{"id":500635,"date":"2026-01-08T05:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:38:10","slug":"academic-growth-and-addressing-vacant-buildings-among-topics-in-philadelphias-state-of-schools-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500635\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic growth and addressing vacant buildings among topics in Philadelphia’s State of Schools Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The School District of Philadelphia<\/a> highlighted rising enrollment and a declining dropout rate during its State of Schools address Wednesday, while district and city leaders also acknowledged ongoing challenges, including the recent case of a missing woman whose body was found on the property of a vacant school building.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Tony Watlington, Sr. opened the address by noting a decline in the dropout rate and improvements in test scores, enrollment and attendance. He also highlighted updates that the school district has made to many of its buildings, including new cooling systems for dozens of schools.<\/p>\n

“We’re excited about the work we’ve done and we have a lot more to do,” he said.<\/p>\n

But the condition and future of school buildings also prompted an emotional moment from Mayor Cherelle Parker. She referenced the city’s roughly 20 vacant school buildings while alluding to the October discovery of 23-year-old Kada Scott’s body<\/a> inside the vacant Ada Lewis Middle School.<\/p>\n

Parker said the vacant schools have sat empty anywhere from 3 to 30 years. She said the city will pursue a plan that could include options like demolishing unused buildings or converting them into housing.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to find a way to do what has never been done in the city of Philadelphia before: develop a plan for those persistently vacant buildings so that they can add value,” she said.<\/p>\n

District leaders also said they will reassess underused schools.<\/p>\n

“In some cases, there will be some facilities that we recommend not to continue to operate as schools and to close,” Watlington said.<\/p>\n

Board of Education President Reginald Streater added, “We don’t like using the word closure. But it’s really about how can we make best use of our resources.”<\/p>\n

The district said it has invested more than $873 million into its buildings, supported by additional city and state funding.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania State Sen. Sharif Street said funding equity remains a priority, adding, “We cannot have a world where kids in the suburb receive drastically more funding than kids in the city.”<\/p>\n

Watlington also pointed to a milestone in school performance.<\/p>\n

“For the first time in recent history, all 55 of our traditional, comprehensive high schools are accredited,” he said to the crowd, which included many school principals.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Watlington said the district’s biggest challenge is balancing limited resources with efforts to strengthen academic programming.<\/p>\n

“More good things to come in 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n

The address was based on the district’s annual update to its five-year strategic plan. To view that plan, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The School District of Philadelphia highlighted rising enrollment and a declining dropout rate during its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":500636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[224657,5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-500635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-224657","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115857870317490155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}