School District of Philadelphia officials confident in plan to begin hybrid learning in November

PHILADELPHIA - Officials with the School District of Philadelphia say they are sticking to their plan to reopen in-person learning in schools in a hybrid method planned for later this year.

“We’ve said that we will phase in. We’ll do a phase in approach and begin no earlier than Nov. 17. It could be what the model looks like but that decision has been made," Dr. William Hite said.

In a media briefing Thursday, Dr. Hite  and others discussed capital improvement projects that are taking place within schools to allow for a safe return.

“We’ve now invested some $270 million. We borrowed another 500 million to also do that work. We still have a long ways to go it’s also going to take additional funding," he added.

That additional funding is in the Heroes Act in the House of Representatives that has not been passed in Congress as of yet.

Reggie McNeil, the district’s new chief operating officer, says they’re trying to balance what repairs take priority. .

“We’re trying to figure out how many students we can get into the facilities now without having to do major repairs with the understanding those repairs have to take place eventually,” he said.

Dr. Hite says the school district is making progress on things like lead and asbestos remediation

“I’m proud of the fact that we now have 110 schools that are certified lead safe. I’m proud of that fact that we’ve moved some 250,000 feet of asbestos materials that brings down the asbestos hazard of the school,” he said.

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