Phila. Teachers' Union President: District 'Owes It To Children' To Fill Teacher Vacancies
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There are 200 teaching positions that the School District of Philadelphia hasn't filled. So says the city teachers union, which says the district is sitting on the money that would fix the problem.
The situation at Mastbaum Vo-Tech, where Millie Cappetti's daughter goes?
"The kids are literally sitting on windowsills. The desks are literally pushed together to make room in the classroom."
She says there aren't enough permanent educators to relieve such overcrowding.
"The district knew in June. They should have had the people in the schools by September," said Cappetti.
That's an accusation echoed by Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan, who says the positions that need to be filled are in the district's budget, not jobs that were lost to cuts.
"The very least the district could do is perform a very basic management function: staff our schools," said Jordan.
The district's acting recruiting boss, Kendra-Lee Rosati, says while the number of vacancies is a "challenge," it largely results from keeping more teachers in schools where they started the year.
"We are listening to feedback from principals, teachers, and parents about how it's very disruptive to go through this process [of 'leveling,' in which the number of teachers assigned to each school is balanced with the number of students actually enrolled], so we are really trying to be responsive to the needs of our students," said Rosati.
The district expects to hire up to 80 teachers within the next week, which Rosati says will bring the number of vacant positions down below last school year's total.
