The first new public school building built in North Philadelphia in seventy years had a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. Come January, after the holidays, children will return to T.M. Peirce Elementary School. The old Peirce was over one hundred years old and was found to contain lead and asbestos.
PA State Senator Sharif Street, who represents the 3rd Senatorial District, was on hand for the ribbon cutting and grand opening of the brand-new Pierce Elementary School. Senator Street remarked, “I think back on that day when Councilmember Bass had scheduled a tour of the old Pierce Elementary School building and one of her staff people noticed that there was asbestos in the building. There were folks from the community who were with us on that tour, and they said no one was going to do anything about this. And then, as we started having meetings, there was a lot of anger; there was a sense that nothing was going to ever happen.
“He continued, I called Dr. Hite (former superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools), who made a commitment that we were going to build a new building. I talked to the Board Chair Wilkerson, who said Dr. Hite is very ambitious, but we’ll do what we can. I want to thank Wilkerson, current Board Chair Streeter, and Dr. Watlington for seeing this project through to its fruition, the completion of this building. Our young people are worth it. They de- serve this investment, and the community around it deserves it as well. The teachers deserve to be in a building that is free of lead and asbestos. But it’s beyond lead and asbestos. It’s about having a space that encourages and fosters learning. It’s about a space that allows collaboration.”
Dr. Tony B. Watlington, Sr. Superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools, stated, “This is one of the most exciting days in the school district of Philadelphia. This is a historic moment. Malcolm X once said that education is our passport to the future because the future belongs to those who prepare for today. There’s only one president of the United States who ever declared war on poverty and that was Lydon Baines Johnson. In 1965, President Johnson talked about this great society and what the United States could become. Now look at this beautiful building in the 19132 zip code right here in North Philadelphia. Education is that great equalizer with the coming of a great society. If we’re going to do that, we must have 21st century learning opportunities, and so I’m excited to be here to celebrate. We want to be the fastest-improving large urban school district, and part of that means we’re going to have a 21st-century learning environment. It also means we have to have the very best people working in buildings like this, so Principal Gordan, thank you for your leadership here. We are going to do some good work together in this building and across this district. This building represents our North Star in terms of making the school district of Philadelphia the fastest growing large urban school dis- trict in the country.”
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