Port Richmond is getting a new, $62 million school building

A new school is rising in Port Richmond.

AMY at James Martin, formerly housed in an 1894 structure, will get a $62 million building at Richmond and East Ontario Streets.

Officials gathered at the construction site Thursday to mark the lowering of the final steel beam into place for the 88,000-square-foot building, which will have room for 500 students. Construction is expected to be complete in December. It’s not yet clear when the school will open to students.

AMY at James Martin students are currently housed at Penn Treaty High School, about two miles away.

The project had to be fast-tracked to meet federal deadlines; part of the construction costs were paid for with COVID relief funds.

Paula Furman, the middle school’s principal, called Thursday’s ceremony “an extraordinary milestone in the journey of bringing our new school home to life.”

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The new structure will be an outlier in the school system, where the average building is 73 years old.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said the project was the sixth new building in the district in 10 years. The district is now in the midst of a facilities planning process that could see more new buildings — and also school closings and co-locations.

Standing against a backdrop of heavy equipment and construction workers, Reginald Streater, the school board president, said the AMY at James Martin project “is the beginning of something that’s big that’s going to continue with our facilities planning process. We hope to replicate this all over the city.”

The new building is located on the site of the old AMY at James Martin, which was demolished over some neighbors’ protests at losing the historic site.

Doris Lynch, who leads Port Richmond Neighborhood Action, said some neighbors felt like public input was glossed over in the project process.

Still, Lynch said, the new school could represent new opportunities for the neighborhood.

“We can only hope for the best,” said Lynch.

Ken Paul, president of Port Richmond on Patrol and Civic Association, another neighborhood group, attended the ceremony Thursday, calling the new school “an incredible project” and important to Port Richmond.

“We had a lot of input when it came to this, what we wanted, what we didn’t want, and it’s been an ongoing struggle, but let me tell you, we came out on top at the end of this,” Paul said. “We’re going to have a school that rivals anything anywhere else, and it’s going to be something in this community that we have long needed and wanted. We’re gonna be able to bring children from all over the city into this neighborhood and bring life back into it.”