City officials threaten to withhold school funding amid asbestos issues
The Philadelphia School District is the only district in the state that does not control its tax rates.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It was the first day back for in-person classes on Monday at Mastery Gratz Prep Middle School in Philadelphia after asbestos was discovered last week.
The middle school was cleared to reopen but parents say they're still worried.
"Thankfully there is testing, but the after-effects? How many people are going to know it was affiliated with asbestos?" asked Danielle Mitchell of Tioga-Nicetown.
SEE ALSO: Students return to Mastery's Simon Gratz Middle School after asbestos closure
Meanwhile, we learned Monday that Simon Gratz High School Mastery Charter, which shares the campus in the city's Tioga-Nicetown section, will remained closed for at least one more day until inspections are complete.
Gratz is the second district building to close in less than a month because of asbestos.
The other, Building 21 in West Oak Lane, is still closed as well.
Now, city leaders say they'll withhold funding from the district until they get a detailed plan for rectifying the issue of unsafe and deteriorating school buildings.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who is the chair of the council's education committee, gathered at a news conference at City Hall on Monday.
"The recommendations we make and suggestions that we give, not saying they don't listen to all of them, but far too often the important ones fall on deaf ears," said Councilmember Thomas.
This could put the district in a predicament.
The Philadelphia School District is the only district in the state that does not control its tax rates.
It has to rely on City Hall and Harrisburg to raise the funds it needs to operate.
That's why Councilmember Thomas and others also called on the state legislators to allocate millions of the state's general fund surplus and a healthy Rainy Day Fund for help.
"At the end of the day, a society is judged by how we treat our most vulnerable and that's our elderly and our children," said Thomas.
In response to the accusations made by the councilmember and others, the Philadelphia School Board issued a statement that reads in part, "I submit that the Board has not sat on its hands, but has been good stewards of public funding and has made capital and environmental improvements a priority and will continue to do so."
According to the 6abc Data Journalism Team, since 2016, there have been 2,289 asbestos abatement projects across the School District of Philadelphia; 1,675 of those have occurred at schools with elementary-aged children.
So far this year, there have been at least 196 abatement projects at Philadelphia schools.
