Inside T.M. Peirce, a $44 million brand-new public school building in Philadelphia

No new public school building has opened in North Philadelphia in 70 years.

That changes in January, when 200 pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students move into a brand-new, $44 million T.M. Peirce Elementary building at 23rd and Cambria. It is, one district official said, a “state-of-the-art, first-class educational facility.”

Dignitaries, community members, and children toured the building at a celebration Wednesday, delighting in the colorful, light-filled space that stands in stark contrast to the structure it replaced — a century-old building so filled with asbestos and other hazards that the district ultimately chose to knock it down rather than remediate.

“We are investing in neighborhoods and students that have been unjustly, by some, deemed unworthy of such investment,” school board president Reginald Streater told a gym packed with cheering onlookers. “Today is a testament to the fact that when we come together, incredible possibilities happen for our learners.”

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. called the Peirce opening a “historic moment” and “one of the most exciting days in the School District of Philadelphia.”

A clearly moved Mayor Jim Kenney, a few weeks away from the end of his final term, veered from his prepared remarks to rave about the “beautiful, beautiful” building and the students who will learn there.

Kenney told the children he “has a mad face sometimes,” but “inside, in my heart, I’m smiling all the time about you. You make me so proud. You’re all good kids.”

It was the mayor who first noted the length of time since a new school was built in the area.

“That’s insane,” Kenney said of the 70-year gap. The underfunded Philadelphia School District has more than $5 billion in capital needs and dozens of schools rated so poorly on the system’s own internal facilities measures that officials say they should be torn down and replaced.

» READ MORE: Damaged asbestos was found in a North Philly school gym a month ago. It’s still there.

Sitting on a chair in the middle of the gym, Peirce parent Antoine Little smiled and clapped, but said he had mixed feelings about the day.

It had been 1,158 days since Little learned — from an Inquirer reporter, not the district — that there was damaged asbestos in his kids’ school, first flagged by teachers and raised by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers as an issue in September 2019. Soon after finding out about the asbestos, Little and others began organizing other parents, some of whom ultimately refused to send their children into the old Peirce building because they were concerned about environmental hazards.

“Enough is enough,” Little said in October 2019. “I know I don’t want my kids exposed to asbestos.”

Ultimately, the district agreed to relocate Peirce students and build a new building. The students learned first in a rented space on Henry Avenue, then in the former Pratt Elementary in North Philadelphia.

“It’s been a long battle,” Little said Wednesday. “And so many communities need what we have.”

City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who got her start in politics as an educational activist fighting for her kids’ schools, acknowledged the uphill battle the community waged.

“It took a lot of time and commitment from parents whose children are no longer able to attend this school,” Brooks said. “This is what it means to fight for your community. This is what it means when you know that you deserve so much better and stand up to fight for what your community needs.”

Streater acknowledged the vast demands across the city.

“With adequate funding, the new T.M. Peirce building is but a sample of what we hope to create for every child across the district,” said Streater.

City Councilmember Cindy Bass and State Sen. Sharif Street both said they remember touring the old Peirce in the fall of 2019 and flagging damaged asbestos in areas of the building where children learned and played.

At the time, members of the community felt like the district would just let their children languish in a building riddled with toxins, Street said. Undamaged asbestos poses no health risks, but once damaged, it releases microscopic fibers that can cause cancer.

“They said ‘No one’s going to do anything about this,’” Street said Wednesday. “There was a sense that nothing was ever going to happen.”

Though Bass said she thinks “we should be building one of these on a much more regular basis,” Wednesday was a day to bask in what folks living in the 19132 zip code finally had: equity.

“This compares to anything being built in Lower Merion and Radnor and any other part of the commonwealth,” Bass said. “This is the standard. This is what we want, this is what we deserve.”

After the speeches, district staff led visitors — and the students who will occupy the school come Jan. 3 — on tours of the building: roomy classrooms designed for student collaboration, a maker space to encourage creativity and hands-on work, a brand-new playground.

One second-grade student couldn’t stop smiling. She looked at the sinks outside the student bathrooms and beamed, watching classmates wave their hands under the faucets that turned on like magic.

“It’s so cool,” she said. “It’s beautiful!”