This article originally appeared on The Notebook.
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Updated: 10 a.m.
As the Board of Education gets ready to hold a special meeting Thursday, the Philadelphia School District is facing a rising chorus of concern about Superintendent William Hite’s plan to reopen schools in September from the teachers and principals who will have to make it work.
On Tuesday, the unions for those two groups of school employees raised questions and doubts about the hybrid plan announced last week, in which most students will attend school two days a week and learn virtually the rest of the time.
The school board is scheduled to vote Thursday on a “health and safety plan” for school reopening as required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. But it will not vote on the details of the District’s plan, which was assembled by Hite and his staff over the last several months largely out of the public eye, although it was informed by surveys of staff and families.
“We’ve received more than 3,500 submitted questions regarding the District’s plan. There is a tremendous amount of fear amongst my members,” said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
“There’s so many questions,” said Robin Cooper, head of the principals’ union, the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators (CASA).
And as their leaders share concerns, the rank and file appear outright unhappy or worse, with teachers and principals alike accusing District planners of overlooking the harsh material realities of Philadelphia schools and setting up overly rosy expectations. Social media has been alive with critiques, and no fewer than 32 Philadelphia principals plan to speak at the Board of Education meeting to air concerns.
“I’ve been a principal for 13 years, and I don’t know anybody who has the experience of planning for the first day of school from scratch,” said Jeannine Payne, principal of Richard Wright Elementary in North Philadelphia. “My colleagues and I have been working really hard to basically redesign schools, and it’s a lot.”
Principals say that they will drive home in their testimony to the board that COVID-19 is laying bare systemic inequities that have been too long ignored.
“In times of crisis, all the flaws [of the system] are brought out into the open. We can’t just gloss over things anymore,” said Ted Domers, principal of the Carver High School of Engineering & Science in North Philadelphia.
Just days ago, District officials unveiled their September plan, which calls for educators to work in school buildings four days a week to accommodate the two alternating groups of students. Some children – the youngest and those with complex needs – would attend school all four days.
Families are also given the option for students to opt out of their “home school” and enter a “digital academy,” about which little is known. More details are expected to be released Wednesday, and families will have until Aug. 4 to enroll.
Principals are expected to handle scheduling, oversight, and logistics for their buildings. Since its unveiling, the Hite administration’s plan, with a price tag of $60 million to $80 million, has been greeted with a smattering of support and a chorus of criticism.
Thursday will be the public’s first opportunity to react to the plan before the Board of Education, and the meeting will feature a long list of speakers, including the principals, who will be armed with an equally long list of questions.
Among the top concerns will be the challenge of upgrading ventilation in the District’s vast array of aging, often poorly maintained buildings – a critical “cleaning” issue that is in fact an infrastructure issue, and a costly and complex one.
“What we know from the data is that we have a $4.5 billion capital backlog going back 25 years. … A lot of that is ventilation and windows,” said Jerry Roseman, director of environmental science for the PFT’s Health and Welfare Fund. “It’s too big to fix in three months.”
Beyond that lie countless nuts-and-bolts building-level issues involving teachers and administrators: roster management, staff management, coordination of cleaning and inspections, maintenance of personal protective equipment, scheduling, and schoolwide adherence to protocols.
Principals are only just beginning to unpack what it means for them, Cooper said. Members talked over the plan for almost five hours on Friday, she said, and didn’t even come close to understanding how the “hybrid” reopening plan can work.
District officials are hosting a “town hall” for principals Wednesday, which may provide some additional clarity, but for now, school leaders feel that “everything is left on them with very little support on how to get it done,” Cooper said.