Tony B. Watlington Sr.: We’ve taken a big step toward addressing asbestos management in Philly schools
A federal court will be watching how we continue to improve our asbestos program — and we want families, educators, and advocates to watch us, too, the superintendent writes.
The Philadelphia School District’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a five-year investigation into our management of asbestos marks a significant turning point: For the next few years, a federal court will be watching how we continue to improve our asbestos program and work to stay in compliance with regulations to maintain healthy schools.
And we know school communities, the public, and other K-12 districts grappling with asbestos will be watching, too.
To families, educators, and advocates who have long voiced concerns about the safety of our facilities: Please keep watching us, because as we become the fastest-improving large urban school district in the nation, safety is nonnegotiable.
Every child, every teacher, and every staff member deserves to learn and work in a building where they feel safe and comfortable.
The Philadelphia School District is the eighth-largest district in the nation, and we have more than 300 buildings that contain some form of asbestos materials, including paint, plaster, pipe wrap, floor tiles, and caulk.
Federal regulations require the district to conduct inspections every six months to look for any damage so the materials can be maintained in good condition to minimize risk. In Philadelphia, that means more than 600 inspections a year, taking place on weekends and in evenings so they don’t interrupt school hours.
On Tuesday, the district made an initial court appearance as we move forward with a deferred prosecution agreement.
In this agreement with the federal government, we acknowledge that the district did not always keep pace with our schedule of inspections. The agreement also recognized the progress we have made to rebuild our asbestos program.
Today, I am proud to say we are fully on time with all our inspections, and we make our reports publicly available.
We are posting all inspection reports, including room-by-room logs of every school detailing the location and condition of asbestos materials at the time of their last inspection, on www.philasd.org/environmental.
We have also increased principal and school-based meetings to discuss asbestos management, and tripled our annual budget for environmental management. And we have improved software to better manage environmental data and standardized data.
These issues were decades in the making, and we cannot undo the past. But we can take full responsibility for how we move forward.
If you’re watching, here’s what you’ll see:
Every six months, we will continue to conduct timely inspections and responses in more than 300 buildings across the district. To be clear, asbestos damage will happen: weather, water leaks, vandalism, and daily use can all cause damage. But we have a system in place where this damage can be identified, recorded, and addressed in a timely way.
We will also offer additional training for principals, building engineers, facility area managers, and others who are in our buildings each day to help them better understand asbestos management.
We will report our progress regularly under the DOJ agreement, with accountability to a federal court.
And we will build on the greater transparency that began with my March 2023 open letter to all district students, families, staff, and school communities with straight talk about the state of our facilities and what we were doing to improve environmental conditions, particularly the management of asbestos.
We will be regularly reporting our progress, and we will continue to meet with school advisory councils, homeschool associations, and school communities, and work to answer questions.
We are committed to maintaining the current pace of inspections because that is how we promote the health and safety of our buildings, as well as our staff and students.
The work ahead will not be easy — it requires constant vigilance and investment. But please keep an eye on us: We will continue to meet this issue with urgency, transparency, and bold action.
Tony B. Watlington Sr. is the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District.