Philly schools will close on weekends, early on weeknights
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Philly schools will close on weekends, early on weeknights
Kristen Graham
Starting next week, the Philadelphia School District will cancel all weekend programs and shut school buildings an hour early during the week in order to save $2.8 million.
The efficiencies are necessary to close a $61 million budget gap by June, officials said.
Spokesman Fernando Gallard on Saturday confirmed that the district is “planning on closing the schools on the weekends” and at 8 p.m. on weekdays, and said an official announcement would be made early this week.
The closures will affect many non-district programs. City Department of Recreation activities often take place in city school buildings.
The cuts will begin next Saturday, Feb. 11, Gallard said.
Organizations that pay the district to use its buildings will still be able to use them.
“These organizations will be billed for the cost of keeping the school open for their activities,” a district official wrote in a letter sent Friday to elected officials. “Organizations that currently have payment agreements with thedistrict will be grandfathered into those agreements, but all new activities will be paid for according to the district’s payment schedule.”
The changes “are being enacted to create a substantial savings in utilities, personnel and overtime spending,” the letter said.
The decision to shut buildings early was “difficult,” the district said in its letter.
On Friday, the district eliminated 91 school police jobs, eight regional office jobs and six central office jobs. The police cuts save $617,000; the total savings of the other cuts is not known.
Also unclear is exactly how much the district must cut before June.
The school police cuts mean that 100 schools are now without permanent officers stationed inside their buildings, up from 75 schools.
The cuts come on top of thousands of layoffs and deep program cuts made in September and December and more reductions announced in January, including a drastic cutback in summer school and pay raise recisions, furloughs, and salary reductions for some nonunionized administrative employees.
Officials have said that cuts to school psychologists are also on the table, as is the elimination of spring athletics, instrumental music, gifted programs, and bilingual counselors. Those decisions have not yet been made, however.
City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who has questioned the district's financial viability, has estimated the district will need to cut $400,000 a day to make up the $61 million shortfall by June.
The district already faces a $269 million budget gap for its 2012-13 fiscal year.
- Just in case this teacher-baiting troll isn't the only one who doesn't know teachers don't get overtime, please know that there's no such thing for us - in fact, we give up hours of our time for free every week and pay for our own copy paper and other supplies. It's not teachers, on the whole, who you'll find at these schools on weekends, unless they're preparing lessons (again, for no extra money). It's often special programs for students, youth basketball leagues for boys and girls and other opportunities kids will no longer have. That said, this is a better idea than canning nurses and cops.
As many have said here, there is so much dead weight at district headquarters, yet it's always the children's programs that go first. You'd think top administration cares more for the adults in the system than the kids.
Why are we such sheep when it comes to demanding money from the state that the district is owed? The state took us over. That means they're responsible for us. If they no longer want that responsibility, they need to release us from the SRC's clutches.— Devoted Teacher - The way our economy is going there will only be two jobs left in the USA #1 Defense lawyer and #2 Law Enforment officers.— mustang1
- Philadelphia is such a dump.— icantbelieveit
- Start cutting breakfast and lunch programs, and make parents pay/contribute to their kid's transportation costs. Let's see how much that saves.— TyroneShoes
Comment removed.- But those programs buy votes. — Falls Ed
- Why not just get rid of the teachers? There's little education going on now.— Boru
- Boru, I can see where you'd believe that, considering the Inquirer never accepts invitations to all of the many positive events going on in the district, nor does it highlight the many success stories. We do have kids learning, lots of them. And I'm not talking about test score performance, which no real teacher gives a dam* about. There is true learning going on in non-Empowerment, non-Promise academy schools. You're just not being told about it. — Devoted Teacher
- Remeber the days when you didn't need "school polics'? Or when your parents made you a lunch to take to school, after Mon made you breakfast in the morning? Or when your school didn't need a "bi-lingual counselor"? And when the City had more taxpayeractually PAYING taxes versus the number who required City services. The problem today is children without proepr parenting and a City that has no real tax base trying to supporta population that requires a high level of City "services. There is no way to stem this tide unless the tax base is revived— beermoney
- Yeah, but that's not the Democrat agenda. — Falls Ed
- @Tyrone: The PSD meals are funded through Title I, a federal program, not the PSD busget.
@Boru- Teachers are teaching. Unfortunately, too many children are sent to school by apathetic parents unready to learn. Personally, I think the PSD needs to demand some parents step up and help out with monitoring the schools, at least those parents who aren't employed.— nikki1231 - Comment removed.
- The school meals are federally funded? Oh good; add that to the federal deficit. — Falls Ed
- All of the Dept of Rec programs that use school facilities will be shut down as well. Let's reduce activities for our kids (which are paid for by the Dept of Rec)so the obesity rates in this city can go even higher!— dankil13
- Amen nikki1231. Boru is another easily manipulated drone it believes everything The FOX news channel tells him.— revolter
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
