{"id":238719,"date":"2026-07-08T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238719\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:01:08","slug":"philadelphia-teachers-slam-districts-delay-in-confirming-staff-placements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238719\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia teachers slam district\u2019s delay in confirming staff placements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia school district is telling teachers to pick school placements from a list on the spot \u2014 or it will assign them one, creating what the teachers union called \u201cconfusion and exasperation\u201d six weeks before the school year starts. <\/p>\n

The district has more than 300 positions for next school year that it still needs to fill, according to a list in a district email sent last week to staff obtained by Chalkbeat. Teachers who do not yet have an assigned position for next year must attend Zoom meetings this week, send a proxy to select for them, or be assigned a school \u201cbased on the needs of the School District,\u201d according to a second email the district sent to staff Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a fantasy football draft,\u201d said one district teacher who attended his scheduled meeting on Tuesday. He and other teachers spoke to Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity because the district did not authorize him to speak. \u201cIt\u2019s an utter disorganized, chaotic mess,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Zoom sessions are a culmination of what several teachers described as months of staffing uncertainty. In the spring, district officials had planned budget cuts for the 2025-26 school year that would eliminate 340 positions, and told principals to move forward with cutting roles. The district did not plan to layoff staff, but rather directed employees to find open positions elsewhere through a process called \u201cforced transfers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A last-minute city budget deal last month restored those positions<\/a>, but only after affected teachers had already begun applying for new positions. Schools also still have to move forward with eliminating other positions that resulted from enrollment shifts<\/a>, which change schools\u2019 budgets every year. <\/p>\n

Teachers affected by the staffing reorganization describe chaos and uncertainty. Some say they still don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll be able to return to their positions that district officials previously planned to eliminate in the spring<\/a>. Others have already taken jobs outside the district to avoid the frustration. <\/p>\n

Experts say this kind of upheaval, though sometimes unavoidable, can lead to greater teacher turnover and make it harder to ensure students get the help they need.<\/p>\n

District spokesperson Monique Braxton said in a statement that the district is moving forward with restoring positions, but that doing so \u201cis separate from staffing those positions.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said the district is working with principals on staffing schools and making employee assignments in accordance with union agreements.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg said in a statement Wednesday that the district\u2019s Tuesday Zoom session for teachers to pick their schools was \u201ca day-long debacle that left many PFT members frustrated and disenchanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union contract requires the district to inform force transferred staff of vacancies, and to assign them to the vacancies they request, based on seniority. But it does not dictate the details of the selection process.<\/p>\n

Steinberg said the union applauded the city budget deal. But he called on the district to correct the \u201cadministrative issues\u201d that have left teachers with no confirmation of where they\u2019ll be working so close to the beginning of the next school year. <\/p>\n

The district has around 220 schools, some located nearly an hour\u2019s drive apart.<\/p>\n

Schools\u2019 budgets and staff positions shift regularly based on enrollment, and forced transfers are a common part of every school year transition. But this year\u2019s last-minute budget deal appeared to delay the timeline for finalizing placements. <\/p>\n

Superintendent Tony Watlington previously said figuring out a way to restore positions was a \u201cgreat problem to have.\u201d<\/a> Recruiting and retaining effective teachers is a key pillar of his strategic plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But moving teachers between schools without much input from them can lead to increased turnover, said Edward Fuller, a professor in the College of Education at Penn State who has studied teacher retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fit between a teacher and a school is really important, and you don\u2019t fit well at every school,\u201d said Fuller. \u201cIf you go to another school and you don\u2019t fit, now you\u2019re like, why am I going to do this? Like, I can just pick my own school outside of the district, or go find another job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuller\u2019s research has found that the number of newly certified teachers across Pennsylvania has plummeted over the past decade<\/a>, with too few teachers to fill the demand. That takes a toll on students\u2019 academic performance, he has found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, he said, districts with declining enrollment like Philly will likely have to increasingly make these difficult decisions more often, in order to shuffle teachers to where they\u2019re needed most. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any easy answer, honestly,\u201d said Fuller.<\/p>\n

Effective schools build strong partnerships between students, families, and staff, said Scott Gaiber, deputy chief of talent initiatives at the Philly-based education group Elevate 215. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have people shuffling out and shuffling in, it\u2019s really challenging to create those partnerships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system. The Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7623,8003,102704,539,28,69,12561,71,70,7625],"class_list":["post-238719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-chalkbeat","tag-city-hall","tag-mayor-cherelle-parkers-rideshare-tax","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-federation-of-teachers","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238719","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=238719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}