Title
Authorizing the City Council Committees on Children and Youth and Finance to hold joint hearings on a plan to fund a comprehensive remediation and modernization of Philadelphia's public school buildings to address major facilities flaws, adapt to a changing climate, and ensure public school students have the safe and modern buildings they deserve.
Body
WHEREAS, Modern, safe schools have profoundly positive impacts on students, staff members, and surrounding communities, but Black and Latinx students across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania disproportionately attend old and unsafe facilities. In Philadelphia, the average age of a public school is nearly 70 years old, and the School District of Philadelphia has projected that the cost needed solely to remediate major facilities deficiencies is approximately $5 billion; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Inquirer's "Toxic City: Sick Schools" series in 2018 chronicled decades of deferred maintenance and failed remediation that has resulted in exposure of both students and school staff to hazards such as asbestos, lead, and mold in over 200 public schools. Additionally, a majority of buildings in the District lack air conditioning, which has resulted in school closures due to increasingly hot temperatures, as well as quality ventilation and filtration, which rendered city schools unable to safely open for in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic; and
WHEREAS, The District has struggled to manage renovation projects in old buildings that threaten the safety of students and staff. An Inspector General report in 2020 regarding the botched construction and subsequent closure of the Ben Franklin High School and Science Leadership Academy shared campus castigated the District for repeated failures to listen to concerns about the conditions created during construction and failure to establish any contingency plan; and
WHEREAS, Over the years, the District has seen tragic death and severe injury, including 25-...
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