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August 25, 2025

Dear School District of Philadelphia Community,

Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! I am thrilled to begin another year together, as we continue to accelerate Philly. It seems like the summer flew by. Time flies when your busy – and I want to share some of our summer accomplishments:

• Enrolled more than 17,500 students in summer programming across 200 programs and 120 sites, to help them continue learning during the summer months.
• Graduated more than 300 high school students this summer after meeting their education requirements.
• Enrolled over 2,600 students at 20 Extended Day/Extended Year sites.
• Filled 97% of teaching positions as compared to 96% last year, and 95% two years ago.
• Provided free backpacks and school supplies to more than 13,000 families through the Back-to-School Bus Tour.
• Reopened Frankford High School after a two-year, $29 million renovation.
• Made significant progress on two brand new school buildings that we expect to open in the winter – Thomas Holme and AMY @ James Martin.
• Further reduced the number of schools with inadequate cooling from 118 three years ago, down to 54.
• For the first time ever, we are current in our AHERA inspections and schedule of repairs.

As we ring the bell on this year, I want to express my gratitude to our fantastic School District of Philadelphia employees – school leaders, teachers, central office and support staff for their hard, strategic, joyful, and ambitious effort to make the above accomplishments possible. Across the board, they have worked diligently to ensure that students return to clean and safe buildings, classrooms stocked with high-quality curriculum and resources, and environments where they are cared for by highly qualified, well-supported, dedicated educators.

I want to remind the community about the newly implemented SEPTA service cuts, which went into effect yesterday. Students will not be penalized for lateness due to these cuts, which are beyond their control. On Friday, you received an email with some resources to help you plan your commutes, including SEPTA’s Service Cuts website, the School Impacts document, which outlines the schools that will be affected by the cuts, and suggests alternative routes, and this Rider Guide, which provides step-by-step information on how to use either the SEPTA website, or the SEPTA app to plan ahead. Review that full message here.

I was filled with pride and anticipation today as I visited schools. Keep an eye on our social media to see the joy on the faces of students, families and your colleagues. Let’s keep that momentum going all year long as we continue on our journey to become the fastest-improving large urban school district in the nation.

In partnership,

Tony B. Watlington Sr., Ed.D.
Superintendent
The School District of Philadelphia