrote. District-wide solutions are needed for these matters.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:24pm
Activist tells the board: ‘We don’t need another survey. We don’t need another meeting.’
Lisa Haver, of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, criticizes City Council’s recent district hearing. The questions were “insipid,” Haver said.
“We don’t need another survey. We don’t need another meeting,” Haver said of the facilities planning process.
She asks the crowd: Does anyone want their school closed?
“NO,” the crowd yells.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:23pm
Community member speaks on student access to year-round swimming
Gloria Presley, of Philly Aquatics, is also calling for indoor, year-round swimming opportunities for all students.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer,” Presley said. “We cannot afford to turn our backs on Philly youth.”
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:19pm
Roxborough High teacher urges the board not to close schools
Daniel Reyes, a teacher at Roxborough High and member of Stand Up for Philly Schools, tells the board: “I’m here to advocate against closing schools,” Reyes said.
Closing schools destabilizes neighborhoods, Reyes said, asking: Why is the process downsizing the district without addressing the effect of charters on the district?
“We need stable, K-12 systems in all neighborhoods that meet the needs of all students,” Reyes said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:17pm
Speakers address the board about student experiences, wellness, school facilities planning, and more
Jasmine Pearson, a parent of a student at Mastery Simon Gratz High School, tells the board the school is readying her child to graduate.
Parent Julie Krug urged the board to update its wellness policy to ensure students have access to recess, bathroom breaks, and time to eat their lunch.
Community member Ryan Pfleger came to the board with a request: Don’t close any schools. He urged the board to reconsider closing buildings and instead invest in communities with underutilized buildings.
Carrera Wilson-Allure spoke to the board about joy.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 6:06pm
CASA chief steward Deana Ramsey says their union is the ‘backbone of district leadership’
Deana Ramsey, a district principal and CASA’s chief steward, speaks on behalf of the principals.
The union “is the backbone of district leadership,” Ramsey said. The union represents principals, assistant principals, climate managers, and safety supervisors.
Dozens of principals in attendance stood up to chant and hold up signs after Ramsey’s comments.
Board president Streater said the board cannot comment on negotiations, but said he looks forward to a contract. “We’re a family, and sometimes family has disagreements,” he said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:58pm
Parents speak in support of Mastery Wister and Mastery Clymer
Johncarlos Quiles, a parent at Mastery Wister, is saying the school has changed his perspective on charters.
“When I was in school, the communication was nonexistent between parents and the teachers,” Quiles said. Wister has changed that because families are very involved, he said.
Wister has helped his son develop into a “super, super kid,” Quiles said. “We’re looking for that [charter] renewal.”
Ahlizee Wright, a parent at Mastery Clymer, said her son’s school is a “special place.” Her son’s previous school neglected his learning and safety, Wright said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:56pm
Head of Philly Aquatics advocates for year-round swimming opportunities
Charisma Presley, head of Philly Aquatics, is advocating for year-round swimming opportunities for city schools. Marcus Foster and Pickett Pools are the group’s priorities.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:49pm
Principals turn out in force to the school board meeting, as union president asks: ‘What about the administrators?’
Philadelphia principals are out in force tonight. Before Robin Cooper, president of the principals’ union, speaks, a chant breaks out. “Who are we? TEAMSTERS? What do we want? A CONTRACT! NOW!”
Principals in the district have been working without a contract for three months.
Robin Cooper, president of CASA, the principals’ union, speaks to the Philadelphia school board at a meeting on Nov. 20, 2025.
“I stand here in a situation that I’ve never experienced as the president- the proud president of Teamsters Local 502,” Cooper said. “I find myself not advocating for our students, not advocating for public education, not advocating for unconstitutional funding formulas, but rather advocating … to pay leaders their worth.”
Principals have done everything they were asked for, Cooper said: boosted attendance, improve academics, market schools, advocate for their schools.
Cooper said the district has asked for professional development funding and more. She suggests the district is not bargaining in good faith.
“The partnership is often one-sided,” Cooper said. Board meeting after board meeting, the district gives out contracts to outside providers, but refuses to arrive at a contract for its nearly 1,000 administrators, she said.
Cooper said that CASA is “fighting our own district.” Watlington often asks “what about the children?” CASA is now asking “what about the administrators?” Cooper said.
“We fight, we partner, we lead, and we have been doing so with no support,” Cooper said. “I have but one ask — if we have been a good partner to the school district of Philadelphia.
CASA and the district spent 12 hours at the table, Cooper said. They submitted multiple counterproposals, and the district came back with the same proposal. “We have given our blood, our sweat and our tears,” Cooper said.
“I am expecting a win-win, and I hope that you are too,” Cooper said.
Superintendent Watlington thanks Cooper and responds: “You are valued, and we’re going to get this done.”
Principals turned out in force at the Philadelphia school board meeting on Nov. 20, 2025, asking the district for a contract. They have been working without a contract for three months.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:41pm
Public comment set to begin
Now we’re onto public comment. Thirty speakers have signed up to testify; there are four speakers on the waiting list.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:38pm
Streater urges community members to take the survey
Streater said he completed the survey with his parent hat on — Streater has two children in a neighborhood K-8 school — and said it was easy to complete, finished in about five minutes.
Board member applauds the district’s good financial news
Board member Joan Stern notes the good financial news.
“We are very proud of continuing to receive upgrades in our credit rating,” Stern said. The state budget — newly passed — is a help, but the district must be “constantly vigilant about our finances.”
The survey is the public’s last chance to weigh in on facilities planning, board member says
Board member Wanda Novales reminds the public that this is their last chance to weigh in on school facilities planning before decisions are made, and urges principals to push the surveys out to families.
She also asks Superintendent Watlington to talk about how this survey is different. He says it’s more open-ended, not ranked.
“We’re going to consider every bit of the feedback,” Watlington said.
Board member Cheryl Harper calls for a round of applause for principals, assistant superintendents, and staff for increases in student and teacher attendance.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:25pm
District is beginning to receive community feedback from survey
The current survey, Watlington said, will be open until Dec. 11. The district’s data analysts “may get some external support” to process all the information received in the survey.
The four themes emerging from feedback to far, Watlington said:
1. Reinvest in neighborhood high schools.
2. Expand access to schools with a 5-12 grade span.
3. Reduce the number of school transitions (from 13 to about 6.)
Watlington says they are committed to getting the facilities planning process right
“We’re committed to not fumbling the football on the two-yard line,” Watlington said.
The district wants to get facilities planning process correct and will take “just a little bit more time” to finalize the plan, which will include school closings, officials have said.
The purpose of the facilities planning process, Watlington said, is to improve education for students citywide — to maximize offerings, to offer 21st-century learning.
“We do not want to prepare our students for minimum-wage jobs,” the superintendent said.
“Exciting news” on the district’s financial outlook, Watlington said: The district got a credit rating upgrade, its third in three years. It’s now Baa1 rated by Moody’s.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:17pm
Fewer students have dropped out this year compared to this time last year, Watlington says
On dropouts:
In October this year, 384 students dropped out.
It was 707 students in October of 2024, Watlington said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:15pm
Student and teacher attendance is on the rise, Watlington shares with the board
Good news on student attendance, Watlington said: 79% regular attendance in October — a 3 percentage point increase compared to last year.
For teachers, 84% of teachers attended 90% or more. That’s up from 79% regular attendance in October of 2024.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 5:09pm
Board returns from recess with a poem
And we’re back. Board president Streater allowed Frantzceska Dorvilien, the Mastery Simon Gratz High School student, to read a poem she wrote about how Gratz helped her on her journey.
Now we’re on to Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s presentation.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:49pm
Board takes a brief recess
That’s the end of the student speakers list. The board is taking a five-minute recess because it’s dealing with technical difficulties.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:45pm
Students from KHSA, home of a student-built library, urge the board to invest in school libraries
Dayniyah Little, a student at Kensington Health Sciences Academy, is asking for more access to school libraries and librarians.
KHSA students banded together to open their own library, DreamEscape Library, but they staff it themselves. There are just a handful of certified school librarians in city schools.
Isabella Le, another Kensington Health Sciences Academy student, says “libraries are a privilege to have in Philadelphia schools.” She’s proud of the DreamEscape library, Isabella said, which helps address the literacy crisis.
Of libraries, Isabella said: “The absence of them in our schools hinders the possibility to expand literacy at all.”
“We understand the budget is tight, but withholding libraries is not the answer,” Isabella tells the board.
The brand-new DreamEscape Library at Kensington Health Sciences Academy.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:42pm
Philly student shares his experience learning to swim and row at Philly Aquatics
Whitman Dougherty, a Philadelphia student, entertains the crowd with tales of learning to swim and row. He’s a member of Philly Aquatics, a group advocating for year-round swim opportunities for all.
“Opportunity doesn’t depend on luck. It depends on access,” Whitman says.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:37pm
Two students speak about their experiences at Simon Gratz High School
Student speakers are on now.
The first is Devon Choice, a senior at Mastery Simon Gratz High School. Devon says he’s been challenged and encouraged at Gratz, which offers students myriad opportunities.
Frantzceska Dorvilien, another Gratz High School student, is testifying in Spanish through an interpreter. Frantzceska has lived in the U.S. for three years, and it hasn’t been easy, she said, but school is a bright spot — her teachers have pushed her to be the best, and supported her, regardless of challenges.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:29pm
Roll call: All members present but one
Roll call: All board members are present for today’s meeting except Crystal Cubbage.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:28pm
Updates from the board’s executive session
The board met in executive session to discuss several matters, including “property disposition” and confidential charter and investigation matters.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:24pm
This year’s state budget ‘moves us in the right direction,’ Streater says
On the state budget, the board president says “this year’s budget moves us in the right direction,” but says the state must move forward more quickly to meet the educational adequacy gap identified by experts.
“We have made meaningful progress, but Pennsylvania must keep moving toward adequacy so every student in every neighborhood has the resources they need to learn, grow and thrive,” Streater said.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:22pm
No applications for new charter schools
Streater says the school board has not received any applications for new charter schools.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:19pm
Board honors students and teacher of the month
One of the seniors of the month is Mario Rodriguez of Thomas A. Edison High School, who came to Philadelphia from El Salvador. Streater says he is a strong student with scholarship offers in hand already.
The other senior of the month is Kateryna Sobolevska. A George Washington High School student who came to the U.S. from Ukraine, she’s an International Baccalaureate student who was chosen for a prestigious Princeton University journalism program.
Teacher of the month is Takia McClendon of Bethune Elementary.
Board president Reginald Streater is detailing board visits this month: including to MYA (Middle Years Alternative), and spending time at the Council of Great City Schools‘ national conference, held this year in Philadelphia.
// Timestamp 11/20/25 4:00pm
Philly school board to host its monthly action meeting
The Philadelphia School Board is set to host its monthly action meeting on Thursday at 4 p.m.
There are a variety of issues expected to come up, including concerns over the school closing process and anger from principals who have been working for three months without a contract.
Once again, Philadelphia music fans can look forward to a Drugcember to remember.
Next month, Philly rock band The War On Drugs will renew a tradition that has been on hiatus since 2022. It will perform a trio of fundraising shows to benefit the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, the nonprofit that raises money and coordinates investments into Philadelphia Schools.
The Adam Granduciel-led seven piece band, that won a best rock album Grammy for A Deeper Understanding in 2018, will play three nights at Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown, from Dec. 18-20.
The 250 capacity club — which the band first played on the venue’s opening weekend in 2006 — is several magnitudes smaller that the amphitheater, arena, and festival stages the Drugs typically plays in venues around the world.
Drugcember to Remember debuted in 2018 and became an annual Philly three-show tradition through 2022, with the exception of the COVID shutdown year of 2020.
But it hadn’t taken place since 2022, and seemed in danger of being gone for good, with Granduciel now living on Los Angeles and bassist and original members Dave Hartley in North Carolina.
Granduciel said in a statement that the return to the treasured tradition is a way to reaffirm its Philadelphia identity.
The flyer for The War on Drugs’ 2025 ‘A Drugcember to Remember’ benefit shows at Johnny Brenda’s on Dec. 18-20.
“This has been a year end highlight for me since we started doing it in 2018,” said the guitarist and songwriter who stepped out as a producer in 2025 on Craig Finn’s Always Been and Sam Fender’s People Watching. “Three rock shows at our old local hangout benefiting the Philadelphia School System. This band wouldn’t exist if not for the vibrant Philadelphia music community that has supported us from the beginning and we are very grateful for it.”
The War On Drugs’ most recent studio album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, came out in 2021. Last year, they released the in-concert recording Live Drugs Again.
Its most recent Philadelphia performance was in the summer of 2024, sharing a bill with the National at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park. Besides the Drugcember shows, the only two dates on the band’s schedule are at festivals in Spain and Portugal in July 2026.
A Drugcember To Remember will raise funds through ticket sales and also the sale of exclusive items though Philadelphia businesses, including Elixr Coffee, Sacred Vice Brewing, Room Shop, Uncle Ron’s Candles, and Kinetic Skateboarding/Nocturnal Skate Shop.
Ticket for the Johnny Brenda’s shows go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday Nov. 21 at thewarondrugs.net/tour.
