Philadelphia High School Relocates After Contractor Disturbs Asbestos
Asbestos Exposure & Bans
Written by Travis Rodgers | Edited by Amy Edel
The School District of Philadelphia is moving more than 400 students and 90 staff members out of Kensington High School after a contractor disturbed asbestos during a heating and cooling system upgrade. The district plans to send them to the former Austin Meehan Middle School building in Northeast Philadelphia through January 2027.
District officials say the trouble started in July, when crews removed piping in the basement as part of an HVAC project. That work revealed asbestos and a subcontractor mishandled the toxic material and spread it throughout the building.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Oz Hill addressed the issue directly at a recent meeting with Kensington families. “I would like to acknowledge and apologize for this unfortunate circumstance,” Hill said. He and other officials laid out what went wrong and where students will go while crews clean and repair the building, underscoring questions about the nation’s asbestos-in-schools safety system.
Union Says Oversight Failures Caused Shutdown
Union leaders say better oversight could’ve kept a manageable problem from turning into a building-wide shutdown. Jerry Roseman, the union’s director of environmental science, visited Kensington High School over the summer and talked with people working inside the building.
Roseman says crews need to identify and safely move asbestos-containing materials out of the way before they start other renovation work. He calls the process straightforward and says the district missed a step somewhere along the line.
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg says someone not certified to handle asbestos performed the removal in ‘a non-regulated way. He also says the district agreed to remove all the asbestos in the century-old building, not just the material the contractor damaged.
Students Face New Travel Challenges
Austin Meehan Middle School has been empty since 2022. District officials say they chose the building because it has enough space for Kensington’s students and staff. It can also accommodate students with special needs.
However, the school is more than 7 miles from Kensington,a roughly 24-minute drive without traffic. To help manage the distance, the district plans to have 8 buses available beginning around 6:45 a.m. each school day for families to drop off students at Kensington’s closed building and shuttle them to Austin Meehan.
District officials held an in-person meeting recently and plan to offer families more opportunities to ask questions in the coming days. A virtual session and open houses will be held at Austin Meehan. Kensington Principal Dr. Jose Lebron says the district’s priority is keeping students and staff safe while working through the transition.
Asbestos a Persistent Problem in Philly Schools
About 80% of Philadelphia’s school buildings date back to before 1980 when builders widely used asbestos products such as insulation, ceiling tiles and cement. Many schools now have aging materials that can release dangerous fibers with wear and tear like asbestos flooring. Renovations that damage asbestos products particularly pose a risk of asbestos exposure when proper precautions aren’t taken.
An independent review of Benjamin Franklin High School found a rushed construction timeline led officials to miss warning signs during a 2018-2019 renovation project that also exposed asbestos. And asbestos contamination forced 6 Philadelphia schools to close in 2023 alone.
Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against the School District of Philadelphia in 2023 for its handling of asbestos in schools, marking the first case of its kind against a U.S. school district. The district entered a deferred prosecution agreement that requires compliance with federal asbestos rules for about 5 years. Officials say regular inspections continue across the district’s roughly 300 school buildings while that agreement stays in effect.
Philadelphia teacher Lea DiRusso taught in city schools for nearly 30 years before doctors diagnosed her with mesothelioma. The district settled her lawsuit for $850,000 in 2020. Frankford High School teacher Juan Namnun, who was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, filed a similar lawsuit in 2024 over decades of asbestos exposure at the school.
