Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The school year started Wednesday for the 500-plus new Philadelphia School District teachers and counselors who will welcome 113,000 students back to school on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n
Inside the cavernous gymnasium at School of the Future in Parkside, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. pumped up the 575 new hires, telling them he was honored they chose Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working hard in this school district to be the fastest-improving large urban district<\/a> in the entire United States of America,\u201d Watlington said.<\/p>\n District officials said that they have 94% of teacher jobs filled system-wide, with just under three weeks before the beginning of the school year. The district has 100% of principal jobs filled.<\/p>\n The lowest \u201cfill rate\u201d for school-based jobs across the system is 77%, for building engineers, followed by special education assistants, at 79%.<\/p>\n This has been a chaotic hiring season<\/a> for the district, with projected budget cuts forcing staff reductions in the spring, then a scramble to restore hundreds of school-based jobs after Mayor Cherelle L. Parker promised millions to stave off the cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of those 340 teachers, counselors and other school-based workers who were cut have been restored to the positions they were initially directed to leave; others have taken new jobs in or outside the system, or are \u201cover-appointments\u201d who do not yet have permanent Philadelphia assignments.<\/p>\n \u2018They saw potential\u2019<\/p>\n Debora Carrera told the new teachers she wouldn\u2019t have risen to become Mayor Cherelle L. Parker\u2019s chief education officer if not for people like them.<\/p>\n Carrera, the daughter of parents who didn\u2019t finish elementary school, grew up as one of six kids in a single-parent family. Sometimes she was hungry. Sometimes, she wasn\u2019t able to bathe.<\/p>\n But \u201cthere were teachers who didn\u2019t use those things as obstacles or barriers,\u201d Carrera said. \u201cBut you know what they saw? They saw talent, and they saw potential in me.\u201d<\/p>\n Research shows that the top factor influencing a child\u2019s academic progress is having a well-supported, stable teacher. And the first few years of educators\u2019 careers are crucial: nearly half of all teachers leave the profession within the first five years. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t give up, Carrera said. <\/p>\n \u201cBeing a teacher is the most amazing incredible profession on the planet – don\u2019t let anyone ever tell you differently,\u201d she said. \u201cAre you going to feel like you\u2019re great every day? No? But guess what, stick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n After the pep talk, Kwaku Ansah was charged up.<\/p>\n