Erie district launches construction of first new school since 1990s. When will it open?
The last time the Erie School District finished a major construction project at Edison Elementary School, the year was 1952 and Richard Obermanns was in first grade.
Now 77 and living in suburban Cleveland, Obermanns was among the first students to use the new addition to Edison that was dedicated in 1952, 20 years after the dedication of the original school building at 1921 East Lake Road.
Obermanns reminisced about his school days and raved about the future of Edison on Monday.
He was a special guest at the groundbreaking for the new Edison Elementary School. It is tentatively scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on a site just south of the existing school, which will be demolished once the new school is ready.
"Friendships formed at Edison last forever," Obermanns said in an interview. "That hopefully will be true for the kids now who will be in the new building."
The Erie School District shares the same hope for Edison — that the new school will enrich the lives of its more than 500 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The district wants the school to anchor the largely impoverished neighborhood around it.
"We are pleased that we are going to be able to bring some equity to the community through this project," Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito said moments before he delivered the main address at the groundbreaking ceremony, which about 50 dignitaries, Edison staffers and community members attended.
"For too long, our students and staff learned and worked in a building that fell far too short for our vision and hope for the children of Erie's east side. No more," Polito said in his address.
With the construction of Edison, Polito said, "We celebrate tangible investments in our students, our families and our communities that will have ripple effects for generations to come. A building is not just a building when it has the power to shape lives for the better."
Construction equipment roared in the background.
Construction of new Edison is 'transformational'
The new Edison is the first new school to be built in the Erie School District since the new East High School — now East Middle School — was dedicated in 1999.
The new East cost $20 million, which the Erie School District raised through a bond issue. The construction cost for the new Edison is $33.4 million. The total project cost is $38,392,507 with the addition of soft costs, such as architectural costs and permitting fees.
The 1952 addition to Edison — the last major renovation to the school — cost $545,000.
The Erie School District considered renovating Edison, but building a new school was less expensive.
The district is paying for the new Edison with cash — a reflection of the district's sweeping state-assisted financial turnaround, which ended when the state removed the 10,000-student district from financial watch status in September 2022. The construction of the new Edison also represents the latest project in Polito's initiative to make all the district 16 school buildings at least "warm, safe and dry."
The new Edison will go beyond that goal. It is designed to be a state-of-the-art, air-conditioned school equipped with the latest technology to aid students and staff.
"A transformational moment," Erie School Board President Jay Breneman said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
"An amazing day," said the principal of Edison, Diane Sutton, who led the school's staff as they provided input to the architects about the layout of the new school.
Community schools model part of new Edison
Representatives of the architectural firm, HHSDR, of Sharon and Pittsburgh, were present that groundbreaking. So were representatives of the general contractor, Perry Construction Group Inc., of Erie.
Also on hand were representatives of the United Way of Erie County, whose community school project has been rooted at Edison since 2016, when the United Way launched community schools in cooperation with the Erie School District. The community schools model provides social services for students and families within the school buildings as a way to alleviate poverty.
The community schools model at the existing Edison has included a trailer outside the building. The trailer is filled with food, clothing and other supplies for children in need at Edison, where 93.3% of the students are classified as "economically disadvantaged," according to state data. That figure is about 9 percentage points higher than the figure for the 10,000-student Erie School District as a whole.
The trailer will be gone at the new Edison. All the supplies will have a dedicated space — a pantry located on the southwestern corner of the new building.
The community schools model is a newer innovation in the 92-year history of the original Edison Elementary School. But as long as the school has been around, it has helped create memories built on friendships, said Obermanns, the Edison alum who attended the groundbreaking.
Those friendships have indeed lasted a lifetime, said Obermanns, a retiree in the nonprofit sector. When he was in Erie for the groundbreaking, Obermanns said, he also visited one of his Edison classmates.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Construction starts on Erie PA's new Edison Elementary School
