Superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington talks ahead of his first State of Public Education address
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington will deliver his first State of Public Education address Tuesday at 10 a.m.
While many improvements have been made in the Philadelphia school district, the superintendent admits there are still many challenges ahead.
"I'm excited, very pleased because the School District of Philadelphia is accelerating," Dr. Watlington said ahead of Tuesday's address.
CBS News Philadelphia sat down with Dr. Watlington to get a preview of where the district stands right now in its first year of implementing a new five-year strategic plan.
"In the first year, the numbers look good," he said. "Teacher attendance is up, student attendance is up, test scores are up in 13 out of 17 areas."
Teacher and student participation is on an upward trend and other areas of education are as well.
"The four-year graduation rate has increased by 3 percentage points from 71 to 74%. We've got a long way to go and the dropout numbers are going down," Dr. Watlington said.
Although Dr. Watlington does tout the strides the district is making, he admits there are still a number of challenges.
"We improved in 13 out of 17 areas, two areas where we did not improve we actually went the wrong direction – algebra 1 and biology at the high school level," he said.
Aging, often archaic school buildings continue to pose a challenge with the average school building being 73 years old.
"We are building some schools. T.M. Peirce opened recently, they have a beautiful school. The first one as I understand it in North Philly in 70 years I'm told," Dr. Watlington said. "We have well over 2.5 billion dollars in our capital budget to continue to make some facility improvements"
The school district is also tackling the gun violence plaguing the city, with 33 school district students killed last year, one even on school property.
"We're gonna be good partners with the city of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department. We're going to continue to build out Safe Path Programs," he said. "We used to have seven, we're well over 20 now."
Dr. Watlington said the district is also replacing and enhancing cameras throughout the district and investing in mental health resources for students and staff.
His inaugural address will be detailed outlining the full state of the school district and he said his overriding message will be clear.
"I wanna say to our community – a city that sometimes be a little tough on itself. It's OK to just stop, take a deep breath, smile and acknowledge that we are getting better," he said.
Dr. Watlington will deliver his address at CAPA, the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Mayor Cherelle Parker will also be in attendance.
