July 11, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
The Philadelphia school district has more than 300 positions for next school year that it still needs to fill, according to a list in a district email recently sent to staff obtained by Chalkbeat.
The Philadelphia school district is telling teachers to pick school placements from a list on the spot — or it will assign them one, creating what the teachers union called "confusion and exasperation" six weeks before the school year starts.
The district has more than 300 positions for next school year that it still needs to fill, according to a list in a district email recently sent to staff obtained by Chalkbeat. Teachers who do not yet have an assigned position for next year had to attend Zoom meetings this week, send a proxy to select for them, or be assigned a school "based on the needs of the School District," according to a second email the district sent to staff Monday.
"It’s like a fantasy football draft," said one district teacher who attended his scheduled meeting on Tuesday. He and other teachers spoke to Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity because the district did not authorize him to speak. "It’s an utter disorganized, chaotic mess," he said.
The Zoom sessions are a culmination of what several teachers described as months of staffing uncertainty. In the spring, district officials had planned budget cuts for the 2025-2026 school year that would eliminate 340 positions, and told principals to move forward with cutting roles. The district did not plan to layoff staff, but rather directed employees to find open positions elsewhere through a process called "forced transfers."
A last-minute city budget deal last month restored those positions, but only after affected teachers had already begun applying for new positions. Schools also still have to move forward with eliminating other positions that resulted from enrollment shifts, which change schools’ budgets every year.
Teachers affected by the staffing reorganization describe chaos and uncertainty. Some say they still don't know if they'll be able to return to their positions that district officials previously planned to eliminate in the spring. Others have already taken jobs outside the district to avoid the frustration.
Experts say this kind of upheaval, though sometimes unavoidable, can lead to greater teacher turnover and make it harder to ensure students get the help they need.
District spokesperson Monique Braxton said in a statement that the district is moving forward with restoring positions, but that doing so "is separate from staffing those positions."
She said the district is working with principals on staffing schools and making employee assignments in accordance with union agreements.
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg said in a statement Wednesday that the district’s Tuesday Zoom session for teachers to pick their schools was “a day-long debacle that left many PFT members frustrated and disenchanted.”
The union contract requires the district to inform force transferred staff of vacancies, and to assign them to the vacancies they request, based on seniority. But it does not dictate the details of the selection process.
Steinberg said the union applauded the city budget deal. But he called on the district to correct the “administrative issues” that have left teachers with no confirmation of where they’ll be working so close to the beginning of the next school year.
The district has around 220 schools, some located nearly an hour’s drive apart.
Schools’ budgets and staff positions shift regularly based on enrollment, and forced transfers are a common part of every school year transition. But this year’s last-minute budget deal appeared to delay the timeline for finalizing placements.
Superintendent Tony Watlington previously said figuring out a way to restore positions was a "great problem to have." Recruiting and retaining effective teachers is a key pillar of his strategic plan.
But moving teachers between schools without much input from them can lead to increased turnover, said Edward Fuller, a professor in the College of Education at Penn State who has studied teacher retention.
"The fit between a teacher and a school is really important, and you don't fit well at every school," Fuller said. "If you go to another school and you don't fit, now you’re like, why am I going to do this? Like, I can just pick my own school outside of the district, or go find another job."
Fuller's research has found that the number of newly certified teachers across Pennsylvania has plummeted over the past decade, with too few teachers to fill the demand. That takes a toll on students' academic performance, he has found.
Still, he said, districts with declining enrollment like Philly will likely have to increasingly make these difficult decisions more often, in order to shuffle teachers to where they're needed most.
"I don't think there's any easy answer, honestly," Fuller said.
Effective schools build strong partnerships between students, families, and staff, said Scott Gaiber, deputy chief of talent initiatives at the Philly-based education group Elevate 215.
"When you have people shuffling out and shuffling in, it's really challenging to create those partnerships," he said.
Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.
