Teacher Layoffs to Continue in School District

The majority of teacher layoffs will continue in the School District of Philadelphia after the district and its teachers' union agreed to contest some, but not all, of the layoffs.

The only layoffs that won't happen in the next few days are those of Promise Academy teachers that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers said were let go unfairly. The status of 174 Promise Academy teachers also remains in limbo.

The school district said in a statement that the status of those teachers will be determined through an arbitration process.

But for now, the district will be able to go ahead and lay off most of the 1,523 teachers it had originally planned to let go.

"This agreement allows the district to move forward with the teacher assignment and transfer process to prepare for the successful opening of schools next year," the school district said in a statement.