‘She Did This’: Hughes and Former Cassidy Student Celebrate New School and a Renewed Commitment to Education

'She Did This': Hughes and Former Cassidy Student Celebrate New School and a Renewed Commitment to Education

August 16, 2024

OVERBROOK − August 16, 2024 − Seven years ago, Sen. Vincent Hughes received a letter from a 10-year-old student at the nearly century-old Lewis C. Cassidy Academics School in Overbrook.

"Every day I go to school I feel like I am in a prison, or a junkyard," Chelsea Mungro wrote. "Why does the color of the students' skin matter how much money we get for our school?"

Standing in the gymnasium before a ribbon cutting for the sparkling new steel and glass structure that now replaces that crumbling building, Sen. Hughes called Mungro to the stage with him to remind the audience of the power of a single voice.

"She did this," Hughes said. "She DID this."

Mungo's letter made local and national news, reigniting the debate over Pennsylvania's underfunded and uneven approach to basic education. In an interview with Sen. Hughes after the ribbon cutting, Mungro described taking national news reporters on a tour of the rodent-infested school.

The outcry was followed by successive state budgets that showed continued improvement in the commitment to education, culminating with this year's historic $1.1 billion funding increase.

Sen. Hughes and Mungro joined local officials, community leaders, students, and parents recently for the celebration at the new 87,729 square foot, three-story building that is designed to accommodate over 600 students from Pre-K through 8th grade. The building is designed with brick, metal panel, and curtain wall glass systems on a structural steel frame.

The building is designed with a three-story classroom wing along Atwood Road containing 26 classrooms and a two-story structure along Kenmore Road to house the gymnatorium, full-service kitchen, cafeteria, IMC, Maker's Space, Innovation Lab, as well as Music, and Health classrooms. The two wings of the building are connected by a three-story open structure. The $62.1 Million project is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Mungro now attends Central High School and said she will apply to New York University to study biochemistry for a planned career as a biomedical engineer.

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