A $62.1 million school rises in West Philadelphia: inside the new Cassidy Elementary

It was show-and-tell day Friday for a brand new, $62.1 million Philadelphia School District building.

Lewis C. Cassidy Academics Plus, on Parkside Avenue in Overbrook, will open to teachers on Tuesday and students on Aug. 26. It will serve students in prekindergarten through eighth grade.

The three-story, brick-and-metal structure has two wings and plenty of bells and whistles not present in many of Philadelphia’s old school buildings: a maker space, an innovation lab, a library, a playground, a cafeteria with a full-service kitchen and outdoor seating, an art studio with a kiln, and more.

The new Cassidy Elementary was a long time coming.

It replaced a 100-year-old school that, in 2017, moved a 10-year-old fourth grader to write to politicians asking for help because “every day I go to school, I feel like I’m in a prison or a junkyard.”

State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia) said the plaintive letters from Cassidy students helped spur his advocacy for improved buildings for schools in Philadelphia and statewide.

“The vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow was the old Cassidy,” Hughes told over 100 community members, dignitaries, students, and staff who attended the ribbon-cutting for the new Cassidy Friday.

The poor conditions of the old school attracted national attention and were chronicled in The Inquirer’s Toxic City: Sick School series.

The district has opened two new schools this year — Cassidy and T.M. Peirce, in North Philadelphia. The old Peirce also had significant environmental hazards and other building issues.

Many Philadelphia schools remain in need of significant upgrades or replacements. Officials have estimated the school system needs about $7 billion in facilities work.

» READ MORE: The Inquirer's Toxic City: Sick Schools series

But Friday was about celebrating a hard-won victory.

Now a 17-year-old senior at Central High, Chelsea Mungo, the student whose letter initially caught politicians’ eyes, took in the new school with wonder.

“I’m just so happy right now,” Mungo said. “I can’t even imagine it.”

Khalif Wilder, 11, a rising sixth-grader at Cassidy, was pretty impressed, too.

“It’s really cool,” Wilder said. As for the former Cassidy building, which has been torn down?

“It was real old,” said Khalif. “It looked like it was about to fall apart. It had no air-conditioning.”

School board president Reginald Streater said the money spent on Cassidy, which marks the first school project helmed by a Black-owned construction firm, Perryman Shoemaker, was well worth it. Philadelphia’s children deserve modern, healthy schools, he said.

“We are making the investments that have been denied to our learners for far too long,” said Streater.

As district staff conducted tours of the brand-new school, Stephanie Jenkins, who has lived across the street for 28 years, clapped her hands and marveled at a prekindergarten room, all bright colors, sensory toys, and natural light.

“To see this school built up like this, it’s the best,” said Jenkins, whose daughter, now an engineer, attended the old Cassidy years ago. Her mother worked for years in the school’s cafeteria. The new Cassidy feels like a victory for the community, and for the kids, Jenkins said. “It’s beautiful.”

Zachary Williams Jr., an 8-year-old entering third grade at Cassidy, eyed everything with wonder.

“I love it,” said Zachary.

His dad, Zachary Williams Sr., recorded video and took pictures of his son’s new school.

“He’s going to be safe here,” said Williams. “I feel proud to send him here.”