Dear School District of Philadelphia families,

You are invited to participate in the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Priority Survey which opens today, and closes on Monday, February 5, 2024 at 11:59pm.

The collective efforts of School District of Philadelphia staff and the support of concerned families and citizens have led to the District experiencing relative financial stability over the last few years. Our responsible use of the federal funding received during the pandemic and post-pandemic years helped lead to lower levels of student learning loss than other large urban districts, balanced budgets and our highest bond ratings in decades. With an improved financial standing, we have been able to reduce the student dropout rate, increase the number of students passing state tests while decreasing the number of students scoring at the lowest levels, and increase student and teacher attendance. We are Accelerating Philly, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as a community.

Now we are now facing a looming budget deficit due to the upcoming end of the federal COVID-19 funding, and historic underfunding. Thankfully we have the benefit of foresight. So, in alignment with Accelerate Philly Strategic Action 5.8, we are starting the conversations around the budget now, earlier than we have in the past, in order to limit the impact on students and schools. Your feedback is critical to this conversation! By completing the survey, you are providing us with valuable information about how we can create a budget that is reflective of the things students and families – the communities we serve – find important.

The survey is available now, in numerous languages, here or by visiting www.philasd.org. Completing it should take no longer than 10 minutes. The survey is just one of a number of ways we will be engaging members of our School District community in our budget conversation. We look forward to sharing more details about upcoming engagement opportunities as soon as they are available.

Thank you for participating in the survey. We will overcome these challenges together as we continue on our journey to become the fastest-improving large urban district in the nation.