Fall Research Expo 2021

The Necessity to Create a Facilities Master Plan For Philadelphia Schools

This summer my mentor, Dr. Rodriguez, wanted to create a facilities master plan that would allow for more transparency about the conditions in Philadelphia schools. A facilities master plan has been done in many other places around the country and essentially lays out the problems in schools, how they can solve them, and possibly how much it would cost. Around the country, the infrastructure of our schools is crumbling. Specifically in Philadelphia, there have been long-standing issues with asbestos-lined facilities and lead discovered in the water. A lot of those issues are also due to the average age of the School District of Philadelphia buildings being 75 years old. These issues have caused health problems for the staff and students that can become long-term. Additionally, when parents or advocates try to get information on the health of the facilities, it is not easily accessible. This master plan would allow for more transparency of the problems in school facilities and would be an aid to advocate for school district officials to fix these problems.

 

PRESENTED BY
PURM - Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program
College of Arts & Sciences 2024
Advised By
Akira Rodriguez
Join Lauryn for a virtual discussion
PRESENTED BY
PURM - Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program
College of Arts & Sciences 2024
Advised By
Akira Rodriguez

Comments

September 14 | 5:17 PM : by ggoo@upenn.edu

Thanks for sharing this research about the facilities master plan! It looks like a very important and interesting project.

-Prof. Goodman

Hi Lauryn, thank you for the important and relevant work you did this summer! It is uplifting to see that other cities have created Facilities Master Plans; hopefully Philadelphia will someday do the same.

As someone who attended Philadelphia public schools my entire life and actually attended a school found with asbestos, it is frustrating to see the lack of response from the School District of Philadelphia. I do think a Facilities Master Plan would be vital in making these schools safe for students and staff to attend. Thank you for this presentation and for working on this topic!