We Can & We Must Do Better
This situation necessitates immediate action and a real and sustainable community and civic partnership with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). For these reasons, we ask you to work with us to move swiftly. We know that working together, we can make sure that all of Philadelphia’s schools are healthy and safe places for our children, teachers, school workers and community members. We look forward to working with you to make this vision a reality.
By immediately requiring greater information and data transparency from the SDP. As parents and residents, we are all invested in improving our education and our schools, but this can only be achieved when the public is well informed. Our coalition intends to work with the District to establish priorities, plans, approaches and budgets for major school improvements.
An “Adequate Building Conditions” standard and a set of “Best Practices” should quickly be developed establishing minimally acceptable standards a school building must meet to maintain a healthy learning environment and protect students and staff;
SDP should better prioritize facility projects and implement critical Facility, Maintenance & Operation Department [FM&O] fixes in order to quickly remediate the most urgent environmental health threats in our schools and put every school on the path to meeting the Adequate Building Conditions “ABCs” standard.
SDP should emulate school districts across the country that have developed Facilities Master Plans. These plans prioritize the planning and development of equitable capital and maintenance needs and budgeting to ensure that our schools that are healthy, safe, educationally inspiring and environmentally sustainable;
Increase and formalize engagement of parents, teachers, public and private advocates, to include input from all relevant stakeholders, and to work with City Council, the MOE and the SDP, to provide input and recommendations to the SDP and to develop the CEFMP
At all levels, and from all sources, to help finance these crucial initiatives to ensure our school buildings are environmentally safe.
Healthy Schools Toolkit
The Philadelphia Healthy Schools Initiative has more than 2 dozen members annd 6 “Technical Advisors” all working together to achieve sustainable school improvements in our public schools. We hope you will add your name to the list of those who will join us fighting for safe & healthy schools for every Philadelphia public school student in every neighborhood and in every zip code in the city
The Members of the PHSI
Coalition members represent a very broad-based group of “Direct”, “Near Direct” and other major public stakeholders. Student and parent organizations, school staff, including principals and other administrators, educational and support staff have all joined the fight for healthy & safe schools. So too have environmental, student, parent, labor and other public advocacy organizations gotten involved
News & Press Announcements
Our team of partners is uniquely equipped to inspect schools, access data, and make recommendations based on the input of all community stakeholders.