{"id":226359,"date":"2026-06-24T01:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/226359\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T01:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:39:09","slug":"philly-establishes-school-transition-office-to-help-implement-3-billion-facilities-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/226359\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly establishes School Transition Office to help implement $3 billion facilities plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nAdministrators with the School District of Philadelphia\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0introduced a new office dedicated to preparing communities for upcoming school closures and renovations.<\/p>\n

\nStarting next week, the School Transition Office will help carry out the district\u2019s facilities master plan and coordinating support and communication efforts with students, families and staff. Shakeera Warthen-Canty, a former assistant superintendent and elementary school principal with the district, was named as the senior adviser for the office.\n<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Mayor Parker, city leaders make plea to state lawmakers for more funding to help Philly schools<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSuperintendent Tony Watlington called the new office a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d for anyone impacted by the 10-year, $3 billion plan<\/a> to modernize 169 school buildings and close 17 others.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe want to assure Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia that we \u2026 will be ready to engage all of our families and school communities to really paint a picture of what the next year will look like in terms of meeting with our parents and families face-to-face, in terms of finding out what the needs are right now,\u201d Watlington said.\n<\/p>\n

Warthen-Canty, a\u00a0graduate from Overbrook High School, has served as an assistant superintendent since 2021 and was a principal at Bregy Elementary School in South Philadelphia for six years.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn her role on the transition team, she will lead a small staff and head meetings with community members to make the case to why families should remain in the public school system<\/a>,\u00a0Watlington said. She will also eventually\u00a0provide support in adjusting to future changes.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis work is only going to be possible [if we are] able to leverage the relationships from school communities and the various offices at the district to provide great customer service to our communities,\u201d she said. \u201cUltimately, there will be great opportunities for students, but it will have its challenges. So, they will need the support and someone walking alongside them to make sure everything is done.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nThe implementation process of the facilities plan starts with a \u201cplanning year\u201d for the duration of the upcoming 2026-27 school year, during which impacted schools will begin preparing their communities for the changes ahead and developing more concrete strategies for how the school will operate.\n<\/p>\n

\nTo assist with this effort, the district has said it will invest in individual transition teams for each affected school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nWhen Warthen-Canty steps into her position on July 1, one of the first things she will tackle is the composition of these teams, she said Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe want to do things in partnership and collaboration with the school teams, but our main focus is to make sure that school communities know who to call to get answers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do want to offer red-carpet treatment to our school communities because we do recognize that this transition is hard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nTeams will look slightly different depending on the needs and future plan for each school but will mostly include principals and leaders, interested family members and students, Warthen-Carty said. When committees begin to be established, school communities will be informed and participants can reach out to a representative from the Transition Office.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe key is it will be a deep, meaningful, transparent partnership, equal partnership, and we\u2019re going to do this work together,\u201d Watlington said. \u201c… We are going to work very closely with our families, we\u2019re going to be very transparent and we\u2019re going to do our best to convince them to stay \u2026 here in the School District of Philadelphia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"School\"SchoolMolly McVety\/for PhillyVoice<\/p>\n

LeAndrea Baltimore-Hagan, principal of John M. Patterson Elementary School in Eastwick, walks through the cafeteria, which lacks air conditioning and will be renovated as is part of a $45 million project.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The facilities plan was put forth in an effort to make better use of the district\u2019s resources as they face dwindling enrollment. After being approved<\/a> in April, district officials said they would begin to enact the 10-year plan \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, district leaders unveiled details for a $45 million renovation to John M. Patterson Elementary School in Eastwick, which is slated to transition from a Pre-K through fourth grade school to a Pre-K through eighth grade school.\n<\/p>\n

\nA two-year modernization project is planned for the 105-year-old facility, including the construction of a new 13-classroom building, a new gymnasium, renovated kitchens and cafeterias and accessibility upgrades.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe impact of construction for these projects is unknown, Watlington said, but will be \u201cpart of the transition process.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe short-term sacrifice \u2026 all of that will be worth the improvement,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever the school\u2019s transition committee decides would be best for this community, we have the expertise and we know how to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Administrators with the School District of Philadelphia\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0introduced a new office dedicated to preparing communities for upcoming school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7985,227,2008,69,71,70,28706,1998,233],"class_list":["post-226359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-development","tag-education","tag-office","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-school-closings","tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}