The Head of Philly Schools Talks Safety, Staffing Shortages and Cell Phone Bans

Tony Watlington at School District of Philadelphia headquarters / Photograph by Kyle Kielinski

School bus driver. School custodian. First-generation college grad. History teacher. School administrator. Tony Watlington held all of these roles before moving north to become the superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia. Here, he talks about violence in schools, the accuracy of Abbott Elementary, and why CrossFit is so important to him.

You moved to the Art Museum area from North Carolina three years ago. Philly has a reputation for not being so welcoming to newcomers. What was your experience?
It was very clear to me that because I couldn’t name a high school that I went to here, that I didn’t have a childhood neighborhood of reference … Philadelphia really does place a premium on celebrating its own. I think Philadelphia has a sometimes tough exterior, but I worked hard to be welcomed by Philadelphians, and I welcomed the opportunity to join this very fine city.

How did your family handle Dad suddenly saying he was taking a job in the sixth-biggest city in the nation?
My three sons all immediately wanted to go to a Meek Mill concert. And of course, they’ve done all the cheesesteaks. But I’m not going to weigh in or take any sides in that battle.

Very smart! What surprised you most about Philadelphia? I’m asking you as a citizen-resident, not the leader of schools.
First, how Philly can be really tough on itself. And second, I knew this was a big sports town but … wow. A coach loses a couple of games even though his team has a winning record and … Philly doesn’t play.

We certainly do not. When you arrived here, you held close to 100 listening and learning sessions with families, students, teachers, staffers, and other community members. What was your biggest takeaway from those conversations?
That people wanted their children to be able to get a great education anywhere in the city and not just if they got into Masterman or Central. But things are improving; test scores are up. Our goal is to be the fastest-improving large urban school district in the nation. And I am hearing from people that they like what they are seeing. When I’m out running or in the grocery store, people stop me and say keep up the good work. Education is very important to people here, notwithstanding what people say. … People really do care.

One problem plaguing the district is staffing shortages.
We are working to recruit more teachers and more diverse teachers, more male teachers, more teachers of color. As our mayor always says: Our kids can’t be what they can’t see. Representation really matters.

You’re staring down a perilous fiscal cliff. What are you doing about it?
Several things. This year, we dipped into our fund balance — our reserves — so that we don’t have to make any cuts to programs or personnel. What we don’t want to do when things are working — test scores are up, career readiness in high school is up, dropout numbers are down — we don’t want to divest resources from the district. Next year, we will need to have a different strategy, because we won’t have the same level of fund balance. We will have to look hard at cutting programs and staffing unless we get more revenue. We are tightening the belt even though we are already underfunded. There has been long-standing underfunding, so we are a long way from being adequately funded. But we will not sacrifice our aspiration to be the fastest-improving school district.

School is back in session. What does your average day look like?
I’m up at 5:45. Three or four days a week I do CrossFit in the gym with a trainer, or I’m out on a run. Then I eat a fairly healthy breakfast and get to the office around 7:45. It’s a full day of meetings, school visits, interfacing with members of the mayor’s office, spending lots of time with grassroots organizers, meeting with members of faith and philanthropic communities. I’m prioritizing getting inside classrooms, seeing what is happening on the ground on a regular basis. And my day may not end until well after 8:30 p.m. Or 9 p.m. And I’m working on weekends. This is why the running and CrossFit are so important. I need to keep my body and mind healthy. I have to get my mind right.

One of the mayor’s more controversial campaign platforms was what she originally referred to as year-round schooling. Where exactly are we with that? I hear the program is actually expanding.
Last year, 20 district-operated schools and five charters piloted extended-day and extended-year opportunities. Parents had available to them some really good, exciting programs and enrichment on a daily basis. The students were able to learn how to play chess, participate in intramural sports, take great field trips — things they might not otherwise have been able to do. The mayor likes to say that not all of our kids are vacationing in the Hamptons or the South of France during summer or winter break. Our goal has been to provide the kind of enrichment available to middle-class families and in the suburbs.

How did the pilot work out?
We are now collecting data to see how parents and students rated it. But regular daily attendance was significantly higher than overall district attendance on average. The more that kids are in school, the more they learn, and so we are now expanding this opportunity from 20 district-operated schools to 30 and adding five charter schools. This is a great investment in our young people.

You keep using the word opportunity. Do you ever see this becoming mandatory?
Parents should always have a choice. Extended-day and extended-year schooling is not for everyone. We want parents to opt in to the model. We do have a vision for creating a dedicated year-round school, and when we get to that point, I believe that would also be an opt-in model.

Tony Watlington with Penn Alexander students during a school visit in January / Photograph courtesy of School District of Philadelphia

The district has been studying various facilities throughout the city, identifying which buildings need work, which schools might need to close. When can we expect the results of that study?
Later this year. We are assessing what schools we should just do regular maintenance on, which schools require renovations, which schools should be repurposed for other community uses, which schools should be co-located with other schools, and which schools to close. And we have to address the issue of underenrolled and overenrolled schools and determine how to best utilize our limited resources to provide a high-quality academic experience and extracurriculars to children across all neighborhoods. We are engaging with the community about this process, and we are committed to being transparent about these decisions. To be clear, the Board of Education will be the ones actually making the decisions. We are providing assessments and analysis.

You can have all of the bulletproof windows, you can have giant tanks, you can have all the police officers, but if you just have a young person who has an adult they feel comfortable talking to, they will be more likely to say something if they see something.” — Tony Watlington

My kids attended a private high school. We moved to Overbrook in 2006, and there were so many incidents at Overbrook High, including a teacher who was beaten into a coma by students, that we just couldn’t send our kids there. I understand you want to give a world-class education, but … what about just keeping our kids safe?
I want to be very clear that safety is our number one priority in our strategic five-year plan. We absolutely expect and demand that our schools are safe for students and teachers. But our internal data shows that there is a small minority of children that make bad choices. And the real way to get them to not make bad choices is to make sure they get what they need in elementary school, not falling behind.

We have also expanded our safety zones, where we pay police officers outside the schools to maintain an additional presence. And we have adults who are paid to watch over young people on their way home from school. We have appropriated money so we can switch out our old analog cameras for digital cameras. We’ve also launched a new drone program in partnership with the police department to see what’s going on from above. We have metal detectors in all high schools and less-intrusive detection surveillance in all standalone middle schools. We also have climate managers, who are essential.

Climate managers?
Yes, I have not seen this in other schools I’ve worked in. Climate managers keep their eyes and ears open and work with school safety officials and principals to spot potential problems.

So they know that group A has some kind of beef with group B, and they work to intervene before it becomes a full-blown hallway brawl that goes viral on TikTok?
Exactly. And what’s also important is that we need to build appropriate, positive relationships between young people and adults. You can have all of the bulletproof windows, you can have giant tanks, you can have all the police officers, but if you just have a young person who has an adult they feel comfortable talking to, they will be more likely to say something if they see something.

There’s been a lot of talk about cell phones in schools. I, for one, am on Team Ban Cell Phones From the Classroom. Where do you stand? What is the policy in Philadelphia?
You have some major school districts in the country banning phones. Our policy is different. I believe this is a decision best made at the school level. On a school-by-school basis. There are parents who feel very strongly that they need to be able to reach their children at all times, and there are others who feel the complete opposite. Cell phones can certainly be a distraction, but they can also be a walking library in the classroom.

Are there any schools that actually ban phones?
Yes. I have been in schools here that require students to place their phones in locked pouches, at least during class periods.

Tony Watlington and Gov. Josh Shapiro, with Sen. Anthony Williams (left) and Rep. Jordan Harris in June 2024 at George W. Childs School to serve free breakfast to students and discuss Shapiro’s budget / Photograph courtesy of Commonwealth Media

I know we’re getting a little short on time, but one of my colleagues, who has two kids in a Philadelphia public elementary school, asked me: What the hell is up with the new math curriculum? They’re confounded by it and have no idea how to help teach it at home.
When we adopted this new curriculum last year, we got a lot of feedback from teachers, students, and parents that it was difficult. This math is called illustrative math and is less about rote memorization of skills and gimmicks we employ to do math and more about concepts, understanding why formulas are created the way they are. This leads to a higher level of thinking that they will need when they are older.

The problem was that we did not have standardized math curricula in the district, and you had young people at Penn Alexander learning this math, and that is one of the best schools in the country. So now every single student in Philadelphia has access to the same math that the students at Penn Alexander have.

Most teachers I talk to say that their mom or dad was a teacher or that they come from a long line of educators. You?
I am a first-generation teacher and first-generation college graduate. I come from a long line of hardworking and taxpaying people who invested their support and resources into folks like me, so it’s important that when we get into positions of leadership, we really need to pay it forward.

On to important business: How accurate is Abbott Elementary?
[Laughs] I love that show. They do such a fantastic job showing the good, the bad, the joys, the challenges. They deserve all the Emmys.

And finally, how long have you been rocking the ’stache?
For quite a while now. And I think we’re gonna keep it. I will say, though, it’s gotten a bit grayer since I started this job.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Published as “Class Act” in the September 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.