Northeast Philly gets another new school: The $88 million Thomas Holme will open in January

It’s school-opening season for the Philadelphia School District.

On Tuesday, officials cut the ribbon on a brand-new Thomas Holme Elementary, a K-to-8 school in the Northeast. That celebration came exactly a week after the district opened a new middle school building, AMY at James Martin, in Port Richmond.

The $88 million Holme building, on Academy Road, will house 800 students beginning in January. It’s the district’s seventh new building in 10 years.

“I see a place where students will have access to a 21st century education,” Holme principal Micah Winterstein said during a ceremony attended by students, school district officials, and community members. “A place where they feel like school is where they belong, a place where they will have moments each day that inspire.”

Unlike many other sections of the city, where the district’s enrollment is shrinking, the Northeast’s school population is booming — its schools are overcrowded.

Holme, named for Pennsylvania’s first surveyor general, outgrew its old building, which was razed to make way for the new 141,000 square foot structure. Designed with flooding natural light, welcoming learning spaces, and flexible spaces and furniture for more conversational teaching environments, the school includes state-of-the-art music rooms, a bright new gymnasium and stage, science classrooms, an interactive media commons, and a dance studio with a real hardwood dancefloor.

“This is the shining star of the school,” said April Tomarelli, an educational facilities planner, during a tour of the sunlit dance studio.

Smaller details, like the dragon-shaped tiles in the cafeteria to match the school mascot, offer a homey touch, said April Tomarelli, an educational facilities planner, during a tour.

“Everything was done with intention,” Tomarelli said.

Students had a hand in the design of the new building — they weighed in on the facade, the playground, and the stormwater management system.

“This school comes from you,” said architect Troy Hill, who helped design the building for Blackney Hayes, adding that the students’ input included more learning spaces, outdoor classrooms, and a space for designing murals.

The new Holme will open as the district nears completion of its long-awaited facilities master plan, which officials have said will call for some school closings and co-locations, as well as building renovations and new construction.

That plan, once promised by the end of this calendar year, is now expected to be made public in the next few months.

The average district school building was built 73 years ago, said Reginald L. Streeter, president of the board of education.

“Most Philadelphia children walk into schools older than their grandparents,” he said.

At the ribbon cutting, Superintendent Tony B. Wallington Sr. celebrated the fact that, like AMY at James Martin, the new Thomas Holme school was completed on time — and on budget.

“You’re in a school district that’s been excellent stewards of federal, state, and local tax dollars,” he said, adding that the district has its best investment grade credit rating in 50 years.

The state-of-the-art school represents a step towards the district’s aspiration to be the “fastest improving large school district in the country,” he said.

“Not for bragging rights,” he said. “ But because the children of Philadelphia deserve it so.”

Mike Greco, president of Penn Academy Athletic Association, which helped shepherd the project through the community, said he has two grandchildren who will be attending the new school in January. His two children had previously graduated from the old Thomas Holme, which was built in 1950.

“We needed this,” he said. “We need good things to happen everywhere in this city.”