Philly schools under federal investigation for asbestos management practices
An item added to the school board's meeting agenda for Thursday called for consideration of an agreement with the Justice Department over the district's "asbestos management practices."
The Philadelphia School District is under investigation by federal authorities for management of asbestos in its school buildings.
At its meeting scheduled for Thursday, the school board will consider approving “a proposed agreement between The School District of Philadelphia and the United States Department of Justice with respect to an ongoing investigation of the district’s asbestos management practices,” according to a school board document.
The resolution was added to the board’s agenda on Wednesday. The meeting itself, long scheduled for 4 p.m., was moved to noon to accommodate a “time-sensitive issue,” according to information sent to individuals who had registered to speak at the board meeting.
No further information about the investigation was immediately available.
A warning on asbestos requirements
In 2023, district officials acknowledged they were not meeting federal requirements for inspecting the district’s roughly 300 buildings for asbestos.
» READ MORE: Philly schools are ramping up asbestos work but are three years away from meeting federal requirements
All school system buildings must be inspected once every three years, according to the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response law. If asbestos is present, buildings need examination every six months. Inspections are complicated, labor-intensive processes and take several days at minimum. If completed during the school year, inspections can occur only at night or on the weekend.
About 300 of the district’s schools, garages, pools, farms, and other structures contain asbestos, a material that was widely used in construction for decades. The average district building is more than 70 years old and contains asbestos, often in floor and ceiling tiles, paint, and pipe insulation.
Left undisturbed, asbestos poses no risk. But when the material becomes damaged, as it can through natural wear and tear, its tiny fibers, invisible to the naked eye, can be toxic, causing health issues including mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer.
Almost exactly two years ago, Victoria Flemming, then the district’s interim environmental chief, said the school system aimed to meet U.S. laws around asbestos inspections within three years.
“We still know that we do not have the staffing and resources that we need to address all of these issues,” Flemming said then. She said the district would have to do about 50 asbestos inspections a month to meet those goals.
The school system has ramped up its spending on asbestos management in recent years, laying out tens of millions to a company called Tetra Tech to oversee the environmental demands of its old buildings.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., who arrived in Philadelphia in 2022, stepped up communication about asbestos-related issues, though critics say the district is still not nearly transparent enough.
The district has long struggled with environmental issues.
In 2023, several school buildings closed for varying lengths of time because of damaged asbestos. Watlington said that in some cases, officials knew about the disturbed asbestos, but because of faulty recordkeeping, potentially dangerous material was labeled safe for years.
The main building of one school, Frankford High, remains shut because of extensive damaged asbestos. Officials most recently said they will spend $20 million to fix Frankford, which could reopen for the 2025-26 school year. In the meantime, students are spread out over two locations — some students in a school annex and others at the Roberto Clemente Middle School in North Philadelphia.