Hundreds of residents and school-aged children showed up for the grand opening ceremony of East Main Elementary School in Port Jervis, New York, on Aug. 31.
Housed in a renovated and expanded former middle school building on Main Street, the new elementary school is part of the school district’s largest capital project in its history, according to district superintendent John Bell.
“This old building is beloved—architecturally, it is probably one of the most beautiful buildings in town,” Bell told The Epoch Times at the ceremony. “The fact that we were able to renovate it and make it a brand-new school while still keeping the old look is the best of both worlds.”
Aside from renovated and expanded classrooms, a new addition to the century-old school building includes a full-size gym, a cafeteria, and office spaces.
About 700 students, most of whom were of the former Anna Kuhl Elementary School, will study in the renovated building this fall, including Middletown native Jordan Thompson’s three children.
“It looks amazing, and from what I’ve seen, I really like how open the classrooms are,” Thompson, who moved to Port Jervis years ago, told The Epoch Times.
Jonah, Thompson’s 9-year-old son, said he likes the brand-new desks, and Melia, Thompson’s 8-year-old daughter, who is into drama, said her favorite is the new stage in the cafeteria. As for his youngest child, Jordan said he was most attracted to toys in the kindergarten rooms.
Her two children were most excited about having their own lockers for the first time.
The grand opening also marked the 100th year since the building was first constructed. It began as a high school, and from the 1960s until its recent renovation, it was used as a middle school.
The new elementary school is dedicated to middle school principal Thomas Hoppey, who was a transformative educator and a beloved community figure in Port Jervis.
“A quote from Nelson Mandela came to my mind, and that, in my opinion, sums up my dad’s leadership,” Thomas Hoppey’s oldest child, David Hoppey, said at the ceremony. “‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.’”
Orange County Legislator Tom Faggione, who studied at the old middle school as a student, fondly recalled being part of the inaugural student trip to Washington, D.C., under Thomas Hoppey.
“The best thing he taught me was responsibility,” Faggione said.
Port Jervis Mayor Dominic Cicalese declared Aug. 31 Thomas Hoppey Day at the grand opening ceremony.
Aside from a new elementary school, the project includes converting the former Anna Kuhl Elementary School into a middle school with new music and art spaces and enhancing connections between the middle and high school on the same campus.
“[The elementary school] is part of the renaissance of the city of Port Jervis—the rebirth—and you are seeing it every single day,” Assemblyman Karl Brabenec said at the ceremony.
The former railroad city by the Delaware River has welcomed a new wave of private investments into vacated downtown buildings in past years, which is soon to be amplified by a nearly $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from New York state.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, Orange-Ulster BOCES Superintendent Tom Bongiovi, Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Business Mark Coleman, Deerpark Supervisor Gary Spears, and several Port Jervis city council members and Deerpark town council members were also present at the ceremony.
Those two projects did not call for school tax increases and are financed by district savings and aid from the state Education Department, according to the district.
