June 23, 2026
Molly McVety/PhillyVoice
From left, Deputy Superintendent of Operations Oz Hill, Superintendent Tony Watlington and Shakeera Warthen-Canty, senior adviser at the new School Transition Office, face questions at John M. Patterson Elementary School in Eastwick on Tuesday.
Administrators with the School District of Philadelphia on Tuesday introduced a new office dedicated to preparing communities for upcoming school closures and renovations.
Starting next week, the School Transition Office will help carry out the district’s facilities master plan and coordinating support and communication efforts with students, families and staff. Shakeera Warthen-Canty, a former assistant superintendent and elementary school principal with the district, was named as the senior adviser for the office.
Superintendent Tony Watlington called the new office a “one-stop shop” for anyone impacted by the 10-year, $3 billion plan to modernize 169 school buildings and close 17 others.
“We want to assure Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia that we … will be ready to engage all of our families and school communities to really paint a picture of what the next year will look like in terms of meeting with our parents and families face-to-face, in terms of finding out what the needs are right now,” Watlington said.
Warthen-Canty, a graduate from Overbrook High School, has served as an assistant superintendent since 2021 and was a principal at Bregy Elementary School in South Philadelphia for six years.
In her role on the transition team, she will lead a small staff and head meetings with community members to make the case to why families should remain in the public school system, Watlington said. She will also eventually provide support in adjusting to future changes.
“This work is only going to be possible [if we are] able to leverage the relationships from school communities and the various offices at the district to provide great customer service to our communities,” she said. “Ultimately, there will be great opportunities for students, but it will have its challenges. So, they will need the support and someone walking alongside them to make sure everything is done.”
The implementation process of the facilities plan starts with a “planning year” for the duration of the upcoming 2026-27 school year, during which impacted schools will begin preparing their communities for the changes ahead and developing more concrete strategies for how the school will operate.
To assist with this effort, the district has said it will invest in individual transition teams for each affected school.
When Warthen-Canty steps into her position on July 1, one of the first things she will tackle is the composition of these teams, she said Tuesday.
“We want to do things in partnership and collaboration with the school teams, but our main focus is to make sure that school communities know who to call to get answers,” she said. “We do want to offer red-carpet treatment to our school communities because we do recognize that this transition is hard.”
Teams will look slightly different depending on the needs and future plan for each school but will mostly include principals and leaders, interested family members and students, Warthen-Carty said. When committees begin to be established, school communities will be informed and participants can reach out to a representative from the Transition Office.
“The key is it will be a deep, meaningful, transparent partnership, equal partnership, and we’re going to do this work together,” Watlington said. “... We are going to work very closely with our families, we’re going to be very transparent and we’re going to do our best to convince them to stay … here in the School District of Philadelphia.”
LeAndrea Baltimore-Hagan, principal of John M. Patterson Elementary School in Eastwick, walks through the cafeteria, which lacks air conditioning and will be renovated as is part of a $45 million project.
Molly McVety/for PhillyVoice
The facilities plan was put forth in an effort to make better use of the district’s resources as they face dwindling enrollment. After being approved in April, district officials said they would begin to enact the 10-year plan “immediately.”
On Tuesday, district leaders unveiled details for a $45 million renovation to John M. Patterson Elementary School in Eastwick, which is slated to transition from a Pre-K through fourth grade school to a Pre-K through eighth grade school.
A two-year modernization project is planned for the 105-year-old facility, including the construction of a new 13-classroom building, a new gymnasium, renovated kitchens and cafeterias and accessibility upgrades.
The impact of construction for these projects is unknown, Watlington said, but will be “part of the transition process.”
“The short-term sacrifice … all of that will be worth the improvement,” he said. “Whatever the school’s transition committee decides would be best for this community, we have the expertise and we know how to do it right.”
