. >> reporter: jerry rosen is an environmental scientist and works with the school district. he has documented thousands of problems in the school district. >> the conditions are egregious and the conditions are kind of urgent and immediate. >> the union gave "america tonight" recent building reports and photos. stacks of textbooks destroyed by water and falling debris. ceilings with up to 400 square feet of mold. and even a couch in the room for special needs kids, contaminated with rodent feces. >> do you think they are all beyond repair? >> no. i mean actually teen school that is here behind us a.s. jenks which is a very old building, has a very sold structure. a lot of philadelphia schools are in the 40 to 70 and 75 year range. >> rosemond says immediate and substantial repairs can be done and for much cheaper than school district's $4.1 billion price tag. >> we put out a plan that suggested a way to do that, by hiring a large and additional maintenance staff taking maybe five additional maintenance people to put into 50 or 60 schools at the same time, and to spend two we